A FEW weeks ago, a presenter and documentary maker for one of the more prominent television stations drew attention to the state of primary healthcare in one of the more prosperous local governments in Lagos State.

‘’We live, at present, with our fellow -men as they are. If these volumes have shown what a wonderful world we live in – no creed, establishment, race, political organization or group of teachers, researchers, writers and artists has a monopoly of wisdom or morals- our editorial group may have done a little to help the next generation or two to live with our fellow-men as they might gloriously, and ideally, be.’’

ALL through the New Year season, the Nigerian Government was apologetic to the United States (US). It continued to cry that the insane Christmas Day attempt by Nigerian born Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab to blow up an American airliner over Detriot is unNigerian.

It’s this idea that it’s either his way or the highway, what Soyinka called ‘The Credo of Being and Nothingness’ that would lead Umar Farouk to want to commit mass suicide in the belief that he is right while everybody else is wrong. In his Facebook journal, Farouk betrays this sense of superior apprehension of religious knowledge despite his painful lack of social skills that could make him bond with his mates, make sense of his own growing sexuality and, maybe, strike up relationships with the opposite sex.

In the wake of the recent Central Bank’s pseudo liberalization of dollar supply to the foreign exchange market, naira rate tumbled from over N140=$1 to today’s rate of about N130=$1 in the black market, leaving a spread of just about N2 from the official rate.

It was in the year 2009 that Ghana made the Black Continent proud by historically winning the FIFA Junior World Cup.
If you think I am trying to run away from Nigeria you are mistaken. In 2009, Nigeria emerged the champion of African Beach Soccer World Cup elimination. In 2009, Engineer Habu Gumel restored Nigeria’s pride at Olympic level when he was elected into the most prestigious sports board on earth, that of the International Olympic Committee, ( IOC ) .

IT is a new year – the year 2010 after the Common Era. So, I welcome every Nigerian, and particularly all readers of the “Orbit” to the New Year, and wish you all the best of the New Year. Even as I utter this heartfelt wish, I also know, deep within me, that this is going to be an interesting and challenging year.

CONTRARY to what many people think, the culprit is not NNPC.
As far as importing and making fuel available is concerned, the corporation had done its duty. There is sufficient fuel in Nigeria’s territorial waters to ensure that we do not experience any scarcity throughout the yuletide. The imminent deregulation of the downstream sector is not even the issue.

THE Nigeria Bar Association, the Senate of the National Assembly, the Nigerian Press, Civil Society bodies and all others who have a stake in fighting for and ensuring the supremacy of the constitution must rise as one body and ask for the resignation or, if he fails to quit, then the removal of our minister of justice and attorney-general of the Federation, Michael Aondoakaa for stubbornly seeking legal subterfuges to undermine the clear provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

AFTER all, a day, including each of the “three special days,” is 24 hours, made up of morning, afternoon and night. As the ancient Greek philosopher, Protagoras of Abdera, aptly remarked, “man is the measure of all things, of the things that are, that they are, and of the things that are not, that they are not.”