Editorial
Cross River State Governor, Prof Ben Ayade, appears set for another round of controversy, barely a few weeks after the long and controversial incarceration of journalist Abba Jalingo. The journalist had been detained over allegations of “terrorism, acts of treason, treasonable felony, and threatening through various publications on crossriverwatch.com and social media, using malicious publications and instigating the people of Nigeria to stage protest to remove GovernorAyade.”
The appointment of a substantive chief judge in the state has again reiterated the problem with Nigeria. The most senior judge in the state, Akon Ikpeme, who ought to be appointed the chief judge in accordance with the Nigerian Constitution and legal tradition, has been disqualified by the state assembly, allegedly because her ancestral village is in Akwa Ibom State.
Governor Ayade has therefore nominated the second most senior judge, Maurice Eneji, to replace her as acting chief judge. Lawyers around the country have protested the decision.
Mrs. Ikpeme was born in Cross River State, grew up there and married a man from the state. All this happened before the creation of Akwa Ibom from the old Cross River State by the Babangida administration in September 1987. She has been working for decades as a judicial officer, including being a director of public prosecution, and a judge in Cross River State.
We are appalled that the Cross River State House of Assembly declined to confirm Mrs Ikpeme as the chief judge on the grounds that she could become a ‘security risk’ to the state because of her ancestral ties with Akwa Ibom State. This is not only a retrogressive sign of clannishness but one of the most repugnant acts of discrimination against women. For a woman who has lived all her life in a state, married to a man from the state, worked for decades in the same state to be so humiliated and denied her right based on the most ridiculously puerile reason defies any reason.
Cross River State has joined Abia State where in 2012, Mrs Ifeoma Jumbo-Offor was not sworn in by the then Chief Justice of Nigeria, Aloma Muktar, as Justice of the Court of Appeal given the petition written against her that she hails from Anambra State, even when she had lived and worked for almost two decades in Abia State where her husband comes from.
Just recently there was another controversial allegation that the Acting Chief Judge in Kebbi State, Justice Asabe Karatu, was denied the opportunity of being confirmed chief judge for allegedly being a Christian. Even though the speaker of the state house of assembly, Abdumumuni Ismaila Kamba, alleged that there were alterations on her primary school certificate and date of birth, her defence that it was her headmaster that made the alterations fell on deaf ears, when further and thorough investigations would have confirmed or controverted her claim.
We feel that education and development ought to positively impact on efforts at gender parity in Nigeria. Discrimination in appointments based on gender is one ill the whole world is fighting to overcome. Appointments should be based on merit and competence, which are not gender- sensitive.
Prof. Ayade, being an academic in politics must take the road less travelled. The Nigerian political scene has for long yearned for intellectuals to raise the ante in politics. The controversial case with journalist Jalingo and the case of Mrs Ikpeme would stand in the history books against Governor Ayade’s name. Playing the Pontius Pilate in both cases does not augur well for justice.
The political class must begin to take deliberate and consistent steps at closing gender gaps. No nation develops while excluding more than half of its population. There must be gender equity and justice for progress and development. The Nigerian state must define the status and rights of women in terms of ancestral and marriage rights in ways that are as inclusive and devoid of parochial gender prejudices.
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