From open pavilion to nation of orderlies: Is Zik’s ‘fear-free’ Nigeria still possible?

.What a 1960 inauguration says about fear in today’s corridors of power
By Omeiza Ajayi
Nearly 66 years after Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was sworn in as Nigeria’s first African Governor-General, the footage of that day – which has again recently gone viral – raises an uncomfortable question: why did a leader who held the highest office in the land need no retinue of security details standing behind him, while today every minister, and even some local government supervisors, cannot move without a swarm of details?
The inauguration took place on November 16, 1960, at Tafawa Balewa Square, barely six weeks after independence. It was also Zik’s 56th birthday.
The narrator of the newsreel set t...