The Nation Newspaper

Author: The Nation

  • ‘Government aware of hardship’

    By Musa Odoshimokhe

     

    House of Representatives member Ganiyu Johnson has said the National Assembly will continue to give priority to national budget to prevent delay in its implementation.

    He added that it was uneconomical to pass budget mid way into the budget year. He said 2020 budget was quickly passed in view of the urgent need to better the lives of the people.

    The lawmaker who spoke to reporters during the second phase of the ‘Johnson Food for All’ at the All Progressives Congress (APC), Oshodi-Isolo Constituency office, Lagos said government would work to make life better.

    He said the National Assembly would meet the deadline, adding that it would expedite action.

    He said what they wanted to achieve was to ensure that some of the capital projects were done, noting that it would not make sense to release the budget half way into the budget year.

    According to him, since legislators started work on the budget early enough, they should be able to accomplish the objective, stressing that government was poised to deliver the dividends of democracy.

    He noted that the essence of the quick consideration by the 9th Assembly was to meet the aspirations of Nigerians.

    The former Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure in Lagos State explained that government was aware  there was hunger in the land, adding that this was the reason for the programme.

    Read Also: ‘2020 budget ‘ll be implementable’

     

    He said the deplorable  condition of Lagos roads has been brought to the fore at the lower chamber of National Assembly.

    Johnson said the climatic change made it impossible for road construction to commence, adding that construction could not be done during rainy season.

    He maintained that asphalt would not  last when used during the rainy season, stressing that the Lagos State government was ready to construct and rehabilitate the roads.

    He appealed to Lagosians to exercise patience with Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, noting that, in the next four weeks when the weather would have been favourable, work would commence on Lagos roads in earnest.

     

  • Ondo 2020: Atolagbe for governor

    From Damisi Ojo, Akure

    Action Alliance (AA) party leaders have met in Oka and Isua in Akoko South West  and East Federal Constituency of Ondo State to strategise on how the party will win next year’s governorship poll.

    The Chairman, Akitan Richard, said they converged to  start preparation and build formidable structures in all the 18 local government areas.

    He said AA is the only hope of the common people, stressing that they are working assiduously to take the mantle of leadership in the state.

    Commenting on the last election, the party described its performance as wonderful, despite the late preparation,  especially in Akoko Southwest/Southeast Constituency where Dr Victor Ategbole came second in the election with narrow margin.

    Read Also: Edo 2020: APC, PDP in turmoil over guber race

     

    The party described the AA candidate in Akoko Southwest/Southeast, Ategbole as a selfless, large hearted man, who plays  politics of benevolence.

    They added that his resilience, loyalty and humility had added an impetus to the party.

    The party, however, expressed hope that Ategbole would emerge victorious in the election.

    Sources hinted that Oka people have been regretting their actions that many indigenes failed to   come out to vote massively for him during the last election.

    The AA candidate won in Akoko South East Local government and more than two-third of the 15wards in Akoko South West local government. But, an unexpected 6000 votes from Oba-Akoko neutralised his fortune and gave a narrow edge to APC in the constituency.

    They pledged to support Ategbole in any future election as their representative because of his credibility.

     

  • Bello’s journey to second term

    Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello has been declared winner of last weekend’s poll. His main opponent, Musa Wada of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has vowed to challenge the results at the tribunal. Correspondent  JAMES AZANIA writes on the governor’s journey to the second term.

     

    Even before the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Governor Yahaya Bello winner of the weekend election in Kogi State, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Musa Wada, had rejected the likely outcome.

    Bello scored 406, 222 votes. Wada polled 189, 704 votes, while Natasha Akpoti of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) came a distant third with 9, 482 votes.

    The Kogi State Governership Election Collation Officer and Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Prof. Ibrahim Garba, announced the result on Monday at the INEC office in Lokoja, after receiving results from the last two local government areas.

    About 25 political parties contested the election.

    The PDP agent at the collation centre, John Agada, who had challenged  results from the LGAs, declined to sign the final result, saying it was not a true reflection of the exercise.

    Accompanied by his running mate, Hon. Sam  Aro, Wada, during a press conference, in Lokoja, on Sunday, even while collation of results from the 21 LGAs was ongoing, alleged that the results were falsified.

    He said what happened over the weekend was neither democracy nor a reflection of the wishes of the electorate.

    He lamented that the police colluded with INEC to undermine the will of the people.

    He said there is no need for election, “if Okene that had forty thousand accredited voters, now came up with a hundred and twelve thousand.”

    He described it as a sad day for Kogi people who he said are in mourning mood.

    “Do you see anybody rejoicing? Is this how it is the day after a true victory? It is not about me here. It is about the long suffering people of the state who have been under bondage in the last four years.

    “I won this election free and fair. Just imagine that they leave out the rigged election of Okene, Okehi and several cases of brutality meted on our supporters, and the widely reported cases of ballot snatching, I would have won neatly,” he declared.

    Wada vowed to challenge the verdict at the tribunal.

    “The governorship election is not about me, but about another four years of misgovernance that would be midwifed by the APC. The results were already written, and is not a reflection of the people’s wishes,” he added.

    For the Kogi West Senatorial District rerun, INEC said it will announce the date for the supplementary.

    While Senator Smart Adeyemi (APC) polled 80,118 votes, Senator Dino Melaye (PDP) polled 59,548

    A winner was, however, not declared.

    The Returning Officer, Prof. Olayide Lawal, declared the rerun inconclusive. He said the supplementary election will be conducted in 53 polling units, with 46,127 registered voters expected to participate.

    Reactions trailed the declaration of Bello as the winner.

     

    ‘Governor Yahaya Bello had a total wide spread across the 21 LGAs in Kogi State. Even if you remove Okene vote from the total votes recorded for him, he will still have won the election’

     

    There was jubilation around the NTA roundabout, Paparanda Square area of the capital and some other places.

    Bello described his electoral victory as a reflection of true democracy.

    The governor in a statement by his Director on Media and Publicity, Kingsley Fanwo, said he is now spurred to do more for the people of the state who overwhelmingly re-elected him for a second term in office.

    He said: “This victory is for Kogi people that value true democracy. And, we can assure that Governor Bello will not abandon his campaign slogan, which expresses his desire to do more for Kogi people.

    “We thank Kogites who voted for us. We also thank Kogi people who did not vote for us; they have challenged the governor to do more for them to earn their confidence.

    “We urge the Peoples Democratic Party to act to exemplify the spirit of sportsmanship by accepting the verdict of Kogi people.

    “We also thank the party hierarchy for throwing their weight behind the governor.

    “We thank the Independent National Electoral Commission, security operatives and other public institutions for ensuring that the election was free, fair, credible and peaceful.

    “Governor Bello will do more for Kogi. Kogites will be better for it.”

    Read Also: Six things you should know about Yahaya Bello

     

    A former speaker of the House of Assembly, Abdullahi Bello, who hails from Kogi Central as the governor, said the victory can not be disputed.

    “Governor Yahaya Bello is our son. We’ve been politically oppressed with acute marginalization for too long by previous governments. You may recall the event of January 27, 2012 when I was Acting Governor, which was painfully denied by Ibro/Wada after three days.

    “This new Wada that was the candidate of the PDP told the whole world on an AIT interview that our votes from (Kogi) Central Senatorial District was inconsequential, and therefore, failed to campaign in our senatorial zone. These and many other factors made my people to come out to express their anger through the massive votes recorded in Okene and Adavi local governments, in particular.

    “Governor Yahaya Bello had a total wide spread across the 21 LGAs in Kogi State. Even if you remove Okene vote from the total votes recorded for him, he will still have won the election.

    “So, in this election, it was a pay back time, that it will be a practical lesson for those who erred in the past by the faulty assertions that only huge numbers can win elections. So many other factors could determine the emergence of victory and leadership, most importantly, Almighty God. This is our time as choosen by God Himself.

    He added: “The kind of physical development going on in the five LGAs in our home are unprecedented. And, we are the grateful and appreciative type. GYB, as popularly called and admired by his teeming followers, did much in other areas which made him popular.

    “When he led APC to over 85 percent victory in the 2019 general elections, some people thought that it was a fluke, but last Saturday’s election and it’s victorious outcome is pervasive and total. I have predicted this outcome many months back before the party primary election, that Governor Yahaya Bello will not only win the primary election, that he will win the main election convincingly.

    “I have witnessed history today, and I am grateful to God.I admonish all Kogi kind hearted leaders to rally round him as we prepare  for his second term in office. Kogi State will be more united under Governor Bello; his victory has simply signified the notion that any child of the common man from any part of Kogi State can aspire and be voted for as governor of our state.”

    But, the poll has been trailed by criticisms. Independent observer groups and civil society organisations (CSO), midway into the exercise on Saturday, condemned widespread  thuggery, voter intimidation and harrassment.

    To the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), suppression, votes buying and intimidation of observers and journalists characterised the elections.

    Idaya Hassan, Director, CDD, said the election was characterised by poor logistics arrangement, as materials and voting came late.

    She lamented that armed thugs were moving in vehicles, despite the official restriction of movement, adding that she  remained at a loss as to the authority under which the thugs were allowed to move.

    She said the CDD expressed its concerns before the election, explaining that the shortcomings cast a dent on the Kogi election.

    Hassan said despite several warnings to INEC and the influx of security agencies, the poll still failed.

    The Chairman, YIAGA Africa, Dr Hussaini Abdu, said he witnessed vote buying on a first hand basis at several polling units, while the police looked on. He said it appears “our politicians are trying to normalise it.”

    He added: “Reports on voter inducement and vote buying were observed across the LGAs. Specifically, YIAGA Africa received reports of voter inducement and vote buying in Adavi (PU 001 Afinorere), Ankpa (PU 010 Ward 01), Ibaji (PU 007 – Itale Iyanu Ward), Idah (PU 001 – Ugwod Ward), Yagba East (PU 01- Ward 08), Kogi KK (PU 005 – Ukwu Ward) and Ajaokuta (PU 005 – Deregulation Ward) LGA.

    “Voters were paid as much as N5,000 in some cases in exchange for their votes. At Aluaja,  Iyano Ward in Ibaji LGA, INEC officials were given N15,000 and security agents N5,000, to compromise the process.

    “Unknown men and party agents of some identified political parties were found to be attacking and intimidating voters in polling units of LGAs in Dekina (PU 017 – Ward 12 and PU 001 Yashi), Lokoja (PU 001 – Ward Council) Ofu (PU 005 – Ugwalawo Ward), Ankpa (Ojojwu Ward 3) and Igalamela/Odolu (PU 022 – Ward 8) LGA. WTA observers were beaten and their observation checklists destroyed and, in the process, degenerated to sporadic shooting in PU 027 – Ayingba Etiaga, Dekina LGA.

    With the contentious issues, yet at hand, the battle for supremacy for the most coveted state seat, may as well be shifted to the court arena.

     

    ‘But, the poll has been trailed by criticisms. Independent observer groups and civil society organisations (CSO), midway into the exercise on Saturday, condemned widespread  thuggery, voter intimidation and harrassment’

     

  • Tribunal upholds Taiwo’s election

    By Adeyinka Aderibigbe

    The House of Representatives Election Petitions Tribunal in Lagos State has upheld the election and re-run election of Kolawole Taiwo as the representative of  Ajeromi Ifelodun Federal Constituency.

    The Chairman of the three-man tribunal, Justice Hamidu Kunasa, dismissed the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the constituency, Rita Orji, challenging Taiwo’s election

    Taiwo is a member of the All Progressive Congress (APC).

    Justice Kunasa held that the basis on which Orji premised her allegations were largely invalid.

    He said INEC acted within the confines of constitutional frameworks in both the election of February 23, 2019 and the consequent supplementary election held on April 27, 2019.

    The tribunal faulted the petitioner for filing a petition at a court in Kubwa Abuja, on a post-election matter which is really a preserve of the tribunal.

    “The Kubwa Court’s stand is not binding on this court, we have jurisdiction”, he maintained.

    The tribunal also discountenanced the petitioner’s prayer to be declared winner of the said election as the grounds of argument were of no value.

    The tribunal absolved the first respondent ( INEC) of any involvement in corrupt practices in the conduct of the elections.

    According to Justice Kunasa, the Petitioner failed to prove any of the three counts. The tribunal upheld INEC’s decision that Taiwo was the validly elected member at the Federal House of Representatives for Ajeromi Ifelodun Federal constituency.

    Speaking after the judgment  INEC’s counsel, Mr. Tijani Ishola expressed satifaction with the tribunal’s decision.

    ”The laws are very clear with regards to election petitions and it is the duty of any party who alleges to prove his case.

    ”The tribunal has done justice by resolving all issues raised by the petitioner and the respondents and the beauty of election petitions in this case is that they look at the facts on ground and facts adduced by the party, so that at the end of the day, every party involved will believe strongly that Justice has been done.

    “In this our case, although it has taken us a long while, but we are glad that we are having the day and regardless of where the pendulum is swinging, judgment has been done.”

    Read Also: Tribunals dismiss election petitions against Ihedioha, Sule, Masari

     

    Taiwo expressed joy that the case had been laid to rest, adding that the better part of his time can now be devoted to thorough representation of the people of his constituency at the green chamber.

    “I give thanks and adoration to God, to God be all the glory and I want to thank the judiciary, this is the first time of having to face the judiciary after an election and I just need to thank them for being the last hope of the common man, I’m so happy and I thank my people.

    “ I am also  extend my hands of fellowship to my opponent that they should let us stop all these acrimony about the election. I lost election in 2015 so many people came to me that I should go to tribunal and that I’m going to get my mandate back.

    “I said ‘no’ nobody have taken me to court before election is won and lost and four years. Later I won election in one court or the other, I started from a normal court as if it is a pre-election matter for a post election matter which is wrong.

    ”Today I have passed through the tribunal and I give all thanks and adoration to God but I have stretched my hands of fellowship to them, let’s think more about Ajegunle.

    “This is the time for us to build our own constituency, it is an important time for reflection there are time for everything a time for election, a time to complain, a time to sow and a time to reap ,this supposed to be a time for us to reap and stop sowing I need to concentrate on what I am sent to the National Assembly”, he stated.

    He charged all parties to collaborate for the advancement of a glorious Ajegunle.

     

  • Experts decry law enforcement agents’ involvement in civil matters

    Stories by John Austin Unachukwu

     

    Why do some people court law enforcement agencies to resolve civil matters?

    Experts have blamed  the occurence on the poor attitude of some lawyers and limited capacity of the courts.

    They spoke at this year’s annual business luncheon, organised by the law firm of SPA Ajibade & Co, in Lagos.

    The theme of the event was: The courts vs law enforcement agencies, which one is better for the resolution of civil disputes?

    The participants listed the limited capacity of courts to enforce their decisions as one of the reasons.

    They also blamed lawyers for abandoning the courts and running to law enforcement agencies, especially the police, to resolve disputes for their clients through frivolous petitions.

    “In some cases, the lawyers are in the habit of seeking the services of the law enforcement agents, especially the police and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), for ordinary debt recoveries, instead of using  the law courts, for such civil obligations.

    “And because legal practitioners in Nigeria encourage the law enforcement agencies to take over the duties of the courts, the agencies overstep their bounds by arbitrarily somersaulting the rule of law and applying the rule of force.

    “When a complaint is made to them, instead of employing due process in unraveling the truth in the matter through investigation, arrest, detention and prosecution, they often times, apply brute force by beginning with arrest and detention before returning to investigate the complaint and by  so doing, they abuse the rights of citizens in the process.”

    Participants noted that law enforcement is under the executive arm of government, which now chooses which decisions of the courts to enforce, thereby emasculating the judiciary.

    The conferees noted that if this trend is allowed to fester, it portends a dangerous signal for the survival of democracy and the sustenance of the rule of law.

    They urged institutions like the National Judicial Council (NJC) and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to take severe disciplinary measures against judges who compromise their coveted positions and unscrupulous lawyers with the habit of subverting the course of justice by applying delay tactics to cases.

    Read Also: ‘Nigeria can’t afford a second civil war’

    They also recommended disciplinary action against lawyers who write frivolous petitions to law enforcement agencies and other institutions for monetary gains.

    The annual business luncheon was attended  by Justice Helen Ogunwumiju ( JCA), who represented the chaiman of the event, Justice Amina Augie (JSC). The lead speaker was a former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Lagos State, Mr. Olasupo Shasore (SAN).

    Other speakers were Justice Biobele A. Georgewill ( JCA),  the Special Adviser to Oyo State Governor on security matters, Mr. Fatai Owoseni and the current Chairman  NBA Lagos  branch, Mr. Lateef Omoyemi Akangbe.

    Former NBA President Mr. Austin Alegeh (SAN), Mrs. Funke Adekoya (SAN), a judge of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Port-Harcourt Division, who also doubles as a visiting judge to Lagos Division, Justice Nelson Ogbuanya, Chief Sena Anthony, among others.

  • Hate Speech Bill, a bad law

    Sir: Sometime last week, the 12th item on the Order Paper and was granted automatic first reading on the floor of the senate. The death penalty is the most severe punishment provided by the bill, which defines, hate speech as a comment that insults people for their religion, ethnic and linguistic affiliation, among others.

    It stipulates: “Any person who commits an offence under this section shall be liable to life imprisonment and where the act causes any loss of life, the person shall be punished with death by hanging.”

    On offences like harassment on the basis of ethnicity, racial contempt, the bill proposes not less than five-year jail term or a fine of not less than N10 million or both.

    “A person who uses, publishes, presents, produces, plays, provides, distributes and /or directs the performance of, any material, written and/or visual which is threatening, abusive or insulting or involves the use of threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour commits an offence if such a person intends thereby to stir up ethnic hatred, or having regard to all the circumstances, ethnic hatred is likely to be stirred up against any person or person from such an ethnic group in Nigeria.

    There will also be a commission on hate speech, which will be headed by an executive chairperson to be appointed by the president on the recommendation of the National Council of State, subject to the confirmation of at least two-thirds majority of the National Assembly.

    Other functions of the commission include discouraging persons, institutions, political parties and associations from advocating or promoting discrimination or discriminatory practices through the use of hate speeches; promoting tolerance, understanding and acceptance of diversity in all aspects of national life and encouraging full participation by all ethnic communities in social, economic, cultural and political life of other communities.

    It is also to plan, supervise, coordinate and promote educational and training programmes to create public awareness, support, and advancement of peace and harmony among ethnic communities and racial groups.

    Can we really separate hate speech from stereotypical speech At what point does hate speech become dangerous speech or inflammatory speech?

    Read Also: Senate and Hate-speech Bill

     

    Did you see the kind of hate speech that flew everywhere during the last general elections, and some people think that just by the fiat of some bill, we would change the fact that Nigerians do not just hate themselves but really love Nigeria; and that the problem is not exactly hate, but the fact that very little exists for them to love?

    I am not one of those that debate on the desirability of a law or otherwise, but I am concerned about the level of intellectualism, laced with common sense that precedes a bill, in such a manner that the everyday citizen understands the implication and believes that the bill is well thought and considerations are taken into account about where we are coming from and where we want to be.

    The emphasis on tribal and ethnic dialectics in the bill show that the crafters are lost on the real issues besetting the nation, a country where everything is shared on ethnic basis, catchment area, federal character, less advantaged and such terminology is a fertile ground for hate. A nation of WAZOBIA that neglects countless scores of minorities, a nation where majority fear minority and competition is based on faith cannot handle the sword of Damocles that the bill brings.

    Let me end in this manner: Have you ever sat in a beer parlour, or a newspaper vendor parliament?

    Do that on a weekly round, and you will hang communities of people. Have you listened to our opposition talk? Then there will be no opposition.

    Have you seen parents gloat over ethnic groups they would never allow their kids marry? Then you know that this coup called Hate Speech Bill is not in any way well thought out, lacks focus, and as such energies of those behind it should be channelled to more productive things.

     

    • Prince Charles Dickson, PhD

    pcdbooks@yahoo.com

  • Needless controversy over NDDC board

    Sir: What has been happening recently at the NDDC has been nothing short of embarrassing, even bewildering to most neutral observers in the country. A few weeks after President Buhari nominated members of the governing board of the agency and submitted their names to the senate for clearance, Chief Godswill Akpabio, the minister of the Niger-Delta ministry announced and “swore in” what was rumoured to be his hand-picked favourites to operate an interim management system in the NDDC.  Several days after Akpabio’s daring, the senate screened and confirmed the NDDC board members duly sent to it by the president for confirmation. And the instruction of the senate was very clear: “Go and resume duty immediately.”

    And here the questions and confusion began. Why did Akpabio inaugurate a three-man management committee to oversee NDDC when President Buhari had already nominated people into the NDDC board to manage the same agency? Why was Akpabio in a hurry to “swear” them in? The search for the answers to these questions has left Niger-Deltans and indeed many Nigerians baffled, even dejected, and have portrayed President Buhari and APC in bad light. The word on the street is that President Buhari is not in control of what is happening in his administration, so, strong-willed ministers like Akpabio are attempting to manipulate their way and circumvent the rules to ensure the promotion of their personal agenda, instead of the collective policy of the administration. And talking about rules, while clearing the newly confirmed board of the NDDC, the senate pointed out that the laws governing the establishment and operation of the Niger Delta Development Commission did not allow for an interim management committee once there is a duly confirmed management board in place as we have presently. The arguments, counter-arguments and confusion continue.

    In light of the circumstances, President Buhari will need to step forward immediately and resolve this logjam for very serious reasons. There have been reports of confusion and tension at the NDDC headquarters in Port-Harcourt where the Akpabio inaugurated interim management committee members are said to be facing-off with the President Buhari-nominated and senate-confirmed management board led by Dr Pius Odubu and Mr Bernard Okumagba. Even in the creeks and estuaries of the region, harsh words are beginning to emerge in support or against the interim committee or the management board. This is a region filled with dry gunpowder and it would take little to ignite it into a consuming conflagration that might hurt oil production and consequently, government revenue.

    Read Also: NDDC and the new realities

     

    The question must be asked that if sometime in the future, the duly nominated and confirmed board led by Dr Odubu and Okumagba will be allowed to take control and operate the agency, why not effective immediately? The so-called interim management committee would have to be paid probably hundreds of millions of naira for hotel bills, allowances and salaries to oversee the audit of the agency, when in actual fact, several notable accounting firms have already been contracted to do the auditing. In other words, the members of the interim management committee are not doing the audit. Moreover, none of the members of the newly confirmed management board served in NDDC previously, so, they have no conflict of interest. Therefore, it seems that there is no single logical impediment to the board assuming office immediately and working with the auditing firms to unravel the alleged robberies said to have been going on in the NDDC. It is simply not financially prudent to run this interim management committee now, then inaugurate the board management three or six months down the road. Sustaining this charade would leave critics and observers asking: Where is the Buhari much-touted financial prudence?

     

    • Onyeka Ibe,

    Abuja.

  • Hate speech? Not part of the hysteria

    Trust Nigeria: that well-hyped, well-crafted liberality, may well be well-shrouded, self-serving impunity!

    After former CJN Walter Onnoghen’s scandal broke, what gored a SAN most was not a judicial high priest that allegedly smudged his immaculate cloak, but  the “outrage” of docking a sitting CJN.

    “How can they,” he fumed, “dock the CJN?”

    “Why not?” Ripples countered. “Is he above the law?”

    That brought the learned SAN thudding hard on grim reality.  But it never cured him of his professional conceit that the CJN should be above the law — the same law that created his office and, by that special grace, vaulted him over and above every other citizen, when interpreting the law was the question.

    That hubris all but played out thereafter, with the futile legal rally that the CJN should shun appearing before the Code of Conduct Tribunal, until its chairman read the riot act and things got rather nasty.

    ASUU, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, just essayed its own grandstanding; pushing a divine right to decide how its employer must pay it, because thanks to “university autonomy”,  its members are exceptional minds, too superior to be paid, from the same salary framework, as other plebs!

    What’s that — liberal fascism?

    A similar conceit is playing out in the media, regarding hate speech; and the clearly draconian bill, now in the mill, to stamp it out.

    Forget the pro- and anti-hate speech bill arguments, the opening gambit by the ace democratic liberals and champions of free speech, would appear media exceptionalism — not unlike the legal exceptionalism that landed the former CJN in so much grief.

    But again, beyond ideological passion, which many times is herd mentality rather than hard, rigorous reason, such exceptionalism is clearly illogical.  You cannot claim because you distil free speech, you are free of the laws that guide that territory.

    Even with celestial perfectness, isn’t order the first law in heaven?  How much less then on earth, with folks’ penchant to bait the extreme?

    Make no mistake: the hate speech bill is following all the wrong path, in tackling a serious problem.  No matter how grievous a matter is — and hate speech is grievous — you don’t frame law, or any public policy, on sheer emotions.

    If you did, you risked not giving it the full, rigorous and concentrated thinking it deserved, since anger or outrage tends to freeze your thinking.  That is the flaw of the sponsor of that bill.  His anger tends to consign it to death on arrival.

    But that a bill’s sponsor is clinically challenged does not vitiate the need, nay the imperative, to deal with the problem.  Indeed, resorting to media hysteria to push “free speech” at any cost, is no less critically challenged as the bill itself is.

    There certainly can’t be free hate speech!

    So, the drama playing out is emotion versus emotion: Sabi Abdullahi, senator and sponsor of the hate speech bill, is so incensed he wants to play the Nigerian modern day legislative Draco — death for hate speech, well, if it causes the death of another!

    But his critics too are in a huff, too incensed by his draconian temper; puffing hot smoke, in a fit of democratic rage!

    Both sides betray different sides of patriotic arrogance that leaves the pressing problem unsolved.  That, for the polity, could be fatal.  That is why there must be a third way, rooted in cold reason.

    At the end of the day, the starting point is taking responsibility.  That is trite in speech; as it is in every other sphere of life.

    In John Milton’s Paradise Lost, a voice in the epic poem grumbled that God ought to have willed Adam from straying from Eden and dooming mankind.  But another voice countered: God has given Man free will.  Still, however Man exercises this will, he must stand by the consequences.  That also goes for free speech.

    That is the point the willy-nilly champions of free speech are fleeing from, flaunting the rich lather of ideologue sentiments, hoping that would cover the void.  It won’t — at least with the acute.

    Indeed, taking responsibility for his freedom is what Man has fled from, since the fall of Adam.

    Read Also: ‘Hate speech death penalty antithetical to development’

     

    Sigmund Freud, in psychoanalysis, demonstrates the uneasy balance between the “id” (the raw intent to do anything), the “ego” (the inherent check against raw intents) and the “super ego” (societal sanctions against misbehaviour, should self-restraint fail).

    Even the Social Contract, the basic theory undergirding the pristine state, is also a bulwark against man’s seeming natural extremity, in his relationship with peers.  The threat of the mighty crushing the weak made the state imperative — an agency to moderate behaviours and impose order.

    But again, in a modern democratic state, the debate is not about free speech.  That is settled, with any democratic constitution, worth its name.

    What is not settled is possible abuse — by the state, particularly by its unscrupulous agents, pushing back the frontiers of citizen liberty.  That appears the angst of the media and other free speech champions, in this present push, to tackle hate speech.  That fear is real, particularly with Nigeria’s past nasty experience with military rule.

    But ample abuse also comes from citizen beneficiaries, who hide behind free speech to press their democratic right of pushing out free hate speech!

    That is clear from too many social media posts. That free speech champions are deliberately coy about this menace shows the deliberate fraud in their own impassioned campaigns, for the so-called “free society”.  That is nothing but tragic romance — at least from the Rwanda experience.

    Rwanda!  Had the Rwandan genocide of 1994 come some 20 years later, Ripples wagers, with the present social media penetration, Rwanda would perhaps have become the first modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah — completely razed by hate, if not by sexual decadence.

    Which country could have survived the Rwanda “cut down the tall trees!”, pass through the cold and ubiquitous social media, and yet live to tell the tale?

    Just as well: Rwandans appear less gung-ho about democratic rights, which President Paul Kagame abuses with gusto!  Hutu-on-Tutsi hate, which snowballed into genocide, left a harsh existential mark: you must be alive, before claiming democratic rights!

    Still, many in the Nigerian rights lobby still tingle with philosophical anarchy — limitless rights and zero government control — much as the English metaphysical poet, John Donne, announced his triumphant shutting out of the sun, “with a mere wink”, in his poem “Sun Rising”.

    Intellectual anarchy is gripping and exciting.  It makes the mind soar!  But physical anarchy is sobering stuff: the unbridled push of rights that alters the societal balance and peaks in avoidable tragedy.  That starts with hate speech.

    Hate speech is an existential menace.  Not even media hysteria can wish away that acute danger. Which is why the state and the rights lobby must partner to get rid of it.

    The earlier both sides quit grandstanding and got to serious business, the better for everyone.

    At least, Nigeria has Rwanda’s experience to learn from.

  • Bloodthirsty senate?

    What is driving our distinguished senators to propose capital punishment for an offence, which to a large extent is a common pastime for many Nigerians? Could it be a way of paying Nigerians back, for their stringent objection to the criminal enrichment going on in the national assembly, by way of unconstitutional emoluments? Or perhaps, the senators hope that if the law if passed, it will silence Nigerians who have been abusing them for failing to make appropriate laws that could lift the country from the prevalent economic quagmire.

    Without equivocation, the bill on hate speech before the senate, which has passed first reading, and which provides for death penalty, is an overkill. In some instances it may amount to a capital punishment for an offence with a nebulous presumption of guilt. For instance, does it amount to hate speech to stringently denounce a public official who has misappropriated the resources put in his care, and ostensibly use it for self-aggrandizement? Will a caller for civil disobedience face death penalty if the people angrily riot and the police in quelling the riot use life bullet on the demonstrators, resulting in the death of a citizen?

    Again, when frustrated citizens from one tribe call citizens from another tribe names, which inflame passion, and in a roforofo arising therefrom, somebody dies, will the police be entitled to seek out those they believe started the quarrel and ask for death penalty when they are charged to court for hate speech? Furthermore, will political and socio-cultural leaders who have threatened and boasted severally that their tribesmen don’t forgive an offence against their cattle, be eligible to face death penalty for the many deaths traceable to those they defend?

    How would the law exhaustively define hate speech? Will the usual abuse that happen in a danfo bus or molue be treated as a hate speech? Will the regular abuse between neighbours in the ‘face me I face you’ living quarters, when passions are inflamed, during which they mutually haul abusive words to members of each other’s tribe and even dead parents, be treated as hate speech? Will it amount to hate speech, to say that the Deputy Chief Whip of the senate, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, who sponsored the bill, is a woeful failure in the senate?

    Will it amount to hate speech to tell the electorates in Niger state to recall Senator Abdullahi, and vote in a more serious person who will be concerned about their welfare, instead of an extremist law on hate speech? Will it amount to hate speech to speculate on constituency projects since the details of the work, the project costs, and the beneficiary of the usually over-bloated contract, are shrouded in secrecy? Will it amount to hate speech to speculate on the health condition of a public official, who goes abroad on a medical tourism with public funds, but refuses to disclose his medical challenge publicly?

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    Of note, the criminal code provides in section 59(1) as follows: “Any person who publishes or reproduces any statement, rumour or report which is likely to cause fear and alarm to the public or to disturb the public peace, knowing or having reason to believe that such statement, rumour or report is false shall be guilty of a misdemeanour and liable on conviction, to imprisonment for three years.”

    The Code further provides in sub-section 2: “It shall be no defence to a charge under the last preceding subsection that he did not know or did not have reason to believe that the statement, rumour or report was false unless he proves that, prior to publication, he took reasonable measures to verify the accuracy or such statement, rumour or report.” At the level of public interest, the above provision to a large extent deals with the scourge of our time, the plague of fake news and hate speech.

    To protect the individual reputation, the Criminal Code provides on the law of defamation, which is defined in section 373, thus: “Defamatory matter is matter likely to injure the reputation of any person by exposing him to hatred, contempt, or ridicule, or likely to damage any person in his profession or trade by an injury to his reputation.” While the punishment for publication of defamatory matter is one year imprisonment, publication of defamatory matter with intent to extort is seven years.

    Away from criminal law, there is the tort of Defamation, which deals with libel and slander, both of which protect the reputation of individuals from hate speech and allied fake news. In Ratcliffe vs Evans (1892) 2 QB 524 at 529-530, Bowen LJ, said thus: “Every libel is of itself a wrong in regard to which the law implies damages… Akin to action for libel are those actions which are brought for oral slander, where such slander consists of words actionable per se, and the mere use of which constitutes the infringement of the plaintiff’s right. The very speaking of such words, apart from any damage, constitutes a wrong and gives rise to a cause of action. The law in such a case presumes… general damages.”

    So, to a large extent, there are provisions in our laws, which can substantially deal with the scourge of fake news and hate speech, in a civilized manner. The problem with us is the lack of capacity to bring culprits to book, in accordance with the law. While no doubt, the birth of social media has made life miserable for high class individuals and public officials, especially those with a lot of skeletons in their cupboard, such challenge is not enough to seek to unnecessary abridge the right to be informed, guaranteed by the constitution.

    Section 39 of the 1999 constitution (as amended), without equivocation provides: “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without hindrance.” Of course, the above provision is not absolute, that is why the law criminalises wrong use of the right as criminal defamation, and punishes the pocket, when the right is recklessly exercised by way of damages in the tort of defamation. If we need to upgrade the punishment for the reckless exercise of the right to freedom of expression, it must never be the harsh proposals before the senate, clearly geared to scare the public from exposing the deep rooted abuse of power and corruption in high places.

    From hindsight, it is also fair to allege that the purveyors of the malice laden bills now before the senate, are preparing to corner the jobs that would come from the proposed National Commission for the Prohibition of Hate Speeches, for their wards and friends.

     

    ‘From hindsight, it is also fair to allege that the purveyors of the malice laden bills now before the senate, are preparing to corner the jobs that would come from the proposed National Commission for the Prohibition of Hate Speeches, for their wards and friends’

  • Lagos, menace of street trading and roadside parking

    By Tayo Ogunbiyi

     

    Street trading and roadside parking have for long been a major cause of traffic gridlock in Lagos State.

    There is, however, divergence of opinions on what should be the response of the state government to street trading, in particular.  Some are of the view that government should not enforce ban on street trading on the account that it is an integral part of African custom and tradition.

    Others see it as a manifestation of both poverty and underdevelopment while some others see it as a natural trend in every major city of the world. What those who hold this view, however, forget to add is that trade regulation and issuance of trade license is a standard practice in every civilized country of the world.

    It is, indeed, difficult to see how a phenomenon that promotes child trafficking, misuse of public open spaces, insecurity on the highways, environmental degradation and violation of human rights could be allowed to thrive in any modern society.

    This distasteful practice is now a common sight across the state with its attendant harsh and depressing implications on commuters and pedestrians movements. Since roads have suddenly become excessively narrow as a result of vehicles that are parked on either side of the roads, the safety of commuters and pedestrians become seriously compromised.

    ‘More organized parking and market facilities within Lagos state will not only prove to be an income generator, but such could also help in reducing traffic congestion which is partly caused by indiscriminate parking along the largely congested streets’

    Many have lost their lives while jogging or walking along the road. No thanks to roadside parking! Consequently, many who would have loved to engage in walking for pleasure and fitness have to think twice before engaging in such a risky venture.

    No matter how much energy that is put into courting foreign and local investments, the enabling environment must, first and foremost, be created before such investment could thrive. Traffic gridlock is, no doubt, bad for business. And roadside parking and street trading are partly responsible for most Lagos traffic gridlock.

    A study conducted by the Lagos State Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, LAMATA, has aid credence to this. The study reveals that no fewer than 10 vehicles vied for parking spaces every 10 seconds at every street in the state. This has often left all streets clogged with motor vehicles, with many being parked at the roadside, or on the walkways, while others had to make do with double parking, blocking on-coming vehicles leading to traffic jams especially at the peak hours.

    The study further states that the menace of street trading, especially by street hawkers, seriously complicates the traffic situation in the state. Despite the huge resources that the state government has committed into education, street trading partly contributes to low academic performance and outright school drop-out by children in the state.

    In a study carry out in Epe division of the state, among child traders, 70 per cent of them admitted that street trading had a negative effect on their reading schedule, while 79.2 per cent reported that it affected their school attendance rate. No responsible person should be happy seeing children in uniform or mufti hawking goods at hours when they ought to be in schools.

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    Many children have sustained lifelong injuries through street trading and hawking. Moreover, children who engage in hawking or other forms of hard labour may physically wear away before they actually reach the productive age in the economy. Many children had died as a resulting of hawking in traffics through accidents.

    With all the environmental menace and insecurity associated with street trading and roadside parking, it is quite obvious that it could birth other social and security problems.

    It is, therefore, essential for Lagosians to pay attention to government in its bid to rid the state of this evil duo. Our collective efforts should be geared towards ensuring a secure and safe Lagos that works for everyone.

    More investors need to support government through the construction of affordable markets and accessible car parks across the state. In the United States, for instance, the parking industry generates more than $25-30 billion in gross parking revenues. Also in South Africa, the parking industry contributes more than 8%to their gross domestic product, GDP.

    Undoubtedly, more organized parking and market facilities within Lagos state will not only prove to be an income generator, but such could also help in reducing traffic congestion which is partly caused by indiscriminate parking along the largely congested streets.

    If this is properly addressed, it will not only create an enabling environment for everybody to live, it will also improve the condition of living of everyone in the areas concerned.

    Perhaps, more importantly, every resident of the state must be ready to work with the government in ensuring that law and order are maintained in the state.

    A major difference between the animal kingdom and human societies is that the latter thrive on law and order. We must all be ready to abide by the laws of the land, and if there be anyone that contravenes the law, the law must take its full toll on such. We should not allow the inaction of a few people to continue to bring untold hardship on the majority.

     

     Ogunbiyi is of the Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos