THE article “Tortoise Folklore as Metaphor of National Leadership” is published again, this week, as a humble tribute to Pius Adesanmi, a celebrated African Intellectual beacon who regrettably eclipsed much, much too early, in the fatal crash of Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX in March 2019. Please read on:

The other day, a friend narrated a story, which I found stranger than fiction; the story related to the travails of a family who lost a successful and illustrious breadwinner, who unfortunately, also died without a Will.  Consequently, the family elders were formally entrusted with the responsibility to efficiently manage the estate of the deceased for the benefit of his children and dependants.

POWER, they say, belongs to the people. This may actually be true where there is respect for the rule of law, and where equity and justice subsists in the free association of people and communities. These are inalienable characteristics, which positively impact human capacity development and improved social welfare, in enduring democracies. Indeed, in such a progressive ambience, political power becomes a motivation for public service rather than the pursuit of self or partisan interest, despite the obvious collateral of social deprivation and oppression.

The palpable public anger provoked by the sudden postponement of the Presidential and Federal Legislative elections, in the early hours of February 17, 2019, i.e. barely 6 hours before polling should have commenced, may have since become tempered, even though the perceived odium of this ugly incident may linger.

THE Political Parties have, lately hit the election campaign trail, to plead with the, erstwhile, ignored proletariat to adopt their candidates as the preferred choice to plunder the common treasury for the next four years. Predictably, political office holders and their cohorts will, score government’s performance at all levels as satisfactory, even when the rest of us have clearly become poorer with decayed social infrastructure and power supply which has, unexpectedly, fallen below pre 1999 levels; furthermore, the economy is persistently plagued with increasing unemployment, and oppressive inflation rates which deepen poverty!