From Wild, Wild West To National Inferno!

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

A seemingly innocuous spark in an otherwise isolated part of a nation can change the course of history. 

Nigerian history as we have it today owes its shape to the handling or mishandling of the Action Group crisis of the early 1960s. The initial crisis led to a chain of events culminating in the Nigeria/Biafra war and the deeply polarized and wounded nation such as we have today.

*Awolow, Azikiwe, Balewa

“May you live in interesting times,” is a twice-told charge; and thus Chief Simeon Olatunde Oloko found himself through forces beyond his control to be in the epicenter as a witness of the events that reshaped Nigerian history. Born at Agodi in Ibadan, the author who studied at the esteemed London School of Economics and Political Science, and was called to the bar of Inner Temple in 1958, served as secretary of the pivotal Western Nigeria Development Corporation (WNDC) from the vantage point of which he lived through the manifold crises that bedeviled the old Western Region and Nigeria.

Lateef Jakande At 90: A Life Of Unparalleled Service To Humanity

By Lai Olurode

How is one to describe Pa Lateef Kayode Jakande (LKJ) at 90. May be, LKJ can be referred to as a man of many parts. In the words of that flamboyant politician of all time, Adegoke Adelabu, as quoted in Post and Jerkins (1973:33), who described himself as follows:

‘‘I am a living laboratory of my age … I am at once the cocoa farmer, the mercantile clerk, the civil servant, the petty trader, the transporter, the capitalist and the intellectual ( and now the politician) – all materials for the study of the social scientist.

*Lateef Jakande

LKJ could not be said to be radically different from this role cast as he shares many of these attributes which characterise a typical Nigerian politician – Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ayo Rosiji, Adegoke Adelabu and even Obafemi Awolowo. Though, from the start, LKJ’s objectives in life was clear – to devote his life to his profession of political journalism and book publishing.