Bisi, I usually like to write volumes regarding topics of interest. What caught my attention is the title of your article. I just wish to make an observation regarding the topical heading of your article, and to perhaps, argue that there is no such thing as "Common Sense". The reason being, if the "Sense" were "Common", everybody would have it. So, although people use this "catch phrase" all the time, I do hope that people must never take anything for granted, nor should people ever assume that because one has access to privileged information, therefore, everybody on the street must know the same thing. This is usually not the case.

I remember more than two decades ago when I was doing my terminal degree studies in one of those rare fileds where Africans were seldom welcome. The professor realized that many of the students were devout in their religious beliefs. He shocked many of us when he stood up and said: You've heard it being said: "Do unto others as you'll have them do unto you". But, in the Corporate Environment which many of us aspired to work, the rule of thumb would be" Do it to them before they do it to you". Shock waves ran through my spinal columns and I have never quite recovered from it since then. The point being, I grew up as an impressionable church-going youth in Nigeria before leaving home at a very early age. We were taught in Church that "doing to others as you would have them do unto you was one of the cardinal teachings Christ preached while HE was on earth. To have heard this statement from the University Professor from a purely Christian Institution was something I totally did not expect. But, I finally realized that this was the reason why these people engaged in slave trade, and cared nothing about the human sufferings that Africans endured. It was all about making money, not your feelings.

There were Hymnal Songs such as "Guide Me Oh, Thou Great Jehova, Pligrims through this barren land"........ When you realize that this song was written by a slave trader, you can then begin to see the implications in the rest of the verses. The phrase "pilgrims through this "barren land", gives one the ability to visualize how lands and villages were looted or dispossessed of their belongings of both human beings and material things, and to pray to God Almighty asking that He guides these thieves through the lands they have raped, pilaged and looted for easy passage, made me realize the genesis of the professor's theme. No wonder there is a global financial meltdown. In Securities Trading, somebody is always losing and someone is always winning. Why is it that those who are winning always keep quiet while two-third of human population wallow in pain? Therefore Bisi, the message to be derived from these commentaries is that people never look at a solution to a problem from the same prism. And even if they did, they would all arrive at different conclusions. And so, there is really no such thing as a "Common Sense". It all depends on the circumstance.Now for Africans, this may be hard to swallow because we see each other as brothers, especially in a foreign environment. Because of the collective sufferings Africans have endured historically, I therefore, have great difficulty believing that these same people will come and give us weapons to kill each other albeit, in the 21st Century!!! Habba. What happened to our sense of history? But then again, you will argue that we have No Common Sense. Is this history being taught in our schools corriculum in Nigeria? It is said that those who forget lessons of history are bound to repeat the same mistakes again and again. The general public should therefore, beware.