It happened in 1998. A black man was the main artist in the opening ceremony of the World Cup. He dazzled all. The world stood to celebrate him. He was the pride of the black race and perhaps an icon to the rest of the world.

EVIDENTLY, we are not listening enough to Albert Einstein (1879-1955): “Life is like a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving”. We keep increasing the level of rationalisation in our society, in the process of which we get fixated at offering excuses for our failure.

FOLLOWING on the heels of the recent “deportation” saga, another, perhaps more dangerous, storm that could threaten inter-ethnic relations in Lagos is brewing. I call it the babaloja controversy. Babaloja, in Yoruba, literally means “father of the market” just as iyaloja means “mother of the market”.

I RETURNED to Abuja on an afternoon flight from Asaba, the Delta State capital, last Sunday. We had been attending the 9th Nigerian Editors’ Conference; an occasion which climaxed with a gala night of music, featuring D’Banj; Omawumi; the Delta State cultural troupe and some of the leading comedians that made Delta the capital of Nigerian stand up comedy.

WHEN I wrote those series I had no idea that two months down the line ASUU would embark on a paralysing strike that would do serious violence to the academic calendar. One doesn’t need to be prophetic, Godspower Oyewole-style, to see our public universities are headed for the rocks.