Category: Lawal Ogienagbon

IT IS quite interesting that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is fighting, note not for, but over Nigeria. PDP? Wonders shall never end! Since losing out in the power game in the last elections, the ruling party, as it then was, has been trying to endear itself to the people in order to improve its chances at the poll in 2019. It has been criticising the President Muhammadu Buhari-led  All Progressives Congress (APC)  government for, according to it, running the economy aground and demarketing Nigeria.

Is Buhari killing the economy? Is he demarketing Nigeria? As a stakeholder in the Nigerian project, PDP is entitled to talk when it sees things going wrong, but as the party, which held power for 16 years, it should back whatever it says with facts and figures. The party should provide proof that Buhari has done what it is accusing him of doing, if it wants to be taken as a serious opposition. Being in opposition does not mean that the party should engage in cheap talks. No, the hallmark of a virile and vibrant opposition, is the quality of its interventions on national and international issues.

PDP believes that its 16 years in power were years of plenty for Nigerians. So, in its assessment of the first 90 days of the Buhari administration on August 29, it descended on the APC government for ruining the economy in three months. ‘’The last three months under the APC-led government have brought a sudden decline in the gross domestic product (GDP), with attendant losses and hardship to the citizens. Our nation’s economy, which before now, held the record as the largest in Africa and one of the fastest growing in the world, suddenly plummeted as officially evidenced in the lull in the capital and money market sectors…’’, the party claimed.

PDP was saying in essence that things were better under it than they are now. Is that true? No, says the Presidency, which fired back thus: ‘’The excruciating hardship experienced by Nigerians under the PDP misrule was unprecedented. It is ridiculous for any sane government to artificially rebase the economy and claim to transform Nigeria into the largest economy in Africa as the PDP administration did. The economy was gasping for breath under the egregiously corrupt PDP administration and the country was witnessing an acceleration of poverty which united Nigerians for change’’.

A nation will rise and fall on the strength of its economy. So, it is understandable why APC and PDP are trading tackles over the economy.  Because Nigerians believe that PDP’s economic record is poor, the Buhari administration has been crowing about its achievements in that regard since it came to power last May.

The economy, the President argued last week in India, was killed by corruption, which he said, thrived under the PDP government. For this statement, the party accused the President of demarketing Nigeria.

Can a president demarket his country? Why will he do such a thing knowing full well its implication for his country in the international arena? Does saying the truth about your country amount. Which is worse, talking about the rot in your country or to be responsible for the rot? Should PDP have taken offence over Buhari’s statement in India?

‘’Nigeria cannot pay salaries. The country was materially vandalised and morally so. Of course, Nigeria is broke. Where is the money? You must have known that the Federal Government had to help 27 of the 36 states to pay salaries. The stumbling blocks are big, corrupt Nigerians that have the capacity to compromise the integrity of a lot of people… to make sure that they discourage the government from pursuing and recovering public funds from them’’, the President said. To PDP, that statement was too much and it tagged it ‘’demarketing’’ Nigeria. Coming from a former head of state that statement should not be taken lightly.

Did what he say demarket Nigeria in anyway as claimed by PDP? You do not demarket yourself by bringing your problem before others; you are letting them know what you are worth so that they will not expect too much from you. What we need is help and we cannot get it if we continue to pretend as if all is well. Things are tough for our country and the earlier we let the world know the better.

To me, PDP demarketed Nigeria by allowing corruption to thrive under its government, thereby killing foreign direct investment. So, it should not distract Buhari, who is trying to correct the wrongs of the past 16 years.

FOR those who use the Lagos – Ibadan Expressway regularly, these are not the best of times. In the past few days, it has been hell on that road. Whether in the day or night, the road is jam packed. Driving on either side of the road is a nightmare. Traffic is virtually at a standstill throughout the day. There is no time you get to the road that it is free. When we are going out in the morning, it is chaotic; when we are coming back in the early hours of the next day, it is a nightmare. We struggle for right of way with heavy duty trucks, some of which are laden with containers. What is the cause of this traffic gridlock, which has turned the portion of the road between the popular Berger at the Lagos end and Warewa near the Arepo junction in Ogun State into something else? It is some potholes, which have now turned to huge craters. On getting to these bad spots, motorists are forced to stop, creating a traffic bottleneck, which stretches and stretches until the eyes can see no more. Whenever I want to leave home for work these days, my heart skips because I do not know what I will meet on the road. On Tuesday as I got ready for work, I heard about what was happening on the road. Those moving out to connect the express from the Journalists’ Estate could not do so. The road leading into the estate became chaotic. Many who could not brave it, returned home in anger. I could not get to work until 11.30am despite leaving home at 8.45am to enable me attend a meeting at 10. I could not go home that night because the traffic was still as terrible as it was in the morning.  Some colleagues whose movement I monitored in order to know whether I should start coming too did not get home until 2. 23am yesterday. On Thursday last week, this paper’s Deputy News Editor, Bunmi Ogunmodede and I did not get home till about 2am. It was the same thing on Monday. Is this how we will continue to live on this road? Yet, all that needs to be done to ease motorists’ pains is to patch these bad spots pending when the road will be rehabilitated? Will our cry move the government to do the right thing?

By virtue of their office,  governors do not move anyhow. Their schedule is planned in detail and everything is done according to protocol. Without the protocol say so, a governor would not move out of his home or office. So, whenever a governor moves, it means all loose ends have been tied. The all-clear  to go is critical because of the governor’s safety and security.

A governor is not supposed to visit any place on the spur of the moment. To do so will amount to disrupting  the security arrangements for his movement. In an impromptu change in a governor’s itinerary, his security aides may be stretched in order to ensure his safety. A governor is the charge of the state, which is responsible for his welfare and security. But some governors, out of mischief,  dump protocol and insist on doing things their own way.

And when the bubble bursts, they try to defend the indefensible. They make up stories to cover their self-serving action, forgetting that the people are wiser than they think. I have not ceased wondering since the story broke why a governor with a case at the tribunal would go to the Supreme Court to see the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Mahmud Mohammed. Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike called at the CJN’s office not once, but twice. With a petition challenging his election before a tribunal sitting in Abuja, where the CJN has his office, there is more to that visit than meets the eye.

If The Punch had not broken the story of the inexplicable visits, chances are that Wike and his aides would have pretended as if nothing happened. As a lawyer whose wife is also a judge, Wike is expected to know that you do not visit a judge, whether in your private or official capacity, when you have a matter in his court. Even if he has a matter before his wife, she is not expected to discuss the case with him at home because like her fellow judges, she is expected to dispense justice without fear or favour, affection or ill will to all manner of men.

Wike may argue that his case is not before the CJN, but he should not forget that the tribunals were set up by the CJN, who while inaugurating them warned that they should shun corruption. By trying to see the CJN, Wike’s intention was to go right to the top to pull strings in respect of his case.

Wike knew what he was doing by embarking on those two visits in three days – between July 6 and 8. He knows that the CJN wields enormous influence over the tribunals. So, he thought by sweet talking the CJN, his lordship could be made to get the tribunal to play ball.

The governor will never admit that he had ulterior motive in going to the CJN’s office without appointment; no he will never. He will defend his visits with the last drop of his blood, if need be,  because what he went there for is not for public consumption – it is not something the ears should hear. His reasons for the visits are puerile. He said he went to see the CJN to thank him for sending Bayelsa State Chief Judge Justice Kate Abiri to swear him in on May 29 and over the vexed issue of a chief judge for Rivers.

‘’I didn’t go there to lobby for anything cynical. If I was going to lobby for anything like that, would I go in the afternoon? You may wish to know that we have an acting chief judge in my state, and the judiciary is already on vacation and that the National Judicial Council (NJC) may also be on vacation. So, I needed to do a letter to the NJC on the need to extend or approve the appointment of the acting chief judge in my state. I went there on the two days in daytime; and see Nigerians, they are already imputing another meaning to the visits’’, Wike said.

Yes, we are already talking because he did not exhibit utmost good faith. The governor did not act honestly under the circumstance. Who were those who followed him to the CJN’s office? If he had met the CJN would he have limited himself to issues of his inauguration and the renewal of the appointment of his state’s acting chief judge (ACJ)? Would he? Nigerians are no fools; they can see through Wike’s visits, whether or not he comes out with the truth.

With due respect to him, the issues he listed for his visits are what the governor should not have broken sweat over  because they have been constitutionally settled. The CJN was not doing Wike any favour by asking Justice Abiri to swear him in. The CJN was only interpreting Section 185 (2) of the Constitution, which stipulates that the chief judge; or grand kadi of the Sharia Court of Appeal; or president of the Customary Court of any state can swear in a governor, where nobody holds those offices in the elected governor’s state. Moreover, immediate past Attorney-General of the Federation Mohammed Adoke (SAN) had asked Justice Abiri to take up that job last May 29, a directive, which the CJN later confirmed. Has he visited Adoke too to thank him? Must Wike visit the CJN personally to show his appreciation? Couldn’t he have written to thank the CJN?

Must he also go to Abuja over the renewal of the appointment of his state’s ACJ? All he needs do is to write the NJC, seeking its approval to renew the ACJ’s appointment as contained in Section 271 (5) of the Constitution. Did Wike visit the CJN before he appointed the ACJ shortly after he assumed office in May? His wife is a judge; so if he is confused about these matters, why didn’t he seek her opinion instead of embarking on a mission that could have destroyed the judiciary.  Wike’s losses at the tribunal and the Supreme Court on Saturday and Tuesday have shown that the judiciary is not for sale. His malicious tagging of their lordship as “judicial terrorists” has shown the kind of person he is. Yet he calls himself a lawyer. The rerun will show if he really won the April 11 governorship election.

By the way, will former First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan be on hand again to deliver him?

This piece, which was first published on July 23 with the title Wike’s tricky visits, is being rerun today under a different title with slight modifications following his losses in court.

THE ARMY is a revered institution. It is a major component of a nation state. It is a rule that nations must have armies because of any eventuality. The army is the live wire of a country in times of trouble. When there is a war, the army is called to duty. But armies are not all about war. They also help to stabilise their countries when the other law enforcement agencies, especially the police, are challenged.

Its role in internal security is limited to throwing its might behind the police and other paramilitary agencies to douse tension. Once that is done, the army withdraws. Times without number, Nigeria has had to call on its army to help out in one or two situations. When in 2009 Boko Haram seized Borno State by its jugular, killing, maiming, burning and looting, we ran to the military for help. In no time, soldiers caught Mohammed Yusuf, the Boko Haram leader.

Then there was a twist to the tale. After arresting Yusuf, the army handed him over to the police and before you could say IG, he had been killed. His death in police custody marked a turning point in the unabating murderous campaign of Boko Haram. Perhaps, things would not have been like this today, if Yusuf had not been killed. May be. Our military and our police cannot be the worst in the world despite their shortcomings. They have discharged themselves creditably on peace missions abroad. What then makes them to be their brother’s killer instead of keeper at home? If they can keep the peace well in foreign lands, why are they finding it difficult to do same back home?

Because of the kind of people we are, we have been calling out the military to help in the conduct of elections. Elsewhere, elections are conducted with ease, but here they are like wars. Parties and their candidates run sleazy campaigns. All they do is to run down opponents, without telling the voters what they have in stock for them. For all they care, the electorate can go to hell. All they are after is to get to office. How they do that does not matter, so long the end justifies the means. How to get politicians to play by the rules has become our headache.

As a way out, the military was brought into the electoral process. The essence of bringing in the military was to use them to sanitise the process. But what did we get at the end of the day? Our almighty military crashed on its face by its poor conduct. Rather than be an impartial umpire, the military chose to take sides with the government of the day. The 2014 governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states exposed the underbelly of the military. Both states were then being controlled by the All Progressives Congress (APC), but the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which was at the helm at the federal level, wanted those states at all costs.

To achieve its aim, the then ruling party deployed the military, which was under its control, in both states. It first used the military in Ekiti, where the election was held on June 21, 2014. The soldiers took no quarters in the discharge of their duties. Many claimed that the soldiers  acted a script the way they went about their duties, citing their harassment of APC chieftains, who were prevented from entering the town to campaign for their party’s candidate, Dr Kayode Fayemi. On the other hand, the PDP, they said, was given a free hand to campaign.

One may be tempted to dismiss these claims, but what happened shortly after the election showed that doing so may be hasty. An officer, Captain Sagir Koli, who was among those deployed for election duty, said he was shocked by what he saw during the poll. The army, he said, was favourably disposed to the PDP, adding that his boss, a general, looked the other way while atrocities were being committed. At the end of it all, PDP won. In Osun, the party could not have its way in the August 9, 2014 election because the people were prepared for it. Thanks to their mobilisation by Governor Rauf Aregbesola, who had vowed that what happened in Ekiti would not be allowed in Osun.

Yet, the army still harassed the people, preventing many from leaving their homes to vote. What happened in those states were child’s play compared to the smear campaign against Muhammadu Buhari before the March 28 presidential election. His West African School Certificate (WASC) was said to be missing from the army’s records. An officer went on air to make the declaration, insinuating that Buhari may not have the certificate. But, the subsequent  release of his results by his alma mater forced them to keep quiet.

Now, the army has decided to do a soul-searching to ascertain where rain started to beat the institution. It has set up a high-powered ‘’Board of Inquiry (BoI), to  investigate, among other things, alleged malpractices and involvement of its personnel in Ekiti and Osun states governorship elections in 2014. The board, it added, will also look into any other state in Nigeria where other allegations of misconduct were made during the 2015 general elections. The army said: “The essence of the board is to prevent future professional misconduct by officers and men in the performance of their constitutional roles while strengthening the Nigerian Army’s support to democratic values and structures in Nigeria’’.

What happened during the Ekiti and Osun elections is a big shame to us as a nation. Why is it that we cannot conduct peaceful, free and fair elections when some of our neighbouring countries that cannot match our resources do so with ease? What is it about elections that make our leaders lose their sense of reason and turn it to a ‘do or die’? Must they bring in the military to do their dirty job for them in their desperation to win  at all costs? It is good that the military is beaming a searchlight on itself to ensure that its men are not used for cheap political battles in future. Never again should what we witnessed in Ekiti and Osun in 2014 happen on our land. Never.

PRESIDENTS are expected to be men of their words. They do not talk for the fun of it. They speak when necessary and with authority. Whatever they say is law. They are our earthly gods because of the powers they wield. The presidential seat carries a seal of authority that grants the occupant absolute power. But leaders that are wise do not use such powers absolutely because, according to  Lord Acton, ‘’power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely’’.

Leaders use their powers in different ways. Some use their powers to help people; others use their powers to oppress. Why do men seek power? They seek power in order to contribute their quota to the socio-economic development of their countries.

The president epitomises the government he leads. As the first citizen, the buck stops at his table. His orders are final and they must be carried out by his aides, except otherwise stopped from doing so by the court. Where there is no such order, the president’s word is as good as taking it to the bank. Where you have the president’s word, you can go to sleep, rest assured that all is well. No subordinate can reverse the president’s order because they know the consequences of such an action.

When presidents speak, they speak with authority. They are firm and assertive because they hold the four aces. They can do and undo. Former President Goodluck Jonathan knew too well the enormous powers of his office before he directed that families of victims of the March 15, 2014 Immigration job tragedy be employed. In a March 26, 2014 letter from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Jonathan directed that three members from each victim’s family be given immediate and automatic employment. At least one of such family member must be a female, he added.

Last March just before the elections, the former president at an elaborate ceremony at the State House, Abuja, received some members of the victims’ families. At the end of the visit, each family went home with N5 million. The families were also reminded to send the names of their members, for employment. They returned home happy and praising God for what He has done. What they did not know is that it might have been a ploy to get them to vote for Jonathan and his party in the last election. If it wasn’t, why didn’t Jonathan keep his promise to them before leaving office last May 29.

Over one year after the presidential promise, the families are still running helter-skelter, hoping upon hope that they would get the promised jobs. No fewer than 16 applicants died in the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) recruitment tragedy. Because of the job crisis in our land, 6.5million persons were said to have applied for the non-existent immigration job online after paying the non-refundable N1000 fee. A consultant was said to have been given the job. The then NIS Comptroller-General David Parradang denied knowledge of the exercise, claiming that it was the brainchild of former Interior Minister Abba Moro. Between Moro and Parradang, someone is certainly not saying the truth. Since Jonathan could not move against these men, he thought the way out was a political solution.

But seven months after he promised them  jobs, none of them has been employed. They are still pounding the streets in search of jobs, with many calling daily at the NIS headquarters without luck.

Pressed to the wall, they took their case to the National Assembly, begging for justice. They told the lawmakers that the letters of appointment given to them have been withdrawn. Why were the letters withdrawn? Is it that they were illegally issued, as claimed by the Ministry of Interior’s Permanent Secreatry, Abubakar Magaji , before the House of Representatives probe panel? Could letters issued on the president’s authority said to be illegal?  At the public hearing of  the House Ad hoc Committee on Immigration Recruitment Stampede on Monday, members of the audience were stunned to hear that Jonathan’s employment order was ‘’merely symbolic’’. I do not seem to understand why Magaji described the former president’s gesture as such. What does he mean by ‘’symbolic gesture’’?

Is he saying that there was no intention to employ these people ab initio? If that is the case, why then were their hopes of a job raised? What does it say of a sitting president that his order was made in vain as Magaji is now insinuating? What will it cost the ministry to employ these people since we are being told that the problem is getting the fund to pay them?

Why were the appointment letters withdrawn? Hear Magaji : ‘’Following the failed recruitment exercise in 2014 that led to the loss of lives, the president approved the setting up of a presidential committee and mandated it to assist the board to conduct the aborted recruitment of Immigration Service. The presidential committee carried out the exercise without the involvement of the board, which is against the provisions of the board’s Act. From what we are working on, up till today, there is no single approval by Mr President to carry out such exercise. We are only hearing it from the papers’’. The lawmakers also heard that the March 26, 2014 letters signed by the SGF were not approved by Mr President, hence they were termed ‘’ceremonial letters’’.

Will these people also lose their money despite not getting the job they so much laboured for? Where is the money they paid as application fee? In government’s coffer or in a private account? Can the money still be recovered? What is the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) doing to recover the money and bring the perpetrators of this big time fraud to book? Will we continue to keep silent  like this without  bringing succour to those affected? Deputy Comptroller of Immigration Yahaya Mangwi, who represented NIS management at the probe, denied knowledge of the fund, saying : ‘’We don’t know where the money has gone to. We didn’t know about the recruitment; we just saw advert in the newspapers’’.

Magaji may have his own agenda in blocking the employment of these people. It may not all be about money and illegal issuance of letters, but more of a personal thing. Who is he fighting over these people’s employment?  Indications that there is a feud between the ministry and NIS over this matter also emerged at the hearing. The board’s Secretary, A.A. Ibrahim, who signed the letters of 400 assistant superintendent officers and 1,600 junior workers said Magaji stopped the employment and also ordered the withdrawal of the letters. Who is a permanent secretary to counter the president’s order? What does he know that made him act that way?

No matter the wrangling between the ministry and its agencies, this should not be allowed to truncate people’s future. These job seekers have suffered enough. Those who should suffer are the evil men and women causing them anguish and pain. And sooner than later, EFCC should be able to bring these evil doers to justice.

TO HER, everybody else was a nobody. She looked down on others as if they were not God’s creatures. She was too full of herself and she went about her job – a public office at that – as if she was her own boss. In a way, Dame Diezani Alison-Madueke was. Her boss, former President Goodluck Jonathan could not call her to order. Rather than rebuke her for her excesses, he took sides with her. Because she knew she had a hold on Jonathan, Alison-Madueke began to see herself as untouchable.

There was nothing she did not get away with under Jonathan. She was the minister in whom Jonathan was well pleased. As a favoured minister, she strutted the land like royalty, though she is not a blue blood. She enjoyed uncommon favour even when she did not have anything to show for holding the petroleum resources portfolio. Alison-Madueke’s sun began to rise long before Jonathan came to office in fortuitous circumstances in 2010. She started out as Transport Minister under the late President Umoru Yar’Adua in 2007. She was subsequently moved to the Solid Minerals Ministry.

When Jonathan mounted the saddle in 2010, she found herself in the Petroleum Ministry. From then, she became uncontrollable. Alison-Madueke became law unto herself. People amounted to nothing in her eyes. She was the queen of the manor, before whom all must bow, including the lawmakers, who tried unsuccessfully to call her to order. The National Assembly could not do anything to her because she enjoyed executive cover. Through her haughtiness, she missed a great opportunity to leave her mark in office. She so much believed that the Nigerians she was supposed to serve are beneath her.

I have never stopped wondering how Alison-Madueke scaled Senate screening to become a minister of the Federal Republic. But then, under a government of anything goes, such as Jonathan’s, such things are bound to happen. Since the executive and the legislature were on the same page, ministers’ clearance was done haphazardly and by the time people like Alison-Madueke assumed office, they became tin-gods and the lawmakers saw her in her true colour. If she had acted that way before her clearance, the Senate would not have thought twice before rejecting her nomination.

By the time she started showing the lawmakers that she was more powerful than them, it was too late to do anything about her. All they could do was to ask Jonathan to remove her, a request they knew the former president would not accede to. While in office, trouble was Alison-Madueke’s second name, but she survived it all with Jonathan’s tacit support. Will Jonathan be able to help out now in London, where she may soon face trial for alleged bribery and money laundering? Alison-Madueke was arrested in her London home last Friday by the National Crime Agency (NCA), the British outfit that leads law enforcement against serious and organised crimes.

But isn’t it a shame that Britain is doing our job for us? Alison-Madueke should be in the dock here and not in London to account for her deeds while in office. What an irony! Alison-Madueke ran to London for succour not knowing that the long arm of the law will catch up with her there. It was just a matter of time before she ran into bigger trouble. Nobody behaves the way she does without paying the price. Alison-Madueke is not being witchhunted; those thinking along that line should perish the thought. Were we not in Nigeria when the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Upstream) accused her of  granting prospecting rights on oil mining licences 4, 38 and 41 to a firm without following due process? Did he appear before the committee when she was invited? She did not and nothing happened to her.

Last year, the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts accused her of spending N10 billion on chartering a private jet. She was invited to explain how that came about. Again, she shunned the lawmakers. Rather than call her queen to order, Jonathan, during the May 4, 2014 Presidential Media Chat, upbraided the lawmakers for performing their oversight duty. Jonathan said on national television : ‘’I am not aware that the minister (Alison-Madueke) went to court to stop any investigation…the minister has appeared before the parliament more than 200 times.

‘’In fact, some of my ministers attended 25 percent of the sittings in the parliament. No country can progress when a minister spends most of the time appearing before the parliament. The Minister of Petroleum has not gone to court to stop them…I am not trying to protect anybody. Some people talk about jet or no jet. The Ministry of Petroleum Resources is one ministry that  people pay attention to because of its activities… when somebody wakes up and says the Ministry of Petroleum Resources is making use of a jet; the ministry has always been using jets’’. That was all Alison-Madueke needed to stick to her guns not to appear before the panel.

Taking a cue from Jonathan, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) which board she chaired as minister, also rose to her defence, saying : ‘’This practice (jet chartering) is common and acceptable in the local and international business environment in which it (NNPC) operates. There is nothing prohibiting NNPC from owning or chartering an aircraft. The law establishing NNPC empowers it to hold, manage and alienate moveable and immoveable property and enter into contracts and partnership with any company and person”. So, why didn’t Alison-Madueke go and say this to the lawmakers?

The answer is obvious. She could not go because she has something to hide and she had Jonathan and a public utility to hide it for her. Will they be of help to her in her London travail? Let’s wait and see.

JUDGES wield enormous power. They behave like kings when they hold court. In one word, they can do and undo. But in using their wide powers, they are expected to do so with the fear of God. A judge cannot say because he has the power of life and death, he should just send people to the gallows for the fun of it. Before arriving at such a decision, his lordship must have heard the convict and satisfied himself that the man actually committed the offence for which he is being condemned.

The court is a temple of justice and not injustice. It is not a forum for judges to abuse people’s right with impunity just because they have the power to do so. The power judges wield is given to them by the Constitution. So, everything they do must be constitutional. As conservatives, judges view things from a tiny prism. To many of them, any other person cannot be trusted. They perceive people, except those close to them in bad light and before you say judge, you may end up in jail when you come across a judge on a day he is in foul mood. If you think I am  wrong,  ask The Nation Ogun State Correspondent Ernest Nwokolo and his colleagues what they went through in the hands of a judge in Ota on Tuesday.

Should judges who sit in judgement over others be hasty in drawing conclusions about people? The answer is no. But in many instances, some judges have been known to let their emotions get the better of them in their dealings with others. They just look at you and feel that they should deal with you, perhaps, because they do not like your face. Judges should have it at the back of their minds that no matter how powerful they think they are, there is a Judge up there more powerful than them and once that Judge speaks, there is no appeal. Their job does not entail that they should play god, but once in a while, they tend to do so forgetting that God is inimitable.

Once God speaks, that is the end of the matter. No judge on earth can question His action. But when our earthly judges vibrate, we the lesser mortals can still query their actions if we feel they have encroached on our right. Judges are expected to be defenders and not abusers of people’s rights. They are judges in order to make society work, and not to turn things upside down with actions unbecoming of their exalted position. If court clerks and registrars do not know their right from their left, judges are expected to know better. They should guide these people and not join them in abusing the rights of those who come to court.

For all the years that I covered the courts, I was never accosted by any judge for having the temerity to come to a ‘’private place’’, which was how the Ota, Ogun State High Court judge defined the court to Nwokolo and co. Is the court a public or private place? The court cannot be a private place, by any standard because it is where parties take their disputes to for adjudication. It is open to litigants and non-litigants alike. People are allowed to come to court to watch proceedings as long as they comport themselves. If they do not, they are made to pay the price for their contemptuous act. Is it contemptuous for journalists to come to court to cover proceedings? It is not. If it is, we will not be reading about many court cases in the papers.

Are journalists expected to register their presence in court before covering a case? I do not know the practice now, but when I was a judiciary reporter, I just went in and out of court, covering cases that caught my fancy. And I was not for once harassed by court officials. But whatever the practice may be today, it cannot approve of the kind of treatment meted out to Nwokolo and his friends, who went to cover a case at the Ota High Court on Tuesday. Nwokolo, Daud Olatunji (Vanguard), Samuel Awoyinfa (The Punch),  Abiodun Taiwo (Daily Times), Sulaiman Fasasi (National Pilot), Wale Adelaja (TVC) and Johnson Akinpelu (Alaroye) were in court for two cases. The first was on victims of a demolition in Pakoto community and the other on killings in Oke – Ore community.

Shortly after their arrival, the female Assistant Court Registrar reportedly accosted them, demanding their mission. She wanted to know if they had a letter from the chief judge or a senior judiciary officer to enter the court. Does it mean that everybody, including litigants and members of the audience, must obtain permission before entering the courts in Ogun State? For three hours – 11.45 am – 2.44pm – this all-powerful woman caused the reporters to be detained in a room on the judge’s order. Before releasing the ‘insolent’ reporters, the judge, in his imperial magistracy, dressed them down, while delivering an  homily :

‘’I put you under arrest. You are under arrest. You will discover that this compound is fenced round; is that not so? It is not on the major road that you can just come in. If you are representing the public interest, you must know we have a head in this court. I am a judge; I have unlimited jurisdiction in the state. I can even say somebody should be arrested without question, but in exercising my power, I have to enquire into many things. You cannot say because you are representing public interest, you can just burst into my compound or burst into my house. You have a right as a journalist, but where your own stops,  my own starts. And if I am the owner of a house, I have a right to my privacy, fundamental right to privacy. I want to educate you. If you want to infringe on my right that is where your own right stops…

‘’What I am saying is that judiciary has its own right too. You are infringing on our own right too. You don’t know? A report came to me that some people invaded the court, claiming that they are journalists, filming the whole place. It is not a local market and it is not an open market. You are approaching the court. If you are interested in a particular matter in a company, will you just go into the place and start filming and then say you are a journalist? That is what I am telling you. You don’t just go into a place and start filming and then say you are a journalist. If we said you are trespassing into our land, do you have any defence, answer me now? I am telling you it is not a public place; I am telling you, the court is not a public place.’’ After the 25-minute sermon, his lordship set his captives free.

Was there any need for the show put up by his lordship? The Ota High Court is not his lordship’s private property and the courts generally can never be the private property of any judge. Courts are built with public funds for public use, but if a judge wishes to hear a matter in private, he can do so without venting his spleen on innocent members of the public. Why will a judge receive a report that journalists had ‘’invaded his court and were filming the whole place’’ and just order that they be detained without hearing from them? What happened to fair hearing, a principle, which his lordship must uphold in the discharge of his duty? I rest my case.