The quality of civic life in Nigeria is the most critical gap in the development of a free society and a robust democratic culture. Nigeria’s transition to democratic culture after over thirty-five years of military rule, out of its slightly over fifty years of political independence from colonialism, feels like the slow ride of the tortoise.

This column could easily have been titled JONATHAN’s TAG TEAM SLAMMED and it would still have been appropriate. A wrestling champion who selects his tag team partners from the geriatric ward, in a contest with young and agile opponents, should expect a wicked body slam.

‘I don’t like airports. They take people away’. So said a young boy in the book, ‘Two Weeks in another Town’. I am on all fours with this boy who had seen his loved ones depart via the airports. (Although it can be argued that airports also bring people home).

We must write and continue writing about “the labours of our heroes past”. Else,they will be forgotten very soon. Even right now, the heroic deeds in our nation-building efforts are subverted even while they are being performed.

ANOTHER ‘Democracy Day’ (29th May) has passed innocuously with the usual songs of dividends of democracy from the mouths of many Nigerians (especially supporters of the ruling party, PDP). The opposition, as usual, has continued to remind Nigerians of the woes of missed opportunities under the present Federal Government.