Category: Barometer

Barometer

 

After successfully scaling the legal hurdles that attended its inception and threatened its very existence, Operation Amotekun, the feline themed Southwestern security outfit established to supplement and complement the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) in the Southwest is threatening to controvert itself by deploying supernatural means to combat insecurity.

The outfit promised to deploy ancient, local and modern techniques to combat insecurity. By employing local and modern techniques in carrying out its sworn duty, Amotekun members can hardly put a foot wrong. But by choosing to adopt ancient, supernatural techniques as the media reports, many questions arise.

One of such questions is: “why magic?” What has rendered the recourse to supernatural powers necessary? In a world that is increasingly reliant on forensic science, the Southwest, which often lays claim to uncommon scholarliness, is still stuck in the shackles of the past.

In an age that blood is being extracted from dead mosquitoes at crime scenes to detect with accuracy the identity of criminals, Amotekun wants to cast spells to address insecurity.

Would it not be a sign of advancement with the times if governors chose to collect data and establish laboratories to advance the use of forensic science in investigating crime?

When the outfit was first announced, the major stumbling block was the Second Schedule to the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as amended, item 17 of which puts defence firmly under the exclusive legislative list.

Southwest governors were told to create a legal framework for the establishment of the security outfit, and, interpreting Sections 14(2) and 318 of the 1999 Constitution, they were able to create the necessary legal framework. Now, the agency appears poised to immolate itself by resorting to the use of magic an act not justiciable.

The use of supernatural powers as a security tool cannot be worse than it sounds, no matter how beautifully it is couched. One of the procedural marks of Nigeria’s security architecture is democracy. Another is transparency.

The flexible morality of the NPF and the discouraging management of the Nigerian Army were the major chinks in the Nigerian security architecture, which pushed the south-western governors to establish Amotekun.

The modus operandi of the police, which should monitor internal security, is enshrined in the Police Act. Recourse is often taken to the Criminal Procedure Act on procedural matters and investigation.

The Amotekun security outfit was established, inter alia, “to assist the police and other security agencies to carry out any other lawful activity for maintaining law and order in the state”. Usually, the procedure is scientific and logical, not fetish, magical, mysterious, mythical and sorcerous.

The existence of magic cannot be denied, while the knowledge that magic can be used for both good and mischief will not be strange to any acquaintance of Nigerian history.

Scholars of the law have written on the controversial nature of supernatural powers and the admissibility of such during court proceedings.

It is for that reason that Operation Amotekun, should it choose to go ahead with its avoidable decision to indulge in spell-casting and incantation chanting, needs to come up with a legal framework to regulate the use of magic.

They will hardly be successful here. The Law of evidence preoccupies itself, among other things, with the nature in which evidence is obtained.

How can the police explain in their reports that they were assisted by extralegal procedures and methods? By what methods of validation can the supernatural intelligence thus obtained be scrutinized and tested?

What tests will the courts employ in admitting evidence obtained by the use of magic? How can anyone be sure that it is in fact only the guilty that fall victims to these supernatural methods?

What if the other parties, the prospective foes, also resort to witchery and the darkest of magic to evade what is believed will be the most earnest attentions of the Amotekun magic? Too many questions arise for comfort.

It is not enough for the security agency to throw in supernatural methods alongside local and modern methods.

The agency is obliged to give detailed accounts of the procedure to be used in the administration and execution of its mandate, but more importantly, it may be time to move beyond the longing for swift but unreliable and incomprehensible magic to the groundbreaking possibilities that forensic science offers.

Barometer

The federal government on July 8 navigated a reversal of its stance on the reopening of unity schools for the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE), which had been scheduled to commence on August 3. This decision, naturally, has polarised stakeholders in the educational sector.

Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, wondered if the press had not misquoted the Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, to publish news that schools would reopen soon.

He, of course, maintained stoic silence on the extensive guidelines released earlier compelling schools to offer an arm and a leg before they could be reopened for exiting students to write their final examinations.

He said: “Schools under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Education will not be opened on August 4 or anytime soon.

Our schools will only open when we believe it’s safe for our children and that is when the situation is right, not when the incidence of the infection is going up in the nation. I just want to make it clear.

We will not open schools soon for examination or for any reason unless it is safe for our children, even WAEC. WAEC will not determine for us what we do. Schools will remain closed.”

The House of Representatives did not think the minister’s stance was as clear as he wanted it to be. Chairman of the House Committee on Education, Julius Ihonvbere, a professor, noted that the minister did not inform the public if the decision was the outcome of a meeting with all the state governments that are in charge of all but the unity schools owned by the Federal Government.

Said the eminent professor: “This sudden policy reversal is not good for the country. It is bound to create further confusion in the education sector, create disappointment and suspicion among parents, frustrate the students, and show to our development partners and Nigerians that the distortions and disarticulations in the sector are only getting worse.

We are convinced that if our policy of no boarding house, the reconceptualising scope of exams, use of all classrooms and halls in the schools, quadrupling the number of invigilators, provision of face masks, sanitizers and hand-washing facilities are followed, the WASSCE can be conducted with ease and with no repercussions.”

Governors of south-western states, however, have declared their readiness to open schools and allow their students write the exams, while Oyo State has gone ahead and opened its schools for students.

Meanwhile, the Head of WAEC National Office in Nigeria, Patrick Areghan, has mentioned that Ghana shelved its plans to write the examinations in June because of Nigeria, while in Gambia, it took a presidential directive for the exams to be postponed. In a word, Nigeria is holding things down, despite having pulled out of the examinations this year.

The position of the Ministry of Education remains an unblushing admittance of reality while the House of representatives has simply chosen to ignore the elephant in the room by dismissing the valid albeit avoidable concerns Mr Adamu raised.

There is, however, no conviction that the federal government has done its best on the matter. More can and should be done to arrive at the best solution for all interested parties on the reopening of schools for writing WAEC, especially the parents of children who have paid for the now suspended examinations and the children whose lives are about to be heavily disrupted.

It is indicative of the federal government’s unpreparedness and lack of astute policies that while other countries involved with WAEC have been able to chart a clear course on the conduct of the examinations, Nigeria remains locked in a policy tug-of-war concerning whether to write the exams or not.

Both the Ministry of Education and the House of Representatives Committee on Education will remain at loggerheads on the reopening of schools and conduct of WAEC examinations because their policies remain defective, implausible and unfeasible given the appalling state of education in the country prior to the advent of COVID-19.

The sector was abysmally underfunded and needing every infrastructural attention. Public schools remained firmly trapped in the chokehold of stagnation while private schools, wisely expecting no funding from the government, remain pricy.

For the federal government, its educational chickens are coming home to roost. Decades of neglected researches and ignored complaints have caused this fiasco, and it remains to be seen if the government is taking notes or adopting its usual policy of playing by ear and hoping the problem will eventually either solve itself, wear itself out, or recede to the background to be replaced by other more embarrassing problems.

By Barometer

In a brief display of power pugilism, the Clerk to the National Assembly, Mohammed Ataba Sani-Omolori, decided to take on the Chairman of the National Assembly Service commission (NASC), Ahmed Amshi, in one of many power plays that have become the leitmotif of all three arms of Nigeria’s government.

Although the ill-advised former clerk went down in the third round after the wind was forcibly removed from his sails, the match was nonetheless exciting.

It started the same way many political fights start: dispute over a piece of legislation  in this case the National Assembly Service Act 2014 (as amended).

The NASC had, at its 497th meeting, agreed to retire the clerk and some other 150 persons, whose identities do not affect the plot of this narrative, as they never stepped foot in the ring.

The Clerk to the National Assembly responded via a press release, defiantly, as though to say Lord Acton was right about power doing a number on the wielder’s mind.

He claimed the 8th Assembly had amended the retirement age in the National Assembly Service Act and that the NASC had no power to turn him out. A brave shot.

The leadership of the House of Representatives was alleged to have waded into the matter by the agency of a letter attributed to Sanusi Rikiji, the Chief of Staff of the Speaker of the House.

The letter was swiftly disowned and legend holds that its author remains a phantom and enigma till date. Back in the ring, blows were being exchanged, with all the science of experienced political pugilism.

More letters, an emergency meeting on Friday, and Omolori was winded. It was top-hole Nigerian drama, similar in plot to the recent exchanges that the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and suspended Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) treated Nigerians to, but not as gory in its detail and certainly not as embarrassing.

What made Omolori, a lawyer and accomplished member of the royal family of Ebiraland, taint what should have been a respectable retirement by wading into battles on points of law, which hardly ever end fairly?

There is a pervading mentality in Nigeria, and indeed most of Africa, that remaining in any top public office will lend relevance to a person.

Even Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, after serving as the fifth and twelfth president of Nigeria for a total of eleven years, still made active attempts to elongate his tenure in a constitutional fiasco that left him utterly chastened.

The innate desire of Nigerian leaders to keep holding on to power at all costs is a reflection of the comforts that come with holding offices.

For leadership in Nigeria to grow, this outlook to public service needs to be corrected by heavy censuring of public officers. Sections relating to tenures of officers in public offices should remain extremely difficult to modify.

Public officers should be able to separate their true identities from their official capacities lest they keep falling prey to the inordinate urge to order the sun to stand still and the moon not to go down.

Barometer

Clearly, the quality of Nigerian lawmakers has declined. In the Southwest, a region that once prided itself as the best and most stately, the decline is even more tragic.

There is not much to inspire anyone in that region, but Ondo State has become the typical example of the horrifying excesses that now afflict lawmaking there.

Speaker of the state legislature, Bamidele Oleyelogun, incredibly managed a horrifying leap into the void last week by getting 14 members of the House of Assembly, out of 26, to sign a request to the state chief judge to commence the impeachment of the deputy governor, Agboola Ajayi, who weeks ago fell out with the governor and defected to the rival Peoples Democratic Party.

Read Also: Impeachment: Oyo deputy governor outsmarts GSM

The pro-impeachment lawmakers needed 18 members to sign the request, but only 14 signed. Knowing the law, why on earth would the speaker still go ahead to present the request to the chief judge? What arithmetical miracle was he expecting?

And don’t they have shame in those regions, where it had to take the intervention of the Inspector General of Police to restore the security detail of the alienated deputy governor? Like everything else in the state, it is also now clear that even democracy is not robustly observed: not in the State House, not in the legislature, and sadly too, not even in the ruling APC.

What if the judiciary had descended into the gutters like the rest, and had not sensibly declined the silly request? Then the rout would have been complete.

Barometer

Flowing from Africa’s slave trade past, and the inferiority complex that grew out of it, it was thought that poor leadership was an African preserve. Racist theories of cultural inferiority abounded, and it was argued that little or nothing could be done to ameliorate the complex because it had become encoded in the genes of black people.

But United States president Donald Trump has in one swift blow exploded the myth of any racial comparative advantage. Bad or poor leadership is not the exclusive preserve of anyone, let alone black people. Mr Trump, as can be seen in the past few weeks in his appalling responses to both the black lives matter protests and the COVID-19 pandemic, would be a hard sell even by African standards.

Ignore COVID-19 response for a moment. Instead, concentrate on the protests that broke out as a result of the extrajudicial murder of George Floyd by U.S. policemen who elevate jaded and discriminatory police tactics above the constitutional rights of citizens. Mr Trump not only failed to grasp the import of the budding crisis his country faced, his response has also been tame and conniving of police misbehaviour.

Failing to appreciate that as president he was beholden to the constitution and expected to be impartial to every citizen regardless of race, gender or creed, Mr Trump could simply not transcend his pet and well-documented biases. He found himself oscillating between two extremes, between good and evil, and justice and injustice, but was unable to decide what to do because to him the lines had become blurred.

Nigeria can sometimes be regarded as a perfect example of the embarrassing dilemma Mr Trump faces. In 1993, Ibrahim Babangida, who had been military head of state since 1985, failed to see the value of the improbably free and fair elections his regime had just conducted.

He couldn’t believe his luck. But citing extraneous factors, among which was the fear that as head of state he could not control members of his regime who had promised to torpedo the Moshood Abiola government should it be inaugurated as winner of that year’s presidential poll, Gen Babangida simply annulled the election, and months later lost his leadership and regime, and the fame and acclaim that should have been his.

The issues surrounding the 1993 presidential election were truly sublime and incredibly nuanced. Nigeria had been bifurcated by religious and ethnic politics. That election shattered the divide. It was the first time a southerner would win a national presidential election. That unparalleled win held tremendous opportunity and goodwill for any leader who would have to be hopelessly imprudent not to see and grab them.

Gen Babangida let the opportunity slip from his hands — deliberately, consciously and remorselessly. Decades of ethnic clashes, at one time leading to a civil war, were by that election served a quit notice, suggesting that with the right politics and orientation, anyone could in fact win a national poll that obliterates or at least miniaturises ethnic fault lines. The fateful poll also revealed that Nigeria was such an intriguing ethnic pastiche that no ethnic group could dominate the others.

That election was also the first time the country’s infamous religious divide was dealt a sucker punch. The winner of that poll, Chief Abiola, ran on a Muslim-Muslim ticket, with his running mate a Muslim like himself in a country widely believed to be polarised along ossified religious lines. That divide would have been knocked out in 1993, but Gen Babangida was too blinded by extraneous factors to see it, and too consternated by self-incriminating fears to recognise that fate and nature were gifting him and his government a glimpse into the future.

The black lives matter protests, which have seen blacks and whites marching side by side to end racism and every convention that has divided America and attenuated its global and moral leadership, provided Mr Trump a glimpse into the future, if he was capable of having that glimpse. Unfortunately, the American president has been wholly unable to see that future, and unlike Gen Babangida who appeared to have a somewhat saner grasp of issues and at least a modicum of understanding, Mr Trump has proved almost completely and spectacularly empty of the philosophical and cultural foundations needed to forge through that barrier.

It is not clear how many American leaders, particularly presidential hopefuls, can sense that the time is right to bring down the racial divide and bigotry that have weakened American voice and leadership in the world, but Mr Trump is obviously not listed among the number. Worse, not only is the US claim to global leadership weakened as a consequence of their obnoxious attitudes and policies towards race, their weaknesses have correspondingly and inadvertently animated the unmerited claims of other amoral powers like China and Russia to global influence and prestige. Without addressing and redressing the problem, without infusing into their body politic the strengths which their diversity implies, American global leadership may slip from their racially enfeebled hands.

No one but himself knows exactly how Gen Babangida now feels about the fame that should have been his as a result of the 1993 presidential election, or what sustaining that election would have meant to Nigeria which now experiences far worse divides than it experienced in the 1990s, but there is little doubt that the opportunity may have been lost for all time.

Should Mr Trump be re-elected, it is not clear that 100 years of American dominance that began after World War II would not be lost irretrievably. That dominance is now shaky, with no proof whatsoever that it could be regained considering how foolishly Mr Trump has rolled back the influence and leadership of the US in many world bodies. But to return him into office in November may finally sound the death knell to a country’s global leadership which was not always deserved but which the world had reconciled itself to, even embracing and lauding its controversial values.

Barometer

 

Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, was, last Tuesday, unequivocal in observing that the country had to make an urgent decision in its fight against COVID-19.

Complaining that a lack of responsibility and reluctance to comply with health and safety guidelines had permeated Nigeria and threatened the gains the country had recorded in checking the spread of the coronavirus, he sounded almost rueful that the lockdown was lifted.

To lend credence to his verdict, he revealed statistics that affirmed an exponential rate of increase in the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the country, and said citizens must play their part.

Said Mr Mustapha: “Our failure to take responsibility threatens the gains we have recorded, which is not good for our large population.

Let me give you a vivid picture of how this virus has spread across our nation by timelines: April 16,442 cases; May 16,5621 cases; June 16,17148 cases.

We really have a choice to make and it is urgent. We use this opportunity to renew our call to the medical practitioners and hospitals not to neglect other diseases and ailments because of COVID-19.”

His agitation is understandable, and his position can hardly be faulted or dismissed, as Nigerians indeed observably romance the virus, flirt with its transmission process, and dare it to do its worst.

Citizens and their leaders make bold and daring appearances on the broadcast media daily violating social distancing and ineffectively positioning their facemasks either on the chin or on just the one ear.

In fact, in Edo State, where Governor Godwin Obaseki appeared more concerned than most governors and had gazetted regulations aimed at keeping the virus at bay during the electioneering process, Nigerians have been treated to a shocking display of carelessness.

The governor, upon defection to the People’s Democratic Party, appeared in the middle of a raucous crowd paying no heed to social distancing and the use of a facemask.

However, Mr Mustapha omitted one key element in determining the factors that have contributed to the disturbing spread of the virus. While he has noted the increase in infection, he has not done the same with the increase in testing.

At the end of March, there were 139 recorded cases of infection with two deaths, while the number of tests conducted were unknown. By the end of April, the recorded cases of infection had risen by 1290% (1932 cases), while deaths had climbed by 2800% (58), with a testing total of 15759.

May 31st saw an increase in infection by 426% (10162 cases), increase in death by 395% (287 deaths) and increase in testing rate by 305% (63882 tests).

This month alone, infection rate has increased by 117% (22020 cases), deaths have risen by 89% (542) and testing has been increased by 88% (120108).

Before coming to a decision or a suggestion concerning a second lockdown, Mr Mustapha and the PTF must help establish whether there is a correlation between increase in testing and virus prevalence.

They must also help the country understand why the death rate, though still small by world standards, is still way higher than, say, Ghana’s.

And, they must also not fail to help the country understand why Ghana, which had a higher infection rate than Nigeria in the early weeks of the pandemic, has now been outpaced by Nigeria, despite the former easing lockdown earlier than Nigeria.

If the country were to go into a second lockdown at a time when its economy is leaning towards recession, then the government has its work cut out for it.

The nature of palliatives distributed during the first lockdown and the manner of its distribution invited ridicule from Nigerians home and abroad.

The country’s financial might cannot match those of the western world, yet even they are not amenable to the idea of locking down the country and economy anymore.

To the contrary, they are lifting lockdowns against their better judgement. Moreover, there were high chances of the virus spreading while the palliatives were handed out due to the volume of people thronging disorderly at static locations where they were shared. It was cringe-making.

Every decision needs to be carefully thought out and planned, with proper focus on the losses likely to be suffered, as well as the gains to be enjoyed.

While Nigerians must step up and display more responsibility, the government needs to justify the responsibility reposed in it to make and enforce policies for the peace, order, safety and best interest of all Nigerians.

Barometer

Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State’s defection to the People’s Democratic Party bears all the markings of a Trojan horse. Despite having full cognisance of the fact that he was a sitting governor and would lend any party he belonged to the power of incumbency, the All Progressives Congress (APC) was more than willing to be rid of the governor, who was accused of polarising the party before handing in his resignation.

His party members decried his scoped knowledge of party politics, eccentric leadership skill and high-handedness, with a party chieftain, Mr Henry Idahagbon, once saying he is “the most aloof governor we have ever had in Edo State”, and noting that Mr Obaseki had blackmailed most of the people that fought to put him in power. He even added that should Mr Obaseki desire to leave the party, they would employ a musician to celebrate his exit. Barely minutes after joining the PDP, the governor was at his idiosyncratic best.

He declared: “Today is not a day I will make the speech, you will hear from me soon. Today, I am here to go through the formalities of registering as a member of this great party, I know and I understand full well the implications of these decisions, I know that upon taking up membership of this party I automatically become the leader of the party in the state.

“That is the constitution, I read it thoroughly last night, and I want to assure all of you that I am prepared to provide leadership. I am prepared to provide leadership that will lead this party to victory and I am prepared to provide leadership that will not only put PDP in office in Edo state but as the ruling party in Edo state, we will make sure that the level of progress, the level of hope and the level of participation in the political system by our party is unrivalled in this country.” So soon?

While many members of the PDP, excited to have the governor of the state in their ranks, are asleep to the full implications of his statements, some others are apprehensive. Various deals have, however, served to palliate their agitations and men who vowed previously not to step down for the governor have shown a marked disposition to eat their heads and recant or possibly justify every critical utterance they have made concerning his enthusiastic appetite for power.

Even if Mr Obaseki wins them the election in September — and there is nothing yet to indicate he would — they need to be careful how they manage his tendencies. They should, if possible, take notes from the state’s APC chapter, who were more willing to help him find the door than keep him with all his incumbency. Otherwise, Mr Obaseki may just end up being both a gift and a liability to the party. After all, what can he do in PDP that he could not do in APC?

By Barometer

Finally, after one week of intense political footwork leading to his defection from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Edo State governor Godwin Obaseki has secured a waiver for himself and his deputy, Philip Shaibu, to contest both his new party’s primary and the September governorship election.

Days ago, after making up his mind to defect when his former party disqualified him from contesting their primary, he still wavered. Some observers thought his mind was not made up whether to go or stay, especially given the legal subterfuge causing confusion and disharmony in the APC.

But it turned out that his hesitation had to do with the status of his deputy, Mr Shaibu. Once that was settled, he jumped ship.

To pull off this stunt, Mr Obaseki needed the intervention of Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike and Sokoto State governor Aminu Tambuwal. Many ambitions have thus been sacrificed, as aspirants on the platform of the PDP are persuaded to step down for the new duo.

It will cost the governor a tidy sum, but the other aspirants knew they did not stand a chance, either against the new high-profile entrant or desperate party bigwigs. They will groan a little and coo in whispers, but eventually they will keep their peace.

The calculations of the PDP is that having taken over the South-South completely, with Mr Obaseki’s fortuitous defection, they will keep it that way in September after the governorship election.

It is not clear whether they will get their wish. But they will try. “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though chequered by failure,” said one-time US president, Theodore Roosevelt, “than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.” September will show whether they will enjoy much or suffer much.