IN the past one month, two members of my extended family have been killed by the scandalously inadequate Nigerian healthcare system.

LAST week, I dedicated this column to (a): complaints about the crooked, shameless, power-abusing personalities who are dishonestly pretending to mourn the death of Gani Fawehinmi – a man of integrity with whom they had absolutely nothing in common and (b): complaints about the alarming number of Nigerians who steal from the offices and homes they work in…

Since the great Gani Fawehinmi passed away, the pages of newspapers have been filled to the brim with complimentary comments about his impressive personality, his lofty principles, his formidable intellect and his considerable achievements.

LAST week, I wrote in support of Lubna Al-Hussein, a Muslim Sudanese journalist who had launched a protest against the Islamic conservatives who rule her country because she and some of her girlfriends had been arrested for “violating sharia values” and for “dressing indecently” (ie, for wearing trousers in public).

Lubna has became a huge celebrity and has acquired legions of supporters both at home and abroad; street rallies are held in her honour in Khartoum; run an internet search on her name and you’ll come across thousands of references to her courage

Twenty nine out of the 36 footballers who were selected to represent Nigeria in this year’s FIFA Under-17 World Cup tournament, have just been disqualified on the grounds that they lied about their ages and are too old to participate.

Late at night, the mansion she shares with the man she doesn’t really want gets lonely. So she acquires an attractive lover of her age – a penniless boy who lives on the poor side of town but excites her nevertheless because he not only has “fiery eyes and dreams no one can steal” but “makes her feel the way she wants to feel”.

I sometimes succumb to emotional cowardice; and I couldn’t quite bring myself to tell Dr. Lukman – a distinguished father figure and former OPEC boss with whom I’d had a warm relationship for several years – that my decision to absent myself from OGIC was also partly motivated by professional frustrations and political concerns.

In last week’s column, I confessed that I often feel like a square peg in a round hole in this country because I feel that I don’t have a typical Naija mindset.

Whenever I sit down with these beleaguered fellow travellers to discuss our respective predicaments, we wind up agreeing that we’ll probably have more joyful and prosperous existences if we pack our bags and take off to an overseas haven in which people who aren’t hard-edged or shrewd can thrive.

And I’ve also been criticized by a handful of individuals (friends as well as foes), who either disagreed with some or all of the points I made or simply felt that my article was too divisive…and that I should have urged my fellow Ogonis to forget about the bitter mistakes of the past, instead of highlighting internal rifts.

By Donu Kogbara VERY few of the people around us have significant impacts on our lives. And I want to pay a brief but heartfelt tribute to my beloved auntie, Chief Mrs Chinyere Asika, who recently celebrated her 70th birthday and is not only one of the most intellectual and accomplished women of her generation […]

I had hoped someone would come forward to offer a factual, balanced perspective to the Ogoni issue. Shell had absolutely nothing to do with the arrest, trial and murder of Ken Saro Wiwa and others.

He was a pioneering indigenous bureaucrat of distinction who started to make an indelible mark on public life during colonial rule and famed patriot whose dedication to excellence and the common good won him admirers all over this country.