IN my article here this past Monday entitled: Buhari And Other Ministers: Random Musings, I touched briefly on this issue but because of its increased topicality I have decided to bring it back today for a more detailed interrogation.

AFTER the 2015 election, I predicted on Twitter that when critical decisions are to be taken, Yemi Osinbajo, the token Southerner in Aso Rock, would be sent to go and buy “guguru and epa.” This has proved prescient. The Vice-president was reportedly barred from attending a national security briefing on grounds he did not have security clearance. But who can have more clearance than a man elected by the people? How did Buhari himself get his?

FIRST a disclaimer: let the reader understand that nothing said in this space this week denies the subject’s claim to protection on that principle that guarantees an accused person’s right to presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

THINKING about Nigeria at 55 I am both saddened and immensely hopeful. Saddened because we are not where we should be. Malaysia, Indonesia, which in the 60s and 70s were lagging behind Nigeria, now surpass us in terms of socio-economic development. Nigerians could once swagger on Oxford Street or the Champs Elysee with a buoyancy enabled by the strength of the Naira.

IT was Prof. Tanimu Abubakar, I believe, of the Political Science department and Aminu Yusuf, a postgraduate student at Ahmadu Bello University, the one a stalwarth of the ABU branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities and the other of the campus student movement at the time, who (if my memory serves me well), were fond of repeating this intriguing question whenever the moment came to drop the gown and bring some town — nay, village — perspective to our discussions of how to save Nigeria.