THE people of the Niger Delta are “one people from the same tree.” This is a basic fact, but it assumes far greater significance when this open secret is revealed by HRH Omoba Godfrey Ikenwoli Emiko, the Olu of Warri, leader and symbol of the Itsekiri Nation.

THIS morning, I am surprised but hopeful. I am surprised at the speed and expedition with which President Muhammadu Buhari accepted the rescue lifeline thrown to him by his newfound friend and sympathiser of his All Progressives Congress (APC) Federal Government, Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka.

Sam Rayburn, whose protégé was the late President Lyndon Johnson, 1908-1973, who was Senator, Vice-President and President in 1963 when late President John Kennedy, 1917-1963, was assassinated in Texas, Johnson’s own state, was perhaps the most powerful Speaker ever in America’s history. He was also a Texan. If a President of Nigeria is ever killed in the home state of his Vice-President, a civil war would follow. Some of us who remember that episode in 1963 which brought Johnson to power, were praying extra-hard that nothing would happen to Buhari on his visit to Ogun State, early in the month. A civil war would have followed if something similar happened. I hope Buhari stays away from Ogun State; or the South West for that matter until his tenure expires.

The spate of new monarchical regimes and celebrations in the last decade or so does reflect the deep contradictions of the Nigerian state and the ambiguity of Nigeria’s national character as a modern republic. A great roll of drums was just heard all over the conservative press on the recent installation of an Ooni in Ife, Ooni Ogunwusi. The drama did not stop there. The new Ooni declared that his new “regime” was “a new era for the Yoruba” and was intended on “unifying the Yoruba.”

Joyful Homes, this week, shares with readers what I describe as the “star testimony “ of a couple at the last Laughter Day of Laughter Foundation Christian Ministry, Lagos.