Nigeria, Aug. 14 -- For centuries, one of the most effective weapons of political combat, especially in very hierarchical societies, has been the deployment of invective. Recipients feel devalued, ridiculed and humiliated. Issues are evacuated and emotive responses takeover the political terrain. Sir Louis Phillip Odumegwu Ojukwu, OBE (1909 - 1966), Nigeria's first billionaire who lent his car for the use of Queen Elizabeth, abandoned politics the day a "common thug" abused him at an NCNC meeting. Sanusi Dantata also abandoned politics when a thug insulted him while he was presiding the inaugural meeting of the Kano branch of the National Party of Nigeria in 1978. Political actors have always known it, vituperations lubricate political ma...