LAST week, I wrote about the recent United Nations Environmental Programme, UNEP, report. It was based on a scientific study – the most detailed to ever be conducted in the Niger Delta region; and it accused Shell and the Nigerian government of failing to protect my Ogoni homeland from chronic pollution.

THE recent United Nations Environmental Programme, UNEP, report – which accused Shell and the government of failing to protect my Ogoni homeland from chronic pollution – has generated bitterness as well as satisfaction.

Many Nigerians, me included, have complained about the fact that President Jonathan did not hit the ground running as soon as the polling season ended.

The late great Justice Anthony Nnaemezie Christopher Aniagolu, OFR, crammed so many impressive achievements into his curriculum vitae that one wonders how he was also able to do normal things like sleep, eat and enjoy family life.

CAN someone please explain to me why so many intelligent and seemingly rational Nigerian Christians and Muslims are such ardent believers in juju or “jazz”?!

NEWCOMERS to this country often ask me why most Nigerians are so slavishly willing to endlessly, cheerfully and calmly tolerate bad situations that would trigger off riots or other forms of mass protest in other parts of the world.

LAST week, I praisedEsther Salami, a beautician who displayed remarkable integrity by telling me that I had accidentally overpaid her by N1000.

ESTHER SALAMI, a beautician, came to my house last Sunday to do a pedicure for a member of my family. When she had finished, I handed her a small wad of folded naira bills and she dropped it into her handbag without counting it.

DURING the year that Odein Ajumogobia, SAN, was Foreign Minister, many Nigerians and foreigners sang his praises and told me that they regarded him as the best Foreign Minister this country has ever had. And I would bask in the reflected glory whenever I heard the compliments that frequently were lavished on him because he is an indigene of my state, Rivers.

AT the time of writing, speculation about Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s career plans is rife. Some say that the former Minister of Finance and current Managing Director of the World Bank will soon leave Washington behind and come home to play a key economic management role within President Jonathan’s administration.

YES, I know that there is no excuse for the terror and mayhem that Boko Haram is inflicting on law-abiding citizens. Yes, I too was appalled when the car bomber invaded Police Headquarters and killed himself and several others.

ABUJA is awash with rumours about heavy in-fighting at the Villa. The story is that various senior officials are giving President Jonathan major headaches by forming themselves into competing gangs and taking pot-shots at each other.

The ongoing drama surrounding the speakership of the House of Representatives has kept me entertained since Monday.

First, we were told, shortly after the April polls, that the PDP leadership, including President Jonathan, had decreed that the new Speaker must be from the South-West while the Deputy Speaker must be from the North-East.

THIS column frequently criticises Nigerians who pollute our society, do their jobs lousily and are nasty pieces of work. Today, I am in a cheerful mood (for a change!) and am going to concentrate on Nigerians who are getting it right professionally or politically or within the contexts of their personal lives.

MANY people have told me that they had no idea, until the last minute, that local council elections were taking place last weekend. Some even say that they didn’t know about these elections until after they had happened. And quite a few are suspecting newspapers of deliberately keeping the general public in the dark.