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From labour activism and opposition to subsidy removal to defending Tinubu's economic policies, Adams Oshiomhole's political journey is a study in the transformation of principles by the seduction of power.
A president cannot bind his successors with executive orders. This is not radical constitutional theory. It is the plain, unromantic fact of the American system. Executive orders are the administrative equivalent of sticky notes left on the Resolute Desk: useful for the person who wrote them, mildly binding on the next occupant only for as long as that occupant finds them convenient, and entirely disposable the moment convenience ends
The ancient Roman statesman Julius Caesar divorced his wife Pompeia after she became embroiled in a scandal, despite there being no proof of wrongdoing on her part. His explanation has echoed through the centuries: “Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion.”
The roadside collector may be the visible face of the system, but the real question is who controls the pyramid, who receives the proceeds and what political interests protect it.
A nation’s mind dies when it can no longer recognise irony even when the irony is wearing agbada, boarding a presidential jet, and lecturing the rest of us about sacrifice. No previous assemblage of Nigerian power-brokers has democratised this particular form of intellectual blindness quite as thoroughly as the APC under first Buhari and now Tinubu.
