The Nation Newspaper

Category: Lawal Ogienagbon

  • Three Timesmen at 70

    Three Timesmen at 70

    In Nigeria of today, it is no mean feat to live up to 70. Some even argue that people should roll out the drums and celebrate if they are lucky enough to clock 50, not to talk of 70. Today, I celebrate three elders and senior members of my profession, who joined the Club of Septuagenarians a few days ago. I am talking about the highly- cerebral Gbenga Oni-Olusola aka Ogbologbo, Gabriel Omonhinmin and Clement Iloba. These are men that I met many years ago in the line of duty. They are thoroughbred professionals who were a delight to work with. They were masters of their art who dazzled like diamonds in their work.

    They held senior editorial positions at the Daily Times and mentored many who are today following their footsteps. Of the trio, I am closer to Ogbologbo, who I first met when I was in The Punch. Quiet, easygoing, but hard and tough, Ogbologbo’s brilliance and sense of humour easily come to the fore when you speak with him. He rose to become Editor of the Sunday Times. I will not talk about fidi p’ejo (if you know, you know) here sir. I see Ogbologbo reeling in laughter if he sees this line.

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    Omonhinmin was a writer par excellence too. His enchanting articles were a delight to read in the Daily Times and Sunday Times. It was like a war whenever he and Ogbologbo engaged in their usually ‘hot’ debates (in English and Bini languages which they speak fluently). The debates always ended with both of them roaring in laughter and sharing cigarettes and beers, to the consternation of the onlookers waiting for them to exchange blows.

    Iloba was on the quiet side, but highly effective too. As Editor of Evening Times, he took the paper to a higher level, paving the way for his deployment to the federal capital to start Abuja Times shortly after the movement of the seat of government there. Ogbologbo, who was covering Dodan Barracks then, followed the government to Abuja too. Ogbologbo later returned to Lagos to take up higher responsibilities. Happy birthday, my dear Egbons, for attaining the biblical age of three scores and 10. May you be blessed with good health and sound mind.

  • Memo to CJN Kekere-Ekun

    Memo to CJN Kekere-Ekun

    Lex non cogit ad impossibilia –

    A court does not make an order in vain and will not make an order that cannot be carried out

    IT may not be wrong to say that you are coming to office at the most trying time for the judiciary. Never in the over 180-year  history of the institution has it been this vilified and abused, as the people have seen in the past 20 months. As the third arm of government, the judiciary should stand out. It ought to be because it is the arbiter to which the other arms run to when in dispute.

    It is not referred to as the last hope of the common man for nothing. It earned the appellation because whether rich or poor everybody is treated as equal before the law. Therefore, the judiciary must be clean, transparent, open, credible, accountable, responsible and above all incorruptible. Of course, not all the allegations against the judiciary are true. Many were fabricated to give the judiciary a bad name in order to hang it. The nagging question is how helpful has the judiciary been in maintaining its integrity?

    This is the crux of the matter. The judex, that is judicial officers, who man the various courts cannot be seen hobnobbing with all sorts of character and expect not to be tarred. Judges are expected to be conservatives and not social animals because of the nature of their job. My Lord, you know too well the danger in a judge that is a man-about-town. Such a judge will sell not only his judgments but his soul for a mess of porridge. Do not get me wrong, I am not condemning judges. I am only painting a scenario.

    I covered the courts as a reporter and I can recall vividly the occasions that the late Justice Moronkeji Onalaja, then of the Ikeja High Court, stopped proceedings to talk about lawyers trying to induce him. On those occasions that he spoke, he was livid with rage. With the benefit of hindsight, he might have done it purposely so that it could be reported by the media since he knew reporters were in court

    But Justice Onalaja, who rose to the appeal court was not saying it to make headline news, he was doing so to protect the sanctity of the court and expose the bad eggs among lawyers who were tarnishing the image of the judiciary. The court is a sacred place and should not be desecrated by ministers, who in this case are the judges and lawyers in the temple of justice.

    As you well know, the court has gone through a lot since the last presidential election and now. It is disheartening to see how its orders are being contemptuously treated these days by parties, especially governors, who should know better. These governors, with their undue executive rascality perceive themselves as above the law. As the opening quote of this article says in latin, courts do not act in vain; they act with the judicial authority to deal with any power or principality, be it a governor or whatsoever called, that treats them disdainfully.

    But our courts have failed to bite in some cases in Edo, Kano and Rivers where the governors have overreached themselves. I still do not know why the courts have not bared their fangs against the governors who have shown utter contempt for their orders. Governorship does not confer power to disrespect court orders on occupants of that executive office. Their immunity is against prosecution. If they misbehave as some of them have done by disobeying court orders, they should be called out and lampooned by the judge, even without being tried for contempt.

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    If the courts treat governors with the respect that they do not return, then the law should be thrown at them like any other citizen. To the ordinary man, it is annoying seeing some of these governors and their attorneys-general turning themselves into appellate courts, sitting in judgment over the decisions of lower courts. From where do they derive such powers? Certainly, it is not from the Constitution, which clearly imbues the court with judicial authority.

    Honestly, Milord, I blame judges for all these. Why? Most of them cannot assert their authority and apply the law as it is because they have been compromised. The compromise may not necessarily be in the form of inducement. It stems from the fact of knowingly taking the wrong steps in making some of these orders. If it was a mistake of the head and not of the heart, they would not be afraid. It is trite that you cannot build something on nothing. How can a judge who wittingly acted wrongly ab initio be courageous to enforce his order?

    This is precisely the point. Even, where a judge gives an order out of jurisdiction, he should be bold enough to stand up for his action, if he acted altruistically. Many cannot because they acted with ulterior motives. You have your job cut out for you. You know the judiciary inside-out, having started from the magistrates’ court. Those days at the Lagos Magistrates’ Court at Igbosere where you sat in the underground Courtroom 1, you did your job without fear or favour, affection or illwill. It was in the 1990s when there were sordid tales about corruption in the magistrates’ courts.

    Your name never featured in those tales and reporters of that era noted it. Since then, they concluded that you have a long way to go in your career. Today, you have become the numero uno of the judiciary by dint of hard work, transparency and accountability. You have to bring all these attributes and more to bear on your new assignment as CJN. You have only four years to do that. To me, that is enough time for you to reform the institution. You have promised to change the negative narratives about the judiciary.

    I believe you because I know that you have the will to do it, having watched you at work from afar for years. As you know, it is not going to be an easy task, as those benefiting from the existing rot would resist any change. You are a firm and tenacious person, who brooks no nonsense. Many lawyers know what you can do and what you stand for, but they will still try to put you in an awkward position so that they can have their way.

     My Lord, the ball is in your court. Make our courts to bark and bite in your time. Get the judges to apply the law as it is and ensure that courts in different locations with concurrent jurisdiction do not wittingly issue conflicting orders on the same matters based on their biases. The public will like to see a strong and virile judiciary under your watch. A judiciary that will dispense justice without looking at the faces of the parties.

    A judiciary of the people, by the people and for the people. A judiciary with human face, integrity, honour and conscience. A judiciary that is above board like Caesar’s wife. A judiciary that cannot be bought. If there is any person that can do these and more, you fit the bill, Milord. Your four-year time starts now. All the best.

  • Only losers cry

    Only losers cry

    Losers In Saturday’s governorship election in Edo State are still wailing, more than five days after the exercise. This is not a surprise. It would have been shocking if they had accepted the outcome of the poll. They are acting true to type by their refusal to accept the fact that they lost fair and square. Elections always end on this note in Nigeria. Winners rejoice, losers cry. It was the second contest in four years between Governor Godwin Obaseki and his predecessor Senator Adams Oshiomhole, who picked him above others for the plum job, in 2016.

    Oshiomhole stepped on the toes of his allies by his action. But they forgave him and teamed up to work for Obaseki. What they feared most happened a few years later. As governor, Obaseki developed wings. He was no longer the political greenhorn that needed support for reelection. With Philip Shaibu, his now estranged deputy, on his side then, they confronted Oshiomhole, who to them had become a political godfather whose “excesses” could no longer be tolerated. “No godfather in Edo”,  “Edo no be Lagos”, they and their supporters chorused. Obaseki knows better now. The duo were reelected without Oshiomhole in 2020. In the process, they defeated his candidate, the mercurial Pastor Ize Iyamu.

    Oshiomhole took the defeat in his strides, waiting for a rematch, which he knew would come one day. For him, that day was last Saturday, and “Oshio Baba” threw everything that he had into the fight. Yes, it was a fight, not of fisticuffs, but of popularity and followership in the “Heartbeat of the Nation”, as Edo is known. The forces were arrayed for battle. But Obaseki and Shaibu were no longer together. His erstwhile loyal deputy has switched camps and returned home where he truly belongs. The return of the ‘prodigal son’ was not without drama. He knelt down publicly at a campaign ground to beg for Oshiomhole’s forgiveness.

     Shaibu whose impeachment was instigated by his principal who he hitherto fondly referred to as “my elder brother” dealt the outgoing governor a blow by returning to Oshiomhole and the All Progressives Congress (APC). The cause of their friction was the governor’s refusal to back Shaibu’s governorship aspiration. Obaseki favoured a lawyer and businessman, Asue Ighodalo. He threw the Edo North Senatorial District ticket at Shaibu. That was a ploy to knock Oshiomhole’s and Shaibu’s heads together in the contest for that senatorial seat. Oshiomhole and Shaibu are from the senatorial zone. Shaibu saw through Obaseki and insisted on running for governor. He was denied the ticket. The governorship election was therefore a battle royal between Oshiomhole and Obaseki. Shaibu rode a shotgun to Oshiomhole, making them a formidable team.

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    Everything was thrown into the battle, with Oshiomhole spearheading the campaign of APC’s candidate, Senator Monday Okpebholo aka Akpakomiza . Okpebholo and Ighodalo are from the same Edo Central which comprises the Esan speaking parts of the state. Since the late Prof Ambrose Alli served as governor of the old Bendel State (now Edo and Delta) between 1979 and 1983, no other indigene of the zone has held the office. Prof Oserheimen Osunbor, who is from the zone occupied the post between 2007 and 2008 before his election was invalidated. So, in the face of the law, Osunbor, a professor of law, was never governor. Oshiomhole succeeded Osunbor and ran the state till he handed over to Obaseki in 2016. Obaseki knew that getting his successor elected was going to be an uphill task following his fallout with Oshiomhole.

    This was why he started crying wolf ahead of the election. He made many claims against some individuals and organisations, especially the police and the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Dr Anugbum Onuoha. He caused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Ighodalo not to sign the peace accord ahead of the election. Obaseki was prepared for war and he almost caused one by going to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) secretariat  in Benin, the state capital, when results were being collated. To do what? Only the man who cut a pitiable picture as the results were trickling in shortly after the poll on Saturday can say. He was walked out of the place by Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) Frank Mba, who was in charge of the election security team. Obaseki did not stop there. He later teamed up with his Adamawa counterpart Adamu Fintiri and Ighodalo to announce some results of the election, in contravention of the law.

    Now that the election has been won and lost, Obaseki is still dazed by the defeat. He is more pained by the loss than Ighodalo who was on the ballot. He is claiming that Ighodalo was rigged out, an allegation that the candidate himself has given vent to. According to Ighodalo, his mandate was stolen. By who? This is what he has to prove in court. Does he have what it takes to do that? His camp is claiming that results were mutilated and that votes were bought. As a lawyer, Ighodalo knows that these are not allegations that should just be mouthed, they must be proven to get an election voided. Election monitors and observers may turn out to be worse than the social media crowd, if they continue the way they operate in the developing world, especially, Africa.

    Their role in the Edo election beggars belief. Some of them, as a coalition, have issued a statement, calling for the invalidation of the election. Just like that? Is that their main job? Is their job again not to monitor and observe elections, write a report and make recommendations on how the exercise can be improved upon in future? It calls for concern when election monitors and observers descend into the arena and are seen talking like, or doing the bidding, (of) those that lost. How can an election observer, like Yiaga Africa, say categorically that “some biased INEC officials altered results during collation”. Did it witness the alteration? Where is the proof?

    Election monitoring and observation by local and international groups should not be used as an excuse to undermine the sovereignty of Nigeria or any other country for that matter. Where were these election monitors and observers when former President Donald Trump went wild over the United States (US) presidential election four years ago? They kept mute. The same Trump is on the ballot in the US again for this year’s presidential election. Just imagine – if it were to be Nigeria – the monitors and observers would have gone haywire, spewing inanities and telling the world that such a person is not fit for office.

    Come to think of it. Yiaga Africa only deployed 300 stationary and 25 roving observers in a representative sample of polling units across the 18 local government areas of Edo. On the basis of this deployment for an election that held in 4,978 polling units, Yiaga Africa is in no position to make a fair and accurate assessment of the poll. It will be futile to rely on its report, no matter how scientifically it was reportedly compiled. It is a shame that it is not worth the paper it is written.

  • Obi and his patron saints

    Obi and his patron saints

    Politicians surround themselves with all manner of people – the good, the bad and the ugly. They do not discriminate against the crowd around them because politics is not only a game of numbers but also of force, cash and being known in the streets and areas where angels fear to tread.

    The boys take care of the streets, while the men are in charge of the cash. But both of them work symbiotically for the common good of the candidate. The boys are expected to deliver the candidate when things are rough, the men are to provide the cash for them to do so. So, everything works together for the good of all.

    The 2023 election was none like any other before it. It was the first time a mass movement took over the political scene, using the social media as its weapon of campaign and mobilisation for former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi, who flew the presidential flag of the Labour Party (LP). The youths were in the vanguard of the movement which styled itself as Obi-dient. Some old people too joined the Obi-dients to drum up support for Obi, describing him as a fresh of breath air.

    Truth be told, there is nothing fresh about Obi as a person and a politician. He is part of the established system and has been a major beneficiary of it. The youths did not know this because they do not know the history of their country. Obi, sly and cunning as ever played on the ignorance of these youngsters, tagging along with them and carrying out their wish. They were strong, very strong in social media, but weak, very weak on the field – where elections are won and lost.

    Most of them do not have voters’ cards. Those who have do not know their polling unit. All the same, they contributed financially to Obi’s campaign. Sources said the donations fell like rain in pounds, dollars and euros from all corners of the world. But there was a snag. The management of the funds became an issue between Candidate Obi and the party. It was learnt that the new generation of Obi-dients did not want the old breed to touch the donations and it gave specific instructions to that effect.

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    After much rumination, Obi, who knows how to play this kind of games, immediately came up with a formula for managing the funds. Though the arrangement did not go down well with the party’s leadership, they went along with it since Obi was taking good care of them. The truth is now out, with the centre no longer holding between Obi and the party leadership. Embattled LP Chairman Julius Abure said  Obi settled for the loquacious Aisha Yesufu and Pastor Itua Ighodalo to manage his campaign funds. These patron saints of Obi are being called out today to account for the management of the funds.

    Obi and Abure were close until they fell out for reasons best known to them. Obi has now aligned with Abia State Governor Alex Otti, who has always maintained that he did not owe his election to the Obi-dients, as in the Obi factor, but won on his own steam having contested in the past on other platforms. Between them, they have sacked Abure as LP chairman, and put in place a caretaker committee headed by Senator Nenadi Usman. Abure is not ready to go down alone.

    He is pulling everything along his path down with him. The main targets are the managers of the party’s campaign funds. Abure has washed his hands of the management of the funds and called out Yesufu and Ighodalo to render accounts. Will the duo take up the challenge? Will Obi ask them to show transparency and openness, some of the attributes which he claimed will be the hallmarks of his administration if he won, by throwing his campaign books open for public scrutiny?

    The Abure challenge is an opportunity for Obi and his majordomos to show how clean and honest they are by living up to the creed that they hold the present administration to. The creed of accountability, responsibility, transparency, openness, simplicity, candour and truth. It is easy to see the moth in others eyes, while ignoring the log in yours. This is because criticism comes easy, but biting the bullet  is hard.

    Yesufu and Ighodalo have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to write their names in gold by rendering account of their management of the Obi/Datti Presidential Campaign Fund. Their stocks will rise if they do this, but if they do not, it will portray them as living a lie all these years. That they are not different from those they criticise. It is not a matter of asking anyone to go to court. If they have nothing to hide, they should simply do the needful, by coming out clean with the public on this matter. It is their party’s money, no doubt, but they should remember that it was donated by some people.

    It was funny watching Akin Osuntokun, the spokesman of the Obi/Datti Campaign on television on Wednesday, struggling to explain his role in the saga. Did he collect N600 million as alleged? All he needed to say was either yes or no. But he demurred. Instead, he went on rambling about how it pays the government to destabilise LP, which is the only party that can challenge it in 2027 . Is that the issue at stake? Nigerians are wiser than that. Nobody can pull the wool over their eyes on this matter.

  • Kukah’s faux pas

    Kukah’s faux pas

    Last Sunday at a security summit on the Edo State Governorship Election, which is 48 hours away, the Convener of the National Peace Committee, Bishop Matthew Kukah, claimed that President Bola Tinubu did not sign the peace accord in 2023, ahead of that year’s presidential election. He was trying to justify the action of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo that refused to sign the peace accord ahead of this Saturday’s poll. Other parties and their candidates signed.

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    Is it true that Tinubu did not sign the peace pact in 2023? No, it is not. He signed as shown in this above February 24, 2023 picture of the Vanguard newspaper. Pictures, they say, do not lie. Kukah is doing a sensitive job. So he should be careful not to send out the wrong signals with his remarks. May the Edo election be peaceful and may the best candidate win. Whether the winner is Ighodalo, or Senator Blessing Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress or Labour Party’s Olumide Akpata, what the people want is a good and empathetic governor.

  • Labour pain

    Labour pain

    From the word go, Labour Party (LP) was not a strong platform. Its strength is only in its name, no more, no less. Its promoters’ intention was and still is to ride on the back of workers to make it a popular bastion, just like the Solidarity Movement of Poland which brought Lech Walesa to power in Poland in 1990.

    Workers anywhere in the world are a formidable group. They are politically and socially aware more than any other segment of the society because of their pro-activism. Mark you, many of them may not be educated, but what they lack in learning, they have in abundance in self confidence and readiness to stand up for their right, even at the risk of death. This has always been the strength of labour, not its political sagacity.

    Fighting for workers’ right is not the same as the contest for political power. In the former, one is faced with a nucleus of people who knows where one stands and vice versa. That is a straight fight between employer and employee. Even at that, there are still some Uncle Toms who are ready to sell out and betray their colleagues for a mess of porridge from the master’s table. The latter is not that straightforward. The political field is filled with mines which must be circumvented to get to power. One cannot rely on a relative to achieve that, not to talk of a fellow worker.

    LP was founded in 2002 as Party for Social Democracy (PSD) before changing its name in 2003. It was created  with high hopes by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), which in the face of the prevailing political circumstance felt a need for a party with social leftist idea – in short a workers party – that will address the need of the hoi poloi. It has not been smoothsailing for the party from inception. LP has been moving from one leadership crisis to the other since birth 22 years.

    Contrary to its founders’ expectations, it has not flown the way they thought it would. Even some founders of the party abandoned the platform to contest election on the crest of other parties. This tells how confident they are in their own baby. The crisis dogging the party today can be traced to 2021 when Julius Abure, its then National Secretary, was elected as National Chairman through the instrumentality of NLC. Abure came into office following the death of his predecessor, Alhaji Abdulkadir Abdulsalam, in 2020. The former Deputy National Chairman, Calistus Okafor, who felt he should succeed Abdulsalam kicked, all to no avail. The crisis was suppressed, but it has now returned to haunt the party.

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    The owners of the party, NLC, have been pushing for Abure’s exit for months now, but the embattled chairman dug in, with a convention in Nnewi, Anambra State, in March where his mandate was renewed. He enjoyed the confidence of the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and its only governor, Alex Otti of Abia State, to entrench himself in office. Now, the chickens have come to roost. The love between Obi and Abure has gone sour, and Otti who hitherto was more or less seen as an outsider by the duo, seems to have now earned Obi’s trust.

    Though Otti’s deputy, Ikechukwu Emetu, superintended affairs at the Nnewi convention, it was crystal clear that the governor and Obi deliberately stayed away from the show in order not to offend the centrifugal forces that want Abure out at all costs. Abure’s calulation was that by slyly renewing his mandate as chairman he would have the party in his pocket. Things are not working out that way. The crisis is rather deepening than abating. To save the party from itself and the wrong path Abure is taking it, Otti, its sole governor, with Obi’s support convened a stakeholders meeting in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, on September 4. The meeting sacked the Abure-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the party and named a 29-member caretaker committee led by Mrs Nenadi Usman to replace it.

    Abure is figting back like a wounded lion. Just as he did when NLC started the campaign that he must go, Abure is not taking things lying low. He has broken ranks with Obi, his benefactor, arguing that the party has no national leader, a position hitherto unofficially perceived as Obi’s by virtue of his being LP’s standard-bearer in the 2023 presidential race. When the going was good, Abure had declared Obi as the party’s sole candidate for the 2027 presidential election. He has now, like the sole administrator of the party that he has become, withdrawn the ticket from Obi. Abure did not spare Otti either. He said the Abia governorship ticket was also open.

    With Obi and Otti now given the NLC treatment by Abure, the LP crisis has become worse. Abure, it seems, is only interested in remaining chairman, come what may, umindful of the consequences for the party. It is his selfishness that has brought LP to this pass. The pain the party is going through is self-inflicted. From all indications, LP has not become a party yet. Its leadership, and trustees, that is NLC, as well as candidates and elected public officers like Obi and Otti, treat it as a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to acquire power.

    LP will continue to run into crisis if its modus operandi remains unchanged. No serious party is left at the whims and caprice of political upstarts because they have deep pockets. It was by chance that LP came third in the last presidential election. The main factor for that surprise showing was the Obi-dient movement, a group of young and not-too-young Nigerians who desired a change for their country but placed their bet on the wrong horse. For LP, it is still raining, the downpour is coming. Mark my word.

  • The floods next time

    The floods next time

    The North has come under the siege of flood. Virtually every state in the region has experienced flooding. While those of us in the South are praying for rain, it is this same element of nature that is wreaking havoc in the North. As I watched the surging flood that submerged Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, on television on Tuesday, my heart went out to the victims of the disaster. Yes, it is a disaster.

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    Rain is supposed to be a blessing because when it falls it brings soothing relief to man and the environment. We cannot say that of what happened in Maiduguri; Jigawa and other northern states. The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) warns every year of flooding accompanying heavy rain, and the likelihood of the bursting of dams that should collect the rain water, but many states are still caught flatfooted when the disaster happens. What is the cause? Lack of planning for the predicted disaster? Or the refusal of the authorities to  institute long-term measures to avert the disaster?

    NIMET cannot be warning against the same thing year in, year out, only for the nation to be caught in the throes of disastrous flooding every rainy season. I watched with mouth agape as Vice President Kassim Shettima waded through flood, with his aides, to get to the palace of the Shehu of Borno, Abubakar Garba, to commiserate with him over the disaster. The government must act fast before flood wipes away some parts of the country.

  • DNA and the paternity show

    DNA and the paternity show

    Civilisation brought a lot of things in its wake, especially in Africa. The continent was and still is a place, where the people are their brothers and sisters keepers. They look out for one another whether or not they enjoy filial bond.

    Children grow up together under the same roof without drawing attention to who their biological father is. There is no need for that because children are seen as precious gifts from God to be cherished, loved and treated with care.

    Why bother over who the father is when every elder that is around whether known or unknown is considered as the father of a child. Father is called many endearing names. To some, he is Daddy or Baba, to others, he is Papa, and to people in the part of the country I come from, he is Abame. It is a name that every man loves to bear. At a certain stage in life, a man craves the title because of the prestige and honour it confers. Society also pressures him to make haste and become a father.

    Fathers are revered. They are treated as demi-gods. It is believed that they can do no wrong. In any gathering that they speak, people listen with rapt attention. ‘Dake, Baba n’soro’ (keep quiet father is speaking), those perceived as interrupting daddy when he is talking are told.

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    The African father takes the prize when it comes to fatherhood. Every child in the household is his. None is a bastard, that cursed word, which in recent times has scattered many homes in the wake of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) tests that are conducted to determine the paternity of a child. DNA is a molecule that contains the genetic code that is unique to every individual. Those days, even where it is common knowledge that a child is not sired by the father, the man takes the child as his and life goes on. These days people want to know the truth for certain reasons and many otherwise happy homes are the worse for it.

    In the good old days, people knew about certain things and kept the secrets to themselves for the good of all. Children are the heritage of God and the way they come to the world does not matter – the least of all being that they are sired by a man who had an affair with a married woman. Who cares? They wonder, adding: who knows what the child may become tomorrow? It is because of that pregnant tomorrow, which many no longer seem to care about today, that the child is not stigmatised. He is not seen as no less a member of the household because of the circumstances of his birth.

    There was a traditional way of determining the paternity of a child before the advent of DNA, but no family resorted to it because they saw no need for such a ‘test’ because of what it may expose. It was better to keep such issue within the family to avoid the shame that comes with knowing the truth. It is not today that men and women have been having extramarital affairs that resulted in babies.

    In the interest of all, the babies are protected to avoid a huge crisis. Today, this protection has been jettisoned by men who desire to know the truth in order to set their minds free! In most cases, the truth comes to light when they are planning to travel abroad in search of greener pastures. Whichever way the truth emerges, it leaves a sour taste in the mouth and a long-lasting bitterness against the offending party.

    The latest report on DNA Testing released by a firm whose record in this field is well known has again brought to the fore the issues surrounding the need for the test, especially for children who have lived for years with a father who has seen them through school as well as catered to their needs all their lives. Should a DNA test be allowed to disrupt such a happy home because of the escapades of the mother?

    Is the desire to go abroad worth all the trouble of having a DNA test that will destroy an age-old marriage and turn the lives of the children upside down? DNA is good, but its aftereffect seismic shocks are ill winds that blow no good. Serious considerations must be given to its dire consequences of destroying homes and separating grown children from a father they have known all their lives, who is now in his twilight years. How many men can live with the fact of knowing that the child they love so much is not biologically theirs?

    That man, I daresay, is not yet born. It is only a goat that learns of its impending death and still eats. It is a bitter pill to swallow. So, is it not better not to know the truth and live in peace than to know the truth and become a living dead? According to Smart DNA, paternity uncertainty remains high. It said 27 per cent of paternity tests came back negative.

    What this means is that more than one in four men tested were not the biological fathers of the children. The result is alarming. It shows that many married women are unfaithful. This damning report is an indictment of married women. What is the essence of being married, but going out with another man to the extent of having a child for him? The moral and social implications are incomprehensible.

    How will these mothers feel if their sons’ wives play the extramarital game that result in babies too? Will they find it in their hearts to forgive their daughters-in-law? DNA is a personal matter, with wide implications for the society. It must be handled with care and every sense of responsibility to avoid its debilitating consequences. After all, it is not the fault of the children, but of their mothers’ who chose to be unfaithful. The fear of DNA may yet deter other married women from engaging in away games.

  • Dangote breaks the mould!

    Dangote breaks the mould!

    On Tuesday, Dangote Refinery went to town about rolling out petrol, at long last. That same day, the pump price of petrol which shortage in the past few months has paralysed many parts of the country shot up from N568 to between N855 and N897 per litre at NNPC retail outlets. Many motorists had been buying at higher prices at private outlets, ever before the official hike.

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    As much as price matters, the major concerns of motorists is the availability of the product for which they have been keeping vigil at filling stations for weeks now. If Dangote can address the availability issue, and that at a modest price, it will be well and good. Nigerians have suffered enough for petrol and allied products.

  • Catch-22

    Catch-22

    The August 9 visit of the group known as The Patriots to President Bola Tinubu has since come and gone, but it left a lingering memory. The visit reopened the debate on the suitability of the 1999 Constitution. What is wrong with the Constitution, which has been amended five times since it came into being 25 years ago? In one of the amendments, the last before the one now being undertaken by the present National Assembly, which is constitutionally empowered to carry out the exercise, the lawmakers decentralised power generation and transmission which were hitherto the exclusive preserve of the central government.  

    With this fifth alteration to the Constitution, states can now generate and transmit power once the law is domesticated by their respective Houses of Assembly. What else is this if not restructuring, which is at the heart of the demand for a new constitution? To the champions of a new constitution, the 1999 Constitution is flawed because it erroneously states in its preamble: We the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria having firmly and solemnly resolved… do hereby make and give to ourselves the following Constitution.

    The statement, which they claim runs against the grain of constitution making and the one at the beginning of this piece cannot be read in isolation. It is a matter of fact that a committee was set up by the administration of former Head of State, Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar, to fashion a constitution for the country ahead of the return to democracy in 1999. The product of the committee’s work is this Constitution, which has been condemned on-and-off by any politician who finds himself at the wrong end of the political divide.

    Respected elder statesman, Chief Emeka Anyaoku is not a politician. He is an international civil servant with a rich pedigree. So, whenever he talks, we listen. Although he led The Patriots in whose rank are politicians who today claim to be non-partisan, on the visit to the Villa, he touched on the sensitive matter of “the people’s constitution” in his speech. According to him, “the challenges that we are currently facing are symptoms of the inappropriateness of the Constitution that we have at present”.

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    There is nothing new in the demand of The Patriots. The call for a new or ‘people’s constitution will not cease as long as there is the entity called Nigeria. It is the singsong of failed politicians, who after losing an election, launch a campaign for a new constitution as if that is the solution to their frequent failure at the polls. I am not wishing away the demand of The Patriots, I am just looking at its feasibility under constitutional democracy. Constitutions are not written or rewritten at will, especially where there is one already in existence.

    The implication of the call of The Patriots is that the 1999 Constitution or part of it would be dumped for a new constitution to be drafted by an elected constituent assembly of independent persons, and subjected to a national referendum so that at the end of the day, it can carry the seal of: ‘We the people’.  To them, that is when the constitution can be said to be legitimate.

    No matter where we stand today, Nigerians should never forget how the 1999 Constitution came about. It was as a result of the exigencies of the time – the incarceration of Bashorun Moshood Abiola, the winner of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election and his death in detention in 1998 – and the desire of Abdulsalami who succeeded the late Gen Sani Abacha not to stay in office a day longer than necessary.

     Abdulsalami did what he did in order to win public trust. Nigerians had already lost interest in the transition programmes midwifed at various times by Gen Ibrahim Babangida and Abacha and so Abdulsalami did not want to do anything to make the people doubt him. He spent 11 months in office and handed over power on May 29, 1999, exactly 24 days after the present Constitution came into being. He did not create the Constitution by military fiat, nor did his administration adopt the 1989 Constitution of the Babangida era, which from all indications Abacha was set to embrace to transmute to civilian president.   

    Aware that another delay in the transition process could result in turmoil, Abdulsalami fast tracked his exit from office, but not at the expense of doing things correctly. As if he knew a day like this will come, the constitution drafting committee went round the country and conducted public hearings and the people settled for the retention of the 1979 Constitution, with slight amendments. The 1979 Constitution was drafted by ‘49 wise-men’ led by the late Chief Rotimi Williams (SAN), the pioneer chairman of The Patriots. The draft was ratified by a constituent assembly comprising eminent persons, including Abiola, who made waves at the conference.

    It is an irony that it is this same constitution that Abiola participated in making and which the 1999 Constitution largely embodies that some people are describing as ‘defective’. Mercifully, there are provisions in the Constitution for curing its defects, if any. According to Section 9 thereof: The National Assembly may, subject to the provisions of this section, alter any of the provisions of this Constitution. Calling for a new constitution may look good, but what provisions of the 1999 Constitution will be suspended for the proposed constituent assembly to take off? What happens to the National Assembly and indeed, the other arms of government – executive and judiciary – if those portions are suspended? 

    Can we still boast of having a government, if confronted with this situation? The suspension of any portion of the Constitution to pave the way for the sitting of a constituent assembly will tantamount to the sacking of constitutional democracy. It will be a recipe for disaster for the National Assembly and the proposed constituent assembly to sit simultaneously. Nigeria cannot afford this. No matter how the argument is sugar-coated it cannot fly because of its inherent danger. The Constitution has more than a million ways to amend it. Let us play by the rules and not bend them because of certain interests.

    If the 1999 Constitution is a military creation, why then are many enamoured of its forerunner, the 1979 Constitution, which took root from it and was also midwifed by the armed forces? What is sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander.