Dear Dad,

You must recall all those days when we were sick and under the weather, how you'll gather herbs to treat us the "native way". I never doubted the efficacy and sustainable longevity our people derived from such therapies. How blessed.

As I matured and travelled, I found the Indians, Chinese and South Americans in the same boat. I have enjoyed reading the usual press reports on Queen Elizabeth's medicines chest, which boasts of some nature-care. Herbal and natural medicine holds the key to our collective healthy future, from this millennium. And the world is coming round to that reality - thanks to robust Chinese practices and documented successes. Science is now at the service of the hither-to- tagged "Alternative Medicine"!

These days, herbal stuff are spurning the old stereotypes, sprouting dream remedies, snapping up more followers, sedating orthodoxy, serenading the West and spinning Multibillion Dollar businesses around the globe. This is in tandem with the frenetic growth and embrace of organic foods, and eco-friendly consumer choices. It's a world your generation endlessly dreamt and so wished for, those days. Yes, dad, it is coming....

Here, in Nigeria, our people are ahead of the government (as when aren't they?) in this crusade. Many herbal medicare practitioners are smiling to the bank these days! I wish you and Papa Makun and Mama Ondo had bestowed all your endowments and dexterity in this area on ME! What a miss!!

Well, I'm a full convert. Always been.

Yours in AWE
Dayo

Dearest Mom,

Good and worrisome news. There is now a huge global market for our farm produce and we are happy. From cassava to soya to oil palm to sesame to gum arabic to neem, etc. These are all in addition to those of your own time: cocoa, rubber, groundnuts, cotton, etc.

However, very few growers are on ground! And what little output there is must now serve both domestic and foreign demands. In the contest, and within our peculiar/particular context, we all know which wins!

Now, Mama, our staple foods are under high pressure and constant threat. If there is so much unmet demand, shouldn't production be top priority (as in first things first)? With our almost unlimited manpower, especially the youth? Not to mention the Niger Delta, the large pool of the unemployed, our history of farm settlements, and the idle military hands - which can be safely deployed/profitably engaged in peace time??? Well....

Just pray for Nigerian Mothers.

Love
Dayo

Dear Dad,

Somehow, our preachers and religious bodies are threatening our politics and the polity.Very few of them, across the faiths, can and do speak TRUTH to power. In the main, the display of ill-gotten wealth from adherents has become a religious pandemic. With no questions asked, the preachers and prophets accept/collect money and materials which the Holy Books and our laws forbid. Oh dad, it is a tale!

Now, the leaders understand this spiritual frailty and exploit it to the fullest. One just wonders how these parasites can trade the GOSPEL so wantonly. In all fairness to the folds, some truly concerned elders and conscientious faith leaders do speak out/up from time to time. But, alas, who listens?

Dad, our God is very patient, indeed!

Always
Dayo