How time flies! By the end of this month, this column would have run without interruption (except for some editorial hiccups) for five years since we started it in January 2007.

I want to thank the publishers of the Tribune titles for making the platform available. I seize this opportunity to pray for the Publisher, Master Oluwole Awolowo, that the Lord who Himself is the Master Healer will perfect everything concerning his and humanity. Although I have never met him in person, I have heard a lot about his large heart and love for God. Anyone who is a friend and lover of God is my friend. Sir, you will have the last laugh! I also thank the then Business Editor, Mr Lanre Oyetade for challenging me to do the column. He had attended one of our church services and after hearing me speak, was more than convinced that more people’s lives would be enhanced by what I have to say.

In the same vein, I want to specially thank Pastor Segun Olatunji, the former MD and the incumbent, Reverend Sam Adesua for believing in us and ensuring that this column has endured. I felt flattered when one day Pastor Olatunji informed me that he always looked forward to reading this column. From time to time he still calls to express appreciation for the write-ups.

How can I forget to thank the present team on the Business Desk under the leadership of Tayo Adekunle. I have not been privileged to attend any of your strategy sessions, but I am sure there would have been times when the retention or otherwise of this column would have featured on the agenda. That it is still running is an indication of what the decision was. Thanks for believing in me.

To my family (my wonderful wife and children), thanks for allowing me to take part of what should have been time spent in your company to write and meet some very excrucia-ting deadlines. Particu-larly humbling for me has been the experience of calls and messages I received on the few occasions that the column did not appear or had the day of feature changed as a result of some reengin-eering issues in the newspaper. These served to fire my resolve even at the greatest of inconven-iences, especially in the period when in the course of 2011, my health was so adversely affected that I spent more time lying down than standing on my feet. Each time I remem-bered that someone would open this paper looking forward to the column, I had to muster energy to knock it together. So to all of you out there who keep faith with this column, I salute you. After God, you have been my inspiration. Thanks from bringing the best out of me at all times even when I seemed to have suffered from the “writer’s block”.

And then the GIVE A PILLOW campaign that has so far helped us to procure a total of 1,650 pillows for public hospitals in Nigeria. To all of you who believed in us enough to support this vision, I say “Thank You” from the bottom of my heart. On behalf of all the hospital patients who will ever benefit from this gesture, I pray that sickness will be far from your households in 2012. To those who are yet to contribute but WILL do so, I thank you in advance. Our target of 10,000 pillows is not yet met.

The greatest gratitude I unashamedly offer to God Almighty whose grace has made it all possible. Without Him, there is no me. Whenever I think about my life, the only question I ask myself about the years of my youth when I did not know Him is, ‘How did I make it in those years? If I were God (Thank God I don’t even come close to being), would I have spared and saved someone like this guy?’ I am glad that His mercy supersedes judgement. Everything I am, I owe to Him. If my life has bless-ed anyone, it is because He blessed me first. Kudos BABA!

Welcome to 2012! I am so glad you made it. No matter what happened in 2011, the fact that you are alive to tell the story is an indication that you can rewrite the script or update with an upgrade in 2012.

I want to particularly commiserate with families of those who lost their lives as a result of our latest bogeyman Boko Haram’s mindless bombing sprees in 2011, the most heinous of which happened on Christmas day! I don’t blame them. Maybe when our leaders quit their déjà-vu platitudes and squarely face and tackle this Declaration of War before it gets out of hand, we will breathe easier. Panic grips the land. Those who lead us seem to have neither clue nor nerves to do the needful.

Nonetheless we keep hope alive in the conviction that light always triumphs over darkness! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!