Whether a constitutionally governed nation is to exist in perpetuity, sacred and inviolable even by the existential realities of irredeemable socio-cultural fault lines, is a matter for the conjecture of the jurisprudence of law and of morality. The question being: should a democratic society be presumed immune –legally-speaking or morally so- even from the rumbling dissent of self-determined minorities bent on opting out of the union?

COMING at a time when it was inheriting a mismanaged economy and a virtually empty treasury, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Administration did not need to preach too much to Nigerians to tighten their belts to the last holes. They quickly adjusted. In the process, Nigerians looked up to leadership by example.

FOR, perhaps the second “season”, the Lagos State Government,LASG, has decided to run the poor hustling for a living off the streets. In “season one”, former Governor Babatunde Fashola carried out what was widely referred to as “deportations” of fellow Nigerians who happened to be non-indigenes to their perceived states of origin, using the Kick Against Indiscipline,KAI, an outfit that has now earned the notoriety of the LASG’s “bad man” anti-poor brigade.

IT all started with the arraignment and eventual trial for false asset declaration of Bukola Saraki, the Senate President. Saraki who had emerged president of the Senate against the wish of his party is being tried before Justice Danladi Umar of the Code of Conduct Tribunal for concealing information on his assets when he was governor some ten years ago. Specifically Saraki is accused of concealing information of his ownership of some choice properties believed to have been acquired with public funds.

There are very few nations in this world where such a question would apply. The generalised absence of conviction politics in today’s Nigeria has cemented the greed and selfishness which are the hallmark of most of our public processes.