The Nation Newspaper

Category: Lawal Ogienagbon

Much ado about nothing

The media worldwide walks a tight-rope. It must be thorough and painstaking in the discharge of its duty. It cannot afford to leave anything to chance because a mistake, no matter how little, can be costly. Such a costly mistake can cause discontent in the land. So, a medium must check, check and cross-check its facts before publishing. You do not publish first, and fact-check (as they call it these days) later.

The rule of thumb is you do not rush to publish a story no matter how hot it is for fear of being beaten to it by the competition so as to avoid giving untenable reasons later for your action. No paper worth its salt would run a story with distorted and disjointed facts just to get at the government of the day. The media and the government are neither friends nor enemies. They are more of partners in progress for the sake of their country. The media can be critical, which it should be anyway, of the government without being destructive.

It is constructive criticism that elevates a nation. To tell it as it is so that the government can get a feel of what is really happening in the larger society. The 1999 Constitution mandates the media to hold the government accountable to the people. To discharge this mandate, the media must first show itself worthy of taking up this responsibility. The media must therefore be deep and sombre. It cannot just pick a story and run with it, especially when the report is even contradicting itself, like the Samoa Agreement stuff ran by Daily Trust on July 4. As colleagues, let us tell ourselves the same truth that we always want to hold the government to.

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There was no story in that story. It was just written to paint the government in bad light. The question any right-thinking person will then ask is why? Why will a paper that parades itself as the voice of the north run a story that it knows can lead to mayhem in the same region? Was it done so that the north will erupt in violence? What will it gain if that happens? Media work goes beyond having a good story, that is where the story is really good, it has to do more with the handling of such a story. Where a story is even good but can cause a crisis, a matured editor is expected to weigh things and make a reasonable decision in such circumstance.

An editor who knows his onions will consider national security paramout in the circumstance and do the needful. The media is not expected to be at war with the government for no other reason than it does not like the face of those running it. Should we throw the baby away with bath water all because some people have their own agenda of not seeing anything good in what the government does? Contrary to Daily Trust’s claim in its report, there is nowhere in the Samoa Agreement which states that the right of LGBTQ+ is recognised. Its report contradicted itself. On one hand, the paper claimed that the agreement contained clauses that recognised LGBTQ+ right, and on the other, it ran two clauses which negated that claim.

So, did the editors not see these contradictions when they read the story? Why will a paper in one breathe make a claim and in another repudiate that claim? It seemed the story was just slammed in the paper without being edited. The paper was even cautioned by some people it spoke to that the said LGBTQ+ clauses were not in the agreement. It ignored those voices of reason because it was working towards an answer. And that is to embarrass the government and set the country on fire. In a country where LGBTQ+ right is not recognised, what do you expect if fundamentalists read such a story?

They will go on the rampage, demanding the non-implememtation of the agreement, which in fact does not contain those contentious clauses. What Daily Trust did was to get unsuspecting respondents to react to a non-existing story in order to incite the public against the government. No responsible medium does that. Why will a paper make a false claim? What does it mean by “the agreement reportedly has some clauses that compel underdeveloped and developing nations to support the agitations by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer community for recognition, as condition for getting financial and other supports from advanced societies”?

Can it reconcile the above statement with another one credited to a top official of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs in the same report, to wit, “the 403-page document containing 104 articles given to the legal director of NSCIA contains no same-sex marriage”. Despite efforts by Bolaji Adebiyi who works with Budget Minister Atiku Bagudu to correct the wrong impression the paper has about the agreement, it ignored him. Daily Trust chose to believe a misleading article by a lawyer who only knows the agenda he is pushing.

Should Daily Trust have allowed itself to be led by the nose? Well, it is hoped that it has learnt a big lesson from this and will do everything to avert a recurrence. I am still wondering what the paper wss up to, considering that the Articles 2.5 and 29.5 of the agreement, which it quoted in its story also did not say anything about LGBTQ+ right. Where did it get the non-existing LGBTQ+ clauses from? Its fertile imagination? Sorry, Daily Trust, journalism is more than that. You do not rely on a lie sold by a disgruntled element with an ax to grind with government to write such a sensitive story.

The paper has done the right thing after its initial bluffing, by apologising for bringing our noble profession to such an all-time low in recent times.

July 11, 2024
The Diezani love story

In the charged atmosphere that we now find ourselves as a nation, there is nothing good like a love story to soothe the nerves. A story of two persons who are madly in love with each other. A love story is a love story whether it has gone sour or not.

But a sweet love story is much more better. The love story of Diezani has brought a comic relief of sorts to the tension in the land. We all know Diezani, whether she tags that name with Alison-Madueke or her nee, Agama, will not detract from the recognition she gets when you hear the name.

Diezani, the one and only Diezani for any other one is a counterfeit is embroiled in a marital dispute with her ex, Rear Admiral Alison Madueke, who is a former Chief of Naval Staff. Their love story started way back in the nineties and culminated in marriage on June 30, 1999, according to papers filed in court by the former naval boss, who is praying that she stopped using his name.

Until now, many never knew that they were no longer married. Their love story was thought to be still as hot as it was when they first met. Their marriage broke down in 2015 when they stopped living together after Diezani moved abroad shortly after the Jonathan administration was ousted in that year’s election. In law, co-habitation is a good ground for dissolving a marriage.

It has been nine years since Diezani fled abroad, where a renowned journalist-politician once reported that she was undergoing cancer treatment. That lie of a story has since been punctured for what it was – a PR stuff to save the beautiful face of Diezani who is being tried at home and in London for corruption. Her trial is the main reason why the patent owner of the name Alison-Madueke wants her to stop using it as her last name.

Revert to your maiden name of Agama, he tells his estranged wife. When a love story goes sour it takes everything down with it. The relationship, the name, the property become crippled. Even the family on both sides suffers one way or the other. Alison-Madueke and Diezani are no longer married. The marriage, according to him, was dissolved by a Nasarawa State High Court in 2022 on the strength of a petition by his former wife.

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If Diezani went to court to dissolve her marriage, why then is she still keeping her husband’s name? If she wants to retain the name, why did she sue for divorce? She cannot have her cake and eat it. She must choose one. Either to eat the cake or to have it. She has made her choice and so she should live with it by returning the name Alison-Madueke to the rightful owner. She has her own name Agama to return to and she should do that speedily.

The court did not say she should keep her husband’s name after dissolving the marriage in 2022, with a decree nisi (interim dissolution until the affected party, within a specified time, shows why it should be set aside). The decree has since become absolute by the force of law since Alison-Madueke never sought to set it aside. In fact, Alison-Madueke never contested the petition. He allowed Diezani to have her way. Divorce she wanted and divorce she got. Now, Alison-Madueke too wants his name back. Why is that hard for Diezani, who went to court to dissolve the marriage, to do?

In the eyes of the law, Diezani is no longer Alison-Madueke’s wife. This is why the retired naval chief is bringing a petition for jactitation of marriage. In essence, he is accusing Diezani of falsely alleging that she is married to him. He is therefore praying the court to perpetually restrain her from making such claims. Where will Diezani hide under the law to stop her estranged husband from having his way?

Love is sweet when the going is good. When the going gets tough and rough, love becomes like a cactus that tears at the flesh and every other thing that the lovers once held dear. Love and life have happened to Diezani. Not all love stories end well. It must be remembered though that she wrote the script of the ending of of her marriage when she went to court in 2021 and got a favourable judgment in 2022.

Alison-Madueke is only paying her back in her own coin. She cannot deep her feet inside water and be complaining of cold. She cannot with one hand drive her husband away and with the other insist on retaining the same man’s name. They are no longer one; they have become two different persons, just as they were before marriage in 1999. Diezani is no longer the bone of Alison-Madueke’s bones.

She wanted out and she got out of the marriage. So, she should also let the man go with his name. As Shakespeare asked rhetorically in his play – Romeo and Juliet -”What is in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet”. Agama may not sound the same as Alison-Madueke, but it is still a name. Diezani should revert to her father’s name. At the end of the day, we will all bear our fathers’ names.

July 4, 2024
Criminal act, muted reaction

It was pure luck that he came out of the awful plot to let him rot in jail or ki. He was shaken and traumatised by the incident, but his consolation is that he lives to tell the story. Some before him were not that lucky. They died in the process and were entombed with the stigma of being sexual predators.

Rev Israel Kristilere was spared that kind of disgrace by divine intervention. The plot was well hatched, with members of the Egyptian security forces at the Cairo International Airport involved in its execution. Every stage of the plot was well rehearsed and choreographed. There was to be no room of escape for their victim, as the noose was tightened around his neck.

But the criminals failed to reckon with divine intervention. Except the Lord builds the house, we are told, they labour in vain that build it; except the Lord keeps the city, the watchman wakes in vain. Kristilere relived his harrowing experience in a video that went viral earlier in the month. Before I saw the video, I had heard the story from one of his friends, Rev Biodun Okunade (JP) of the Christ Apostolic Miracle Centre (CAMC) Lagos.

His narration was not different from Kristilere’s account as reported by this paper on June 8. The reverend gentleman was on his way to Amman, Jordan when he fell into the hands of a band of criminals operating as security and other related officials at the Cairo International Airport. Now, an international airport indicates a place that is safe and secure. An haven of peace and quiet where passengers from all parts of the world can relax and feel at home.

Kristilere and his entourage were on stopover at the airport en route Amman. He was with a woman pilgrim at one of the airport’s lounges, having a deserved rest and chatting with the lady pending the time for the continuation of their journey. He was at the head of a 28-pilgrim delegation. He did not just start this business of taking people on pilgrimage and back through his outfit, Oasis of Faith International Limited.

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To him, the journey was in line of duty. The other pilgrims had gone their different ways in twos, threes and ones, exploring the airport and the environs, but with their eyes on the scheduled time for the resumption of their flight. The time finally came and the drama started. As boarding of passengers began, Kristilere and the woman were ignored. Apparently worried, Mrs Chinyere Ofoha, who witnessed everything asked her pastor why they were not being attended to.

Just like her, Kristilere did not know. All he could do was to approach the so-called airport officials over the matter. He was told that they would soon be attended to. But in a jiffy, no fewer than 15 people described as policemen by Ofoha arrived and asked Kristilere to move out of the queue and stand aside. Why? She asked and one of the men said he ‘does not speak English’. She knew immediately that something was wrong.

She was ignored despite her insistence on speaking with an official that understands English. The officials comprising men and women were acting a script. She and her pastor did not know this. These criminals single out a passenger at random, detain him on flimsy grounds and extort money from him. Where he cannot pay his way out, he ends up in jail. On this fateful day, they picked on the wrong target. But they succeeded in harassing and tormenting him for hours.

It is worrisome that an international airport like that of Cairo is unsafe. At such airports when passengers sight uniformed officials, it is an assurance that they are safe and will come to no harm. A passenger is digging his own grave, if he sights a policeman or any other uniformed personnel at the Cairo International Airport and he does not ‘pick race’, to borrow a local parlance. Kristilere was saved by the pilgrims in his entourage who stood their grounds of not boarding their flight until they see their pastor.

It was their indomitable spirit and the grace of God that saved the day. But should the matter die like that? Why are the appropriate authorities in Nigeria and Egypt not speaking on the matter? It is a shame that a Nigerian cleric will be so shabbily treated abroad and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will act mute. It is not a time for silence, but a time to speak – loud and clear – so that no nation on earth will treat any Nigerian like a scum when passing through their countries.

Indeed, as the man of God’s name implies, to serve the Lord is gain. May He continue to save His own from the snare of the fowler and any planned reputation destruction.

June 27, 2024
Spinning out of control

In Rivers, it is now one day, multiple challenges. It was bound to get to that; it was just a matter of time. When the rift between Governor Siminilayi Fubara and his predecessor and benefactor, Nyesom Wike, broke out some eight months ago, it was clear that it was going to be a fight to the finish, as both men were far gone in their disagreement. Why did they disagree so early in their political union? Is there something between them that we do not know that is behind all this?

Fubara was expected to be Wike’s eyes and ears after he came to office on May 29, last year, because of the role the now Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister played in his election as governor. This is not the first time that we will be witnessing a fight between a political godfather and his godson, but the relationship between Wike and Fubara was not expected to go sour so soon. It has not only gone sour, it is threatening the fabric of society.

From all indications, the governor is ready to go for broke. The way he speaks and conducts himself portrays him as a belligerent. The row over the tenure expiration or otherwise of the 23 local government chairmen in the state was a contrivance aimed at throwing the state deeper into morass. The governor has a hand in it; it is of his making in order to cause crisis in the state. He knew that the local government chairmen’s tenure was going to lapse on June 17. What did Fubara and the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) do to conduct government election before the expiration of the tenure of the council chiefs?

They deliberately kept quiet on the issue since they knew where they were going. It is worth restating that the local government is not an appendage of the state government, just as the latter is not a branch of the Federal Government. But unlike the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which has been up and doing in conducting elections at the expiration of the tenure of the four-year tenure of the President and governors, the same cannot be said of the state independent electoral commissions. Despite their so-called independence, the SIECs wait on the governors before they act. Without funding by the governors, they cannot discharge their functions.

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So, RSIEC could not conduct local government election as it is mandated to do by the Constitution because it did not have the resources to do so at the time of the expiration of the chairmen’s tenure. The conduct of elections costs money whether at the council, state or federal level. By deliberately starving the RSIEC of funds, Fubara knew that there was nothing the commission could do about the election. What made matters worse was the fact that many of the council chiefs were loyalists of Wike, his estranged political father.

How then will he fund RSIEC to conduct an election that he was not sure of winning? To conduct the election, he must first have his own people in place and this is what he has done by purportedly appointing those he can trust as caretaker council chairmen. The question is: does he have the power to do so? The answer is NO, constitutionally speaking. But his backers, whether old or young, hate to hear that. Their response to that question has always been there is nothing new in what Fubara is doing. But does that make it right? The answer again is NO. What is their position, as Lord Denning, Master of the Rolls, would ask?

It is that similar things were done by some governors in the past. We shall never grow as a nation if we did something wrong in the past and still want to stand by it. It is better to learn from that mistake and move forward so that democracy can thrive.

Fubara’s appointment of caretakers for the councils cannot stand and hopefully, the courts would not mince words in saying so. A governor who delights in stoking controversies and standing by thugs has no place in our democracy. He has shown the kind of person he is. As a governor, Fubara should be thinking of how to find work for the youths who thronged the councils, wielding all kinds of weapons, under the guise of stopping the chairmen from accessing their offices because their tenure has expired. If their tenure has really expired, is it cudgel-brandishing youths that will be deployed in the council secretariats to debar the chairmen from entering their offices?

Whoever wishes to arrest his supporters, indirectly referring to these unruly youths, Fubara says, will have to pass through him. Does he know the implication of his statement? Is he supporting thuggery and hooliganism, all because he wants to stop his political opponents, at all costs, from gaining the upper hand? I do not blame him. If only the police had acted faster than they did, many of those jobless youths would have been flushed out of the council secretariats long before they wreaked havoc there.

With the police now in control of the council secretariats, there is law and order. But the nation awaits the Court of Appeal to bring sanity to the state as it today adjudicates on one of the many cases between Fubara and the 27 lawmakers who extended the council chairmen’s tenure by six months, in the first place. To suit his purpose, he is upholding a high court order voiding the extension, as well as complying with the resolutions of the minority three lawmakers who have approved his list of caretaker chairmen.

He has hurriedly sworn in the caretakers in breach of Section 7 (1) of the Constitution which guarantees a democratically elected local government council, with the government of every state, subject to Section 8, ensuring their existence under a law which provides for the establishment, structure, composition, finance and functions of such councils. No matter what, the courts will yet save the day.

June 20, 2024
June 12 and legacy of judicial rascality

What do you remember June 12 for? Many Nigerians remember the date for different reasons. The most memorable thing about it though is the annulment of the presidential election held on that day, 31 years ago.
It was 1993 and the nation was doubling down for the winding down of the Babangida junta. The regime had time and again tinkered with its transition programme which remains the longest in the nation’s history. The June 12, 1993 presidential poll was to end it all! It was a straight contest between Bashorun M.K.O Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Alhaji Bashir Tofa of the National Republic Convention (NRC).
Everything was set for the election and it appeared that no Jupiter could stop it. The nation and its people had become weary of Gen Ibrahim Babangida and could no longer wait for him to go. Years before the election, the media and the people had mounted a campaign, asking him to quit. ‘Go, IBB go’ was the refrain everywhere and some sections of the media paid dearly for their audacity. Yet, the media did not give up. To ensure that IBB did not give another excuse as he did in the past for not going as he promised in 1990, they found a way of managing him until the election was held.
Unknown to the public, there was yet a booby-trap somewhere. An amorphous group, Association for Better Nigeria (ABN), believed to have his backing was working behind the scenes to stop the election through the instrumentality of the judiciary. The role the judiciary played in the June 12 saga can never be forgotten. If the judiciary had lived up to its billing as the last hope of the common man, perhaps it would have saved the country from IBB’s shenanigans.

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The judiciary failed and threw the nation into a costly political venture from which it has yet to recover. Forget the fact that we are in a democracy which incredibly has been unbroken for 25 years, our longest romance ever with democratic governance. The judiciary allowed itself to be used to kill the June 12 election in defiance of the law that no court can enquire into the poll. This ouster clause was inserted in the law to stop mischievous politicians from using the court to scuttle the transition programme.
Led by Abimbola Davies, with the maverick Arthur Nzeribe behind him, ABN got a nocturnal interim injunction on the eve of the poll to stop the June 12 election. The order was obtained from the court in a manner that left many Nigerians wondering why on earth a judge, who like Caesar’s wife should be above board, would lend herself to such a dubious enterprise.
Interim injunctions are not granted as of right. The applicant must show that his right would be injured irreparably if it is not granted. How will the rights of ABN and Davies that were not candidates in the June 12 election be damaged irreparably if the poll was held? Who will suffer more damage, if the election was not held – the applicants or the country? Justice Bassey Ikpeme did not take all these into consideration before granting the applicants’ request, setting the stage for a political crisis of monumental dimension.
The electoral umpire, Prof Humphrey Nwosu, after consultation with IBB, said the election would hold as scheduled. Politicians too did not sit idly by. In no time, they were getting orders from separate high courts of coordinate jurisdiction. A court in Sokoto will stop the election and another in Ondo will direct that it should go on. The conflicting orders confused things the more. Disorder became the order of the day in an otherwise orderly institution where issuing orders is the norm.
At a point, the Court of Appeal became part of the mess. This is a court that should correct the wrongs of the lower court. Up till today, conflicting orders by courts of concurrent jurisdiction have painfully become part of our electoral and other legal jurisprudence. Federal and state high courts compete with each other to give conflicting orders, behaving as if all is well. This legacy handed down by the Bassey Ikpemes of this world in 1993 must be destroyed before it damages the judiciary.
Today, Kano and Rivers states are theaters of judicial somersaults as a result of the conflicting orders emanating from some high courts there. The cases involving the Rivers State House of Assembly and the Governor Siminalayi Fubara-led executive and the Kano Emirate tussle have further exposed the judiciary for what it is and has been since the June 12 debacle. The abuse of interim orders has become an albatross around the neck of high courts despite repeated warnings against the frivolous granting of the injunction.
Judges have ignored the warnings without suffering any consequences. Why then will they not continue to abuse it? Chief Justice of Nigeria ((CJN) Kayode Ariwoola has a major task to redress the situation before he leaves in August, which is just two months away. Judges of concurrent jurisdiction cannot continue to issue conflicting interim orders as if one injunction will cancel out the other. The judges are equal in rank and so one cannot override the other. This abuse of interim orders must stop, especially where a court does not have the jurisdiction to handle a case.
Jurisdiction goes to the root of a matter. It is trite that an order granted by a court without jurisdiction is made in vain. The order is null and void ab initio. But it is not the duty of a coordinate court to correct the ‘error’ by issuing the ‘appropriate’ order. The first court can correct itself by vacating the order when the other party comes before it or better still the respondent takes the matter to a higher court. Justice Ariwoola may not have the time for a comprehensive reform of the justice sector as former head of state Gen Sani Abacha did in the wake of the June 12 logjam in 1993.
But he can ensure that erring judges are properly disciplined to deter others. It is of no use giving them a mere slap on the wrist and asking them to go and sin no more. They will commit more sins because there is no deterrence! As the nation celebrated another June 12 anniversary yesterday, what should be uppermost in the minds of the judiciary is the destruction of this unenviable legacy of judicial rascality. The Presidency too has a role to play in reforming the sector.
It has started by increasing the pay of judges by over 300 percent. It should go further by cleansing the Augean stable, through the office of the justice minister. Abacha did a good job through the Eso Justice Sector Reform Panel. Unfortunately, the panel’s report never saw the light of day. We need a stronger judiciary for democracy to thrive and a more orderly society. If this can be done, we would have removed a major factor that caused the June 12 crisis, and MKO and other martyrs will smile in their graves.

June 13, 2024
Attention seekers

It shall be the duty of every citizen to – abide by this Constitution, respect its ideals and its institutions, the National Flag, the National Anthem, the National Pledge, and legislative authorities

– Section 24 (a) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended)

THIS provision of the Constitution is explicit and unambiguous. Written in plain English, as the Supreme Court will say, and not Greek, its meaning should not be lost on any citizen. It is the duty of all Nigerians, who know themselves as true citizens to respect the National Anthem as stipulated by the Constitution. There is no room for any disrespect. It is not a matter of choice, either. It is an obligation.

Whether or not any Nigerian likes the National Anthem is secondary. Your dislike of the anthem is no excuse for disrespecting it. Even Donald Trump, as unconventional as he is, appreciates the value of a National Anthem. He was unsparing of his compatriots who resorted to kneeling whenever the American National Anthem was recited in protest against racial discrimination in sports. The protesters, he said, should be kicked out of the stadium.

I am not a fan of the former American president, but I share his sentiments about a nation’s anthem. The National Anthem is at the core of a country’s being. It is at once music and at the same time, the defining essence of a country. Whenever the National Anthem is recited, especially at international forums, a citizen’s head swells with pride and (s)he sings along as it blares from the speakers strategically placed at the venue.

When your compatriot wins a gold medal at the Olympics and (s)he is called out to be decorated, you also rise wherever you are in the world in honour of the National Anthem as it is rendered because of an outstanding performance and the glory brought to the country by the athlete. It is this same National Anthem that some people have decided to treat with disdain because it has been changed from Arise, O compatriots, Nigeria’s call obey… to the old one: Nigeria, we hail thee, our own dear native land…

The National Assembly, in its wisdom, passed the bill reverting to the old National Anthem and it was duty signed into law by President Bola Tinubu, who has not hidden his love for the anthem. Perhaps, it is because of this love that his arch political foes are not happy with what the lawmakers did. As we all know, it is the duty of the National Assembly to pass laws for the country. It may not always be right in what it does, but the remedy is not in disobeying the laws it passes.

The lawmakers took the action despite the advice of no less a person than Attorney-General of the Federation and Justice Minister Lateef Fagbemi (SAN). At the public hearing preceding the passing of the bill, Fagbemi urged the lawmakers not to pass it through legislative fiat, but to carry Nigerians along in order to get their “buy in”. He added: “In some cases, the National Anthem emerges from open national competition among interested citizens. In other instances, the proposed National Anthem is subjected to plebiscite or referendum, before its eventual adoption or declaration… to ensure that it meets the people’s collective aspirations and suits their contemporary socio-political conditions.

“I am of the considered opinion that the revered issue of choice of a national anthem should not come into being only by legislative fiat or presidential proclamation alone”. Fagbemi had his say, the lawmakers had their way. Others now kicking against the reversion to the old National Anthem should have toed Fagbemi’s line by going to that public hearing so as to be on record as being opposed to what the lawmakers were doing. They chose to complain after the fact. What will this achieve? Nothing. Instead of being methodical too, they have resorted to their old ways of seeking cheap publicity.

The complaints of people like a former minister of the Federal Republic, Oby Ezekwesili, and her co-traveller Aisha Yesufu, will make more meaning if they follow the law. The National Assembly has done its work and they can do theirs too by challenging the National Anthem for Nigeria, and for Matters Related Act in court as a group of lawyers plans to do. Disrespecting the National Anthem by not standing up whenever it is being recited is not the way out. I expect someone like Ezekwesili to school Yesufu thoroughly on the steps to take and not to hail her disrespectful act to the National Anthem.

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Any show of disrespect to the National Anthem by anyone, no matter their grievances, is our collective shame. It portrays us as people who do not cherish national values of which our Anthem is a symbol. Yesufu and Ezekwesili can protest as much as they like, but they should not bring disgrace to Nigeria in the process. Their disrespect to the National Anthem is not a slight and a veiled attack on the person and Office of the President. It speaks more about them and their character.

They should stop politicising everything. If they want to be honest with themselves, they will admit that Yesufu looked out of place in the video-clip of the event where she sat while others stood in respect for the National Anthem. She was fidgety; fiddling with her phone and a copy of the programme as true citizens of this country rose while the National Anthem was being recited.

It is not too late for her to retrace her steps or pay for breaching the constitutional provision on the National Anthem. Well, come to think of it, it may even be better to ignore her and not to look her way, just as those in that video with her did.

June 6, 2024
Silver jubilee, silver lining

Understandably, the Tinubu administration which turned one yesterday did not roll out the carpet to celebrate. It is not for want of what to celebrate. Its action is in accord with the nation’s mood. Nigeria is bleeding from years of mismanagement and poor leadership and the followership and leadership have to carry the can for this. The masses have unfortunately borne the brunt. They remain haggard and hungry-looking where those they voted into power look robust, fresh and well-fed.

Whether in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which ran the country for 16 years from 1999 to 2015 or the All Progressives Congress (2015 to date), the fate of the common man has always been the same. They make sacrifice for their country, while their leaders consume the offering rituals without any consequence. Are we not told that those who eat the rituals offered to the gods will face dire punishment? We have never seen this happen, except in folk tales .

Ordinarily, the nation should be agog now, celebrating 25 years of its return to democracy in 1999, but for the prevailing economic situation.

Notwithstanding the gloom, the day could not just come and go like that. So, the National Assembly, the bastion of democracy marked the silver anniversary with pomp and ceremony yesterday, with President Bola Tinubu, who was a senator in the short lived Third Republic between 1991 and 1993, addressing a joint sitting of the Senate and House of Representatives. It is not often that the President addresses such a joint session. He does so only when extremely necessary.

That we are celebrating 25 years of unbroken democracy for the first time in the annals of Nigeria is something to crow about, but it is sad that majority of the people cannot really point at anything to be proud of about civil government. We are quick to say that leadership has failed the country, but as followers are we not complicit? A country gets the type of leaders it wants, so goes the saying. It is believed that the people have consistently voted for the same set of people since 1999, though parties may differ.

Yes, it has been 25 years of democracy, but as a colleague said in the course of our conversation, ‘man mi, it is not how far, but how well?’ How has democracy impacted the lives of the people? Are they better off today than they were under the military? We may be enjoying our freedom which was fettered under the military. But as the same colleague noted: ‘how free really are we?’ ‘Look around you and see what is happening; many of our colleagues are being abducted under the guise of arrest for doing their job’. ‘Should this be happening in a democracy?’

Indeed, a lot still has to be done to make democracy work for all. According to Abraham Lincoln, ‘democracy is the government of the people, by the people and for the people’. So, the people must be at the centre of democratic governance. It must not only be about the leaders and their welfare.

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The National Assembly’s celebration of 25 years of democracy is good, but it failed to address the place of the people. For too long, those in power have placed emphasis on themselves without a thought for the masses. As representatives of the people who are their constituents, lawmakers owe it a duty to correct this anomaly.

We can only celebrate democracy where the people are in the mix; where they are not, there is nothing to gloat about. A democracy where the followers are famished but the leaders are rotund was not the democracy we envisaged when the military was leaving in 1999.

All the talks about ‘reflections’ by past National Assembly leaders, David Mark (Senate) and Femi Gbajabiamila (House of Representatives) and former Head of State Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar will only have meaning if the gains of democracy reflect in the people’s lives. All these will be baloney, if fuel, electricity, food, security, gainful employment, healthcare and education remain a mirage to the common man.

Despite all the misgivings, I remain optimistic about the future. There is a silver lining in the cloud amid the renewed hope agenda of the government. May our democracy endure.

May 30, 2024
Our judges have gone gaga again!

What IS happening in Kano is sickening. It all began last Thursday when the House of Assembly dissolved the five emirates in the ancient city created by the immediate past administration of Abdullahi Ganduje. His successor Abba Yusuf immediately signed the bill into law, ending the four-year tenure of the Emir of Kano, Aminu Ado Bayero, the main target of the repealed law and the four other emirs who emerged from the balkanised Kano Emirate. Yusuf immediately brought back Muhammadu Sanusi as Kano emir. Sanusi has since taken over the Rumfa Palace; Bayero is in Nasarawa, which hosts what has been described as a mini palace.

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The courts have waded in the matter giving conflicting orders which have complicated issues. A court restrained the governor from sacking Bayero and others; another of coordinate power gave its own order endorsing his action to dissolve the five emirates. The dingdong has continued with both parties going to the courts of their choice to obtain orders favourable to them.

The courts are supposed to know better than to indulge the parties. But, rather than do what is right and proper, they are wittingly giving conflicting orders. Why are some of our judges like this, despite all the warnings about the use and abuse of interim injunctions? It is only trite for a judge not to give an interim order where one has already been granted by his brother-judge, whether or not the first judge was right to do so. No interim injunction by one judge can cancel the other by his brother-judge since they are of equal status. These judges should stop giving the judiciary a bad name and halt this madness, which all started in 1993, now!

May 30, 2024
Territorial gain on Tinubu’s call

What happened in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on May 14 went largely unnoticed because its significance was lost on a section of the media. Elsewhere, such ceremonies are celebrated with pomp and panoply, with the media in the front row, covering the event. As a result of the media freeze, the citizens have been kept in the dark about it. Up till now, it has not been a hot topic for discussion on television channels that take delight in tearing the President apart. Let them tear this issue apart now and not the person of the President.

Make no mistakes about it; it was an historic event. An event that happens not quite often but once in a while because of the rigorous process involved for any nation desirous of getting additional maritime boundaries.

At the State House in Abuja that bright and sunny Tuesday, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who clocks one in office in six days time, walked tall as he received the report on the extension of the country’s maritime boundary by the United Nations from the Ambassador Hassan Tukur-led High Powered Presidential Committee (HPPC) on Nigeria’s Extended Continental Shelf Project. Marine and Blue Economy Minister Gboyega Oyetola was there.

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No nation wishes to lose any part of its territory. They want to gain more whether in wartime or peacetime. Nigeria knows how painful it is to lose part of its territory. Till today, it has yet to recover from the loss of the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsular to Cameroun. Fate has decided to compensate Nigeria for that loss, with the extension of its maritime boundaries in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The territorial gain could not have come at a better time than now that the Tinubu administration is planning to celebrate its first year in office. There is no anniversary gift better than the extension of Nigeria’s maritime boundaries by 200 nautical miles. The extension is the outcome of a five-year project. In 2019, Nigeria applied to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) to extend its continental shelf.

During the presentation of the committee’s report to Tinubu, a member and marine scientist, Prof Larry Awosika, said the UN has approved Nigeria’s submission and granted it sovereignty over additional square kilometres of maritime territory. “As it stands now, the area approved for Nigeria is about 16,300 square kilometres, which is about five times the size of Lagos State”, Aliyu Omar, a surveyor and secretary of the HPPC, said.

The granting of a country’s request for an extension of its continental shelf is not a given. It must be backed by hard facts and geographical data. Without such a strong proof, the requesting country will only be fishing in troubled maritime waters. All nations guard jealously their territories and the abutting body of waters, which in most cases is full of natural and maritime resources. The aquatic life underneath the waters hold a lot of economic benefits for a nation’s development and growth.

All that is required is to explore these enormous resources for the betterment of the country. Many African countries, however, fail in this regard because of the lack of capacity to explore and use these resources for their turnaround, thereby leaving the highly lucrative cabotage and maritime industry to foreigners. This is a subject for another day.

For now, the extension of Nigeria’s continental shelf at a time like this raises hope of a brighter future. It is portentous that it came amid preparations for the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the return to democary and the first year in office of the President.

There is a reason, time and season for everything. Why the extension was granted in the life of this administration will be made manifest in a matter of time. A gain in territory for Nigeria in this shark-infested world is therefore not a small deal. Nations fight for additional territory in their bid for expansion because of the human and economic potential. In the course of the fight, millions are killed, maimed or rendered homeless and become unwanted settlers in faraway land.

The President put it better when he received the HPPC members: “Nigeria is grateful for the efforts that you put into gaining additional territory for the country without going to war. Some nations went to war, lost people and economic opportunities. We lost nothing but have gained great benefits for the country”. The challenge is in making these benefits go round. As the President often says, the people come first in whatever he does. Surely, under him, the people will reap the benefits of this territorial gain, which the National Boundary Commission (NBC) Director-General Adamu Adaji describes as “a significant achievement” for the present administration.

Congratulations, Nigeria.

May 23, 2024
Bare-knuckle

While in government, I had a problem. I had a Federal Government that was hostile to me, did we not succeed? They are giving excuses. If you know, you know. When somebody cannot do something, say you cannot do it – Wike

I heard somebody saying when we came on board, we were fighting the Federal Government. The Federal Government did not use any instrument in your state to frustrate you… the rat in the house is eating the bag of garri – Fubara

LET us make no pretence about it. Wike and Fubara are far gone in their battle. The godfather and the godson have been hurling words coded and uncoded at each other without let or hindrance. At any given opportunity, they fire missiles at themselves unmindful of the damage. Their aides too are joined in the battle speaking for and supporting their respective masters.

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When will the feud end? Will it ever end? In altercations like this, the end is always unknown. As they say, watchers only know the beginning, the end is in the womb of time. As the war of words rages between the gladiators, the collateral damage being done to political institutions cannot be quantified. Damaged political relationship can be rebuilt, but same cannot be said of destroyed political structures and infrastructure.

A major political institution – the Rivers State House of Assembly – built and furnished with millions of tax payers money has already taken a hit from the fighters’ fusillades. The rubbles of the complex remain an eyesore till today, more than seven months after its demolition. There is a clear and present danger that another structure may also go down. The police swift action may have, for now, saved the legislators’ quarters from being demolished following Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s surprise visit to what he called “my property”.

He might have used the word casually since he as governor of the state, is the custodian of everything therein, including the dwellers. Fubara may be governor, but he is not God that he should arrogantly arrogate to himself the power of ownership of the state he governs as well as the people and properties therein. There should be a limit to arrogance because power is transient.

The Wike-Fubara feud should be another case study for political scientists in their relentless search for why godfathers and godsons part ways so soon after the latter come into power. From what we have seen so far in the Wike-Fubara rift, money, influence, control and power are always at stake. As governor, Fubara wants to be in charge of government and the political structure that got him into office. The leader or owner of the structure determines who gets what, where and how. He knew this all along but now wants to upset the apple cart, using state power and resources to achieve his goal.

One of his aides said he has “all the powers in heaven and on earth” to do and undo. The thing that small boy will do you ehn, you go know say khaki no be leather, the aide added for effect. It is aides like Edison Ehie who are stoking the crisis. He was the factional speaker of a five-member assembly that passed the state’s 2024 budget, which is being implemented till today despite the President’s intervention that it should be re-presented for passage by the 27-man house led by Martin Amaewhule.

With aides like Ehie, who resigned his membership of the house after throwing in the towel as ‘speaker’, Fubara will never see anything good in the presidential peace pact. Ehie will continue to work on Fubara not to accept the peace terms. His joy is in seeing Fubara continue to undermine the assembly where Nyesom Wike’s men hold sway so that the executive in which he is now a key figure can run a one-man government. What else do you call a government where the legislature is stifled the way Fubara is doing to the Rivers assembly?

Fubara’s executive order 001 relocating the assembly’s sitting venue to the government secretariat and his backing of the three minority lawmakers who elected Victor Oko-Jumbo as ‘speaker’ signpost a new front in his feud with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister. Since he cannot bring the majority lawmakers to his side, he wants to run them out of town. What better way to do that than to deny them the right to sit at their quarters by citing the renovation of a parliament building that was destroyed many months ago.

Executive orders are not used that way. They are not meant for settling personal scores but to help in strengthening the legislative process. It may have the force of law, but it is no law because it did not undergo the legislative process. What Fubara did is an abuse of power. Nothing can change the lawmakers resolution to sit in the auditorium of their quarters following the demolition of the parliament building. Not even an executive order can reverse that, no matter how many times it is gazetted.

May 16, 2024