By Bola Bolawole

Top of the news that has trended in the last few days is the “dirty slap”, as they call it, that Seun Kuti gave a policeman in uniform last Saturday. Seun is the son of the iconoclast and Afro-beat king, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. The event leaves much to be desired on many fronts. If it is true that it was Seun that bashed the policeman’s car and the policeman complained and was then offered a dirty slap to the bargain, this is impunity of the highest order. It is also what they call insult upon injury! According to reports, the policeman trailed Seun to his home and, there, both settled. Seun apologised and also offered the aggrieved policeman N12,000 to repair his damaged vehicle. Seun must have thought that was the end of the matter but, trust a policeman, the money and apology from Seun were treated as evidence of his culpability and could be exhibited in court as the policeman reportedly made (or had made) a report and then deposited the money with the police. The incident soon went viral (by who?) and, then, outrage. If the report is true that Seun boasted that the policeman in question was not the first he would slap, then, we must ask whether slapping a policeman (with or without justification) has become sport or pastime!

By Bolanle Bolawole

A young man was led into my office as the editor of The PUNCH one day decades ago; his name: Ibe Eresia-Eke (where is he now?), Executive Chairman (as title-crazy Nigerians often over-burden the title “Chairman” as if, standing alone, it is not “executive” enough!) of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers state. He should be happy being an "Executive Chairman" but he was not because fire was on his rooftop. The advertisement notice he brought for publication, and which moved me to cause him to be interviewed, is as captured below. Titled “Don't break IBB’s heart”, it speaks for itself, as they say. Please read:

By Azu Ishiekwene

Two presidents in the last 24 years provide interesting examples of how to relate with the National Assembly. And between the two, the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, can decide how to model his relationship with the 10th National Assembly.

By Femi Adesina

A popular saying tells us that ‘there’s no good in goodbye.’ Really? I’ve been turning it round in my head, and I think there may actually be some good in goodbye. In fact, a lot of good. Let’s go.

By Steve Osuji

Immediately my son read the report, he called out: “Dad, have you seen the current BBC report on the presidential elections?”

By Professor Fredrick Barde

Like many Nigerians, I was absolutely delighted to read Dr Yemi Balogun’s “Power Management: The Lesson TCN Needs from NAFDAC” published widely in recent days in both traditional and social media. Dr Balogun’s thesis is that regulatory agency officials and other Nigerian government officials should see themselves as private sector business promoters and partners rather than their rivals determined to stop private sector operators by all means possible.

By Emeka Obasi

Gbubemi Amas Amanoritsewor ! The name with tall credentials that connected events and people and even when not duly recognised by Nigeria, ventured abroad to excel. A true global citizen, he rests at Oystermouth Cemetery, beneath the sands of Swansea, Wales.

By Emeka Obasi

Three members of the 1980 African Nations Cup winning Green Eagles were products of the University of Lagos. Adokiye Amiesimaka, Felix Owolabi Akinloye and Frank Onwuachi led the Akokites to gold two years earlier.

By Bolanle Bolawole

Tunde Obadina (where is he?) was one of the columnists of yore that I relished reading, both for his flair and bluntness. I think he was of the National Concord stable. Others were the likes of Lewis Obi and Sina Adedipe (both also of the Concord); Sonala Olumhense of The Guardian, Muyiwa Adetiba of The PUNCH (published here last week) and, of course, Kayode Samuel of the Vanguard. I have not stopped wondering why Kay stopped maintaining a column – and I have told him so. The riposte he fires regularly on Facebook does not, in my view, compensate for the great loss his absence from serious opinion writing has meant to many. Today, I bring readers one of Obadina’s writings that I ferreted out of my library last week. Titled “Reaping what you sow”, it speaks to our situation today as it did decades ago when it was first written. Enjoy it:

By Funke Egbemode

Whether he is giving sperm or money, a man’s manhood feels rock solid only when he is the giver. All normal men are divinely wired to give. I hope you noticed the emphasis on normal men because not all men are normal. Forget the six-pack abdomen and rippling biceps, many of today’s men don’t mind being humped and getting paid for it. The Yoruba call them ‘alabodo’. Kept men. Gigolos. Men for hire. Toy boys. They are all over the place, dangling their sugar sticks, hoping to net the highest bidder. But their day will come. Today is about the hard task of living with men who are ‘financially under the weather’, if you get my drift. Yes, broke-ass men.

By Comfort Obi

I don’t know if it is appropriate for the old saying, “How are the mighty fallen”, to come into play here. But chai, life is a joke. Full of ironies. Tosses us up and down. And, I just wonder, and ask myself, why we struggle, so much, to impress life, instead of allowing it to deal with us as it deems fit.

By Godknows Igali

Reminiscent of the time of his forebear, William the Conqueror in 1066 till modern era, Great Britain's monarch, King Charles III, was coronated in the same Westminster Abbey in Central London on Saturday, April 6, 2023. Accompanied by perhaps one of the most colourful military parades ever seen in modern history, the new British sovereign mounted the 700 years old throne; grotesquely seating atop a not too Christianly "stone of destiny". Although, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari was amongst 2200 royals and world leaders invited to join the show-off of pageantry and opulence at the medieval era church, which interestingly is also a graveyard of some of humanity's most impactful persons, for the first time, millions of people around the world watched the ancient religious ceremonials.