For some of us who were classroom teachers at an era when learning and the acquisition of knowledge was much sought after and desired, and both the learners and their teachers were very interested in getting things right, the current deteriorating state of our educational system, is of much concern.

Dr.(Mrs.)Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi is an activist of note within and outside Nigeria. The Executive Director of Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre- WARDC, in this interview, among other issues, she suggests the need for a gender struggle that is less elitist and which would easily accommodate the rural women who largely constitute the female population in Nigeria.

The United Nations Organization, apart from its role of ensuring peace and harmony between nations, is having a closer relationship with the individual, as it directs focus on all the different problems which assail the human life. Every day of the year marks something in the human welfare; in addition to the usual Children’s day, Labour day, Food day, Water day, days for Women, Mothers, Fathers, Grandparents, the Physically challenged, we now have special days for Sight, Hearing, etc.

M rs. Bolanle Adewole, the Founder/Director of The Learning Place-TLP School and TLP Centre in Lekki, Lagos, is passionately spear-heading the introduction of Structured Teaching in Nigeria in collaboration with AACTION Autism, a voluntary group of professionals from Chicago, USA, working to help third-world countries develop their techniques for working with children and adults with autism.

She passed away in the early hours of March 27th, 2013, in San Francisco, USA, at the age of 83. That drew a curtain on our over sixty-year-old friendship! Christy Stallings (nee Tugele) was from Warri but was born in Kaduna.

Addressing her by the conventional title “First Lady…” should have been the norm here, but this is one unique woman who has refused to be addressed by that title. She simply prefers to be called “Wife of the Governor of Ogun State”. In her opinion, such bourgeois titles like “First Lady of..” are distracting.

The word ‘dunce’ was freely used by teachers during my primary school days, when you showed ignorance in any subject, even in what the teacher hasn’t taught you, but which is in your text books, or has appeared in the newspapers ..

I can’t say that I was very surprised by our readers’ views on this topic, given the sort of shenanigans that go on in the world of politics in Nigeria, but the hopelessness in their mail saddens one. It’s like some people believe that politicians and rulers in this country will never put citizens first, and there isn’t much to be expected of them come 2015, or at any other time. That complete lack of trust is a great pity, isn’t it?

Mrs. Irene Ngozi Morenikeji Craig, a graduate of Language and Linguistics, is an energetic and innovative many-sided personality. After several years in the teaching field, she’s produced nursery rhymes and other children books which she believes to be good tools for teaching morals.

A 1963 Scotland-trained medical doctor, Prof.(Mrs.)Ibironke Akinsete is one of the few Nigerian women who have engraved their names on the sand of local and international medical practice. Currently the Chairman of PathCare Medical Laboratory, Prof, as she is fondly called, is a Haematologist of great repute. A former Chairperson of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS and Presidential Adviser on HIV/AIDS, she sits on the board of several organisations. Prof Akinsete who will be seventy-five in May stresses the need for preventive healthcare in this interview.