THE press in Nigeria has been attacked for poking its big nose in the affairs of others. It lambasts public officials with impunity and it attacks any governmental action with the supreme benefit of hindsight; it formulates bold policies without having to take responsibility for their implementation.

Nigerians are a peculiar breed. This shows up everywhere. In a football match with another country on our home ground, Nigerians would start off encouraging their team; but as soon as the Nigerian team falls into goal deficit, Nigerians would switch their support to the visiting team and, depending on their level of disappointment, they might begin to haul stones at the Nigerian players.

THERE is the seemingly pessimistic view that even without a government, this country cannot be worse than it already is. As a corollary, people may also add that even without a police force, the crime situation in Nigeria cannot get any worse than it already is.

THERE was something for which we kept applauding the military juntas of those days, without the least inkling that they were destroying us softly: We could go to bed one night in State ‘A’ and wake up the following morning to find that we were in State ‘B’ – during the night, a state had been created for us!

WE have just emerged from a gubernatorial contest in Edo State. The election is being adjudged as free, fair and credible(?). For fear of being labelled a sadist, one is forced to join the bandwagon and admit that even if the election was not an outright success, it was perhaps a lesser failure than its forebears.