Grammy awards

Today's music gross me out completely. And that has more to do with the awkwardness than it's lewd content. Though, both have conspired with popularity to replace actual talent with technology in the music industry today. With that at the back of my mind, a glass of wine in my hand and my legs on a coffee table , I settled down to watch Grammy at the comfort of my modest apartment.

The high points for me was the tribute to artistes who have died and most especially rendition of Prince's songs by the group and a five star performance by Adele for George Michael. The organizers deserve credit for setting up a platform to recognize and give deserving credits to both the living and the dead, in a live event.

In awarding awards, there will always be controversy over who deserved it and with what criteria. This again popped up like a champagne in this Grammy award ceremony. I first heard of Adele's Hello on radio last year in Nigeria and I was hooked. I had thought nobody was going to call my attention with Hello after Lionel Ritchie did. Well Adele did in the most

sonorous of voices.

But, it must be said that Adele did a good job of the poetic lyrics of the song as written by Gregory Kurstin. I have always bet on black but when the nominations came up between Adele and Beyonce, I knew that it was going to be easily decided in favour of Adele and deservingly so, it was. Even though both are amazing singers.

The peak of the moment however came when Adele decided to break one of her five awards during her acceptance speech in to not too equal halves so as to share it with an equally deserving Beyonce. That was a silly gesture,really,and it made mockery of the sincerity she was trying to express in her acknowledgement of Beyonce as her role model.

Adele compulsion to symbolically give part of her award stems from the neo colonial mindset that anchors on national prejudice. Remember how the British 'gave us independence' after having invaded our land, amalgamated us and expected us to be thankful and remain indebted with gratitude like Beyonce.

As if that was not bad enough, the British government went ahead and released James, not Blunt, I mean Ibori  (a singer with a bad record-pun intended) to us, while they held on to Buhari who had done nothing, as in nothing! Just like the Jews, we are watching.

But seriously, somebody did put it aptly by saying that giving people something for nothing just because it feels "right" just creates the entitlement mentality and that is the last thing the black race needs; because it perpetuates the existing problem of complexity.

Legal matters

Sally Yates was- yes, was- she has been fired- the former acting attorney general of the United States that Obama left behind when his tenure ceremoniously ran out. She was hounded out of office for daring to say no to another boss who has little or no tolerance for opposition. My instinct is telling me to tread carefully on this issue as some of my mishevious readers are already telling me to mind my African business that is already being minded by Dangote.

As a quick recap, Trump  signed an executive order(as he is not allowed to sign cheques because of his antecedents), placing restrictive ban on some seven Islamic countries excluding Saudi Arabia and suspending refugee access into the country for an initial three months. The acting attorney general found the order indefensible and she sent a memo to the department distancing herself from the administration and her draconian laws. She was subsequently fired four hours later.

My knowledge of law is horribly limited to what I have read in John Grisham novels, so readers may have to excuse my pedestrian analysis of this knotty issue. Firstly, executive orders are created to be used in times of crisis, and for the "apprentice" President to have put it to use severally within the first week of his assumption of office is enough to send the alarm bells ringing and generate artificial crisis.

In the light of an executive order from the President, the acting attorney general is limited to two choices in her response: It is either she defends her "client" who in this instance is the president or she quietly advices her 'client' of her prejudice in defending him and quietly resigned for another attorney to take over. In other words, the interpretation of the constitutionality of the law should be left to the judge to interpret and her ideological tendencies should not have surfaced at all. Without words, the battle line appeared drawn between those advocating for an America the land of immigrants and those that are clinging to America the land of white Americans.

This is being played out both at the sacred ground of the capitol hill and in public places like the airports and streets in form of protests. Mr Trump is taking on too many battles at once and the probability of him triumphing is almost non- existent.

Working alone has always worked for Mr Trump and so he's carried the mindset into the treacherous diplomatic world where you are supposed to say what is not on your mind. He needs allies to checkmate Russia in Eastern Europe, China in Far East, Iran in Middle East and nobody in Africa. But with the way he is going, America will soon run out of allies before the winter is over in February.

Wait, where are we? Yes. The executive orders that were hurriedly drafted overnight and passed on to the department of justice to be resolutely defended by the attorney general. If incompetence was music, this administration will be an orchestra.

They must think we are in Nigeria. But, with mounting litigations and unending street protests,the only marked difference between Nigeria and USA may just be the time zones.