THE NIGERIA OF OUR DREAM

When my mother suggested we go to a book presentation, the book entitled THE NIGERIA OF OUR DREAM written by Chief S.O.U.Igbe(MON), The Iyase of Benin Kingdom earlier today I budged mainly because I thought it was going to be long hours spent listening to old men lie through both ends of their mouths and do that ever so tortuously slow until you want to scream out in mad boredom, finally we went. She's still the mother after all. As usual, we ran into traffic and it tied gele especially when we got to Ozumba Mbadiwe( seems that road is perpetually under construction) which I considered fortunate(had I only known....). Finally we arrived at NIIA(Nigerian Institute of International Affairs) the venue of the event a full hour late. The Minister of information Mr Labaran  Maku representing the president  had just been introduced by the harassed Mc of the day Mr Sony Irabor( who was constantly been summoned by the Esama of Benin to be given one correction or the other- well, as he Sony himself said he'd been out of the homeland for sometime and needed to be reminded of appropriate protocols again- it was hilarious though.) and the minister went to work- a pretty good one he did-. Something truly original happened while the minister was speaking bout the giant strides been made in the power sector, PHCN struck. Perfect timing. Ofcourse the audience erupted in an " you see" applause. The minister unfazed went on and made cogent arguments saying Nigerians expect solutions to problems that have been around for more than thirty years in a space of two years, about amnesty for Alameyeseigha and against one for Boko Haram. He declined to give rebuttal about an alliance statement that had been made by Sen Seriki saying he and Femi Falana (SAN): yes that was my had I known because I always enjoy listening to Falana- to me his speeches are like favorite tracks you want to keep on repeat play- boo he had already spoken.... well all in all it was an interesting event, what with the very funny Edo deputy ( Dr Pius Odubu)who addressed former Lagos state governor Bola Tinubu as the Asiwaju of the universe,  and said that brief men like himself made brief speeches...

Here are some of the faces at the event.