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  • No problem with INEC but its process –Adebayo

    No problem with INEC but its process –Adebayo

    The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the last general election, Prince Adewole Adebayo, in an online interview, bares his mind on last Saturday’s off-cycle elections in Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa states. Excerpts

    Recall after the general election you said you were not going to court even though you claimed the three leading parties  cheated in the election. Are you taking the same approach on the Kogi election?

     This time, I am not the candidate, but he is our candidate.  We supported him. We worked with him, and he himself said the INEC was transparently dishonest and disorganised and that there was no point for him to go to court. The party has met and has reviewed things

     The people, everybody who voted for us, and supporters within and outside Kogi all said let us give INEC an opportunity.  What we are doing now is to believe in INEC, hoping that INEC itself believes in democracy and wants a country that works, and being an entrance institution into government , we want to make sure that INEC itself  allows politicians who come to power to know that institutions must work. So, INEC will review it.

    But if INEC refused to review it, then, we have the option to go to  court, and I think the party at the national level,  Shehu Garba, our national chairman, our national secretary, Dr Olu Agunloye  and members of the NWC have said they are going to court and we are working towards that. Again, we are doing our own review with an open mind. We are not desperate to win. We want to win within the law. We are not out taking the opportunity to throw a shot at INEC. We went into the election with a victory speech or a concession speech. Either way, we are okay. But we found out INEC’s announcement of the result is not in compliance with the law and with the regulation set by INEC. For that reason, INEC as a commission is by law given an opportunity like before where someone could do anything in their name and say sorry, so bad, we can’t do anything about it. Under the new electoral act,  INEC has seven days to do a review and we are giving and assisting INEC  with all information to ensure they listen to other people, including the observers, and I believe INEC should review it. If the review is done properly and thoroughly, even if the review doesn’t favour us, we are SDP, we are a law abiding party, we respect the country, we will abide by it. But if it is not done or poorly done, we would take extra steps on calling on the judiciary to intervene and look into it, and we are making sure that we narrow our claim to the judiciary to things we are sure of.

    You are talking specifically about Kogi, I believe.

    For us, we have serious problems with Kogi. Not only us, other people have. I have heard of similar problems in other states, but we are focusing on Kogi now. Even the governor of Bayelsa State, who has been declared the winner of the election, still said that in some parts of his own state that the BVAS was bypassed. So, if the governor  and the winner of the election also have that observation, then INEC should know that what we are all trying to do is to better the lot of all of us.

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    We are not saying INEC is hopeless. We are not saying so. I believe INEC is a human institution and a necessary institution, and I have confidence that there are good citizens who work in INEC. So, I have no problem  with the INEC but I have problems with the INEC process with which they derived the results in Kogi State  and we have taken every step to warn them before the election day , to warn them even about the irregularities about the voters register ab initio.  They said they were going to look into that. We warned them about disloyalty about many of the operatives, and they said they were going to look into that. In the course of the election , we brought to their attention so many irregularities over voting, fictitious results, and things like that, the returning officer, a certain professor, was highly   uninterested in additional information . He was even threatened to have our man removed. So, he returned the mic to him and said we shall inform INEC officially. Now, we have written a two page petition to INEC clearly stating what happened, giving INEC all the options and citing the law  that enables INEC to do a thorough review and we have not heard from them since Monday when we gave them the letter. There was no telephone call, nothing till now, no reply.

     We believe that we need INEC, whether you call it by any name, you must have an electoral umpire that people can believe in.  Nigeria is not unfortunate that we cannot have  20 people who cannot run elections in the commission. We cannot be that unfortunate. We need to have confidence in the system, and there is no alternative to democracy. We tried every bad alternative and every good alternative, and we ended up coming back to this same electoral system. I want Nigerians to believe in INEC, in the government , and to believe in democracy and the only way to do that is to continue to interrogate INEC however difficult it may be to raise this question in order to ensure that we get it right.

    What would you do differently to help turn things around, especially around the challenges you enumerated.

    Three things you need to do. Firstly, you need to have good political parties. Maybe parties that look more like SDP, where people do not want to break the law. You could see that nobody has accused us of doing anything wrong.

    Secondly, you have people in institutions who are patriotic, who go there to serve, just to do the right thing.

    Thirdly, when things go wrong like this, we don’t condemn the entire system. You come out to pinpoint errors that we can correct. We, as SDP, we are saying whatever we are complaining about because it is not just to grab power at all costs. It is to make sure we fine-tune the system and correct the errors. Those are the things we can do. There is no country that will not have this kind challenge from time to time. People who don’t deserve to be in certain offices, you will find them there. They will start to misbehave, but we must not throw away everything. Pinpoint where the errors are, shame those that need to be shamed, and remove those that need to be removed and correct what needs to be corrected. What has been done to the SDP now , they will not see the end of it until we get justice.

    You tried but failed to win the presidency. Where do you stand now politically?

    What stands for me is to make sure that the government gets full and maximum support of the citizens, and at the same time, we give them criticisms regarding so many errors they are committing, as you can see now. It’s one error or the other every day. We criticize them to correct those errors. And we organise our people to have a culture of democracy. That is why we worked very hard in Kogi and other states. We will keep working to ensure we give our people an alternative. We must not be demoralised in the opposition whereby everybody will run towards the ruling party.

    What will I do now with all the frustration?  Will I go and join the APC, which I don’t agree with, because 99.9% of their policies I don’t agree with? I won’t.  So, we will continue to be where we are in the opposition, but we will continue to be loyal to the country and respectful to the government  and then ensure that the system works. That is all I am about now.

  • Police intensify search for alleged DPO killer, 2Baba, arrest second-in-command

    Police intensify search for alleged DPO killer, 2Baba, arrest second-in-command

    The police are close to apprehending the alleged notorious cult leader, David Okpala Okpolowu a.k.a. 2Baba, accused of spearheading the brutal killing of the popular crime-fighting Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Ahoada-East Local Government Area, Bako Angbasim.

    Agbasim, a Superintendent of Police (SP) was killed with his body allegedly dismembered by 2Baba and his dreaded Iceland cult group terrorising Ahoada-East, an area reputed for violent cult activities.

    The police have been on the trail of 2Baba since the incident with the state government placing a bounty of N100m on his head.

    Some of the foot soldiers of the cult leader had either been killed by the police or arrested as the security agency intensified search for the most wanted criminal.

    But progress in the search for him was reportedly made at the weekend with the capture of his second-in-command by the police in Bayelsa State.

    The Bayelsa operatives, acting on intelligence, were said to have rounded up 43-year-old Onyekachi Ikowa at his hideout in Yenagoa, the state capital.

    It was gathered that Ikowa first escaped to Shagamu in Ogun State but later made his way back to Yenagoa, where he hid himself in an undisclosed location.

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    A statement signed by the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in Bayelsa State, CSP Butswat Asinim, confirmed the arrest of 2Baba’s second in command.

    Asinim said the Bayelsa State Commissioner of Police, CP Francis Iduh, immediately ordered police operatives to comb the state and apprehend others hiding in Bayelsa

    The statement said: “Police Operatives in Bayelsa State have nabbed one of the killers of the late SP Bako Angbashim, former Divisional Police Officer of Ahoada Division, Rivers State.

    “The suspect, one Onyekachi Ikowa ‘m’  43 years, the second in command to TuBaba of the dreaded Icelander cult group, was arrested on 18 November, 2023 based on credible intelligence that he was hibernating in Yenagoa after participating in the callous murder of the late SP Bako Angbashim in September 2023.

    “The Commissioner of Police Bayelsa State Command, CP Francis Iduh, has charged Police Operatives to fish out any of his cohorts who is hiding in Bayelsa State. He stressed that the Bayelsa Command under his watch would not be safe haven for criminals to hide.

    “The suspect has been handed over to the Rivers Police Command for further investigation.”

  • Man, 30, defiles two-year-old baby, blames act on alcohol

    Man, 30, defiles two-year-old baby, blames act on alcohol

    …as 76-year-old man impregnates 16-year-old girl in Ogun

    A 30-YEAR-OLD man in Adamawa State, Buguwa Kwaji, has confessed to defiling a two-year-old baby girl.

     The accused, who has since been arrested by the police, blamed his action on alcohol.

     The Adamawa State Police Command, which spoke on the case yesterday, said Kwaji, who was apprehended last Sunday, had made confessions in the course of interrogation by police operatives.

     Buguwa, who resides at Aljannaru village in Song LGA where he perpetrated the crime, said he was under the influence of alcohol.

     “After drinking a gin known as voltage on that fateful day, I lay down and the little girl came and started playing on my body. So I raped her because I could not resist the urge,” Buguwa said.

    He was caught in the act by the little girl’s elder sister who raised the alarm, prompting angry neighbours to take him to the police.

    Kwaji is said to be married to a woman who is currently pregnant.

     The state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Suleiman Nguroje, said the state Commissioner of Police, Afolabi Babatola, had ordered investigation officers to dig into the matter and ensure diligent prosecution.

    In Ogun State, the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs. Adijat Adeleye, yesterday confirmed the arrest of a 76-year-old man for allegedly raping a 16-year-old girl in Abeokuta, the state capital.

    Adeleye, in a chat with journalists, said the accused, David Ogunsanwo, was arrested by men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) for allegedly raping the 16-year-old girl (name withheld) and impregnating her.

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    Adeleye said the suspect would be charged to court, adding that her ministry would follow the case through to ensure that justice is served.

    The commissioner, who expressed worries over the increasing rate of sexual abuse cases in the country, appealed to victims to always speak out.

    She also called on parents to stop withdrawing cases of rape out of victimisation.

    She said: “The incidence of people going to the police, reporting and withdrawing the case is increasing. And we want to draw the attention of all parents that if your child is a victim of violation, report the case to the police and do not withdraw it.

    “We are aware that cases of violation and abuse are increasing. There’s a huge increase in these kinds of crimes, especially against children.

    “When you withdraw the case, it gives the perpetrator the opportunity to continue to do it and also do it to other children.

    “I am making a public announcement to all parents, because our biggest problem is that when things like this happen, parents say they don’t want to make it public.”

  • Gov Adeleke flouts NJC, Industrial Court

    Gov Adeleke flouts NJC, Industrial Court

    Last Thursday, Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State finally suspended the state’s chief judge, Justice Oyebola Adepele-Ojo. He rested the suspension on the State House of Assembly resolution asking the judge to step aside pending investigations into allegations of abuse of power, misconduct, corruption, and subversion of the rule of law. When the controversy swirling around the chief judge began, she headed for the National Industrial Court (NIC) which granted an interim injunction restraining the governor from removing her. The court also adjourned the case till December 12 for hearing. But the governor’s spokesman, Olawale Rasheed, announced her removal and hinged it on the legislature.

    Like everything else about Osun, state policies and decisions are not often based on carefully debated and well thought-out rationalisations. Opposition parties, including the All Progressives Congress (APC), have accused the state government of mediocre performance as well as outsourcing governor’s powers to unelected officials. The governor denies the allegations, but he has been unable to explain why he is avoiding Government House in Osogbo, or why one of his siblings seemed to be acting in his place in everything but the ceremonial. By suspending the chief judge, a fact he is said to have denied, Mr Adeleke easily flouts constitutional provisions regarding the discipline of judges, and bypasses the National Judicial Council (NJC) on which the authority to discipline judges is vested.

    By next week, it will be clear whether the governor has changed his mind on the suspension of the chief judge or whether he has simply bought time. But there is no doubt that apart from his spokesman issuing a statement indicating that the chief judge had been suspended, the House of Assembly had also passed a resolution asking for her suspension from office. It is, however, strange that both the legislature and the executive could plead ignorance of constitutional provisions regarding the removal of judges. The constitution is unambiguous on the subject. The absence of ambiguity has, however, not deterred some state governments from flouting the constitution and disregarding the NJC.

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    Removal of chief judges has been litigated up to the Supreme Court. But despite such judicial history, it is surprising that Osun State has not learnt any lesson on the futility of abridging the process. In 2018, the Kogi State government and legislature removed Justice Nasir Ajanah and the chief registrar of the High Court, Yahaya Adamu. In deciding the case in 2019, Justice Alaba Omolaye-Ajileye, who had adjudicated a similar case in 2008 when the then Kogi State chief judge Umaru Ali Eri was removed by the legislature, established as follows: “The issue that arises here is the first question formulated by the claimants which is whether or not the defendants can jointly on their own validly remove the 1st claimant as the Chief Judge of Kogi State. The fact that the 1st claimant is a Judicial Officer within the meaning of section 318 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), is not in doubt. He is also the Head of Kogi State Judiciary. By item 21 of the Third Schedule to the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the National Judicial Council (NJC) is the body empowered to exercise disciplinary control over all Judicial Officers of Nigeria. It is also the said National Judicial Council established under Section 153 (1) of the Constitution (as amended) that has the power to recommend to the Governor, the removal of a Judicial Officer. Where a Chief Judge of a State is to be removed, for whatever reason, it is the National Judicial Council, not a state House of Assembly, that is empowered to make recommendations to the Governor of a State under item 21(d) of the Third Schedule to the Constitution. In Elelu-Habeeb v. A.G. Federation & Ors, the Supreme Court held: ‘It is after the recommendation of the 2nd appellant under paragraph 21 (d) of part 1 of the 3rd schedule has been made to the State Governor that the provisions of Section 292 (1) (a) (ii) comes into operation.’

    “In this case, there is evidence that the 4th defendant had approached the National Judicial Council, through a petition (Exhibit D), over this matter. The defendants ought to exercise patience to await the outcome of the petition. To allow only the House of Assembly and the Governor of a State to remove the Chief Judge of a State or any Judicial Officer for that matter, without the input of the National Judicial Council (NJC), will be monstrous and outrageous, as it is capable of destroying the very substratum of justice and introducing a system of servitude, utterly inconsistent with the constitutional independence of judges. It is all about the independence of the Judiciary, which must be preserved!  In some climes, the battle for independence of the Judiciary had been won, though, not on a platter of gold, but had been the work of ages to establish, and the sacrifices of courageous men to attain. In Nigeria, it is still a work in progress. I answer the first question with a negative. The defendants cannot, either jointly or unilaterally, validly exercise any power of disciplinary control by way of removal of the 1st claimant from office as Chief Judge of Kogi State…”

    Should Mr Adeleke fail to retrace his steps, he will plunge Osun into a judicial crisis. Neither he nor the House of Assembly has the power they have appropriated to themselves. Even if they contrive a long stalemate by refusing to reverse themselves, they will still come to grief eventually, for they have no constitutional leg to stand on. The Osun governor is known to be inattentive to policy matters, especially when they are complicated and nuanced. In the suspension of the state’s chief judge, he may have snarled himself in a needless crisis, regardless of whatever political undercurrents inform the move.

  • Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi again

    Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi again

    Last week, this writer suggested in another place that the APC would win Imo while the PDP would take Bayelsa. He also suggested that the APC was undeserving of victory in Kogi, regardless of the political and ethnic permutations of the state. The outcomes of the off-cycle November 11 polls in the three states bore out these predictions. The elections might have been fiddled with a little, but no matter what arithmetic the courts use, including deducting excess votes or adding uncounted votes, APC will still keep Imo, and PDP, Bayelsa.

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    The sticky point still remains Kogi State where abominable politics and balloting took place. Kogi governor Yahaya Bello may have done enough to pocket Kogi Central senatorial district votes for his preferred candidate, but there is no moral or political justification whatsoever to present his hometown man to succeed him. Kogi East cast that ugly precedent in granite; now they are also reaping the benefits of unobtrusive unfairness. As indeed the trusting and seemingly conniving Kogi West voters will discover in four years’ time when they encounter the fickleness of Governor Bello and Governor-elect Usman Ododo, the incentive to be fair in Kogi hardly exists.

  • Liberia polls: Tinubu, Jonathan hail Weah for conceding defeat

    Liberia polls: Tinubu, Jonathan hail Weah for conceding defeat

    • Emulate Liberian President, congratulate Tinubu, Labour Party faction urges Obi, Atiku

    President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and former president Goodluck Jonathan were full of commendation for outgoing Liberian President George Weah yesterday for the leadership virtue he exhibited in conceding defeat to opposition leader, Joseph Boakai, in the just-concluded presidential election in the country.

    In the election results declared by Liberia’s electoral commission, Boakai had scored 50.89 after votes from more than 99 per cent of polling locations were counted while Weah received 49.11 per cent.

    In a statement signed by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, Tinubu commended Weah for ‘defying the stereotype’ that power cannot transit peacefully on the continent.

    He also congratulated President-elect Boakai and tasked him on the need to make good governance available to the people of Liberia.

    The statement reads: “I commend President George Weah for his sterling example, undiluted patriotism and statesmanship.

    “He has defied the stereotype that peaceful transitions of power are untenable in West Africa.

    “He has demonstrated that the outcome of elections in the sub-region need not become the propellant of violence and unrest and that the will of the people must always be respected.”

    In a post on his X (formerly Twitter) handle yesterday, former President Jonathan, who was also the leader of the West African Elders Forum (WAEF) for the general elections and run-off, hailed Weah for promoting the peace and progress of his country.

    He noted that Weah showed “an exemplary display of statesmanship” and urged the president-elect to be magnanimous in victory.

    Jonathan said: I congratulate the President-Elect His Excellency Joseph Boakai and urge him to be magnanimous in victory and seek to continue the efforts to unite and advance his country.

    “I am also particularly grateful to the outgoing President, His Excellency George Weah, who has just conceded defeat and congratulated his opponent even ahead of the official declaration of the final result by the National Election Commission of Liberia.

     “By doing this, President Weah has exhibited an exemplary display of statesmanship and commitment to the peace and progress of his country.”

     Emulate Weah, congratulate Tinubu, Labour party faction urges Obi, Atiku

     In a related development, the Lamidi Apapa-led faction of the Labour Party (LP) yesterday asked the former presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and LP, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, to emulate Liberian President George Weah and congratulate President Bola Tinubu.

     The Liberian President lost his re-election bid to opposition leader Joseph Boakai and conceded defeat.

     In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Abayomi Arabambi, in Abuja yesterday, the party said it expected Obi and Atiku to have buried the hatchet and join hands with the President in delivering the Renewed Hope Agenda.

     The statement said: “The Liberian presidential election, though still on as the electoral umpire is yet to declare the winner of the election, the results so far have compelled the incumbent President George Weah to congratulate the opposition candidate, Boakai, who is obviously the winner.

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     “The Labour Party believed that it’s instructive that elections, like any competition, would produce the winner and loser. This is why the behaviour and reaction of President George Weah even before the official announcement of the results of the presidential election in Liberia to his loss should be commended and African leaders should emulate.

     “So far, Boakai is leading with over 28,000 votes, leaving a polling unit where voting has not commenced and 20 polling units results are under scrutiny. Whatever comes from the above would not in any way affect the results so far collated.

     “Nigerian leaders should emulate this spirit of sportsmanship. Once both the winners and losers have explored all the available processes and opportunities provided by the laws and constitution, the winners should be magnanimous in victory and the losers should be sportsmen and return to the drawing table for the next election.

     “Any election should not be taken as do or die affair. It should not be a war, a battle. We need ourselves.

     “President George Weah of Liberia again has shown, like Former Presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari, that incumbency is not a tool to be used to rig election and opposition should not be intimidated by incumbency.

     “The Electorate is the decider. Political parties compete for power by directing all their slogans, programmes and attention to the electorate. The people have spoken in Republic of Liberia. President George Weah has accepted the decision of the Liberian voters.

     “The time is ripe for former Vice-president and PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and former Governor of Anambra State and presidential candidate of LP, Mr. Peter Obi to congratulate the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu after the former had explored all the opportunities availed by the Constitution and the Electoral Law.

    “The incumbent in spite of losing his second term as President yesterday did not wait for anyone before he congratulated the winner.

     “As a responsible leader, the former President Goodluck Jonathan also did the same like George Weah, and today he is being reckoned with as a great pillar of democracy.

     “The Labour Party therefore appealed to Obi’ and Atiku to support the administration and have faith in ongoing reforms.

     “We had expected the duo to have buried the hatchet and join hands with the President in delivering the Renewed Hope Agenda.

     “The Labour Party believed that the sanctity of the people’s will, as expressed at the polls, had prevailed immediately the Supreme Court delivered its verdict, politics should have ended with that pronouncement.

     ”With the apex court ruling affirming the legitimacy of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration, electoral litigation has come to an end.

    “Peter Obi should stop whipping a dead horse and what else does he want anyway.

    “Peter Obi and Atiku should exhibit the spirit of sportsmanship and congratulate the President and join hands with him to revamp the economy and deliver dividends of democracy to Nigerians.”

  • Israel determined to wipe out Palestinians, says Fani-Kayode

    Israel determined to wipe out Palestinians, says Fani-Kayode

    Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, has alleged a plot by Israel to wipe out the people of Palestine.

    In a three-page article on the ongoing Israel attack on Gaza (see pages 8, 9 and 10), Fani-Kayode accused renowned and influential pro-Israeli columnist, author and commentator, Ben Shapiro, of championing the evil agenda.

    He condemned Shapiro’s “racist slurs” against Arabs, noting that it is reminiscent of the language employed by Afrikaans-speaking White Boers of apartheid South Africa who regarded black South Africans and black people as nothing but sub-human, low born field hands and slaves.

    The former Minister of Culture and Tourism lamented that hundreds of Palestinian bodies are decomposing in the courtyard of Al-Shifa Hospital, on the streets and under the rubble, and there is no opportunity to bury them with the respect they deserve.

    “This is not about fighting Hamas or seeking the terrorists out for destruction; it is about killing or displacing every single Palestinian man, woman and child, and turning their entire race into a distant and fading memory,” he wrote.

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    The Sadaukin Shinkafi and Wakilin Doka Potiskum described Shapero as “a trouble little man who has an insatiable appetite for the spilling of children’s blood and whose secret desire is to subject every single Arab (both Christian and Muslim) to mass murder, genocide and ethnic cleansing and wipe them all off the surface of the earth.”

    “Your hateful and provocative rhetoric and disgraceful and deeply insulting commentary about Islamic and Christian faiths over the years and your unacceptable insults on the greatest, most noble, most righteous and most revered prophet of Islam, Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu ‘Alayhi Wa Sallam) coupled with your denigrating and demeaning description of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ… as ‘just another Jew who died for a cause’ has not gone unnoticed,” he added.

    .See full text on pages 8,9 & 10.

  • Tears flow as murdered varsity lecturer is laid to rest

    Tears flow as murdered varsity lecturer is laid to rest

    It was endless flow of tears by family members, colleagues, church members, friends and associates as Dr. Fumilola Adefolalu, a female lecturer at the Federal University of Technology (FUT) Minna who was murdered by her housemaid recently, was laid to rest.

    Adefolalu was buried at the Christian Cementary at David Mark Road in Minna, Niger State after a solemn service at the Voice of Mercy Ministry where she was a pastor before her death.

    Even though those who attended the internment at the graveside tried to be brave and hold back their tears, they could not succeed for too long as the tears came involuntarily when her body was lowered into the grave and sand was poured on her coffin.

    During the solemn service, the deceased’s first daughter, Toluwalope Adefolalu-Odogiyon, had said her mother gave her all, lived fully and worked each day as if it was her last.

    “Mummy, my heart was completely broken and shattered by the news of your death. I didn’t know it was possible for a heart to ache with so much pain, literally, and still continue to beat. It still sounds unbelievable.

    “I have so many questions but I know nothing could have prepared me for the agony, immense heartache, overwhelming thoughts and traumatising episodes that came with losing you.

    “My mother lived well and fully. She held nothing back. I am not your Maker but I am somewhat certain you gave your all and you lived fully. I believe you are enjoying the rest you talked about.

    “That I will miss you Mummy is an understatement. We had very good memories and even more plans for the future. This is what hurts the most.

    Her son, Seyi, who read the biography of his mother, said it still feels surreal, adding that he never felt he would end the year this way.

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    “Daddy could not see the man I would become. Now, you wouldn’t see the father I will become. Who shall I take my bride to now? Who shall cry with me when I become a daddy?

    “You only but recently joked about the lady I would marry and now you wouldn’t see that too. This hurts really bad.

    “Your voice, how can I forget? You didn’t really like that then but now I know. Your kisses, how can I forget? Your hugs, your whippings and your preachings, how can I forget? Words fail me, tears fail me, and dreams feel real but this can’t ever be real to me. This can’t be the way I end this year, but God knows.”I

    The Senior Pastor of Voice of Mercy Ministry, Rev. Ojo Peters, during the exhortation, described the deceased as ‘Mama Mercy’, saying that she was very strong and pastored the branch where she was a resident pastor very efficiently.

    He said that he preached the shortest message of his life on the day she was found dead in her residence, adding that he had several questions which remain unanswered but he believes that God has a reason for everything.

    Peters pointed out that her death remains a mystery that no one can fathom but stated that God understands better than anybody.

  • Diaspora voting

    Diaspora voting

    A desirable endpoint, but there are rivers to cross 

    Hope has revived on the prospects of diaspora voting, with the processing of the Diaspora Voting Bill, by the 10th National Assembly (NASS). Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele gave his word that the red chamber would sign off on the bill and send it to the House of Representatives for concurrence, after which it would be transmitted to state legislatures for endorsement by at least two-thirds of houses of assembly in the 36 states of the federation.

    The ninth NASS had, in March 2022, dumped the voting bill that seeks to tweak the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to allow Nigerians living outside of the country to participate in the electoral process by voting and being voted for. Senator Bamidele said that was the right way to go and a global best practice. Addressing Nigerians in the diaspora at a virtual dialogue lately, he noted that participation in the electoral process is a right and not a favour to be done diaspora citizens.

    “When you talk about diaspora voting, it is a right; if anybody is granting you that right, it is not as if they are grating you any favour. It is your right. The essence of this fight is just to make sure that the right is recognised in our constitution, because the constitution is the basis upon which every other thing rests,” he said, adding: “The constitution is the operational manual for both the government and the governed in our country. It is a right that must be recognised by our law as enshrined in the constitution. Whatever I’m doing with you is not new. I’m trying to build on efforts – genuine efforts – people made in the past and which they are still making.”

    According to the Senate chieftain, diaspora Nigerians deserve to enjoy voting right in view of huge contributions they make to the home economy. His words: “Nigerian citizens in the diaspora…make considerable contributions to the economy through huge financial remittances to the country. Diaspora voting is consistent with global best practices. We will do our best to make sure that this time around, we achieve your desire in this regard.”

    Bamidele recalled that the voting bill had scaled the first reading on the Senate floor and was slated for the second reading this past week. He said with that done, the bill would be referred to the Senate’s Constitution Review Committee, chaired by the Deputy Senate President and of which he, Senate Leader, is the vice-chair.

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    “I am very much with you in this effort because I see this fight as a generational fight. It’s not just (about) the constitution recognising your right to vote in the diaspora – your children and grandchildren and generations coming after us. It is also about ensuring greater inclusion in our process. We cannot just be interested in benefits coming from the Nigerian diaspora community while denying what is supposed to be your constitutional right,” he stated.

    Whereas the Senate Leader said the correct things about the necessity of diaspora voting, there are issues of details to be sorted out. The hinderance until now is not just the legal framework, but issues of logistics and political culture in our country, among others.

    After diaspora voting is legally provisioned for by way of amending both the 1999 Constitution (as amended), and the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended) – for instance, Section 50 of the Act that prescribes physical procedures for conducting election – the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will need to work out the implementation logistics; and also be accordingly equipped to carry through.

    A most likely option is for the electoral body to roll out electronic voting system to enable members of the Nigerian diaspora to vote. But it would seem the commission has been struggling with this option for some while. In May 2020, INEC announced that it would pilot electronic voting machines “at the earliest possible time … but work towards full introduction of electronic voting in major elections starting from 2021.”

    It has been unable to make good on that projection, though, and this may be for funding challenges in the main. Cost factor has been a major challenge hobbling Nigerian elections amidst flailing strength of the country’s economy. Procuring electronic voting machines on a widespread scale, in the short run, would require such huge capital outlay.  That may be an onerous task for the national economy in its present shape to absorb.

    A greater challenge, by a long stretch, is the prevailing political culture in this country, characterised by acute desperation of political actors that undermines credibility of the system. When INEC acquires electronic facilities to enable diasporans to vote, it will be a tough call for the electoral body to determine how to locate such facilities, as could negate the trust deficit in the electoral system occasioned by negative political culture.

    Where, for instance, will the voting facilities be located to assuage all doubts about impartiality of the operators? If you locate those facilities in Nigerian embassies abroad, you could bet some political actors would argue that embassy staff are government employees and, for that reason, can’t be trusted not to compromise the facilities to disadvantage opposition players.

    Even if INEC sets up its own offices abroad, it will most likely be within the embassies. As it were, the commission already fights a tough battle at every turn to acquit itself of allegations of non-dispassion and partisanship in political contests. This battle would get considerably tougher when it has to answer for conduct of polls from satellite locations abroad not under its total control.

    Most countries where diaspora voting works are those that have weaned their systems substantially from baseless trust-deficit. A country like the United States uses postal balloting system, but even that country in recent history faced challenges with that aspect of her electoral system. And postal balloting is a non-starter for Nigeria because this country’s postal system is far from being up to speed for such use, amidst pervasive threats of ballot hijacking as we frequently experience.

    It might, therefore, be a good idea for us to first work at sanitising the electoral culture at home; and also build robust trust in the electoral system, before extending the scope to the diaspora – at least, not with the challenges presently faced.

    But it will be helpful, of course, to have necessary amendments effected in the legal framework. That would shift the onus to INEC to work out modalities for implementation and, simultaneously, strengthen its hand to raise needed resources and also vigorously take political players to task on remedying debilitating ills in the political culture.

    In other words, amendment to the legal framework may not by itself hit the bull’s eye of diaspora voting, but it surely would be a helpful spinoff towards hitting the eye.

  • How Israel-Hamas war threatens world peace

    How Israel-Hamas war threatens world peace

    • By Türkmen Terzi

    The deadly operation by the Islamist militant group Hamas in southern Israel on Oct. 7, in which 1,200 Israelis, including civilians, were killed and more than 200 hostages were taken to Gaza, shocked the world. After the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that the Hamas attack was Israel’s 9/11 and succeeded in uniting the opposition and forming a war cabinet. Netanyahu has predicted that the war in Gaza will spread to the region and has vowed to change the Middle East map. Looking at the situation, one can say that both Hamas and Netanyahu are motivated to expand the conflict to the region, as Israeli forces have focused on destroying Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, bombing Syrian airports near the Turkish border and “accidentally” hitting Egyptian positions near the Gaza border. Former Hamas leader Khaled Mashal vowed to continue fighting for the liberation of Palestine. He asked Hezbollah and the Arab states for help and said in an interview with Saudi TV station Al-Arabiya on Oct. 19 that the Palestinians were prepared to sacrifice millions of people to protect their land.

    US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak continue to support Netanyahu’s war in Gaza, which has left more than 11,000 civilians dead and nearly 30,000 injured, 75 percent of them women and children. According to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, some 1.6 million people in Gaza had been internally displaced and more than 220,000 housing units destroyed by Nov. 13. Arab foreign ministers have called for a ceasefire since the Israeli bombardment of Gaza began, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has offered to mediate between the leaders of Israel and Hamas. French President Emmanuel Macron has hinted that Tehran is supporting Hamas in the form of “aid” and “cooperation,” but he also said France has no official evidence of this. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, however, denied Iran’s involvement, although he did praise the Oct. 7 attack.

    The African Union strongly condemned the Israeli airstrike on the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza on Oct. 17, which killed more than 500 people, Hamas claimed.  The two major African nations, South Africa and Egypt, are playing a very active role in trying to stop Israel’s relentless attacks on civilians. Egyptian President Abdal-Fatal El Sisi hosted the Cairo Peace Summit on Oct. 21 in an effort to end the catastrophe in Gaza. The one-day meeting in Cairo was attended by Arab heads of state and government and representatives from France, Germany, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, the United States, Qatar, Turkey and South Africa, as well as representatives from the United Nations and the European Union. However, the absence of Israel and the presence of the United States in Cairo without high-ranking officials cast doubt on the effectiveness of the summit. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed during the summit that his country had experienced oppression by an apartheid regime not so long ago and that the world did not want to see that kind of oppression again. South African Foreign Minister Dr. Naledi Pandor, who participated in the UN Security Council open debate on the situation in the Middle East on Oct. 24, called on the United Nations to create a two-state solution in which Israelis and Palestinians live side by side in peace. She emphasized that this must be done in accordance with the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine. Pandor criticized the UN Security Council for not preventing the conflict from leading to this level of violence and harm to the civilian population in Gaza. The ruling African National Congress and the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) condemned the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip.

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    A proxy war is brewing in the Middle East.

    After the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) collapsed in 1991 and the Russian Federation lost its influence in Central Asia, it was not in a position to comment on the two US Gulf Wars in the Middle East. However, since Russia’s powerful leader, Vladimir Putin, has increased the Kremlin’s influence in the territory of the former USSR, the US is backing Ukraine to weaken Russia in the region, and this means that another proxy war between the US and Russia could engulf the Middle East. US President Joe Biden visited Israel to express his full support for the Netanyahu government, and the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford, was sent to Israel as a show of support after Hamas attacked. Israel is the US’s most important ally in the Middle East, where Washington has been losing its authority over major Arab states such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. At the 15th BRICS summit, which took place in Johannesburg in August of this year, the application of these three countries for BRICS membership was officially accepted. Washington is no longer dependent on the oil of the Arab Gulf states, as the US produces its own oil. The oil-rich Gulf states have lost their trust in the US government since Washington failed to protect Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates from Iran’s drone attacks in recent years. China and Russia are the two most important powers in the BRICS economic group, and China has become the largest importer of Saudi Arabian oil. On Oct. 18 the US vetoed the Brazilian-led call for a humanitarian pause and corridors into Gaza, while China voted in favor of the resolution at the UN Security Council. Prior to the vote, two amendments proposed by Russia for an “immediate, durable and full ceasefire in Gaza” were rejected by the Security Council. China and Russia had vetoed a draft resolution introduced by the US on Oct. 24, which highlighted the ineffectiveness of the Security Council in providing a unified response to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

    Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel and Netanyahu’s ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip have made any peace initiatives in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict even more difficult. Both sides claim that Palestine is their ancestral homeland. Since the British Empire took control of Palestine from the Ottoman Empire during World War I and drafted the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which announced Britain’s support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, the conflict has never been resolved. The UN voted to partition Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state in 1947, but the Arabs rejected the plan and the Jews declared Israel in 1948. There were many peace talks between Israel and Palestine, but these were interrupted by outbreaks of violence. Today, around 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and 2.2 million in the Gaza Strip, which is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, but more than half of the population has already been displaced in the Gaza Strip.

    Netanyahu is determined to expel the entire Palestinian population from the Gaza Strip, where Hamas has been in control since 2006. Qatar and Turkey are harboring Hamas leaders and Iran is arming them. NATO member Turkey’s leader Erdoğan has already stated that Hamas is not a terrorist organization and that they are liberators. Neither Netanyahu’s war cabinet nor the Hamas leadership promises a peaceful life for their people and are keen to become tools of the proxy wars of the great powers.

    •This article was first published in www.turkishminute.com