Author: The Nation

• Federal Govt is under obligation to ensure its officials comply with court orders

Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, has again been committed to a correctional centre for contempt of court. This is the second time within a few months, even though he was eventually discharged of the first committal. While we understand that his office exposes him to multiple court cases, we are concerned that he has become a serial contemnor, and that is bad for the image of the organisation he leads.

Justice R. O. Ayoola of the Kogi State High Court granted the application for committal of Bawa to a correctional centre, for disobeying a court ruling delivered on November 30, 2022. One Ali Bello had dragged the EFCC and Bawa to court for unlawful arrest and detention by the commission, and the court ruled in his favour. Three days after, the commission, instead of releasing him, charged him for money laundering. An application by it to set aside the ruling or stay of execution was refused by the court. 

Irked by the further detention, Mr Bello filed Form 49, the “Notice to Show Cause Why Order of Committal should not be made” against a contemnor. The court summoned Bawa to appear on January 18, 2023, to justify why he should not be committed for flouting the order of the court. In the ruling in favour of Mr Bello, the court held the detention was unlawful, unconstitutional, and in contravention of the personal liberty and dignity of the applicant, under Chapter IV of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

Since the EFCC could not justify the detention, the court ordered the EFCC and Bawa, who are the first and second respondents in the suit, to tender an apology to Mr Bello in a national newspaper and pay him N10 million in damages.

In November, last year, Justice Chizoba Oji held the EFCC chairman in contempt of court, following a Motion on Notice filed by Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Rufus Adeniyi Ojuawo, the former Director of Operations at the Nigeria Air Force (NAF).

In that application, AVM Ojuawo complained that the EFCC refused to obey the order of the court to release his seized property, a Range Rover and the sum of N40 million. The court however rescinded the order after the EFCC showed that it had paid the judgment debt and was planning to release the vehicle as ordered by court. It is worrisome that other important high officials of this administration have been held contemptuous of court in the past year.

For example, IGP Usman Alkali Baba, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), last November, was convicted of contempt by the Federal High Court, presided over by Justice Mobolaji Olajuwon, and he was ordered to be remanded in prison until he purged himself. Similarly, the Chief of Army Staff, General Farouk Yahaya, was committed to Minna Correctional Centre for contempt in October, 2022, by Justice Halima Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court, sitting in Minna.

Even though these warrants were subsequently set aside, none of the contemnors was ever arrested and remanded in correctional centres as ordered by the courts. Perhaps that explains the increasing cases of contempt of the court. President Muhammadu Buhari’s government may have set the standards being followed by the officials, as witnessed in the case of El Zakzaki and Nnamdi Kanu. We condemn the disregard for rule of law by governments and her officials.

We urge the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami SAN, as the chief law officer of the Federal Government to advise the concerned officials to avoid contemptuous conducts, and where warrants are issued against them, they should be executed to serve as a lesson to others.

• We look forward to a more vibrant NLC now that the warring factions have come together

If only because of the popular saying that “united we stand, divided we fall,” we welcome the end of the crisis that polarised the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in 2015. The country’s central labour union split into two following controversies that marred the 2015 election of its principal officers. One faction was led by Ayuba Wabba who was the national treasurer until the controversial 2015 election in which he emerged president, while the other was led by Joe Ajaero, General Secretary of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE). The Ajaero-led faction eventually formed the United Labour Congress (ULC), with over 25 affiliates including some aggrieved affiliates of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), on December 18, 2016.

According to one of the labour leaders: “We want to build a very strong labour centre and the issue of trying to go around the election. You know what happened in 2015 and we are trying to avoid that.

“All of us have agreed that we must not allow that to happen again. It was a big lesson and that is why we have agreed now. It took us six months to discuss and reach this consensus list.”

The list included Ajaero who was nominated for national president. Those nominated for the position of Deputy National President are Prince Adeyanju Adewale of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria; Audu Amba, Nigeria Union of Teachers and Kabiru Sani, Medical and Health Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) while the President of Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees, Ambali Olatunji was nominated for National Treasurer.

Others nominated for the position of Vice President are: Benjamin Anthony, Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE); Stephen Okoro, National Union of Civil Engineering, Construction, Furniture and Wood Workers (NUCECFWW). Michael Nnachi, National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) and Wole Sunday, Nigeria Civil Service Union (NCSU) were nominated for the position of Vice President. Marwan Adamu of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) was nominated for the position of financial secretary.

It was this consensus list that the workers took to the 13th national delegates conference, which took place in Abuja on February 8. Mercifully, the list was ratified, thus drawing the curtains on the eight years rift caused by the 2015 election.

Three others who were sworn in with the new executive members of the congress were Williams Akporeha, national trustee, Babatunde Olatunji, Mohammed Ibrahim and Haruna Ibrahim, internal auditors, as well as two ex-officio members.

We welcome the decision of all the parties to come together again.  We are particularly happy that they realised the need for unity in the labour circle, particularly at this point in the country’s history.

So many things are happening simultaneously requiring the attention of pressure groups to speak up in order to act as checks and balance on our respective governments. The most current is the Naira redesign that has thrown the entire country into panic as a result of an acute scarcity of the new notes. Labour ought to be in the vanguard of the criticism of the policy not only because it hurts the economy but also because many of its members and their defendants are adversely affected by it.

However, it must be noted that we are not necessarily advocating an adversarial relationship between labour and employers of labour and government. Rather, we are looking at the kind of relationship that would embrace constructive criticism with a view to ensuring good governance. Gone were those days when strike should be a weapon of first instance by workers. Governments can easily get away with blue murder in the absence of structures that should act as watchdogs and blow the whistle when they are derailing.

We recall with nostalgia, the role that the NLC played in the days of Hassan Sunmonu, among others. It is still possible for the NLC to reenact such constructive engagements that would make government respect the labour union, not necessarily fear it.

We urge the Ajaero-³ed NLC to learn from the mistakes of some of the labour leaders of the past. NLC, even when it was a formidable entity, had its own shortcomings. Ajaero is not new in the congress. He should therefore, avoid pitfalls of the past and determine to create for himself a place in history now that he has the opportunity of leading the congress.

We commend all those involved in bringing peace back to the congress and hope that Ajaero would live to expectations in the discharge of his duties.