Point One

It was a showdown grimly portended and long brewed. The battle line was between enforcement potency of state power on one hand, and moral hubris of mass following in the civil populace on the other. The public keenly watched at the sidelines, and was served a cynical invitation some days ahead to come witness the “demolition show.” Then the blowout occurred at dawn early last week. By the time the iron fist, represented by demolition cranes and an accompaniment of soldiers that the Oyo State government deployed pulled back from the battle ground, The Music House owned by popular artiste, Yinka Ayefele – the word ‘Ayefele’ being a Yoruba axiom translating in English as ‘This world is fragile,’ and with implied admonition to tread gingerly – lay in partial ruins. The Oyo government moved against Ayefele’s property on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway end of Ring Road bypass, in the state capital, for alleged contravention of physical planning laws of the state. Before la...

It was former President Olusegun Obasanjo that, in recent history, touted the doctrine of a third force in Nigerian politics. In a fiery open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari last January, he shredded the incumbent’s performance credentials and pitched in against his seeking another term of office. Obasanjo, however, sensed he was up against a brick wall with his gratuitous counsel as far as it pertains to the president and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC); but he also foreclosed a return to the old path of nationhood when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was in the saddle. And so, he threw up the idea of a third force as his proposed alternative. The former head of state said the PDP now in opposition had not shown better behavioural traits than when it was in power. “As the leader of that party for eight years as president of Nigeria, I can categorically say there is nothing to write home about in their new team. We have only one choice left to ...

Former Director-General of the Department of State Security (DSS), Lawal Musa Daura, must have some genes of a tragic hero. Barely three weeks ago, he was hand in gloves with Police Inspector-General Ibrahim Idris in deploying personnel from both the secret and conventional police services to blockade Benue State House of Assembly premises, where eight members barreled off 22 others under the cover of the armed agents to serve an impeachment notice on embattled State Governor Samuel Ortom. The illegality of it all was so affronting that it ignited public outcry, which perhaps hamstrung the minority squad of legislators from their agenda. But there wasn’t any censure or other adverse consequences for the security chiefs over their professional judgment that informed the blockade, neither public word of caution from the Muhammadu Buhari presidency to which they were answerable.     Last week, Daura stepped up the ante as he rolled out an armed siege by men of the secret pol...