Nigeria and the world have watched, with studied silence and stupefaction, the macabre political and electoral dance on a circus trampoline going on in the country. The nation had performed similar dances of death before, from 1963 - 1965, from 1981-1983, from 1991-1993 and now the continuing current dance that started in 2001. The players, many of whom were there as major actors from 1963 through 1970, seem to have learned nothing from history and gained less from experience. Power is transient and corrupting and absolute power not only corrupts absolutely but vanishes like a meteor leaving in its stead disaster and regrets. The same processus has started.

Negative Bonds of Union

Our nationalistic leaders and heroes who were united in their fight against the common enemy, colonialism, soon fell apart when the goal of independence appeared to have been achieved and treated each other like villains: Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Mbonu Ojike of the N.C.N.C. (National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons); Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Chief S. L. Akintola of Nigeria's Action Group; Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Sir Ahmadu Bello, joint architects of Nigeria's independence. This phenomenon was not Nigerian alone. It was the same in every country: Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and Dr. Busia in Ghana; Léopold Sedar Senghor and Mamadou Dia in Senegal; Houari Boumedienne and Ahmed ben Bella in Algeria; Milton Obote and the Kabaka of Buganda in Uganda; Jomo Kenyatta and Oginga Odinga in Kenya; Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Kasavubu in Congo (Kinshasa). The list is not meant to be comprehensive or exhaustive. Even within various sections of the same country, and within even political parties, such dissensions often assumed the proportions of mortal rivalry. A power struggle led to the victimization, imprisonment or death of political opponents, in fact, of former political colleagues and even comrades-in-arms.