TODAY, we are starting with a simple aptitude test in which the examiner expects us to be honest to ourselves: (a) We are fighting corruption (b) Corruption is consuming us (c) None of the above.

RECENTLY, this Column ran a series titled “Which Way, Nigeria?” These series were not, and cannot be, concluded because with each passing day, the question is gaining deeper currency.

AMADIN: My brother, you should know by now that I am not easily given to pessimism. But the truth must be told. The way things are going in Nigeria, there is every cause for worry. I know you are equally concerned and that’s why I want to talk to you as often as I can.

ADMITTEDLY, the more things change, the more they remain the same. Kidnapping has been with man from time. In our younger days, at the shout of “Gbomo gbomo”, every child ran inside and locked the door. Gbomo gbomo were the kidnappers of that time who did not carry out their trade for ransom.

CERTAINLY, there is something the Northern Governors Forum and Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto, know about the Boko Haram which the rest of us do not know. That’s how it should be, though. It is not everything they know about their people that we should know.

TODAY, this Column is taking time off from politics and all the associated issues of corruption, to treat our esteemed audience to the profile of a great personality who, if we were asked, would be the Column’s nominee to lead the crusade against corruption, injustice and other social vices in which Nigeria is totally immersed.

Please, follow today’s piece with sympathy for a country called Nigeria: For stealing N23 billion from the Police Pension Fund, Yusufu walks our streets today in full freedom, having paid the fine of N750, 000 (0.003% of his loot); for allegedly mismanaging (perhaps a clear euphemism for stealing) close to N200 billion of Customs, Immigration and Prisons Pension funds, Maina has been officially provided a safety valve within which to escape to foreign lands to enjoy his loot; and for stealing an old Mitsubishi bus, Citizen Onwe has been admitted to Asaba Prison for 50 years without any option of fine.

WE shall keep remembering Charles Dickens (1812–1870). He might have been one of those who, in the early days, saw tomorrow. We are almost convinced that when he engaged himself in the superlative degree of comparison, close to a century and half ago, Dickens was already seeing the Nigeria of today.

EVERY beginning, no matter how small, is difficult. That explains why our generation has aptly been described as the era of cruel and unusual punishment; and the age of torture. Everything we had came the hard way.

FOLLOWING the trend of the local government elections nationwide, the impression is created that the State Electoral Commissions only exist to do the bidding of their masters, the state governors.