The Nation Newspaper

Category: Gabriel Amalu

  • EEDC’s dangerous disco

    By Gabriel Amalu

     

    The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) is playing a dangerous disco, and her customers are not amused. Ordinarily, when a disc jockey plays, the body gyrates in ecstasy, but the disco blaring from the EEDC, which is the monopoly in charge of electricity distribution in the Southeast, can be likened to a dance of death, and so the customers reject it.

    Instead of giving her customers pre-paid meters, it is removing installed pre-paid meters and reverting customers back to estimated billing.

    Yes, as strange as it sounds, the EEDC claims to be phasing out some of its pre-paid meters, and is replacing them with estimated billing.

    To achieve what is clearly an unconscionable business plan, the DISCO simply make it impossible for the owners of the pre-paid meters to re-charge when their token has finished, and if they want electricity, they must revert to estimated billing. According to EEDC officials, the concerned meters are not state-of-the-art and they have decided to phase them out.

    It is strange that while the Speaker of the House of Representatives Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, is campaigning for the criminalisation of estimated billing, the EEDC is forcing her customers back to estimated billing.

    Perhaps, they believe the speaker cannot muster the passage of the bill, or they have received assurances from the senate or the presidency that the bill will not see the light of the day? What is giving the EEDC the confidence to play such a dangerous disco for her customers?

    The governors of the Southeast and their representatives at the national and state houses of assemblies must rise up and defend their people.

    Agreed that electricity is in the exclusive legislative list in the 1999 constitution, but it is those who elected them into their various offices that are being exploited, by EEDC. So, they should speak-up and put pressure on the federal government and its agencies, to stop the abuse of monopoly in the region by the EEDC.

    They should not wait until there is a breakdown of law and order before they intervene. It is bad enough that the criminality of charging people for services not rendered is allowed by relevant authorities, but it will be a double whammy for those who have passed through the eye of a needle, to obtain their meters in the past, to now lose them, and again become hapless victims of state sanctioned criminal exploitation, called estimated billing.

    After all, it is the authorities that made distribution companies monopolistic, and so must stop them from criminalising such monopolies.

    Considering the difficulties customers go through to obtain meters, including paying huge bribes to officials of distribution companies, it is better imagined, the losses incurred by those affected by the withdrawal of pre-paid meters by the EEDC.

    There is no doubt that DISCOS prefer to give estimated bills, and that is why they have made it excruciating for customers to obtain the pre-paid meters. Using the estimated billing, the DISCOS do not bother about rendering efficient services, as they foist the costs on the customers.

    They do not bother about fishing out those who unlawfully tap electricity from their supply lines; they also do not bother about the loss of watts of electricity from dilapidated equipment; they do not worry about their rogue staffs who connive with dubious customers to connect illegally at odd hours.

    They simply lump the good, the bad and the ugly together, and share their cost and profit estimation amongst the consumers. Of course, such laisser-faire attitude to business promotes inefficiency, but instead of suffering the consequences, the DISCOS simply pass-on the incurred costs to consumers.

    It has also become clear that DISCOS choose not to supply electricity to areas where majority of customers are on normal pre-paid meters or estimated billing system, except in places where higher but clearly unlawful tariffs are agreed.

    In those places, the customers are cajoled to sign up to pay higher tariffs, in order to get steady supply, while those on regular pre-paid are denied electricity. For those on estimated billing, it turns a double whammy, as they are forced to pay for darkness, just for the few hours of supply in a month.

    Read Also: Electricity tariff hike: Abuja traders, artisans snub DisCo

     

    That is the criminality by electricity distribution companies, across the country that the amendment to the criminalisation of estimated billing bill championed by Hon. Femi Gbajabiamilla seeks to stop.

    Of note, during the Christmas break, some communities in Enugu State where compelled to pay huge portions of their estimated bills, with the promise that they would enjoy regular electricity supply during the yuletide. Shamelessly, after pocketing the payments, many of the communities were left in darkness, from the eve of the Christmas until after the New Year.

    In the midst of these glaring inefficiencies and gross abuse of their monopolies by the DISCOS, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) empowered to stop such abuses in the sector, instead of being pro-people agreed to a tariff increase by April of this year.

    This column is happy that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila and the Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu have both spoken against the planned tariff hike, until the amendment to the law criminalizing estimated billing is passed into law.

    I urge those affected by the criminal extortion for services not rendered, and all persons of goodwill to join in the battle cry, and ensure that no tariff increase takes place, until the amendment to the law criminalizing estimated billing has been passed and signed into law.

    If the NERC want to support the increment of tariff, it should first support the amendment to criminalize estimated billing. It is unconscionable on their part, to support the glaring criminality of extorting citizens for services not rendered.

    Again, the promise by the speaker that any increase must be cost effective and not based on the whimsical interest of the beneficiaries of the scam is welcomed. The speaker and the members should pursue the promised sequence of action with every vigour.

    First the passage and signing into law, of the amendment bill, before any increment in tariff, as approved by NERC. The extortion against Nigerians has no party colour, and so the bipartisan approach in the House is commendable.

    With respect to the removal of some pre-paid meters by EEDC, I also urge the NERC to compel the distribution company to stop. They can only replace a pre-paid meter with another pre-paid meter. It should be forward movement, not backward movement, more so when the intention is to bring more economic pains to the consumer.

     

    • Happy new year, dear readers!!

     

  • Right to education

     

    The report that 38 percent of Nigerians are illiterates, explains the high rate of crime in our society. The figure was given recently, by the Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, while asking for support to a bill he sponsored, seeking to make basic education a fundamental right.

    If the speaker is interested in making history, instead of a piecemeal restoration of the dignity of fellow Nigerians, he should sponsor a bill to repeal section 6(6)(c) of the 1999 constitution (as amended).

    While the 1999 constitution is not autochthonous, its provisions on fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy, in chapter II, and that on fundamental rights in chapter IV, where framed in tandem with the Universal Declaration of Rights, the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, and similar international fundaments on which our claim to common humanity is based. So, if chapter II of the constitution is restored as justiciable right, it would restore dignity to Nigerians.

    It is unfair that after the far-reaching provisions of chapter II were made, persons of vagrant mind in the constitution making process, inserted the contradictory section 6(6)(c), which took away what the constitution gave in that far-reaching chapter.

    Although our present elite has not exhibited such potentials, they could learn from the words of the Singaporean avatar, Lee Kuan Yew, who took his country by the bootstraps and dragged it into modernity.

    In his book, From Third World to First, he postulated: “The other valuable asset we have was our people – hardworking, thrifty, eager to learn.

    Although divided into several races, I believed a fair and even handed policy would get them to live peacefully together, especially if such hardships as unemployment were shared equally and not carried mainly by the minority groups.

    It was crucial to keep united Singapore’s multi-lingual, multicultural, multi-religious society, and make it rugged and dynamic enough to compete in modern markets.”

    Of course the road to that Eldorado is strewn with enormous hard work, and there are no signs that the present elite has such contemplation in mind. But such an egalitarian society is the vision of chapter II of the constitution, and the National Assembly instead of quarrelling over the so-called constituency projects, which is akin to a fractional part of the vision, should restore chapter II to parity with chapter IV, as a wholesome effort to start the difficult process of nation building.

    Chapter II starts with the fundamental obligation of government. In section 13, it provides: “It shall be the duty and responsibility of all organs of government, and of all authorities and persons, exercising legislative, executive or judicial powers, to conform to, observe and apply the provisions of this chapter of this constitution.”

    It then went on in section 14(2)(b) to state that: “It is hereby accordingly declared that – the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government….”

    The chapter listed lofty objectives on political, economic, social, educational, environmental, cultural, and ethical principles of a modern state.

    It also listed the national objectives on foreign policy, mass media and duties of the citizens. On educational objectives, section 18(1) provides succinctly: “Government shall direct its policy towards ensuring that there are equal and adequate educational opportunities at all levels.”

    The sub-section 3 provides: “Government shall strive to eradicate illiteracy and to this end government shall as and when practicable provide – free, compulsory and universal primary education; free university education, and free adult literacy programme.”

    If the above provision and others become obligatory, there would be less resources to steal, and even lesser for the criminal self-aggrandizement our governing elite engage in, by way of unconstitutional emoluments.

    The savings from this would ensure the implementation of section 16(2)(d) which provides: “The state shall direct its policy towards ensuring – that suitable and adequate shelter, suitable and adequate food, reasonable national minimum wage, old age care and pensions, and unemployment, sick benefits and welfare of the disabled are provided for all citizens.”

    Clearly making chapter II justiciable would promote the greatest good for the greatest number, for Nigerians. And so, the Speaker and his colleagues should concentrate their efforts on deleting section 6(6)(c) which is anti-democratic and duplicitous.

    The obnoxious section provides: “The judicial powers vested in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this section – shall not, except as otherwise provided by this constitution, extend to any issue or question as to whether any act or omission by any authority or person or as to whether any law or any judicial decision is in conformity with the fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy set out in chapter II of this constitution.”

    Read Also: Reps to make free education fundamental right of Nigerians

     

    I urge the Speaker and his colleagues in the National Assembly to make history, by excising that section from the constitution. So that Nigerians can compel governments at all levels to spend the nation’s resources for the benefit of the citizens.

    A situation where the per capita budget for education is abysmally low can then be challenged in the courts by aggrieved persons, based on the legal maxim of ubi jus ibi remedium. Because where there is a right, the courts will grant a remedy.

    As Lord Holt CJ, said in Ashby vs. White: “If the plaintiff has a right he must of necessity have the means to vindicate it, and a remedy, if he is injured in the exercise of it, and indeed it is a vain thing to imagine a right without a remedy, for want of right and remedy are reciprocal.”

    The citizens would also be entitled to challenge the bogus expenditure on the maintenance of government officials, including the unconscionable emoluments of members of the National Assembly.

    Until the courts are imbued with the power to adjudicate on the socio-economic rights of Nigerians, some of the rights provided in chapter IV of the constitution would amount to mere platitudes.

    How can citizens truly exercise their fundamental right to life, when they lack the basic necessities of food, clothing and shelter? Since our legislators are selfish, the courts should engage in judicial activism, and infer the inclusion of socio-economic rights as integral to the fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution.

    As succinctly expounded by Justice P. N. Bhagwatt, former Chief Justice of India and Convenor of the Judicial Colloquium in Bangalore:

    “The right to life is not confirmed merely to physical existence but it includes also the right to live with basic human dignity – with the basic necessities of life such as food, health, education, shelter etc….”

    Dear Reader, this column wishes you a merry Christmas and Happy New Year, as yours sincerely proceeds on a Christmas break.

  • Peace departs

    Few weeks ago, Chief Allen Onyema, founder of the Air Peace airline, was the toast of Nigerians.

    The business mogul had recently invested over N300 million, to clean shame from the face of the country, on the international scene. He had sent his aircraft to South Africa to evacuate stranded Nigerian men, women and children, who had become targets of xenophobic attacks.

    Many of those evacuated had become economic refugees, and needed the lift to make it back to Nigeria.

    So, Onyema, like instant coffee, turned a national hero, by that act. Again, like Okonkwo, in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Onyema’s fame quickly spread far and wide, and I could imagine him walking with the gait of Amalinze the cat, the famed wrestler, whose back would never touch the earth, until Okonkwo threw him in a fight.

    I would not be surprised if Onyema had received a call on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari congratulating him for his act of patriotism.

    The fate of the Nigerians had become a subject of humiliation in the hands of those who had forgotten how we feed and clothed them, when they were in the apartheid prison.

    The intervention became a form of spiritual pilgrimage for Nigerians. Each time Air Peace departed Nigeria en-route to South Africa, our country men and women spiritually journeyed with the crew, as they navigated thousands of nautical miles until they landed safely.

    When the South African authorities raised some technical mumbo-jumbo about landing rights, Onyema was at peace with the delay, not minding the further costs incurred.

    The national adulation for Air Peace chief executive became so loud that some persons started clamouring for the airline to be accorded the status of the national carrier.

    Of note, in a space of few years, Air Peace had become the dominant airline in the country, and was making plans to become a regional and international player. Everything seemed to be going well for the airline, and there were rumours that Onyema may throw his hat into the political ring, with the fame and fortune that had come his way.

    Just like Okonkwo, Onyema had become known throughout the federation, when suddenly the American criminal justice system, appear to conspire to break the season of fame for the owner of the Air Peace airline.

    Has Onyema committed an offence of strict liability, like Okonkwo who in a fit of justifiable anger beat his wife Ojiugo, in the ‘week of peace’? The indictment against Onyema talked about alleged illegitimate transfers from Nigeria to America, and not about illegitimate earnings.

    Would that become an albatross, to weigh down Air Peace, or merely a misdemeanour for which Onyema may be asked to pay a fine, like Okonkwo for beating Ojiugo?

    Or is Onyema going to pay heavily, like Okonkwo did, for the accidental discharge that resulted in the death of his kinsman during the burial rites of Chief Ezeudu, in Things Fall Apart? For killing his kinsman, albeit inadvertently, Okonkwo had to go on exile to live with his mother’s kinsmen in Abanta for seven years. Strikingly, in the story, after tragedy had befallen Okonkwo, his friends and family rallied round him to salvage what they could before the day-break, at which friends and foes alike joined their kinsmen to cleanse the land, by destroying the homestead of Okonkwo.

    Will the Nigerian state, which Onyema had served when she needed his help, take steps to save the man and his airline, assuming they had committed any infractions? Or will they feign indifference or even join forces with foreign forces to throw him to the dogs? Of course, as was done for Okonkwo, the Nigerian state can salvage what can be salvaged before meting out punishment, if he is guilty. Since I do not have the brief of the airline and its owners, let me place a caveat that the indicted persons have denied any wrong doing, and has expressed willingness to submit themselves for investigation.

    So this write-up is a private excursion, and by no means an acceptance of guilt by the airline and its owners.

    But in the court of public opinion, Onyema has turned from a national hero to a near pariah, within a few weeks interval, and it is important to extrapolate in the circumstance. Even the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has jumped into the fray, by hauling in Onyema and other indicted person for questioning. Well, the public is unaware whether the American criminal justice system has requested for help on the principle of national reciprocity, or the agency is merely acting excitably.

    Read Also: NANS makes case for Air Peace CEO

    While the EFCC should know its brief, it is important that they accord their own citizen the benefit of doubt, until the American legal system takes its course, and they are forced to intervene in the spirit of reciprocity. If there is no formal request, it will be preposterous for our national government and its agencies to cry more than the bereaved, unless of course, Nigerian laws have been breached.

    Of note, as the indictment clearly stated, those indicted must be treated as innocent, until otherwise is proved.That may explain the show of solidarity by the Southeast governors. Apart from connecting the Southeast to the nation, with his airline, Onyema had portrayed the region in good light by his generosity to the Nigerian citizens stranded in South Africa. So, it is expected that his kinsmen should show him compassion.

    But it is not only for Onyema that peace has eluded. It has also departed for Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, of Abia State. As one headline roared, he has moved from governor, to senate, to prison. Many taunt him that his movement to APC has not saved him as if the charges were initiated since the birth of APC. Far from the insinuation of immunity in APC, President Buhari’s government has not intervened in any trial process.

    Perhaps the APC government may have through workshops enhanced the use of Administration of Criminal Justice Act to forestall the undue delays that characterised the trial of Orji Uzor Kalu and his class of governors who finished their terms since 2007.  But if we are to believe the jailed senator, it was all part of the intrigues for the 2023 general elections. Surely he would approach the appeal court, to upturn the sentence, but the onus will lie on him to convince the court.

    While the debate rages on over whether other political big wigs across party lines would soon join the former governor in prison, the Buhari government has one more boast that the anti-corruption war is raging.

  • Kogi rats

    Rats are usually associated with destructive tendencies, in homes, where they nibble at prized documents, food, and sometimes humans. Rats also live in sewers, and dirty environments, eating filth and digging holes, where they bury their filthy selves. In socio-economic parlance, rats are associated with destructive practices. So, you hear things like wharf-rats, to describe thieves that wreak havoc on items waiting to be cleared from the wharf.

    Penultimate Saturday, we had Kogi rats running riot and wreaking havoc in the state’s gubernatorial election. They also, like the now sulking former senator, Dino Melaye, did songs to eulogise their ignoble role as rats. While they thought they were singing about the sound of gun they used to intimidate voters during that election, they were actually mimicking their specie, rats. With their rat mentality, they indeed wreaked monumental havoc in the state, by roasting alive a woman leader of the opposition party, the PDP, Mrs Salome Abuh, in her home, at Ochamadu, Kogi State.

    Like rats, they are, after wreaking havoc in the open, they scurried back into the sewages, whence they came from. Late Madam Abuh’s sin, is that she held a different political interest from the Kogi rats that ravaged the state, two weeks ago. Of course, rats are purveyors of pestilence, and unless strong insecticide is applied to kill them off, the pestilence may spread to epidemic proportion.

    So, those who owe us the responsibility to protect our lives and properties should smoke out the rats in Kogi and deal with them appropriately. It is because they did not deal with similar rat mentality in other states in the previous elections that more rats are mutating. So Kogi is just the latest rat colony. Those who also owe Nigerians the responsibility to ensure free, fair and credible election, should wake-up to save our nation from electoral perils. It should be unacceptable that contestants can empower thugs, to freely intimidate their opponents, without any consequences.

    It is good that the president has given a marching order to the police in Kogi State, to fish out the killers of Mrs Abuh, and it is encouraging that the police has reportedly apprehended the rats, responsible for her death. Since some commentators have doubted that the persons arrested are the real Kogi rats, the president should make it clear to the police that he would not accept any underhand dealing in the matter. The president should remember that those who have benefited from the mayhem would not have their name recorded as being in charge when a female opposition leader was burnt alive, during an election.

    Read Also: ‘Kogi, Bayelsa polls heart rendering’

     

    It is President Muhammadu Buhari that history will record as having the ultimate responsibility for security during the Kogi and Bayelsa elections. The international community and Nigerians would only compare elections under President Buhari and his predecessors. Nobody, would hold Governor Yahaya Bello or Seriake Dickson responsible for the security in place, vis-à-vis the crisis recorded during the polls. So, the president should not accept any half measure, from those investigating the killing of the opposition leader.

    Neither should the president accept any compromised security report, on the widespread violence which assailed our sights in the videos on the Kogi election that have gone viral. The president should give marching orders that security agents fish out those who reduced the Kogi elections to warfare and have them face the wrath of the law. If the police is incapable of dealing with fishing out those pooh-poohing our elections in those videos, the authorities should call in the state security services, to trace those involved, and charge them to court.

    As part of his legacy, the president should push for electoral reforms, particularly the criminalisation of electoral violence. He should ask his attorney general to dust up the electoral bill passed by the eighth national assembly, which he didn’t assent to, and get it re-presented to the ninth assembly for legislative action. Since the reason for not giving assent to the bill the last time was because the 2019 elections was close at hand when it was passed, the president should not wait for the 2023 elections to come close, before necessary steps are taken.

    As I have argued here on many occasions, it is the president that Nigerians will remember when the history of this era is written. Nobody will remember the so-called kitchen cabinet or the cabal, accused of running things in Aso Rock, when apportioning blame or pouring praises, depending on the performance of the regime. So the president should gird his loins, and make history by bequeathing to Nigerians an improved electoral system, instead of retrogressing to the era of do-or-die politics of the ancient regime.

    Knights visit prisons

    Yours sincerely, was privileged to join the Knights of St. Mulumba, (KSM), Amuwo Odofin, Sub-Council, led by Worthy Brother Joe Nnodum (Grand Knight), to visit the inmates of the Federal Correctional Centre, Badagry, last Sunday. As part of their charity work, the KSM Supreme Council, mandate all subordinate councils to visit the inmates of prisons, within their jurisdiction, with basic necessities. To efficiently perform the humanitarian service, the Knights in Lagos Metropolitan Council, work in concert with the Prison Ministry of the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos, whose chaplain is Rev. Fr. Kingsley Agada.

    The Knights joined the prisoners at a Mass, as part of the visit. The inmates who were in high spirit, sang from the hymn book, with a stanza: “whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers.” Interestingly, the correctional centre was clean, and under populated, unlike some others I had visited in the past. But most of the inmates as usual, where not persons who have been convicted of any offence, but rather those accused of misdemeanour and are awaiting trials.

     

    CONGRATULATIONS SAM

     

    Sam Omatseye, chairman, editorial board, The Nation Newspaper, last week, received The National Productivity Order of Merit Award, alongside 24 other distinguished Nigerians, at a colourful ceremony in Abuja.

    Some of the other top awardees, included, Alike Dangote of the Dangote Group, Tony Elumelu of United Bank of Africa, and Prof Is-haq Oloyede of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board.  These and others on the list, are highly productive Nigerians, and deserve the awards.

    In the past 12 years, I have known Sam, he remained a weekly columnist, and became a distinguished novelist, poet, playwright and biographer. He also anchors a weekly television programme. Without doubt, Sam deserves national recognition. So, congratulations Sam.

     

  • Children for sale

    There seems to be an urgent need to review the law authorising the establishment of charity homes especially in Imo and Abia states. In the two states, if reports in recent times in newspapers are a measure, there is a prevalence of baby factories, masquerading as charity homes. So, the governments in the two states, should take legal and social steps, to stem the ugly development. Perhaps, the first step should be, a law criminalising the turning of charity homes, into a baby vending factory.

    The picture of 14 expectant girls, rescued last week, from one so called Mma Charity Home, at Umumkpe Village, in Isiala Ngwa South local council area of Abia State, is a common feature in recent years. The report that the parents of the teenagers are not aware that their teenage girls are somewhere trying to ‘earn’ between N300-N350 thousand, (depending on the sex of the baby) by getting pregnant and selling their unwanted baby, rankles. How can parents not know where their wards are for at least nine months?

    After recklessly wasting their youthful ages, selling the fruits of their womb, the girls may end up trying to buy babies when they get married, and the wages of their sins become infertility. Of course, while infertility may be a biological challenge, which deserves sympathy, it could become the deserved punishment, for those who had traded on their fertility earlier in their lives. So, the pandemic of teenagers producing babies for sale, for few pieces of naira, deserves the attention of state and local governments, in the southeast states.

    Perhaps, there may be the need to commission a survey on the psychological make-up of the teenagers who have engaged in that infamy, to understand what really drives them. Is it merely their love for the money they would be paid, or a manifestation of parental and societal neglect, or a form of psychotic disorder or merely disoriented moral values? Of note, under the criminal code, there are laws to punish those who procure underage persons for defilement or prostitution or provide abode for such; but the code did not contemplate prostituting pregnancy for money.

     

    ‘It is also important that moral institutions, like churches, rise up to the new challenge facing the society. Like Mary Slessor, the famous Scottish missionary, who fought to eradicate the killing of twins, new champions should rise up to fight the scourge of prostituting pregnancy, with the intent to sell the infants’

    To make matters worse, the criminal code did not contemplate that persons like Mrs Mma Achumba, who run the ‘charity home’, would set up a charity home, and use it to aid underage girls, to trade in pregnancy and new babies. Of course, if a charge is preferred against Mrs Achumba, under section 219 of the criminal code, which provides punishment for an owner or occupier, who permits the use of his premises for the defilement of underage girls, such charge may be difficult to prove.

    While some of such charity homes, may allow the impregnating sessions to take place within their premises, akin to breeding of animals, it would be easy for their owners to fend off the charge of being a brothel, and insist that they are charity homes who merely provide succour for teenagers who are pregnant; even when their main intent is breeding and selling babies at infancy. So, there is need for a new law to catch up with the likes of Mrs Achumba, and those who work with them.

    As bizarre as it may sound, could Mrs Achumba and her ilk, be said to be engaged in child labour, which is prohibited by the Labour Act? Well maybe it is child labour, figuratively and literally speaking. For truly, while it may be a dishonourable contract, there is the likelihood that the teenage girls operate under an unenforceable contract that there are to be catered for while they are pregnant, and paid the agreed fees, at the birth and sale of their child.

    Of note, the Labour Act, prohibits child labour. Section 9(3) of the act provides: “Except in the case of a contract of apprenticeship, no person under the age of sixteen years shall be capable of entering into a contract of employment under this Act.” Section 59 of the Act, which deals with the kind of work and the working period a young person can be engaged for, could not have contemplated the type of work, Mma Charity Home and their type, provide for the young girls.

    Read Also: NGO sensitises communities on dangers of travelling

    Again the Labour Act, in section 60, prohibits the employment of young persons during the night; and most likely, the sweating job usually takes place during the night. But regardless of what the parties may have agreed, a contract to breed children for sale, is unenforceable; if for no reason, for being reprehensible to public morals. Talking seriously, except the states have domesticated Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Law, and Child Rights Act, which will be applicable to punish the botched sale of the twins harvested from a 25-year old Onunwa Grace Nwachukwu, from Imo State, there may be no appropriate laws, to deal with the challenge.

    So, if the laws to punish Mrs Achumba, for converting a charity home, to a centre for warehousing pregnant young women, with the intent to subsequently sell their babies are not there, she may just suffer some indignities for a while, after which she goes home, to enjoy the loot from her nefarious trade. Of note, with the stated age of Mrs Nwachukwu, whose community’s youths’ protest for her shameful conduct, triggered the investigation, it may even be wrong to call the girls engaged in the bizarre trade, young persons as defined by our laws.

    Perhaps if the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act to Provide Measurers against Trafficking and for other related Matters has local variants in the concerned states, the equivalent of section 13(4)(b) may provide the states, the opportunity to punish those involved, in the botched sale. The section provides: “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation, shall be considered trafficking in persons even if this does not involve any of the means set forth in the definition of trafficking in persons in this Act.”

    It is also important that moral institutions, like churches, rise up to the new challenge facing the society. Like Mary Slessor, the famous Scottish missionary, who fought to eradicate the killing of twins, new champions should rise up to fight the scourge of prostituting pregnancy, with the intent to sell the infants. Such persons or bodies, should train their searchlight on persons who run Charity Homes, and help alert security agencies, whenever there is a gathering of pregnant girls, like vultures.

    Parents should also wake up to the vocation of parenting, and take responsibility for the upbringing of their children. Those involved, must also know that such immoral behaviour, will hunt them forever.

     

     

  • Bloodthirsty senate?

    What is driving our distinguished senators to propose capital punishment for an offence, which to a large extent is a common pastime for many Nigerians? Could it be a way of paying Nigerians back, for their stringent objection to the criminal enrichment going on in the national assembly, by way of unconstitutional emoluments? Or perhaps, the senators hope that if the law if passed, it will silence Nigerians who have been abusing them for failing to make appropriate laws that could lift the country from the prevalent economic quagmire.

    Without equivocation, the bill on hate speech before the senate, which has passed first reading, and which provides for death penalty, is an overkill. In some instances it may amount to a capital punishment for an offence with a nebulous presumption of guilt. For instance, does it amount to hate speech to stringently denounce a public official who has misappropriated the resources put in his care, and ostensibly use it for self-aggrandizement? Will a caller for civil disobedience face death penalty if the people angrily riot and the police in quelling the riot use life bullet on the demonstrators, resulting in the death of a citizen?

    Again, when frustrated citizens from one tribe call citizens from another tribe names, which inflame passion, and in a roforofo arising therefrom, somebody dies, will the police be entitled to seek out those they believe started the quarrel and ask for death penalty when they are charged to court for hate speech? Furthermore, will political and socio-cultural leaders who have threatened and boasted severally that their tribesmen don’t forgive an offence against their cattle, be eligible to face death penalty for the many deaths traceable to those they defend?

    How would the law exhaustively define hate speech? Will the usual abuse that happen in a danfo bus or molue be treated as a hate speech? Will the regular abuse between neighbours in the ‘face me I face you’ living quarters, when passions are inflamed, during which they mutually haul abusive words to members of each other’s tribe and even dead parents, be treated as hate speech? Will it amount to hate speech, to say that the Deputy Chief Whip of the senate, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, who sponsored the bill, is a woeful failure in the senate?

    Will it amount to hate speech to tell the electorates in Niger state to recall Senator Abdullahi, and vote in a more serious person who will be concerned about their welfare, instead of an extremist law on hate speech? Will it amount to hate speech to speculate on constituency projects since the details of the work, the project costs, and the beneficiary of the usually over-bloated contract, are shrouded in secrecy? Will it amount to hate speech to speculate on the health condition of a public official, who goes abroad on a medical tourism with public funds, but refuses to disclose his medical challenge publicly?

    Read Also: Nigeria @59: We’ll always provide quality representation – Senate

     

    Of note, the criminal code provides in section 59(1) as follows: “Any person who publishes or reproduces any statement, rumour or report which is likely to cause fear and alarm to the public or to disturb the public peace, knowing or having reason to believe that such statement, rumour or report is false shall be guilty of a misdemeanour and liable on conviction, to imprisonment for three years.”

    The Code further provides in sub-section 2: “It shall be no defence to a charge under the last preceding subsection that he did not know or did not have reason to believe that the statement, rumour or report was false unless he proves that, prior to publication, he took reasonable measures to verify the accuracy or such statement, rumour or report.” At the level of public interest, the above provision to a large extent deals with the scourge of our time, the plague of fake news and hate speech.

    To protect the individual reputation, the Criminal Code provides on the law of defamation, which is defined in section 373, thus: “Defamatory matter is matter likely to injure the reputation of any person by exposing him to hatred, contempt, or ridicule, or likely to damage any person in his profession or trade by an injury to his reputation.” While the punishment for publication of defamatory matter is one year imprisonment, publication of defamatory matter with intent to extort is seven years.

    Away from criminal law, there is the tort of Defamation, which deals with libel and slander, both of which protect the reputation of individuals from hate speech and allied fake news. In Ratcliffe vs Evans (1892) 2 QB 524 at 529-530, Bowen LJ, said thus: “Every libel is of itself a wrong in regard to which the law implies damages… Akin to action for libel are those actions which are brought for oral slander, where such slander consists of words actionable per se, and the mere use of which constitutes the infringement of the plaintiff’s right. The very speaking of such words, apart from any damage, constitutes a wrong and gives rise to a cause of action. The law in such a case presumes… general damages.”

    So, to a large extent, there are provisions in our laws, which can substantially deal with the scourge of fake news and hate speech, in a civilized manner. The problem with us is the lack of capacity to bring culprits to book, in accordance with the law. While no doubt, the birth of social media has made life miserable for high class individuals and public officials, especially those with a lot of skeletons in their cupboard, such challenge is not enough to seek to unnecessary abridge the right to be informed, guaranteed by the constitution.

    Section 39 of the 1999 constitution (as amended), without equivocation provides: “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without hindrance.” Of course, the above provision is not absolute, that is why the law criminalises wrong use of the right as criminal defamation, and punishes the pocket, when the right is recklessly exercised by way of damages in the tort of defamation. If we need to upgrade the punishment for the reckless exercise of the right to freedom of expression, it must never be the harsh proposals before the senate, clearly geared to scare the public from exposing the deep rooted abuse of power and corruption in high places.

    From hindsight, it is also fair to allege that the purveyors of the malice laden bills now before the senate, are preparing to corner the jobs that would come from the proposed National Commission for the Prohibition of Hate Speeches, for their wards and friends.

     

    ‘From hindsight, it is also fair to allege that the purveyors of the malice laden bills now before the senate, are preparing to corner the jobs that would come from the proposed National Commission for the Prohibition of Hate Speeches, for their wards and friends’

  • Bayelsa polls

    The people of Bayelsa State will go the polls on Saturday, to elect a new governor and his deputy, after what the opposition parties consider eight years of misrule by incumbent Governor Seriake Dickson. While Dickson and his handlers will dismiss the claim as untrue, it is instructive that the outgoing governor is relying on the number of political appointments he has made, as the raison d’être, why the candidate he foisted on his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), should win the vote on Saturday.

    This newspaper last Sunday, quoted the governor to have said: “Those who are writing about the defections from our party; let me make it clear that in our government, we have over 3000 appointees. The resignation or defection of 10 appointees out of the appointees is too small a number to cause a negative effect on our party and its chances in the election.” He went on: “come to think of it, each of you, the G32, you have between 10-14 appointments under you, and if you multiply 32 by 14, you have the sheer number of grassroots appointments.”

    Dickson’s permutation that the so-called grassroots appointment is good reason why his preferred candidate should win the governorship election in a richly endowed but developmentally backwater Bayelsa State is most unfortunate. That assertion perhaps explains why his opponents regard his regime as eight years of wasted opportunities, for the oil bearing state. After eight years in power, the governor ought to be campaigning on his achievements, which he wants the successor to continue.

    Using social development indices, Dickson should be telling voters what he has done in education; reeling out statistics on the quantum leap in the number of Bayelsans who have passed out in flying colours in the WAEC and NECO exams, in the years he is governor. He should be showing off the number of child and maternal health care centres, and how such efforts have impacted on infant mortality and pre and post natal health care.

    While Bayelsa has water everywhere, getting drinkable water is a huge task. So, what has Governor Dickson done to ameliorate that huge challenge and if has, he should be campaigning on getting a successor to continue the trajectory. Again, what has Dickson done to reclaim the wetlands, which makes building roads and houses in the state excruciatingly difficult? If he has been governing well, and ensuring security of lives and property, such reclaimed lands would be prime properties for building condominium for the many oil companies operating onshore and offshore Bayelsa.

    ‘So, how come Governor Dickson is relying on his political appointees to fight the election, instead of his achievements in power? Does it mean that he spent the nearly eight years doing nothing’

    So, how come Governor Dickson is relying on his political appointees to fight the election, instead of his achievements in power? Does it mean that he spent the nearly eight years doing nothing? Of note, Dickson who rode on the back of the then incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan to power appears to have outgrown his godfather. While it is not bad to grow up, one must recognise and respect the fingers that fed one, while growing up.

    According to the report, Dickson not only chose the gubernatorial candidate for his party, in the person of Senator Duoye Diri, he also selfishly chose the deputy, Senator Lawrence Erwujakpor, whom he wants to replace in the senate, if the candidates succeed at the polls. The self-serving moves have reportedly pitched him against former President Goodluck Jonathan and other PDP chieftains in the party. Interestingly, to get to the top position eight years ago, Dickson had to crawl on the back of Jonathan who had become president after the death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

    This column recalls that after gaining power against more entrenched PDP chieftains like Timi Alaibe because of Jonathan’s support, Dickson made a law against rumour mongering, claiming that they were fuelling unrest in the state. This column had poked fun at the governor then, reminding him that his sudden rise to power, back then, started as a rumour, while he was at the National Assembly. Indeed, as the rumour was gaining ground, Jonathan’s men were denying it, until it became too late for the then incumbent governor.

    Presently, the soft spoken and poetic Chief Timipre Sylva, now a chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC), is the leader of the party in the state, and he is working assiduously to deliver Chief David Lyon to the Bricks house in Yenagoa. Interestingly, Chief Lyon has received blessings from the matriarch of the Jonathan family, Mama Beatrice Jonathan, and several of Jonathan’s men who have defected to the APC. Former President Jonathan also recently paid a courtesy visit to President Muhammadu Buhari and it was speculated that he went there to show solidarity with the APC candidate, perhaps to scorn his erstwhile godson.

    While President Jonathan has denied any such plans to dump his party, his body language say otherwise. The former first lady, Patience Jonathan, who has openly disagreed with Governor Dickson, is believed to be routing for the APC candidate. The strong man of River State politics, Barrister Nyeson Wike, is also uninterested in the PDP candidate, even though strangely his predecessor is allegedly said to be surreptitiously supporting the PDP candidate. With the odds staked against Senator Duoye Diri of the PDP, Chief David Lyon of the APC appears set to clinch the prize.

     

    Congratulations CIArb Nigeria

    From the 7th to 8th of November the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK), Nigeria Branch, conducted its 2019 Annual Conference in Lagos. There were seven sessions oscillating around the theme: “Positioning Africa: The changing Landscape in Alternative Dispute Resolution.” With distinguished speakers from Nigeria, United Kingdom, Kenya, Ghana, and Rwanda, it was an intellectual feast on Arbitration as the wining Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism. 

    At the event, Mr Olatunde Busari, SAN, C.Arb, ceremoniously took over from the immediate past branch chair, Mrs Adedoyin Rhodes-Vivour, SAN, C.Arb. The Chief Judge Federal High, Hon. Justice J.T. Tsoho, Hon. Justice O.A. Obaseki-Osaghae, Hon. Justice J.E. Oyefeso, and Hon. Justice Roli Harriman were among the top guests. Mrs Adeyinka Aroyewun MCIArb, of the Lagos Multi-Door Court House chaired one of the sessions. The conference co-chairs were Dr. Adewale Olawoyin, SAN FCIArb, and Mrs Obosa Akpata, C.Arb.

    At the occasion, yours sincerely was admitted as a member of the prestigious Chartered Institute of Arbitrators Nigeria Branch. It was also an evening for wining, dinning and networking. I say hearty congratulations to the institute and all the inductees.  

     

  • Abuses everywhere

    Gabriel AMALU

    While private individuals are running rehabilitation homes as torture centres for young persons, officials of state are running organs of government as torture labs for adults. Head or tail, the citizens are at the receiving end of the trying times. To the detriment of the citizens, it appears governments and their collaborators in the corporate world are competing in imposing unconscionable taxes on the people. In a country supposedly under the rule of law, rogue communication companies and banks are unilaterally extorting citizens, while the apex bank and the communication regulatory commission are acting lame.

    On their part, in the name of seeking new sources of revenue, everyday our incompetent fiscal managers, instead of introducing measures to deepen national productivity, lazily sit in air-conditioned offices to introduce one Ponzi scheme after another in the name of new taxes. And when you ask why these inhuman extortion, they will reel out some meaningless statistics that Nigerians are under-taxed. Yet, they fail to see the statistics that says that unemployment and underemployment is exponentially high in the country.

    Those in charge of introducing one new tax after another don’t tell the rest of the citizens what they take home as earnings, from the taxes they impose on them. They don’t also consider it unconscionable that our federal legislators are amongst the best paid in the world, while other federal and state workers are amongst the most poorly paid even by African standards. In the midst of the so-called under-taxation, most of the sub-national states are technically failed states.

    So, because majority of the states and their citizens are so pauperized, they truck large number of their indigenes to Lagos State, which has become a concentration camp of sort, just to escape the economic quagmire. Instead of concentrating on extorting citizens through phoney taxes, the federal government should relinquish control of some of the items in the exclusive legislative list, to gift states economic activities that can sustain them. Under the present arrangement, the main responsibility of the federal government is to collect petroleum and other taxes, and preside over the sharing in Abuja.

    If the federal government must however remain only a tax collector, it should consider implementing a new revenue formula in favour of the states. That is hoping that some of the governors who run their states like the Russian czars would make better use of the increased resources. There is also the urgent need to encourage regional economic activities so that states can pull resources together to solve basic existential problems, like the production and distribution of electricity.

    Even security challenges can also be tackled by cluster of states like the southeast and southwest are trying to implement. The regions can also be encouraged to organise and fund inter-state railways, highways, water transportation and similar beneficial activities. The potentials in inter-regional activities, is exemplified by some of the ambitious projects planned by Cross River State government. If the federal government is mindful, it will support the trans-regional highway and the deep sea port planned by the state, which can open the eastern flank of the country, from south-south to the northeast.

    Unless there is a change in tactics, states would continue to stymie in basic challenges, more so as they are asked to pay a new minimum wage. Take for example, Kaduna State, which recently received positive attention after the governor, Nasir El Rufai, enlisted his six-year old son in a public school. It quickly swung into disrepute following the discovery of ‘centres of welfare’ for the torture of citizens, albeit masquerading as Islamic centres for knowledge.

    Should the government of the state have statutory control of police in the state, Governor El Rufai can choose to wipe out such criminality at his own pace. Shockingly, similar centres have been discovered in other states and many more may be discovered in that part of our country. In an environment of monumental failures by parents, failure is hidden in religious disguise. So, parents who are unable to provide for their children pass them off as delinquents, and so they ‘proudly’ send them to ‘religious centres’ where they would learn ‘morals’.

    Poverty and ignorance, of course, is at the root of the crisis. For reasons best known to the northern elites, they have failed to give western education the deserved attention and the result is abject poverty and ignorance plaguing the region. Of note, but for the fact that the discovery of the torture centres were under the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, religious bigots would have termed the exposition a form of religious persecution, for which innocent Nigerians would have paid with their lives.

    With the discovery of similar torture centres in other states, the governors in the region surely have to worry about the types of educational institutions that exist in the states they are leading. But it is heart-warming that El Rufai has promised to fight one of the root causes of such fake religious piety. If he can enforce his promise of free and compulsory basic education, he would have dealt the abuses masquerading as religious training a heavy blow. His approach will also eradicate challenges associated with early marriage like VVF, Almajiri children and similar vices plaguing the region.

    Like a nation under spell, the states in the southern part of the country, apart from their fair share in incidents of kidnapping and other violent crimes, especially amongst the youths, are plagued by what is commonly referred to as baby factories. Young women, some even supposedly in higher institutions of learning, get conned into giving birth to children which are sold off, while they earn few pieces of naira. There is also high incidence of yahoo-yahoo boys, who live off fleecing Nigerians and foreigners of their hard earned monies.

    So, the nation is in a state of anomie. While the poor hook up to delinquent behaviours to survive the economic crisis facing the country, the politically connected hook their children, to the few jobs available, without merit. Recently, it was reported that the leadership of the senate cornered the few job opening in the Federal Inland Revenue Services, for their wards. Because the unearned privilege could not go round, the leadership shut out the wards of their colleagues. Of course, the bad behaviour is a reflection of the dwindling opportunities available in the society.

    Another form of abuse that has become rampant in our country is what is referred to as sex-for-marks, mainly in higher institutions of learning. It is good that President Buhari has spoken up against it. Strangely, there is claim that such delinquency is also happening in private faith-based universities, but it is all hush.

  • Citizens under siege

    By Gabriel Amalu

    Last week, just as Intersociety, a civil society organisation, released a report that the police and the army have extorted Nigerians of the southeast and south-south geo-political zones to the tune of about N306 billion in the past 50 months, the Governor of Enugu State, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, delivered to the state Commissioner of Police, Ahmad Abdurahman, keys to 65 patrol vans to help secure the state. Like Ugwuanyi, other governors across the regions, also empower the police, to secure their states.

    But according to the New Telegraph, a special research report conducted by Intersociety, showed that the police and the army have within the review period, allegedly raked in about N306 billion, through more than 6,900 roadblocks, scattered across the two regions. While it is commonly claimed that policemen and women jostle to be posted to major cities in the regions for untoward reasons, it is unimaginable that such insidious and invidious extortion could be going in the regions.

    Of note, the last 50 months cover the period that President Muhammadu Buhari has been in power as civilian president, and if his opponents are to be believed, he is accused of harbouring a special distaste for the two regions, because majority of the citizens from there have refused to identify with him. Could it be that the report is an attempt to call a dog a bad name, in other to hang it, or is it possible that such flagrant abuse of public power is going on in the president’s regime?

    No doubt, the alleged extortion, is audacious. N306 billion in 50 months from citizens in the name of providing security for them? All persons of goodwill should call on the president to order a discreet inquiry into the Intersociety report, and make the findings public. Because, whether the president cares or not, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, it is his name that history may record as being in charge while instead of providing security, the army and police are extorting citizens from the south-east and south-south zones.

    The field survey and research covered 11 states, made up of Edo, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Cross River, Bayelsa, Anambra, Abia, Enugu, Ebonyi and Imo, from August 2015 to October 2019. The report claimed there are 600 military and 6,300 police roadblocks across the southeast and south-south. It further claimed that while police roadblocks extorted N250 billion, the military roadblocks raked in N56 billion. It broke down the monthly collection to N6.4 billion and yearly collection to N76 billion yearly in the past four years.

    The charge becomes less preposterous, because unfortunately the president has not been warmly welcomed politically in the two zones. So, those who have accused the federal government of discriminatory tendencies against the zones, would readily point to political differences as the motive. While it will not be reasonable to hold the president personally responsible for such obnoxious conducts, he owes the citizens in that part of the country the responsibility to provide them equal protection as those from other regions.

    The report also parleys into the hands of those working to divide the country. So, if the report is true, unless the federal government takes steps to discourage such extortionist tendency, it may be accused of complicity in the criminality. Going forward, the seasonal military exercise in the southeast, formerly called operation egwu eke, and now known as atilogwu udo, may be viewed by people of the region, as an extortionist agenda of the army. Same for operation crocodile smile in the south-south. Would the exercise escalate tension or reduce it?

    The report would also tally with the claim by some groups that the southeast and south-south are like occupied territories. The argument being that while the zones are not exposed to external aggression, they have excessive concentration of security checkpoints per square kilometre. In some places in the southeast, you will not drive more than one kilometre without meeting a checkpoint. While one can argue that checkpoints are there to secure the people from armed robbery, kidnapping and sundry crimes, the people become citizens of a vassal state, when the security agencies freely extort them without any consequences.

    The situation in the zones become even more tendentious, when a major cause of insecurity in the zones, is caused by armed herdsmen, who are viewed in some quarters as part of the grandiose plan to occupy and exploit. So, under the circumstance in the zones, it remains a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea. They either live with the exploitation from the security agencies or if they demand their withdrawal, then they will be exposed to the murderous attacks of armed herdsmen.

    The governors of the states in the zones must be in a quandary how to deal with the situation. Ironically, despite the reported presence of 34,000 armed personnel of the army, navy, air force and police; not to talk of the huge resources expended by the various states to support them, the states concerned are not fully secured. Recently, because of the criminal activities of the armed herdsmen, the states are also expending tax payers’ money to train vigilantes, forest guards and other groups to complement the security agencies.

    Again, because security agencies are controlled by the federal government; the states despite handing them security equipment bought at huge costs, are not in a position to demand optimal performance from the agencies. After providing the required resources, they would have to beg them to perform. This column in the past decade always joined other well-meaning Nigerians to demand for a change in the policing architecture of Nigeria, and the Intersociety report is one more reason for urgent change.

    Of note, last week, the oil producing states visited the president, and all the visiting governors are from the two zones. Same last week, the president also announced that N10 billion has been budgeted for the rehabilitation of the Enugu runway, which was closed down for repairs. Also, the Minister for Works Babatunde Fashola SAN, promised that the Second Niger Bridge would be ready in 2021. While the federal government should quickly rehabilitate the Enugu runway and indeed finish the international wing of the airport, it deserves pundits for delivering on the two promises.

    On their part, the police and the army should take their indictment by Intersociety seriously. Before taking the easy way of merely dismissing the report, the accused institutions should conduct investigation to determine whether the findings are true. While extortion by police at checkpoints are common, the nation should be alarmed if its army has joined such infamy.  

  • Church in nation building

    It was a gathering to deliberate on the role of the church in nation building, last Sunday. A thorny issue by any standard, considering the dire straits facing our country, Nigeria. By independent statistics, our country is in a perilous times, and exhibits many indices of a failed state. Quite a number also hold the view, that the church is under persecution by secular authorities, and indeed, the Catholic Church offers a daily prayer, for Nigeria in distress.

    So, it was fitting, that the Catholic Men Organisation of the Holy Family Catholic Church, Festac Town, choose to invite a legal avant-garde, an intellectual colossus, a constitutional lawyer, human rights activist, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and a Knight of the Order of Saint Mulumba, Chief Mike Ozekhome, to speak truth to the ecclesiastical and the secular power, on: “The Role of the Church in Nation Building.” Of course he didn’t disappoint.

    Controversial as ever, Ozekhome did not mind the presence of clerics in the audience to speak on the ills of worshipping wealth by the clergy. He doubted the spirituality of pastors amassing wealth from their congregations to buy jets, live in obscene luxury, and build schools that their peasant members cannot afford to pay the entry fees. He took a swipe at pastors who receive huge donations from their members, who have no visible means of livelihood, without asking them how they made such humongous money they have donated.

    Ozekhome called such offerings blood money, and charged all clerics to stop such illicit behaviour. He warned that the church is in decline, and that congregations are daily deserting the church. On why some congregants are disconsolate with the state of affairs, he quoted William L. Edelen, Jr. who said: “The church today is… almost indistinguishable from an average corporation or political machine.” The learned silk, noted that the effort to allow popular fancies in the church to accommodate the young people is inappropriate and is backfiring.

    He again quoted an article tagged ‘Youth Attitudes’ wherein it said: “There’s an old saying that you don’t pull yourself up by dragging the other person down. Just the opposite should be the case. That’s why, in our opinion, the churches have erred in not standing firm behind high moral standards and in being equally firm in teaching what is morally right and wrong. Young people need and want guidance…. There is no compromise with what is morally wrong.”

    The guest lecturer taught his audience that to build the nation the youth must be properly guided, and instead of allowing their excesses, they should be brought up morally fortified. He took a swipe at the hypocrisy amongst the clerics, wondering why a pastor who preaches to his congregation that they are “covered by the blood of Jesus Christ” should drive about town in bullet-proof armoured vehicles. Thundering like the master Jesus, he said: “when you tell your church members to sow seeds with their pittance earnings, leaving the church hungry, and trekking home, while you fly over them in private jets… you are nothing but a hypocrite.”

    On the crucible of the foundation for national development, Ozekhome identified the troika of family, faith and education as indispensable. He posited that the first world countries rode on the tripod and still retain their pre-eminence position in the committee of nation on the same triumvirate principles. He identified the church as the biggest influencer in Nigeria. Unfortunately while acknowledging Christianity as a heavy influencer, he observed that many adherents of the Christian faith and even other major religions do not live by the teachings and tenets of their faith.

    Doing a historical excursion, the learned silk, recalled how Christianity became a redoubt to preserve civilization during the dark ages. In modern African societies, the guest lecturer acknowledged the church as a vehicle for ‘social and political development, good governance and human rights.’ There is no doubt that the Catholic Church has immensely contributed to the transformation of the society using various church organs to fight societal inequality and injustice.

    A few examples stand out. There is the Justice Development and Peace Commission (JDPC), St. Vincent the Paul Society, the Catholic Prison Ministry, and the even the National Association of Catholic Lawyers and the Knights in the church, who use their resources to fight for, and propagate social justice. But all that is not enough, as the downward swing in societal morals portray.

    So, taking a swipe against the churches in Nigeria, the avant-garde noted that while Christians constitute majority of any faith in the country, their moral strength is not reflected in the daily lives of government officials and the society in general. The learned SAN raised a poser: “How do you explain a nation that records millions of people flocking annual religious gatherings and yet, ills such as greed, corruption, nepotism, injustice, impunity etc. are rife both in high and low places?”

    Ozekhome charged the Church to live up to the admonition in the Holy Bible in Proverbs 31:8, which ordered her to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed… speak up for the poor and helpless and see that they get justice.” He charged religious leaders not to act like the Whitewashed sepulchre. They must desist from the profanity described in Titus 1:16 thus: “They publicly declare they know God, but they disown him by their words.”

    The guest lecturer encouraged the churches to wear the garment of social crusaders. He urged them to work hard to eradicate poverty in the society, noting that “it is the primary mission of the Church to preach the gospel, teach the saved, provide a spiritual atmosphere, reproduce the character of Christ, and bring joy to mankind.” While acknowledging as Jesus did that the poor would always be with us, he noted that it does not imply that the poor should not be cared for. He quoted copiously the Old Testament where the society is obligated to ensure better life for the poor.

    In conclusion, Chief Mike Ozekhome, argued that Christians must live according to the teachings of Jesus Christ. He pointed to Luke 6:46 wherein Jesus asked: “Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and yet you don’t do what I tell you?” And what did Jesus ask from his followers? To be socially responsible, by visiting prisoners, clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, or the captives. Ozekhome urged for Christians to participate in government, but warned the church not to engage in partisan politics. He noted, the Church can only engage in prophetic ministry by speaking truth to power on behalf of humanity in general.