Nigeria, Dec. 28 -- As the curtain draws on this year, I find myself thinking of Nigeria not as a headline, not as a crisis report, but as a classroom. The year has been a harsh teacher-stern, unrelenting, sometimes merciless in its lessons. But like every good teacher, it has also revealed our strengths, exposed our fault lines, and whispered possibilities that only the discerning can hear. We have learned more about ourselves than the news could capture: our resilience, our restlessness, our frustration, our faith, and that stubborn seed of hope that refuses to die. The scriptures say in Ecclesiastes 7:8, "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof." Not because the end is always pleasant, but because endings give us perspe...