MADAM, thank you very much for reading my first letter to you, as l was told you did. The fact that you read the first one will make this second one, and the third; which shall be last on this issue, easily assimilating subject for your consumption. Oh, let me appreciate the fact that you have already raised the issue under discuss with my brother, your husband. That is too kind of you and the right step to be taken by any woman who is to be a blessing to her husband.

IT was the late Dele Giwa, who in those days of yore, wrote that Nigerians have become immune to shocks. They are capable of the impossible – with the dire challenges facing us as a nation – we were once rated as the happiest people on earth.

IT was Clement Richard Attlee (1883-1967), the British statesman who posited that “democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking”. I will not hesitate to add here that democracy is not all about talking but also about popular participation. For people to feel the impact of governance both the influential and the deprived, the young and old, the educated and the uneducated etc must be part of what is happening in their own affairs.

MY two years as China’s ambassador to the EU have deepened my understanding, and respect, of the European integration process. In the aftermath of World War II, the war ravaged countries of Europe and their people had such a strong desire to heal the trauma of war and build a just and lasting peace that they determined to advance European integration. Germany’s repentance and unequivocal denouncement of Nazism were an essential part of this process, which led to genuine reconciliation, stability and peace in Europe.

The Nigerian Army has produced a good number of officers whose overall contributions during and after their sojourn in the service have continued to withstand the test of time. Many years on, these officers and gentlemen have continued to forge ahead at other levels of the society doing things that the discipline and orderliness associated with their earlier engagements, aptly, prepared them for later in life.

It could be maintained that the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, is yet to deliver on its mandate. Needless to say, any human being with even a bare minimum of a sense of justice should be utterly aghast at the execrable treatment of what is undoubtedly the most important component of the Nigerian commonwealth.

“Love seeketh not itself to please, nor for itself hath any Care, but for another gives it’s ease, and builds a heaven in hell’s despair” William Blake

MADAM, l am not too sure which side of the divide this open letter to you will put me because the line between conventional and unconventional is too thin for the uninitiated to observe. In addition, we are in the season of open letters but l can assure you that this is not one of those.

THROUGHOUT history, we have recorded accounts of the persecution of reformers, transformers, prophets and saints. Back home in Nigeria, we have had our fair share of leadership interlopers who came in the garb of military rulers lamenting the state of the nation’s affairs, and promising us Eldorado, but only to dash our hopes. In contrast, they became worse than the leaders they condemned.

THAT former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has gone back to grin alongside some of the same politicians who roundly chastised him into leaving the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria with his tail between his legs is amusing to say the least. It is even more amusing how he has been trying to convince Nigerians that his new adventure with the All Progressives Congress (APC) is about achieving “change” and not about him taking another shot at winning the presidency for himself. At this juncture, it is only natural to wonder what sort of “change” Atiku—a founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and a long-time politician of note—can be talking about today.