The Nation Newspaper

Category: Monday

  • Who’s Afraid of W.S.? (2)

    The Eko Foundation bought a full page advertorial in The Punch last week. They raged and flailed at the issue I raised about Soyinka as chairman of the Lagos @ 50 Committee set up by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode. It was rage without rhythm. I advise the foundation to go for anger management counselling. After that, they can reply my column. They also tried to show their erudition with some white men’s quotes. I thought they were nativists, so why did they not quote only Lagos indigenes? They are waking up to the fact that this is a cosmopolitan world.

    They also turned themselves into advocates of Senior Advocates of Nigeria. So angry were they that they forgot to be their own advocates.

    After confessing innocence about impugning the stature of W.S., they could not reconcile that with disqualifying him from the committee. They had no logic to advance over “no Lagos house,” or my point that he reflected the “sights and sounds” of the city.

    They had ears or eyes, but they did not see and hear the performance of his play, The Beatification of The Area Boys. The high and low, including indigenes, saw the drama’s sights and sounds at the Freedom Park last year. Maybe the natives of Eko Foundation were out of town.

    My advice: since they have nothing to add to knowledge, they should keep mum.

  • A cross called concession

    Two major concession agreements and the disagreements about them highlight the major factors that militate against the success of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in the country.

    Ironically, the political factor facilitates and frustrates. The news that an Arbitration Tribunal reached a decision in favour of Resort International Limited, concessionaire of the Federal Secretariat Complex in Ikoyi, Lagos, shows that arbitration can tame arbitrariness. The relevant Development Lease Agreement (DLA), dated October 10, 2006, granted Resort International Ltd a 99 years’ lease to redevelop the disused Federal Secretarial Complex into 480 luxury apartments.

    Redevelopment work was disrupted by the Lagos State Government in September 2007 on the grounds that the land belonged to it and the area of Ikoyi where the secretariat is located was not meant for residential purposes based on its Ikoyi Model City Plan. This is what happens when a concession is not conceded by an interested party; it is understandable.

    The dispute, Resort International Ltd claimed at Arbitration, created a situation in which it suffered damages totalling N88 billion as a result of the breach of a clause of the DLA by the Federal Government. Fundamentally, the company argued, the Federal Government, as a condition of the DLA, was expected to facilitate a ‘No-Objection Approval’ from the Lagos State Government, given that it had ‘good title’ to the Complex and full power and legal authority to enter into the agreement. The objection of the Lagos State Government, therefore, meant that the Federal Government had failed to fulfill an essential aspect of the concession agreement.

    The Federal Government’s defence proved to be no defence and was regarded as such. It asserted that the undertaking to ‘facilitate’ a ‘No-Objection Approval’ was no more than an obligation to produce documents in support of the company’s application to the Lagos State Government. It also claimed ‘frustration’ of contract as a result of the subsequent promulgation of the Lagos State Model City Development Authority Law.

    Interestingly, the Tribunal ruled in favour of Resort International Ltd and declared that the Federal Government had failed in its obligations to the company under the DLA entered into by both parties.

    The Tribunal importantly observed: “…were it not for the default of the Respondent in facilitating the ‘No-Objection Approval’ and resolving the challenge to its title by the Lagos State Government, the contract between the parties would not have been frustrated…”

    This is the heart of the matter.  Political differences were at the centre of the conflict of interests that arrested the progress of the redevelopment project. At the time of the disruption, the then Federal Government and the then Lagos State Government were controlled by antagonistically different political parties and political forces. It remains to be seen how the matter will develop now that the two levels of government are controlled by one and the same party.

    The Tribunal awarded damages. A report said: “The totality of the awards means that as at January 2016, the Federal Government owed Resort International Limited the sum of N54 billion which continues to accumulate interest at 17.26 per cent per annum. The Tribunal also confirmed Resort International Limited’s title to the Federal Secretariat property.”

    It is useful to consider the backdrop. Resort International Ltd came into the picture following the movement of the seat of the Federal Government from Lagos to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, which necessitated the disposal of many of its assets. According to the Chairman, Bi-Courtney Group, Dr. Wale Babalakin, whose company won the concessional rights to the expansive secretariat complex, his company bid for the Federal Secretariat, Ikoyi, and won on September 28, 2006, after which the concession agreement was signed.

    Babalakin was a fitting speaker on the problematisation of public-private partnership in the country at last year’s Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja, where he shed some light on  his company’s experiences regarding the Murtala Mohammed Airport Domestic Terminal II, Federal Secretariat, Ikoyi, and Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

    It is noteworthy that his group is still controversially enmeshed in another major concession agreement concerning the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.  Babalakin said the Development Lease Agreement in respect of the Federal Secretariat, Ikoyi, had anticipated the possibility of interference by the Lagos State Government, noting that a clause required the Federal Government to facilitate the obtaining of a ‘No Objection Approval’ from the Lagos State Government to change the use of the premises from offices to residential apartments. According to him, demonstration flats had been prepared, with 50 percent of the flats already sold and payments received.

    Significantly, Babalakin listed the drawbacks to public-private partnership in Nigeria: the attitude of the government, lack of respect for sanctity of contracts and the rule of law, lack of investor security, corruption and malice. It goes without saying that any concessionaire faced with these troubles will have nightmares.

    Arguing for public-private partnership, the Bi-Courtney chief said such arrangement would enable the government to harness expertise and efficiencies associated with the private sector in the delivery of certain facilities and services traditionally reserved for the public sector. He listed the advantages: “This will bring about basic amenities that are normally government’s responsibility, thereby allowing the government to concentrate on vital areas; reduce government burden of seeking and providing capital investment; serve as source of revenue generation for government; and help to reduce corruption and bureaucracy in the procurement of social infrastructure in government agencies.”

    Babalakin continued: “Nigeria’s budget has been totally inadequate to fund the responsibilities of government, and the country has considerable infrastructure deficit due to age, increase in population and dwindling revenue base due to the fall in global oil price…I am reliably informed that our recurrent expenditure exceeds our total earnings. Elementary knowledge of economics tells us that this trend will invariably lead to disaster…Huge debt profiles of state governments have been accentuated by government participation in projects best left for the private sector. Bureaucracy in the public service hinders rapid development.”

    Indeed, there may be arguments to counter the views of this champion of public-private partnership who carries his cross with such conviction that deserves contemplation, but there is no argument against the documented success of the PPP model in the development of sectors such as energy, mining, transportation and telecommunications in other countries. The PPP approach, which the concession concept represents, cannot be reasonably discounted in a modern economy, especially considering reported examples in Western Europe and U.S.A. where private investors are involved in infrastructure development based on concession agreements.

    As long as the disagreement remains, the Federal Secretariat, Ikoyi, will remain an ugly testament to the forced failure of public-private partnership.

  • JAMB protests

    It is now clear all was not well with the conduct of the Unified Tertiary  Matriculation Examination (UTME) which was rounded off last week. If anything, pockets of protests across the country underscore vividly, the dissatisfaction of many of the candidates with the conduct and outcome of that examination.

    In Ilorin, Kwara state, scores of UTME candidates protested over alleged shoddy conduct of the examination which failed them for no fault of theirs. They complained of receiving different scores from text messages and printouts which in most cases reduced their scores by at least 40 marks. There were also issues bordering on computer malfunction, poor loading of questions and instructions that put some candidates at gross disadvantage.

    Some others especially those who took the examination in the first two days of its commencement complained of 40 marks awarded to some candidates as reflected in the disparities between the scores in text messages initially sent to them and the final printouts.

    In Lagos, the matter took a wider dimension as hundreds of candidates together with their parents and tutorial center operators went violent at the premises of the state house of assembly while protesting the outcome of the examination. They hauled pebbles at the gate of the assembly when no official was at hand to speak to them. Some were reportedly arrested. Their complaints were similar; some candidates had 40 marks added to their results while for others, there was a reduction by the same margin.

    JAMB has blamed the protests on education consultants whose Computer Based Test centers (CBT) were disqualified for the UTME due to their inability to meet stipulated standards. The board’s public relations officer, Dr. Fabian Benjamin has asked aggrieved candidates to be calm and avail themselves of the opportunities provided by its public complaints unit rather than allow themselves to be used by any selfish interests.

    He placed the blame of the protests squarely at the door steps of proprietors of centers which were previously approved for the test but later disallowed because they were found to be lacking in indices for the conduct of the CBT examinations. “It is surprising that these proprietors will turn around to organize candidates to protest over our activities, Benjamin said”

    JAMB’s accusation of proprietors whose centers were disqualified for instigating the protests may not be entirely out of place. This is more so given that candidates who applied for the UTME did so purely in their private capacities. Thus, it is not easily conceivable how such private candidates could organize themselves for the protests we have seen without external prompting. So if JAMB blames some external body for influencing the protests, there is reason to give that body the benefit of doubt.

    Moreover, in the case of the protests in Lagos, reports had it that tutorial center proprietors and some parents were part of the demonstration that turned violent leading to some arrests. This alone gives ample credence to the allegation by JAMB that the protests were instigated by those whose selfish business interests were dashed by the cancellation of their centers for observed inadequacies.

    But this will neither account for the presence of some parents in the protests in Lagos nor reduce the weight of the issues raised by the candidates in the various centers. The common thread running through all the complaints of the candidates was that 40 marks were added or subtracted from their results as reflected in the disparities between the results sent to them through text messages and the final computer printouts; computer malfunctioning, poor loading of questions and instructions and power outages. There were candidates who claimed to have received four different versions of the results.

    So irrespective of whatever interest proprietors of the disqualified centers had in the matter, such selfish interests had very little to do with the substantive issues raised by the candidates. Definitely a candidate who received two different versions of his scores from the examination body is bound to be apprehensive of the overall credibility of that exercise. This is more so when such results show disparities of a whopping 40 marks margin. The matter is even compounded by the revelation that some other candidates got as much as four different versions of the results. Definitely JAMB is to blame for this. One is quite certain that the key factor to the protests is the issue of multiple results. It is bound to raise suspicion and the candidates are right to impute any motive to it. The blame lies squarely at the table of the examination body. So even if the proprietors were propelled by selfish business interest to goad the candidates to the protests, the candidates saw sufficient reasons to be part of them.

    And they have no blame for that. Ironically, JAMB has remained mute on why it posted different versions of results to the candidates. It must speak up on this singular issue else those who have continued to fault its continued retention as an examination body may begin to attract some sympathy. It is not enough for Benjamin to ask aggrieved candidates to avail themselves of the opportunities provided by its public complaints unit in redressing observed shortcomings.

    The board’s attention has been sufficiently drawn to the inadequacies in its conduct of the last UTME examinations. The credibility of the results it awarded candidates has been put to serious question on account of the unreliability of the different versions of results it posted. It must come public and explain what brought about the mix up. Such explanation must indicate the sources of the error since the results, which are expected to be marked by the computer, are supposed to have a very high degree of accuracy.

    With such explanation, the general public will begin to come to terms with the reliability of the CBT examinations which JAMB has been experimenting in the last two years. So it is not enough for the board to be trumpeting the advantages which the new examination system has over the paper and pencil test.

    It is also not enough for the examination body to justify these lapses by concluding that “the worst CBT is better than the best Paper and Pencil Test” If the truth must be told, this statement cannot be supported by the outcome of the last outing of that examination body. The fact remains that by posting different versions of the results, the body has created serious doubts in the minds of the candidates on the credibility of the CBT option. Many candidates have by the same errors of omission or commission had their ambition to enter higher institutions this year prematurely aborted.

    It may well be that the CBT will turn out a great improvement on the previous mode of test that was prone to sundry malpractices. If after the first year of its operation, the CBT came out with serious flaws this year, it only indicates that the body has not done its home work very well and it should take the blame. The CBT may well prove better in the future. But the confusion it has generated this year will remain a sad commentary on the efficacy of that system of examination.

    In the environment we operate, it may not be entirely out of place for there to be some lapses during such tests. But the magnitude and dimension of the current one should sufficiently task JAMB to ensure that the future of candidates is neither compromised nor abridged by inefficiencies within its house. In all, it must undertake a serious review of the results that have been posted to the candidates to ensure they tally with their actual performance.

    Above all, the solution to the current fiasco does not lie in scraping the CBT option or having it run simultaneously with the paper and pencil variant as the House of Representatives has recommended. JAMB should be given some time to improve. But they must catch up immediately. The CBT option remains the right path to the future.

     

     

  • Federal character issues

    Recent report that the Senate intends to enforce the federal character principle in all appointments and distribution of economic and social amenities in the country is heart-warming. Chairman of the Senate Committee on Federal Character, Senator Tijani Kaura who gave the indication, warned the Federal Character Commission (FCC) against skewed appointment into the federal civil service.

    He also promised to ensure the promotion and enforcement of equitable and proportional distribution of infrastructural facilities and socio-economic amenities among the federating units with a view to discouraging executive and administrative arbitrariness.

    Section 14 of the 1999 constitution as amended states that “the composition of the government of the federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity and also command national loyalty” It further stated “there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or in any of its agencies”

    The federal character principle or the Affirmative Action Program as it is called in the United States of America is a cardinal principle of all federations to give accommodation to all the units in the union so as to promote national unity and national cohesion. Since most federations came into being through the fusing together of disparate groups, it was thought wise that such countries should as a matter of deliberate policy, have constitutional safeguards against the domination of any of the interests that make up the union.

    The aim is to forge a common sense of belonging and identity among the diverse groups in the federation. In our case, it seeks to build Nigerians out of the disparate groups and interests in the federation. It is therefore a visionary legislation to stave off sources of friction and fission within the polity.

    Despite the vision in this principle, instances of its breach have been recurring. It is in this regard that the assurances by Kaura that the senate intends to ensure strict compliance with the principle offers new hope. His committee must match words with immediate action and commence a comprehensive audit of all government ministries and agencies so as to determine the extent of compliance with this principle. We say so because, a lot of people believe rightly or wrongly that certain sections of the country have disproportionate share of appointments in government ministries and agencies. Where brazen cases of abuse are detected, immediate efforts should commence to have them redressed.

    And as can be seen from the Nigerian instance, the key objectives of the principle are to promote national unity and national cohesion-two key issues that have remained largely illusory. There is little doubt that some of the intractable challenges confronting this country have been the inability to secure the loyalty of the various nationalities. That the state has been in constant competition with the ethnic groups for the loyalty of the citizens, illustrates very vividly the little progress made in this regard.

    Not only are civic structures seen as realms that should be impoverished for the benefit of the primordial units, both realms have different moral attachments. This in part, accounts for the scandalous stealing that goes on in public places. There are indications that most of the federating units do not seem to have sufficient confidence in the capacity of the central government to dispense our resources equitably.

    The bitter rivalry among the major ethnic groups to take a shot at the highest political office in the land can be located in this distrust. There is a festering feeling that it is only when one of your own ascends that office that more amenities will come to your zone. Somehow, this feeling is constantly given credence by the skewed appointments we have seen in the last couple of years and the justification given for them.

    It is not surprising that the separatist tendencies this nation has been contending with bear positive correlation with raging feelings of marginalization and alienation. That separatism has been on high ascendancy is a clear evidence of our failure to realistically translate this principle into concrete action. The Boko Haram insurgency, militancy in the Niger Delta and renewed agitations for the state of Biafra, all have their roots in perceived inadequacies on the part of the federal government to provide for the collective good of these units. They are all clear indicators that we have not been able to make Nigerians out of the various nationalities that make up this unity in diversity. Recurring centrifugal tendencies are symptomatic of systemic failure in the area of nation building.

    There is no doubt that the federal character principle is a visionary idea to promote fairness, justice and equity in the distribution of all the appurtenances of the government so as to command the support and loyalty of the citizens. Such a balancing act is also supposed to act as a safeguard against arbitrariness and impunity by those at the helm of our national affairs.

    Under our law, none compliance with the principle is an offence. Yet, in the face of recurring complaints of breach of the principle, no officer has in recent memory been brought to book to serve as a deterrent to others.

    It is therefore good a thing that the senate has been sufficiently agitated that it now wants the principle to be implemented to the letters. That is the way to go. In this assignment, it must also take note of the disparities in the structure of states in the various zones. This is because given that the creation of states was done by military fiat, we may not achieve proper balancing if we hugely rely on that criterion in giving effect to the principle.

    Good enough, the same constitution frowns at domination by few ethnic or sectional groups. In effect, in as much as the subsisting state structure will be relevant in this balancing act, ethnicity and the six geo-political zones should also be a veritable guide.

    It is high time the authorities took very seriously the challenging task of building a nation citizens will be proud to identify with. The truth today is that a lot of people who inhabit these shores do not believe in the capacity of regimes at the center to do justice to all the component units. There can be pretensions on our commitment to the Nigerian nation. But when our Nigerian citizenship comes into conflict with the interest of the ethnic group, you may find it difficult to get true Nigerians. It is easy to lay claims to patriotism as long as ones interests are served by the government in power. But as soon as that changes, it becomes a different ball game altogether.

    Ironically, much of the problems we encounter in this area stem in the main from the overbearing influence of the central authority in all matters. The center is so strong and influential that life literally begins and ends with it. Given this omnipresence and omnipotent powers of the center, its capacity to dispense the perquisites of office evenly has remained largely contentious.

    The solution lies in devolution of powers through restructuring such that the zones, states and local governments are given more powers in keeping with the spirits of a true federation. With that, we would have whittled down areas of friction between the central government and other levels of governance. Then also, the challenges of implementing the federal character principle would have been reduced to the barest minimum.

     

     

  •           More on Ese Oruru

              More on Ese Oruru

    The Ese Oruru story took a new hue for me when the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi 11, called to take objection to my column last week. He spoke in his usual feisty spirit, but with a royal dignity. He sounded offended without being irate, and noted that he did what he ought to have done. That is, he sent a letter to the police AIG and asked the police officer to repatriate the girl to her parents. I asked him if he did that,  why did the AIG not respond? Was it because there was a sort of deference to a system that accommodates a minor marrying an adult? After all, Ese’s mother met an angry village chief and the two parents’ journey up North could have resolved it if the system, including the police in cahoots, did not condone a man marrying an underaged girl.

    But the emir denied that he locked out Ese Oruru’s mother when he presided over a matter on Ese as well as when her father was not allowed to the palace. The parents had recounted their frustrations in reaching the emir, and they have not debunked it.

    The story has run a foul gamut as North versus South, Christian versus Muslim, liberal versus conservative. But it all shows how our sentiments overweigh simple human compassion. Neither faiths condone any form of oppression. And that is what happened to the little girl.

    The other side of the story is the sort of parenting Ese had. It has been said that Rose is not her biological mother, and her classmates have heard her say she wants to return to her real mother in Delta State. We need to probe the facts. Did Yunusa’s pedophile dreams exploit a girl who was an alien in her home?  From the Emir’s words, the girl was probably willing to marry the guy. So when parents fail, they foment national crisis. I would want Ese’s real mother to speak, and Ese’s relationship with others in the Oruru household.

  • Prayer has a price

    There is always a price tag, even when the service is prayer, which ought to be priceless and not pricey. The cost of prayers revealed by a former Executive Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Aminu Baba-Kusa, is indeed costly. But it is necessary to distinguish between the cost of prayers and the costliness of those hired to pray.  At the end of the day, the cost of prayers is actually the cost of praying.

    Baba-Kusa who is facing trial with a former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), and three others, said in his statement of witness filed in the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT):  “I approached the former NSA and discussed Boko Haram problems and I suggested there is need for prayers and he considered and accepted in 2013 when he first came to office. I personally sponsored many people locally and some few to Saudi Arabia. Some monies were later paid into our companies, which we paid to some of the mallams.” Baba-Kusa said he “used some of the mallams to organise prayers in Abuja, Zaria, Kano, Sokoto, Maiduguri, Kaduna and Saudi Arabia covering 2013 to 2015.”

    The prayer funder continued: “I give them funds as required from time to time, ranging from N500,000 to N30million, depending on their needs, traveling, sadaqat and others for local expenses and travels to Saudi Arabia for Umrah and Hajj…Most of the payments in cash were meant to give out cash to people that have been organising prayers.” Baba-Kusa added: “The proposal made to the former NSA was not documented by him or myself. The verbal proposal to him was for prayers to overcome Boko Haram within the shortest possible time. The engagement for prayers by organising some people to be praying was not formally written down. There was no amount of money agreed on. I said to him, I will start organising, which he agreed and said he will see what he would give at a later time.”

    In the end, the cost of organising these prayers came to N2.2 billion, according to Baba-Kusa.  But he reportedly kept no records of the expenditure. He was quoted as saying:  “I requested for no acknowledgement from them when I gave money to them.” Baba-Kusa said he had spent over N700 million of his own money on the prayer contractors before he started to ask Dasuki for money that was disbursed through the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).

    Alfred Lord Tennyson says “More things are wrought by prayers than this world dreams of.” In the context of the sensational revelations by Baba-Kusa, it would appear that more money is gained by organising prayers than this country dreams of.

    Without suggesting the probability of fraud, although that may well be the case, Baba-Kusa’s tale is not only suspicious but also ludicrous. The global village now knows for sure that public funds meant for fighting and winning the terror war, running into billions, were rerouted by powerful individuals in the discredited Goodluck Jonathan presidency. The corruption-spiced narrative is still unfolding, with Dasuki right in the middle of the mess.

    Under Jonathan, the country witnessed the absurdity of an ill-equipped national army struggling to overcome a mere militia. A panel probing past arms deals found out that the Jonathan administration purchased substandard weapons to fight Boko Haram extremists. The corruption-related finding further exposed the Jonathan administration’s scandalously counter-productive approach to the anti-terror war. There is an unmistakable connection between the mess of corruption and the messiness of poorly armed soldiers facing reportedly better armed terrorists. It is no longer debatable that the previous government didn’t do enough to checkmate the terrorists. Or, put more pointedly, the Jonathan government ironically did enough to ensure the prolongation of the war.

    The point is that the prayer financiers and the prayer service providers were disadvantaged by design. In other words, even while prayers were being organised at a colossal cost, there was a colossal lack of capacity on the battlefield as a result of a colossal diversion of funds meant to equip the country’s fighters for victory.

    Prayer may have a role in governance, but it requires the role of government to achieve the desired goal. The tragedy of Baba-Kusa’s confession is that it tends to give prayer providers a bad name. In the circumstances, prayer could not have reinforced what was non-existent. Since there was no anti-terror war as such, what was prayer meant to do? The situation defied the wise saying “Work and pray”. Even if there were prayers for Boko Haram’s defeat, the war effort was inadequate to realise the objective.

    On the question of work and prayer, Jonathan, a Christian, played the pilgrim and visited Israel twice during his four-year term, specifically in 2013 and 2014. It was not difficult to guess that Jonathan’s repeat pilgrimage was probably connected with his 2015 re-election dream. Jonathan’s 2014 itinerary in the sacred land included a visit to the Wailing Wall, where he reportedly prayed privately before going to Mount Tabor and Mount Carmel, and other spiritually significant sites. Interestingly, the highlight of the pilgrimage was a prayer for Nigeria at an interdenominational church service with the theme, “A day with Jesus for Nigeria in Israel”.  Whether Jonathan had a day with Jesus, or whether Jesus had a day with Jonathan, his defeat in the presidential election that crowned President Muhammadu Buhari was an eye-opening lesson that the power of prayer can be limited by the poor performance of power.

    This lesson should not be lost on President Buhari who interestingly visited Saudi Arabia recently for prayers, apart from the business of leadership.  Buhari visited Medina and the Grand Mosque in Makkah, where he reportedly prayed for the peace and unity of Nigeria. Buhari may pray for the country because the country may need prayers to escape its hellish situation.  But he should also remember that prayers may not be enough without work. Nigerians want him to work and make the country work.

    It could be useful to engage in prayers or engage prayer providers, but the ultimate approach is to work so that prayers may work for the achievement of purpose.

  • Who’s afraid of W.S.

    Who’s afraid of W.S.

    When two supposedly senior lawyers translate their thoughts into lines of commentary, you should expect to tap into wisdom. No matter what you say about lawyers, their calling affords them access to the fount of any society. From handling a slew of cases, they dip their fingers into the pulse of society. They see people in their different states: in remorse and cunning, fear and trembling, defiance and humility, triumphal vanity and mea culpa. Whether high or low, they are witnesses to human folly and sublimity, when they stare into the abyss of the jail or prance at the accolade of society.

    Their training also imbues them with the history of societies, the sociology of groups, the psychology of individuals. So, you expect them to convey deep learning and worldly wisdom.

    Not so for two legal minds who allowed their nativist impulses to run away with them. They are Professor Imran Oluwole Smith and Kunle Uthman. They are principal officers of an otherwise obscure group known as Eko Foundation.

    They have been making high decibels of noise over the appointment of Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka as co-chairman of the Lagos @50 committee set up by the Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode. In a slew of nouns, they say that “true” indigenes of the state have reacted with “shocking waves, trepidation and disbelief.”  They follow these nouns with a raft of footloose adjectives, saying that the shock waves are “resonating, reverberating and deafening…”

    First, how does Soyinka’s appointment lead to trepidation? Does Soyinka scare them so much? For their information, Soyinka is a harmless figure. They did not use the word fear, but trepidation and that indicates perhaps one of the highest levels of fear, if you discountenance such words as horror or terror. Trepidation is an urbane way of expressing high-octane unease.

    As lawyers, they ought to understand such words, especially as Smith is a senior advocate of Nigeria, an epaulette that some thinking Nigerians now take with levity. Some SANs have been behaving badly in the past few years, especially in the past few days. Example: the flock of never-do-wells who lined up like bleating sheep behind Tarfa. No matter.

    The lawyers said Soyinka was not an indigene, so he should not be chair of the committee. Haba! Soyinka lacks connection with the soul of Lagos. Soyinka is an Egbaman. Soyinka has no house or compound in Lagos. Is this how they argue in court, and rose to Nigeria’s legal prime? They also said Soyinka is alien to the “sights and sounds” of Lagos.

    I think they were trying too hard to make an argument. They clutched at wet grass and it not only stung them, they bled. And what a sloshy pair of hands with its oddball mix of blood and mud and dew.

    They are in the 21st century, but they still have not recovered from the Lagos of the early 19th century. They still live in primal Lagos. They are cavorting in the coastal Lagos of the canoes, of the lightless nights, of the ovine and bovine innocence, of the long treks without the whir of cars, of the illiterate many, of the pre-Kosoko and Akintoye duel, of the humble huts and zestless fashion, of unruffled accents, of the Egba suzerainty and the upstart Ibadan, when the Yoruba wars resounded from afar with Dane guns and refugees spilling over…

    Well, this is news to them. This is Lagos of the variegated hues, of high rise and highways, of the technicolour nights, of a humongous port, of business mogul attracting the best of cultural mavens, of languages as diverse as the Nigeria, even West Africa, where it is not just a feudal king that reigns but a governor of a democratic vote. It is a city morphed from a few hundreds to several millions. It is a city where doctors treat from a place called hospitals, where herbalists are now Neanderthal, a melting pot, a megacity, an embrace of all colours, creeds, castes, of Yakubu Gowon, of Ojukwu. It bred Fela and I.K. Dairo and Ebenezer Obey. The Ibrus prospered here and others by them. It was home to Leventis and UAC and the big banks, etc. It is the same city where Soyinka celebrated first at the airport when he brought the nation and continent the world’s top literary prize.

    They say he does not reflect the sights and sounds of Lagos. Really? He did not when he twitted the army in the same city? He did not when he was jailed in the town for his beliefs? He did not when he staged one of his major plays, The Dance of the Forest, at our independence in 1960? The lawyers might have read too much legal briefs and not read much of Soyinka’s works, such as The Jero Plays, Opera Wonyosi, etc. They probably do not even know the song, I love my country I no go lie?

    They say his co-chair, the eminent Rasheed Gbadamosi, is indisposed. Are they his doctors to decide for him what job he can or cannot do? They admit that most of the 12 persons on the committee are indigenes. So what’s the problem with the Eko Foundation that their contentions lack foundation in Lagos thinking? They brim with nativist anarchy?

    If they are afraid of W.S., they have only to confess, and we treat that ailment appropriately.

  • Ambode’s pilgrim’s progress

    Ambode’s pilgrim’s progress

    The Lagos State government decided no trips to Mecca or Jerusalem on the tax payer’s purse. It was striking it happened in Edo, Kaduna and a few other states. But for it to happen in Lagos is especially significant. Lagos, for one, embodies to two pilgrimages, unlike others. That made Akinwunmi Ambode’s move especially bold. Two, Lagos spends more than any other. For some pilgrims, it was both escape and escapade, not a real pious experience. Three, it affirms that pilgrimages are not compulsory in either faith. It is mentioned in Islam. It is not even suggested in the Bible. Four, the economy is stumbling, and it is no time for pious jamboree.

    It does not make progress for any pilgrim to go. They often see it as pork for politician, and vanity for many others. It does not necessarily make them better Christians or Muslims. John Bunyan wrote an allegory titled Pilgrim’s Progress, and it tracks a man’s hard and exacting journey through sin and redemption. This is the time for a true pilgrim’s progress. Let individuals who must go toil to afford it and appreciate it like Bunyan’s protagonist.

  • When will King be hanged?

    When will King be hanged?

    No doubt, Rev. Chukwuemeka Ezeugo, better known as Rev. King, will die many times before his death. Indeed, he has died many times before his death. But when will he really be dead?

    In other words, when will the quirky General Overseer of the Lagos-based Christian Praying Assembly die by hanging following the Supreme Court’s February 26 endorsement of his death sentence? The fundamental question is: How long should a convict on death row wait for death?

    It is clear that the purpose of a death sentence is to facilitate death by execution. It is counter-productive to have a condemned convict wait indefinitely for the execution of a death sentence, particularly because of the possibility that death may come during the waiting and consequently achieve what the sentence didn’t intend, which is death by causes other than execution. In a case where the condemned does not die as a result of execution, it would mean that the death sentence was foiled. What is the purpose of a death sentence that is not put into effect, with the effect that death results from execution?

    It is food for thought that a report said “Barely 24 hours after the Supreme Court affirmed the death sentence…some of his neighbours have asked for his immediate execution”. The report continued: “The landlords appealed to the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, to sign Rev. King’s death warrant to hasten the process.  A next-door landlord in Ajao Estate where the church is based applauded the Supreme Court for the judgement, saying he expected it.  The landlord, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “Now, we need the governor to quickly sign the papers… Another landlord, who asked not to be named for security reasons, said he wants Ambode to sign the death warrant as soon as possible. “I hope the governor will not be afraid of signing it. He should do it on time. We are waiting for what will happen next after this.” These reactions are sufficient to show that King’s neighbour’s didn’t see him as a good neighbour. It remains to be seen whether the Lagos State Governor will give the green light or decide to commute the death sentence to imprisonment.

    So, members of the public are eagerly awaiting King’s execution, just as King is awaiting his execution, although understandably not with eagerness.    Considering that it took nearly a decade to arrive at what may be described as a point of no return, it is apt to wonder whether the execution of the death sentence validated by the final rung of the justice hierarchy could also take that long.

    King’s trial began at the Lagos High Court in Ikeja on September 26, 2006. The cruel cleric was accused of the murder of a member of his church, Ann Uzoh, and attempted murder of five other members. He was said to have set the deceased and the others ablaze after bathing them with petrol for alleged immoral behaviour.  Thomas Hardy says: “Do not do an immoral thing for moral reasons.”

    Uzoh’s death on August 2, 2006, 11 days after the savagery, resulted from her burns.  The trial judge, Justice Olubunmi Oyewole (now a Justice of the Court of Appeal),  who delivered his judgement  on January 11, 2007,  found King guilty and sentenced him to 20 years imprisonment for attempted murder. In addition, King got a death sentence for murder. The Court of Appeal backed the death sentence. The Supreme Court, by its supreme judgement, supported the supreme sentence of death by hanging.

    Murderers are penalised not only for murder; they are also penalised so that others may not become murderers. It is thought-provoking that a report said: “During the first church service after the Supreme Court verdict at the Lagos headquarters at Ajao Estate, Pastor Ifeanyi King, who preached, said: “Our G. O. (General Overseer), the Most Holiness, Rev. King, is coming back. He said he would come back and we believe the words of his mouth. We believe his report that he is coming back. Everything happening now we know is the handiwork of witches and wizards. Soon a new story will emerge.”

    How and when did witches and wizards enter the picture? What is the meaning of this metaphysical reasoning? Does the supernatural argument apply to King’s murderous act as well as his death sentence? Of course, if there are no complications, a new story is expected to emerge. But the expected fresh story should be that King has been hanged and he is dead. Or what “new story” did the preacher have in mind?

    It is important to bring closure to this human drama of inhumanity. The longer Rev. King is allowed to live after the final judicial decision, the longer it will take to close the murder case.

    Curiously, King may live longer than his death sentence intended because, according to a report quoting Prisons spokesman Francis Emordi, there are no fewer than 1,639 inmates awaiting execution. This death-row congestion is inexcusable. As long as the death penalty is accommodated by the country’s justice system, there is no justification for keeping condemned convicts waiting. It is unclear how long these death-row convicts have been waiting, and it amounts to contempt for the authorities to perpetuate their wait.

    Philosophical arguments against capital punishment, which tend to suggest that mankind has perhaps evolved beyond the death sentence, sound too kind to the unkind. Where guilt has been unambiguously established and it has attracted a death sentence, there is ambiguity if execution of the judgement is unduly prolonged.

    Although the long duration of a murder trial and the extension of the appeal process may not guarantee an infallible judgement, an interminable wait on death row would not necessarily reverse a flawed ruling. It is complex enough to arrive at a death decision, and the complexity should not be further complicated by last-minute indecision when it comes to executing the decision. If judges are able to reach a death decision without the interference of extra-judicial considerations, the authorities should be able to carry out the decision without the hindrance of extra-legal thoughts.

    The debate about the death penalty for murder did not begin today. The debate will continue as long the society is unable to conceive a different punishment for murder that will capture the gravity of the crime. Murder is the ultimate crime and death is the ultimate punishment. Ultimate crime deserves ultimate punishment.

  • When a village fails

    When a village fails

    Lupita Nyong’o, perhaps Africa’s front-line actress in Hollywood, confessed to fear. She played the role of a nubile girl in a play set in the Liberian civil war. In the drama, three girls wallow as sex slaves to the vile virility of a rebel soldier.

    The play, titled Eclipsed, and written by a Zimbabwean writer, Danai Gurira, shows how a human can translate from innocence to beast, and even sometimes enjoy that bestial metamorphosis. That explains why Lupita was terrified to act that part.

    If an actor quakes over that role, imagine the innocents who have lived it, and those now living the nightmare as though routine. If to pretend offends, imagine the life Ese Oruru just walked out of. Imagine the others now highlighted profusely in the media, like Progress Jacob, Blessing Gopep and Lucy Ejeh. They are all underage, human and enslaved.

    We can lament this about religion, and it is true. We can grieve over the impunity of some bigots who have claimed that being Muslims make them lords over a young girl’s flesh. We can also wonder at the perverse stamina that propels a young man to take a 13-year-old on a 15-hour road trip into servitude. Then we imagine her. A girl who grew up in trousers and tee-shirt, in skirts, her waist that wiggled to the beats and subversion of rap music, who walked free on the street, who loved the vanity of braids and other hairstyles, who knew only play and school work and mother’s errands. This same girl, only 13, is now presented as suddenly wise or wild. We are told that she left all that to a devout devotion. She became Muslim, and followed a man up North without her parents’ consent. And they expect us to accept it.

    We also imagine the sort of conversation she now gets accustomed to. She speaks a different language, and when she speaks to her mother in Urhobo she is bullied into speaking an accepted one. Imagine the cuisine. She did not have the right to be hungry for the right food. She, an Urhobo girl, was not permitted to crave usi and banga.

    If the matter lasted a week or two, we might have excused all the big names and institutions involved. But it lasted an eternity from August 2015 to February 2016. It might have lasted longer but for the audacious front page of The Punch, in language and aesthetics. It said Ese Oruru was abducted and “forcefully” wedded. The right, word, “forcibly,” tells the right story. Not to worry.

    So all that time, no big man could give an order to release the girl? The Governor, Seriake Dickson, was busy swaggering around over election, and he did nothing about it. Was that not irresponsible of a governor who is the chief security officer? He woke after the media hoopla and issued a rhetoric of concern. Neither the Emir of Kano nor Emirate Council have acted with wisdom.

    The police, the DSS and others kept silence. Why? They did not want to offend the big power vortex. They did not want to lose their jobs for doing their jobs. It is because we have not decided what law is important. That is the bigger issue. Where is our loyalty? Is to tribe, faith or royalty? So, when we brandish our fidelity to the rule of law, we must ask ourselves, what law? Is it the rule of Islamic or royal or Christian law? Or is it the federal constitution? That was the innuendo buried in the IG’s words that Ese’s matter lay in the hands of the Emir of Kano.

    We are in a democracy but we do not have a democratic sensibility. We are in a modern world but we still exude ancient values. Laws will make no sense until we have sorted out what kind of society makes sense. We still live in a universe where a senior lawyer can cloak impunity and ask a flock of senior lawyers to defend him. These are SANs sans shame. It is no different when an adult debauches a minor. King Solomon calls it “folly set in great dignity.” So, for a rule of law to make sense, we have to decide whether sharia law has a place in Nigeria, and if it does, when and how. We have to decide what law takes precedence, the constitution or the sharia, or the renegade fury of a monarch. The Nigerian conscience is a war zone between the “king is law” and the “law is king.”

    When Vladimir Nabokov wrote the novel Lolita, the western world fell into a scandalised rapture. The novel, rated one of the best ever written in the English language, was about an adult romping with a girl of Ese’s age all over America. The lascivious man did not end well, the girl ruined for life. The movie is hardly acted because the girl who acted Lolita the first time was unable to soar in her career. A stigma sullied her brilliance.

    The prosecution of pedophile Yunusa and the battle release of others, including Lucy Ejeh, will help begin that sojourn to our concept of the rule of law. The legal positivists tend to give credence to the sources of law over the concept of natural law. I think when natural law supervenes, we have justice. We must have all those involved fall under the hammer of the Nigerian law. We either have Nigeria or not.

    The most disappointing for me is the silence of President Muhammadu Buhari. He cannot wage a corruption war and act as though the Ese saga is not corruption. Corruption of childhood, of law, of religion, of natural rights. A girl was abducted, coerced into the family way, and made to swear to a God against her will. You cannot be the president of all and cocoon yourself in silence. It is not right, nor presidential. It is even more potent since he is a devout Muslim.

    The failure to tackle the Oruru matter is a failure of Nigeria as a village. Hillary Clinton wrote a best-selling book, It takes a Village, and showed that nurturing a child is a communal effort. She took her inspiration from African ethos. Of course not the Africa that failed Ese. Ese means gift in Urhobo, and Oruru means it’s well done. Nigeria gifted Ese an abduction, and early pregnancy and eviscerated future. Girls of that age know little about motherhood. As a reporter in the U.S., I reported a story where teenage girls simulated the lives of mothers. They had toy babies that woke up at night, cried at odd moments, etc. The girls told me they would only become mothers when they were temperamentally ready. In the movie Spotlight, a character says, if it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse it. That was Ese’s story.