By Owei Lakemfa I WAS absolved by various  reports on the collapse of the Socialist bloc from 1989 to 1992. Most of the reports took their theme song from the fall of the Berlin Wall. I was particularly engrossed in the “Velvet Revolution” in the old Czechoslovakia which began to unfold from the November 17, […]

DURING the campaigns leading to what was assumed would be the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primaries for the 2007 Presidential elections, I stumbled on the campaign team of an aspirant. It was a well-organised, motivated, serious but somewhat naively optimistic group. Off record, the team leader took questions on the campaigns and assessed the chances of other aspirants.

Although a White man, Brown became the patron saint of the Black people, and the American government under President Abraham Lincoln had to invoke his name to mobilise Black people to join the American army. One of the leading Americans of his day, Henry David Thoreau said on the day of Brown’s hanging: “I plead not for his life, but for his character- his immortal life …some eighteen hundred years ago Christ was sacrificed; this morning, per chance, Captain Brown was hung.

THERE are basis to conclude that Femi Fani-Kayode’s memory is either fading or he is not acquainted with the readily available literature of the 1966 coup. This can be gleaned from his claims about where his father was taken to in Lagos. He claimed: “They (the coupists) decided to take him to Bonny Camp in Lagos which happened to be still within the control of the loyalist federal forces”.

John Brown had struck severe blows against slavery, he had shamed his accusers and persecutors who might have thought he would beg for his life. He went to the gallows head held high and walked into martyrdom. His adversaries are forgotten in history but John Brown’s saintly accomplishments will never die.