IFEATU (not real name), 16, and in senior secondary school 2, suddenly discovered that she was pregnant for her trader boyfriend, Obinna. When she informed Obinna of the development, he warned her not to associate him with such a thing because he had just been released by his master after six of years apprenticeship and was just settling down to nurture his own business and therefore did not want any distraction. Afraid of telling her parents of her predicament, Ifeatu confided in her school mate who agreed to take her somewhere her problem could be solved.

When 25-year-old Emmanuel Victor, an indigene of Opubo Nkoro in Rivers State, left home for church in the morning of October 16, 2011 with his mother and siblings, there was no inkling he would not return home.

“I was rushed to the Mother and Child Hospital in a critical condition after prolonged obstructed labour. My family had spent all resources to save my life. I was abandoned by my husband in the midst of the challenge.”

Respect is when you regard someone as important and you are careful not to harm or treat him rudely. Children are born with senses and abilities albeit directionless. No one teaches a baby her behavioral patterns or helps a child attain the various milestones of development. Toddlers do not watch wrestling to acquire innate abilities to challenge their siblings to routine contests and fights where punches, bites and kicks come in handy as inherent defense mechanisms. “A 3-year-old toddler’s brain is twice as active as an adult’s brain”, says family science specialist Sean Brotherson.

The Bayelsa State special security outfit, Operation Famou Tangbe (OFT), may have been proscribed by the police but this well-kitted and highly motivated outfit will remain evergreen in the minds of the people.

Lara, a pregnant lady, was due in a couple of weeks and had asked her doctor for an epidural and she heard a stunning reply from him:“What is that, who told you about epidural?”. She responded that she learnt about it abroad. That was when the doctor realised he was talking to a knowledgeable person. And the doctor just spilled: “We don’t have that here, please”.

The joy of every parent is to see his or her child grow happily into an adult and become successful in life.

However, this cannot be said of Ms Toyin Odunowo, a single parent whose only child, Mayowa Abolaji, is suffering from what medical experts called a congenital heart disease, that is, a large Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) commonly referred to as ‘hole in the heart’.

The night was damp and cold as the breeze rustled corn leaves which bounded most compounds in Bitaro village. One could see the flickering of lightening in the far horizon signalling the retreat of the rain that had been pouring since the previous evening. It was around 1 a.m. and a Sunday. Then men suspected to be Fulani arrived.

Less than 24 hours after a pupil of All Saints Anglican Primary School, Okejebu, Akure, Ondo State, Opeyimi Rasheed, was killed by his classmate, Abiodun Oluwadare, on October 7, 2010, Governor Olusegun Mimiko, touched by the avoidable death, paid a condolence visit to the school. Commiserating with the family of the deceased and school authorities, he prayed God to grant them the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.

She is one of the foreigners who have found ‘home’in Nigeria largely because of the country’s hospitality. For Roberta Portea Mayson, a Liberian, apart from the name, language and maybe her friends, especially the childhood ones, there is really no difference between her country and Nigeria because here, ‘you are not seen and treated as foreigners’. Rebecca is the wife of Ambassador Dew Mayson,one of the presidential contenders in the forthcoming Liberia presidential election.