A Muslim friend who lives in Sokoto sadly tells me that fear of Boko Haram is the beginning of wisdom nowadays…and that the organisation has gradually acquired a legendary status in the North and is widely regarded as a highly efficient terror machine that operates with deadly precision and may even possess supernatural powers and is bringing the Nigerian State to its knees.

LET’S hope that President Jonathanand his allies have learned a few humbling lessons from a totally avoidable strike that exposed a Government that has become increasingly unpopular to global embarrassment.

My wonderful father, Ignatius Suage Kogbara, OON, died exactly l0 years ago, on January l3, 2002. And we who knew and loved him have never quite recovered from the emotional trauma we experienced when he left us behind.

I CLEARLY recall President Goodluck Jonathan standing up at an Independence Day service a couple of months ago and informing his audience that he was not a lion, tiger, army general, Egyptian Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar (the neo-Babylonian king who conquered Jerusalem and sent the Jews into exile).

As 2011 draws to a close, it seems appropriate to look back in anger or approval at some of the people who have, individually or as part of groups, made the past l2 months better or worse in various ways and in various parts of the world.