Nigeria, May 16 -- During the years preceding the establishment of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in 1978, a coalition of politicians from most of the parties of the First Republic worked together in an organisation called the National Movement to set up ONE DOMINANT party that would be used to share power and its fruits. In a sense, the idea was to create national unity by ending the two divides in Nigerian politics - the ideological and the ethno-religious. Candido, the famous and perceptive man behind the mask in New Nigerian newspapers captured the spirit well on his editorial page in 1978. He was referring to the NPN:

"It is led by Comrade, Chief, (Dr), Alhaji Candido on a platform dedicated to democratic dictatorship and capit...