The columnist’s obligation is oftentimes to lay to rest ghosts of miscreant sentiments often imported to distort public issues by people who also sometimes hyperventilate on non-issues.

IN 1987, at a reception in honour of President Ibrahim Babangida at the Waldorf Astoria, New York during his visit to the United States, I had an interesting conversation with Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji, then Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance.

When the story broke out about a week ago, it predictably sparked off an outrage. Reclusive Governor of Enugu State, Sullivan Chime, was portrayed as detaining his wife, Clara, against her will in the Government House. There were other stories credited to the troubled First Lady, of the Governor’s alleged prolonged neglect of his marital duties.

I go back three years and the process of putting the coaches together by the Technical Committee. The effort of convincing Nduka Ugbade to be part of the team. The difficulty in assembling the boys together in a country where mothers swear that their children are 14 years old, just to smuggle them into the team!

Our parlous economic predicament is generally regarded as a “resource curse”, a phenomenon, which the free encyclopedia defines as a paradox of plenty, in which countries with abundant revenue from mineral resources show less economic growth with a beleaguered manufacturing sector when compared with other countries with less resource endowments.