The Dying Republic And ‘Go To Court’!

 By Ugoji Egbujo

Soon after independence, election rigging set the western region on fire and brought down the first republic. ‘Operation Wetie’ wasn’t just frustration and impatience; it was a rejection of the courts. In the second republic, malpractices returned to ruin elections’ credibility, and Baba Ajasin saw it better than others. Omoboriowo, who snatched victory from Baba, had to flee.

When that republic fell, the soldiers blamed their coming on economic hardship and rigged elections. The third republic didn’t last. Principal politicians, excluded, others were railroaded into an artificial dichotomy of two sterilised parties. Shorn of natural birth and passion and with a more transparent electoral procedure, the June 12 presidential election lacked edginess, fire and controversy. It didn’t precipitate confusion.

Supreme Court Verdict: Tinubu Is The Diego Maradona Of Nigerian Politics

 By Olu Fasan

Professor  Wole Soyinka, Africa’s first literature Nobel laureate, published his critically-acclaimed novel, Chronicles From the Land of the Happiest People On Earth, in September 2021. So, he probably didn’t have the 2023 presidential election and Bola Tinubu, who emerged president, in mind when he wrote the book. However, reading the novel, one gets the impression that Professor Soyinka foreshadowed the election and its aftermath.

*Soyinka and Tinubu 

In a post-publication interview with the Financial Times, Professor Soyinka said he wrote the book “to confront Nigeria with its true image”. Indeed, Sir Ben Okri, the recently knighted Nigerian-British writer, described the book as Soyinka’s “magnus opus on the state of his homeland”. Of course, when someone writes a novel, he or she has no control over how the reader interprets it, more so when the novel is verisimilitude, having an appearance of reality. Therefore, for me, Professor Soyinka’s novel provides a powerful framework for analysing the 2023 presidential election, the Supreme Court verdict and Tinubu. 

Nigeria: The Chief Justice Has No Clothes!

 

By Ugoji Egbujo

In The Emperor’s New Clothes, by Hans Christian Andersen, two rogues go to a vain Emperor to say they can make him a wonderful dress that will be invisible to fools. The emperor, who believes he is as wise as Solomon, agrees. With the new clothes, he will sift the competent and clever from the chaff amongst his ministers and special advisers.

*Cheif Justice Of Nigeria: Ariwoola 

The swindlers tell the self-absorbed Emperor that the dress will fit a special parade. He agrees. The emperor loves pomp and parades. Parades allow him to flaunt himself and bamboozle the public. The swindlers collect exquisite royal linen and threads and stash them away in their roofs or banks. In Nigeria, judges loot looters—politicians—and stash away. Mugu having paid, the crooks resume at their looms.