Public Affairs Analyst

Dr. Wale Okediran was spot on in his analysis of Nigeria’s House of Representatives in his latest book titled ‘Tenants of the House’. The shocking, preposterous, nauseating and infantile display of shame enacted by some scoundrels in the Nigeria’s House of Representatives on Tuesday, June 22, 2010 vindicated the veteran author and immediate past president of the Association of Nigerian Authors. In the full glare of cameras and right in the presence of some 75 pupils of the City Royal Secondary School, Nyanya, Abuja, our parliamentarians engaged in karate, judo, boxing and wrestling. They kicked and threw punches at one another, shredding clothes of fellow legislators in the fracas. One of them in the process had a fractured arm and another a bloodied nose. Even journalists covering the National Assembly were not spared as some of them were brutalised in the course of carrying out their legitimate assignments. This is awful! I couldn’t help asking myself, why are we so cursed? Since Ju...

That the Ondo State government decided to bow to public wish by deposing the Deji of Akure, Oba Oluwadare Adepoju Adesina did not come to many as a surprise. The monarch before his removal from throne on Thursday, 10 June 2010 had been in the news for some time for the wrong reason. He had earlier in November 2009 been dethroned by his kingmakers who levelled the following allegations against him: “Violation of Akure tradition and custom by personally going to the market to disturb market women from performing their legitimate trading business and engaging in wanton and indiscriminate destruction of essential food items in the market”. “Flagrant breach of age long and hallowed custom of Akure that makes it mandatory for the Deji not to leave his official palace without the knowledge and concurrence of the chiefs”. “Deliberate failure and refusal to complete the traditional rites for the stool of the Deji of Akureland contrary to the tradition and custom of Akure, rendering his selectio...