“In every community there is a class of people profoundly dangerous to the rest. I don’t mean the criminals. For them we have punitive sanctions. I mean the leaders. Invariably, the most dangerous people seek power” —Saul Bellow. (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ p 124).

On March 8, 2017, the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja was closed for runway repairs. Nigeria’s Aviation Minister, Hadi Sirika announced that it would take six weeks to complete the project while making a solemn promise that the airport would reopen for regular traffic on April 19. Many Nigerians including this writer couldn’t see the sense in the decision especially as some technical experts and relevant professional associations argued against it. Public cynicism on the project which swelled by the day was accentuated by the refusal of foreign airlines to relocate to the Kaduna airport which had been designated for use during the period of the repairs. There was even the argument that the construction firm handling the project had agreed to do the work in a fairly longer period without closing business fully at the airport. Not many could therefore see the rationale for government’s insistence on closing the airport and exposing travelers to several hazards such as longer travel hours and the notoriety of the insecurity of the Kaduna-Abuja expressway. To all of these, Minister Sirika stood his ground.

I arrived, Thursday morning in London, for the “Legacies of Biafra” conference at the School of African and Oriental Studies in London. Part of the highlights of the program was the “Obi Nwakanma in Conversation with Olu Oguibe” event at SOAS on Friday afternoon, and my talk on “Okigbo’s War: Biafra and Afterwards” yesterday. More on this later. But on Thursday evening, as part of the opening of the events, was the showing of a documentary on the Asaba massacres, one of the most deadly events of the civil war. Again more on this next week, when I shall, I promise, give a fuller account of the conference at SOAS.

It is well known that the biggest selling point of Muhammadu Buhari as a presidential candidate in the last election was his reputation as an anti-corruption crusader which he attracted to himself when he and late Brigadier Tunde Idiagbon ruled Nigeria with iron fists from December 31, 1983, to August 27, 1985. Indeed, it was really one of the ironies of Nigeria’s convoluted democratic experience that Buhari’s presidential ambition in 2015 was supported by some wily politicians who previously opposed his previous attempts to be elected President not only because of his confirmed clannish and dictatorial orientation but, also, in the words of Alhaji Bola Tinubu, he represents “expired leadership.”

“Those who intend on becoming great should love neither themselves nor their own things, but only what is just, whether it happens to be done by themselves or others.”- Plato