Nigeria, March 26 -- God, grant me the serenity to accept things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference - Reinhold Niebuhr.

"The Serenity Prayer" is what the above quotation is generally called. The wisdom of my own elders that equates it says, "M'oja m'osa la n mo akikanju". The valiant on the battlefield is one who knows the right time to advance and the right time to beat a retreat. The English saying that approximates it is, "He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day."

An event happened during my days at the PUNCH newspapers that made the then General Manager of the newspaper, Mr. Osuolale Mustapha, to recall another Yoruba proverb which says, "Balogun ojo ni n se ...