Allen Christopher Bertram Bathurst, the 9th Earl of Bathurst is a British peer whose other title is Lord Apsley. He and I were colleagues at Harrow School, the best private school in the United Kingdom, 30 years ago. In 1985 he said the following: ‘’Nigeria is a toilet of a country where evil reigns’’. I have never forgotten his insulting remarks. I found it intriguing that this quintessential member of the English upper class had the nerve to say such things to me about my country.

In 1916, Lord Frederick John Dealtry Lugard, the 1st Baron Lugard, the fourteenth Governor of Hong Kong and the first Governor-General of Nigeria, said the following: “Lagos has for 20 years opposed every Governor and has fomented strife and bloodshed in the hinterland. I have spent the best part of my life in Africa; my aim has been the betterment of the natives for whom I have been ready to give my life. But after some 29 years, and after nearly 12 years as Governor here, I am free to say that the people of Lagos and indeed the westerners are the lowest, the most seditious and disloyal, the most purely prompted by self-seeking money motives of any people I have met.”

In 418 B.C. Herodotus, the Greek philosopher who is known as the ‘’father of history’’, said "a man who does not know anything about the events that took place before he or she was born will remain forever a child.’’ Not only was he right but one must go a step further by saying that those who refuse to learn from their history are condemned to repeating its mistakes.

Permit me to begin this weeks column with a small aside. One of the things that I learnt from my late father, Chief Remilekun Fani-Kayode and my leader, President Olusegun Obasanjo, is that one must never respond to the ignorant, the uncouth, the uncultured, the unlettered, the unrefined and the accursed.

On the 20th April 1653 Oliver Cromwell, who was the Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland and the greatest statesman and revolutionary that England ever knew, stormed the English ''Rump Parliament'' at Westminster and courageously pronounced the following words after which he sacked Parliament and boldly took power.

Sometime last year I watched the Hollywood blockbuster titled ''12 Years A Slave'' starring Brad Pitt and the Nigerian-born actor Chiwetel Ejiofor. After watching the film I was at a loss for words. It was a masterpiece. It was a powerful rendition of a true and heroic story.