The Nation Newspaper

Author: The Nation

  • UPU holds 88th congress

    By Kelvin Osa Okunbor

    ACTIVITIES for the 88th Congress of the Urhobo umbrella body, Urhobo Progress Union,  commenced on Thursday, December 5, 2019 and run through to Sunday, December 8, 2019.

    According to a schedule of activities released by the UPU, the congress will commence with an economic summit towards repositioning the Urhobo Nation economically, to be facilitated by resource persons.

    Activities for the event will enter the second day, Friday with the inauguration of new members into the Board of Trustees of the UPU. Among the new members of the board are Dr. Goodie Ibru and Chief Johnson Barovbe.

    There will also be an election on Friday to usher in a new executive to pilot the affairs of the union for the next three years. The President General of UPU, Olorogun Moses Taiga, who is seeking re-election, will also give an account of his stewardship over the last three years.

    The 88th Congress, which has as chief host the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and the Delta State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, as special guest, will also witness cultural displays by all the 24 Kingdoms of Urhobo.

    Read Also: UPU greets Okowa, Urhobo lawmakers

     

    The congress will end on December 8 with an interdenominational service. All activities will take place at the Urhobo Cultural Centre, Uvwiamughe-Agbarho, Delta State.

    The Urhobo Cultural Carnival will come up the next day, being Saturday with cultural displays by  the 24 Urhobo Kingdoms as well as presentation of prizes to winners of the cultural extravaganza.

    The last day of the congress will feature an interdenominational church service which will feature thanksgiving by the Urhobo Nation and announcements by UPU.

    All activities will take place at the Urhobo Cultural Centre, Uvwiamuge, Agbarho, Delta State.

  • Between thuggery and state disobedience

    By Wole Soyinka

    I have no hesitation in admitting that I have a, personal, formative interest in the health of the Nigerian judiciary, deeper perhaps than the average Nigerian.  At a critical junction in the life of this writer, a judge resolved to give primacy to the call of conscience, affirm his professional integrity and defend the supremacy of law in defiance of state interference. He refused to bow to external pressure in adjudicating a case whose conclusion, had this accused been found guilty as charged, would have been life imprisonment.  That individual, the late Justice Kayode Eso, has narrated the event in his autobiography – The Mystery Gunman with his noted wit and judicial poise. The deputy premier of the then Western Region of Nigeria had summoned the judge to his residence, lectured him on his duty to protect the interests of the government against the accused. Justice Kayode listened politely, re-affirmed his commitment to the rule of law, and took his leave.

    It would be most surprising if my own brush with the law has not crossed my mind since the predicament of Omoyele Sowole, journalist and former presidential candidate began. The Nigerian judiciary was not thereby, nor is today a model of perfection. Nonetheless, exemplars such as Justice Esho have succeeded in creating, in some of us, an exceptional respect for the Bench, instilled a conviction that the law, despite its lapses, demands respect, autonomy and obedience. Much of the judiciary across the continent remains constantly under siege – Nigeria is no exception. Needless to say, it often strikes me that the “learned brotherhood” could do more to protect, and assert itself. Apart from the obvious and numerous scandals of moral deficit that require constant internal purgation, there are instances where it does fail to protect itself even from putative and/or illegal power.

    Take the assassination of the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Bola Ige on his way to a UN appointment. The presiding judge on that case cried out against unseemly interference from “ least expected quarters”.  He kept a diary of coded names and times, two pages of which came into my possession.  His cries petered out in void. Justice Abass, feeling vulnerable and isolated, bowed out of the case. The judiciary lamely acquiesced, certainly with a huge sigh of relief in some sectors.  A robust   opportunity lost to burnish the image of the law. I was left aghast.

    From tragedy to slapstick tragi-comedy – let us pull up an eye-witness account from the Nigerian PM News of Thursday, September 2014:

    Temperamental Ekiti State Governor-elect, Ayodele Fayose, slapped a court judge today for being rude to him and then ordered his thugs to beat him further.

    The action of Fayose and his thugs triggered some pandemonium in the court, with judicial workers and others running into safety. The sitting of the Ekiti State Governorship Election petition Tribunal could also not hold.

    Immediately, thugs numbering about 20 pounced on Justice Adeyeye, beat him up and tore his clothes, while his co-workers scampered and shouted for help.

    Read Also: Judiciary digitisation ‘sacrosanct’, says Ogun CJ

    Following the development, judicial workers hurriedly shut down the court premises thereby preventing any court proceeding for hours before the police fired tear gas canisters to disperse the hoodlums.

    For a week, two weeks, then forever, ‘I waited to see what would be the response of the judiciary. There came none.  Naively, I thought , surely, this institution will rise and defend its very existence through some form of action, even if merely symbolic. Not a squeak. Not even after that governor left office and thereby lost his immunity. What to me appeared to be the collapse, not just of a pillar, but of the edifice of human culture, appeared to be no more than a blip on the judicial template.

    There are of course more effective ways of degrading a judiciary than merely brutalizing a judge, and leaving his judicial robes in tatters.  One of the most effective, increasingly optimized in Nigeria, is simply by not only ignoring, but treating its orders with disdain, encouraging its agencies to trot out cynical excuses for disobedience while laughing all the way to the citadel of power. In that regard, there does appear to be an undeclared contest among succeeding  governments, intensified since the return of the nation to civilian government in 1999 for placement in the Guinness Book of Records as the most notorious Scofflaw in the field of democratic pretensions. Or could it be an anticipation of a proposal I made at the Athens Democracy Forum some months ago, calling for an annual award – such as an Order of Demerit – for such an achiever?

    Perhaps we have finally attained maximum saturation, and there is no need for any further record keeping. It is extremely difficult to imagine a further lowering of the bar of disdain for law than we have witnessed under the present regime.  The degree of cynicism in the conduct of State Security agencies has attained a level of consistency that is surpassed by only one other previous government – but it is a close  call. Not only does a security agency refuse to obey a court order to release a suspect after fulfilling his bail conditions, that agency manufactures one childish pretext after another, including a claim that no one has shown up to receive the detainee. “His sureties have yet to show up to collect him”, declared the DSS, prime candidate for special featuring in my “Interventions” series, periodically dedicated to the theme of The Republic of Liars. Are we speaking here of a full grown adult, a journalist and former presidential aspirant, or an overnight  bag awaiting  the rightful claimant in a LOST AND FOUND department?

    The nation continues to undergo the chagrin of having the rug pulled from under her feet while waiting on the long queue for judicial redress against the strong-arm culture of state, as well as unlisted power interests.  For instance, Lagos State, the former capital, and still the acknowledged commercial capital of the nation, once found herself denied statutory allocation for several years, despite repeated court declarations that such withholding by the central government was unconstitutional and should be remedied forthwith. That president took sadistic pleasure in simply playing deaf. It took his successor to end the abuse and restore the full entitlements of that state, a disobedience that went beyond mere churlishness but affected the development and welfare of the indigenes of that state. And so on, and on, waiting in vain for that day when the Rule of Law becomes commonplace, and its benefice is not doled out by the drop to famished mendicants.

    So, finally, what do thuggery and court disobedience have in common? Everything!  They are both Scofflaw manifestations.  Unilateral declarations of Supra-Law delusions. One is simply a more structured, more hypocritical version of the other. One knows itself for what it is, while the other tries to camouflage its abnormality under a higher purpose, the more elastic the better. Such is that often specious alibi labelled “national security”. Is Sowore  Miyetti Allah? As for those agencies that actually think to inhibit social revolution by fastening on the alarmist  association of the word ‘revolution’,  half the citizens of this nation should be in permanent detention.  From pulpit to minaret, from clinic to fish market, from student club to motor park, the wish for drastic transformation of this nation is staple discourse.  Perhaps we should begin with its application to that institution whose decisions affect both society and individuals with such finality, for good or ill – the judiciary.

  • Diezani’s ‘Valise Diplomatique’ (I)

    They say that the French were the first to coin the term ‘valise diplomatique’, -or the ‘diplomatic bag’. But if they must use an alternative to ‘bag’, the English have always preferred ‘pouch’ to the frenchie ‘valise’. And so the ‘diplomatic pouch’ over time has come to be about the most controversial of those three most sacred and inviolable subjects or items of international diplomacy; the other two being the ‘diplomatic agent’ himself and the ‘diplomatic premises’.

    I have opted for the title ‘Diezani’s ‘Valise Diplomatique’ not because the ‘diplomatic pouch’ will be the subject of discourse – on the contrary it is the ‘diplomatic agent’ that will be- but I have taken that liberty only because each of these three ‘inviolables’ law ring with equal notoriety in the usual controversy that often dog the heels of this area of international relations, namely ‘Diplomatic and Consular law’ – for the reason that it immunizes a select group of persons, places or pouches from arrest, detention and prosecution.

    In the last over four years since a self-exiled Diezani elevated her corruption case to a subject of international law by becoming a fugitive, virtually only one aspect of diplomatic and consular law, namely the subject of treaty-governed extradition, was at the heart of the discourse –navigating through the hyacinth of bilateral and multilateral treaties to figure how or how not to extradite her. But now it appears, the queen of ‘Sweet Crude’ has managed to expose her case to the vagaries of diplomatic immunities and or privileges –making the possibility of her extradition even more complex and well-nigh impossible

    Why would a self-exiled Diezani, while a fugitive of the Nigerian justice system and hiding in the United Kingdom, seek appointment as commissioner for trade and investment of a tiny, Caribbean island nation of Dominica? (No relation of the Dominican Republic). And why would that poor country’s Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit selectively hand her a diplomatic passport which immunizes herself and members of her immediate family, not only from ‘all’ criminal prosecutions but also from ‘most’ civil law suits except they bordering on her private business dealings with other private individuals?

    Read Also: Court threatens to strike out Diezani’s case

     

    If Diezani was such an experienced authority in the areas of ‘trade and investment’ (which we have no reason to believe she is), and if Dominica desperately required her expertise or her influence, you would wonder again why can she not play that role professionally and maybe even better without necessarily the armor-plating of a combination of diplomatic immunity and privileges which usually only ‘diplomatic agents’ and especially heads of state are afforded under the ‘functional necessity theory’ guaranteed for the efficient conduct of international relations?

    In fact, very rarely are even heads of the consular section of an embassy who daily run the cultural affairs of a state in a foreign country, are accorded full diplomatic immunity and privileges. Nor are other categories of sparsely -or even if regularly- traveled high ranking officials of a government such as ministers, legislators, military personnel etc., granted diplomatic passports. Not because it is supra-dignitatem to their status, but because neither the ‘functional necessity’ principle justifies their having it, nor does even the ‘extra-territoriality’ principle (which affects only agents and consular officials on permanent mission) cover high ranking officials of government who are not on permanent mission abroad.

    And it is the reason that these categories of high ranking government officials –and to which Diezani as Dominica’s minister, belongs- are usually only issued ‘non-diplomatic’ passports under various classes such as ‘official passports’ or ‘service passports’. And which therefore raises the question: ‘to what end or purpose would a Nigerian fugitive hiding in London, and now made a ‘minister at large’ for a puny indigent North American country, require a ‘diplomatic passport’ to perform her duties as that country’s Minister of Trade and Investment when her briefs require at the most, an ‘official’ passport? And which is not to wonder also, why –rather than from Dominica’s capital of Roseau- she has to operate in the Diaspora, and from an anonymous address in London?

    But again, for a woman who left Nigeria critically ill and ostensibly in search of cure for a ‘curiously-conniving ‘cancer’ disease that manifested only after the Jonathan bonanza was over, you still wonder why only such a one -preoccupied with the debilitation of a malignant health situation- should conduct the trade and investment affairs of Dominica, -as if the prognosis of a witch doctor had found only in this queer kind of appointment the fetish to grow and develop the Dominican economy?

    But no; this is just some kind of criminal quid pro quo between a filthy-rich former Nigeria’s petroleum minister who had stolen so much she needs a permissive safe heaven where to peacefully nibble at the plunder for the remainder of her life, and a super poor, conscienceless Caribbean country, Dominica, ready to bite only because the bait is tempting enough.

    The whole damn deal is the use of proceeds of corruption to purchase a diplomatic status that comes with full options for immunities and privileges with a view to evading arrest, detention or prosecution for any criminal act –provided Diezani neither poses threat to the peace and security of the UK nor of Dominica itself. Diezani’s appointment as Minister of Trade and Investment to Dominica, and the extension to her of full diplomatic immunities and privileges clearly manifest the hydra headed nature of the monster of corruption and its ability to effectively fight back within the realms of both municipal and international laws. And the question now arises: ‘How does Nigeria or even the UK bring a lawfully protected subject of international law like Diezani without first following the rigors of the law to strip her of her lawfully-acquired immunity and privilege?

    No matter how much you dislike her, you must give it to this lady of beauty and brains, Diezani. She has indeed pulled a masterstroke! And like the smooth-rolling, carapace-padded armadillo, she has rolled herself into a ball of impenetrable, self-protecting armour. You have to figure out how to find the chink, in her diplomatic armor. And yes, immunity is waivable, but only by the country that confers it in the first place –which in this case is Dominica. But how do you imagine poor Dominica letting go off Diezani’s superfluous honey pot when not doing so breaches neither law nor international morality?

    Dominica has to waive Diezani’s immunity first before the United Kingdom may defer to any request by Nigeria for the arrest, detention, prosecution or extradition of Diezani. And yes, although both Nigeria and Dominica are Commonwealth countries and therefore subject to the Commonwealth ‘Transfer of Offenders Law’, yet the snag is that whereas the extradition cobwebs may be cleared under such multilateral laws, to create a window for possible extradition, Diezani’s new masterstroke in assuming diplomatic immunity which makes her person now as ‘diplomatic agent’ practically inviolable, has now created a totally un-navigable hyacinth in the effort to make her amenable to Nigeria’s laws, the UK’s, or even international law.

    In fact as far as the Vienna Convention is concerned, (which regulates consular and diplomatic matters), if a gun-toting Diezani were to run amok on the streets of London shooting and killing everyone in sight, she should still be no less immune from arrest, detention or prosecution.

  • NDDC: Why President Buhari must act now

    By Ndimele Ajuri

    The senate resolution on the leadership crisis bedeviling the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) offers the country hope of a new beginning for the beleaguered agency. At one of its sittings last week, Senate President Ahmed Lawan, while directing the committee on NDDC to scrutinize the commission’s budget, insisted that the budget must not be defended by the interim management committee (IMC) set up by the Niger Delta affairs minister, Godswill Akpabio.

    In his words: “As far as we are concerned, this senate knows that we have confirmed the request of Mr. President for the board membership of the NDDC and we have communicated that and the next logical thing to do by law is for the appointments of the members of the board to take immediate effect. I believe that the executive arm of government will attend to that quickly so that we have the right people to come and defend the appropriation request of Mr. President.”

    The Senate had on November 5 confirmed 15 of the 16 nominees sent by President Muhammadu Buhari for the NDDC governing board, but the board has been in limbo. Rather, the IMC hastily appointed by Akpabio has been holding sway in the commission. This has created tension in the region, with stakeholders insisting that the board be inaugurated to manage the NDDC.

    The senate resolution is backed by various stakeholders in the region including the Ijaw Youth Council, which has hailed it as right, just and in line with the demands of the people. The senate has given the NDDC committee two weeks to scrutinize the budget during which only the confirmed board members will go forward to defend.

    The senate decision on this issue speaks to the provisions of the NDDC act, which is unambiguous as to how the commission should be run. The issues at stake here are issues of law, due process, integrity and order. While the case may be made that the president is head of the executive branch and all ministries, departments and agencies are under this branch and confers on him certain rights and privileges to appoint persons to office in whatever capacity, it does not confer such powers for the president to disobey or override the laws setting up state institutions. Certainly, that cannot be the spirit of the constitution. Else, why should agencies of government have dedicated laws governing their operations? It is important that we do not allow our narrow interests override the weightier issues of law and due process, the twin pillars on which any society that lays claim to equity, law and social justice is built.

    Read Also: NDDC board: Senate draws battle line with Presidency

     

    The Ninth National Assembly (NASS) has shown itself to be very cooperative with the executive, to the extent of being the butt of jokes in some quarters. This partnership has been praised by President Buhari as necessary to achieve his Next Level goals. Already, the Lawan – led NASS has passed some critical fiscal bills of the executive in record time such as the Finance Bill. It has set a timetable to pass the 2019 national budget before the year runs out.

    From a planning perspective that is impressive, and not a few Nigerians would applaud the sense of duty that this NASS has brought to its assignment. Yet, with duty comes responsibility. The senate hearkened to the president’s request to screen NDDC governing board of directors only for that board to be disregarded and sidelined on the machinations of a minister. There is no disregard more hurting for the integrity of the senate and by extension the NASS. This, apparently, in addition to the fundamental issues of law and due process, is what is behind the senate’s resolution. President Buhari must have this in mind as he considers his options on the NDDC debacle.

    President Buhari owes Nigerians a duty to uphold the oath on which he holds office which, among others include the following expression, clearly stated in the seventh schedule of the 1999 constitution: “that in all circumstances, I will do right to all manner of people, according to law, without fear or favour, affection or ill-will.”

    If the case now is how to provide them alternative jobs, the APC has room to engage Joi Nunieh and her IMC colleagues, which is what the government should do, but to turn the management of a major state institution into the equivalent of a rat race does not do justice to our laws, the image of the president or the government in power. It simply indicates a rudderlessness, which the APC can do without.

    It is apposite to remind the president and the ruling party of the poignant words of the first lady that things are getting out of hand. At the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) event in Abuja last week, Mrs Aisha Buhari said that political actors are behaving badly. She made clear that there was a sense of disorder and everyone should do the needful to keep this country on the right course. This applies also to the NDDC and the Niger Delta region. Several influential groups are in the wings counselling for the right thing to be done at the NDDC with regards to the new board. As the live wire of our economy, we do not need contrived crises that can only be disastrous for oil industry operations. The buck stops on the president’s desk! He should uphold the law, order and due process in this matter of the NDDC leadership crises by directing that the board resume without delay.

     

    • Ajuri lives in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

     

  • Garba Shehu Vs. Alexander Ogomudia

    Responding to the comments by a former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Alexander Ogomudia (retd.), to the effect that “Nigeria may be restructured violently”, presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu last Sunday reminded him and other apostles of restructuring that as “a constitutional democracy, changes to the country in structure, its systems, policy and politics must abide by the norms of democracy”.

    Garba Shehu’s restatement of the obvious should ordinarily not raise any storm.  However because of his past  unrestrained comments on  sensitive and sometimes divisive issues such as the killing of our compatriots by cross-border immigrant herdsmen,  equating of Miyetti Allah cattle breeders association with ethnic national groups such  Afenifere, Ohanaeze Ndigbo and Pan-Niger Delta Forum, and his misleading comments on the controversial RUGA government programme, Shehu has left many with   the impression he is serving other tendencies in the presidency  instead of  representing the  public face of the president. His latest attack on Ogomudia seem to further confirm the fears of those who believe he is in the presidency as representative of those tendencies that view democracy not as a process that places high premium on leaders’ accountability, citizen participation and an open society with a just and equitable social order, but as a method of decision making by those who have gained power through a competitive electoral contest only to hold Nigeria to ransom.

    Democracy, rather than serve as a tool for creating a more egalitarian society for Nigerians, has been used by those who fraudulently swear by the name of those on whose back they rode to power only to end up waging war against them and other Nigerians.

    Read Also: Defections fallout: Tough times for Saraki, Dogara, others

     

    During the 1959 election, Action Group’s flags were banned in the north with its UMBC/AG alliance members imprisoned.  This was done in the name of democracy. When in 1962, the tendency imposed their stooge on the West in other to pave the way for the take-over of the region, it was carried out in the name of democracy.

    By 1952 census, Yoruba constituted 76.4% of the population of Western Region, Igbo 64.5% and Hausa/Fulani 54% of their respective regions. But in 1963, the later created Mid-West which is only 23.6% of the population of the West and kept silent on the on 36% and 46% minorities in their respective regions that had at different times in their quest for self- realization engaged in insurrection suppressed only by federal military might. The tendency insisted it was democracy at play.

    In 1963, tendency fought a war of attrition dragging themselves to the Supreme Court over the disputed 1962/62 census figures. Both in the name of democracy sought the support of the military over the constitutional crisis that followed the disputed 1964 elections and by their error of judgment dragged the military into politics   with dire consequences for the health of the nation.

    The response of a faction of the tendency that had since 1953  insisted their association with Nigeria must be predicated on Nigeria they could control to Ironsi’s  Unitary Decree 34 of 1966, widely believed to have been drafted by Dr. Nwabueze was the symbolic change from unitarism to federalism,  in name but not in content. Even as they plunged the nation to a civil war, both had insisted the motive was not greed for power but love for democracy.

    Babangida who hilariously called himself president after a palace coup took the nation through eight years of ‘transition without end’, destroying in the process, our political socialization, and annulling the most credible election in our nation’s history purportedly on behalf of this democracy loving tendency. And it was for the same love of democracy, General Abacha, the maximum ruler decreed five parties described by late Bola Ige as ‘five fingers of a leprous hand ‘with all of them nominating him as their presidential candidate.

    From 1993 to 1998, successive military regimes ensured more states and more LGAs were created for the north. The current constitution,  federal in name but unitary in content with   68 items on the exclusive list, 52 on the concurrent list and none in residual list, signed in to law in 1999 by General Abdulsalami reflects the tendency’s view of how Nigeria should be run .

    In 1999, the tendency conceded leadership of the country to the Yoruba to assuage their raw feelings over the death of their son, MKO Abiola who died in detention for winning an election. But they arrogantly insisted on picking for Yoruba nation, Obasanjo who went on to literarily climb the palm tree from the top by winning a presidential election despite having been roundly rejected by the Yoruba nation even in his ward. Again we were told it was democracy at play.

    Between 1999 and 2019, all efforts at amending the imperfect document which allows resources of state to be seized by the centre and distributed without objective criteria among indolent 36 states and 774 LGAs, an arrangement which according to General Akinrinade “cannot lift us all up, let alone one part at the expense of the other” has been resisted by the tendency.

    The 2014 Confab report with its modest achievement on devolution of power was rejected by the tendency  according to Bashiru Dalhatu, who was a Minister of Power and Steel in the Sani Abacha government, because  “The 2014 national conference had 492 members and the north which constitutes about 70 per cent of the country’s landmass and 55 per cent of its population was allocated 189 delegates while the south with only 30 per cent of the landmass and 45 per cent of its population was given an incredible 305 delegates.” The NDF therefore “called upon any group of sponsors or individuals agitating for any form of restructuring of the federation, first and foremost, to respect the existing constitutional order and to seek to do so within the bounds and parameters stipulated under our constitution and law. To suggest otherwise would lead to chaos and anarchy,” It said.

    The rhyme between above Bashiru Dalhatu’s mindset and Shehu Garba’s “mindsets and entities rooted in the idea of violence as a means to change” and “such individuals, groups and entities peddling ideologies of violence and hate” is unmistakable.

    In July 2017, Senate President Bukola Saraki of the 8th Senate speaking on the defeat of the devolution bill at the senate had said. “I think what happened was that a lot of our colleagues misread, misunderstood or were suspicious of what the devolution of powers to states was all about; whether it was the same thing as restructuring in another way or an attempt to foist confederation on the country”.

    With the baleful legacy of the National Assembly in constitutional amendments between 1999 and 2019, it is difficult to fault the argument of those who claim Shehu Garba’s campaign for “healthy dialogue through popular platforms including elected parliaments” is on behalf of the same tendencies that have used their numerical strength to frustrate constitutional amendment since the beginning of the fourth republic. In the same vein, one  cannot also fault those who read mischief  to Garba’s reference to” mindsets and entities rooted in the idea of violence as a means to change” and “such individuals, groups and entities peddling ideologies of violence and hate”  on the basis of Ogomudia’s timely warning to those tendencies that relish listening to only themselves.

  • A prisoner’s life

    WHAT we normally hear in such places is jail break, with scores of inmates fleeing. But what came out of the Ikoyi Correctional Centre in Lagos on Monday beats one hands down.

    I did not believe it when I first heard about the electrocution of six inmates there. I thought some inmates were at it again in their bid to escape. By the time the full report came in, the import of what happened dawned on everybody. The incident was avoidable, but in the usual manner of those in authority, they glossed over the welfare of the inmates.

    Our prisons are not what they should be. They are overcrowded and smelly. A cell meant for 20 inmates is holding 150. In such a situation, if there is an emergency, there will be many casualties, like what happened on Monday.

    Prison inmates deserve the best of care, no matter the crime they might have committed. Perhaps, this was why the government renamed the prison service, correctional centre.

    The prison is not meant to harden an inmate, but to reform and prepare him for his return into society. This should begin with how the inmate is treated while in custody. His stay in prison should be made as comfortable as possible to enable him have a change of heart about leading a world of crime.

    Read Also: ‘75,000 inmates currently in Nigeria’s correctional facilities’

     

    Those who died in Ikoyi were not trying to escape. They died because of the carelessness of those who should care for them. There is no point crying over spilt milk.

    It is not now that the prison Comptroller-General Ja’faru Ahmed will be telling us that the inmates were held in overcrowded cells. There is nothing new in what he said. We have always known that.

    The question is what has he done to better the lot of prison inmates nationwide. He should not wait for another tragedy before coming out to tell us about overcrowded cells and other problems with our correctional facilities. My heart goes out to the inmates and their families.

    Their families deserve compensation for the way the  the inmates’ lives were wasted.  A prisoner’s life is as precious as the life of any other citizen.

  • Election as war

    POLITICIANS view election in different light. To some, it is a game in which a winner and loser must emerge. To others, it is do or die. It is either they win or nobody does. Election as a pillar of democracy is a forum for political parties and their candidates to test their popularity. They put themselves forward for the electorate to decide their fate. In making that decision, the electorate are guided by the parties’ programmes.

    In Nigeria, programmes do not determine who wins election, brawn does. This is why parties invest in thugs, arms and ammunition during election. The campaign is just a smokescreen to deceive the uninitiated about the actual intent of the parties, which prepare for election as if they are going to war. Election is war by other means, as some politicians are wont to say. So, ahead of the poll, they procure men and material.

    These men are the children of other people who live in the backwaters of the city, where there is no light, good schools and potable water. These people live in a slum and their prayer daily is that their children will become big and take them out of those seedy communities. Their prayer to have successful children is truncated by politicians who use the same kids as thugs. Unfortunately, many of these children end up being killed in electoral violence.

    The irony is that these politicians keep their own children away from the fray. They send their children to some of the best schools in the world to prepare them to take over the reins of leadership once they reach an advanced age. Election is not supposed to be war; it is supposed to be a peaceful means of transferring power. But politicians who are not sure of their standing with the electorate have turned it to a killing field.

    It is pathetic that what should ordinarily be a game where contestants congratulate one another after it is all over has become a theatre of war. No matter the election, the outcome is predictable. Whether the election is general, that is held nationwide, or isolated, that is held in some parts of the country, it is always marred with violence. For instance, the nation has yet to get over the fall-out of the November 16 governorship election in Bayelsa and Kogi states.

    Read Also: INEC, Police, APC to Dickson: Nobody died during Bayelsa election

     

    It lived up to the predictions that it would be violent. Before the election, analysts said there would be bloodshed in both states because the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were determined to win at all costs. Nigerians had expected that the conduct of elections will be different under the APC. Their expectation of a free, fair and credible poll under the watch of APC has largely not been met. As it was under PDP, so it is under APC election wise.

    APC was a bad loser when PDP was in power, so as PDP is a bad loser today that APC is in power. As a progressive party, the electorate had expected APC to make a difference by showing that it can conduct transparent elections which will be the template for future polls. As things are now, we still have a long way to go. Is it so difficult to hold free, fair elections? Is there any written code that a ruling party must win the election it conducts? What is the big deal in a ruling party losing election?

    As long as parties believe that they must win the election they conduct so long will the process be violent. Election is no war and the earlier the parties realise this, the better for the society. What happened in Bayelsa and Kogi last month could have been averted if the parties had played by the rule. APC and PDP saw the poll as do or die and approached it as such. We cannot continue to hold election, with axes, cudgels and other lethal weapons flying all over the place.

    Over 60,000 policemen were deployed in both states for the election, yet there was violence. That was not all. They were joined by a reasonable number of soldiers and secret agents. But what was the result with all this high number of security? Violence, killing, looting and maiming. In Kogi, a woman was burnt to death in her home. So, where were the security operatives when all these were going on. It is not the number of security men deployed in an election that matters, but the readiness of politicians to allow the exercise to go smoothly.

    If our politicians are ready to do this, thuggery will disappear from the electoral process. No amount of policemen and soldiers can confer legitimacy on our election as long as politicians are ready to do anything to win.

  • Reviving the textile industry

    The planned revival of the textile industry in Nigeria is a strategy in the right direction of improving the economy, creating jobs and funding the industries necessary for appropriate industrialization of our country. Most of the textile industries in Nigeria fulfill the spatial criteria for inclusive national development because they are located mainly in Kano, Kaduna, Aba and Ikeja. One only prays that unlike previous plans to revive the textile industry, the money this time will not be stolen  , mismanaged and in the word of a former Vice President “misapplied” whatever that was supposed to mean. The textile industry in Nigeria presents us great opportunities for backward integration to the raw materials being sourced locally. Before oil, the economy of northern Nigeria was based on production of groundnuts and cotton. The two produce were largely exported but by the 1960s, textile mills sprang up in Kano and Kaduna providing jobs for thousands of people. Also oil mills for crushing cotton seeds and groundnuts also became common feature of the economy. Alas all these disappeared gradually when government’s foreign reserves no longer depended on agricultural produce but on commission paid to our government by foreign oil companies.

    In the southern part of our country, there were textile industries in places like Aba, Ado Ekiti and Ikeja which relied on imported cotton yarn from Egypt and the Sudan. Instead of depending on increased local cotton production, the southern textile mills did not enjoy the advantage of backward integration even though cotton could also be grown in transitional zones in the south before reaching the rain forest. Historically, there existed thriving textile native industries owned usually by women. These women provided school uniforms for their children in their ancient looms behind their homes. Cotton harvested from their farms were manually turned into yarns using their own fabricated tools. These women also had dyes gotten from plants and in Yoruba land for instance, Osogbo was famous for its dyes even though most women were historically involved in the textile and dye industries. Thank God the importation of British textiles did not completely kill the local industry which still survives in Ilorin, Oyo, Iseyin, and northern Oyo generally. They also survive in Ondo, some parts of Igbo land and in Sokoto, Kano and Borno. On important occasions our people are still decked in these traditional textile apparels. The point I am making is that unlike southern and eastern parts of Africa where before the coming of the white man there, their native attire were mainly animal hides and skins.

    When Governor General Sir Reginald Wingate  of Sudan In 1925 decided to irrigate vast area of the Sudan for agricultural development especially the growing of cotton and other produce, Nigerians were sought after for work in the Al Jazirah ( Gezira)  scheme. Most of the workers who built the scheme were Nigerians stranded on their way to or return from the hajj. They have now made the Sudan home and constitute a large portion of the population of the Sudan usually referred to as “Fellata”. The Al jazirah scheme contributes more than 50% to the economy of the Sudan. Imagine what we can do if our surplus and underutilized labour is harnessed for cotton production on irrigated farms to satisfy our domestic textile need and for export.

    Read Also: Nigerians hail Senate over proposed five-year ban on textiles

    Countries like India, China, the USA and Great Britain itself started their journey of industrialization from the textile industry. At the onset of industrialization in the USA, cotton based on unpaid free black labour was king. Industrial Britain grew from its textile mills in Lancashire before the development of heavy industries in Birmingham. The reason for this is that the machines needed for textile mills were not as complex as those of heavy industries. Imagine if Nigeria can provide all her textile needs for everything from what we wear to furnishings, the number of millions of our people who will be in gainful employment. There are probably more than 150 million people who will need clothes of different types. Millions of school children who will need uniforms. The police, customs, immigration and the military and other uniformed forces would need to be provided for. What about beddings, window blinds, flags and so on. Imagine the millions of tailors who will find jobs working for fashion houses or for themselves. We have this blessing of a huge market. What seems absent and missing is somebody or government to mobilize our people to translate the latent force in our country to economic reality. Imagine if we ban importation of all textiles and force ourselves to rely on and use what we have. Within 10 years, we will be one of the strongest economies in the world and we will not have to beg Donald Trump to extend the AGOA (African Growth and Opportunity Act) put in place by the Clinton administration to encourage African countries to export their products to the USA under most favorable terms.

    I am not suggesting a policy of autarky.  Why not? China closed its borders for more than a decade before joining the global economy as a force to be reckoned with. In terms of purchasing power parity China is the biggest economy in the world today. Of course with our known slothfulness and celebration of ethnicity, mediocrity rather than meritocracy, we do not have the discipline needed to leapfrog from the economic doldrums we find our country to a modern economy. But in the advancing world of knowledge economy and moving away from dependence on hydrocarbons as sources of energy, we will soon find out we have no economy unless we mobilize to prepare for a future which will need less of our oil and gas because of their deleterious and abusive impact on the environment causing severe strain on global climate.

    Since our avowed aim is to diversify our economy away from oil and gas and to replace it with agriculture and other sustainable industries, textile industries fit appropriately our strategy. Firstly, most of the textile mills are state corporations owned and even where there are substantial foreign participation in ownership there should be no hindrance in local buy in through the stock exchange. There may even be the need to build new mills if the old ones are too decrepit that it will be waste of resources repairing them. By now we ought to have learnt our lessons from the perennial waste of millions of dollars on petroleum refineries that should have been sold or scrapped a long time ago but still continue to guzzle millions of dollars because of deep state corruption. We can also learn from the Al jazirah scheme in the Sudan by government getting directly involved in the production of cotton for home industries and export of its surplus. Where there are individual farmers growing the stuff, government particularly state governments and not the federal government should provide loans to assist them. This may also be the time to bring back the old cotton commodity board to guarantee fixed and profitable prices to producers so that they would not be faced with gyration of prices which may discourage farmers.

    What one has suggested for cotton can also apply to cocoa, rubber, palm oil and palm kernel, groundnuts, Shea butter, cashew, maize, sugar cane and soya beans. We ought to have a policy of adding value to our agricultural products. We have the land and water and abundant sunshine; all we need to do is put our thinking caps on and make what potentialities given to us by God come into reality.

    As JF Kennedy the former president of the USA famously said “The work of government will not be finished in one administration and not even in our own, but let us begin”.

    This is my charge to this current administration at the federal and state levels

  • Letter to Niger State governor

    Sir: I wish to draw your attention to the deplorable state of virtually all the major roads in our beloved Niger State. The roads have not only become death-traps, they are now labelled ‘killer abattoirs’. It is now a suicidal mission for motorists to ply the crater-riddled and gully-infested roads. They are highways many commuters terribly dread with passion. Yes, I mean the popular Bida-Minna, Mokwa-Tegina, Minna-Suleja, and Suleja-Lambatta-Bida roads, among other notable intra-state roads.

    Not too long ago, federal lawmakers from the state decried the appalling state of road infrastructure particularly the ‘Trunk A’ roads which have all become death traps.

    This, they noted have led to avoidable road mishaps, resulting in deaths and fatal injuries. The members added that the ugly situation has also made road users vulnerable to terror-inducing gunmen, aside the bad roads causing enormous damage to vehicles.

    According to the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), about 147 people lost their lives and 915 persons were injured in 361 road accidents in the state, between January and September 2016. The FRSC equally added that 197 deaths were recorded in no fewer than 516 road crashes in 2017. It also revealed that last year alone, 476 crashes claimed 289 lives. These are frightening statistics to say the least.

    One recalls that angry Minna youths had in October paralyzed economic activities in the town during which they demanded an urgent rehabilitation of the Suleja-Minna road. The protesters completely barricaded the road as they prevented vehicles from moving in and out of Minna. They carried placards with various inscriptions as they chanted anti-government slogans to express their displeasure.

    Barely two months after the protest march, it seems little or zero progress has been recorded in terms of properly, and permanently fixing the roads. The roads are still nightmares for motorists and commuters.

    Read Also: Riot as FUTMinna students take on tanker driver, community

     

    Dear Governor, it is pointless to assert that having a functional road infrastructure will be a catalyst for the economic transformation of Niger State. Already, commercial bus operators are incurring unnecessary expenditure (from their meagre income) in servicing their vehicles damaged by the bad roads. While it is gratifying that you restricted heavy duty trucks and haulages vehicles from plying some of the roads, it is imperative that the state government evolve an effective mechanism to evaluate ongoing rehabilitation works on the spoilt and damaged roads. This will ensure that shoddy works are not done and quality compromised by the contractors.

    Finally, you led a high-powered delegation of eminent Niger State’s personalities to visit President Muhammadu Buhari sometime in November 2018. If I may recall, an appeal to the federal government to speedily rehabilitate the Trunk A roads in the state was the major item on the card during that epochal solidarity visit to the Villa. But it is now a year after, and we all know what the federal roads have transformed into. It is not the kind of transformation the people of Niger State truly covet. We want the roads to get a deserving and comprehensive facelift. You may wish to remind the president of his assurance and pledge to fix federal government-owned roads in the state. But it is equally pertinent that all the Trunk B roads are earnestly fixed by your administration. You stand to get the credit not only now, but also in the distant future. And not only by history, but by posterity.

     

    • Shuaibu Usman Aisha, IBB University Lapai. 

     

  • Tears for Salome Abuh

    Sir: Politics is the struggle for power. But the sweetness of power can sometimes be a curse. It is evident in in the needless loss of lives and ruptured peace occasioned by the do or die philosophy of a great number of players of the game of politics during electioneering.

    Of course it is understandable, especially when winning a governorship or presidential election, for example, is synonymous with grabbing the ticket to be immersed in an ocean of stupendous wealth and almost limitless powers. Let pauperised Nigerians sing songs of lamentation till thy kingdom come; you are pampered in and out of office because our laws have engineered it to be so. It somewhat explains why decency often takes flight when those  deemed as the quintessence of honesty and godliness capture power. At least, the pursuit and acquisition of power have over the years revealed the true colours of some Nigeria’s political gods.

    Right was Abraham Lincoln when he quipped, “Nearly all men can stand adversity but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” But, away from power and the crooked ways of the men that wield it, the struggle for power is hardly devoid of heart rending violence in this part of the world.

    From the First Republic to the Fourth Republic, especially the latest addition to the gory tales of electoral violence in Nigeria- the Kogi/Bayelsa election- nothing appears to have changed. Even before the aforementioned election, ominous signs pointing to the possibility  of violence were writ large. The burnt Social Democratic Party’s secretariat in Kogi and the murder of Simon Onu, a van driver with Radio Bayelsa, among other pestilential stories, proved a dress rehearsal of what to expect at the polls.

    Palpable fear became an unwanted companion of not just the electorate but Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and civil society groups as they trumpeted their concerns about the impending war. Yes, war! Or, how else does one describe what was supposed to be a simple process of selecting leaders that turned children orphaned, husband and wives widowed?

    Read Also: Salome Abuh, and the cost of a Nigerian life

     

    With the rain of bullets in all directions, wanton destruction of lives and property, it would not be out of place to state that we asked for an election but got war instead. Ordinarily, with the deployment of 66,241 personnel in Kogi and Bayelsa alone to cover every terrain as claimed by the police, it should be expected that merchants of evil were in for a tough time for they would have no breathing space. But no, the police would later give excuses why miscreants and fake police had a field day.

    Sadly, what can best be described as the height of man’s inhumanity to man played out in Kogi when thugs suspected to be loyal to a political party burnt a PDP women leader, Mrs Salome Abuh, alive in her home, leaving only ashes and skull for her family to recover.

    It is apposite to state that Madam Salome was someone’s mother, wife and relative before the ones who sold their conscience to the devil struck. Her loved ones will now live with the psychological trauma accompanying her death knowing that the one that once symbolised joy, light and hope was reduced to mere ashes and a burnt skull!

    Why must elections almost always yield death certificates? Why must elections precipitate a harvest of tears, sorrow and blood? Without any particle of doubt, if there is one thing  the murder of Madam Salome has once again established, it is the hypocrisy in high places and the scant regard for human life in this part of the world.

    Despite the irregularities, bloodletting, violence that characterised the Kogi and Bayelsa elections, President Buhari had congratulated the APC winners and told the losers to go to court, informing everyone that cared to listen that the elections were well run .Really? And, in what appears to be an afterthought, Buhari only found his voice to condemn the gruesome murder of Salome almost a week after the PDP politician was killed with an order to the police to fish out her killers. Miraculously, the police swung into action, and in less than 48 hours, six suspects were arrested.

    Was someone actually waiting for a presidential order to perform their statutory duty?

    While the beads of tears for Citizen Salome still flow, we must expedite the process of amending the Electoral Act to check the spate of electoral malfeasance and violence during elections, which, sadly, have become a recurring decimal. Election should be what it is – election. Not war.

     

    • Ladesope Ladelokun,

     ladesopeladelokun@gmail.com