Chido Onumah and Godwin Onyeacholem

In reviewing the farcical coup—orchestrated by the President of the Nigerian senate, Bukola Saraki—that took place on Tuesday, 4 July 2017, we were reminded of the French coup of 1851 by Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte and the analysis by Karl Marx.

Slowly but steadily, the ultra-conservative wing of Nigeria’s largely self-absorbed and callous elite is spoiling for a fight. And it’s all about the renewed war against corruption which has induced in this group an emotion that can only be described as culture shock.

Wind the critically slurred legislative tape back to the first National Assembly of the Fourth Republic. It began sometime in 1999, you’d recall.