Anambra State Governor Peter Obi, gave what could pass for governorship endorsement recently when he told the congregation of Catholic faithful and others that one of the illustrious sons of the state had done much that everybody was proud of him.

WAY back in 1979, I was privileged to get close to our idol and hero, Professor Chinua Achebe. I had just gained admission to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

ONE was not too sure if the foremost literary stylist from Nigeria and Africa foresaw his passing on so soon? With his most recent slightly vituperative literary outing titled, There Was A Country, a literary-cum-historical bombshell on the Nigerian civil war in which he lampooned the persons of certain key figures of the fratricidal bloodbath such as Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the vice chairman of the Gowon regime who propounded the theory that starvation was a legitimate weapon of war and General Yakubu Gowon, whom he accused of spearheading a genocide against the Igbos.

HISTORICALLY, the United States and Nigeria have shared cozy diplomatic relations, except during the late General Sani Abacha’s military interregnum, when the relations turned sour on account of annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election by the military and Abacha’s subsequent usurpation of power. During the period, both countries severed diplomatic relations.

I REMEMBER few years back when a prominent American citizen was speaking to a graduating class of engineering students from a particular university in the United States. I remember that he told them that: “Even at the pinnacle of your career your task is not done yet because new challenges will always await you as citizen Engineers”.