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For one week, Ibadan, the capital of Oyo state stood still. It was not mourning, but celebrating one of its brightest and best. So it played host to people from all walks of life. They were there to pay last respects to Odugade Odulana, Olubadan of Ibadan, who is now with the ancestors.
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TELL did not just send an editorial team there, we were there to stand by the people of Ibadan. Nosa Igiebor, our president was therefore in Ibadan at the head of a four-man delegation.
It was partly a demonstration of our love for Ibadan, the home of hospitality and also in solidarity with Damilare Lana, son of the great monarch and our IT manager. In our team were Idowu Awoyinfa, director Library services, who incidentally is also warming up for the burial of his mother; Dele Oyewole, AGM, Audit and Lekan Akunruli, deputy manager, admin, and Human Resources.
Our own Lana is not just loved here for his intelligent approach to issues in information technology, he is admired for his humility and forthrightness. There are colleagues who did not know that Damilare has any link with the royalty of Ibadan standing, until the passage of the monarch who dignitaries praised for patriotism, hard work, and honesty.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had to take time off from his busy schedule in Abuja to attend the events in Ibadan. Very instructive, as only the celebration of the life of a forthright person as attested to by the Vice President could have made him leave the federal capital where the budget issue was still raging as at press time and the trial of Bukola Saraki, Senate president raises concern, even if in low tones, of implications for the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC and the turn of events at the National Assembly.
Tajudeen Suleiman, a senior associate editor was given the task of looking at the goings on in the NASS and what lie ahead. His story, APC: The Saraki Challenge, is a special report in this edition. While he was working on that, Anayochukwu Agbo, general editor and head of Abuja bureau looked at the strange stories coming from the budget debate. The story, Budget’s Comedy of Errors is the alternate cover for the week.
The big story is an x-ray of the happenings in the Niger Delta, where explosions are once again rocking the pipelines, even as the silence of the former leaders of different militant groups in the region may have prodded the authorities to harvest the guns in the wrong hands. We asked Emmanuel Obe, associate editor, to move round what for him is a familiar terrain. He tapped the necessary sources, put his ears to the ground and his report was that of some disturbing tremor, which raises fresh concern in an environment where a failed attempt to suppress militancy had recorded a costly history before the truce that produced amnesty. The story is Niger Delta: Rising Tension In The Creeks.
These are just the big stories, among others in the package.
Aside from these stories, in this week of love, we also send our roses with prayers.
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