This Time Next Year by Sonala Olumhense

How have the times changed in my time?
When I was a boy, Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ which is celebrated the world over on this date, was the happiest day on the calendar.  It brought family members - every family, everywhere as far as my young heart could grasp - home.  
For Christmas, it seemed the sun was always out.  Everyone visited everyone else.  Everyone was generous and affable.  We wore new clothes.  The meals were the most sumptuous, and there was music and dancing and a lot of happiness.  
The magic lasted into the New Year.  And then, a certain melancholy set in as people began to return to

Obasanjo’s challenge of Buhari by Sonala Olumhense

President Muhammadu Buhari receives former President Olusegun Obasanjo at the Presidential Villa in Abuja

As one who firmly believes that one Olusegun Obasanjo squandered the finest opportunity of any Nigerian leader since independence, I have often criticized him. 

Between 1999 and 2007, he could have transformed Nigeria into Africa’s most developed, most productive and most functional economy.  The records show that he compounded the situation, and then handed over to his handpicked successors who made matters considerably worse. 

That led, inevitably, to the arrival of one Muhammadu Buhari, who had sworn for years Nigeria needed cleansing, and that he was the man for the job. 

When Buhari was sworn in last year, it was evident that Obasanjo had him trapped.  But Buhari ignored the obvious.

Speaking at the at the first Akintola Williams Annual Lecture last week, Obasanjo sprung that trap, telling Buhari to stop giving excuses and, in effect, to get on with being the