The grim reaper has again struck nearby, the third time in a space of two months, taking away not only my own immediate junior brother, but also a dear friend, and classmate, at the University of Ife, Ile – Ife, Dr Jide Somade, and now my friend, Dr Anthony A. Akinola, the Oxford, UK- based, top class political analyst, who honed his exertions majorly on current issues in his must- read articles on the daily ‘breaking news’ in Nigeria.

Tony’s passing, which happened shortly after his 75th birthday, came to me as a rude shock having got a call from him not too long from the sad event.

Tony was ever so solicitous of others’ well- being that I often feel guilty pangs picking, about his third, or fourth call, even when I might not have reached out to him once. That notwithstanding, he will be the first to dismiss your feeling of guilt.

Whoever knew Tony will not only sorely miss him, but will readily confirm his incredible ability to quite easily make, and nurture, friendship.

This past week I wrote the following about him, elsewhere, corroborating the views of another friend of his:

“God knows that in Tony’s passing, I lost a gem of a friend.

Tony was everything the writer called him: an absolutely detribalised Nigerian, an astute and very objective political analyst who, unlike many of us public analysts, was able to walk the narrow and straight path of never taking sides in political issues, and one who was ever so solicitous of other’s wellbeing. To my one telephone call, Tony would have called me three or more times, especially when he particularly liked an article I had written or wanted us to discuss our many ‘ breaking news’ on the Nigerian political firmament. Many times, he shared my articles worldwide, to learned groups and International broadcast stations. I subsequently forwarded his efforts in this regard to our Ekitipanupo e- platform.

I have not always known Tony, even though I had spent some of my growing up years in the beautiful, rocky city of Ikere – Ekiti, his birth place. Even though younger than me by only a year, and, therefore contemporaries, our paths did not cross even while I had, at the same time, made lifelong friendships with the likes of Prince Kayode Adegboye, and our lately departed friends of blessed memory: Dr Remi Akeju and the Accountant, Ojo Adeyeri.

May the good Lord rest them.

It will, therefore, be the turn of another distinguished Ikere- Ekiti born Medical Doctor, my friend of more than six decades, classmate at Christ’s School, Ado – Ekiti, the UK- based Medical Consultant, Biodun Adu, to finally link us up.

Tony had read one of my articles talk about our Christ’s School days and broached it to his cousin only to discover that we were not merely classmates at the upper crust school but, indeed, very good friends. Biodun passed on Tony’s fondness for my articles to me, with me confessing just how much I have loved reading the racy articles oozing out weekly in the Guardian newspaper, from this guy at Oxford, UK.

Tony had read History and had this amazingly beautiful way with the English Language that after reading him, you’d be hard put to decide which, of his lucid analysis or his linguistic style of delivery, you love more.

Once Biodun linked us, not even the distance between the UK and Nigeria would separate us. Tony would send me his articles which I would then share locally, including forwarding it to the Ekitipanupo web- portal which houses over 2000 vibrant Ekitis both home, and Diasporan.

One of such articles which is as relevant today as when written, but slightly edited for space, is the one he titled: STILL ON REDUCING THE COST OF GOVERNANCE, of 16 October, 2019 where he wrote as follows:

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“ Agitation or call for reduction in the cost of governance in Nigeria has been rather perennial. I wrote on this very topic sometime in the 1980s for the London-based West Africa magazine. I had then called for a reduction in the number of senatorial seats per state, which then was five. I had also called for a reduction in the number of ministers and advisers – all these in the Nigerian Second Republic. I would later follow up this discussion with a memorandum to the Ibrahim Babangida-led Armed Forces Ruling Council, sometime in 1986,,in which I suggested that senatorial constituencies could be limited to  what is now three senators per state.

The cost of governance in Nigeria remains disturbingly astronomical in spite of expressed concerns by the citizenry. Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State recently joined this group by calling for a unicameral legislature. He would like the Senate to be scrapped. Even before him, former Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, now a senator, had called for the number of senators per state to be reduced to one. It is gratifying to note that these members of the political elite share the common concern of ordinary Nigerians. In calling for the Senate to be scrapped, Fayemi alluded to the fact that both little Ekiti State and mighty Lagos each has three senators. One would be surprised if Fayemi did not know that the very essence of the Senate is to serve as a forum where states, irrespective of size and population, assert equality of status. That was the philosophy that informed the American founding fathers to introduce a bicameral legislature. The House of Representatives accord representation based on population.

Ekiti State has six members in the House, while Lagos and Kano each has 24. However, because of equal representation in the Senate, the smaller states have not been complaining of domination or oppression by the bigger states.  The preponderance of representation from one geographical end over the other would be a cause for major concern if the Senate were to be scrapped. “The primary benefit of the bicameral legislature”, according to an authoritative source, “is the limits put in place to prevent abuse of power. No one group is allowed to freely run through the government to produce policies which only benefit a few. It even stops the minority from being excluded by the majority under this representation format.” .

Of course, the need for a reduction in the number of ministers and advisers at every level of governance cannot be overemphasized. I am not an enthusiast of the President picking his or her ministers from each of the states making up the federation. It is enough that we respect geographical spread, especially that our nation has been demarcated into six geopolitical zones. Nigerians would need to be educated about this, not least because they are the very ones who complain if a member of their clan has not been nominated as minister. They even quarrel over the portfolios of political appointees. I assert that the disturbing cost of governance in Nigeria is more of the result of our corruption and prodigal culture than anything else. Prof Ayo Olukotun elaborated on this in a recent article in The PUNCH. The privileged greed of the elite is one reason the Senate has become an eyesore to ordinary Nigerians. Because the elite decide their own salaries and emoluments, they believe it is their divine right to take Nigeria to the cleaners. The salaries and emoluments of elected officials should, and must, be decided by an independent body, if that is not already the case. Moreover, these elected officials have their defined responsibilities. Senators, for instance, are lawmakers. It is laughable when they claim it is also part of their responsibility to execute projects in their communities. That responsibility belongs to state and local governments and should not provide senators with an opportunity to defraud the public.

We are all witnesses to the volumes of stolen funds and assets being revealed on a daily basis by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. The billions of naira being stolen daily by both elected and other officials can hardly be described as the cost of running governments in Nigeria. Until stiff punishments are meted out to these economic criminals and termites, and until a new generation emerges to forcefully assert the future of Nigeria, complaints about the cost of governance will never cease”.

Vintage Tony.

Tony was a single minded patriot; one reason he was such a lover of the zoning of the Nigerian presidency, something he believed would help in solidifying the effervescent Nigerian unity, as it speaks to fairness and equity, two things that are sorely missing in contemporary Nigeria.

A scion of the redoubtable Akinola family of Ikere – Ekiti, he was born June 8, 1946 and attended Annunciation Grammar School, Ikere-Ekiti, between 1960 -’65 for his West African School certificate. He left for the U.S in 1979, studied Political Science at Howard University, Washington DC, and came over to the UK to read Law at Oriel College, University of Oxford, UK, between 1983 and 1986. A dedicated researcher and prolific writer, Tony authored many books, among them: ‘The Search for a Nigerian Political System (1986), Rotational Presidency (1996), Democracy in Nigeria: Thoughts and Selected Commentaries 2013 and Party Coalitions in Nigeria: History Trends and Prospects, 2014’

Professor Dipo Adamolekun, whose protégé Tony was, and who wrote the Foreword to one of his books, will sorely miss him, just as his bosom friend, Tony Aderiye, with whose family he stays in Lagos while visiting Nigeria will be truly inconsolable; not to talk of Biodun who must now add Oxford to his itinerary, visiting the family and so many others he interacted with while here with us..

I commiserate with Tony’s darling wife, Shola, and their amazing children, Funmi, Bimbola and Tobi, as well as the larger Akinola family of Ikere – Ekiti.

• Eternal rest grant him O Lord.

In spite of the unremitting public criticism of the National Assembly which, edged on by its leadership, continues to play a rather servile role vis a vis the Executive branch, a coterie of  its  members continue to give the helping hand to an administration that looks determined to project ethnic exceptionalism in almost everything it does. They are so unrestrained, the grapevine now has it that bills long thought dead, and buried,  are about being reenacted again. Among them the National Water Bill and the Anti-Social Media Bill both of which I have written copiously about on these pages.

This had better not be true.

Samuel Akpobome Orovwuje has been taking a look at the matter and wrote, inter alia, in his article: ‘Still on the Anti-Social Media and National Water Bills Conundrum!’, which appeared in The Nation of Thursday, 7 October, 2021: “The National Assembly, particularly the House of Representatives in conjunction with their opaque collaborators, has oddly requested the executive to present the Water bill afresh. …”one of the obvious consequences of the proposed National Water Resources Bill is that it would worsen the water situation if passed into law as it requires citizens to secure a driller’s licence before drilling private boreholes. Furthermore, the federal government is self-possessed to take over the nation’s water resources by licensing and commercialising the use of water. This is a disguised land-grabbing legislation, designed to grant pastoralists unhindered access to river basins and adjacent marine and coastal environments across the country”. Both the state and federal governments and the National Assembly must prioritise water for citizens by declaring it a human rights issue, whilst providing a roadmap for the sustainable management of water. Private control of public water is dangerous, unhealthy and detrimental to the common good”. All I can add is to urge Nigerians to be alert because vigilance, as the saying goes, is the price of liberty. Nigerians must do everything to stop these people from worsening the objective living conditions of the common man, the hoi polloi, which they are determined to do for purely ethnic reasons as we saw in other initiatives like grazing reserves, cow colonies etc.

That threat of emergency rule in anambra state

It won’t be the first time. For nothing other than selfish megalomania, then President Olusegun Obasanjo, on 18 October, 2006 declared a state of emergency on Ekiti state, an exercise which the late lawyer, Bamidele Aturu – God rest him – described “as militarization of society and idiocy of elitism”.

Not a few Nigerians were astonished to hear the Attorney – General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, this past week, flew the kite of an emergency rule being declared on Anambra state because, as he put it, the state government which controls neither the police nor the army “has failed to ensure the sanctity of security of lives, properties and democratic order”, as if the behemoth he serves has been able to do that, pan Nigeria. The more one watches Attorney- General Malami in action, the more one is convinced of the utmost necessity of a separation of the Attorney – General’s office from that of the Minister of Justice so he would, at least, allow pastoralists to go and ventilate their cause in court, rather than continuing to inflict such private matters on that respected office. Regarding the current unusual state of insecurity in Anambra state, in particular, a matter which could have been better handled by the deployment of more security men and materiel, rather than any grandstanding, if the country’s security architecture were truly representative, I will like my readers to read the views of Barrister V.C Mba, who is not appearing for the first time on this column. He wrote: “ If any lessons were learnt from the embarrassing U. S fiasco in Afghanistan, it should have been the truism that no military force can defeat a people fighting for their survival. No matter how long, the indomitable human spirit will always triumph over domination. In an asymmetric war, the dominant power may win, but it will find it almost impossible to win the peace. This much was evident in places like Iraq, Libya, and now, Afghanistan as all the weaker power needs do is to re-strategize, and recalibrate its methods and over time, the dominant power is brought to its knees. Anybody familiar with recent history will not fail to have a sense of déjà vu in what’s going on in this country today. It is extremely difficult to fight with a people who are ready to die for what they believe in. therefore, negotiations, and compromises, are the wisest approach to circumstances such as we have on our hands. This is because, even if you speak to them in the “language they understand” today, there might come  tomorrow, another generation which will not necessarily understand the language you spoke  to their forebears and, before long, another round of conflicts could erupt. The Palestinian/Israeli, unending conflict confirms this beyond any iota of doubt. Azerbaijan has just recovered its territory, Nagorno-Karabakh, after Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia signed the Nagorno-Karabakh peace deal,  one hundred years after it was seized by the former.

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More interesting, however, is the fact that the dominant power, in our own case, has its own internal contradictions – since a monolithic North is now at best a chimera – which means that things cannot remain the same forever. Prior to World War 2, Japan was a military super power which made life miserable for all the countries in the south China sea region, today it catches cold if its more powerful neighbour sneezes.

I have read through ‘From The Third To The First’, the thoroughly inspiring Autobiography of Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of Singapore, which revalidates the fact of the ever fluid fortunes of nations. Less than a century ago, Singapore was a decrepit, conflict striven state but it took the efforts of just one single, visionary and selfless leader, motivated by deep patriotism, to transform it to the envy of the world.

Modern politics, indeed, nation building in general, is founded on compromises and consensus building, not brute force or ethnic revanchism. Europeans probably know this more than other peoples of the world after the two world wars which came after the Napoleonic wars and several other wars which proved to them the devastating consequences of  not resolving issues through dialogue.

We can, and should, indeed learn from these”.

It is particularly refreshing that President Muhammadu Buhari has washed his hands clean off Malami’s gaffe claiming that all he wants is a free and fair election in Anambra state.

It is good, however, that Southeast governors who, without exception, are all very afraid of IPOB, can now breathe a sigh of relief for reasons I shall show below. From Governor Umahi, Chairman, Southeast Governors’ Forum to the last of them, though no spring chicken, but they have all been talking as if hallucinating, ludicrously claiming that some “unknown gun men”, and not IPOB, have been killing security personnel in numbers and scores of their fellow Igbos in an orgy of utter senselessness.

What exactly are they trying to prove, killing their own innocent compatriots?

Not even when well-known ESN commanders were killed were the governors able to talk courageously and call a spade a spade.

Their legislators, state and national, are no exception.

Only governor Obiano, of all the governors, has proffered any sensible answer to the crisis, which is, seeking federal support in taming the killers. Said he while addressing pressmen at the Villa: Part of the reasons I came here is to brief some security agencies and to seek support from the army, the navy and the police in particular.

That was what Malami should have advised the President to do rather than his exuberance.

Government hands should now be strengthened by developments in the US where IPOB has again showed its inelegant haughtiness suing both the U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin, in a U.S. federal court.

This has triggered the influential Washington Post into writing as follows in an editorial piece:”An African terrorist organization is suing U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in U.S. federal court.

It beggars belief.

So how did it happen?

The answer is frustratingly simple. The violent secessionist group in question – the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) – is yet to be designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the US Department of State. This is despite repeated pleas to do so by longstanding U.S. ally Nigeria, where IPOB is based and carries out its murderous activities. It is difficult to explain how U.S. interests are served by inaction and complacency on IPOB. The listing costs nothing. But the designation would have significant implications for the group’s continuance. Tagging the group with a terror label would hit IPOB’s wallet hard. As soon as the designation is applied, no organization that utilizes U.S. currency would be able to legally conduct transactions with the organization. By cutting off IPOB’s funding, the U.S. would weaken the 50,000 strong paramilitary outfit and provide Nigeria’s security forces room to train their sights squarely on ISIS-affiliated Boko Haram in the Northeast of the country”.

This should give the Southeast a mighty relief as, while agitations for a fairer, and more equitable, Nigeria can continue apace, not only in the East but in different parts of Nigeria, the North inclusive, the mindless killings in the Southeast, as opposed to religion- motivated killings in the North, should soon become history. And as soon as that happens, it is hoped that the government should be able to honestly tackle insurgency in the North.

By  Femi Orebe

Presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina was spot on when he gave his personal opinion on the raging issue of who, between the Federal Government and states, should collect the Value Added Tax. Giving his personal opinion on the matter, Femi opined: “I think the VAT issue is good because there have been talks about restructuring and fiscal federalism in the country. If states eventually get their demands in respect of VAT, there will be something like fulfilling fiscal federalism. But then, fiscal federalism itself must be done within the ambits of the law”. It would have been simply fantastic if he had stopped at that, especially since he is not a spokesperson in the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo when one could say, with considerable justification that courts, even the Supreme court, were on their own, not sure which  of their decisions  would be acceptable to the President as we saw in  the Attorney – General of Lagos state V the Attorney – General of the Federation over the seizure of Lagos state Local governments’ funds.

In the instant case, however, given the fact that the Buhari government is not on record as having, even for once, disobeyed court judgments, Femi needed not have gone ahead to say the following: “so, eventually, we will have a legal pronouncement, which may come from the highest court in the land and whatever that court says then is the law. Knowing the Buhari administration, it will obey the rule of law.”  Since Nigerians know that the Buhari government obeys court decisions that addition was absolutely superfluous, indeed, an over kill which is open to many interpretations. For instance, because there was no reason for such an assertion, a priori, it could very well be interpreted as coyly suggesting that the government was going to influence the court’s decision. That interpretation will be reasonable for, not only those Femi has dubbed as enemies of the  Buhari government, who do not want to hear anything good  about it, but rather, by hardheaded individuals who have devoted quality time to observing the government’s actions which have mostly been shockingly lacking in fairness and equity, especially where it concerns how the North and the south are treated.  Besides the President’s notoriously skewed appointments, it is noteworthy that of  the many new military tertiary institutions established in the past six years, hardly was any sited in the South  from where, incidentally, comes the bulk of  the  revenue that would fund these mostly needless institutions given that there are far too many existing federal Universities that could incorporate them. Things like open grazing, cattle colony, RUGA etc that hardly concern the South have mostly signposted the government’s innermost concern, not the killings, the muggings and kidnappings that have ravaged every part of the South, the North inclusive but which the President has, unexpectedly, washed his hands off, claiming that  security in the states is the sole responsibility of governors to whom neither state commissioners of police nor Army commanders are answerable. While it is true that governors have responsibility for the safety of lives and property in their respective states, the fact that Heads of security departments in states do not report to them constitutes a major handicap to their ability to do this effectively. Many of these issues, in which the President demonstrates preference for the North over the South, are such that should, ordinarily, not warrant such, if equity mattered to him. How for instance could he have singled out his home state of Katsina for a grant of over six billion naira for ranching while pushing for open grazing in other parts of the country? And to imagine that Nigerians would probably not have heard anything about it had the state governor not squealed.

I am laying emphasis on this unequal treatment because any objective analysis of the VAT issue will, unarguably, conclude that Northern states have the most to lose if the apex court affirms the ruling of the lower court. This is where I have my fears since I believe that some officials in the corridors of power, even while the President is minded to let justice be done, may be driven by ethnic considerations to go about fishing  for  creative ways of reversing it.

The essence of this article, therefore, that is its leitmotif, without mincing words, is to advise against anybody who might like to compromise the courts as a means of working to the answer, something that will be most unfortunate. My fears here stem from the fact that such has always been the downside of nepotism or cronyism, whenever, and wherever, it is that these two unfortunate negativities predominate an administration. Unfortunately, both are so conspicuous in this government they have almost ruined its achievements in more areas than one. Or who can forget the giant strides the administration has made in infrastructural procurement or the human face it has shown in the various strategies it has put in place to cushion the effects of the ravaging poverty in this poverty capital of the world.

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Concerning the judiciary therefore, everything must be done to ensure that it is no longer further put in any embarrassing position, especially by persons, as I explained above, who may wish to play smart by trying to influen its adjudication of this highly sensitive case.

How long ago, for instance, was it we saw the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), His Lordship, Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, summoning six Chief Judges over conflicting decisions by some judges on the forthcoming Anambra governorship election. I can, in my mind’s eye, see the pain in the heart of the Chief Judge when he summoned the judges in the following words: “My attention has been drawn to media reports to the effect that some courts of coordinate jurisdiction were granting conflicting ex parte orders on the same subject matter. It has become expedient for me to invite you for a detailed briefing on the development. This is even more compelling, having regard to earlier NJC warning to judicial officers on the need to be circumspect in granting ex parte applications.”

I can hazard, without any fear of contradiction, that the VAT case will be, for the Chef Judge, a much more sensitive issue than the one on the Anambra election. This is so for obvious reasons, among them the considerable furore about, again, nepotism, which followed the last set of appointments to the bench.  It is, therefore, my considered opinion that the courts must not only serve justice in this matter, it must, like Caesar’s wife, be seen to have acted, solely, at its own behest, with the Almighty God being their witness.

That should not be too much to ask from the government of President Muhammadu Buhari.

 Dr Babajide Akinkunmi Somade -we Lost a Gem.

Tall, handsome, elegant and brilliant, Dr Jide Somade, our dear friend who joined the Saints Triumphant this past week, was your quintessential gentleman. Urbane, decent and almost self- effacing, except while with friends when he could truly be exuberant, Jide is a friend we would miss dearly. He was, indeed, a brother, as Sunmade Akin Olugbade described him in his tribute.

We had all met at THE GREAT University of Ile- Ife in the 60’s and we were quite a bunch, indeed, ‘happening guys’ who were, therefore, ready ‘customers’ of campus newspapers, the likes of COBRA, whose tormentor-in Chief, Adebayo Williams (now a professor) turned a glorious 70 only a week ago. While one of us and his female consort were ‘surnamed’ the Elephant and the Ant’, no thanks to their respective physiognomy, yours truly had his name, Femi, Anglicised as ‘Marry me”.

“Those terrible Boys, theDupe Odunlami’s . After we graduated and thought we were free, they began a column: “Going to the archives”, to ferret out truly salacious stories involving us.Those were  the days!”

But you would never find Jide among such an ensemble – Lol.

Not unexpectedly, our towering, 6-footer friend, while at Ife, played basketball with the likes of Ambassador Wole Coker, Joe Agoi and late Collins Eza.

We all soon left Ife with each one of us going to put together, the building blocks of his life’s architecture.

That period would see Jide head all the way to the University of Guelph, Ontario , Canada where he obtained his Master of Science degree as well as earned a PhD in Reproductive Physiology in 1977.

On completion of his studies, he worked briefly in Montgomery County, Maryland, USA helping to solve fertility issues in the State’s health system. That was before returning to the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), where he lectured and supervised both Masters and Doctorate degree students. A member of the Association for Fertility and Reproductive Health and the European Society of Human Reproduction Embryology, Jide would later work as Director of the EKO Andrology Laboratory and Cryobank from where he joined the Alpha Assisted Reproductive Klinic.

Author and co-author of numerous peer reviewed articles on reproduction and fertility, Jide was widely travelled, both within, and outside the country attending seminars on reproduction and fertility.

A very deep family man, Jide is survived by his darling wife, Dupe, and their adorable children, Tunde, Kunle and Sola.

Jide, all of us, those ‘naughty’, but absolutely serious, and highly focused, friends of yours at the GREAT UNIVERSITY OF IFE, bid you BYE.

In doing so we remember our other cherished friends: my dear brother, Ropo Olagbaju, Remi Adenubi, Cousin Moyo Ogundipe, Femi Adebanjo, Isola Filani, Edward Adeniran (Dodonzo), Femi Fowode among others, all great guys, who are now at the bosom of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

We sorely miss them and pray that the good Lord will grant them eternal rest in perpetuity.

Rest eternal Jide. Adieu.

Igi gogoro ma gun mi loju, okere lati nwo wa’, is a Yoruba proverb which means you must be careful, indeed, if you do not want to come a cropper. By sundry stratagems, the Buhari government has tried to cast the Fulani domination over Nigeria in an unalterable permanence through things like RUGA and Open grazing, which were believed to be shortcuts to Fulani herdsmen control over all ancestral lands in Nigeria – thanks to Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi state, we have been told that every Fulani can claim Nigeria as his/her country.

While vigilance on the part of other Nigerians scuppered those efforts, not so the single- minded determination of some ministers of Northern extraction to achieve the same thing through the connivance of  the National Assembly.

Nothing demonstrates the uncharacteristic surrender of the 9th National Assembly to the executive more than the outright disdain with which it treated the letter to it from the Nigerian Governors’ Forum about the Petroleum Industry bill.

I summarise below how the Forum recently brought this information to the public space. Said the forum:

“In a previous communication with the leadership of the National Assembly, we had noted that Section 53 of the Bill provided for the incorporation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited under the Companies and Allied Matters Act to carry out petroleum operations on a commercial basis. “The said Section 53 in (2) went on to provide for consultations between the  Ministers of Petroleum  and  Finance  on  the  number  and nominal value of the shares to be allotted which “shall form the  initial paid-up capital” of NNPC  Limited and further added that the Company shall subscribe and pay cash for the shares.” “We observed  that the  wording  of (3) suggested  that  only the  Federal Government would have shares in this company and stated that ownership of all the shares in  the  company  shall  be vested  in  Government  and  held  by the  Ministry  of Finance on behalf of Government.

This sub-section is silent on what Government it referred to, but an inference could clearly be made by the express mention of the Ministry of Finance as the sole custodian of the shares. “We then recommended that a framework that accommodates the states  be worked  out  and  included in the  allotment of shares  and  incorporation of NNPC Limited. We observed that excluding states from this arrangement precluded them from having a voice in the running and administration of the company  and excludes them from sharing in the distribution of dividends when they become due”.  “…We note the non-inclusion of sub-nationals in the consideration of this very important provision and recommend that the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and Central Bank of Nigeria in consultation  with the Federation Governments and Federal Capital Territory, may from time to time increase the equity of NNPC Plc.”

The governors  also raised some fundamental issues bordering on the removal  of the  requirement to transfer fiscal payments to the  Federation Account; 30%  profit  oil and  gas as Frontier  Exploration  Funds; and the  imposition of gas  flare  penalties. “The removal  of the  requirement to transfer fiscal payments to the  Federation Account, the letter posited,  is unconstitutional and of grave concern to Nigerians.  NNPC Limited is an entity created from a national asset whose  proceeds always went to the Federation account for distribution amongst the tiers of Government and we are at a loss as to the reason  for excluding a necessary component of the Federation from owning stakes in a successor vehicle.

On and on went the letter went, concluding that:”We  are  concerned  that  rather than  reforming NNPC,  and  by  extension  the  oil  sector, the  PIB  as  presently constituted makes  NNPC Limited an even more powerful  oil company”. But as usual with the 9th National Assembly, becoming wise only after the act, Senate President Ahmad Lawan has since eaten crow saying  later that:”Because we are human beings, no Act of human beings could be perfect. So when we can see issues, the National Assembly is there. Bring them for amendment”.

Apart from the possibility of a shadowy group working nocturnally on the leadership of the National Assembly, I have also chalked this obsequiousness to their morbid fear of the President, for reasons I cannot decipher.

Below, I rely on  the activities of  two ministers, both of them of Northern extraction, with possible helpings from the A-G’s office and promises from the National Assembly, to suggest that the Buhari government is, trying, albeit coyly, not only to turn our federal system to a unitarist one – witness the ongoing  serpentine decapitation of PDP – and also  to, through draconian laws, axyphisiate the economic yearnings of some sections of the country through the imposition very draconian laws since they can very well go to sleep once their bills get to the floor of the National Assembly.

Let us, in brief, see details of  the two bills proposed by the  duo of the Ministers of Water Resources, Engineer Suleiman Hussein Adamu, and his Communications and Digital economy counterpart, Dr Isa Pantami Ali.

What they are trying to do is, however, not new as it is a rehash of the old policy of keeping education in the South at a standstill, while the North played catch up. So note the crippling, absolutely punitive amounts being proposed as fines, as well as the unjust provisions in the two bills.

Given President Buhari’s well known penchant for appointing Northerners, mostly Moslems, to head national agencies and commissions, you need no telling which part of the  country would be at the receiving end of these stiff penalties.

I have always said on this column that we should tell ourselves the truth, as only truth, equity and fairness, can safe Nigeria.

Below are highlights of the National Water Resources Bill.

“Section 13 empowers the Minister to formulate national policy and water resources management strategy to guide the integrated planning, management, development, use and conservation of the nation’s water resources. Section 75 states that no corporate organisation or individual shall commence borehole drilling business in Nigeria unless such driller has been issued a Water Well Driller’s Licence.

The Bill creates a Commission to do those things identified in the Bill, that is, it shall regulate the allocation, supply and distribution of water resources for all uses. Section 37 provides that whatever the commission decides is binding and enforcement may be done by the federal high court “as if the decision is a judgment of such court”.

“Stiff penalties have been prescribed for contraventions of the provisions of the Bill by individuals and corporate bodies”.

Meanwhile all the above are facts which a part one University Law student should know but, nonetheless, included because of the sure fire confidence they have in the National Assembly.

Here, I would be quoting a learned Silk:

“Contrary to the provisions of the Bill the Federal government cannot authorise or licence persons who may want to sink boreholes outside the federal capital territory. In Attorney General of Lagos State v Attorney General of the Federation, the Supreme Court held that the power over physical planning in any state of the Federation is exclusively vested in the state government and that the National Assembly lacks the power to legislate on physical planning outside the federal capital territory.

It must follow, therefore,  that the National Assembly cannot make a law in the form and to the detail and territorial extent of the present Nigerian Urban and Regional Planning Decree No.88 of 1992 without breaching the principles of federalism since it is a noncontroversial political philosophy of federalism that the federal government does not exercise supervisory authority over the state governments.”

“Also the Land Use Act  enjoys statutory flavour and cannot be altered via the National Water Resource Bill or through any other bill. In other words, the bill is illegal in so far as it seeks to take over water resources on landed properties without amending section 315 of the Constitution in accordance with section 9 thereof.

The bill from Communications ministry  is titled: “The National Information Technology Development Agency Act”, to provide for the administration, implementation, regulation of information technology systems and practices as well as digital economy in Nigeria.

It says, “The Agency (to be created) shall by Regulation issue licenses and authorisations for operators in the information technology and digital economy sector, provide for licensing, renewal, suspension, and revocation.” “It shall determine and register operators in the information technology and digital economy sector.  Classes of licences include: Product License, Service Provider License and Platform Provider License. The bill provides for between N3 million to N30 million fine for offenders over “non-payment upon expiration of a demand notice of an assessed levy within 2 months by a corporate body…”

On and on it goes prescribing draconian penalties.

And then this:

Section 28 of the bill, titled ‘Limitation of suits against the Agency’ reads: “Subject to this Act, the Public Officers Protection Act shall apply in relation to any suit instituted against any member, officer, or employee of the Agency. “Notwithstanding anything in any other law, no suit against the Agency, a member of the Board, the Director-General of the Agency or any other officer or employee of the Agency for any act done in pursuance or execution of this Act or any other law, or of any public duty or authority or regarding any alleged neglect or default in the execution of this Act or any other law, duty or authority, shall lie or be instituted in any court unless it is commenced: (a) within three months after the act, neglect or default complained of; or (b) in the case of a continuation of damage or injury, within six months after the ceasing of such damage or injury…”

You are left with thinking only that these ministers are proposing laws for an enemy or for a conquered territory. They, and those who think like them, need be told that only equity and fair mindedness can safe Nigeria. It is alleged that the minister recently took members of the NITDA board to Turkey, of all places, for about 2 weeks.

I urge Nigerians to read about Turkey under both Presidents Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and  Recep Tayyip Erdoðan and, then make their  own conclusions.

In the period from the civilian government of Chief Bola Tinubu in Lagos, in which I have the privilege to serve till date, the government of Lagos State has demonstrated that it is possible to have restructuring, especially fiscal federalism and devolution of power to states, but by the process of litigation as opposed to going through the legislature. “As of 1999, my very first with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, he made it clear that  what was most important to him  was for the state to pursue fiscal federalism and devolution of power for our State. He wanted me to study it and then to look at how it could be done and we spent a lot of time and resources, looking at how to do it.

“We realised that going to the national assembly would be a waste of time ( till tomorrow it is – columnist) and we then decided to go through the process of litigation. As a matter of fact, we went to the Supreme Court and the Federal Government at that time opposed all the moves we made. Fortunately for us, and we thank God, we were able to record successes which today are the major achievements  we can say we have scored in terms of restructuring our country, especially in fiscal federalism and devolution of power.” – Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Vice President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, at the 80th birthday colloquium in honour of elder statesman, Bisi Akande.

At the same event, Kaduna state Governor, Nasir El Rufai, who unlike most Northern political leaders, has never claimed not to know the meaning of restructuring said:”Restructuring should be about the reform and improvement of our national efficiency. Reforming our governance structures is a crucial part of making our political system conducive to the pace of growth and development that our country needs. Along with better structures, fitted  and efficiency and devolving responsibilities to the level of government best able to handle them, we must also invest in constructing a new national consensus, and adapt our attitude to hold the values that enhance us all.”

Issues have arisen over the unfortunate matter of  our country having an Attorney- General and Minister of Justice who is indistinguishable from a minister of Justice for his part of the country, or that of his political party. Were this not the situation, FIRS should since have  recanted its contemplated appeal in the case in which a Federal High Court in Port Harcourt ruled, as unconstitutional, the collection of Value Added Tax (VAT), and Personal Income Tax, by the Federal government, saying instead, that the Rivers State is the rightful government to receive personal income tax and VAT, originating from the state. In the suit FHC/PH/CS/149/2020 between the Attorney-General of Rivers State and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as the first defendant, and the Attorney General of the federation, Abubakar Malami, as the second defendant, the presiding judge, Mr. Justice Stephen Pam, ruled that Federal government’s constitutional powers did not include VAT collection but those items in 58 and 59 of the Exclusive Legislative List. He issued an order of perpetual injunction restricting FIRS and the AGF from coercing residents of Rivers State to pay VAT and personal income tax to FIRS. The court also ruled that FIRS was not entitled to receiving VAT, Education tax, Technology levy and Withholding tax from any state in Nigeria. The judge  also dismissed the defendant’s plea for the case to be transferred to the Court of Appeal for interpretation.

Legal and financial experts have since weighed in on the court’s pronouncement. While the Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader at PwC, Taiwo Oyedele, held that based on the constitution, consumption tax belongs to the states and that there should be no debating that, it is the view of  Professor Uche Uwaleke of the Nasarawa State University that the judg­ment is in line with true fiscal federalism as it returns taxing powers, with respect to VAT, to state governments, consistent with the 1999 constitution. “VAT, a consumption tax, he went on, was used to replace sales tax and it stands to reason that these taxes should be collected and administered by tax au­thorities of the areas where the consumption takes place. “If implemented, he said, it would boost the IGR of many states since they will now be in a stronger position to collect VAT as VAT collection efficiency in Nigeria is  currently very low because  it is centrally collect­ed”. The Federal Government, he concluded, should now concentrate on  VAT from Government contracts and securities transactions, as well as Customs, and the FCT”, adding, however, that some states may experience poor VAT col­lections due to low levels of con­sumption and other economic activi­ties. Since tax so collected cannot be paid into the distributable pool, the Federal Government, he suggests, may work out an arrangement where the affected states are assisted from Federal Govern­ment VAT collections.”

This article will, however, go beyond the immediate topic  of VAT collection and touch, at some length, on the observable lapse on the part of state governments which have left the fight for their own autonomy, and freedom of action, to civil societies especially in the areas of economic and security matters where they could have since chalked up considerable restructuring without having to first head to a National Assembly imbued with the proclivity to swallow everything the Executive throws at it. Given the observed acquisitive tendencies of the Buhari government, state governors ought to have actively engaged with the Federal Government in areas where it is obvious the latter is impinging on their rights. Even if APC governors, for obvious reasons, would not do so, opposition governors, as done in this instant case by the Rivers state government, should have, like former governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos state, aggressively confront the Buhari government.  No wonder, a senior citizen recently sent me this message: “Femi, I think we have lost the sense and power we used to have in organizing fighting malfeasance by government. We need a deep rethink”.

I cannot believe less.

Or who could have forgotten how former governor Tinubu tackled the Obasanjo government case, after case, to the advancement and glory of our nascent democracy, even where Obasanjo would like to play god as in his seizure of the funds of the state’s Local Government Areas against Supreme court pronouncement?

With a first rate Attorney – General in Professor Yemi Osinbajo beside him, Tinubu succeeded in legally acquiring the power to create Local Community Development Authorities ( LCDAs), establish state tax laws, as well as state urban development laws. It is not  even sure now that all state Attorney- Generals know they have the power to litigate  terrorism cases that happen in their states, nor can one say, with any certainty, that all their bosses are seized of the fact that:  Subject to the provisions of  Section 215 (4) of the Nigerian constitution, the Governor of a State, or such Commissioner of the State Government as he may authorise in that behalf, may give to the Commissioner of Police of that State, such lawful directions with respect to the maintenance and securing of public safety and public order within the state as he may consider necessary, and the Commissioner of Police shall comply with those directions or cause them to be complied with.

Were they aware of all the powers they have, the executive would, by now, not be thinking of re-presenting the once rejected National Water Resource Bill.

“Section 13 of the Bill sought to empower the Minister of Water Resources to formulate a national policy and water resources management strategy to guide the integrated planning, management, development, use and conservation of the nation’s water resources, while Section 75 states that no corporate organisation or individual shall commence borehole drill.ing  business – even that – in Nigeria unless such driller has been issued a Water Well Driller’s Licence by the commission. It creates a Commission which will regulate the allocation, supply and distribution of water resources for ALL uses. Section 37 provides that whatever the commission decides IS BINDING and ENFORCEMENT may be done by the federal high court “as if the decision is a judgment of such Court.

Nigerians, NO, NOT the governors, saw in no time that this was all intended to facilitate the grabbing of ancestral lands, in all parts of the country, by Fulani herdsmen. They rose like one man and the Saraki – led 8th Assembly had to drop it like a hot potato. It will also die that natural death now for the following reasons.

And here, I am quoting Femi Falana, SAN:

“Contrary to the provisions of the proposed Bill the Federal government cannot authorise or licence persons who may want to sink boreholes outside the federal capital territory. In Attorney General of Lagos State v Attorney General of the Federation the Supreme Court held that the power over physical planning in any state of the Federation is exclusively vested in the state government and that the National Assembly lacks the power to legislate on the physical planning outside the federal capital territory.

This was in Attorney-General of Lagos State v Attorney-General of the Federation (2003) 4 WRN 124 at the Supreme Court in which Uwaifo JSC held that “In the circumstances, I have to say that Professor Osinbajo is right in his submission that urban and regional planning for the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja is within the exclusive legislative function of the National Assembly but only by virtue of section 299(a) conferring residual power on it and not the controversial section 20 of the Constitution. Similarly, each State House of Assembly has the exclusive function to make planning laws and regulations for the State under its residual power. It  will therefore be in clear breach of the principles of federalism for the National Assembly to make a law in the form and to the detail and territorial extent of the present Nigerian Urban and Regional Planning Decree No.88 of 1992 and an incursion into the legislative jurisdiction of the States. It is a noncontroversial political philosophy of federalism that the federal government does not exercise supervisory authority over the state governments.”

Also, it is trite law that the Land Use Act is one of the laws entrenched in the Constitution by the defunct military junta. To that extent, it enjoys statutory flavour and cannot be altered via the National Water Resource Bill or through any other bill. In other words, the bill is illegal in so far as it seeks to take over water resources on landed properties without amending section 315 of the Constitution in accordance with section 9 thereof. In In Nkwocha v Governor of Anambra State [1984] 1 SCNLR 634 at 652 the Supreme Court held that the Land Use Act is not an integral part of the Constitution but claims the special protection of section 9(2) of the Constitution in terms of its amendment. It was, however, made clear by the court that the land comprised in a state is vested in the governor of that state”.

Let me conclude this article on a personal note: while I do not wish to see PDP defeat the APC in the 2023 Presidential election, I think it is important that we encourage it to play the role of a responsible, and responsive opposition party given the observable fact that the Buhari government is remorselessly pursuing an ethnic, not even, regional agenda.

We all should talk now that amendments could still be made.

By Femi Orebe

The more I look at Nigeria, the more agonised I become. This gets worse when I look at her trajectory since 2015, a year millions of Nigerians had believed would be a watermark, marking  the very beginning of our redemption from PDP’s 16 -year stranglehold. How wrong this has proved. Even then, I still would not, peremptorily,  describe  Nigeria as a failed state. In justification of that reticence, it is apposite to mention that some scholars like Fola Aina and Nic Cheeseman in: ‘Don’t Call Nigeria A Failed State,’ claimed that the country had, indeed, never been as resilient, and inclusive as it presently is but their claim, apart from flying in the face of reality, must be  weighed  against that of the more authoritative The Economist of London, which  concluded as follows: “Nigeria is now confronted by six or more internal insurrections. Her inability to provide peace and stability to its citizenry has tipped the hitherto, very weak state, into failure”. While I will not, as yet, so summarily, conclude that  Nigeria has failed, it is pertinent to dig a little deeper into the reasons for the  Economist’s verdict.

Drawing strength from previously published research estimates, it asserts that : “There are four kinds of nations: the strong, the weak, the failed, and the collapsed. Of the 193 members of the United Nations, 60 or 70, it says,  are strong; that is, nations that rank the highest in the listings of Freedom House, the human rights reports of the U. S. State Department, the anticorruption perception indices of Transparency International etc. There are three places, it says, which should be considered as collapsed – these are Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen while about 90 others are weak – meaning states that are able to  provide some, but not all, essential public goods; the most important of which  is security and safety of lives  and property. Possibly a dozen or so states, it went on,  are failed, including states like the Democratic Republic of  Congo, Central African Republic, and Myanmar, as each lacks security, is unsafe, has weak rule of law, is corrupt, limits political participation and discriminates within its borders against the various ethnicities that comprise it. They are also violent and harbor some form of violent internal strife, e g, insurgency”.

Do these sound familiar?

The question that then arises is: were Nigerians wrong in 2015 when, on the election of President Muhammadu Buhari, they  started to smell redemption from the quagmire which 16 years of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) threw them into? My answer would, undoubtedly,  be that Nigerians had more than enough reasons to believe that given Buhari’s personal integrity, his experience in government and the many years he tried to be voted president, Nigeria could  never be where it is today.

Why?

The Economist touched on this very germane issue when it wrote: “A country plagued by acute corruption problems, and with the unremitted crude oil revenue scandal of 2014 still fresh in the people’s minds, many were eager for a change; the type never seen before. Here, after all, was a retired army general, one already experienced in governance, with a great strength of will, and supremely considered tough enough to take on the nation’s cabal of hardened criminals. He, indeed, had promised, during the campaigns, to appoint only technocrats to head the country’s departments and to see off the Boko Haram insurgency. For a nation lacking basic amenities such as power,  despite its huge energy resources, the choice could, in fact, not have been easier. To most Nigerians, therefore,  General  Buhari, with all his integrity was the man for the moment”. Nor was the Economist alone as yours truly was sanguine enough to actually write, on these pages then, that Nigeria needed candidate Buhari more than the obverse.

As the Economist did not fail to capture in its article on the president, disappointment was not long in coming, claiming that in “less than a year of his assumption of office, the economy which had  grown at an average rate of 7%  between 2011-2014, had plummeted into recession. He had taken 6 months to appoint a cabinet and far more to appoint heads of agencies and members of boards, just as he increased import duties on the most basic of commodities in a bid to raise government revenue”. Worse, however, was the unbelievable insularity that underpinned his appointments. His cabinet was believed to  be inferior, in the decision making process, to his  powerful  but  shadowy kitchen cabinet of  some blood relations, and those loyal  friends, and allies, who had been with him throughout his long political odyssey irrespective of their individual competences, beyond hegemonic interests. In consequence, the Economist went on, “the country’s currency lost 70% of its value, unemployment rose from 6.5 to 26%, commodity prices tripled across many quarters and the state-regulated premium motor spirit prices were hiked by 67%”. Today the Naira, the country’s currency,  exchanges for more than 500 to one dollar, despite the yeoman’s efforts of the Central Bank to moderate its further devaluation.

Nigerians, out of their very  deep respect for  the president, could still have borne their increasing pauperisation  with equanimity. After all, Nigeria has, with considerable justification, been declared the poverty capital of the world. But the indescribable insecurity that daily confronts them has changed all that.

Read Also: Of ‘failed state’ and vaccine feat

In any part of the country today, you are  no longer  safe on farms, highways, forests, schools, but worst of  it  all, in your own home from where you, or your children, can now be summarily  plucked, with the government hardly batting an eyelid. In fact, the Federal Executive Council, only this past week, showed exactly how very unconcerned it is when, in the absence of  president Buhari –  and this must be emphasised – decided against negotiating with terrorists. Not that it had ever been bothered, anyway, but this development  showed Nigerians that they are absolutely on their own. It must be said, in mitigation, however, that even when hordes of literal sucklings, school pupils aged below 10 years were kidnapped from their school, the government managed to feign complete ignorance, leaving only their parents to face the ordeal of their release, while elsewhere, a state governor withdrew his son from a school a few hours before the same school was attacked and several pupils kidnapped. Today in Kaduna, Zamfara and Niger states, like in any state at all, I am not sure any parent sending a child to school in the morning can say with any certainty that the child would return home. Between Boko Haram and bandits, schools have truly become ‘haram’. Even as the gallant men and women of our fighting forces have become overstretched, and spread thin over the large swathe of territory that Nigeris is, one surprising thing is that it appears they are not permitted to know the location of bandits.  Or how, otherwise, would the ‘hardworking’ Sheik Gumi,  and his entourage, make tourist -like soiree’s to bandits’ hideouts but kidnapped children would still  spend days upon days – one was 55 days – and men and women of our security forces would be forbidden from attacking the rogue, non state actors holding them, while parents are paying them ransom and sending them  recharge cards, food stuff and motor cycles?

Of a truth, how far away from a failed state is Nigeria as it no longer has a monopoly of arms? It has, in fact, been reported that bandits, some of who recently  shot down a fighter jet, do have more sophisticated weapons than our security forces. Is the Economist not correct about our status as a failed state when  bandits could shoot down a fighter jet and hold their kidnapped victims for as long as they choose? What exactly stops the government from declaring a full scale war on them or in the alternative, seek external help? Are they correct, who ascribe  religion and ethnic consanguinity to this lacuna?

Another factor which accounted for Nigeria being called a failed state in some quarters is the ease with which Fulani herdsmen literally live above the law, killing and kidnapping at will. Good thing, however, is that the chicks have come home to roust.  Emir Abbas Tafida of Munir, in Taraba state,  has already  read the riot act to Fulani herdsmen telling them that: “because of their unending menace, Fulani herdsmen in the state have been given 30 days to vacate the forests without which we will be forced to take the laws into our hands to kill in revenge”. Likewise, open grazing of animals has been banned within the Katsina metropolis and its surrounding communities. The directive was contained in a statement signed by Wakilin Kudin Katsina,  Alhaji Abdu Iliyasu, last Wednesday. In both cases, Nigerians are yet to hear from Garba Shehu since both are coming from the North.  However, in the spirit of fairness, President Buhari should now approve the grant of N6.5B for each of the remaining 35 states of the country towards the development of their own dairy industry as he did for his home state of Katsina.

I have in this article used a surfeit of quotes from the Economist of London whose views many consider adversarial to Third World countries.  For purposes of equity or balance, therefore, I shall  end it with the views of our own Dr Hakeem Baba – Ahmed, as he expressed them in an expansive interview he had with The Nation newspaper, published on Saturday, 31 July, 2021. They read as follows:

Question: “On a final note, despite all the criticism, are there any positives you see in six years of the Buhari administration?

Dr Baba- Hamed: No! And I say that with a lot of regrets. If there were, I would  say so. I was among the tiny part of people who contributed to putting this man in power, and there were huge expectations. We genuinely believed that President Buhari  would  fix  security, the economy and tackle corruption; that he would give this country a new lease of life, show leadership and be different from Jonathan’s PDP administration.

We had very high hopes, particularly those of us in the North who were at the receiving end of Boko Haram insurgency at that time. We didn’t see any of those things. We have seen decline in the quality of leadership, we have seen decline in security, we have seen decline in the economy. If today I tell you, there are families in the northern part of the country in the rural north, which grows its own food and eat it, families that eat one meal a day, people will find that unbelievable, but it is the truth. If I tell you that there are women in some villages in parts of the north who sleep on trees at night because they are afraid that bandits will come in the night to take them away, people may not find that believable, it is the truth. If I tell you children leave home for  school and their parents are not sure whether they will come back and that a large number of parents are removing their children from school in the north which desperately needs children, particularly the girl child, to stay in school, some people will say that is not true. But, it is the truth. That is the reality we live in. If I tell you there are communities in the south that northerners cannot go to, some  people will say it is not true, but the reality is that it is true. That is what the six years of Buhari administration has done to Nigeria.

It gives no pleasure, believe me honestly, I wish  he  has done the opposite, so that, I can be proud and say thank God, all the efforts we had put in 2003, 2004, 2005 has borne fruits, that we have shown that we can actually produce a good leader that would make a difference, but he has failed to do this and my major concern now is that, I am worried that  the same administration is working to put another administration in power and the PDP is not any better; PDP just wants to wrestle power from President Buhari and do exactly what Buhari is doing, that is the tragedy for this country”.

By Femi Orebe

Symbiotic: A parasitic twin is an identical twin that has stopped developing during gestation, but is physically attached to the fully developing twin. The fully developed twin is also known as the dominant or autosite twin.  Parasitic twins are also known by other names, including: abnormal twinning, asymmetric twinning, asymmetric conjoined twins”- GOOGLE

“If I have the opportunity to be asked, I would actually argue that we leave this matter for the electoral commission to handle, rather than micromanage the electoral commission or bring in the Nigerian Communications Commission or the National Assembly to be an arbiter on what happens to electronic transmission,”

“I frankly think things could have been handled differently and it is unfortunate that it has been handled the way it has been handled. It is giving an impression that there is some surreptitious or hidden agenda, which there isn’t” – Gov Kayode Fayemi, answering questions on the National Assembly handling of the Electoral Bill.

“The circus atmosphere of the National Assembly and its snail-speed approach to doing business render it less than a proper forum for addressing the National Question.  Given the rate at which the 9th National Assembly is proceeding with its misbegotten task of reviewing the Constitution to address issues relating only peripherally at best to the National Question, it is clear it is labouring under a misapprehension.

It is a case of an institution being misdirected or misdirecting itself to pursue a quest all parties to the transaction know to be unattainable.  The charade has gone too far” – Professor Olatunji Dare in Normalising Banditry and Other Aberrations.

Not too long ago on these pages I wrote, listing some activities of the National Assembly that seem to be very much in tandem with the ruling party’s emerging determination to constrict the Nigerian democratic space by either erecting a one party state or completely axyphisiate those other parties that still manage to hang on and broadly control, or actually immolate, the National Media so it becomes nothing more than a government gazette.

I cited such examples as the machinations that eventuated in the decampment of three PDP governors – not mere Assembly members – as well as the notorious Fake News Bill which had to be withdrawn after a barrage of public excoriation, and the now equally suspended Media Bill, sponsored, curiously, by a House member who had neither training nor a work experience in any media related organisation, that you need no telling where it most probably came from. It was no surprise when  he stepped it down with his tail between his legs. Nor can I see how APC can wash itself clean of the allegation of working behind the scenes to make PDP governors decamping after Nigerians saw all the effort some top members of the party poured into trying to score the bull’s eye by achieving the almost unachievable miracle of poaching former President Goodluck Jonathan. Or who are governors compared to a former President even if one  they once thoroughly lampooned , but now, surprisingly, see as a beautiful bride?

By the time I wrote that article, the new Electoral Bill was being considered by the National Assembly and not a few Nigerians had believed that the love of country,  presence in the extant constitution of precise provisions relating to the independence of the Independent National Election Commission, the fact of many members of the National Assembly being, supposedly learned, not forgetting the many occasions on which the Legislators had tried, in vain, to cast the Electirsl Bill in their own image, would be enough to modetate their narrow, hegemonic intetests.

A brief history of those attempts that miscarried. would be appropriate here

One of such was the National Assembly’s plan to make laws for the conduct of Local Government elections. This was successfully challenged by the Attorney-General of Abia State.  The 2002 Electoral Act was then passed, and used for the conduct of 2003 General Election. That too tried to order the sequence of elections but INEC went to court and successfully overturned it. Another occasion was the 2006 Electoral Act which the conference of Nigeria’s political parties went to court over, regarding the sharing of grants to political parties. They too won against the National Assembly.

Surprisingly the legislature not only succeeded this time around, they actually completely captured some supposed progressive  members who happen  not to be strategic enough to see beyond their noses. That was how, unlike the lower House, the Red Chamber, in its wisdom, outrightly did the country in by getting approved at the concurrence stage, its own version which shot the electoral process in an arrow in the heart by passing Section 52(2) of the Bill with the provision that INEC must get clearance from the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), which clearance must also be approved by the National Assembly for INEC to transmit election results electronically.  It will obviously not be far fetched  to suggest that some  House members were browbeaten to become turncoats.

In view of specific provisions in the  constitution, I do not believe that even a state House of Assembly should have committed that eggregious error since the country’s grundnorm specifically prescribes against any interference in the affairs of INEC.

Here let me press into service, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, who is a former Speaker of the  House of Representatives, and a Lawyer.to boot, when in his reaction to the faux pas by the National Assembly, he said the following: “For the avoidance of doubt, Section 78 of the Constitution provides that the registration of voters and the conduct of elections shall be subject to the direction and supervision of Independent National Electoral Commission. The constitution further provides that INEC operations shall not be subject to the direction of anybody or authority. The net  result of all these is that the controversial Section 52(2) as passed by the National Assembly is a nullity. The fact of its being void is so incrovertible that one can, with considerable justification, quote the immortal Jurist, Lord Denning – as Mr Kayode Ajulo recently did in a not dissimilar circumstance – who, in MACFOY Z v. UAC LIMITED (1961)3 ALL.ER,  held that: “If an act is void, then it is in law a nullity. It is not only bad, but incurably bad. There is no need for an order of court to set it aside”.

I wish to hazard the guess that something, yet unknown to Nigerians, is driving this 9th Assembly. We all thought we saw the worst ever legislature   in the 8th Assembly,  but the Assembly led by Senator Bukola Saraki is now increasingly turning a paragon of all that is good. Given the fact that all these constitution amendment exercises are more of sinkholes, annually gulping billions of naira, it is a further embarrassment that the 9th Assembly could so misdirect itself into taking such legally unsupportable  decisions   knowing, full well, that they  contradict the country’s extant constitution. I think something Nigerians are yet to  know tells the National Assembly that it can get away with all the shenanigans, controlled as it is, by a ruling party whose ways are daily becoming curiouser and curiouser to Nigerians. It is my hope that recent events would moderate those driving the party so heedlessly in the past few months regardless of legality.

Trouble beckons in a country when an arm of government, which is co-equal, and should, ideally, act as a check on the executive through its oversight functions, itself becomes rather indistinguishable from the executive.

These are times that call for urgent national prayers.