My last Lunch with Oronto was February 22, 2015. Venue was his hotel room on the 9th floor of Eko Hotels, Lagos. President Goodluck Jonathan was just few kilometres away, making frantic consultations on his presidential campaign. Oronto had visited the President briefly in the morning, came back and went straight for a quick nap.

XENOPHOBIA is an abnormal or strange fear or contempt, of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or people from different countries or cultures. A wave of xenophobia carries with it, racism, isolationism, ethnocentrism, jingoism, racial or ethnic intolerance.

I HAVE a burden in my spirit after the death of Comrade Uche Chukwumerije, erstwhile Secretary of Information under the Interim National Government, ING. I find the passing of Comrade Chukwumerije very painful to bear. Not that he was too young to die, but that he was too good to depart at this time.

The tenure of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala may have brought a rigorous, intellectual and analytical approach to government economic policy, and an end to decades of voodoo economics. It also resulted in the death of Keynesian economics and heralded the dawn of a new era of neo-classicism. Neo-classicism is the economic doctrine favored by international agencies like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

HE is fondly called ‘Ekwueme’ by close associates and when he signaled his intention to contest through consultation; he felt the pulse of the masses. Sen. Ifeanyi Okowa was aware of what the journey entails, that there will be friends and distractors, that sycophants and jesters will come on board, that traitors and fair weather friends will be there, just as there would be committed disciples.