Sometimes, its tedious writing this column because it almost seems like all one does is gripe. And it’s not that I’m bitter… I’m living my dream. And as far as Nigerian living standards go, I and mine are relatively comfortable. But what does that amount to really; that a tiny percentage are ‘relatively comfortable’ in the face of this all-pervasive poverty?

I think it was about a year ago that I did a piece advocating the necessity for the powers that be to incorporate and make it mandatory for everyone wishing to join any political party to undergo mental and psychological evaluation.

We are truly a great nation. And I believe what the polls say – we’ve got to be the happiest people on the face of the earth in spite of everything we’ve been through. What else can account for our disposition? It doesn’t matter how painful or senseless or stupid or unfair it is (whatever ‘it’ is at the time’ as a nation we just keep sucking it up.

The ‘new black’ is a term mostly used in fashion circles to describe a new or recurrent trend. When someone used the term to describe rape in our society; I thought to myself how apt, given the incessant number of incidents that have occurred in recent times. Babies, toddlers, teenagers, fully grown women, boys and girls; nobody is speared.

I did a short stint as a fashion magazine editor and it was one of the most surreal experiences I’ve had in my life. Production itself was a delight, what I could never get a hang of was the intrigue and backstabbing. We spent more time engaged in office politics than we did in creating the product. Anyways, that’s not the moral of today’s story.

Not preoccupied enough with the innumerable, seemingly insurmountable problems that we face as a nation (his immediate constituency being one of them) Deputy Senate President, Ekweremadu kicked up a storm with his proposal that prostitution be legalised.

“… Dem name na silly! And because of that, Nigeria go beat dem silly on that day! Ah- ah, ‘ol boy how you go talk so? Why I no go talk so?”… We were walking back from the cafeteria at work and this was the heated debate two of my colleagues were engaged in. It obviously had something to do with football considering how animated they were and though I tend to shy away from football debates especially as it concerns our national team, I couldn’t resist, my curiosity was piqued.