It was supposed to be a beautiful Tuesday morning at the main entrance of the monumental National Arts Theater, Iganmu, Lagos. School children in their colourful uniforms filed past with the aid of their teachers into the gallery of modern art for routine excursions. Simultaneously, hip hop music blared from the adjacent garden on which bouncy castles, town trains and other toys beckoned on young tourists who daily throng the National Theater to catch their fun. The stage is set, the mood is yuletide, but some people are definitely not in a celebration mood. They are the aggrieved staff of the nation’s number one citadel of culture. Their grouse? The alleged tyrannical and oppressive rule of the General Manager, Mallam Yusuf, who they claim has been a pain in the neck. Topmost on the list of their grouse is the cancellation by the GM of the payment of the weighing in allowance which they had hitherto been receiving from the management. According to them, the payment of such an allowance should be based on hours of work done, not by which union anyone of them belongs to. Although there seems to be some respite in sight as the Federal Ministry of Arts and Culture has called for a truce between the aggrieved parties in Abuja. The placard- carrying protesters who numbered about 200, and made up of officers of the national bodies of the Nigerian Labour Congress, chanted solidarity songs as they moved round the entrance to attract public attention to their activities. Men of the police force were, however, on hand to ensure that no action that would breach the peace of the nation was perpetrated. As at the time of the report, all efforts to get the reaction of the embattled General Manager proved abortive.