Point One

Going by reports, our country comes under fresh global spotlight this Monday as United States President Donald Trump hosts Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari in Washington. Well, one watchword to advise for that outing, with all due respect, is that to gaffe is human, but to be decidedly guarded in utterance is crucial wisdom. Presidential comments, no matter how casually meant, have juristic import. Little wonder that some comments by the Nigerian leader during his recent trip to London for the Commonwealth summit elicited lashbacks from segments of the citizenry that held those comments improper. And truth be told: this wasn’t because many Nigerians just have a penchant for mischief or twisting the president’s words out of their lexical zones. Of course, electioneering is upon us and some partisans, true to character, had a field day milking political capital from the controversial comments. But the comments were in themselves what they verily were – gaffes. ...

It was one test of endurance for the Nigerian democracy when hoodlums, last week, stormed the Senate chamber and took away the parliamentary mace. The mace was later recovered though. Proceedings in the legislative house were momentarily grounded as thugs storm-raided the red chamber at plenary and seized the parliamentary symbol of authority. The invaders had allegedly aided suspended Senator Ovie Omo-Agege (Delta Central) to gain forced entry into the legislative chamber before going for the mace, advising many of the lawmakers present to vote with their feet for safety. They thereafter bullied their way out of the Senate complex, fighting off a challenge mounted by security officials of the National Assembly (NASS) to deliver the seized mace into a waiting vehicle with which they made their get-away. In the ensuing melee, NASS security officials were reported injured, with a female agent said to have fainted when the hoodlums struck her on their way out of the complex. At least o...