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A FITTING culmination to his political career in this period was the singular honour that was bestowed on him when he was selected to move in 1958, on the floor of the House of Representatives, the resolution which formally demanded Independence for Nigeria in 1960. This was the resolution to which the British government was favourably disposed and thus acceded to. Chief Enahoro is often wrongly assumed to have moved this motion; his own motion for self-government in 1956 was, in fact, defeated by the opposition of the Northern People's Congress. Chief Akintola's 1957 motion for independence in 1959, was, like Chief Enahoro's, unsuccessful because the British government refused to accede to it. The second phase of Chief Fani-Kayode's political career commenced in 1960, when he entered the Western Nigeria legislature in August, 1960, as a member of the N.C.N.C. This phase, which lasted till the close of his political career which ended with annulment of the 1993 presiden...

A GREEK proverb warns: "don't hear one and judge two". This sensible aphorism would appear to have been ignored by Mr. Femi Aribisala in his article of August 21, 2013, in which he bitterly assailed the contribution, character and person of the late Chief R.A. Fani-Kayode in the following terms : "....Like father, like son: That was 48 years ago. Today, Femi Fani-Kayode, the 53-year-old son of 'Fani-Power,' continues in the mischievous tradition of his father: throwing dangerous missiles at the innocent.' " Furthermore, the said Mr. Aribisala also made what I thought were wildly inaccurate and dangerous statements about the true nature of Nigeria's federalism. I first had the opportunity of meeting the late Chief R.A. Fani-Kayode when I joined the law firm of Fani-Kayode and Sowemimo sometime in 1990. I found him to be a man of elegance and great charm. Though, he was in semi-retirement and hardly ventured out to the law courts at the time I got ...

By Femi Aribisala WITH only some 50 years of independent national existence, Nigeria is a country reeking with “new money.” The overwhelming proportion of the millionaires and billionaires in the country are “nouveau-riche;” they became rich literally “overnight.”  We are talking of people whose wealth does not go beyond a generation. Indeed, the fantastic wealth of Nigerian billionaires like Femi Otedola scarcely goes beyond ten/fifteen years.   Not only does Nigeria’s wealthy few have a short history, they often have a short future as well.  The money comes “miraculously” and goes just as “miraculously.” In my youth, S.B. Bakare was the celebrated Nigerian tycoon.  Highlife stars and juju musicians eulogised him in their records.  But ask a young Nigerian today who S.B. Bakare is, and I can bet my bottom dollar he has never heard of him. S.B. has fallen off the radar and so has his wealth.  It is not identifiable by any major industry or enterprise.  His descendants may still be in l...