The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sunday

  • The words we live by

    I have heard the following words used more often: contracts, scrambling, jets, remunerations, dollars, bonds, exchange rates, loans, meetings, factions, tribunal, subsidy, oil, vandalism, corruption, death toll, boko haram, Niger Delta, militants, allocations, diversify, sharing formula, amnesty,  resource control …

    Dear reader, I don’t know about you but I am beginning to think that many words are getting obsolete in Nigeria. Take the word kindness for instance. Once upon a time, kindness meant coming upon a scene of accident while driving, stopping your car and suspending your journey until you ensured that the victims of that accident were safely deposited on a hospital bed with transfusion fluids flowing into them. Then you could resume your own journey. That was then. Now, people tiptoe or turn off their engines and roll their cars past accident scenes. Shshsh, let the FRSC deal with it; it’s their job!

    These days, I think kindness has come to mean someone coming into your house and announcing himself as a hired assassin who had been sent to kill you but since you wear this rather soft and harmless face, he would not do so provided you can give him a certain amount of money. In short, kindness is being allowed to ransom your own life in your own house. Mmmn.

    Take the story I heard some time ago. Yes, dear reader, I have just the right ears for these stories. Someone was driving home from a hard day’s work when he was stopped by an armed gang. The gang had him drive them to a spot and told him to get down and run. But, if he wanted to see his car again, he was to bring a certain amount of money to a place mentioned to him. The money amounted to approximately half of what he bought the car for.

    Well, I wish I could report that he thanked them for finally taking the blessed thing off his hands. No sir; he rather got the money together and took it to the announced rendezvous. On getting there, he found very many cars waiting to be ransomed and some tough looking young men guarding the said cars. After paying and being allowed to go, out of kindness, he was warned not to breathe a word of what had transpired. I tell you, kindness used to be when you took a stranger home; now kindness is not taking a stranger home.

    Another word well on its way out is patience. My apologies to all those named Patience out there, but seriously, the way Nigerians barrage their ways, you would think that patience has not only been outlawed; it has become a sin. My Encarta defines patience as the ‘the ability to endure waiting, delay or provocation without becoming annoyed or upset…’ Now, you just watch your average Nigerian, beginning with me, react to the announcement that s/he has to wait for five minutes. Oh no, sir, he doesn’t calmly say thank you, sit and pick up a book to read. Rather, he goes berserk. All arms begin to flail out, mouth is open, eyes bulge out, heart beats wildly, hands grope at the dry throat, and nostrils flare out looking for more air. In short, for a five minute delay, your typical Nigerian is near collapse. If you want to kill him, ask him to wait for a day or two.

    Once, while in charge of registering some students for a particular programme at university, I asked them all to form a queue. The parent of one student would have none of that. Why? It would take at least two hours to get through them all. What was wrong with that? He could not wait that long, he said. So I said, leave the young man, go about your own business, and come back later. Oh no, he said, he could not leave the baby of the house in the care of strangers. Oh dear, I said, we do have a problem because I was not going to let these young ones know that it was o.k. to shunt queues just because someone came with their parent. Should the parentless ones go and rent parents? Reader, in less than forty minutes, we were done with that registration and both father and baby were on their way.

    The word that has gone completely out of the dictionary of Nigerians is strangely enough the one that most qualifies to be there, and that is patriotism. Indeed, the word is so rarely spoken that I have hardly heard it used by this present crop of politicians, excepting the president on occasion, or we the followers. According to my Encarta, a patriot is one who is a proud supporter or defender of one’s own country and its way of life. I don’t know, but I have used Sherlock Holmes’ magnifying glass on our leaders’ and followers’ words and I can’t seem to find anything relating to ‘supporter of the country’. Instead, I have heard the following used more frequently: juicy committees, contracts, scrambling, party caucus, oversight functions, jets, jetting out, remunerations, Naira, dollars, bonds, exchange rates, loans, salaries, meetings, factions, elections, deadlock, tribunal, subsidy, oil, vandalism, corruption, death toll, boko haram, militants, allocations, opponents, petitions, diversify, sharing formula, amnesty, EFCC, arrests, resource control, central bank … Correct me if I am wrong or add to the list if you wish.

    Any palm reader such as I (yep; when the need arises, I rise to that occasion, particular if I want to read my housekeeping allowance on a certain palm) can read Nigeria’s palm from the words. I think it would go something like this: Nigeria, all you can think about is money; you are too money-minded. Go and grow up.

    Let’s see. Until Buhari came, it was said that most of our politicians – governors, assemblymen, etc., — liked to take their remunerations in dollars for the comfort of their families, friends and neighbours. Indeed, it got so bad at a point a minister of state for finance once had to cry out that whenever allocations were paid out, there was an unusual activity and demand on the dollar. It turned out that, soon after the allocations, our federal and state executive members were in the habit of jetting out and the fruits were not long in coming.

    This political dispensation has seen more private jets than at any other time. As of now, it is said that there are between seventy and one hundred and fifty of them in the country, most of which were bought directly or indirectly with government money. This means that the concern of most of those in leadership has not been how to build the country and make it sit more comfortably instead of tottering around like a drunken blind man. No sir, they have been more concerned with how to make their rear ends sit more comfortably.

    Today’s title is an adaptation of G. Lakoff’s The Metaphors We Live By which is the title of a text detailing how metaphors portray the thought processes of a people. In the same way, the words Nigerians live by tend to portray the narrow-mindedness of both the leaders and the followers in this country. The more frequently used words tell us clearly that the economy and all its related issues has been put ahead of cultivating the most important virtues such as patriotism, hard work and integrity. I think that putting these dying words first will ensure a better economic and political future.

    This is not to reduce the importance of economy. It is rather to say that without these virtues, there can only be chaos in a nation’s entire system. Indeed, the absence of ‘patriotism’ on that list is a sad statement on just how much we have missed it as a nation. I think we really need to dust up our dictionary. A nation is known by the words it lives by.

  • This Saraki Senate can delay, indeed, frustrate PMB

    This Saraki Senate can delay, indeed, frustrate PMB

    When I read about the obfuscation coming from an Abuja court about  the forgery at the senate,  claiming it was an internal affair, I knew, instinctively, that we  were beginning to  see a recrudescence of  PDP-ism , now emboldened  by Saraki’s  ego-driven theatricals.

    Unless and until Senator Ike Ekweremadu honourably steps aside/or is eased out as Deputy Senate President, the crisis in the senate cannot be said to be over. The intrigue and contrivance woven by Saraki to bind and bond with Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President is most subversive. It cannot breed trust between the senate and the ruling party, APC, and the Buhari presidency. Since we are not running a government of National Unity, the question of a bi-partisan legislature becomes an aberration. What is not morally right can never be politically correct.” – Canada-based Sir Fred Akinsanmi, JP.

    Granted that Senate President Bukola Saraki has, in the past, severally proved himself totally unscrupulous in the pursuit of power, it  still comes as most  puzzling,  if,  indeed, not  politically suicidal, that he, a medical doctor, two-time state governor and former Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum,  one  you would have no qualms describing as a brilliant politician could, well aware of the plethora of  allegations against him, still decide to railroad himself  into the office of the president of the Nigerian senate, not only against his party’s  preferences, but  do so through standing orders he knew were  forged, as has now been confirmed by the office of  the Attorney-General vide a statement by the Head of  Civil Litigation, Federal Ministry of  Justice.  Talking about his multitude of outstanding  problems,  a  yet  to be controverted  report by POINTBLANKNEWS of  13, August  2013 reads as follows:”Senator Bukola Saraki who returns to the EFCC today to face further grilling over some alleged fraudulent transactions, is having tons of massive fraud charges hanging on his neck. He was a guest of the EFCC on Monday for several hours, but was released on administrative bail and asked to return Tuesday. The former governor maintained that he had no cause to be invited, since the issues had been investigated by the agency over the years. It will be recalled that the commission had, last week, vowed to take all necessary measures to arrest and bring Saraki to justice over his tenure as governor and at the SGN bank. EFCC vowed last Friday to take necessary steps to arrest and try him for several fraud-related cases. He allegedly laundered billions of naira belonging to Inter Continental Bank of Nigeria Plc (now Access Bank) and also allegedly used fronts like Sintex Ltd, Skyview Properties Ltd, Asam Oil, Quality Packing Ltd, Bastone Ltd, Madison Properties Ltd, and Airline catering Services, to launder billions of naira. The monies, which were given out as loans, were later written off as bad debts’. (Report slightly edited for space constraints). The last Nigerians heard about this is not that he has been discharged and  acquitted but rather, that  efforts to get him prosecuted  are being frustrated by a certain bank.

    My respect for Senator Saraki inched a notch higher when it turned out he was the whistle blower in the humongous oil subsidy scam. President Buhari, no Nigerians, would still have had to be wary of the present senate even if it had not started off forging its own standing orders consisting, as it does, of a glut of former state governors who literally ran their states aground; those the respected former Nigerian Attorney-General, Chief Richard Akinjide, recently described as very corrupt. For instance, an investigation by Saturday PUNCH has revealed that over N172bn fraud cases are in court against these former governor -senators.  It should not surprise therefore that most of their states lead in the unpaid workers saga.

    I digress.

    Can a determined effort to escape justice then be the  sole reason  a former governor and returning  senator, would smuggle himself into the National Assembly premises at an ungodly hour, hide in a small car – his own words – and proceed, rather shamelessly, to trade off the Senate Deputy President  position which should normally be held by a member of his own party to a member of  a discredited PDP, which party Nigerians so comprehensively rejected only a few weeks earlier?  Could it be he momentarily forgot that the ancien regime was gone with all its wiles? Could this be why, sitting pretty in that office, and edged on by some ex- SUG, karate fighting muscle-men, he permitted /schemed the elevation of a first time senator to the post of  Senate  minority leader where there are ranking senators?

    Obviously, ambition must have limits.

    My fear of this senate leadership, perched there dangerously just because Bukola Saraki so disrespects both the president and the APC on whose platform he emerged senator, is enormous. At least, a more respectful Speaker Dogara, has since shown respect to both the president and to party supremacy. My fear of the senate  leadership’s capacity for evil is huge because  it can delay, if not frustrate, the president’s change agenda  and  thus  constitute a stumbling block to  a country genuinely and eagerly in search of real  change: a  change  from  the suffocating kleptomania of the recent past, to a robust, corruption-fighting government which will be seen to be  working for the good of the greater majority of  the people – a change indeed, that Nigerians are beginning to see.

    Only this past week, the Buhari administration appointed a first class and very experienced Ibe Kachikwu, as the new helmsman at the NNPC and before you know it, eight hitherto wasteful and unaccountable group divisions came crashing down to four. That can only be the least of the positive tidings to come from a corporation that has since been turned to a cesspool of corruption.

    When I read about the obfuscation coming from an Abuja court about  the forgery at the senate,  claiming it was an internal affair, I knew, instinctively, that we  were beginning to  see a recrudescence of  PDP-ism , now emboldened  by Saraki’s  ego-driven theatricals. The PDP crowd has always believed that everybody has a price since money, illicit money, is not their problem.  But God be praised, both the Attorney-General’s Office, and that of the Inspector-General of Police have made a short shrift of that effort. It was particularly fascinating reading the IG’s office saying that: ‘IGP Solomon Arase believes that the allegations are criminal and that the police cannot be restrained from investigating it.’ It actually went on to question the powers of the court to restrain either the police or the AGF from performing their statutory responsibilities.

    How time changes?  GEJ days, the A-G would have simply withdrawn the case from court.

    I am happy for  IGP Arase who,  it seems, wants  to  use the  short time at his disposal to make a mark,  reposition the police and leave a worthy legacy like the Hon. Justice Alfa Belgore (GCON) – 2006-2007-  did within a few months, as Chief Justice, and left his name in gold. With the current senate leadership in place, not only could it be maneuvered into opposition against the change agenda, the president could, indeed, be serially frustrated by delaying tactics, especially in enactments  and in appointments that require its approval. Also with Saraki successfully rebuffing the ruling party, and given these senators’ penchant for, and  their unquenchable thirst for what they call juicy committees which underpinned  Saraki’s recent endorsement by 81 members, a very bad precedent would have been laid, literally making them  untouchable. Who then will ask them to reasonably, and substantially, reduce their mountain of remunerations which has seen them emerge as the highest paid legislators anywhere on the face of the earth?

    It is heart-warming, however, to hear the I-G’s office say that the senate forgery raises issues of criminality about which the police owes Nigerians the duty to unearth the truth. It is  equally  sweet  music  to hear  that the investigation has since been concluded and, according to the Head of Civil Litigation, Federal Ministry of Justice, Taiwo Abidogun, who gave the clincher,  those involved will very soon have their day in court, since, according to him, ‘a completed act can no longer be stayed.’

  • The king did not die

    The king did not die

    The king is dead, long live the king! This paradoxical formulation all but summarizes the acute existential dilemma of all people with kings. For such people, the death of kings is not a funny matter at all. It is a terrible disaster. It portends chaos and millennial disorder. It is a radical disruption of the sacred order of being; the reign of anarchy. Things fall apart indeed and the centre can no longer hold.

    So therefore for these people, the king cannot and in fact must not die. As the sacred and supreme law-giver of the tribe, the king cannot die just like that. As the father and protector of the tribe, the death of the king provokes a sense of panic and a feeling of acute helplessness and vulnerability.  The people feel naked.

    Who will now defend them against the cruel marauders from across the great rivers and the mighty mountains?  Who will shield them from the fiery swords of sworn enemies and the outrageous arrows and slings of fortune? Who will take their propitiatory offerings to angry ancestors? And who will save them from themselves?

    Far away from home, and in bitter captivity, the ancient people of Israel remembered their king:

    By the Rivers of Babylon, where we sat down

    And then we wailed, when we remember Zion

    For the wicked carried us away in captivity

    And required from us a song

    How can we sing King Alpha’s song in a strange land?

    For people of kings, the mystery-shrouded disappearance of a particular king after the end of his golden tenure this side of the abyss of transition is but a minor coitus interruptus in a long and intense copulation between the ruled and their ruler. It is romance. It is a labour of love and affection. In the absence of pressing contenders, death itself is magically transformed into a stout ally of the ruling class; the principal Praetorian guard of the sacred order of divination and secular divinity.

    The king does not die. He can only magically transit to the other side in a world of continuity and contiguous reality between the living and the dead. When this great ritual of royal disappearance is managed very well by the crack custodians of the commonwealth, the great sages and savants of the traditional society, it is a seamless and painless transition. But when it is not, it is Anubis resurgence. The world shakes with stress and distress.

    Time, however,  has proved the greatest enemy of the old order and its ruling classes. In Africa after they have failed to shake off a particularly vicious post-colonial sovereign, they often leave things to inevitable death, better known as a biological coup d’etat. For example, in  Zimbabwe they are all reconciled to the fact that the old Wizard of Harare might be around for quite some time. Human agency is eventually put in the shade by human ageing.

    It is obvious that the ancient framers of the Yoruba constitution and its kingly passage never reckoned with the passage of Time itself and the colonial irruption which abridged the power of traditional authority. Neither could they have bargained for globalization and its dire consequences, particularly the virtual abolition of time and space and the eruption of global means of communication which subvert and undermine the power of modern states not to talk of traditional kingdoms.

    This past week, the Yoruba people of Nigeria experienced what is it like to be caught in the whizzing whirlpool of the unequal contest between tradition and modernity and the ceaseless surveillance which often leaves the state better surveiled than it is capable of surveilling  its own citizens and better electronically patrolled than it is capable of electronically patrolling its determined denizens. It is an epic confrontation on the scale of Things Fall Apart and Death and the King’s Horseman.

    But this time around, it was not canons and maxim guns booming but computers bleeping and sophisticated phones flashing. Satanic twitters and tweets abound. The pressing and ever present conflict between modernity and unsecured tradition always leave the latter holding the wrong end of the stick. This is even more so in an inchoate multi-national nation like Nigeria without an overriding national ethos.

    On Monday evening, snooper began picking some unusual vibes and signals from the international tell-tale circuits. The global electronic eavesdropping commune began converging like virtual vultures. The heavy hints all led towards one conclusion: something unusual was happening or about to happen in the principal House of Oodua. A caller asked yours sincerely to investigate from local sources, but the columnist quickly met a brick wall or got gnomic evasions for answer.

    A few days earlier, snooper had stumbled on the information that the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, had been flown abroad in an air ambulance following serious medical developments which could not be readily accommodated in any Nigerian hospital. This information was considered to be too politically sensitive to be inflicted on the public. In any case, it is believed that among Yoruba royalty, deliberate orchestration of death or its brutal proximity is part of an elaborate ritual of life enlongation. Buyers beware.

    When snooper reported back to the person who had initiated the original inquiry, he was told to forget it because the great Iroko fell a few minutes earlier.  After a brief silence only punctuated by pained sighs, the person requested for an immediate adjournment of conversation.  Yours sincerely spent the next hour listlessly roaming around the house. Then at about 11.30pm, a phone call came through which all but confirmed developments. If he was still in doubt, snooper was admonished by the caller, the news was already on the facebook.  That did it.

    Thirty six years earlier when the last Ooni, Sir Adesoji Tadeniawo Aderemi,  joined his ancestors, the forces of globalization were yet to take firm roots. There was no viable internet, no gsm, no bb, not to talk of facebook, twitter,hashtag and all what not. The royal transition was superbly choreographed, with early warning signals and coded palace-speak.

    The world has since become one vast cyber Kibbutz. One pin drop from one end of the globe instantly registers in another part thousands of miles away. The first sign of defeat for tradition was the very moment the Ooni was taken out of his palace for medical rehabilitation in a land thousands of miles away from home. That sealed the route for a quiet return to the palace in whatever form and turns the royal translation into the first publicly enacted departure of a major sovereign .

    The following day after most national dailies had broken the news of the passing, Ife palace chiefs rallied valiantly by insisting that it was all a rumour, drawing attention to and sustenance from similar mischief in the past. But a few hours later, Saharareporters, the impish and irreverent on-line news service, swiftly countermanded this by insisting that the king had truly departed. A day after, a major daily reported the Nigerian High Commissioner in England paying a condolence visit to the family of the monarch.

    There are important lessons to be learnt from this remarkable encounter between the old order and rampart forces of the new world. You cannot argue with an earthquake or remonstrate with its scalding and molten lava. In the unending and ceaseless confrontation between globalizing modernity and the forces of tradition, wise societies and sober nations negotiate their own terms of entry and accommodation.

    This is what Singapore, Japan, India and the Asian Tigers did and is what China is doing. This what Russia did politically and militarily but not economically. This is what the heroic Cubans did after a tense half a century face off. You must never allow yourself to be frog-marched and dragooned to modernity. The failure of Nigeria to live up to its billing often shows up in dramatic and expected ways.  The irresponsibility of our ruling class haunts us and hunts them in a way and manner we can never foresee.

    When you shortchange others, you also shortchange yourself. Had we used a fraction of the money stolen to build good roads, many lives, including our traditional rulers often slaughtered like propitiatory rams on our high ways, could have been saved. Had we built world class hospitals, there would have been no need to airlift our revered monarch abroad in the first instance and the notable Yoruba culture and tradition might have been spared a humiliating encounter with the rampaging forces of unrelenting modernity.

    So, did our great father, the Alase ikeji orisa and Arole Oodua die on Monday?  No, no, the king did not die and the king cannot die. But when we allow modernity to trump tradition through our careless greed and gluttony, the kingship institution suffers a near fatal wound. May the throne of Oduduwa survive for many more epochs.

  • Between Sagay and Falana: the law, the people and the social cannibalism of corruption (1)

    Between Sagay and Falana: the law, the people and the social cannibalism of corruption (1)

    The first thing we do is kill all the lawyers. Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2

    Doctors are just the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too.
    Anton Chekhov, Russian dramatist

    On Saturday, July 13, 2013, I gave a public lecture at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) under the auspices of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism. The lecture was titled “The Freedom of Information Act and the Dictatorship of Corruption and Mediocrity”. In the extensive research that I conducted before writing and delivering the lecture, I came across many facts, figures and statistics that both depressed and enraged me to no end. Of these, no item among my discoveries was as depressing and infuriating as my finding that a Sub-Committee of the House of Representatives had issued a comprehensive report on the oil subsidy mega-scam of 2011 in which the names of all those who had wrongfully and illegally benefitted from the scam had been published, together with the astronomical sums that each of these Nigerians had looted. I swear that before conducting that research for my lecture, I had been completely unaware that the names of the mega-scam looters were known, that they were not shadowy figures who had forever disappeared into the night of personal anonymity and legalistic oblivion. But together with my astonishment that these men and women were known and indeed meticulously identified, there was also my greater frustration that they had all without exception tied up the cases pertaining to their prosecution in the law courts by all manner of so-called “interlocutory injunctions” and “stay of execution” writs. That was in the year 2013. Two years later, the cases are still tied up in the law courts and not a single one of the men and women indicted in that oil subsidy mega-scam has either paid a kobo back or gone to jail. Their lawyers and the judges before whom their cases are being tried have seen to that; they have provided what seems to be a permanent and impregnable juridical cover and protection for these men and women whose looting of our national coffers has caused untold suffering and hardship to millions of Nigerians. In this context, the law may be said to be the last refuge, the last redoubt of the looters who, as human vampires, are sucking the blood from the economic arteries of our national commonweal.

    If the language I am using here seems too emotive, too sensationalistic, I plead guilty to the charge. Even more, I plead guilty to the charge of deliberately clothing myself in a long tradition of savage linguistic and literary critique of lawyers and the law as moral cesspits wherein some of the most unscrupulous and cynical professionals can be found. This is the context that makes the extraordinarily ferocious attack on lawyers in Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part Two, that supplied the first of the two epigraphs to this piece seem not too harsh, not too extreme: “The first thing we do is kill all the lawyers”. This was said by a character in that play against the background of a looming uprising of the people against centuries of oppression by their social superiors in which lawyers had played a significant role in maintaining the legal infrastructures and practices of a dog-eat-dog social order. I quote the words here in the hope, the wish that the lawyers and the judges who have for long prevented the men and women bleeding our country and its resources dry may perhaps get a glimpse of the sentiments that some of the world’s greatest literary minds have expressed about them and their kind.

    The second epigraph from the great Russian dramatist, Anton Chekhov, seems a tad gentler in its critique of lawyers and the legal profession on the same count of being always prone to acting as accessories to cynical, merciless robbery: “Doctors are just the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too”. However, if we juxtapose this ludic and playful Chekhovian quote with the one from Shakespeare’s play, we can see that lawyers, like incompetent and conscienceless doctors, kill too. They “kill”, not directly and interpersonally but by the indirect and epiphenomenal effects and consequences of the legalistic protection and cover that they give their clients, the looters who, it seems, can never be successfully prosecuted in the law courts of the land.

    If all this talk about “killing” seems unwarranted in its application to lawyers and judges that are, after all, merely practicing their lawful profession (no pun intended), please consider the N2.53 trillion naira that was looted in the oil subsidy mega-scam; consider too, the fact that thanks to lawyers and judges, not a kobo of that loot may ever be recovered; and finally, consider the number of lives that could have been saved or made richer and more fulfilled if a fraction of that N2.53 trillion naira had been productively spent to create jobs, build roads, improve hospitals and clinics and raise the quality of teaching in our primary and secondary schools. And indeed, there are no literal cannibals anymore, if ever they existed as a distinct social or “tribal” group; what we have now and have aplenty, thanks to many of our best trained lawyers and judges, are social cannibals who have not the slightest inkling that they are “killing” hundreds of thousands, millions through the sense of total protection that they feel when they loot, and loot, and loot yet again.

    At this stage, it is perhaps time in this discussion to bring into our conversation two lawyers who indeed recently have had much to say on these issues. Moreover, they are eminent, progressive and patriotic lawyers. These are none other than Professor Itse Sagay and Mr. Femi Falana, SAN. In an article published in The Nation on Sunday, July 19, 2015, titled “Politics, Public Service, Morality and Integrity in Nigeria”, Sagay more or less admitted that the law and the manner in which it is applied in our law courts at the present time make it near impossible to recover stolen loot and put an end to rampant corruption. Indeed, so sanguine was Sagay on this point that he was quite willing to go as far as to suspend the protection of the individual rights (of looters), if any headway is to be made in the struggle to recover stolen loot and curb corruption in our society. Perhaps it is best to hear directly from the Professor himself on this point:

    “There will a need to amend our laws to strengthen the state at the expense of individual liberty at least for a short while, if we are to get to redemption point. All legal provisions permitting preliminary objections to prosecutions for corruption must be repealed from our laws. The power of any court to issue an order of injunction against a trial for a crime, particularly corruption, should be repealed. Interlocutory applications, in cases concerning corruption, should be banned.

    You cannot read such words from the pen of a lawyer who is also a teacher of lawyers and still repeat, like a robot, the savage indictment from Shakespeare, “the first thing we do is kill all the lawyers”! For in the struggles against the social cannibalism that is at the root of the corruption that has penetrated so deep into the political, economic and juridical order in our country, some of the most eloquent voices have, in fact, been that of lawyers. As everyone knows, Sagay and Falana have been frontline professional and intellectual activists in those struggles.

    And indeed, the main point of my bringing Sagay and Falana together in this piece is precisely to try to reconcile what seems to me to be a tension, a contradiction between recent pronouncements of both men on this issue of the seemingly immovable obstacle that the law and its operations in our country pose to the fight against corruption by the new administration of President Buhari. On the one hand, Sagay says laws must be repealed and that we may even have to suspend protection of individual liberty, at least for a while. But on the other hand, Falana says that the enabling acts have now been enacted by the National Assembly and that all that is required now is for the bills to be forwarded to Buhari for them to be signed and made into effective laws. How did I come by this information? Well, Falana himself through an email forwarded to me a speech that he recently gave that contained these claims. The speech was a keynote address that he gave at the 7th Annual Distinguished Lecture of the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (Lagos Chapter) on Tuesday, July 21, 2015. The lecture bore the title, “Involvement of the Nigerian people in the anti-corruption war”. Here’s a relevant quotation from the lecture:

    “While the decision of the Federation (sic) Government not to interfere in the work of the anti-graft agencies is a welcome development, the National Assembly should forward to President Buhari for his assent the Witness Protection Bill and the Whistle Blowers’ Bill. The National Assembly deserves commendation for enacting both laws together with the Administration of Justice, 2015.

    Under the new Act, the granting of stay of proceedings and other delay tactics have been banned in the trial of criminal cases. Accordingly, a criminal trial shall be concluded within 6 months unless there are exceptional circumstances which may prolong any trial beyond that period. Indeed, the elevation of trial judges to the Court of Appeal will no longer lead to fresh trial before other judges as judges will be given the fiat to conclude part heard matters.”

    Have the issues raised in Sagay’s article been resolved by the revelation of the passing of new laws by the National Assembly in Falana’s lecture? And is this a matter to be settled only by and among lawyers? These will be our starting points in next week’s concluding piece.

     

    Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • The prince polyglot at 75: Whither Ekiti?

    The prince polyglot at 75: Whither Ekiti?

    However, writing about Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi is, without doubt, the equivalent of carrying coal to Newcastle

    For example, by sheer manipulation, Ekiti was represented by five members, Ondo nine, Ogun 19   inclusive of the opportunists called civil society groups. In a restructured Nigerian society, the imbalance, even in the West, would be so obvious that we would be exchanging one imperialism with another (with Ekiti five and Ogun 19″, for instance). This, of course, is totally unacceptable.’ – Chief Oladeji Fasuan, MON, JP on President Jonathan’s 2014 talk shop.

    As at the last count, he speaks some six different modern languages and that, by the way, is only a minuscule part of this incredible human being, this senior citizen of a great country, who has, and continues to leave his mark on several areas of our national life. However, writing about Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi is, without doubt, the equivalent of carrying coal to Newcastle.  Too much has already been written about him, his background, and student activism at the then University of Ife which culminated in his election as the Secretary-General of the World Student Movement, a position which took him to about 140 countries, his impressive and continuing involvement in the organised private sector, as well as his philanthropy, the last leading his law firm to be mostly involved in pro bono services.

    Therefore, in order not to just  merely celebrate  him  on  his 75th birthday, I  decided  to pidgeon-hole him – not an easy prospect – zeroing in on the usefulness to Ekiti, or  otherwise,  of  the  IGBIMO URE EKITI (IUE) which he founded. After all, has he not told us that “the template had been laid to ensure that URE does not end up as a nine day wonder?”

    Consisting the likes of  Sir Remi Omotoso, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Dele Adesina (SAN), Professor Peter Adeniyi; Chief Sam Bolarinde; Admiral Dehinde Joseph; Ambassador Bayo Ayeni , Dr.(Mrs) Funke Adebajo, and several  distinguished Ekiti citizens, IGBIMO, from its published statements, ‘is open to all qualified Ekiti indigenes who imbibe the core values of the Ekiti people, including dignity, reliability and integrity; who are committed to the development of the state;  understand their psyche and the need for reason, accommodation and patience in handling matters of mutual interest, who are passionate for results, but are not involved in partisan politics.  Proven leaders in their professions, businesses, vocations or community and who are socio-economically stable. “IGBIMO,” we are further told, “aims at bringing together people of impeccable integrity who are prepared to pool their resources towards re-establishing the state’s respectability, political stability, peace, progress and development.”

    I paraphrase below my reference to IGBIMO in my write-up on the occasion of Prince’s 71st birthday in 2011: “If there were an organisation oga would have wanted me enlisted in but which, however, proved impossible because of my not-so hidden involvement in political activities, it is IGBIMO.  I was obviously  one of the first people he discussed IGBIMO with and it is no self-glorification when I say that he was kind enough to ask me to do the draft of his speech at  the body’s inaugural meeting, before settling down to carve it in his inimitable  style.’

    So, to the meat of this entire article.

    If IGBIMO URE EKITI is all we have been told it is, and Prince, the founder is alive and kicking, aging more gracefully and the organisation waxing stronger, why is Ekiti in its present dire straits? What has the body done, or how does it intend to help the present government settle down to proper governance, now that the governor is no longer bogged down with any threats of impeachment?

    I would be the very first to admit that mediating the Ekiti conundrum is not the easiest thing on planet earth.  Many, including the respected Prince, are aware that in spite of my not being in governor Fayose’s political party, I contacted, in the heat of  his troubles with the G.19,  eighteen distinguished Ekiti non political icons, pleading with them to kindly intervene in what was obviously  a major blur on the state.  That effort led directly to Chief Deji Fasuan calling a joint meeting of Ekiti Elders and the rump of the committee for the creation of Ekiti. Unfortunately, like the one at the instance of Aare Afe Babalola, it led nowhere. I subsequently took the matter up with Prince who then informed me that he had much earlier involved both Chief Olanipekun and Elder Adesina, both Senior Advocates of Nigeria, and two of those I had earlier contacted and discussed with severally by phone. Unfortunately, even after they had been promised a meeting with the two groups, nothing eventually came from their efforts.  My suggestion then which I once published on these pages, was that the House should drop all threats of impeachment in return for a guarantee by Fayose of an unfettered resumption of legislative duties and payment of   the legislators’ outstanding entitlements.  In addition,  fearing that the state  might graduate into an orgy of armed robbery and kidnapping, which has since happened, I suggested that all political thugs, especially the imported members of the Niger Delta volunteer force,  should be paid off  after all  the dangerous weapons shelled out to them must have been  meticulously withdrawn.

    So what now do I want Prince Adelusi-Adeluyi and URE to do?

    Effective 5th June, 2015, circumstances changed completely in Ekiti. As things stand in the state today, political contestation has literally receded into the doldrums since my party, the APC, would first have to sort out its own internal convulsions which, among other things, has enabled Fayose metamorphose into something of a conquistador.  That situation has been further accentuated by the fact that it does not appear there is anybody in the state today, whose word he respects or whose advice, he will readily take.  To further worsen matters, he equates the party in Ekiti; which reminds me of a PDP top shot,  indeed, a former LG Chairman in Ekiti, who walked up to me in church last Sunday and said: “Oga, you people should  get ready to receive  Fayose in the APC because we are going to run him out of our party”. I know that the governor and his aides will vigorously deny and denounce my conclusions here, the best they can.

    In my view, however, the time has come for a body of eminent personalities like URE to now seriously engage the governor to, at least, let him know the consequences of the prevailing state of affairs. I know from interactions with several Ekiti compatriots who no longer  dare  go home, and those  at home who can still whisper their honest feelings if there is no chance of their being overheard by Big Brother, that the state economy , already in the doldrums, is heading  into  more dire straits. Nor does any serious minded businessman any longer consider Ekiti worth visiting except he is a PDP member out to get some contract. My plea is that URE should, on this glorious occasion of its founder’s birthday, decide to meet with Governor Fayose and advise him to deliberately reduce the prevailing tension and fashion out a genuinely people-friendly mode of governance. It is not enough for Okada riders to claim they are in Eldorado. That chimera does not a state make. He must change course and become everybody’s governor. The only time I saw him at his first coming as governor, was when he visited Ekitis resident in Lagos. He could very well go on such trips again and  reassure citizens outside the state of their security  whenever they visit,  rather than  this seeming  eagerness to act  as  PDP’s  national leader. He needs Ekitis everywhere to come help him out of the present miasma.  I know from discussions with those who should know, that Governor Fayose holds Oga Juli, Wole, and Dele in very high regards. These three could be in an IGBIMO delegation of about five or six persons to seriously engage him on the way forward.

    Happily, the next election is a long way away.  He should therefore be able to see that their effort is beyond politics.

    Here is wishing our delectable Prince many happy returns.

  • Confusion over the Ooni

    Confusion over the Ooni

    A case of culture clashing with modernity

    Last Wednesday, the news was all over town that Oba Okunade Sijuwade, the Ooni of Ife, Olubuse II, had passed on at Saint Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, London, United Kingdom (U.K), where he was being treated. He was reportedly flown out penultimate Friday in an air ambulance for treatment at the hospital when his health suffered a relapse. But Ife traditional chiefs quickly dispelled as ‘wicked rumour’ the news of the Ooni’s death. According to them, the foremost traditional ruler in Yoruba land was ‘hale and hearty’. Ever since, the confusion has continued as to whether the Ooni is dead or alive. While the media stuck to their stories about his demise, the traditional chiefs have also maintained their stance that he is well. As of the time of submitting this piece on Friday, a condolence register had not been opened for the Ooni, thus giving the impression that the chiefs’ position is the authentic stance on the matter.

    It is instructive that none of the media that reported the death of the monarch retracted the story, thus putting the Ife chiefs who insist the paramount Oba is alive on the defensive. Apparently the editors must have been waiting for the Oba to debunk the rumour of his death by speaking from wherever he is. As at Friday however, that had not happened. The chiefs had said that the Oba would be at the wedding of one of his sons, Adegbite, with ace television presenter and actress Dolapo Oni, today. I am not in a position to say whether that happened as this write-up went to bed on Friday. But, as a colleague jocularly said, if the Ooni appeared at the function, even the children would ‘pick race’.

    At 85, the Ooni is not too young to die; so, naturally his death should not be controversial. Many people would wonder that if, as Shakespeare said, death is a necessary end that will come when it will come, why then would someone’s death be a subject of controversy? The answer lies in the Yoruba tradition that Obas don’t die. Thus, when an Oba passes on, the Yoruba simply say ‘Oba ti w’aja’, which means he has joined his ancestors. Not only this, there are also procedures for announcing such passage. The Oba is not just anybody whose death should be heard of first in the media or on the street. Even in the days of yore before the advent of the mass media, the town crier could not just go to town with the news of an Oba’s passage; he had to be instructed by the appropriate authorities before breaking the news. It would appear the bypassing of that protocol by the mass media and the social media is responsible for what is now making the Ooni’s issue controversial.

    Yet, we may just be seeing the beginning of such defiance of culture, especially with regard to traditional rulers. It is simply a case of   tradition caught in the web of modernity. The mere fact that Oba Sijuwade had to be taken abroad for treatment had made it impossible to hide anything concerning him or his health, worse still, his death if he died abroad. Apparently the culture that forbids announcement of the death of an Oba until certain rites are performed, or until certain protocol is observed, did not envisage that an Oba would be flown abroad for medical attention, not to talk of him dying there. Apparently, too, that culture did not reckon with the fact that a time will ever come when the world would become a global village that today’s world has become, with the advent of the ubiquitous internet. If Oba Sijuwade had died in London, that is an open society and the demise of such a personality cannot be a guarded secret for long. This, indeed, is why it is surprising that the chiefs are angry that the media broke the news of Oba Sijuwade’s death or rumour of the death (since the Ife chiefs appear to prefer the latter). There is no hiding for the fish; not a big one as the Ooni of Ife.

    But, Nigeria is a country where we have had many examples of deaths and rumoured deaths.  Prominent Nigerians rumoured to have died included the late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe. Indeed, I remember that of Zik vividly because I had the onerous responsibility of splashing his pictures on the centre-spread of The Punch title on the day he was reported dead in 1989, appropriately titled “The life and times of Zik”.

    Moreover, this year alone, the Ooni is not the first traditional ruler that has been rumoured to have died. The Oba of Benin, Omo N’Oba N’Edo, Uku Akpolopkolo, Erediauwa, was also said to have died since about a year ago because he had not been seen in public. In February, the Benin Traditional Council had to refute publicly, the rumour of the Oba’s death, which intensified with his inability to personally receive President Goodluck Jonathan in his palace when the president visited during his campaign for reelection on February 4. Secretary to the council, Mr. Frank Irabor, explained that it was the responsibility of the council to issue a formal statement, if such a development (death) did occur. “They have been peddling that rumour for more than a year now, because the Oba has not been coming out. If there is anything like that, there is usually a statement from the palace or from the Benin Traditional Council”, he said.

    However, in March, the same council came out with the news that the Oba was indisposed. The council said in a statement signed by Irabor that: “It is hereby announced for the information of the general public that, in the Palace parlance, ‘Uhunmwun ve Ekpen vbý’ Ato,’ meaning the Leopard is ill in the Savannah bush. The explanation is that Omo N’Oba N’Edo, Uku Akpolopkolo, Erediauwa, CFR, Oba of Benin, is indisposed. Public engagements, including courtesy visits, hearing of complaints from individuals, families and communities, and in particular, complaints over inheritance and land disputes, are therefore suspended until further notice. All palace chiefs and functionaries are to note that their routine traditional duties continue as usual.”

    Mum has been the word from the palace or the council since then. The point I am trying to make is that because the rumour and counter-rumour making the rounds about the Oba of Benin are all happening within our shores, it is easier for the palace and the traditional council to manage the information. This is not the case with the Ooni. If anything happens to a big fish like Oba Sijuwade outside our shores, that thing is of significance not only to Ife people; it is something that would interest the entire Black race because of the importance of Ile-Ife to many of them. So, it cannot be made a secret.

    Another point though is that culture itself is dynamic; it is ever changing; never static. A time there was when albinos were an endangered species. If they walked aimlessly, even in daytime in many places in those days, they were done for. A time there was when people with hunchback could also not move freely without the fear of being caught for ritual purposes. A time there was too when twins were also thrown into the evil forest in certain parts of the country until Mary Slessor came and put a stop to the barbarity.

    Anyway, whatever becomes of Oba Sijuwade is expected to unravel in a short while. This is much more so when the chiefs had reminded us that this would not be the first time Oba Sijuwade would be rumoured to have died. They said it was so in 1982 and 2004. So, is this a reenactment of those years’ rumours? Time will tell.

  • Still in immunity mode months into a change regime

    Still in immunity mode months into a change regime

    A Senate with 83 senators that passed a vote of confidence in someone elected about one month ago and with the temerity to warn the police not to ‘harass’ their members seems to have sufficient numbers to frustrate policies and bills designed by the president and his party to fight corruption

    Democracy is more than a political system; it is also a moral system. It is a political system which is characterized not by particular procedures, such as regular elections of government, but primarily by being based on certain fundamental moral principles. In a genuinely democratic society, the government’s policy must accord with those principles. And, furthermore, all social institutions must also be established and conducted within the same moral framework, which invariably includes equality, freedom, and respect for the rights of the individual.—A. V. Kelly

    By immunity in this piece, I do not mean the formal protection against arrest and prosecution of president, vice president, governor and deputy governor which those who occupy these positions enjoy in our country and which makes leaders of the executive branch of government the most powerful and protected political office holders in the world. I mean the general lack of respect for laws, rules, and conventions among those accorded legal immunity by the constitution and those that are not covered by such protection. In other words, I am using immunity in the sense of an individual’s or group’s belief that he or she can do anything without being answerable to the principle of equality before the law.
    It is intriguing that despite the fact that majority of Nigerians voted for General Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the belief that the new president and his party would be in a better position to right the wrongs of the past under the regime of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the culture of business as usual is still thriving two months into the Buhari presidency. For example, the recent lucid analysis by JitiOgunye of the conduct of lawmakers in the National Assembly, particularly in the Senate illustrates how the culture of immunity and disregard for laws, rules, and conventions reigned on June 9 in the hallowed chambers reserved for regulating the lives of the nation and its citizens through establishmentof the ‘Dos and Don’ts’ that in normal situations sustain modern polity and civilisations. Ogunye demonstrated in a jargon-free interpretation that the election of Senators Saraki and Ekweremadu as president and deputy president of Senate was based on forged rules and thus need to be declared null and void, if deliberations under existing leadership of the Senate are to have integrity.
    Even after the police has revealed in its own investigation that the rules cited by the Senate for its conduct on June 9 are products of forgery, senators in support of the outcome of the election still find it comfortable to warn the police and other security agencies against allowing themselves to be used to harass the Senate, senators, or their spouses. Put in other words, the senators are warning the police not to do its work: investigation and detection of crime and presentation of suspected criminals to the court of law for trial. Instead of showing qualms, senators involved in the election of officers in June now show bravado as they threaten law enforcement officials for attempting to perform their lawful duties. This attitude from 48 PDP senators and 35 APC senators signal disaster for change, if the other branches of government— the executive and judiciary— fail to act in defence and protection of the rule of law.
    Stealing of the country’s patrimony, particularly crude oil in the millions still took place until July 3, according to President Buhari’s recent statement. This is an indication that the lawlessness that characterised the last government was still in vogue even after a new president had been sworn in. The courage of politically connected oil thieves during the last administration to engage in illegal bunkering even months after their principals had vacated power shows how ingrained the culture of impunity has become. What this signals is that there are collaborators in all sectors of the polity, including the nation’s security system who are still ready to work with economic saboteurs even under the nose of an anti-corruption federal government.
    Furthermore, using the media to deceive citizens through blatant lies that was a past-time of the administration in the last four or so years has not abated even two months into the new administration. For example, nobody in the country including those in power can say with certainty the exact location of the $15 million that was smuggled toward the end of Jonathan’s government to South Africa to ‘buy arms’ with which to fight the Boko Haram insurgency. As recent as last week, the South African High Commission was unable to confirm if the money had been returned to Nigeria. The South African envoy’s encouragement on July 23: “So, I advise you to check with the agency from where the money was released for the arms acquisition deal,” implies that the location of the money still remains unknown after several months of claim by the Jonathan administration that the funds had been returned to Nigeria.
    As we write this piece, many citizens are rejoicing that the crisis in the House has been settled with Dogara’s acceptance of the list of APC nominees for offices other than that of the Speaker. People are forgetting fast the issue that the election of House Speaker and Deputy Speaker was conducted outside the framework of the laws that guide such elections in the House. Many of such enthusiasts are saying that we need peace in the House to be able to embark on the crusade of change. How realistic is the optimism that the crusade for positive change can be facilitated by House officers who finally agreed to a compromise after being given a deadline to ‘do the needful’?
    It is not that actions and statements referred to in the paragraphs above had taken place in Nigeria that is a novelty in a country that had for decades become the poster child for political and bureaucratic corruption in the world. What is worrisome is that such unwholesome acts as conducting election in the federal legislature with forged rules; senators’ threatening of the police for planning to enforce the laws of the land; and solidarity messages from supporters of lawmakers purported to have used rules not known to the law smack of a growing tolerance for impunity under the nose of a regime of zero-tolerance for corruption.
    It is not the capacity of President Buhari to fight corruption with sincerity and vigour that is likely to be a problem, given his own strength of character. What is scary is the capacity of a Senate led by leaders elected on the basis of forged rules to constitute a stumbling block to Buhari’s efforts to clean the Augean stables the president has inherited from the preceding administration. A Senate with 83 senators that passed a vote of confidence in someone elected about one month ago and with the temerity to warn the police not to ‘harass’ their members seems to have sufficient numbers to frustrate policies and bills designed by the president and his party to fight corruption. It is not out of place to think that the current senate leadership is in a position, if adequate care is not taken, to disrupt good governance by instigating crisis that can disrupt the change agenda.
    The matter of election of senate leaders must not be left to compromise among party members, more so that police investigation has revealed that the election of such officers took place on the strength of forged Senate Rules. The executive and judiciary must not shirk in their own responsibilities on a matter that has been politically unsettling since June 9. This is the most appropriate time for the Buhari presidency to insist on equality before the law. If indeed there was forgery of Senate rules, those behind such forgery, regardless of their position in the polity and society, should be brought to book immediately.
    Citizens who want their mandate on change to be put to good use need to stand firm and give support to the executive and the judiciary when they act to protect the country’s constitution, especially its commitment to the rule of law, without which democracy cannot deliver good governance. Citizens must not leave protection of the moral system that subtends all viable democratic systems in only the hands of office seeking lawmakers.

     

  • Nigeria’s silly season

    Nigeria’s silly season

    Anyone expecting the toxicity generated by the bitter general elections fight to dissipate would wait a little bit longer. All the indications are that partisan bickering is set to become a feature of our political life for the long term as the opposition mourns its loss and the new government attempts to uproot all vestiges of the old order.

    It is shaping to be a bruising battle where reason and logic are early casualties, and posturing has replaced serious discussion of national issues.

    This last week, we saw evidence that Nigeria is well and truly into her silly season when people in senior positions of political leadership, in furtherance of low partisan agendas, have been defending the indefensible.

    It all began with the drama that attended the visit of Toyin, the wife of Senate President, Bukola Saraki to the offices of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to answer questions related to a petition linking her to money laundering when her husband was governor of Kwara State.

    What should have been a routine appointment in response to law enforcement was turned into a circus with 10 senators, 20 representatives and other supporters of the lady invading the commission’s office to accuse officials of bias.

    In the ensuing backlash, Senator Dino Melaye who has emerged as one of the Senate President’s most ardent supporters, said he joined the scrum of lawmakers, who escorted Mrs. Saraki in his capacity as a ‘private investigator’ and ‘anti-corruption crusader.’

    Unfortunately, Melaye’s crusading zeal didn’t propel him to storm EFCC with observers when other high profile visitors like Stephen Oronsaye or former governors Sule Lamido and Murtala Nyako were being quizzed by the commission’s officials.

    The subtle imputation hanging around Mrs. Saraki’s chat with the investigators was that it was the backlash from political foes still seething that her husband thumbed his nose at the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) and grabbed the Senate Presidency for himself.

    Who better to blame than former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, who supposedly had more of a stake in the National Assembly leadership contest than President Muhammadu and all of APC! Quick as a flash that other ‘private investigator’ former Senator Joseph Waku woke up with a start from long retirement to declare that Tinubu was the mastermind behind Mrs. Saraki’s woes.

    Interestingly, a few weeks before this latest episode, Melaye who was facing a challenge to his seat at the election tribunal, suddenly cried out that the ubiquitous Tinubu was ganging up with his enemies to do him in because of his backing for Saraki, in the event the tribunal validated his victory in April. Unfortunately, the Appeal Court just overturned that ruling and ordered the case be retried. Surely, the vengeful Tinubu was one of the judges!

    Let’s quickly point out that an invitation to attend the EFCC shouldn’t be overblown. It doesn’t amount to much since whatever is contained in the petitions remains in the realm of allegations until investigators establish there’s a case to answer. Mrs. Saraki like others hasn’t been formally charged and must be presumed innocent.

    But if we make that allowance, we should also concede that the ongoing process could result in trials and convictions. That is why the conduct of those who overran the EFCC’s office as though the lady’s visit was a social event ought to hang their heads in shame. It can only happen in Nigeria!

    I try to picture a Labour Party stalwart accused of financial crimes storming the Serious Fraud Unit (SFU) in London with his supporters accusing Cameron’s Conservative Party administration of political persecution! Not very likely!

    People should simply insist that the right thing be done and no one rushes to judgment until the accused have been afforded sufficient opportunities to clear their names.

    I admit that Nigerians across the political divide are quick to howl ‘bias’ because former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s PDP government was repeatedly accused of using the EFCC to launch prosecutions largely against his foes.

    But even if that were the case, it doesn’t eliminate the possibility that crimes may have been committed. If the ‘victims’ of the so-called ‘witch-hunt’ have done something wrong, should they just be released and sent home because the prosecution is now being carried out by the other side? Law enforcement cannot be suspended until we’ve agreed a national quota system for prosecution.

    Or do we invite United Nations prosecutors to take up these local criminal cases before our politicians can accept that the process would be fair?

    In any event, most ongoing prosecutions are products of petitions. If one side can author them, what stops the other from coming up with theirs?

    But we’re not likely to see that happen in a hurry, because those who should be assisting the law are busy playing games. A few days ago, workers at the headquarters of the former ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) received sack notices. They reacted angrily by firing off a petition to the EFCC alleging massive corruption perpetrated by members of the National Working Committee (NWC). So how did the party leaders respond? Predictably! They accused APC of instigating the workers to destabilize PDP.

    Unfortunately for the nascent opposition its regular attempts at playing victim have been largely unconvincing. Take the whole brouhaha it triggered with allegations that the Acting Director-General of the Department of State Security (DSS), Lawal Musa Daura, was an APC member. The allegations flow from actions taken by the service in response to election-related petitions in Akwa Ibom and Rivers which PDP adjudged as partisan.

    Only those afflicted with a convenient strain of amnesia would be sympathetic. The former ruling party which perfected the art of using the DSS for partisan assignments under Jonathan now fears it would be on the receiving end.

    Of greater significance, however, is the fact that PDP is accusing APC of something it did regularly whilst in power. Lt. General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau (rtd) was a member of the party and aspired to be its presidential candidate in 2011. He would later be appointed National Security Adviser (NSA) by Jonathan. Back then, it was okay for a partisan to occupy this all-important security position!

    It is the same ludicrous reasoning that would have Buhari abandon any attempt at examining the books he received from his predecessor if such a probe didn’t  go right back to Lord Lugard’s time!

    But as some have pointed out, Jonathan chose not to make waves because he found what Obasanjo and Umaru Yar’Adua turned over acceptable. Buhari doesn’t accept what went on under Jonathan and is within his rights to recover what has been lost and bring those who ripped off the country to book.

    Of all the challenges confronting President Muhammadu Buhari, recovering billions of dollars stolen by public officials in the few years could turn out to be the simplest. His job is made easy because the structures of global finance make it easy to track cash flows – legitimate or suspicious.

    But a bigger battle for the soul of Nigeria awaits because what has been lost in the area of values cannot be quantified. We’ve lost a sense of shame, outrage or proportion. These days, we are quick to rationalise what would get people lined up and shot in other climes.

    We hear stories of a minister who allegedly stole $6 billion dollars whilst serving in the last administration and instead of being outraged, some people dismiss the claims as politically-motivated lies because it involves someone from the fallen PDP.

    So far, the Americans have not denied the reports attributed to one of their officials by Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole. I also ask myself what would be the governor’s profit in making such an incendiary claim if it were false.

    The PDP under whose watch these economic crimes allegedly happened has reacted defensively. In one breath, they claim to be supportive of efforts to hold people accountable, in another they angrily claim Buhari is the only saint in APC.

    Even if all members of APC are bandits, does it make the stealing of the country’s wealth by just one individual to the tune of $6 billion right? How much do you have to steal these days to shock Nigerians?

    The challenge Buhari faces is that of pulling a heavy burden up the mountain side alone. It is daunting but not impossible. It would be easier if he had a significant position of the political elite buying into his vision. But that isn’t the case as many would prefer the old system. Still, one man’s iron will and example can change the culture in government.

    Jonathan spent half of his time in office imagining that the whole country was conspiring against him. Even when allegations of sleaze were made against his ministers and associates, he would react defensively by dismissing the accusers as being even more corrupt. On many occasions, he was dragged – kicking and screaming – to move against those with very bad cases.

    That legacy where anything went, where some special distinction had to be made between ‘corruption and stealing’ is partly the reason the lines between what is acceptable and what should shock are so blurred these days. The only way back is to begin a process of consistently celebrating what is right and ensuring that those who cross the line and break the rules receive their just deserts – even if it means being accused of ‘political lynching’ by those on the receiving end.

  • Forgery and fudge in the senate

    And whilst we are still on the subject of the fearsome confrontation between the old order and the forces of rampaging political modernity, it is meet to report that after the initial hiccups and frontal insubordination to the dictates of the majority party, the House of Representatives is settling down to good and honest business at last.

    Snooper monitored the proceeding last Wednesday and was very impressed by the depth and clarity of presentations. Particularly outstanding in deportment and submission was Honorable Shehu-Shagari.      The Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, was masterfully in charge, evoking calm comportment and regal equanimity. It was all redolent of promise and good tidings.

    Meanwhile as this was happening in the lower chamber, the upper chamber, the senate, compromised in the eyes of discerning compatriots by forgery and fudge and by the sheer illegality and illegitimacy of progeny and provenance of its leadership, was digging in. The old axiom that when you are in a hole, you stop digging does not cut any ice with its leading lights or lightlessness. They are furiously digging in.

    The senate began business with a rousing acclamation of its errant leadership. This motion was supported by a whopping two and a half dozen senators purportedly elected under the APC platform. That just about did it. The aromatic smell of food in the guise of imminent juicy committee memberships could induce a feeding frenzy and unhinge the most loyal party members. This is not the time for fancy theories about party supremacy. As one of the senate’s leading luminaries has famously put, “the senate is not a party secretariat”.  The goat eats where it is tethered.

    In a classic case of chutzpah, the senate even had the great immoral courage and the brazen temerity to admonish members of the public against media-slamming of its members and to caution the security agencies against witch-hunting family members of distinguished senators. The Rip van Winkle at the EFCC who has just woken up after a millennial nap, must take this serious admonition to heart or be prepared for more mass invasion from the Tartar hordes led by the infamous brawler from Kogi.

    It is clear that this lot are beyond soap and water, and there is no point in any further remonstration or appeal to logic and national interest. Since tenacious occupation irrespective of legality confers partial ownership in the eyes of the law, the senate may yet get away with blue murder. Worn down by sheer attrition, the ruling party and the public may decide to move on and overlook the historic infringement. In a typical Nigerian judicial and constitutional fudge, it might even be argued that there is no point in disrupting legislative harmony and stability no matter how it is conjured.

    But that is assuming that a leopard can ever change its spots. After securing its flanks, this senate will resume its destabilization of the executive and the country as a whole in a most vicious manner. Its leadership, having been outed as retrogressive charlatans, can only find relevance on the corpse of a new Nigeria. They will fight tooth and nail to maintain the dead order and its diseased detritus.

    In the event, President Buhari must be prepared to take his case directly to the Nigerian people. There can be no doubt who at the moment is the overwhelming favourite of the Nigerian populace, no matter the shameless antics of the ousted party and its unreconstructed collaborators in the ruling party. Something tells snooper that this may yet end in a stormy confrontation.

  • Celebrating Uncle Daddy Sam

    If he had his way, he would not have agreed to any form of celebration for his 80th birthday which was marked with a lecture and book launch last Thursday in Lagos. Apart from his normal very reserved nature which explains why he is not fond of any loud celebration, the publisher of Vanguard newspapers, Sam Amuka, popularly known as Uncle Sam, according to the organisers of the Thursday programme, did not want to appear insensitive about the distressed state of the media.

    Amuka did not see any justification for any celebration when media organisations, like some state governments, were owing workers salaries for months.

    He was said to have agreed that the modest celebration hold on the condition that it would focus on how to enhance the media industry in the country which he has been part of for several decades.

    The highlight of the occasion was, therefore, the launching of Voices from Within: Essays on Nigerian Journalism in honour of Sam Amuka and a lecture titled Today’s Newsroom, Tomorrow’s Newspaper: How to survive and thrive in the Internet Age.

    I join in congratulating Uncle Sam, who the representative of the presenter of the book deservedly renamed Daddy Sam, happy birthday.

    Notwithstanding the distress in the media industry and the country, he deserved to be celebrated while alive for his immense contribution to journalism and other walks of life.

    He has, indeed, paid his dues through his career from the old Daily Times to The Punch and Vanguard newspapers where he has helped raise and continued to mentor a generation of journalists who will forever be grateful for his impact in their private and professional lives.

    I don’t have the privilege of any close contact with the famed Sad Sam columnist of the defunct Sunday Times that reportedly sold in excess of 250,000 copies in its heyday, but what I have heard about him and read confirm he is, indeed, a rare gift to the media industry.

    I really appreciate his concern for the industry that necessitated the publication of the invaluable book which the present generation of journalists will learn a lot from – about the past, present and future of the media in the country.

    The excellent lecture by the Managing Director of Daily Independent newspaper, Mr Ted Iwere, is a timely wake-up call for media managers in Nigeria. At a time many traditional journalists still prefer to live in denial of the reality of the new media which will define the future of our industry, Iwere was able to carefully examine the present state of our newspapers and proffer solutions on what needs to be done to prevent the doomsday prediction about print publications.

    As Iwere rightly noted, Nigerian newspapers have no option but to adapt or face the danger of imminent death.

    “I am optimistic that Nigerian newspapers are not going to die. But if my optimism becomes unfounded and our newspapers die, my hunch is that the coroner’s report will not be that they were killed by the Internet. The cause of the death will most likely be suicide. It will be that, like the dinosaur, our newspapers failed to adapt to the demands of our time,” Iwere stated.

    A word is enough for the wise. Happy birthday, Uncle Daddy Sam.