Thanks to Jesus, God can no longer be accused of being indifferent to the human condition. In order to appreciate our plight fully, God became a man in Christ Jesus. What manner of man was he? God was a righteous, sinless man who went about doing good works. Thereby, he showed us what manner of man he created man to be. Jesus became the quintessential man.

Nigeria is the successor state to all the pre-existing powers – the old, exhausted, crumbling and defeated empires, kingdoms, sultanates, and republican aristocracies and the city states that once reigned prior to amalgamation in 1914. It is the modern nation forged out of the colonial contact. From 1914 – 1963, this modern nation was a “British possession,” which means that if fell under the economic and political control of the British Empire. It had been granted self-governing status or independence by the British Empire on October 1, 1960, with the inauguration of the Prime Minister as head of its parliament under the British Commonwealth.

The saying goes: “Give me a child until he is seven, and I will give you the man”, the memo obviously got lost in transit prior to getting to Nigeria. If we cannot mould and prepare our young for the future then how can we then prepare them for adulthood or mould them into useful and productive citizens?

President Goodluck Jonathan’s reply to Chief Obasanjo’s celebrated letter left me nonplussed. I wondered if I was reading an abridged form. I expected a response enlivened by some pungent statement of repudiation and counter-accusation, laced with some vitriolic flavour. Perhaps it was far removed from the influence of one or two of his well-known aides who shall be nameless here. Their input, which would’” naturally be of an acerbic nature as usual, could have generated some heat but also added a bit of feeling to the reply.

I was listening on the car radio to an artiste being interviewed the other day, and had to smile at his response to what Christmas reminded him of.