Prior to 1985 Nigerians were amongst the most literate, intellectually-inclined, respected, well-informed, well-read and well-educated people in the world and this had been so since the mid-1800's. Our education system was once the envy of the British Commonwealth and in terms of academics Nigerians scored firsts wherever they went. However as from 1985 everything changed in our country including our attitude to life, our economic situation, our sense of values, our perception of ourselves and what we stood for and our education system. From that time everything appears to have gone to the dogs and from that point it was just one period of degradation and degenaration to another up until today.

''We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us''- Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel, United Nations General Assembly, 1972.

On 23rd April 2014, the respected U.S.-based online military News Agency magazine called StrategyPage wrote the following: ''Nigerian Muslim clerics living in the border towns of Cameroon and Nigeria are recruiting Boko Haram members in their mosques, the Government of Cameroon has alleged. Worse still, government officials in the North Eastern Nigerian states of Yobe, Borno and Adamawa collaborate with the terrorists and take bribes from them, thereby, hindering the fight against the terrorists. Governors of these states also capitalise

Permit me to begin this contribution with some basic truisms: firstly that God is great and that He alone forges the destiny of nations and rules in the affairs of men. Secondly that He is faithful and true and that He alone is worthy of our fear and of our praise. Lest despair and despondency sets in, it is right and proper to always remember this and to continue to reiterate these truisms given the horrific things that we are witnessing on a daily basis in our country today. This is a season of brutality, sadness and fear.

Today I shall go down memory lane and ponder on a few soul-searching questions that I posed, and attempted to answer, a few years ago. I believe that these questions are as relevant today as they were at that time. Sit back, fasten your seatbelts and I implore you to stay with me till the end. Here we go:

All the clever rationalisations and justifications in the world for presenting a muslim/muslim ticket will not enable us to escape this ugly tag. As a matter of fact they will simply confirm it. We have a lot of work to do in this respect and permit me to share just one of the things that we ought to do very quickly if we wish to avoid the consequences of our own folly.

‘’The last notable Christian-Christian ticket was Awolowo-Umeadi in 1979 and the last notable Muslim-Muslim ticket was Abiola-Kingibe in 1993. You can figure out the rest. But let the optimists know that reality always trounces wishful hope in political contests. Chief Femi Fani-Kayode's advice that we get real must be directed where it truly belongs - to the leadership of the APC’’- Chief Kayode Samuel, Facebook, 29th March 2014.

Last week I wrote an essay titled ''12 Years A Slave and The Case For Reparations''. It was a historical account about the travails of the African and the black man over the last few centuries and, frankly, it was very moving. I shed tears as I wrote that essay- tears for our people and their pitiable plight and tears for the challenges and sheer cruelty that our forefathers experienced in the hands of those that

“The North should not be pushed to the wall. If we are pushed to the wall, we would simply walk out of the conference. When we walk out, there would be great consequences for the country"- HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS, DR. MUHAMMADU BARKINDO MUSTAPHA, LAMIDO OF ADAMAWA.

I have just finished watching the film titled ''12 Years A Slave''. I couldn't stop weeping from the beginning to the end of it and frankly I am at a loss for words. This was a masterpiece. It was nothing short of a powerful rendition of a true and heroic story.