APOLOGY
The devil that occasionally assails production process in the manufacture of media products came visiting RANDOM NOTES last week. I had written three short articles, namely: STILL THE WILD, WILD WEST; STOP RANTING ALI; and a letter from a reader, titled: NO TEARS FOR ANDY UBA. Unlike a few other times when writing under pressure, I had finished the column far before deadline and was confident that my error margin would be extremely minimal.

How wrong I was. Not a line, or even a paragraph, was afflicted but the entire script. In place of the aforementioned articles, the computer picked a wrong edition, the whole RANDOM NOTES column of June 7, 2007, an advice by a Yale professor to President Umar Musa Yar’Adua, on the composition of his cabinet. Surely, you, my loyal readers do not deserve this. I sincerely apologise for the serious error and promise to work against recurrence. I re-present the articles, albeit with slight modification, hoping that you will still find them interest.

How I wish it were possible to exorcise politics from our lives. How I wish we could live our lives without the shenanigans and daredevil intrigues of politicians. Were these possible, we would have been able to enjoy yesterday’s (last Thursday’s) 2-0 resounding victory of the Flying Eagles over Scotland on end. After hitting Costa Rica 1-0 at the opening early (last) Monday morning, our fleet-footed boys struck a superlative form to daze the Scots, thus making the match against Japan a mere formality. But would the politicians allow us? Would they let us be? Can we really live without politics?
No. Politics is life. It is ‘the totality of interrelationships in a particular area of life involving power, authority, or influence and capable of manipulation’. It rules our lives. It is everywhere-in the home, office, church and mosque, everywhere. Even if you decide to be apolitical, would this crop of politicians allow you?
Not on your life! Not with the senseless rascality they flagrantly display at every turn. It’s impossibility, I know. But please don’t blame me for my pessimism. Blame the situation in the nation since April. Things have been ill at ease since the April general elections in several parts of the country, especially the southwest, where unfolding events parody the unfortunate episode of Operation wetie of the Wild, Wild West.

Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, has been virtually seized by hoodlums loyal to the two impostors to power-Adebayo Alao-Akala, and his godfather, the self-confessed thug-cum-garrison commander, Lamidi Ariyibi Adedibu, since the former’s emergence as governor. The latest in the continual turmoil that has gripped the ancient city since the April 14 governorship election occurred in the small hours of (last) Tuesday when heavily armed thugs invaded the Ibadan home of the immediate past governor, Rashidi Ladoja, and attempted to raze it. The mansion, according to reports, would have gone down in rubble but for the stiff resistance put up by sentries guarding the place.

By the time the dust settled, three of the hoodlums had been fatally wounded. Others sustained varying degrees of injuries. The attackers left a lake of blood like the type you see in abbatoirs. That is the signature of Ibadan politics. It is the signature of the garrison commander.
Since the wetie episode of 1965 in the old Western Region, Osun state had never witnessed politically motivated carnage on the scale it has been seeing since the April elections. Apart from the several houses and vehicles burnt in Osogbo, the state capital, and Ilesa,
many lives and limbs have also been lost. You needed to read the accounts of Engineer Rauf Aregbesola and the counter-accusation by the Osun State government in the media, earlier this (last) week, to appreciate the scary turn of events in the State of the Living Spring.
Yet, the situation in Ekiti State is not any better. But I won’t bore you with details. They are all too familiar.

That tension still envelopes parts of the nation since the elections further strengthens the huge question mark that has hung on the generally flawed polls, almost three months after. The situation is not helped by the continued antagonism by the gladiators, in the media, despite their subsisting petitions at the respective election tribunals. It gets worse by the day.

Unless they sheathe their swords and allow the tribunals to do their job, in an atmosphere devoid of fear and intimidation, the body bags may rise. If the scary situation deteriorates any further, the nation may be worst for it. Yet, that is the last thing the peace-loving citizens of this country would wish for. Therefore, the seeming political intolerance must stop forthwith and the tribunals allowed doing their job. Mercifully, the judiciary, by its recent heroic pronouncements, has assured us all that it is irrevocably committed to the principles of justice and would never allow any power or principality to make it defile the hallowed temple of justice.

Politicians must, therefore, help the judiciary in this commitment by stopping their irresponsible behaviours and allow peace to reign. The alternative would be a relapse to the old Wild, Wild West, which conflagration may consume them. Nigerians are tired and sick of the tomfoolery and shameless rascality of these politicians. The politicians must stop behaving badly henceforth, primarily for their own sake, then for the benefit of us, the impoverished masses of Nigeria. Enough is enough.