The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • Why are more young people dying these days?

    Why are more young people dying these days?

    Almost a decade ago, I reviewed a book, titled, The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease, by Daniel Lieberman, a Harvard University Professor of anthropology and evolutionary biology. The book, first published in 2013, does four things, among others: One, it charts a chronology of our biological evolution up to the time that we have our present bodies. Two, it shows how our cultural evolution has transformed our environment, the way we live, and what we eat. Three, the book then delves into how the “mismatch” between our biological and cultural evolutions has caused many modern-day diseases, such as the various non-communicable diseases killing us today. By mismatch is meant that there is a conflict between the conditions of modern life and our prehistoric bodies. That is, we were not adapted to where and how we live our lives today as well as what we eat. This leads to the prevalence of various diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, back pain, depression, and so on.

    My mind went back to Lieberman’s book as I reflected on the recent deaths of many young men and women between 35 and 50 years old in an age when hygiene and modern medicine have made it possible to live long. Some of them were sons or daughters of close friends, while others were friends of our family or mere acquaintances. Some of them died of one type of cancer or the other or of sudden organ failure. Others died of unknown or undisclosed causes.

    You do not have to be an anthropologist or an evolutionary biologist to follow Lieberman’s argument, even if you may know little or nothing about human biological evolution. However, the idea of cultural evolution should not be strange, even to a lay person. There have been three major cultural transitions in human history that have major implications for our bodies. The first transition was the agricultural revolution, when we began to settle down to farm our own food instead of hunting and gathering. The second was the industrial revolution, when we began to use machines to replace human work. The third transition, an offshoot of the technological advancements of the second, was the digital revolution, when we began to replace physical meetings with virtual ones and social media networking. In many advanced economies, more and more people are now working from home.

    Each of these transitions came with advantages and disadvantages. For example, agriculture brought predictable food supply, but farmers were susceptible to famine and food shortages as well as contagious diseases.

    The industrial revolution brought science and technology as the major driver of human activity. Social and economic institutions were reorganised, factories began to produce on a large scale, and the economy of delayed return replaced the economy of immediate return of the farming age. Human populations exploded with progress in medicine, sanitation, and food storage. As a result, there is much more food variety than the average farmer could provide. However, the varieties and the surpluses came at a cost. Most of what we consume today is processed and shipped by machines, and they contain huge amounts of pesticides, inorganic fertilizers, and antibiotics. Worse still, processed food contains more sugars and starches, causing spikes in blood sugar levels that our bodies were not designed to deal with. Even the fashionable non-stick pots with which many of us cook contain PFAS chemicals, which can lead to serious health problems, when the coating is damaged or overheated.

    The digital revolution may have brought radical changes to how we communicate. However, it has also made us more sedentary and less physically interactive. The implications for our bodies are still being studied. But the social implications of social media on our social lives and political participation are no longer in doubt.

    The truth is that we live in a world of new handicaps and new diseases, which never afflicted our prehistoric ancestors. Unfortunately, many of us overlook or are unaware of some common sources of today’s diseases. Many of these sources became prevalent only recently, coinciding with the appearance of today’s youths on the food scene. The sources include preservatives and additives in processed foods, chemicals in plastics, non-stick pots, makeup and hair products, asbestos, and formaldehyde in building materials.

    Today, in part because they care less about safety, the younger generation is ultra-exposed to these sources, most of which are associated with one type of cancer or the other. They consume a lot of ultra-processed foods, which are associated with a higher risk of gastrointestinal cancers, regardless of their weight or body mass index. Youths are particularly susceptible to exposures to toxins in the environment and in many everyday goods listed above, which are also known to cause cancer.

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    Youths are also victims of modern lifestyle changes, which involve less physical exercise, and less or interrupted sleep. Recent medical research shows that sleep and circadian rhythms are important components of health. Getting less sleep may be a factor in developing colon, breast, ovarian, or prostate cancer. Although genetic inheritance remains a predictor, but many cancer patients these days have no such history.

    It is not the case, of course, that older adults over 60 are inoculated against these diseases. My focus on youths is motivated partly by the losses mentioned at the top of this essay and partly by a recent meta-analysis by the American Cancer Society, which found that 50 percent (17 of 34) of the most common cancers are occurring more frequently in younger people. Worse still, while death rates are dropping for colorectal cancer patients over 65, they are increasing among younger patients, partly because colonoscopies are not recommended until after 45. The problem with youths is that cancers are often not caught until it is too late for treatment. All we tend to hear is that X or Y was rushed to the hospital two days ago, but he or she did not make it.

    Perhaps at no time in human history is Lieberman’s “mismatch” theory more relevant than today. Our bodies were not designed for what we do and consume today. And our youths, who consume any and everything, are the greatest victims. Many of them began early with processed baby food, continue with ultra-processed food, and consume sugary and alcoholic drinks. They stay on the phone till 2am or later and have little or no time for regular physical exercise. And the killer of it all—they shrug off symptoms and only seek intervention when it may be too late. Lieberman’s fourth major contribution, therefore, is to create awareness of the mismatch between our bodies and what we do and consume.

  • Return of an old malignancy

    Return of an old malignancy

    It is Nigeria’s wild season. It is a season, when the more you try to make sense of what is going on, the more muddled up things get. Were things to be judged by the fiercely uncivil discourse that has gripped Elon Musk’s X-dom – (or is it twitterdom) in the wake of the blowout of the feud between Chief Afe Babalola, SAN and Barrister Dele Farotimi, some Nigerians might be tempted to imagine that the long-predicted third world war has actually begun.

    Most probably, only a minority few could claim to have taken note of the disquisitions (which are by now wearisome) on the subject of ‘civil defamation’ and what qualifies for criminal libel’ in the context of Nigeria’s constitutional guarantee of free speech. The greater majority obviously have few kind words to say of the Ekiti State Police Command, perhaps less for the Ekiti State judiciary; so it is for the entire of criminal justice system as a whole, not excluding the federal government; they are already deemed complicit even if merely by default. It isn’t sufficient that the self-appointed life benchers in the trenches have shown utter disinterest in interrogating the issues outside the traditional comfort zones of mindless activism, following which they and the misguided mob in the internet have since pronounced that Nigeria it is, that is on trial?

    This, in my view, is where things get interesting. That some Nigerians are unduly worked up over what they consider as an egregious ill-treatment of Farotimi is certainly understandable. They are entitled to raise hell about his ‘abduction’ and ‘illegal arraignment’ even, as they equally alleged, the status of the statute under which he was being charged was somewhat unclear! I guess these legitimate issues to raise.

    I have also come across some specious readings and interpretations of the law, the kind that would strip a titan of Chief Afe Babalola’s stature of his right to seek remedy in the circumstance of the injuries he complained about and by every means permissible by the law. Nothing at this stage has been said about the ignoble conduct of a counsel for whom a private battle must needlessly be pushed into the domain of public interest, using the crudest language possible?

    The irony in all of these is that the grave injuries complained about actually came about in the course of a legal tussle. Yes, the two parties had their days in court and a final verdict given. We are talking here of a private matter that ran through up to the Supreme Court – a court, which in the words of the late Jurist, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, is ‘final not because it is infallible but infallible because it is final’.  In this instance, rather than a graceful acceptance of the verdict as would be expected by a practitioner of law, one chose a path that could be deemed as defecating in the communal pond.  Indeed, while it would seem ordinarily ‘strange’ that the counsel would go as far as to write a disparaging book to attack both the opposing counsel and the high officials of the apex court, the greater tragedy is that the institutions of the bar and the bench appeared to have allowed the finagling of this strange practice into its rather conservative orthodoxy!

    That is where we are today. Yes, Nigerians have a lot worry about in what appears to be grave issues of rule law and due process thrown up by the Farotimi matter. They are in order. But also are the grave moral and ethical delinquencies exhibited by the accused now branded victim no less deserving of interrogation. They surely have greater worry in those!

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    I don’t know how many Nigerians have read the book. I haven’t beyond the snippets currently being shared online. For a lawyer, the language is not only offensive but quite frankly atrocious – the kind that would undermine any argument. My suspicion is that those leaders of the Bar and Bench who have read the book would have found it appalling. Those who have read it and still chose to do nothing have certainly done a great disservice to their noble profession. Today, the joke is on all of us without exception as the global audience regales in the cesspit that the Nigerian judiciary has sunk.

    The good thing is that not everyone regards the development as mere storm in a teacup. As the eminent lawyer, Jiti Ogunye would care remind us in his Channels TV interview, Farotimi’s alleged statements against the Supreme Court justices certainly carry grave consequences. Yes, Farotimi didn’t just take the Supreme Court Justices to the cleaners; he called them names, accusing them of being corrupt.  Such grave accusations, he reminded, constituted solid foundations for criminal contempt charges against him. So also are the unsubstantiated claims against the Lagos State Judiciary, particularly the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice of Lagos State Lawal Pedro SAN. The latter, he said could potentially sustain additional charges. One hopes that he knows what he’s talking about in the end!

    Talk of the resurgence of an old malignancy. Once upon a time, a lawyer actually dared to look an innocent judge in the eye and accused him of demanding a $10 million bribe in an open court! Although the claim turned to be absolutely without foundation, the lawyer nonetheless got away with a slap on the wrist! His client would later turn round to ask the judge to recuse himself, since, in his view, the judge could no longer be trusted to be dispassionate in his matter! Yes, it happened before our very eyes!  

    This is where those Nigerians currently framing the duel as one between David and Goliath as neither helpful to his cause nor to the cause of the justice system. To the extent that truth and truth only constitutes his main defence, the least is that he’ll begin to spill them out at trial. Otherwise, he’ll do well to prepare for long, dark nights. 

    Unfortunately for the old man, it seems unlikely that anyone would believe that he’s done nothing wrong, beyond protecting his well-earned reputation, that is. Reminds of the old African fable of the tortoise and his in-law: It’s a messy business in which no one is guaranteed to win!

  • Reputation versus liberty

    Reputation versus liberty

    The battle cry of the 1789 French Revolution was liberty, equality and fraternity. At the cusp of that revolution, France was divided into the First Estate, made up of high ranking members of the Church and privileged class; the Second Estate, comprising the Nobility and lesser privileged class, and the Third Estate, which was the aggregation of peasants in the countryside, as well as the wealthy bourgeoisie merchants in the cities, plus the unprivileged class. The First Estate was answerable only to God, they paid no tax, and their words were law, however unreasonable.

    Some commentators have tried to frame the ongoing legal dispute, between a doyen of the legal profession and educationist, Chief Afe Babalola, SAN, and human rights activist and politician, Dele Farotimi, as akin to a fight, between a member of the privileged class, and the unprivileged class, respectively. Because of that framing, majority of Nigerians have extended their sympathy to Farotimi, who is seen as the underdog in the fight. Even with the efforts by Chief Babalola’s legal team to redirect the deluge of sympathy, this column doubts if success has been achieved.

    At the beginning, many had thought that it was a government official that came after Farotimi, the widely acclaimed spokesperson of the Labour Party and her presidential candidate, in 2023, Peter Obi, (Okwute). Those who had political and economic grievances against the Tinubu led administration, post-haste took up arms, ready to storm the ‘Bastille’, on the belief that the regime had overreached itself. Piles of press releases, calling for the immediate and unconditional release of the human rights activist, became a tome, before the reason for the arrest was made public.

    Alas, it turned out, the fight was between a citizen seeking to protect his reputation from being battered and shattered and another citizen who believed he exercised his liberty to fullest limit. Since no government official was involved, some sheathed their swords, while a significant number refused to be placated. For some, since police was used by the privileged citizen to arrest in Lagos, transport and detain the less privileged person in Ekiti, the hand of government must be involved, one way or another. The argument that both parties are lawyers, and as such belong to the same class does not cut ice, with that trenchant group.

    While the argument rages on in the court of public opinion, whether the offence of criminal libel, is still in the statute books of Ekiti State, there is the likelihood, that those asking Chief Babalola to sue for the Tort of Defamation, simpliciter, may well get what they are asking for. While this writer has not read, and does not intend to read Farotimi’s book, the snippets quoted extensively by social media pundits and public commentators, have done enough damages to the sense of propriety.   

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    Taking extreme and conclusive positions, or deductions that may not be beyond mere speculation, is an alchemy I do not want to share with Farotimi. When he is quoted to have written, some of the unprintable words against the integrity of the Supreme Court, Chief Babalola, his firm and other lawyers, as alleged, in cold prints, this writer fears that Farotimi could be defending himself in court for the rest of his life, over plethora of self-inflicted defamatory suits.

    If not that Farotimi appears regularly on television where he uses extremely vile words to describe those who hold opposing views from his convictions, before the release of his book, I would have disregarded the quotes ascribed to him, as totally unbecoming. But there the quotes are, and those strenuously defending him, unfortunately spare no sympathy, for the reputation Chief Babalola has spent nearly a double lifetime, by Nigeria’s life span standard, to build. If it was a street urchin that uttered words similar to what was allegedly written by Farotimi, many would have questioned the mental state of the utterer.

    There is also the likelihood that Chief Babalola would spend the rest of his life ruing over having anything to do with Farotimi and even the law suit, the casus belli of the entire imbroglio. According to public record, in the petition by Chief Babalola, his firm claimed their client undermined them over their fees and now an opposing counsel, who lost the legal battle, had chosen the slippery court of public opinion to exert his pound of flesh. And for the most loquacious traducers of Chief Babalola, including lawyers, the old man should be hanged for all that is wrong with our criminal justice system. I don’t agree.

    In the Law of Tort by Ese Malemi, Libel is defined as a defamatory statement made in a visible or permanent form, such as written or printed statements, for instance in books, newspapers, notes … and so forth. Clearly, in criminal law, defamation is also a crime, and it is outlawed, because “it tends to incite breaches of peace.” In Beauharnais v Illinois 343 US 250, referenced by Malemi, the defendant had called upon the “one million self-respecting white people in Chicago to unite …” so as to halt the invasion of white neighbourhoods by Negroes.

    According to the majority decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, such talk played “significant part” in creating tensions between the races, and on some occasion had resulted in race riots. The court held that such libellous statements were not “within the area of constitutionally protected speech.” Whether Farotimi, who allegedly published defamatory statements for which he has been charged for criminal libel amongst other charges, meet the threshold of the necessary ingredients of a criminal libel, will be determined by the courts. So, also is whether the courts have the jurisdiction to hear the suits.

    Interestingly, there are many defences to a claim of defamation. They include justification or truth. If the words authored by Farotimi against the reputation of Chief Babalola are justifiable or true, he will be set free, and may even take out an action for malicious prosecution against the legal giant. If he raises the defence of fair comment, and the court agrees with him, Farotimi will be a free man. Of course there are other potential defence which can set him free, from the vice grip, of one of the best legal minds in the country, even though age may have caught up with him.   

    For most laymen, in the court of public opinion, Chief Babalola falls within the rank of the privileged Nigerians, who like the First Estate of the pre-revolution France, are the casus belli of all the problems in our country. If they can have their way, Farotimi, should have his liberty immediately so he can luxuriate in the touted proceeds from the book that allegedly decapitated Chief Babalola’s reputation.

  • Tax Reforms Bills: In defence of opponents

    Tax Reforms Bills: In defence of opponents

    The rejection of President Tinubu’s tax reform package of four main bills: the Nigeria Tax Bill, the Nigeria Tax Administration Bill, the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Bill, and the Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Tax Reform Bill” by predominantly northern political leaders, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the Northern Governors Forum and some 73 members of the National Assembly, has once again brought the past to pain by reminding us of our intractable crisis of nation-building.

    Predictably, while the bill received the blessing of Ohanaeze, the Igbo socio-cultural group, Afenifere, its Yoruba counterpart and N/Central geopolitical zones who believe the bills represent a transformative opportunity for the rejuvenation of SMES, it was roundly rejected by its northern opponents in spite of the capacity of the bills to “simplify the tax landscape, reduce the burden on small businesses, and streamline tax collection processes”.

    But as we say in this business, the medium is the news. Precisely because attack on the opponents of the four bills are coming from southern politicians and social media assailants who hardly understand the issues at stake, I cannot but sympathise with those opponents of the bills who have come under intense stress and strain these past two weeks. They are, in my opinion, the only set of politicians who know what they want out of Nigeria and how to fight for it. They have an unwavering commitment to their demand no matter how sectional or parochial since “Nigerian nationalism became fractured by the dynamics of power politics, or the struggle for the so-called national cake”. (Mogwugo Okoye, African Guardian, Dec 27, 1993).

    Many have long concluded that the problem of Nigeria politics is the problem of the dominant ethnic groups, who insist that no one gets what they cannot get, their hypocritical educated elites and their political parties. Of the three competing dominant groups, the confused Yoruba who seem not to know what they want out of Nigeria, is most guilty. It is on record that while the more conservative elements among their celebrated leaders such as Bode Thomas, SLA Akintola and Rotimi Williams, wanted regionalism to protect their Yoruba nation from the reign of one-eyed king, their leader, Obafemi Awolowo, was an unrepentant federalist. This many have argued was because the Yoruba are by nature federalist. Others have also argued that it was because federalism guarantees unity in diversity in deeply divided societies following “the purgatory of two world wars in the 20th century” when federal revolution was regarded “as the only safeguard for peace and stability in a rapidly changing world.” (Daniel Elazer). The less charitable have argued that Awolowo was a victim of his ambition to rule Nigeria having blamed Awolowo for developing  a messianic complex believing he could replicate the giant strides he made in the West. The question northern hegemonic powers who detested Yoruba arrogance, according to Professor Banji Akintoye who recently narrated his encounter with a northern colleague, has always been “who told Awolowo, northern youths wanted free education?”

    Of course Awo paid for his audacity. Shortly after Sardauna, Tafawa Balewa and Michael Okpara had mooted the idea of a preventive detention system in the country, Balewa declared state of emergency in the West on May 29, 1962 while Isaac Boro’s Ijaw uprising and Benue/Jos uprising that were suppressed by the military by force of arms did not attract declaration of state of emergency.

    Balewa went on to illegally inaugurate Coker Commission of Inquiry to look into the operations of Western Region’s corporations. In case that failed, Balewa also inaugurated treasonable felony probe which later jailed Awo and his supporters. Ahamdu Bello, according to Trevor Clark, “saw an opportunity to do in Awolowo, while the NCNC saw an opportunity to destroy AG and Western Region”. (Trevor Clark: Balewa the Right Honorable Man,  pages (550-554).

    The Igbo of the east are perhaps the best at the game of ostrich playing – hiding their heads in the sand believing no one sees them. Their goal, like that of the hegemonic power in the north, is the control of Nigeria. Zik as an Ibo jingoist gave this away in his presidential address to the Ibo Federal Union in 1949 when he declared: “It would appear that God of Africa has specially created the Ibo nation to lead the children of Africa from the bondage of the ages…” In 1948, another Ibo leader and member of the legislature had said the domination of Nigeria by the Ibo is a question of time.

    The game plan was promotion of a unitary system in a multi-ethnic society, or in the alternative, splitting the country into unwieldy 17 states that could not sustain themselves and where federating states have no power to eject criminals who import fake drugs into their states or armed immigrant herdsmen who illegally occupy federating states’ reserved forests.

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    Zik like Awo was also humbled. He allowed northern elite to root for the status quo because it has given them so much in addition to entrenching their hegemony in the nation in spite of creation of smaller state out of the huge former northern region. The north and its political elite have demonstrated that they are by far more astute politicians and more shrewd bargainers. Unlike the Yoruba and Ibo adept at playing the ostrich, they have never pretended about their goal which is Nigeria that would serve as home to stateless Fulani across West Africa.

    The north could not have asked for a better supporter than the British colonial masters who in an effort to protect her neo-colonial interest in Nigeria, encouraged and actively aided our northern ruling elite to betray Nigeria. Britain easily acceded to the 1951 northern three points demand: i.e. 50% of membership of the Legislative Council as against 25 for each of the regions,  revenue allocation based on per capita and retaining the boundaries especially between the north and west. (The 1951 census exercise was based largely on assumptions. With the rejection of the 1962 figures by northern leaders, a new census held in 1963 discovered additional 8.5 million people in the north bringing the northern population to 31m).

    And just as the 1951 allocation of 50 percent of the total seats in the House of Representatives to the Northern Region meant that only laws acceptable to the region would be passed by the house, today’s opponent of Tinubu’s tax bill are counting on their numerical strength to decide the fate of the bill.

    Another demonstration of British support for the north was James Robertson’s decision to call on Balewa to form government on December 15, 1959 with voting returns showing  that NPC was trailing the two other parties by 116  to 150, a decision that rendered the final result of NPC 150 seats  to  the other two parties 162 seats and independent 8, that came later on the December 19 just ‘a force majeure’.

    Ahmadu Bello rather than deny that Britain aided the north to hold the nation hostage, explained on page 33 of his book, My Life: The Sardauna of Sokoto that “The British were the instrument of destiny and were fulfilling the will of God in the way they did it all”.

    While Zik and Awo kept on playing the ostrich long after the death of nationalism, Prime Minster Balewa who had earlier described Nigeria as a British intention” insisted revenue must be based on need rather than derivation of resources”.

    In an answer to those who challenged him to act as a patriot, he had said ‘we are trying to build a mighty house on a foundation of straw … the question I have always asked: do we want Nigeria to be a happy place for everybody or a hell to the masses and a paradise for the few? North would very much like to march with the rest of Nigeria just at a reasonable speed, not at an impossible speed for the north”.

    Like their forbears, this is the same message northern critics of Tinubu’s tax bills are passing. The joke is on southern politicians including  Zik, the foremost Nigerian nationalist and celebrated intellectual who told reporters in London in 1957 that he and Ahmadu Bello’s position on the minority issue was taken in the interest of Nigerian unity. Sixty four years after, Nigerians are haunted by the echoes of Zik’s October 1, 1960’s “we are today no more a geographical expression” to deride Awo, his more discerning opponent.

    For all his pains, the celebrated Zik of Africa became a titular president, an onlooker while Balewa exercised all powers by virtue of the September 19, 1963 Republican Constitution which abolished the Judicial Service Commission, replaced the Privy Council in London with the Supreme Court as the highest court of appeal, and  the  enactment of  a Preventive Detention Act to restrain personal liberty.

    Today, the consolation for Nigerians who love our country is that President Tinubu by his ongoing efforts at walking the tight rope understands the imperative of addressing the national question.

  • Forfeited 753 Abuja duplexes

    Forfeited 753 Abuja duplexes

    Officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have been beating their chests on the final forfeiture to the federal government of a large estate in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja comprising 753 duplexes and other apartments.

    The order to that effect was issued by Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie of the FCT High Court, Abuja following an application filed by the EFCC. Before then, the same judge had on November 1, 2024 ordered the interim forfeiture of the estate.

    The anti-graft agency did not disclose the name of the owner or owners of the expansive estate measuring 150,500 metres located on plot 109 Cadastral Zone Lokogoma District, except it belongs to a “former top brass of the government”. The other clue was that the government official which fraudulently built the estate is being investigated by the EFCC.

    The agency was spurred to celebrate because the forfeiture in its calculations represents the largest single asset recovery secured since it was set up in 2003. Even as monetary value is yet to be placed on the 753 duplexes and other apartments, their magnitude and sheer number, stand the asset out in the recovery efforts of the EFCC.

    So, the mood of the agency can be understood. But as refreshing as this recovery effort is, the inability to name the characters behind this monumental fraudulent activity did not sit well with the public.  It was little surprising that allegations of possible cover-up and double standards have since been levied against the agency.

    When this ambivalence to full disclosure is placed side by side the fanfare the agency goes to town naming and publicizing suspects in crimes of even lesser magnitude, its position puzzles the more. It conjures the miserable impression that there is more to the fraud than ordinarily meets the eyes.

    But the EFCC sought to justify its position on the ground that, the proceedings for the forfeiture of the estate are in line with Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud Act, which allows legal action on a property and not on an individual especially in a situation of an unclaimed property.

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    It further contended that since the substantive criminal investigation is continuing, it will be unprofessional for it to go to town with the names of the individuals whose identities are not directly linked to any of the title documents of the properties. 

    The resort to legal niceties and moral appeal as the basis for not disclosing the identity of the suspect may sound appealing especially in climes where due process serves as veritable guide for public conduct. But not really here. Not with the reputation of the agency in handling fraud suspects in the past.

    Before now, the EFCC is known to relish in public parading and even medial trial of suspects in very minor cases even when they are yet to be brought before the courts of competent jurisdiction. In November last year, the agency broke into a private hostel occupied by students of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife, Osun State and  arrested 69 students on suspicion of internet fraud.

    They claimed the invasion of the student’s hostel in the middle of the night followed credible intelligence linking it to internet fraud. But that was not all. They ferried the suspects to their zonal office in Ibadan, Oyo State and proceeded to publish the names of the arrested students even before profiling them.

    The publication drew the ire of the public leading to protests and ultimatum for their release from the OAU students’ union. After the intervention of the authorities of the university and subsequent profiling, 59 of the arrested students were released as no evidence of internet fraud was found against them.

    But the harm had been done by the publication and medial trial of the innocent students. This is not an attempt to justify arbitrariness or media trials. But the OAU incident represents a tip of the iceberg in the naming and shaming of suspects by the EFCC when criminal cases are yet to be established against them. So the agency is bound to run into murky waters if it now seeks to hide under legal sophistry and touted professionalism for not disclosing the owner of the estate. Even then, the court proceedings for the asset forfeiture were unambiguous on the top official suspected to own the estate. So, what fear is in there then?

    They know the top official under their investigations. They know the funds with which he acquired the estate were not his legitimate earnings but proceeds of unlawful activities, corrupt enrichment, receiving gratifications, kickbacks and abuse of office. All required to unmask the identity of the owner are readily available. The affidavit named him as Godwin Emefiele, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

    So those who read meanings to the reluctance of the EFCC to name the estate owner have strong reasons to do so. Sadly, issues of this nature often nurture public suspicion and mistrust against those in positions of authority. Lack of trust and confidence in public office holders and institutions account largely for the reverses that characterised policy implementation on these shores.

    But that is beside the salient issues raised by that fraudulent transaction. It baffles that such expansive and massive property development program could go on within the seat of the federal government without being noticed by any of the arms of the country’s security architecture. Admittedly, the expansive property was originally meant for mass housing development.

     But the prying eyes of the security agencies should have spotted the time it changed hands especially with the massive movements in human and material capital involved in such huge construction projects. It was either a case of total failure of intelligence or official compromise.

    Curiously, all these happened during the last administration that touted the fight against corruption as one of its cardinal objectives. But how could the fight against corruption have proceeded credibly when the candidature of Ibrahim Magu, the first acting chief executive of the EFCC under Buhari’s regime was twice refused confirmation by the senate?

    That was sequel to a letter from the DSS informing the upper legislative chamber that Magu failed integrity test and would constitute a clear liability to the anti- corruption war.

    Buhari refused to listen to credible intelligence on the unsuitability of Magu’s candidature and allowed him to operate for years without senate confirmation. The fears raised by the DSS were later vindicated by the abrupt and unedifying manner he was arrested from office and detained by the same DSS following mounting allegations. Magu never returned to that office after that arrest.

    That should say a lot on the integrity of the anti-corruption war during that regime. It is not just enough for the anti-graft agencies to wait for financial crimes to be committed before arresting, prosecuting and recovering stolen funds and properties. That is the snag in the current strategy of the relevant agencies.

    The emphasis should be on detection and prevention of crimes. The huge sums of public funds carefully stolen and stashed away by rogue officials masquerading as leaders, signpost failure of fool-proof mechanisms for detecting and preventing crimes before they are committed.

    It is not just enough for the anti-graft agency to brandish statistics of the 3,455 convictions it secured and over N248 billion recovered during the first year in office of its current chairman. These may be relevant but credible intelligence leading to the detection and prevention of crimes will save even more.

    This calls for systemic and institutional reforms that will substantially address the relative ease with which government functionaries loot public funds at their disposal unnoticed. Sadly, Nigeria’s standing in the corruption ladder of Transparency International in the last two years, has continued to indicate the pervasiveness of the malfeasance.

    It is getting increasingly clearer that many of those presiding over our collective patrimony cannot be trusted with public funds. Or, how else do we rationalise the criminal love for money and unbridled quest for property acquisition by one man in a country populated largely, by hewers of wood and fetchers of water?

    It assails public sensibilities. That has been the disconnect accounting for suspicion and lack of trust in government policies entailing sacrifice from the citizenry. That narrative must change for this country to make reasonable progress.

  • Slippery saboteurs

    Slippery saboteurs

    Two striking incidents in November further highlighted corruption in Nigeria’s oil sector and the ironic implication of state actors in crude oil theft. 

    Chief Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, Chairman, Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited (TSSNL), a private security firm engaged by the Federal Government to secure oil assets, accused the Nigerian Navy of sabotaging the country’s fight against crude oil theft.

    Investigative journalist and founder of Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) Fisayo Soyombo, who was arrested at an illegal oil bunkering site in Port Harcourt and detained by the Nigerian Army while conducting an undercover investigation, alleged that “known illegal oil bunkerers were bribing different people with various security formations.”

    Allegations of collaboration between members of the country’s security forces and oil thieves are not new. These recent repetitions of the old allegations not only reinforced the narrative but also underscored the failure of the authorities to deal with the alleged collusion.

     After he was released from a three-day detention, Soyombo said media reports of his confinement had forced the army authorities to set him free. “I repeatedly asked them that I need to speak to my lawyer and they denied me and they instructed all soldiers around there that none of them must give me their phones,” he said.

    It is puzzling that after confirming his identity and why he was found at the site, the 6 Division of the Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt, still kept him in detention. The army, he reasoned, “should be interested in ending illegal oil bunkering and should have seen me as a partner.”

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     According to him, the army’s operation had happened because “someone in the security setup was offended that he didn’t get bribed because the illegal bunkerers would bribe people in security. One got annoyed and tipped off others.” He also said: “the illegal bunkerers had said they had settled everyone and the guys who came were the ones that were not settled, and a conversation was going to settle them…”

    The investigative journalist said he “obtained hard evidence by experiencing the entire process. We were to load crude onto a truck and move it to Enugu, a buyer was waiting. Some move it to Enugu, some move it to Anambra or Abia, some go as far as Kano.”

    Before Soyombo’s story, Tompolo had told a story that also raised questions about the war against crude oil theft while receiving the leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), led by its President, Mazi Afam Osigwe (SAN), at Oporoza, Delta State. According to him, the navy “is working at cross purposes with other government and private security agencies saddled with the responsibility to curb illegal oil bunkering.” He supported his claim with two recent cases of alleged navy operations that went against the war to stop crude oil theft.

    First, he recalled that when men of Tantita intercepted a vessel carrying stolen crude oil in Port Harcourt, they found that personnel of the Nigerian Navy provided escort duties on board the vessel. He said these navy personnel “and others speedily mobilised to the scene with gunboats and other equipment, opened fire on our men and officials of civil defence corps and DSS, who insisted that the vessel could not sail further.” The outcome was that those who were protecting the vessel won.

    He added that a similar incident occurred at Ovwian community in Delta State when naval personnel “also overpowered and subdued Tantita operatives to secure safe passage for another vessel carrying stolen crude.” He declared that the cases of involvement of naval personnel in oil theft were “too many to recount,” adding that the Nigerian Navy “has sacrificed its constitutional obligation for pecuniary benefits.”

    These accusations are bad for the image of the state security forces, which are not expected to work against the country’s interests. However, the Director of Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen. Edward Buba, called Tompolo’s allegations “laughable” and “cheap blackmail,” saying, “We are all partners.”

    In July, during an investigative hearing on crude oil theft and revenue losses, Speaker of the House of Representatives Abbas Tajudeen observed that the statistics on crude oil theft were “very alarming,” and its negative impact on the economy “quite monumental.” He noted that between January and July 2024, Nigeria lost about 437,000 barrels of crude oil per day due to theft, vandalism and other criminal activities, resulting in a loss of over $10bn.

    At the same investigative hearing, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) George Akume, represented by the Permanent Secretary, General Services, Maurice Nnamdi Mbaeri, said crude oil theft and the associated losses had “devastating implications for our economy and national security.” Nigeria has continually failed to meet its daily production quota as set by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) as a result of oil theft, he stated, adding that the situation “not only undermines our revenues but also hampers the provision of essential services that millions of Nigerians rely upon.”

    The SGF also said, since 2020, expenditure aimed at tackling crude oil theft and securing the country’s oil infrastructure had exceeded $1.5bn “allocated towards enhancing surveillance capabilities, securing pipelines, and increasing the presence of law enforcement agencies in critical oil-producing areas.”

    This is why Tompolo’s allegations were not only disturbing but called for urgent intervention by the authorities. The huge spending to stop crude oil theft may well be going down the drain on account of the alleged sabotage by navy personnel.  

    Private security companies, including Tantita, were controversially contracted to secure the country’s oil infrastructure because of poor performance of state actors in the first place. Allegations of collusion with oil thieves worsens the case of poor performance against state actors.

    In November, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) announced that it had increased oil production to 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) and hoped to get to two million bpd by December. The firm’s CEO, Mele Kyari, attributed the improvement to rigorous pipeline monitoring, among others.

    To ensure that the country continues on this path of recovery, the Federal Government must launch an independent investigation regarding Tompolo’s allegations and resolutely pursue the arrest and prosecution of oil thieves and their enablers.

    In November, the Chief of Navy Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, at a media briefing where he was represented by the Chief of Policy and Plans, Rear Adm. Olusegun Ferreira, said in the past four years, the Nigerian Navy “has confiscated over 8.1 million barrels of stolen crude oil… and arrested 392 suspected oil thieves.” It is unclear if state actors were among the arrested suspects.

    To win the war against crude oil theft, the authorities must tackle the claimed collusion between members of the country’s security forces and oil thieves. Or are the saboteurs, particularly state actors, too slippery to be caught?

  • Atiku’s league of democrats

    Atiku’s league of democrats

    Atiku Abubakar is not having peace in PDP, what with the Damagum conundrum. So, he has turned elsewhere for succour: The so-called League of Northern Democrats. If you go through the list of its mainstays, you will know it is the voice of Jacob but the hand of Esau. It is not a league, but a smokescreen for one man: Atiku Abubakar. He has thrown up his façade of followers to give the impression of a new outfit. It’s an old toga dyed anew. It is better named the League of Atiku Democrats. More appropriately, the Smokescreen of Atiku Abubakar. The leader is an Atiku man. His name, Ibrahim Shekarau. He is the man who played coquette in the last election and decided to dump Kwakwanso for Atiku and PDP. His disgrace in Kano still rings through Kofar Mata. Who is the convener? One Dr. Umar Ardo, a historian, who served Atiku as an aide when he was vice president. They have quite a few others, including Namadi Sambo, who pitched his tent with the Adamawa chieftain.

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    LND is the sort of name Atiku would like because it irradiates his irridentist mantra. We cannot forget his bluster in the last election campaigns when he posed as the northern star and asked Arewa to vote its own in a language of vile hegemony. As proprietary northerner, he said the other candidates should not be considered because they are southerners. LND also has some renegades who are bitter that they have been left out of the APC fruit bowl, like one Emmanuel Jime, a failed gubernatorial candidate who was removed as head of the Shippers Council after half a dozen years in the saddle.

    You don’t turn bitterness into a cause. That is becoming a fashion. LND and Atiku are trying to deploy ethnic hubris to pursue personal ambition. Pity.

  • Holy theft

    Holy theft

    We do not mourn when we call an uncompleted building a carcass. The word humours the dead. Few Nigerians were in jubilant humour when the EFCC announced its biggest catch ever: 753 duplexes.

    It is perhaps the most beautiful acreage of carcasses ever found. Stolen things often stay hidden. Millions of dollars stashed in furtive bank accounts. Jewels in vaults. Cars out of sight. In Nigeria, some highfalutin thieves have buried them like carcasses in their backyards, bought houses to tenant billions of naira. They now encrypt them and, without irony, they call it cryptocurrency. Even kidnappers seal cellars for their stolen captives.

    The irony with these carcasses is that they never had a breath of life before they are pronounced dead. The other irony is that, unlike a few miracles like Lazarus, these carcasses can come back to life. The miracle does not require a prophet or a holy water or oil of gladness. It can even be brought to life by an unclean spirit, like a real estate magnate. He will be a prophet but with guile, and will use water, which is necessary to mix cement to mould blocks. Holy water is not necessary. No oil but gladness is the final sentiment when the full building is ready. Well, for believers, they will anoint it.

    The 753 had no such finesse. They are in the open, as if the thief wanted to tell Nigerians there is a new art to public plunder: in your face. But it has always been in your face. They steal, line up limousines, buy private jets, build mansions here, in Dubai, in the U.K., in Miami, et al. But we see them. We know they were stolen. But we can do nothing about it.

    Yet, not in your face like what we have seen with 753. Maybe, it is a new chapter in thievery. We all want to get this set of carcasses. These ones are a gem. As the Bible says, “where the carcass is, there will the gathering of the eagles be.” The Nigerian eagle just found gems of corpses. It is gem as precious as William Faulkner’s dead character in As I lay dying. The dead seem to be more remarkable than the living in the novel, much like Cassandra in Homer’s Odyssey where Faulkner sourced his title. When the bible’s Samson duels a lion to the death, the carcass invents a marvel: it drips with honey. Out of the eater comes forth sweetness.

    Well, the good news is that this honey of a carcass will be open for all. The houses are now government property, and the EFCC will now make it a thing for all who can pay. As Malian singer and instrumentalist croons, “honey does not only taste sweet in one mouth”

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    The EFCC could not cement its efficiency and loyalty to nation with a courage: to name the thief. Its first statement locates the person as a sacked government official. Heads turned to former CBN chief Emefiele. Many asked questions but the most worrying was: Is it the former CBN chief, and why not name him who is known as Mefi in his intimate circle? Again, even Mefi, who in the past was quick to lash back at any perceived media hurt, has been as quiet as a pond. Not once when he was in office did he keep quiet over even a slight innuendo. He even hired his media minions to take a two-page advert against Sam Omatseye in this newspaper over his ambition to be – remember? – Nigeria’s president. He wanted the Job Tinubu now has. But he, who toted a giant bible – is as retiring as a mouse. As Abiola said in the June 12 tumult, “an elephant has given birth to a mouse.”

    His silence has created a guilty verdict, even after the EFCC hid under a legalese to take back its first statement. Not one  person but a chattel. That is what it can tell. So, EFCC told us without telling us that it is Mefi. Those who accessed the document have shown that it is Mefi. The judge knows it. The document said it. It is another irony in this tale. The accuser is guilty of accusing, or not accusing enough or well. But no matter.

    What is important is that Nigeria has gotten a big find. The untold story of the saga is the boon of a major project using government funds but administered like a private concern. We do not know how much it cost to erect the duplexes. But imagine if government wanted to build the same 753 duplexes. It might have cost ten times more.

    Normally, for government to complete this, there would have been a long time spent doing the necessary paper work. Billions of naira would go to architects. Billions more to acquire land, to do the survey, and also to get the contractors to bid for it. Then we shall have bribes for the government officials who would award the contracts.

    After that, there might be merry-go-rounds about work done on the survey, and why one report needed to be reviewed and another survey done. Or when the architect has done its work, there might be an order from above that the architect was not the right one. Anyway, they would spot a professional error in the process the architect was appointed, and another bid will ensue.

    In all these, no work has started, and billions have already gone down the drains. At last, they get to work. They pay to clear grass, although there is none. They pay to save the pond and marshes on the property, although it is solid earth. Billions, you may be surprised, has gone down a nonexistent strip of land.

    After they start, they realise inflation has set in. They do a variation, though the initial cost was ten times the original. With variation, they double it, which makes it twenty times. Then they set out to work. Everyone is happy: minister or commisioner, perm sec, contractor, publicists, lawyers, even bricklayer. We are happy that it happens during the reign of a governor or president. Or else, if its lapses, a new government decides to begin again. If the money sunk is too much of a scandal to bear, it becomes an abandoned project. Why get bogged down when you can start your own merry-go-round. That’s why we have abandoned projects all around.

    But the 753 duplexes did not have to go through that. The thief handled it like a private concern, and there was discipline from survey all the way to building. So, it happens fast, and efficiently. It is meant for profit, not for charity, since that is how government projects are perceived.

    This 753 thief steals to deprive us of corruption. He defeats bureaucracy, short cuts, lies, account variations, fronts, impersonations, and billions of naira down the drain. For once, a project was started and completed in right time, without kickbacks or red-tape rigmarole. Out of rottenness blooms a flower. In pidgin English, it is called “thief thief thief.” Where process fails, crookery prevails. Public indiscipline begets private discipline begets public good. Out of Samson’s carcass drips honey. It is the purest act of corruption in Nigeria’s history.

    The bible says “one man builds and another occupies.” Here, one man builds, the owner occupies. The thief has stolen for the owner. It is an edifying act, a sacred theft. It begins a theft, but ends a gift. It is unwholly but ends up holy. It is like Judas, who betrays but saves mankind. It is forbidden but we accept the fruit. We never pray for another Judas but we cannot resist such plums out of a rotten earth.

    Now that we have the carcasses, we expect that the homes get to the right buyers the right way and the money is ploughed for the common good.

  • Tinubu, Zulum, governors and tax bills

    Tinubu, Zulum, governors and tax bills

    There are a number of disquieting issues with President Bola Tinubu‘s four controversial tax reform bills transmitted to the National Assembly last September. Firstly, of course, are a few of the provisions in the bills, particularly the Value Added Tax component of one of the bills, which some governors believe will disadvantage their states. Secondly, rightly or wrongly, is the belief that the bills are polarising, pitting region against region, and one tier of government against another. Mercifully, so far, the bills have not acquired any sectarian hue, except someone along the line wants to force one upon them. Thirdly, and very disturbing, is the fact that few governors, not to say the National Economic Council (NEC) as a body, have bothered to study and digest the bills before either commenting on them or taking inflexible positions. Fourthly, the pro and con forces have dug their heels in and spoken apocalyptically about their readiness to countenance mayhem on account of the bills. Yet, in all this, it is perverse that the dismissive conclusions reached by many commentators have concerned just one or two provisions in one of the four bills.

    The four observations listed above point in only one direction: that Nigeria is not a perfect or even working or workable union, and that the country’s political and business elites lack both the wisdom and the willingness to make the union work. This is why they frame their arguments, discourses, and observations as zero sum-games; why they approach every disagreement or misgiving with a sense of entitlement; and why they assume that in the Nigerian democracy anchored on unsustainable and eclectic constitution bequeathed by the military, electoral blackmail is fair game against an intransigent president. About two months after the bills were transmitted, and the conclave of northern governors announced their diametric opposition to the bills perhaps after taking their cues from NEC, some political leaders (governors and lawmakers) have made insignificant attempt to explicate the bills, preferring instead to whip up public emotions. Till now, no governor or political leader has tried to disentangle the bills one from another, or to zero in on the offending provisions, or suggesting amendments or even general reworking.

    When NEC and some political leaders asked for the withdrawal of the bills, it is unlikely they were aware their call indicated their miscomprehension of the role of the legislature, the input lawmakers should have in the working of bills, and the inurement, if not ignorance, of the elite to the dangers constituted by the regionalisation of the bills. The reason bills are transmitted to the legislature is to allow for their reworking, rephrasing, amidst more consultations and expert contributions. It would have been helpful if consensuses had been built before the bills were transmitted, but it is not compulsory that they should reach the legislature unfettered by public doubts and misgivings. The legislature, like the judiciary, is a vital part of the workings of a presidential system, and an indispensable tool to the stabilisation and survival of democracy. It is unclear why NEC and some political leaders discountenanced this process. The 10th Assembly may display some fragility, if not sometimes supine acquiescence, in the face of the blandishments and pressures of the Tinubu administration, a point exemplified by the indecent haste to pass the National Anthem replacement bill, but the tax bills as well as many other bills were unlikely to witness the same frightful haste, especially considering how strongly some states feel about the tax reforms.

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    Indeed, considered critically, the tax bills are not as deeply polarising as many critics or supporters wish. The objects of discord are mercifully few, and the bills overall are revolutionary and desperately needed to help retune the country’s revenue streams, restore order to a chaotic system, give succor to the poor, and unleash states’ economic potentials. When Channels TV recently assembled a panel of six experts to dissect the bills, it was remarkable that while they admitted that some fine-tuning could still be done, they were nevertheless unanimous that the reforms contemplated were urgently needed as a great shot in the arm for the Nigerian economy. Channels TV is no fan of President Tinubu, for while it has tried to be objective, it has hardly succeeded in disguising its oppositional predilection. The bills may give the impression of being polarising, but they have received nearly unanimously enthusiastic support from the country’s economic experts, and notable and knowledgeable analysts from all regions and across ethnic and religious groups. No bills in recent memory have received such profound support, regardless of the skewed and fairly shortsighted interpretations of the VAT component of the bills.

    In the past two weeks or so, Borno State Governor Babagana Umara Zulum has unapologetically personified the debate on, if not the opposition to, the bills. His argument is straightforward and a little puzzling. He did not speak to the four bills, as expected, but singled out the VAT issue. According to him, predicating VAT proceeds distribution on derivation instead of on production as provided in the old formula would favour Lagos and Rivers States, and disadvantage many states, including Borno, which he said would be unable to pay salaries. But proponents of the bills have shown by data and projections that his conclusions were far-fetched, and that Lagos would in fact be disadvantaged. Why it did not occur to Professor Zulum that publicly admitting Borno’s insolvency was both humiliating and retrogressive. Even if the governor can substantiate his misgivings, by using Borno’s financial condition to illustrate the unfairness he alleges against the bill, and by framing his arguments so inelegantly he indicates his reluctance to see the problem holistically or project into the future. He could have made the same point by different and dignified logic.

    In the heat of the moment, and at a time when a Borno senator, Ali Ndume, acknowledged that he had not read the bills and didn’t care to, it was disappointing that Prof Zulum indirectly abjured his progressive credentials. Controversial issues like the tax reform bills tend to expose the lack of rigour and ideology of many Nigerian political leaders. The National Economic Council was remiss in giving the president the right advice, and so, too, was the Borno governor. They have the resources to hire experts from across the country to help them analyse or deconstruct salient national issues. That they narrowed their search is surprising. The problem is not that they took issue with the bills, since they have the right to nurse doubts and interrogate facts; the problem is that they seemed strangely unable to analyse the bills without resorting or appealing to regional and electoral emotions.

    There are suggestions that had President Tinubu consulted more widely, the bills would have come out less controversial and more acceptable. It is not known exactly just how much consultation the administration undertook, but the tax reform panel admitted that they engaged in very wide consultations across the country. No one has controverted their claim except the Nasarawa State governor, Abdullahi Sule, who insisted that whatever consultations the panel undertook with respect to the governors was superficial and informal, particularly for such a consequential bill. He may be right. But there is no doubt that consultations were undertaken, and though the bills indicated stupendous quality of legislative drafting, they do not preclude further tweaking. Whether ‘enough’ consultations were done or not, the idea of a legislative process is to enable further consultations. Governors and political leaders should take advantage of the process. Threatening to throw out the bills or insinuating rejection of the president for a second term is unhelpful and amateurish. Both threats sadly indicate that the country is still fraying at the edges, while, even more significantly, it is clear that Nigeria is still not a union, perfect, imperfect or work-in-progress.

    It is perhaps time, too, that President Tinubu must learn the art of lobbying beyond just transmitting a great bill or proposing an excellent idea to achieve a more perfect union or a great economy. The country’s six geopolitical zones are unlikely now or in the near future to see the country from the same lens. Indeed, it is not every state in one zone that sees national or even regional issues from the same prism. Beyond the noise, even Prof Zulum does not have the wide support he thinks he has on the tax bills among the North’s intelligentsia. There may be protests here and there, but many critical northern thinkers see the tax reform issue beyond short-term disadvantages, preferring instead to focus on the immense potentials to reset the northern economy and make a clean break from the retrogression, feudalism, and irresponsible dependency that have undermined the region and bred decades of complacency and chaos. President Tinubu is presiding over a presidential system; he has a responsibility to invite key lawmakers for breakfast, lunch or dinner in order to lobby them, explicate the issues at hand, get them to see the future beyond today, and gradually extricate them from the stifling economic and cultural anomalies of the present. He may have the brightest ideas and the best bills, and he may even be as good-natured as anyone can be, but he must learn to reach out, drive a great and hard bargain, and ensure finally that politics is played transcendentally above, ethnicity, region and religion. Tweaked here and there, the tax reform bills will probably be passed; but while the president is encouraged to ignore the electoral threats regarding 2027, he should see what has happened as a lesson to come out of his shell and engage more meaningfully and aggressively with his constituency, the lawmakers.

  • Afe Babalola, Farotimi: storm in judicial teacup

    Afe Babalola, Farotimi: storm in judicial teacup

    Last Tuesday, lawyer and activist, Dele Farotimi, was arrested and driven by road to Ekiti State where he was arraigned on Wednesday in a Magistrate Court for criminal defamation of Afe Babalola, senior lawyer, elder statesman and educationist. The defamation was allegedly contained in Mr Farotimi’s July 2024 book, Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System. He faces a 16-count charge at a Magistrate Court, and another 12-count charge filed on Friday at the Federal High Court, Ado-Ekiti. The charge sheets have been published by many newspapers. The book has also reportedly climbed the number one bestseller list on Amazon on the elections category, and exceeded 500 on the general list. His arrest and arraignment were at the instance of a petition by Chief Babalola.

    It is not unusual for anyone to defame another person, or be charged in court, or remanded by a magistrate, for no one is above the law. But by turning the arrest and remand of Mr Farotimi into a cause celebre, a storm in a teacup as it were, activists and lawyers, including surprisingly the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), are suggesting that it is okay to abridge court processes by activism and that individuals do not have the right to seek remedy for their injured reputation. Instead of ensuring that justice is done, human rights activists are calling for the release of the defendant and planning protests for sometime this week to force the hands of the police and the courts.

    If the case is to be discontinued, either for jurisdictional reasons or any other reason for that matter, it will have to be through court processes, not activism. The listing of the book on Amazon and its global dissemination will serve as grist to the mill, whether the case is civil defamation or criminal defamation. Some activists complain about the style of Mr Farotimi’s arrest. But the law enforcement agencies probably approached the matter from criminal defamation as well as Cybercrimes perspective. According to Chief Babalola’s petition, the book contains multiple instances of Mr Farotimi’s defamatory generalisations, including how the complainant allegedly corrupted the Supreme Court and procured judgements. They are the kind of views that make for explosive and enjoyable reading, but they are views, if unproven, that wound victims deeply and tear their reputations to pieces. Regardless of the outcome of the case, it seems guaranteed that the storm will last for a very long time. Mr Farotimi may bank on the unassailability of being the underdog in this case, but opinions are divided on the propriety of what he had to say and how he said those things Chief Babalola considered injurious to his reputation. Worse, many lawyers, when they can restrain themselves from throwing caviar to the general, are left puzzled about what kind of legal training propels an author and lawyer to pen such scathing remarks about anyone.

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    Many human rights organisations have rallied to the side of Mr Farotimi. But they have not shown cause why the case should not be entertained, or why Chief Babalola should not defend his reputation the best way he knows, while he is still alive at 95 years old. It is suggested that defamation cases are like quicksand, where unexpected and probably tangential stories and facts might be unearthed and pleaded to the detriment of the complainant. Regardless of these fears, and judging from the trenchancy of the remarks penned by Mr Farotimi, the complainant will undoubtedly take his chances in court. Not going to court is not an option, considering the weighty claims levelled against him. And beyond standing with Chief Babalola or supporting Mr Farotimi, it may be time for Nigerians to stand for the rule of law, despite the judicial system’s weaknesses, rather than tolerate the anarchic proclivity of activists who protest against everything because they suspect everything and denigrate everyone.