Yes, millions of Nigerians have for months questioned the huge amount of money set aside for the celebration of what amounted to them as a non-event against the backdrop of mounting external debt, infrastructural decay and sundry failures in the system- Nigerians had expressed their reservations about the entire celebration.

It came a little as a surprise, if for nothing but its loud echo of life under an odious dispensation, one governed by the ethic of unaccountable power- but it was all the same a little surprising to see media photographs of Igbo leaders locked out of the venue of a summit planned to hold at the Concorde Hotel in Owerri.

About three weeks ago, I commented here on the seeming camaraderie between the presidential aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party, specifically President Goodluck Jonathan and former military ruler, Ibrahim Babangida. Both men had spoken in a language and manner that suggested they could be fast friends even as they individually had their eyes set on the same prize in the forthcoming 2011 elections.

This is the concluding part of a two-part piece by Ginny Nwasoria, a public commentator based in Lagos.

THE American Indian proverb, “Respect your brother’s dream” can be put differently and correctly as “Respect your brother’s success”. However, we oftentimes find ourselves in the opposite situation, scorning and slandering both the dream and success of our brother as the call to be our brother’s keeper is moribund.