“Nigerians are what they are because their leaders are not what they should be”
“They have not always elected the best leaders, particularly after a long period in which they have not used this facility of free election. You tend to lose the habit.”- Chinua Achebe

One of the issues yet to be appropriately addressed in our democratic experiment is the insulation of societal institutions from partisan politics so that they can effectively perform their statutory functions. The failure to do this has been due largely to our inability to observe the fine divide between the ruling political party and the government of the day.

To repeat, many passages in the Holy Bible and Holy Koran prescribe intolerance against non-believers, although there are numerous texts in both scriptures that promote peace, love and solidarity as well. Therefore, it is incontrovertible that one cannot grasp fully the underlying causes of religious fanaticism in Nigeria without appreciating the role played by the “holy” scriptures in projecting the culture of religious exclusiveness.

In a few months, I would be able to lay claim to a decade of writing and I always thought it would be great to put the column to rest by just letting out my thoughts unedited and unfettered! It would be liberating to not be so cautious and edited all the time. Having a public platform means truth in whatever form needs to be tailored to suit all sorts of sensibilities and that can often times take the joy out of the art.

Two scantily-clothed malnourished-looking young girls stood outside a Guest House, patiently waiting for someone to answer to their knock on the gate. At last a burly guard opened the gate and in a gruff voice asked them what they wanted. One of them pointed to the signboard on the wall. It was a job advertisement for bar boys and girls.