http://nigeriaworld.com/cgi-bin/axs/ax.pl?http://tropezfl.wmod.llnwd.net/a710/o1/africanfile/adedibu/interview.wmv

he Ben TV interview with Lamidi Adedibu of Oyo State was like a freak show; a ghastly accident on the freeway that you hate to sight but just can't tear your attention from.


http://nigeriaworld.com/articles/2007/mar/021x.html
SEEING IS BELIEVING

Chief Lamidi Adedibu, the strongman and kingmaker of Oyo politics in an exclusive interview with BEN TV Europe and the UK editor of Nigerian Tribune newspaper


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I got up unusually early to take care of some business online and with the process going on in the background, I thought I'd see what's happening back home as reported by my usual information source - nigeriaworld.com. Adedibu's interview caught my attention. It was riling in its repulsiveness and yet I had to stick with it all through the 30 something minutes of what might well be the best-documented yet evidence of the injustice that the Black man is saddled with in the experience of the most populous black nation in the world.

There's no point recounting the vileness (everyone should watch the clip for themselves), but this is the type of bed we collectively made for ourselves, and this is what we have to sleep in. The gentleman was oblivious of the flagrance of his odious posture boastfully narrating his thuggery and deliberate disruption of elected governments of his home state over the years.

I ask again, how did we get here? What did we do to deserve this state of affairs? We can possibly get a peep even through recent events in our country's recent politics at the national level. President Obasanjo's failed attempt to subvert the constitution and keep himself in power for a third term was excused as a need to ensure his "fight against corruption" would continue undeterred. However, if the eight years of opportunity he had had been used to firmly entrench a structure of politics that respects the rule of law and promptly disciplines offenders without fear or favor, there would be no concern about handing over power to whoever the people elect.

The current imbroglio between the President and his vice wouldn't be any big deal if rather than stroking the need to be all-important, the presidency had elevated our country's constitution to the level of AWE such that the likes of Adedibu, however uncouth, would be mindful of what they admit to.

Obasanjo will leave office; Atiku or whoever else will probably step in; unfortunately, our constitution would remain unrevered and the likes of Adedibu blithely ignorant of the significance of "legacy".

Obasanjo pimped Nigeria to Shagari and his cohorts. He, practically unlike anyone else in history, got a second chance to put Nigeria on auto-pilot with no concern for man's ineptitude. I fear he failed, and Nigeria remains at the mercy of everything but intellectual or logical reasoning.