The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • OBJ, statesman as mischief-maker

    Obasanjo is a global statesman. His contemporaries include Jimmy Carter, the 39th American president (1977-81), George H. W. Bush, the 41st president of US (1989-1993, ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of United Kingdom (1979-1990). He was very active in the international mediation efforts in Angola, Burundi, Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa. He played a leading role in the establishment of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), designed to promote democracy and good governance. Only last week, he got another “invitation of the UN Secretary-General to be a member of his 18-member High-Level Board of Advisers on Mediation.”

    Obasanjo, unfortunately, is a prophet without honour among his own people. While he might have succeeded in bewitching the international community, many Nigerians regard him  an ‘incredible opportunist’ (Brigadier General Alabi Isama, Tragedy of Victory) and a mischief maker on account of his periodic letters designed to de-legitimize every government after him  starting with  Shehu Shagari, Babangida, Abacha, Yar’Adua and Jonathan. With a second inciting  letter on the eve of a crucial election, he alleged without proof, that President Buhari is set to rig  while also accusing him of  massive corruption: “If we expose them, all of them will enter hell; they will not only go to jail”. Many are bound to conclude that Obasanjo is probably suffering from messianic complex.

    Discerning Nigerians are aware that since Obasanjo’s first coming as head of a military junta (1976-1979), he has done everything but promote the democratization process. He publicly admitted that as an umpire in 1978 presidential election, he took sides with the late Shagari to spite his more illustrious fellow Yoruba compatriot, Obafemi Awolowo, who according to Biafra Civil war leader, Odumegwu Ojukwu “was the best president Nigeria never had”. His perfidy was to lead to the derailment of the second republic experiment at democratization when the ill-prepared Shagari administration awarded his party ‘landslide and sea-slide’ victories especially in opposition strongholds in the 1983 election.

    Nigerians can also still remember how Obasanjo, the democracy crusader supported Babangida’s interim contraption to deny MKO Abiola, his Egba compatriot, of his pan-Nigerian mandate by claiming the winner was not the messiah Nigerians were waiting for. And after being imposed on Nigeria by General Babangida and his anti-democratic elements, Obasanjo undermined the democratisation process in 2003 and 2007 through massive election rigging and failed third term agenda and in 2011 by imposing Jonathan on the country. Until President Buhari “the dictator” recently honoured MKO Abiola for his supreme sacrifice that democracy may thrive, Obasanjo and his fellow PDP democracy warriors, for 18 years desecrated Abiola’s grave.

    Nigerians, except the wailing and wayward PDP children who instead of telling Nigerian what they intend to do differently from their 16 years of locust have focused more on Buhari’s personal failings, are not deceived. Atiku who as Obasanjo’s deputy did not only publicly denounce him as false democratic and anti-corruption crusader but also alleged helping to disburse public funds for private concerns, is promising to continue with privatization of public enterprises. He thinks Nigerians have forgotten a House of Representatives probe report that claimed the country recouped only about $1.5b from total investments of over $100b between1960-1998. This was in addition to the loss of seven million jobs projected by World Bank because beneficiaries were more interested in asset stripping.

    Besides, Atiku other Obasanjo’s PDP children who will probably be ready to swear their adopted father is a false democratic and anti-corruption crusaders include the late Diepreye Alamieseigha who he chased from France to Britain where he escaped to Nigeria dressed like a woman. The late ‘Governor-General of Ijaw People’ was finally impeached by Obasanjo’s kangaroo impeachment panel of about half a dozen state lawmakers holed up in a hotel room in Lagos. We also have Rivers’ Peter Odili. Although he was saved by the Nigeria’s troubled judiciary that ruled he must not be tried or arrested by EFCC for allegedly defrauding his state, he however lost his dream of succeeding Obasanjo as president. There is also James Ibori who like Odili, was also saved by Nigerian judiciary but finally jailed for the same offences by the British judiciary. Obasanjo’s other estranged PDP children  include Lucky Igbinedion, Doyin Okupe, Ayo Fayose, Gbenga Daniel, Jolly Nyame, Joshua Dariye,  Boni Haruna, Adamu Mu’azu, Chris Uba  and others.

    But those who are really  interested in a critical assessment of Obasanjo’s credentials as democracy and anti-corruption crusader will find  the verdict of Ayo Fayose, Dino Melaye, Gbenga Daniel and Bukola Saraki ,  who are in all respects a match to their godfather’s intrigue, abrasiveness and uncouthness instructive.

    Ayo Fayose, a student of the late Pa Adedibu, the late exponent of ‘amala politics’ and the garrison commander of Ibadan Politics, was foisted on Ekiti by Obasanjo. They later fell apart over Fayose’s chicken farm scam.  Fayose had described Obasanjo while taking a temporary leave of absence from PDP as “a man without honour”  who “shouldn’t just tear his PDP membership card; but should relinquish the ownership of Bells University, Obasanjo Farms, Obasanjo Presidential Library, and other financial benefits he got during his eight years as President.’’  Fayose, the adopted son of Obasanjo, the democracy crusader, according to EFCC, allegedly collected about N3b from Jonathan to rig the 2014 Ekiti election. As governor-elect, he led some of his thugs to a court premises to beat up a judge presiding over his case.  He thereafter with the help of the thugs chased out 15 majority state lawmakers out of the state.

    Gbenga Daniel was drafted from Lagos by Obasanjo to supplant Aremo Olusegun Osoba as governor of Ogun State. When relationship between father and son became sour, Daniel with nine loyal state lawmakers impeached 15 majority who scurried out of the state while Daniel unconstitutionally put the state House of Assembly under lock and key. Obasanjo had to call on those he described as “men of goodwill within and outside,” made up of his secondary school classmates and Afe Babalola, his friend and lawyer to placate Daniel.

    Fresh from medical college, Bukola Saraki’s illustrious father donated him to Obasanjo who without hesitation appointed him special assistant on budgeting. He went on to become Kwara’s two-term governor and a senator.  When he usurped the senate presidency by, according to his confession, outwitting his 51 APC senators to be proclaimed senate president by acclamation by 49 opposition PDP senators, Obasanjo’s house was his first port of call.

    However when Obasanjo in a letter dated January 13, 2016 complained about ‘the mind-boggling expenditure going into cars, furniture, housing renovation which he said were ‘veritable sources of waste and corruption’ and went on to accuse the lawmakers of “massive corruption, greed, impunity and lawlessness..”, Saraki, directed his half-brother, Dino Melaiye who Obasanjo had also appointed adviser on youths, to disrobe their father publicly.

    Dino wrote: “‘Our leader has mistaken the 8th National Assembly as the same National Assembly that defrauded him in 2007; that is those who collected his money and refused to implement the third term agenda. I appeal to Baba that we are not the ones please”. He did not forget to rub it in: “There was the case of bribery introduced by the Obasanjo regime in the desperate attempt to remove Speaker Ghali Umar Na’Abba from office then. In fact, there was an open display of that bribery money on the floor of the House”. Concluding, Melaye asks; “I hope this is not in an attempt to cover up and distract attention from the Halliburton and Siemens corruption allegations?’’

    Dear compatriots, behold the democracy and anti-corruption crusader according to his PDP children.

  • The Onnoghen conundrum

    EXCITING times are here.

    The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) accused of false assets declaration won’t quit. He suspends a meeting of the National Judicial Council (NJC); he is suspended and an Acting CJN is sworn in. Lawyers kick. Roll back the actions or face a court boycott, the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) roars.

    Stalemate? Not quite. Injunctions are jamming motions; sanctions are flying against actions. Railing and rulings all over the place. Confusion. Enter NJC. It suddenly jerks back to life after the CJN had suspended its meeting “sine die”. CJN Onnoghen and Acting CJN Tanko Muhammad get seven days to defend their integrity. Some lawyers make good their threat to boycott courts; others won’t, questioning the moral platform on which the NBA is standing.

    All is tense. So thick is the tension that it could be sliced with a kitchen knife. When politics jams rule of law, the result is ruin of law; a legalistic conundrum. But law is capable of resolving its complexities.

    In restrooms, staffrooms, guestrooms and newsrooms, arguments are raging. Who is right? Who is wrong? What is right and what is wrong? It is so exciting- and worrisome.

    Long live the bard. Sweet, indeed, are the uses of adversity. In all this, there is a redeeming feature. I have been told of the great potential of our jurisprudence being enriched. Besides, language has played a major role in this matter. It has been the fuel on which the engine of the legal battles runs. In other words, we need to review the semantics of this exciting time.

    Until President Muhammadu Buhari suspended the CJN following an order of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT for short, nobody knew that “suspension” could have another meaning. The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) cried out that Buhari had “removed” the CJN in a bid to “annex” the Judiciary ahead of the February 16 election. The fireworks began. When does “suspension” become “removal”? Is Onnoghen a PDP member? Why is the party crying like a baby whose lollipop has been grabbed by an inconsiderate elder?

    All manner of postulations and permutations and indications began to “emerge” in the social media where many were saying that they “learnt on good authority” that Justice Onnoghen and the PDP “knew’ each other. Any proof? None, of course, was tendered – as usual.

    Justice Onnoghen, a lawful man, went to the Court of Appeal to obtain an “injunction” against the CCT trial. The Federal Government got an “ex-parte” order from the CCT. Injunctions. Motions. Counter motions and more motions. The water got really muddled up. Those knowledgeable about these intricacies said the CJN himself had warned judges against issuing “ex-parte” orders.

    When a party gets an order against an opponent in his absence, such an order is “ex-parte”, which, I am told, is issued only in emergencies.  In such cases, the opponents will be crying that they were not heard, that the orders had been purchased, procured, bought or obtained. And lawyers will be warning them to guard against “contemptu curie” or “contempt of court”.  Is the CJN matter not an emergency the Constitution never thought could occur? I really don’t know.

    I am glad to report authoritatively, dear reader, that nobody has been charged with “in facie atrium contemptui” or “contempt in the face of the court” – a grave offence that can earn instant sentence to jail. Not even lawyers who have been storming courtrooms to stop judges from hearing cases, all in the name of enforcing the boycott.

    Right or wrong, courts are courts even if they issue conflicting orders in a strange battle to assert superiority or right to sit over some matters. This is called “jurisdiction”. In other words, does the Court of Appeal question the CCT’s jurisdiction in the Justice Onnoghen’s matter?

    But why should anybody cry over a mere “ex-parte” order when there are people who have in their kitty a “perpetual order”? They cannot be investigated or arrested or molested or detained or questioned or harassed by “the government or any of its agencies, either by themselves or their servants, privies , agents and any other in whatsoever way or by whatsoever means until this order is vacated”.  If I were the CJN, this is the order I would have sought to obtain. A cheeky fellow told me in the newsroom the other day that this order “is for the big boys only”. Who is bigger than the biggest boy of the Judiciary?

    As I was saying, the PDP cried foul and said the “procedure” for the “removal” of the CJN was not followed. An army of lawyers rose in defence of this line of argument. The CJN, they maintained, should have been brought before the NJC. But a meeting of the NJC had been postponed “sine die” by no less a personality than its chair, the CJN. Curious. “Sine die”, I learnt, means “indefinitely”. Yet, the PDP and the lawyers insisted that the NJC must be the arbiter in this matter.

    But the government insisted that the allegation of false asset declaration is within the purview of the CCT because it did not occur in the line of duty. It arose in the conduct of the CJN as a public officer. In other words, the “procedure” became the subject of the huge row; the substance – that the CJN by “mistake” “forgot” to declare that he had some hefty cash in some accounts – did not matter.

    Ah, some lawyers screamed. They said considering the man involved, the CJN, “who should be above board, like Caesar’s wife”, “procedure” should not trump “substance”. Others, led by the NBA, insisted on “due process”. What is “due process” and when is a process due and is seen to be truly due if everybody concerned wants to be dutiful?

    Some illustration. When a woman has been in labour for too long, with all the pains and pangs, should doctors insist on “due process”– that she must have her baby naturally–or opt for–the knife to save mother and baby? When should “due process” give way to “necessary process”? And when should the CJN be seen as a “law officer” as different from a “public officer”?

    The CJN, some lawyers said, should have allowed the NJC to sit; he should have simply “recued” himself from the matter by giving the “excuse” that he could not sit over his own case.

    As I have said, the NBA leadership plunged the respected group into a controversial boycott of courts, which many lawyers shunned. They said they could not obstruct the course of justice for their clients because the CJN was in trouble. Besides, said some bold ones among the lot, NBA’s integrity is being tested in court as its chief Paul Usoro SAN is facing money laundering charges. They asked:  why is Usoro being tried in court and not by the NBA since the allegations border on his practice? Does it mean that if a member of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) drives recklessly and kills a pedestrian, he should be taken to the motor park to face trial and not the court? A game of logic is on.

    In the social media, the boycott became a subject of contemptuous jokes. There  is a photograph of some young men sitting around a table filled with assorted alcoholic drinks. The men are laughing and talking. The caption:” Nigeria Bar Association dissociates themselves from call to boycott courts from tomorrow.”

    The United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union joined the fray. They threatened to sanction  perpetrators of violence and riggers. Later, they expressed “deep concerns” over Justice Onnoghen’s suspension, adding that it “undercuts the stated determination of government, candidates and political party leaders to ensure that the elections proceed in a way that is free, fair, transparent and peaceful –leading to a credible result.”

    All Progressives Congress (APC) Chair Adams Oshiomhole reminded the E.U. and the others that “Nigeria is no longer a colony”. The Presidency said Nigeria had “noted with interest” the statement linking Justice Onnoghen’s fate with the elections, which “seem more driven by unfounded assumptions”. Now all is calm. But will some people stop linking Onnoghen’s fate to the elections? Is he a member of any party? Diplomats at work.

    Whichever way this Justice Onnoghen matter goes, at the end of it all, many of us will have learnt something about law and its deployment to resolve a crisis or create more crises out of a crisis.

    And the court shall rise.

     

    Can it happen here?

    NIGERIAN – BORN British lawmaker Fiona Onasanya has been sentenced to three months in prison for lying to avoid a speeding ticket.  She will serve half of the sentence , according to “The Guardian” of the U.K., which reported that the Peterborough MP was found guilty of perverting the course of justice.

    At the Old Bailey in London, the lawmaker was in the dock with her brother Festus Onasanya, who pleaded guilty to three similar charges and was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment.

    Onasanya

    Could this have happened in Nigeria? No. Not now. Imagine a senator being booked for over speeding – a routine for public officials here. Many have died in accidents caused by the convoys of public officials. Sirens are blaring as they drive recklessly. No officer dares to stop them. If one tries to, he is knocked down. When the police summon the courage to ask the lawmaker why their man was hit, the “honourable” or “distinguised” shuns them. When they attempt to arrest him, he shuts his door and the police lay siege to his home. His lawyers will storm a court to enforce his fundamental human rights even as his lawmaker-colleagues are hailing him and accusing the police of persecution.

    Some day, the law will be no respecter of persons in our dear Nigeria. Imagine how many public officials, including our hardworking lawmakers, will be on their way to jail when that day eventually comes. Just imagine.

  • Letter to NJC

    The judiciary is in a trying time.
    We must. And I repeat, we must
    stand to protect and uphold the
    integrity of this arm of government…
    -Ag Chief Justice Tanko Muhammad

    THESE, indeed, are trying times for the judiciary. With the nation’s chief justice in the dock, as it were, the integrity of the judiciary is at stake. We have never before witnessed what we are seeing today in the third arm of government, as the allegations of false asset declaration swirl around the suspended Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen. Until the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) proves the allegations of false asset declaration and refusal to declare some of his assets against him, Justice Onnoghen remains innocent.

    It is too early in the day to draw any conclusion about this matter, notwithstanding the fact, which many Nigerians have taken judicial and judicious notice of, that Onnoghen said he ”forgot” to declare those assets. Is it possible for a man to own millions in dollars, pounds and euros and forget to declare them? That is an issue for the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) to decide. No matter how we look at this case, serious damage has been done to the judiciary that he heads.

    Whether he is eventually found guilty or not, the judiciary will certainly not be the same again. As the world watches this spectacle, many Nigerians are irked by the allegations against Onnoghen because he should be the symbol of all that is good and pure about our country. ”If gold rust, what will iron do?” the people wonder.  The public can understand when such allegations are made against governors, senators and the likes, but not against our Number One judicial officer. Little wonder opinions are divided over how the matter is being handled. Even lawyers, the ”learned men” of the world, are not speaking with one voice on this unwholesome matter.

    On one hand, are those saying that the matter should not have been ‘rushed’ to the CCT like that; on the other, are those arguing that he should first have been reported to the National Judicial Council (NJC), which has the exclusive right of looking into cases of misconduct against judges. We, however, have a peculiar situation on our hands – the NJC and CJN are one. By virtue of the Constitution, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) is the NJC chairman and many members of the council hold office at his pleasure. This being so, there are fears that he may use his office to get his way and cover up the case against him even before it gets to court. Is it not when the case comes to court that his guilt or otherwise will be determined?

    These fears cannot be dismissed with a wave of the hand. Not with the way Justice Onnoghen was said to have deferred sine die, the meeting of the NJC. Why did he adjourn the meeting indefinitely? There can only be one reason for His Lordship’s action and that is he has something to hide. Can the NJC be trusted to do justice in this matter now that it has come to it? Is the case before the NJC that of misconduct against the suspended CJN in the line of duty? Is the case against him similar to that of Justice Hyeladzira Nganjiwa of the Federal High Court, which was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on December 11, 2017, because NJC was not allowed to look into the matter before he was charged to court?

    The case against Nganjiwa was that he received bribe in the course of duty. But that is not the case against Onnoghen, who is facing allegations of false asset declaration and refusal to declare his assets. I am a layman when it comes to law. But from my little understanding of this matter, will it be appropriate for the NJC to consider any petition accusing any judge of false asset declaration or refusal to declare his assets before he is charged at the CCT? With the case now before the NJC, all eyes are on the august body to do what is just. It is bound to consider the circumstances under which the matter  got to it, but it should not allow that to becloud its sense of reasoning and judgement.

    The NJC is bigger than its chairman, who comes and goes anyway. The chairman today may not be the chairman tomorrow once he ceases to be the CJN and that is how it has been since the creation of the body. To allay the fears of those who strongly feel that it may be biased in this matter, NJC should conduct itself in the best tradition of the Bench. Although, it is not a court, it must discharge this onerous responsibility without fear or favour, affection or ill will. It should bear in mind that everything surrounding this case evolved from the suspended CJN’s handling of a simple matter of asset declaration. If he had handled the issue the way he should, the polity will not be in the tailspin it is today.

    What is happening is unfortunate, highly unfortunate, but the NJC can still save the day by displaying courage and utmost good faith in ending this rigmarole. The NJC must rise above itself to save the judiciary. It has a chance to write its name in gold or end up in infamy. As Acting CJN Muhammad said in the concluding part of his quote used at the beginning of this article, during the inauguration of election petitions’ tribunals in Abuja last Saturday: ”If any other person is trying to destroy the judiciary, we should try to protect it. If we do not protect it ourselves, no one else will protect it for us. So, therefore, it is our bounden duty to see that we protect the judiciary wherever we find ourselves”.

    To do that, the judiciary needs men that filthy lucre cannot buy. In the immortal words of Gilbert Holland written over 100 years ago: ”May God give us men! A time like this demands. Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands; men whom lust of office does not kill; men whom spoils of office cannot buy; men who possess opinions and a will; men who have honour, men who will not lie, men who can stand before a demagogue; and damn his treacherous flatteries without winking! Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog in public duty and in private thinking…”

    These times need such men badly. Will NJC members play that role? We leave them to their conscience.

  • The Nigerian jurist as poseur

    The corrupt judge is a poseur. Like the venal politician, journalist, police officer and civil servant, with whom he shares kindred spirit, he flaunts a semblance of character but becomes visibly irritated and embarrassed, when reality punctures his contrived persona.

    His dignity is better sculpted and more frantically articulated thus passing him off as some chthonian god, but like his corrupt peer across professional divides, he blooms like the proverbial damaged, beautiful boy, the object of dishonest citizenry’s unarticulated sinful lusts.

    Gravitas, to him, is deceptively mustered. It is neither earned nor actualised. Thus soon after he is called to the bench, he scuds to the spotlight, like a pirate goon thundering ashore on a metallic scallop shell, the heraldic vessel of his unchaste personae.

    Flaunting the pensive smile of Donatello’s dreamy David, he twirls in a gale of airs, that eventually precedes his fall, in the ruddy radiance of bleeding Goliath.

    My heartfelt apology to the country’s paltry league of eminent jurists, who would rather die with their dignity intact, in pursuit of justice and the society’s greater good.

    For a long while, the judiciary has thrived as a pagan altarpiece, where dishonest lawyers and judges, of presumed and often contrived calibre, have been known to pervert the course of justice, driven by an illusion of self-worth and a haughty belief that the law is an ass forever amenable to the whiplash of their wiles.

    In their cultic epiphany, greed dominates the learned mind as it dominates its sight and picture planes thus their descent the ladder of judicial grace.

    It should be clear to anyone now, that a corrupt legislature and executive aren’t Nigeria’s greatest problems, the judiciary emerges in real time, as the country’s greatest albatross to the rule of law and entrenchment of justice.

    More worrisome is the unholy alliance between judges and shady politicians en route the country’s general elections. Apparently worried by the anomaly, then Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen, while declaring open the Annual Conference of Justices of the Court of Appeal in Abuja, in December 2017, warned judges against closeness with politicians ahead the 2019 general elections, arguing that they were capable of destroying the jurists’ reputation.

    Six months later – in June 2018 to be precise – while swearing in 12 new Justices of the Court of Appeal in Abuja, Onnoghen subsequently charged judges in the country not to turn themselves into political tools in the hands of politicians, who may wish to use them in achieving their selfish ends.

    “We have to be careful so as not to be used as instruments for personal and intra-party squabble…Look at the matter before you, look at the law and use the law to decide. It doesn’t matter who wins or losses, be careful. We should use the law to decide all political matters according to law because judiciary remains the hope of every man whether superman or ordinary man,” he said.

    It is, however, ironic that despite his affected desire to preserve the integrity of the nation’s judiciary and rule of law, Onnoghen has become the subject of a riotous debate among a motley crowd of politicians, journalists and Twitter activists, over his perceived violation of the law.

    Few days ago, the CJN was suspended by President Muhammadu Buhari for failing to declare his assets in full, before assuming office as CJN. Buhari issued the penalty, guided by the order of the Code of Conduct Tribunal of January 23rd. It will be recalled that the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) moved to arraign Onnoghen on a six-count charge of false asset declaration on Monday, January 14, seven days earlier.

    Onnoghen allegedly failed to declare his assets estimated at $3 million in domiciliary accounts.

    Responding to the charges, Onnoghen said he forgot to declare the assets, describing the non-declaration of his domiciliary accounts as a mistake.

    Perhaps like Yeats’ “old, learned, respectable bald heads,” he was truly forgetful of his “sins.” Perhaps not. The jury, however, dissembles in turmoil over the legality or not of Onnoghen’s forgetfulness and his suspension.

    Predictably, in the heat of the debate, parties routing for and against Onnoghen bandy diatribe, sculpted of spunk, relative truths, malice and outright lies. In the tumult of sophistry and righteous outrage, truth gets mortgaged and redefined along bigoted and sentimental paradigms.

    While asserting his mission statement in 2018, Onnoghen said he was desirous of leaving behind “a judiciary that has been returned to its glory as a noble and enviable institution in every sense of the word.”

    The possibility of achieving that dream morphs into a mirage, in the wake of his recent travails.

    But this is hardly the first time Nigeria would be jolted by perceived illegalities of judicial officers.

    Three years ago, the nation stirred to a rude nudge; following a seven-month sting operation, the Department of State Security (DSS) arrested seven judges across the three levels of the nation’s Federal High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, and recovered a huge cache of money in both local and foreign currencies in the arrested judges’ residences.

    Surprisingly, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and a sundry crowd of activists screamed indignation, issuing hasty threats and condemnation of the judges’ arrest and called for their release. But gradually, the juvenile outrage morphed into increasing citizenry support amid higher awareness of the perversion of the justice system by corrupt elements.

    The corruption of the judiciary, equally manifests in questionable judgements and judicial proceedings. It will be recalled that a magistrate court imposed a N2,000 fine on a former speaker of the House of representatives for forgery and perjury, while another magistrate court sentenced on a less connected citizen to 17 years imprisonment without an option of fine for the same class of offence.

    Likewise, a Federal High Court handed a former director in the civil service, a two year jail term, with a N250, 000 fine option after the latter admitted to taking part in the stealing of N32.8billion Police Pension fund, while yet another court sentenced another citizen to 45-year-imprisonment for stealing a mobile phone belonging to a state governor.

    In 1997, a study by the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) revealed that corruption was cited by 30 percent of judges, 54 percent of litigants, and 50 percent of lawyers as a major problem in the administration of justice. Likewise, a report released by the International Commission of Jurists on Nigeria stated, that, “judicial corruption remains a major concern, and between 2002 and 2005, no fewer than six superior court Judges, including two Justices of the Court of Appeal, were removed from their positions on charges of corruption, while a number of other judges were under investigation.”

    This certainly beggars the question: Who is a Nigerian jurist? Is he truly a brilliant and impartial social element, inured to the infinite perversions of justice personified by most lawyers, among other segments of the society?

    Is he a predator, frantically seeking to prey on legal loopholes and hapless victims of judicial excesses?

    Is he that remarkable cultural touchstone and custodian of morals? Or is he that unremarkable social element, whose existence is unmolested by the rumbling of a soul?

     

  • Onnoghen and his fair-weather friends

    Because of their judicial temperament, professional ethics, courage and integrity, Supreme Court judges ‘lead lives of probity, free from scandal, drama, rebellion and colour’. They hardly have friends.  Unarguably, CJN Walter Onnoghen fitted very well the picture of a good judge in our heads. He is never afraid to walk alone. It will be recalled he along with justices Maryam Aloma Muktar and Adesola Oguntade once wrote a powerful dissenting opinions in the controversial case of Muhammadu Buhari vs. Independent National Electoral Commission. But as Ken Saro-Wiwa once said, Africa kills its own ‘sun’. Onnoghen is probably the latest victim of the Nigerian system.

    The Nigerian ruling classes populated by senior lawyers are hardly known for their altruism. It is therefore not too much of a coincidence to see unanimity among PDP nation-wreckers and those who aided them in their war against Nigeria either as mandate snatchers or wreckers of the banking sector. The struggle to demonstrate who loves Onnoghen best started even before he was arraigned by before the CCT over non-declaration of assets which allegedly  include some 55 houses and some  $3m in five different bank accounts with 94 lawyers including 40 Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) led by Chief Oluwole Olanipekun. His admission of guilt “I forgot to make a declaration of my assets after the expiration of my 2005 declaration in 2009…Following my appointment as acting CJN in November, 2016, the need to declare my assets anew made me to realize the mistake” – seemed to have galvanized support of additional legal warriors. In the forefront of fair-weather friends from outside the CJN’s constituency was PDP supported by Atiku Abubakar, its flagbearer in 2019 election, Uche Secundus, the party chairman and senate president, Bukola Saraki.

    But because PDP thinks Nigerians have short memories, they probably believe Nigerians have forgotten the state of the judiciary during their 16 years reign.  Under Obasanjo (1999-2007), PDP had no faith in the judiciary. They settled disputes usually over sharing of seized assets by eliminating themselves. The party was described by Wole Soyinka as ‘a nest of killers’. Obasanjo, the chief security officer of state, was organizing a kangaroo panel of abducted five or half a dozen state lawmakers locked up in a hotel room and blackmailed to impeach governors of Bayelsa, Plateau and, Ekiti states and Oyo states. The judiciary looked the other way. Corruption stank to the high heavens.

    The following was the picture painted by Audu Ogbeh, one time chairman of PDP: “We are trying to battle with the rule of law; it is not working too well. There are jokes now that you shouldn’t pay a lawyer. It is better to pay a judge which the current Chief Justice (Maryam Aloma Murktar) is fighting because the judiciary got destroyed by politicians. I have been warning that if we carry on like this, the politicians will destroy the judiciary irreparably. The bribes are just too large and in foreign exchange, too attractive. People pack huge volumes of cash and go around at night, corrupting judges and making it impossible for them to give justice”.

    The judiciary under Umaru Yar’Adua was reduced to an arm of PDP with James Ibori using the police to hunt down or drive EFCC members that probed him and his friend, Bukola Saraki, out of the police force and the country. Ibori was freed by an Asaba High Court judge for the same offences that earned him 14 years imprisonment at a London court. Peter Odili, a Nigerian high court ruled, must not be probed for his alleged mismanagement of his state resources. Ex-governor Lucky Igbinedion got a pat on the arm for looting Edo State.

    Under President Jonathan, Ayo Fayose led a gang of thugs to beat up a judge inside his court room while the judiciary looked the other way.  Justice Isa Salami of the Appeal court was suspended for retrieving a stolen mandate from Segun Oni of Ekiti and Olagunsoye Oyinlola of Osun and for averring in a suit in court that Chief Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu had asked that the governorship election petition in Sokoto State be decided in favour of the candidate of the ruling party.

    Jonathan during the swearing-in-ceremony of the Justice Dahiru Musdapher, as CJN on September 27, 2011, spoke of the “widespread perception of a growing crisis of integrity in the judiciary”, while pointing out that “A partisan judge compromises his or her oath of office and acts unfairly. A corrupt judge disgraces the Bench on which he or she sits and the title that he or she wears”.

    But that was yesterday. Today PDP says “the attempt to drag the CJN to the CCT is a grave and dangerous escalation of the assault on institutions of state including the National Assembly and judiciary”. Atiku, Obasanjo’s accomplice in his illegal seizure of Lagos State LGA now says “Nigerians will resist any attempt by the Buhari presidency to intimidate the judiciary”. The Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, some of whose members are in court over alleged bribing of judges, is “urging respect for the constitution, the rule of law, separation of powers, due process and the proper administration of justice”.

    The president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Paul Usoro who is in court for alleged N1. 5b money laundering sees the Onnoghen case as a “continuing attack on the justice sector”.

    It is obvious that the concern of Onnoghen’s fair-weather friends is about jurisdiction, a technical method some senior lawyers often use to delay cases. Citing the Court of Appeal’s Justice Hyeladzira Nganjiwa case, Chief Mike Ozekhome asserted that: “The Federal prosecutors are also aware of extant decisions of the Court of Appeal, to the effect that unless and until the NJC pronounces a judicial officer guilty, he cannot be arraigned in court. But Professor Itse Sagay, trying to put the record straight has told Nigerians that “Those hiding behind jurisdiction are trying to cover up iniquities of some sort”. The NJC according to him has only power to determine administrative misconduct of judicial officers whereas what is before the CCT is a criminal allegation.

    For him, only a grossly ignorant man or an extremely mischievous one could seriously suggest that the CJN, who is not only the chairman of the NJC, but also the appointer of 20 out of the NJC’s 23 members adjudicate in his own case. Such will be, a clear violation, not only of the constitution but also of a long standing common law principle coming all the way from Magna Carta 1215.

    Just as the NJC betrayed the nation  during PDP 16 years, “It has also by its recent actions, according to the Special Adviser to the President on Prosecutions, Okoi Obono-Obla, “betrayed the nation when the body recalled Hon. Justice John Inyang Okoro of the Supreme Court, Hon. Justice Uwani Abba Aji of the Court of Appeal, Hon. Justice Hydiazira A. Nganjiwa of the Federal High Court, Hon. Justice A. F. A. Ademola of the Federal High Court, who has been discharged and acquitted, Hon. Justice Musa H. Kurya of the Federal High Court, and Hon. Justice Agbadu James Fishim of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria.” without any consultation  with the anti-corruption agencies and the DSS, that arrested them in the first place.

    Finally, those who probably pay money to Onnoghen’s account claim the case is all about politics. Tragically, Buhari and Osinbajo are no politicians or students of Machiavelli.  Lawyers who pay and the judge  who’s account was credited would have become government hostages without unnecessary dissipation of energy in the courts where bribes in foreign exchange, according to Audu Ogbeh, makes it impossible for judges to give justice.

  • Tale of two cities: Oyedepo’s Canaanland and Ota

    I visited Covenant University in Pastor Oyedepo’s Canaanland last week Tuesday, January 15, and left on Thursday 17 to participate in a weeklong mock United Nations General Assembly.

    This was a conference hosted by the university’s research clusters. The university also benefited from the United Nations Information Office in Lagos which provided information and intellectual support. Students came from many Nigerian universities such as Afe Babalola, Redeemer’s, Babcock, and the University of Liberia and several other institutions and officials of eight countries to mention a few. There were about 200 students as well as invited academics from a variety of Nigerian universities.

    I was one of the old hands invited to give a lecture at the plenary. It was an interesting and revealing experience for me. The students impressed me with their knowledge of the United Nations operations. I heard some of the students had previously participated in such conferences in Argentina and had been to the NewYork headquarters of the United Nations. Needless to say the conference which was hugely successful must have been a learning experience for the young people. I pray that some of these students will find their ways into their countries’ foreign services.

    I first visited Canaanland some 20 years ago out of curiosity. My unforgettable wife, Abiodun was then the pastor in charge of Jesus Chancery, a parish of the RCCG in Bodija Ibadan. She had heard about the magnificent edifice in Canaanland that could hold 50,000 worshippers at the same time and we were determined to see it. I drove her to the place because I knew the way to Ota which I had visited several times from 1979 onwards at the invitation of General Olusegun Obasanjo who then lived in his farm in the town. There was much traffic then between Lagos and Ota by members of the diplomatic corps who went there to visit Obasanjo as a way of escaping the boredom and chaos in Lagos. I remember the terrible state of the road leading to Ota. I wondered why the road did not catch Obasanjo’s attention before he left power in 1979. But as a Yoruba man, I understood his predicament. It is part of Yoruba morality not to favour oneself especially when one had others looking up to one in position of power. But when Obasanjo miraculously came back to power in 1999 after returning from Golgotha, I had thought he would fix the road before leaving in 2007. But nothing has changed in Ota. The motor-able road stopped at the boundary of Lagos. As one progresses to Ota, the situation becomes more and more intolerable. Finally, one gets to the flyover under which one has to turn left to the “express international highway” to the Republic of Benin and one grinds to full stop of absolute chaos with everybody struggling for the right of way while policemen and traffic wardens and highway marshals watch helplessly. The underpass under the flyover is blocked in a section while the sides of the underpass are lined by decrepit humanity at different stages of physical decay begging for alms. When eventually one makes it out of the underpass of the flyover, then one is faced with the dirtiest town on earth!

    Ota is an industrial town just outside Lagos. Several industries that cannot find space in Lagos have their manufacturing plants in Ota . This has led to flooding the town by Nigerians from everywhere in the country many bringing their dirty village ways of disposal of refuse right on the road of the town. The indigenous Awori people have been swamped and overwhelmed by the new immigrants while the people have been abandoned to their fate by the Ogun State government and the federal government. Ota is the headquarters of Ado- Odo/Ota Local Government. An international highway connecting Nigeria to Porto Novo in the Republic of Benin runs from Ota to Idi-Iroko to Benin. If only to put our best face forward, an international highway providing an opening to our West African world should not be left like this. This has security and foreign policy dimensions. My colleague,Professor Tony Asiwaju, an expert on borderlands has argued over the years that our borders should be well developed to engender the feeling of nationalism by citizens on the borders of the country so that they do not begin to look at the neighbouring country with feeling of desire. This could lead to some of them becoming fifth columnists in times of crisis. The people of Ota should not be put in a situation of this kind of temptation which will make them ask of what benefit is their remaining in Ogun State and Nigeria. Some of them, if given the chance would want to join their Awori kith and kin in Lagos State. But in the meantime Ota remains the dirtiest town in Nigeria.  Why has Ogun State abandoned the town? Is it because of the dispute with Lagos State over the manufacturing industries in Ota paying taxes to Lagos? Ogun State should force the issue by employing legal measures to collect taxes due to it.

    I suggest the whole town be closed down for some Saturdays and the inhabitants should be forced to sweep and remove their garbage from the roads while the Ogun State government should provide vehicles to remove the rubbish from collecting points. Legal action should be taken to compel the local government and the state government to discharge their responsibilities to the citizens. If this does not work, the people should be mobilized to demonstrate against their government.

    Nigeria which sees itself as the leading country in this subregion must do something on the inaccessibility of Ota to Lagos and the Republic of Benin. The road linking the two countries is a “prestige road” which cannot and must not be left in its present state of disrepair. Perception is sometimes decisive in international relations. A person coming into Nigeria from another West African country and entering Nigeria through this garbage covered town will have a wrong impression of our country.

    However, Covenant University in Ota’s dirty environment is one of the finest and most beautiful universities I have ever seen. God knows I have been to many universities in Canada, the USA and Europe. Covenant University is a cross between Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, Yale, Harvard and Cambridge universities in their exterior. It was a pleasant sight to see a Nigerian place with no potholes on the road and all the roads lined with trees. The staff buildings, student housing and auditoriums were simply impressive. I did not enter the library, the class rooms and the laboratories but saw the outside of them and the impressive stadium. I know the cloth does not make the monk but what I saw made me to pray for Bishop David Oyedepo who had the vision and followed that vision to the point of execution. Live long my dear Bishop! How I wish all our educational institutions were conceived and delivered like Covenant University. Whatever may be missing in in this citadel of learning within which academic excellence and innovation would thrive would be added to this God-inspired university as it matures. When Ota is cleaned up, many Nigerians would be able to visit and marvel at the miracle of Covenant University. If all private universities in Nigeria, 74 at the last count, were like Covenant University, the public universities would have to close down out of lack of patronage and shame of their underdevelopment.

  • Help! Our leaders need good doctors

    WHEN is a man sick? Is it when the body is diseased or when he lies in bed, writhing in pains and doctors are battling to save his life? What is the difference between being sick and being ill?

    In other words, who is healthy? To the World Health Organisation (WHO), health is “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. If so, can we presume that there are many people walking the street who are either sick or ill? How true is the assertion of leading psychiatrists that more Nigerians are battling mental illnesses? Some are even said to be mentally ill but unaware of it.

    Pardon the long preamble, dear reader. “Editorial Notebook” is not about to drag you on a needless voyage into the labyrinthine world of medicine. Nor am I reporting from a mental home. I am not even anywhere close to a hospital; malaria has decided to give me a break – in the spirit of the season, perhaps. Nor am I attempting to change my trade and become a doctor; it is too late.

    Here is the matter. I am quite curious about the way our leaders allude to common concepts of “health”, “sickness”, “illness” and such related matters to either analyse a political situation or shield themselves in some uncomfortable situations. And many of them are not doctors; in fact, they seem to need doctors.

    I will explain. When former President Olusegun Obasanjo issued a 16-page scurrilous statement in which he accused President Muhammadu Buhari of planning to rig the February 16 election and behaving like the late Gen. Sani Abacha (of dreadful memory), it was like an earthquake. The inciting effects reverberated from Abeokuta all the way to the seat of power in Abuja and beyond. It was, in the view of many attentive observers, a declaration of war by a General against another General. A fire-fight was on the way, we all feared. Panicky elders were calling for restraint.

    The Presidency saw it from a different and sober perspective. No anxiety. No shots fired. It simply gave the old warhorse a piece of advice – “he needs a good doctor for good treatment” and added that Obasanjo should “get well soon”.

    Many were taken aback by the Presidency’s reply. Is Obasanjo sick or ill? What is the nature of the problem? Did Buhari’s media man, Garba Shehu, who signed the Presidency’s statement, consult a doctor before issuing the advice? Will Obasanjo take the advice and see a doctor–to be reassured that all is well? What kind of doctor? A specialist or a general practitioner? It is all hazy.

    Obasanjo, cunning, cocky and foxy, takes no prisoners when it comes to verbal warfare. He is as brutal as they come. He fired back. Buhari, he said, is “sick in the spirit, body and soul”. Some theological perspective there.

    Suddenly, health has become a weapon for politics and politicians. Also finding it handy are pranksters, tricksters and gangsters. Why are our big men so enamoured of this phenomenon that has hobbled and humbled man for ages?

    Recall how former Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose swore that President Buhari was dying in a London hospital. He claimed to have photographs of the President on his sick bed and threatened to make them public if Nigerians would not be convinced that Buhari would not return to the Villa.

    It then turned out that Fayose had been scammed – Buhari returned, hale and hearty. And many were shocked, not about Buhari’s return, but Fayose’s glaring indiscretion. They were asking: “Fayose scammed? Incredible. Those must be the master scammers.”

    The former governor was later to deploy the health weapon on the eve of the July 14, last year governorship election. When the police fired some teargas canisters to disperse a crowd gathering for a rally, some landed in the Government House. His Excellency inhaled the smoke and collapsed. By the time his loyal aides who seemed to have been immune to the effect of the smoke rushed to his aid, he had broken his neck and arm. They poured water on his head to revive him before rushing him to the clinic where some inattentive doctors posing as specialists braced his neck wrongly and tied his broken arm to his broken neck. Remember?

    His Excellency was crying like a baby: “I am in pains. I am in severe pains… Fly me abroad.”

    There are also many big men – and women – whose health has become a subject of big debates in newsrooms, staffrooms and restrooms. Olisa Metuh – where in the world is the former PDP spokesman? Frail and weak, he was stretchered into an Abuja court where lawyers were struggling to convince the Judge that he needed medical attention and could not stand trial for alleged diversion of N400m from the Office of the National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki.

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has asked the court to revoke Metuh’s bail. He has been absent from the court twice, consecutively.

    Former Oil Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke has been away in the United Kingdom for years. She claims to be suffering from cancer – his lawyers swear this is true. Diezani, rich, powerful and beautiful, used to be a member of the kitchen cabinet of former President Goodluck Jonathan, who once confessed to have been caged. She is believed to be one of those who “caged” His Excellency.

    The EFCC is battling to get Diezani repatriated and prosecuted for alleged fraud. Not an easy task, I dare say. The woman may simply check into a hospital where doctors will certify her not fit to travel let alone face a trial that will be as rigorous as can be imagined.

    After an eight-day standoff with the police, Senator Dino Melaye surrendered. He was helped into the car that took him to the police office where he suddenly collapsed. He was rushed to hospital. A few days after, doctors certified him fit to face questioning for alleged homicide. The senator representing the good people of Kogi West insisted that he was not fit and would not be discharged from hospital.

    The game went on for days during which observers were arguing whether Melaye was ill or sick or both.  One quiet morning, some security personnel stormed the clinic, yanked Melaye off the bed and dumped him in detention. He has been granted bail. Ever since, the loquacious and boisterous senator has remained quiet. Unusually so. Perhaps he is still of poor health. Poor guy.

    When former Abia State Governor Orji Kalu was hospitalised in Germany recently, many felt he was trying to dodge a court matter. Not even his photograph on his sick bed would clear the doubts about his intentions. Instead of spending one year in Germany, His Excellency returned home, thanked Nigerians for praying for him and hit the road to campaign for a senatorial seat.

    Back to Obasanjo.  Prof. Itse Sagay, the renowned law teacher, has since joined the huge row sparked by Obasanjo’s comments on the Buhari administration. He says Obasanjo is suffering from “Power Withdrawal Syndrome (PWS)”. Is this also a medical condition? He goes on to explain that Obasanjo “accuses his successors of doing what he did repeatedly, without a thought for his own gross misdeeds”. This, Sagay says authoritatively, is amnesia. And many have been asking: “Has Sagay taken a crash programme in medicine?”

    Is amnesia a serious medical condition or  mere forgetfulness to which all human beings–including the high and the mighty–are susceptible?

    Why does Sagay feel so strongly that Obasanjo has been hit by amnesia?  Some have been suggesting that he may have been thinking about some events that happened during his presidency–kidnapping of former Anambra Governor Chris Ngige, impeachment of some governors, removal of Senate presidents and rights abuses.

    There seems to be a big health crisis among our leaders. Where can we find good doctors?

     

    A jackpot hunt goes awry

    It is incredible what some of our compatriots can do for money. Some are busy collecting women’s underpants, which they believe could be useful in money making rituals. Sounds so foolish. Others are killing for rituals and kidnapping for money. Such savagery sounds incredible.

    But what do we say of a 27-year-old man who has lost an eye in a desperate quest for spiritual powers in aid of his battle to hit the lotto jackpot. Emmanuel Okachi, a newspaper report said, engaged a witchdoctor in Ishiagu village, near Ogwashi-Uku in Delta State for powers to see “lucky numbers” and win big in the Baba Ijebu lotto.

    The witchdoctor prepared some concoction for Okachi to drink and rub on his eyes. He did. Then the left eye got swollen. He rushed to hospital but doctors could not save the eye. Okachi lost it – to greed and idiocy.

    The story remains incomplete. How much did Okachi pay the witchdoctor? Who is he? Why has he gone into hiding? Is he not proud of his trade? If he has such powers why hasn’t he used them to help himself?

    Our virtues – hard work, rectitude and honesty – are gone. The youth do not believe there is a righteous route to wealth; they must cut corners. In the end, foolishness has its pains – loss of dignity and, sometimes, physical wellbeing – and patience its gains – peace of mind and attainment of enviable feats.

    Our youths should embrace the latter. An easy come, easy go life is perilous.

  • Obasanjo again!

    FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo pulls no punches in a duel.  As a soldier and a general to boot, his combat like approach to issues can be understandable. He is not afraid to speak his mind, no matter whose ox is gored. Whenever he perceives things are not going on well, he intervenes, calling on the leadership to mend its way. At times, the intervention may be for personal reasons and not in the national interest.

    Without doubt, our nation needs people like him who can speak out once in a while to shake things up or rouse the powers-that-be from slumber. There is no leader in recent memory that Obasanjo has not taken on, be they those he helped to install and those he never supported. To him, they are fair game. Yes, he has a right,  just like every other Nigerian, to speak whenever he feels like, but he cannot abuse that right by donning the toga of Mr Know All.

    That, to many, has been his attitude in his relationship with those who succeeded him after he left office in 2007. Obasanjo, they say, wants to be in the driver’s seat always. He wants to call the shots and dictate to the man at the helm. Where he does not have his way, he resorts to attacking them. President Muhammadu   Buhari came to office with his knowledge. There was nothing he did not say about Buhari before the 2015 elections when he battled former President Goodluck Jonathan to no end. His slogan then was : ”Anything but Jonathan”. He said Buhari had all it takes to be president, explaining that he has known the President since their days in the military. Last year, in a special statement, he descended on Buhari, saying the President has made a mess of running the country. He advocated a third force to take over from Buhari this year. On Sunday, he continued from where he stopped last year when he accused the President of dictatorship – a tag which watchers say best fits Obasanjo in his days in office.

    ‘Today, another Abacha era is here. The security institutions are being misused to fight all critics and opponents of Buhari and to derail our fledgling democracy. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), police and Code of Conduct Tribunal are also being equally misused to deal with those Buhari sees as enemies for criticising him or those who may not do his bidding in manipulating election results”, Obasanjo said in his statement titled: Points for concern and action. He expressed what he called serious concern over the capability of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct free, fair and credible elections, adding that one of its national commissioners, Mrs Amina Zakari, has become too controversial to be part of the process.

    Many analysts are bemused by his submissions. They find it hard to believe that Obasanjo could issue such a statement. “Is it not the same Obasanjo that used the EFCC to hound Governors Rashidi Ladoja (Oyo), Ayo Fayose (Ekiti), Joshua Dariye (Plateau) and Diepreye Alamieyeseigha (Bayelsa) until they were unlawfully impeached by their lawmakers?” they asked. Their impeachment was overturned by the court. The same Obasanjo, they said,  used then Ekiti State Resident Electoral Commissioner Mrs Ayoka Adebayo to manipulate the governorship election in Ido Osi in 2007 for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    To them, Obasanjo has no moral right to address Buhari the way he did. They believe that he should first remove the log in his own eyes before he removes the speck in others’  eyes. Will he heed their advice?

     

    The Americana

     

    LONG before he went to
    America last Thursday, the
    Federal Government had made a big deal of the issue. It is electioneering season and everything is considered fair in this contest for power. Sometime last year, the government said it had learnt that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, had applied for an American visa. The government advised the United States (US) Consulate against granting him the visa in order not to be seen as supporting Atiku’s presidential bid. Well, I do not know what informed the government’s  action, but it was certainly not a good move. What is the government’s business with Atiku going to the US? Will the trip earn him victory at the February 16 poll?

    These are some of the questions the government should have considered before raising hell over who gets an American visa or not.  Why did the government take that path after taunting Atiku that he cannot visit America because he has a case to answer there. Atiku has gone to America and returned home. He went, he saw and he came back without any hitch. Some are saying that he was not arrested because he enjoyed the diplomatic cover of Senate President Bukola Saraki, who went with him. That cannot be true because being in the entourage of the Senate President cannot grant you immunity from arrest in a nation where you are wanted. The truth is Atiku has broken the yoke of ”he cannot visit America” that was hanging over his neck.  But will the trip translate to victory for him at the poll? That is the big question.

     

    Minimum wage war

     

    ON Tuesday, the Council of State (CoS) took a stand on the minimum wage. It advised the Federal Government to pay its workers N30,000. States and the private sector were advised to pay N27,000. The Council’s stand may  be informed by the need to resolve the wage debacle without ruffling feathers. Indeed, the tripartite committee headed by Ama Pepple, former head of service, recommended N30,000 for the least paid worker. The government had proposed N24,000,  the states, N22,700 and labour backed down from its N56,000 demand to accept N30,000. The issue is highly contentious and all the parties should be ready to give and take in order to resolve it. With labour rejecting what it called disparity in the wage, interesting days surely lie ahead. Really, there is nothing to write home about between the N30,000 and N27,000. In as much as we understand labour’s position, may we appeal to the body to tread softly in the interest of all. Easy, they say, does it.

  • Indignation could be paid for

    That Muhammadu Buhari and Yemi Osinbajo may emerge winners of the 2019 presidential elections is a given. Fans of the duo would applaud this. Their haters and cynics would find fault with the claim.

    But reality bites in vicious mouthfuls. In time, some would learn to live with the truth. Many would, however, choose to cut their nose to spite their face, by rooting for Atiku Abubakar and company.

    I would say, Atiku is mere sentiment, and most of the other candidates personify a dud joke, like minstrels of a political jest gone awry. Whatever the tenor of praise or vitriol aroused by my claims, it would be tawdry, to boot.

    Now that I have incited your wrath, what colour is your indignation? Is it “onion brown, hell-red, or currency-green? Does it have a price tag? Certainly, it should. For you wouldn’t be fulfilling that sublime quality of Nigerianness, if your choler isn’t paid for.

    My heartfelt apology to the ‘patriot,’ whose outrage is unsullied by money and random bigotries.

    But we are at that point when new expediences and indignations are manufactured in our volatile mills. Last general elections, religion, hard currencies and tribalism were fed to our infernal factory thus turning many voters into insentient robots.

    You see, indignation too could be paid for. It is often paid for. Hence at the forthcoming polls, many a vote cast shall amount to a reduction of self, by an electorate divided by baleful biases and socio-economic currencies.

    As you read, critics, political thugs, and goons-for-hire are in bed with each other, in service of often shady aspirants, in a cycle, Arundhati Roy would call, a revolving bed in a cheap motel. Journalists, youth leaders, traditional rulers, women leaders, and civil societies are snuggled up under the sheets too.

    It’s hard to keep track of the partners; they change so fast. Each new baby they make becomes the latest progeny of the means to subjugate and further impoverish the hapless electorate, in flagrant Roy-speak.

    This brings us back to the Buhari/Osinbajo candidacy; some have argued, that, the moral bent of both men hasn’t enough juice, to fuel their re-election caravan, but whatever the slant of disillusionment affected by their critics, the fact subsists, that, the incumbent President and Vice President, with the support of a few like-minded patriots, have steered the Nigerian ship across stormy seas, on to a more pliant course.

    Of course, their job isn’t half done. While glowing initiatives, like their implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), a tidier business clime and decimation of Boko Haram, represent progressive indices they could build upon, they do not totally absolve their leadership of inadequacies. But then, is there ever a perfect government?

    Their next time out, Buhari and Osinbajo should commit at least, 30 percent, of Nigeria’s annual budget to the health and education sectors – split 15 percent per sector and thus sow the seeds for growth in the spirit of global development goals. They could also make history by facilitating a permanent surgical trimming of recurrent expenditure, and the decisive prosecution and sentencing of the corrupt.

    These are some of my wishes for Nigeria, were they to be re-elected. I would say, Atiku and Peter Obi couldn’t muster the will to effect such progressive measures even if it were incised in their psyches and frantic manifesto. Atiku is hobbled by Atiku. And Obi is hobbled by Atiku. Certainly, the possibility of victory for the duo is a no-brainer, it would seem.

    Yet Nigeria must savour the Atiku/Obi candidature, for presenting a semblance of challenge. Hardly any other candidate displays the ingenuity and promise, emblematic of dependable presidential candidates. So far, they have established their candidacy on a bedrock of sophistry, lip service, and blame-casting.

    Indeed, the best role anyone could assume is that of a critic; the Presidential Aspirants Coming Together (PACT) fiasco, has revealed the moral, ideological inadequacies of Nigeria’s league of self-acclaimed messiahs.

    The only hope in sight is the Buhari/Osinbajo candidacy. Only the duo seems invested with the decisiveness and courage required to implement a radical, progressive overhaul of the country’s socio-politics.

    But they can’t achieve this without a vibrant middle class. Could they initiate and sustain policies that would guarantee, the emergence and continuity of a spirited middle class?

    Marx and Engels correctly assert, that, revolutions are unachievable by the poor because they provide the primary fodder for the goons, militias, and thugs employed by politicians to grab power at all costs.

    The breadlines thereby constitute a dangerous divide, whom impoverishment has reduced “to bribed tools of reactionary intrigue.”

    Thus the questions about the true nature of the Nigerian electorate: How politically literate are they? How amenable are voters to incitement, bribe, and wanton emotionality?

    Poverty and illiteracy, no doubt, constitute social, psychological handicaps hobbling their capacity for informed choices at ballot time, hence the preponderance of voters susceptible to dark propaganda, ethnoreligious bigotries, and violence, all craftily marshalled to fulfill political aspirants’ inordinate ambitions.

    The situation, I reiterate, requires urgent intervention, lest the prevalent sense of entrapment and despair, drives the impoverished to stage bloody revolts a la Boko Haram.

    Common causal factors of insurgencies include widening income gaps, and a leadership insensate to rising socio-economic inequalities. Victims become generally tense and frustrated. Eventually, they become vulnerable to tensions created by their failure to gratify their economic needs, amid unstable social relationships.

    Thus deprived citizenry are unlikely to achieve a successful rebellion or revolution, by themselves. It is rather a disenfranchised middle class and alienated members of the ruling class who orchestrate and lead such a revolt, argues James Davies.

    The middle class and youths, who should personify the Nigerian spring are, however, bristling with uninspiring badges, notably political parties’ membership cards, guns, cudgels, bribes, and mindless bigotries, masterminded by parties and politicians.

    They are like bond slaves turned weapons of mass destruction; thugs, propagandists, urchins et al. For the assassinations, misinformation, arson, mugging and other heinous tasks they perform, they aren’t interchangeable with the politicians’ wards; the latter are meant for nobler tasks and offices, like the governorship, senatorial, managerial, presidential seats.

    Where children of the electorate serve as cannon fodder for political violence, the possibility of a peaceful revolt by balloting, is forever, muted. The citizenry is consequently eunuchised.

    It is saddening to see Nigeria’s youth and prospective middle class misappropriate dissent; for instance, they are demanding to succeed the incumbent ruling class, hoping power would be “shared” or awarded to them, like benefits on a sweepstake.

    Some, having realised their wrongness in approach, coalesced into movements, like the #NotTooYoungtoRunGroup (NTYTRG) and the Presidential Aspirants Coming Together (PACT), to choose a younger, consensus candidate within their ranks, and counter the influence and spending power of the big parties and oligarchs.

    But alas! Their passion for power translates to gibberish; since they could only muster sweetened banality against the opposition’s washed-out bromides, they dissemble under an interpretative cloud.

    Loss is what you experience, after you trade the possibility of freedom, for sound bites and a token. The vote flowers trauma, where citizenry angst suffers the leash of a price tag.

    Re-electing Buhari/Osinbajo could yet avail Nigeria her rite of riddance of unmeasured miseries.

     

     

  • On the CJN’s fate, no comments

    WE had thought it was the biggest show in town.  A bedridden senator, who has been declared fit by doctors, clinging to his bed. Masked security men storm the clinic, yank him off the bed and dump him in a detention centre where he lies flat on the ground. Immobile.

    Then a big argument breaks out. Is Senator Dino Melaye ill or sick or both? Or just in a sulk? Is he a prankster or a trickster? A mere jester? No comments.

    As the debate continues, a bigger show opens in another part of town, featuring no less a personality than the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN). Again, our soothsayers have never been this right on target; this is a year of drama.

    It all began in whispers—CJN Walter Onnoghen would face charges for gaps in his asset declaration. The CJN in the dock? Incredible.

    The facts of the mater:  CJN Onnoghen is alleged to have failed to declare his assets and liabilities within three months of taking office. He is said to have omitted some accounts with foreign and local currencies in the form he filled and submitted. Specifically, some $300,000 did not feature in the document.

    His Lordship, being one not to submit to intimidation by mere mortals, confidently came out to accept ownership of the accounts. He forgot to declare that he had the cash, he said, and perhaps thought the simple matter had ended – until the CCT summons arrived at his doorstep. Some have said the CJN, being human, could be susceptible to that common foible – forgetfulness. He assigns all those serious cases, many of them dealing with life and death; others involving huge sums of money. Yet, there are cases involving power; politics and politicians. He is expected to have details of all cases at his fingertip and must be able to recall them with the speed of a computer. So, if he forgets some cash in some bank’s vaults in one decrepit corner of the capital city, they said, so what?

    Again, no comments, lest “Editorial Notebook” is charged with contemptu curie. This is a matter before a court of competent jurisdiction and comments could be subjudice, a lawyer has told me.

    In a jiffy, it all became a matter for public debate, with everybody donning the toga of a legal expert. To be fair, legal giants led the way. Some said Justice Onnoghen, being a judicial officer, should have been reported to the National Judicial Council (NJC). Others disagreed. The allegations, they said, border on the declaration of His Lordship’s assets and the CJN, being a public official, should face the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), which has been set up to try such matters – exclusively.

    We have been through this route before. It was a big debate when security personnel raided the homes of judges in the dead of the night and hauled out tonnes of cash in local and foreign currencies. Was the raid right? Should judges be treated like ordinary mortals? Do they have the right to keep cash vaults at home? Should sources of their cash be questioned? Don’t they trust our banks with their hard-earned money? Are they afraid some banks may collapse and vanish with the rewards of their sweat? This is complex for an innocent amicus curiae. So, no comments.

    To some legal giants – one, an emotional fellow, obviously, said on television that he was depressed and unable to eat after learning that the CJN was to fight for his integrity at the CCT – no situation on earth should compel His Lordship to stand in the dock to be asked after a long list of charges had been read out: “Are you guilty or not?” He should rather be at the NJC, away from the prying and penetrating eyes of the public, a public that revels in jungle justice and mob action. That, they insisted, is the procedure.

    In the view of others, at the level of the CJN, the procedure should not matter more than the substance of the matter – when his integrity is in question. The CJN, they said, is like Caeser’s wife, he should be above board. Always. Did he do it or not? That question, they maintained, is the most vital of all and must be answered in public. Stalemate.

    Then politics crept in. Southsouth governors, except Edo State’s Godwin Obaseki, held an emergency meeting and said it was all an assault on the region – the CJN is from Cross River State. They resolved that Justice Onnoghen should shun the tribunal.

    He did. A large army of lawyers was there to represent him. In fact, many Senior Advocates rose in defence of Milord. Some ordinary folks who are not privileged to be lawyers; who are not learned – and may never be –  began to make insinuations that the CJN’s case attracted them like bees to honey because they wanted to be counted among the knights in shinning armours defending the system. Not some who had clearly shown hostility, believing that members of the  Bench are also human and can be corrupted. Again, no comments.

    Were the governors right? Are those who call them anarchists right? Did they behave like statesmen? Were they expected to see this as a regional matter? What is going on in their hearts? Is any of them part of the indiscretion that may have sparked this problem? Do they think at the end of this matter, some stain could be found on their immaculate white garments?  It is neither here nor there – for now. So, for me again, no comments.

    As I was saying, the matter of the CJN and his assets became the subject of political postulations and permutations. Why now? Who is behind it all? The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was the unseen architect of the CJN’s unenviable fate. PDP accused APC of trying to annex the Judiciary, weaken it and render it powerless to tackle the disputes that may arise from this year’s elections.  The APC said the behaviour of the PDP Southsouth governors suggested that they had more than a regional interest in the matter. In fact, claimed the APC, that Justice Onnoghen did not appear before the tribunal showed that there was “some affinity between the PDP and a section of the judiciary”.

    Who is correct? Some commentators have noted that the PDP seems to be crying more than the bereaved. Is it? To such observers, the party has refused to look at the substance of the case. Does it believe that the APC actually wants to cripple the Judiciary to win the elections? Why is PDP damn sure that there will be disputes which the Judiciary will have to resolve?  What proof has the PDP? Will they be ready to tender it? Has APC done anything on this matter to make it open to such scurrilous attacks from the PDP? I refrain from commenting on these matters for obvious reasons.

    Our humourists are simply incredible. They have seized upon the CJN matter to amuse everyone. Consider this from the ubiquitous social media: “A man appears in a packed market and begins to scream: Breaking News! Breaking News! CJN Resigns. Chiejina John  Nnadi resigns from his teaching job. Details later.”

    In humour, truth resides; if it is not truthful, it will not be humorous. Some moral purists have asked the CJN to throw in the towel. Their view is that should the case go all the way, the person and the office may be forever tainted. Others have said the CJN should sit tight, insisting that the procedure is more important than the substance of the case. Who is right? What is going on in His Lordship’s mind? Is he at peace with himself?

    Anyway, I insist on my right not to say a word on all this.  No comments.

     

    A new chief for the police

    WITH the appointment of Mohammed Abubakar Adamu as Acting Inspector General of Police, those who vowed to protest should Ibrahim Idris’ tenure be extended have gone quiet.  The President took the wind out of their sail.

    A lot has been said about the process.           A group of Deputy Inspectors General will have to go now that an Assistant Inspector General (AIG) has been vaulted to the exalted seat of IG. This, said analysts, should not be so because it is a waste of human and material resources. These officers were trained with public funds in some of the best institutions. Now they have to go, just like that. It is curious that none among the Deputy Inspectors General is found worthy of the job.

    Adamu

    Idris, many have said, is leaving a police with low morale. Protests by policemen were unheard of; they became common under Idris. Haphazard postings destroyed espirit  de corps among men and officers. There were moral  and immoral issues. Personal battles were fought as state battles. Rights were abused and a huge protest was mounted against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) for its brutality. On the eve of Idris’ departure, it was not really clear who occupied the commissioner’s seat in Lagos. That was not tidy – like many features of his tenure.

    It is to his credit, however, that many suspected criminals were seized and made to stop troubling innocent citizens.

    Idris is out. Adamu is in. A new day beckons for the police. Will Adamu seize the day?