Jonathan Olatunde Lawrence was a born intellectual. He was blessed with a high capacity for original thinking and the acquisition of knowledge. He was therefore outstanding in almost all his endeavours.

We seem to have gone through it all before. The Presidency, or The Party— seldom the President — feels uncomfortable about someone of influence, particularly in the party of the President, and swiftly various unsavoury things begin to happen to the man; all sorts of unsavoury information begin to float around about him; it suddenly becomes apparent that he is unfit for the post he holds; his face is turned to a downward route from the peak of a precipice, and every effort is applied to make him take the wrong step so as to tumble down.

All these events swirling around us embodying power outage, poor health delivery,bad roads, dysfunctional so-called amenities, brutal insecurity, stifling corruption and ineffective leadership strike one as a mirror of our society.

I am in one of my dull moments again when simple situations that are as clear as daylight fail to emerge from the depths of confusion for me to grasp and comprehend like all others around seem to do. Why can’t I understand what is going on? Just when I think I am on top of the unfolding events, something that leaves me panting turns up again.

On the horns of a dilemma, that is where President Goodluck seems to find himself right now. Or, as my friends used to put it in those sweet-scented ghettoes of North DC, “He’s damned if he don’t, and is damned if he do. “

It is unfortunate that a former Head of State and perennial presidential candidate, like retired Maj. General Muhammadu Buhari, could expose himself to indefensible criticisms through his unguarded statements about this nation.

Chief Oluwole Awolowo was definitely not a saint. He never had a chance. He was expected to be a “rascal”, a word freely used beyond and beside its real meaning, way back in our grapple with the English language in Yorubaland.

Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, PhD, GCFR, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Commander of the Armed Forces, must know something that the rest of us do not know. He wants another term in office, a desire which certain sections of the nation vehemently oppose. We all know that.

The recent call on the President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, by none other than His Eminence, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, the Sultan of Sokoto, to grant amnesty to all the members of the Boko Haram, deserves a second look.

Whatever made General Ibrahim Babangida to deprive Nigeria of the fruits of that golden venture into democracy, dealt a severe blow on the future of this nation.

The forthcoming Police Games recalls the role of the police force in our sports development.

If you want to start an unending argument, say something even slightly disparaging of the Pope to a Roman Catholic
faithful. (And that, I confess, includes some of my loved ones.) I am very careful when I have to say anything about “Christ’s Representative on Earth” whom I actually hold in very high esteem, though my “Ave Maria” no longer swells with the passion of younger days.

The recent gathering of ten State Governors in Lagos reminds me personally of a spectacle I used to cherish in my boyhood days around the late thirties and early forties.

The early rains have arrived here in some parts, or shall we call them the threatening return of the f1oods so soon in the year? It would seem that this thing called “climate change” may be right after all.

The mindless attack of Islamic terrorists or insurgents in the country on His Royal Highness, Alhaji Ado Bayero, the Emir of Kano, has provoked a spate of comments expressing, absolute shock, downright condemnation, and utter dismay. One sees the attack as mindless because the object is one of the most eminent Muslims in the country.