I HAVE a soft spot for the Nigerian Police Force, NPF, because when I was kidnapped in 2015, policemen at all levels – the then Inspector General (Solomon Arase), the then Commissioner of Police in Rivers State (Musa Kumo) and several of their subordinates who investigated my case and acted as bodyguards – were so kind to me.

I’m was drawn to eccentrics and to difficult, grouchy old folks; and I must confess that I just love Sheikh Ibrahim Yaquoub El-Zakzaky!

SENATOR Gbene (Chief) Cyrus Nwidonane Nunieh was born in Beeri, Ogoni, on February 5, 1930, and quietly passed away aged 98 last year.

NIGERIA has never been so riven with unfraternal toxic tensions. Deep, dark suspicions about Islam and its adherents are commonplace in Christian areas and gatherings. Many Muslims also harbour extremely uncharitable thoughts about Christians.

CHARLES Dadi Onyeama was the first-ever Nigerian judge at the International Court of Justice in the Hague. And his author/publisher son, Dillibe (of Nigger At Eton fame), has written a biography of his illustrious father titled: The Man, The Legend, An Intimate Portrait.

LAST week, three surprising climb-downs took place.  Firstly, Adamawa-North lawmaker, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senator, Elisha Abbo – a Christian – was filmed viciously assaulting a sales lady in a sex toy shop that he happened to be visiting and instructing his police orderly to aggressively yank the sales lady out of her place of work. 

When you grow up in one place, spend a significant chunk of your adulthood working in another place and regularly shuttle between the 2 places, you are likely to regard yourself as a hybrid and to feel at home in both places and yet not entirely native to ­ either place. 

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, FCO, has just issued one of its periodic recommendations for those who wish to travel to Nigeria…which it regards as a hotbed of violent criminal activity.

The world is full of man-made tragedies and avoidable difficulties that are caused by evil or selfish people, and there are times when searing despair about the human condition almost overwhelms me.

Nigel Linacre is an old friend of mine and a UK-based Brit who has done valuable charity work in East Africa. I think his micro development model can be copied in Nigeria and hope Vanguard readers find his story as inspiring as I do.

ON Friday, April 12, I told Vanguard readers that I’d recently travelled to Rwanda – to attend a conference for African Chief Executives; and I praised, as follows, some of the Nigerian VIPs who spoke at this event, including Bayelsa State Governor, Mr Seriake Dickson, and Dr Kayode Fayemi, the Governor of Ekiti State:.

LORD Frederick Lugard, British Governor-General of Nigeria between 1914 and 1919, expressed the following views about Africans in his book, The Dual Mandate, which was published in 1926: “In character and temperament, the typical African of this race-type is a happy, thriftless, excitable person. Lacking in self-control, discipline, and foresight. Naturally courageous, naturally courteous and polite, full of personal vanity, with little sense of veracity, fond of music and loving weapons as an Oriental loves jewellery.

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has just inaugurated the North-East Development Commission, NEDC, which has been given a take-off grant of N10 billion and will oversee the rehabilitation of North-Eastern communities that have been destroyed by Boko Haram terrorists.

It will also be extremely unwise of Northern elite types to mismanage this opportunity to prove that they can behave like decent human beings and worthwhile leaders

If Amaechi graciously concedes defeat and at least sincerely tries to reciprocate reconciliatory moves, he can add a lot of value