THE audience exploded in admiration. Chuks and I were locked in cordial embrace. We both knew my gratitude was beyond words… I have carried that poem with me ever since. Its echo hovered over my consciousness as I composed ‘Birth Day’, one of the poems in Days, my book of poems published in 2007, and that particular poem was dedicated to Chuks Ihekaibeya and memories of ‘Crimson Moments’.

NO two acts could have been more dramatic in their tragic coincidence. I was halfway through Biodun Jeyifo’s powerful elegy for Tunde Sawyer, his former classmate at the University of Ibadan (The Nation, Jan. 12), when the obituary notice of yet another highly remarkable UI alumnus popped up in my email box.

Tormenting words common among insane persons show in the character of a black, tall lady who is likely to be in her late twenties. Maria, as she is called, is single with no family; at least nobody claims to be related to her. She lives under a tree situated at a junction on Arab Road, Kubwa, Abuja. She speaks Yoruba and Hausa fluently. She has black pixie hair and displays her wares- second hand clothes and shoes. Wherever she bought the wares from to sell is a story for another day.

He not only dared them but he also sent our troops, under the command of Brigadier-General Tajudeen Olanrewaju, to secure our eastern boarders and to protect our territory from their reckless and open aggression. Force was poised to meet force and the Nigerian nation was mobilised for a full scale territorial war.

Following reports of increasing rate of baby factories in some parts of the country, the Lagos State police command has debunked claim that baby factories exist in the state.