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.