The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • Awaiting trial inmates

    Awaiting trial inmates

    It’s an old issue that has refused to go away. “Overcrowding, no doubt, stands out as the most pressing challenge of the NCoS,” the Acting Controller-General of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Sylvester Nwakuche, noted during an interactive session with field officers on January 13.  He said 48,932 inmates in the country’s correctional facilities were Awaiting Trial Persons (ATPs), many of them “on non-bailable offences.”

    He unveiled his plans to tackle the problem, saying, “I intend to interface with the attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice, the inspector-general of police, and other prosecuting-agencies and critical stakeholders to fast track the trial of these inmates. This is necessary, especially those on non-bailable offences like armed robbery, murder, and others that constitute over 60 percent of awaiting trial persons (ATPs).”

    He added: “While engaging state chief executives to expedite the trial of the over 90 percent state offenders in custody, the use of non-custodial measures and early release mechanisms will be taken up with the judiciary. We will also fast-track the construction of proposed 3,000-capacity ultramodern custodial facilities and other centres across the country.”

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    Notably, Segun Olowookere, who controversially spent 14 years on death row before he was recently pardoned by Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke, drew attention to prison conditions in the country in an interview published after his release.

    He was sentenced to death and life imprisonment for conspiracy to commit armed robbery and robbery with firearms, and to three years imprisonment for stealing. But the popular narrative that he was given a death sentence for stealing fowls ultimately led to pardon by the governor. 

    He was in Ilesa prison, Osun State, “throughout the trial of the case.” After the judgment, he was moved to Ibara Prison, Abeokuta, Ogun State. He was later moved to Kirikiri Maximum Prison in Lagos, in 2016.

     According to him, “The major challenge was congestion. There were too many people inside a limited space. Because of the population, 50 inmates would occupy a room that should naturally contain a maximum of 10 people. We sleep like fishes packed in a carton because everywhere is measured for us. As an inmate, a space is measured for you to sleep because of congestion.”

    •First published January 29, 2025

  • PDP: Gana’s moonlight tales

    PDP: Gana’s moonlight tales

    It would appear a fashionable national curse here to wax poetic over the past, in the sweet belief that it would — indeed, must — always be better than the present, and indeed the future.  That’s not backed by facts.

    On the positive side: Lagos has not solved all of its problem — it probably never will.  Which entity ever solves all of its problems? 

    But between pre-1999 Lagos and Lagos of 2025, there have been some spectacular changes.  Better security, for one: whoever hears of daylight robberies these days? Transport infrastructure for another: witness Blue and Red rail lines — and the Green line (CMS to Lekki) in the nursery.

    On the negative side: By the advent of 1999, PDP was the all-conquering power behemoth.  Today, it screeches, to be heard, as the most formidable opposition party, matched against the wannabes: like Peter Obi’s Labour Party (LP) and David Mark’s — no thanks to a hostile take-over — African Democratic Congress (ADC), huffing and puffing, punching above their weight and making insane boasts about the 2017 polls.

    Incidentally, both Obi and Mark were sad parts of the spectacular collapse of PDP.  Mark was its last Senate president as the ruling party (2007-2015).  Obi chased shadows as Atiku Abubakar’s running mate (2019) in an abortive search for the presidency.  That trio — Atiku, Mark and Obi — now lead the charge against their grand old party, towards sweepstakes 2027!

    That, by the way, wasn’t accidental.  They were all true sons of their political father — PDP: with its sole and fanatical principle of power and power alone: PDP… PAWA!

    Which made it surprising, Prof. Jerry Gana’s new sweet spin that PDP wasn’t just put together to push for and corral power, and pretty nothing else.

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    Gana, to a PDP ensemble, the Consultative Conference of PDP Founding Fathers and Stakeholders, in Abuja: “In forming the PDP in 1998, the founding fathers were profoundly moved by timeless principles, deep-rooted values and fundamental objectives.  Those leaders did not gather just to capture power … We had very clear ideals and values and principles …” Hear!  Hear!

    What gas!  Gana can tell all those to the marines!  Even if the alluring aroma of inevitable power lulled the beneficiaries of the Army Arrangement of 1998 into thinking beyond just grabbing power, their scandalous behaviour all through their best forgotten power years pointed to the contrary. 

    Double tragedy: Olusegun Obasanjo, elected on the PDP ticket as first president in 1999, left no doubt about devotion to self as against the collective, despite his holy hypocrisy.

    Gana and co, of course can push their democratic rights to sweet yarn.  But for a fallen elephant hoping to rise again, it had better correctly x-ray whatever sent it crashing down.  Gana’s tale by the moonlight certainly isn’t it.

  • Killer-soldier on the prowl?

    Killer-soldier on the prowl?

    Amotekun Corps in Osun State recently accused a purported soldier of attacking one of its operatives, resulting in the operative’s death. If confirmed to be so by military authorities, it is the height of dysfunction in the security establishment where personnel are expected to work collaboratively to protect the public space, but now apparently harbour rogue elements that constitute security hazards.

    The leadership of the corps, early last week, announced the death in hospital of a 35-year-old corps personnel named Peter Tope, who was allegedly attacked the previous day by an assault band led by an Army Private identified as Opejobi Fiyinfoluwa. Osun Amotekun Commander, Isaac Omoyele, told journalists that the encounter took place on Saturday, 26th July, at Ijeda area of Ijebu-Ijesa community.

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    Omoyele said: “The incident occurred around 5:45p.m. when a soldier, who was recently recruited into the Nigerian Army, launched an unprovoked assault on the Amotekun operative. The soldier, dressed in military camouflage, had approached the Amotekun station in Ijebu-Ijesa with hostile intent and made some uncomplimentary comments about the corps.” He added: “What subsequently followed after his comments was that he and his cohorts launched unprovoked attacked on one Amotekun personnel who was coming on his motorcycle. They reportedly stopped the Amotekun operative and knocked him down from his motorcycle by hitting him with a blunt object on the head. The brutal assault lasted about 20 minutes with no intervention, leaving Tope injured and in a pool of blood.”

    According to the Amotekun chief, the soldier and his accomplices left the scene thereafter on commercial motorcycles. Other operatives of the corps moved to help their injured colleague by rushing him to Wesley Guild Hospital in Ilesa, and they reported the incident at Divisional Police Headquarters in Ijebu-Ijesa. A report was also lodged with Lt.-Col. Yunusa Isyaku at the Engineering Cantonment in Ede. “Unfortunately, despite efforts to save his life, Officer Peter Samuel Tope succumbed to his injuries early on Sunday morning,” he said.

    Omoyele demanded a thorough probe of the incident, vowing that no effort would be spared in ensuring that those responsible for the attack are brought to justice.

    Agency reports cited the spokesperson of Osun police command, Abiodun Ojelabi, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), as confirming the incident, saying the police were working to arrest the prime suspect. “We have the details of the suspect who is an Army Private,” he said inter alia.

    It is good that the military high command has already been notified of the unfortunate incident. The authorities would do well to join efforts to fish out the Army Private being accused and bring him to justice along with his alleged accomplices. If the incident happened as articulated by the Amotekun corps, that soldier has no place in the military establishment and isn’t at all representative of what it stands for. He should be disclaimed, denounced and handed over to the law.

  • Long overdue resolution

    Long overdue resolution

    It is unsurprising that the unreleased girls kidnapped in Chibok, Borno State, in April 2014, continue to make the headlines. The same is true of Leah Sharibu, the unreleased Christian schoolgirl abducted in Dapchi, Yobe State, in February 2018.  The whereabouts of these victims are unknown. The unresolved abductions mean that there is no closure. This is mainly why they remain in the news.

    The National Coordinator of the National Counter Terrorism Centre, Maj. Gen. Adamu Laka, brought up the matter again during a multi-agency meeting on anti-kidnapping, organised in collaboration with the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency in Abuja, on June 29. He made an effort to reassure the public that the authorities had not forgotten these unresolved abduction cases, and were still pursuing freedom for the victims.   

    Eleven years after Boko Haram abducted a total of 276 girls from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, 87 of them are still believed to be in captivity.

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    Also, Leah Sharibu was among the 110 schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamist terrorists from the Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State, more than seven years ago. Sadly, five of the kidnapped girls reportedly died in captivity. Others abducted with Leah were set free a month after the incident. Those released were Muslims. Leah, the only Christian among them, was not released because she refused to renounce her faith and convert to Islam.

    On the Chibok and Dapchi incidents, Laka said: “Since when they were kidnapped, those who were rescued were not just rescued one time; It was a gradual process. Negotiations were conducted to get them out. Operations were conducted… I was in the theatre, and I know what the military and intelligence agencies put in to rescue the initial set of the Chibok girls.” He added: “We haven’t given up hope on them; some of them were married to some of the insurgents. Some have come out.”

    He continued: “There is the issue of this lady, Leah Shaibu. We are not always talking about it. It doesn’t mean we don’t care. It doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten about them. We are still on it. Our prayer is that the whole 87 or 80 plus that are left will be rescued by God’s grace.”

    Talk is cheap! The authorities must recognise the time factor, and that the resolution of these kidnap incidents is long overdue.

  • Sore losers

    Sore losers

    That the Super Falcons of Nigeria just achieved their “La Decima” — 10th continental title — accompanying their “Mission X” in grand style, is stale news.  A nation can’t be more grateful to these brave, never-say-die, young women.

    What continues to gall is the ugly sore-losing vibes from Morocco, double losing finalists in both 2022 (to South Africa) and 2024 — though played in 2025 — (to Nigeria).  Morocco is primed to host again in 2026. 

    Would they suffer a hat trick of final losses, as triple hosts next year, if they reach the final again?  Or put their house in order, instead of wailing and screeching over split milk?  The choice is open to them!

    Though Morocco — to use that modified cliche — snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, by giving up a two-goal lead in the first 24 minutes, to crumble to three spectacular goals in the last 30 minutes, they had started manifesting bad faith from the eve of the July 26 final.

    Were they scared of the Falcons?  It would appear so.  That’s hardly unsportsmanlike, though.  Mutual scare — particularly in a make-or-break final — leads to mutual respect, which elevates the level of competition.

    What was awry was their resort to foul tactics.  On July 25, Morocco outed with an odd petition questioning the Nigerian nationality of two anchors of the Nigerian defence: Ashleigh Plumptre (left back) and Michele Alozie (right back).  How this pair, who FIFA had endorsed for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023, would suddenly become ineligible Nigerians to CAF, is not only strange but laughable!

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    But then you could track the ill motive.  The two were commanding empresses in the Nigeria stellar defence that conceded zero goal, in open play, until the final.  The first goal they conceded, against South Africa in the semi-final, was a penalty.  They also, with their over-lapping, prompted an attack that pumped in 11 goals before the final but conceded only one!  Alozie claimed one of those goals — that dramatic, last-grasp winner against South Africa.

    The Morocco petition reportedly unnerved Plumptre — she was reportedly so hurt in training her team mates had to offer her support — and many even claimed that accounted for her poor play in the final’s first half.  Still, the Falcons took everything in their chin and showed the guts of true champions.

    Even after the loss, Morocco has persisted with their funny petition — good luck!  Still, a friendly advice: Nigeria didn’t win 10 out of 13 finals, by writing sterile petitions or beaming laser lights on opposing players and coaches, as Morocco fans did in that memorable final.  They buckled down and spoke the hard language on the pitch.

    Morocco had better get serious.  Otherwise, they would be fated to another loss in 2026.  Better to plan for future successes than remain grumpy losers over a lost cause.

  • Stranded in CAR

    Stranded in CAR

    Nothing showed the inherent hazard of ‘japa’ syndrome like the experience of some Nigerian miners taken to the Central African Republic (CAR) allegedly by a Nigerian-based Chinese firm and abandoned there. The young men were dumped in the middle of a remote jungle by their sponsors to that country, denied salaries by which they could have struggled to survive, and had their Nigerian passports seized so they couldn’t attempt tracing their way back home. In short, they were written off as doomed to die in foreign isolation.

    Modern technology and a streak of insight on what to do were the saving grace. In a save-our-soul video they recorded and sent out, which went viral, the fellas narrated how they’ve been in CAR for 10 months and have worked for much of the time without being paid. According to them, they arrived in CAR in September, last year, and were arrested by that country’s government held in detention at the capital city, Bangui, for about four months. When eventually they got released, they were taken to a remote forest where they worked but without getting paid. They named names, alleging that officials of the sponsoring firm had abandoned them and were no longer taking their calls. In summary, they were trafficked under false pretence, forced to work without pay, abandoned in CAR and without access to their personal passports that could have allowed them make individual attempt at returning home.

    Luckily for them, the video caught the attention of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM). The commission, in a statement, said it had established contact with the distressed Nigerians and gotten the Nigerian embassy in CAR involved, with their confiscated passports already retrieved and arrangements being made to send a bus to convey them to the embassy in Bangui. NiDCOM also confirmed that the agent who facilitated their travel had been identified.

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    The Chinese embassy in Nigeria weighed in, saying it was probing the report. “The Chinese government consistently mandates that all Chinese enterprises and citizens operating abroad strictly comply with local laws and regulations, ensuring all business operations fully adhere to local legal frameworks,” it said, adding that it would “maintain close communication with Nigerian authorities throughout the investigation and work together to safeguard the lawful rights and interests of citizens of both nations.”

    It shouldn’t be too difficult for the probes by Nigerian and Chinese authorities to unmask the facilitators of the racket. Those young men were damnably gullible and were only lucky to be alive where they could have been wasted as undocumented foreigners engaged in illegal mining in another country. But their fate also raises questions about Nigerian oversight. If the Chinese firm is registered to operate in Nigeria, is it also registered to export Nigerians as cheap labour to another country? And how come the labour export went unnoticed in its Nigerian operations for close to a year – that is, until the trafficked miners cried out? Questions…

  • Necessary lesson for the police

    Necessary lesson for the police

    It is expected that the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) will finally learn an important lesson following the order of the Federal High Court in Lagos that the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and the Lagos State Commissioner of Police jointly pay N10 million in damages for the violation of the fundamental rights of several participants in a peaceful procession at Lekki, Lagos.  

    Justice Musa Kakaki, on July 24, ruled that although the police have constitutional powers to enforce laws, such powers must be exercised in accordance with democratic principles and the rule of law. The judge held that the plaintiffs, who participated in a peaceful procession on October 20, 2024, to mark the fourth anniversary of #EndSARS, were unjustly harassed and their rights violated.  This was against their right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, as guaranteed under Section 40 of the Nigerian constitution, the judge declared.

    The #EndSARS protest in October 2020 was against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a police unit notorious for brutality, extortion, torture, and extrajudicial killings. At the time, there were controversial allegations of killings of protesters by state actors. 

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    The protest is commemorated annually in October. The plaintiffs, including individuals and three organisations, had claimed that during the procession, police officers fired shots, used tear gas, beat and arrested participants, and detained them for about four hours.

    In affidavits presented to the court, one of the claimants said officers kicked him in the groin and stepped on his genitals; another alleged she was sexually assaulted and groped. Another one was said to have been “hit by a canister, and she fell and was bleeding. In that state, the police fired teargas directly at her… three policemen beat her up. One of them kicked her on her buttocks and dragged her on the floor.”

    A report said police officers had disrupted the commemoration of the #EndSARS protest in 2021, fired teargas at participants and arrested several people, including some popular entertainment celebrities. Also, in 2022, security operatives were reported to have arrested activists and journalists during an event to mark the anniversary. By 2023, according to a report, “the government had shifted tactics to more covert repression: protesters in Lagos and Abuja were subjected to surveillance, intimidation, and profiling by security agents, with some individuals briefly detained.”

    Given this context, the recent court ruling against the police for the 2024 event was a necessary and important lesson against lawlessness by law enforcement personnel.

  • 2027: Obi-Natasha ticket

    2027: Obi-Natasha ticket

    James Hadley Chase’s fictive creature, Poke Toholo, in “Want to Stay Alive?”, declared he had discovered the magic to prise open locked pockets — the bullet!

    For 2027 election hustlers, perhaps there’s a joint magic “bullet” to harvest the vote: China stats from Peter Obi and crocodile tears from Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan!

    How good and nice and marvellous would it be, were the originators of both magic to graft under one sole indivisible ticket?

    “Sure banker!” — or was that not how traditional pools betters called it, before the arch-democratization of betting, lottery and sundry affairs?

    “Sure banker”!  Indeed, if the two pooled their humongous talents (in stats and tears), the presidential election would be a no contest — a sure banker!  And their billions of social media zombies would joy!

    How?  Since Obi burst on the national consciousness on Pastor Poju Oyemade’s Covenant Nation yearly symposium, he perhaps has grown the most profitable(?) chatterbox career in Nigerian history — forget his peculiar voice!

    The more he talks, the more his excitable rabble hail him, the more he’s condemned to talking more to stay relevant!  Since 2023 when he over-performed at the 2023 presidential election, it’s one day, one jive for Obi. 

    The famous author and finisher of “go and verify!” has broadened the range of his China stats (euphemism for outright lies with numbers), away from China, to Egypt, to Argentina, to Indonesia — go and verify!

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    Trouble is: among the sober and introspective, Obi sounds progressively shallower.  Also, he has blown the mystique over his Anambra governorship — mediocre, at best — with its strange “savings”.  Poor Obi is snared in own trap!

    Natasha!  The Senate spokesperson, Yemi Adaramodu, dismissed her post-appeal antics as “skits” and “content creation”.  That might sound harshly dismissive but it’s clinically correct — not only of her post-court posturing alone,  but of the social media theatrics she’d hugged, since her suspension from the Senate.

    Pray, how could any trained lawyer reject a verdict — with her legitimate appeal — and yet want to part-enjoy what she already rejected?  No be juju be dat? — as they’ll say in the ever-colourful pidgin high street. 

    Natasha’s attempt to “resume” at the Senate, after her self-proclaimed “expiry” of her suspension, was laughable but unfortunate.  No less pathetic was her attempt to frame her drawing of blanks as Natasha vs Akpabio, male vs female, over dog vs underdog nonsense.  That’s deliberate manipulation only the truly naive would fall into.

    But maybe the Senate was right.  Maybe she was just creating skits and social media content to milk sympathy.  But maybe too, that’s not entirely useless: millions of zombies abound on the social media.

    Which is why an Obi-Natasha ticket would a sure-banker — gender balance inclusive!

  • Citizen Badenoch

    Citizen Badenoch

    Every time she speaks about Nigeria, the leader of United Kingdom’s opposition Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, makes a point to denigrate the country of her ancestry in the manner of that cultural axiom about using the left hand to point out one’s father’s house. It is obviously a tack she relishes to demonstrate the genuineness of her nativity transplant to her adopted country, the U.K.

    Badenoch was at it again early this week with a claim that she can’t transmit her Nigerian citizenship to her children because of her gender. Speaking in an interview on Sunday with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, she suggested Nigerians are taking advantage of U.K.’s relatively lax citizenship laws, as it is allegedly easier for Nigerians to acquire British citizenship than for foreigners to become Nigerians. This is why, according to her, the U.K. needs to tighten its own laws to restrict citizenship and residency access to foreigners. “It’s virtually impossible, for example, to get Nigerian citizenship. I have that citizenship by virtue of my parents. I can’t give it to my children because I’m a woman,” she said, adding: “Yet loads of Nigerians come to the U.K. and stay for a relatively free period of time, acquire British citizenship. We need to stop being naive.”

    But Badenoch was in error – whether deliberately so to score a supercilious point in her characteristic fashion, or out of sheer ignorance is not certain. And many Nigerians including officials of government have risen to point that out. Among them, presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, in a post on his X handle, said: “Britain should send our lost daughter, Kemi Badenoch, home for proper re-education. Section 25 of our Constitution defines who has the right to Nigerian citizenship. Kemi Badenoch lied. She owes her fatherland some apology.”

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    Human rights lawyer Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), described Badenoch’s statement as “a display of utter ignorance” and accused her of misinforming the British public to score political points. “In her desperate attempt to impress the British electorate, Kemi Badenoch keeps running Nigeria down. Contrary to her misleading claim, her children are Nigerians because she is a Nigerian. Her assertion that she cannot give Nigerian citizenship to her children because she is a woman is not in consonance with Section 25(b) and (c) of the Nigerian Constitution which provides that every person born in Nigeria after independence, either of whose parents or grandparents is a citizen of Nigeria, or any person born outside Nigeria to a Nigerian parent, is a citizen,” he said inter alia.

    The redeeming factor here is that for once, Badenoch is facing up to her Nigerianness. At least, she acknowledged the citizenship she inherited from her parents. Who knows, this may be the onset of a brutal self-reconstruction from the illusory identity transition that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer once mocked as appointing herself saviour of Western civilisation in desperate search for relevance.

  • No guarantee

    No guarantee

    Former President Muhammadu Buhari’s death from an undisclosed illness at an elite London hospital on July 13 predictably raised further questions about Nigerian leaders and their penchant for medical tourism. He was 82.  

    Seeking healthcare in foreign lands is not peculiar to this category of Nigerians. Indeed, it can be described as a “disease” afflicting many Nigerians who can afford to go abroad for medical purposes. 

    When political leaders, particularly those at high levels in the political hierarchy, routinely seek medical attention abroad, it suggests that they failed to improve their country’s medical system.  Buhari was reported to have spent at least 225 days abroad for medical purposes during his eight-year period in office. 

     Speaking on his death, the President of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Dr Tope Osundara, was reported saying, “If those in the corridors of power cannot trust the very system they are building, it raises serious questions about why medical tourism continues despite all the advocacy against it.”

    Also, the President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Prof. Bala Audu, was quoted as saying, “Healthcare is a personal matter, and people follow their doctors wherever they go, even across borders if they can afford it. But when public officials entrusted with strengthening our health sector consistently opt for foreign hospitals, it raises serious concerns. It shows a lack of faith in the very system they are supposed to be building and sustaining.” 

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    Interestingly, former spokesman for Buhari, Femi Adesina, who defended his foreign medical trips, argued after his death, “If he had said I’d do my medicals in Nigeria just for show off or something, he could have long been dead.”

    The implication that Nigerian medical practitioners are incompetent is “a false and dangerous narrative,” Osundara asserted.  Audu described the argument as “deeply offensive to the many competent Nigerian doctors and nurses saving lives every day under difficult conditions.” He noted that the issue “has never been about competence.” According to him, Nigerian doctors and nurses “are among the best in the world.”  The real problem, he stated, “is the lack of adequate infrastructure and equipment, particularly in public hospitals.”

    Notably, under the Remuneration of Former Presidents and Heads of State (and Other Ancillary Matters) Act, the Federal Government is to provide for the medical expenses of former presidents and their immediate families, covering treatment within the country and abroad.

    If this is the case, it behoves the occupant of the office to ensure that there are standard facilities locally that can handle their medical needs, and those of their compatriots, instead of relying on high-cost medical tourism.  Sadly, Buhari’s death underlined the reality that expensive healthcare abroad does not necessarily guarantee life.