It started out as a Sunday morning service like every other one in a Lekki, Lagos parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG). One of the church workers was at the podium briefing the congregation on the up-coming events of the week. Nobody thought anything was unusual when the pastor’s wife came to the pulpit and asked to address the church. Nobody thought that to be out of the ordinary, until she started speaking.

This is one of the root causes of politics-with-bitterness, largely responsible for the notion noted at the beginning of this discourse that politics in Nigeria is a dirty game. If politicians conduct themselves within constitutional bounds, political excitement is less likely to cause problems. But our politicians are yet to internalise self-restraint, democratic culture and patriotism that will dampen the urge to cause trouble by channelling political excitement to harmless or less destructive outlets.

The indisputable breaking news of the immediate past week was the killing by suspected insurgents of several students of the Federal Government College, Bun Yadi, Yobe State. Whereas, different accounts of what transpired centred on about the same content, everyone had a different version of the number of students affected. During a sympathy visit to the school by the state governor, Ibrahim Gaidam, a Senior Master in the institution, Ibrahim Abdul, confirmed that Twenty-nine students were killed. He added that 11 other students sustained gunshot wounds in the attack. Abdul’s report was corroborated by the Commissioner of Police in the state, Sanusi Rufai who also confirmed 29 dead.

The art of stargazing is a pleasure confined to history, to easier times when life wasn’t running at such a frantic pace. Most heads are so bowed by problems they don’t ever look up at the sky, even if they caught brief glimpses, the sight of a glistening cosmos is blocked by pollution, giant buildings and artificial lights. To most people the stars are barely there, they don’t shine like in the stories!! The reality is that stars have become shadowy, hidden and obscured.

When the news broke that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Africa’s biggest oil producer, is facing questions about where billions of dollars in oil money is going amid suspicions of fraud and it being siphoned among other things, the first thing that came to my mind was how my own family missed out on the whole thing.