The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • Odd continuity  

    President Muhammadu Buhari started his second term in office on May 29. His inauguration on that day meant the beginning of a new four-year administration under him. He was not expected to continue in office as if there had been no discontinuity when his first term ended.  He was not expected to automatically run the government with people from his first term without formally announcing that such people had roles in his second term.

    There are rules, and Buhari is expected to play by the rules. Going by the rules, Buhari’s first-term aides should not become second-term aides without being re-appointed. This is clear enough.

    It is interesting that two lawyers pointed out the oddity of a seamless continuation.   Inibehe Effiong threatened to approach a Federal High Court for interpretation and enforcement of Sections 151 and 171 of the 1999 Constitution, following the continuance in office of Buhari’s 100 aides without being re-appointed. Femi Falana (SAN) accused President Buhari of promoting illegality by allowing his 100 aides to remain in office despite the expiration of their tenure.

    The affected aides include the President’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari; the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha; Buhari’s  media aides, Garba Shehu and Femi Adesina; and others who had continued with their official duties without being re-appointed.

    Falana argued: “Like ministers, special advisers and other political appointees were appointed by President Buhari for a four-year term of office in 2015. Consequently, the tenure of all the political appointees expired on May 29, 2019, by effluxion of time. Hence, the federal cabinet was dissolved while all ministers were relieved of their appointments at the end of the four-year tenure.”

    Falana added: “In the same vein, all other political appointees ought to have been asked to relinquish their positions. Since the President has not sacked them or renewed their appointments there has arisen the urgent need to avoid a constitutional crisis whereby the actions of such persons who have continued to occupy offices illegally may be questioned or declared illegal by a court of law.”

    It is curious that President Buhari trivialised such an important requirement by allowing his aides to carry on with their roles as though they had a fresh tenure. It is stating the obvious that they need to be re-appointed to their positions, just as Buhari himself was re-elected. The President should know better than to have aides who are working unlawfully.

     

     

  • Loonies on Lagos roads

    If education is expensive, goes that popular quip, try ignorance!  If a penalty is “harsh”, have folks considered how grave and grievous the offence or infraction may have been?

    Since the Lagos government, under new Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, rolled out a new zero-tolerance-for-traffic-offences temper, a good part of Lagos has hit its default setting — the default setting of I’d-rather-toy-and-make-an-ass-of-the-law, since I could always get away with it!  Hence, these-penalties-are-too-harsh lamentation all over the place.

    Well, even assuming without conceding (as lawyers are wont to say) that the traffic penalties are indeed harsh, how is that the headache of anyone who doesn’t intend to break the law?

    Maybe a passionate pitch for perhaps the victim that accidentally breached the law without intending to?  Or perhaps the notorious bad faith, which is never far from Nigerian law enforcers, this time the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) cadres?  Hardly without merit!

    Read Also: Photos: floods take over Lagos roads

    Still, the “harsh” mindset appears coming folks who are daily captives to traffic terror by lowly Okada and  Keke Marwa operators; and yet would be the first to raise their voice against facing down the menace.

    Imagine: those reckless commercial bus and private drivers whose lack of consideration for other road users has morphed into a culture of brazen outlawry on Lagos roads, yearly claiming invaluable costs in lost lives, severed limbs.

     

    Or those outlaws, commercial and private drivers, that routinely dent your car by reckless driving, cock-sure begging and rank sentiments would make you pay for their own recklessness?

    Or even those lunatics that drive their Okada, flush against traffic, on a major expressway,  from which they have been outlawed?  Or their kindreds, at Ojota, that ram their bikes against the high median, crossing from one side of the expressway to another, risking not only their lives but those of other law-abiding road users?

    These are the unfazed outlawry on Lagos roads the new government must face down.  Any modern economy must rein in the conduct of its road users.  Anarchy on the road, which leads to losses running into billions of Naira yearly, can’t be a part of the agenda for a city-state, which had no choice but becoming a thriving,  modern and sane mega-city, by virtue of its thumping population.

    The fight against traffic outlawry in Lagos is four years behind schedule.  Former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode tried his best and made his own mark.  But  he near-completely lost it on the road, by trying to play the gentleman, going soft on traffic anarchists, thereby rolling back the hard-earned gains of the Babatunde Fashola years.

    Order must be brought back to Lagos roads, even in the most outlying inner roads.  But you can’t do this by pandering to rank sentiments.

    Still, the Lagos government must ensure the LASTMA troopers are above board in the conduct of their duties.  That it should ensure by constant and effective monitoring to weed out the bad eggs.

  • Political adventurers

    It is contracts and contractors season at the National Assembly. “The management of the National Assembly is in the process of awarding contracts worth at least N10billion as part of the efforts to ease the work of the newly inaugurated 109 Senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives,” a report said.

    According to the report, there will be contracts to supply “cars, television sets, refrigerators, water dispensers and office equipment, such as desk top computers, laptops, printers, scanners, and photo copying machines.” The new items will replace the old ones used by members of the 8th National Assembly, which were sold to them at give-away prices after their tenure. Those who bought the items are expected to pay with money deducted from their severance package.

    A source was quoted as saying: “All the new Senators and Reps will soon make arrangements to purchase brand new vehicles befitting their status as  the N34 million jeeps and the N14 million cars used by the 2015- 2019 Senators and Honourable members were sold off to them at between  N1 million and N1.5million each.”

    The 8th National Assembly is said to have spent about N6.6billion to purchase cars for lawmakers. The 9th National Assembly is expected to spend much more.

    For instance, a source was quoted as saying: “The severance benefits of Principal Officers in the two Houses, especially the Senate President, Speaker and their Deputies are in an entirely special class… the norm is that the Senate President or Speaker leaves with almost the entire six to eight classy cars in his car pool, leaving one big bullet proof Mercedes Benz which his successor is likely to replace anyway.”

    The NASS has a budget of about N125 billion for this year, and a greater part of the budget is for the severance pay of former senators and Reps as well as their legislative aides. Members of the House of Representatives will get a total of N10.8bn allowances for accommodation and furniture within their first three months.

    Obviously, it is important to question the National Assembly’s questionable benefits. Do the federal legislators deserve what they enjoy simply because of their status? The federal legislature is not supposed to be a place where lawmakers just enjoy and enjoy.

    The benefits federal lawmakers enjoy make them look like political adventurers who are more interested in their own personal prosperity than patriotic performance that will enhance the country’s development.

  • Egypt and Morsi’s ghost

    The sudden death of Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s former president, marked the end of a personal odyssey.

    But it could well open another odyssey  — and tragedy — for Egypt, as a country, in terms of Islamist unrests.

    So, sitting President, Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the military chief that toppled Morsi’s government; and later won a controversial election to become president, had better brace his country for the worst.

    Morsi, who fainted and collapsed in court on June 17, and was later confirmed dead in hospital, was a worrying symbol — of the paradox of both the possibilities and limitations of democracy, in a modern, heterogeneous and secular society.

    Morsi, candidate of the highly organized Egypt Muslim Brotherhood, won democratic election as president,  though an Islamist candidate, in a modern, secular state with a predominant Muslim population.

    Morsi’s party was hardly dominant.  Still, they nicked the election, 51-49 per cent, a wafer-thin margin — what political scientists would call a “hung” mandate.

    That behoved President Morsi to run an all-inclusive administration, if only to appease and assure the secularists, among whom the dominant Egyptian military — and many, if not most — of the elite rank counted themselves.

    But Morsi failed; and therefore triggered the mass protests that led to his ouster.  Beyond that tragic rigidity, spawning the wrong temper for the wrong season, however, Morsi committed no crime, beyond winning a democratic election — and  the most democratic in Egypt’s history to boot!

    Since his 2013 overthrow, however, Morsi has for six years become a living ghost, condemned to a life in gaol, between appearances in courts, the last of which witnessed his collapse and death.

    Morsi’s has sparked a philosophical question, on the reach and limits of democracy: if democracy means freedom of choice, among other freedoms, could a man like Morsi be punished for fealty to his faith, which he had a democratic right to, even if the secular majority viewed him with suspicion — if not outright fear?

    If the answer is no, then there is fear for Egypt, with its chequered post-Hosni Mubarak instability.

    Before June 17, Morsi was a living ghost, buried in the open grave of state prison, his Muslim Brotherhood not unlike a snake dazed, but with its head intact.

    Now, his sudden death, in a state court, on some spying in connection with Hamas, the extremist Palestine Islamist militant group, has transformed him into a real and potent ghost, bound to haunt Egypt for some time to come.

    Indeed, Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s Morsi equivalent who somewhat succeeded in his own Islamist agenda, even with Turkey’s secular generals screaming and kicking, just captured the buzz word: Morsi just became the martyr for Egypt’s Islamism!

    That hardly bodes well for Egypt — and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi sure has his job cut out for him.  For regional security, Egypt is key.  If it goes on the boil, a new wave of Middle East inferno might just be blinking.

    Which is why the Egyptian authorities must take preventive measures to ensure things don’t get out of hand, even if Morsi’s ghost haunts, as it probably will.

     

     

  • Millionaire gorilla

    News that a gorilla allegedly swallowed N6.8 million at the Kano Zoological Gardens reflects an inventive imagination. “An accounts officer at the zoo claimed that the gorilla sneaked into an office where the money was kept and then proceeded to ‘swallow’ it,” a report said.

    It is unclear why the accounts officer believed the story about a money-swallowing gorilla was believable. Why did the account officer build the story around a gorilla, and not some other animal?  These questions are not meant to suggest that the account officer created the story, but there is no doubt that the story sounds like a creative story.

    It is unclear whether the gorilla had targeted the money, or just stumbled upon it. It is unclear whether the gorilla was starving, and ready to swallow anything. It is unclear why the gorilla had such a big appetite, and had to swallow such a large sum. It is unclear whether the gorilla had swallowed money before then.

    It is unclear whether the gorilla enjoyed the money it allegedly swallowed. It is unclear how the money the gorilla allegedly swallowed would affect its health. It is unclear when the gorilla would be hungry again, and whether it would try to sneak into another office to swallow more money.

    Interestingly, this is not the first time an animal has been bizarrely blamed for missing money in Nigeria. A February 12, 2018, report said:  “A sales clerk, Philomena Chieshe, told JAMB registrar and his team that she could not account for N36 million she made in previous years before the abolition of scratch cards. In the course of interrogation, Philomena denied the allegations that she stole the money but confessed that her housemaid connived with another JAMB staff, Joan Asen, to “spiritually” (through a snake) steal the money from the vault in the account office.” The cash disappearance happened at the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) office in Makurdi, Benue State. The management didn’t believe the sales clerk’s story about a money-swallowing snake.

    In Kano, the state police command spokesman, Abdullahi Haruna Kiyaw, was quoted as saying:  “Yes, it is true that money from five days of Sallah festivities is missing from the Kano zoo. As at now, we have arrested 10 members of staff of the zoo including the security man and those working in the finance unit.”

    Which animal may be blamed for missing money the next time?

  • Kidnapping, South West and changing narratives

    Fact: Kidnapping, banditry and allied violent crimes have spiked in Nigeria’s South West, with the native Yoruba crying blue murder — and just as well.

    But what isn’t so clear is where the perpetrators of these dastardly crimes come from, beyond the fact that they are basically non-natives — and that the most perilous paths, in the kidnapping route, are the Ibadan-lkire-Ife expressway, Ilesa-Akure expressway, Ijebu-jesa-Efon road, linking Osun and Ekiti states, and the Akure-Owo expressway, linking Ondo with Edo State.

    Even on the non-native criminals, the narratives are changing.  First, it was the tale of criminal Fulani, herdsmen, criminals and allied gun men, come to capture Yoruba forests and boasting about it — bragging: no force under the sun could sack them from their new forested empires of crime.

    Then, came claims that though those criminals could indeed be Fulani, they were likely of foreign hues; as some of them spoke French and seemed to have come from Chad, Niger, Sudan and even Libya!

    That appeared to punch holes in the claim of a pan-Nigeria Fulani criminal commune bent on sacking Yoruba land, even as it raised questions how such foreign criminals penetrated deep into the country.

    Then, came further narratives, from a kidnap at Okada, on the Sagamu-Benin expressway.  The victim, a teacher, could have sworn, at the point of kidnap, after 7 pm on the day, that his captors were the wicked and heartless Fulani, so dressed in fake Police gears.

    But at the point of release, after his family had parted with some N2 million ransom money, he realized they were what looked like Edo-speaking criminals, committing crime — and grossing millions — on the Fulani’s behalf!

    The take even spoke of a near-rescue from the much-loathed and cursed “Fulani herdsmen”, in some twisted lore of Fulani herdsmen as undisputed helmsmen of Yoruba/Edo forest kidnapping.  In this case, the “Fulani” impostors had to stay still and pretend to merge with the vegetation in the dark, to escape the probing glare of the herdsmen’s searchlight.

    Then: a worrying tale of the use of IT-powered tracking device, speaking of a possible local police collusion in the racket.

    Then, came a kidnap, on the Akure-Owo-Ifon  road, by four hefty men, just gone viral on social media.

    A man, self-identified as Adenrele, on Twitter, revealed how four hefty men, kidnapped him and his uncle, at about 7 am and marched them into the bush.

    Three hours later, he saw a tattered herds boy, who just passed by in the forest, near a stream, where the captives were tied up.  The boy had tracked them to their kidnappers’ den; and would, some hours later, emerge with seven herdsmen to the captives’ rescue.

    So, something good can come from the much maligned Fulani herdsmen and kidnappers’ company, eh?

    The moral is clear.  Inasmuch as there are some Fulani kidnappers, this crime has become an all-comers’ business.  So, folks should stop chasing shadows.  Tackle the kidnappers and leave the sweet distraction, of  where they come from.

    On this score, President Muhammadu Buhari has his job cut out for him.  He must act — and fast too.  Meanwhile, enough of distracting tales.

    Kidnappers are our clear are present danger.  Wherever they come from is immaterial!

     

  • Why is Yusuf not in jail?

    Ironically, John Yakubu Yusuf,  a former Assistant Director in the Federal Civil Service, who was sentenced to prison by the Court of Appeal for stealing about N24 billion from the Police Pension Funds, is enjoying his freedom.

    According to a report, “Over a year after the March 22, 2018 judgement of the Court of Appeal, which reversed an earlier judgement of High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and sentenced Yusuf to a cumulative term of six years (two-year per count on a three-count charge), Yusuf, has not been made to serve the jail term.”

    The convict is said to have appealed the Court of Appeal judgement at the Supreme Court, but the appeal is not supposed to act as a stay of the execution of the judgement. He is supposed to be in prison while he pursues his appeal.

    So, why is Yusuf not in jail? Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) spokesman Tony Orilade was quoted as saying:  “After a successful appeal by the EFCC, the appellate court, on March 22, 2018, upturned Justice Talba’s judgement and handed Yusuf a six-year jail term. He was further asked to pay a more adequate fine of N20 billion, N1.4 billion and N1.5 billion on counts 17, 18 and 19, totalling N22.9 billion. If there is any question(s) on the whereabouts of the convict, it should not be directed at the EFCC but the relevant agency that should take custody of Yusuf.”

    Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) spokesman Francis Enobore was quoted as saying it was the duty of the prosecuting agency, with powers of arrest, to ensure that a person against whom it secured conviction and sentence is delivered to the prison authorities, along with the decision of the court. In other words, the EFCC was supposed to have delivered Yusuf to the prison authorities to serve his jail term.

    The claim and counter-claim show why Yusuf is free to enjoy his freedom. It is curious that a convict is not behind bars because there is confusion about who should ensure that he is in prison. Yusuf’s freedom makes nonsense of the country’s criminal justice system.

    This is clearly not how to fight a war against corruption. It is ridiculous that Yusuf, who has been convicted of corruption and sentenced to jail, is nowhere near prison. Ironically, Yusuf is serving his jail term outside jail. Those who made this absurdity happen are absurd.

  • June 12 and the mo(u)rning after

    The build-up to June 12, as Nigeria’s new Democracy Day, was  bliss for some; angst for others.

    Which is why Hardball understands former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s humbug, the moment he found his voice.  The Punch quoted him as saying declaring June 12 as Democracy Day, laudable as that is, was not enough.

    True, Atiku’s stance isn’t altogether unreasonable: June 12, democracy and governance should be a means to an end: improving the people’s lives; and delivering wellness, development and prosperity.

    But what rankles, in Atiku’s mo(u)rning after, is his thick hypocrisy.  Wasn’t declaring June 12, as basic and just that was, beyond the ken of Atiku and his principal, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in their eight-year presidency?

    Atiku’s mentor, Shehu Musa Yar’Adua died in post-June 12 Abacha gulag.  Obasanjo himself was canned, and made it from there to be elected president.  Yet, none of the two thought it fit to honour the man whose martyrdom fetched them the top-most offices in the land.

    The National Stadium, Abuja, just renamed MKO Abiola National Stadium, was always on the cards to do MKO honour.  But what did Atiku and boss do? To think these blokes always think Nigerians are fools who always forget!

    Anyway, at least Atiku found his voice, in the mourning after, even if riddled with the usual Atiku-lated cant and bad grace.  Obasanjo?  He simply scrammed!  Yet, his darling “international community” were painting Abuja red, for June 12, Obasanjo’s living nemesis, with love from MKO from the grave!

    But not Obasanjo alone squirreled out, never to be heard, on a day of national re-birth. Gen.  Ibrahim Babangida too, the annuler whose wayward act started the trouble, stayed clear, even if he was invited.  So did former President Goodluck Jonathan, an otherwise goodly guy, let down by innate weakness, who nevertheless was smart enough to to give in, when he knew he was licked!

    With the mourning after, it would appear a quiet but no less magical rite of passage, from an old, ruinous order, to a new one that beckons, where nobody, no matter how power-drunk, would dare cancel the result of a democratic election.

    But from the mourning of Atiku and co, comes another morning of putative bliss.

    The National Assembly, unlike the Saraki coup of 2015, just returned to the pair of Ahmed Lawan (Senate President) and Femi Gbajabiamila (Speaker, House of Representatives), legitimate change agents that the people can call to question.

    Why, the last Saraki vestige of rank opportunism, in the Ekweremadu challenge for  Deputy Senate President, pitiably collapsed, leading to Ovie Omo-Agege’s triumph.  But pray: on what basis might a minority senator vie for DSP, a  majority “property”?

    That just reinforced the June 12 spirit — of majority win and minority loss, in the best spirit of justice and fair play.

    Leave the old order to their mourning.  God knows they have earned it, many times over, by their rotten conduct.

    But let post-June 12 Democracy Day usher in a new era, where the people are well and truly kings and queens.

    It is the fitting morning — and mourning — after!

  • Legacy of neglect

    A visit to the OOUTH is an eye opener…” according to an investigative report published in The Nation on June 9 titled “OOUTH Sagamu: A Teaching Hospital in a mess.”  OOUTH is Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, a state-run hospital in Sagamu, Ogun State.

    The report said: “The hospital has been facing funding problems for years, which according to sources has affected its operations. The Nation investigation discovered that the hospital in April generated N177 million, which to an insider is not enough to run its activities.”

    The newspaper’s investigation showed that “the hospital’s X-ray machine and the CT SCAN machine are non-functioning.”  The correspondent, “who went inside the emergency ward X-ray machine unit, discovered that it has been non-operational for the past two months.”

    The report continued: “The Nation’s checks on the state of funding by the state government through the Ministry of Health discovered that the Ministry got N21.19 billion for 2018, N15.1 billion for 2017, N14.346 billion for 2016, while effort to get budgets for the hospital proved abortive as the link housing details to Ogun State budget are either broken or direct a reader to the Ogun State website homepage. It was also impossible to get the OOUTH’s yearly budget by the government from 2016 to 2019.The hospital only got N1, 000,000 subvention funds from the government on monthly basis.”

    Predictably, the immediate past Commissioner for Health, Babatunde  Ipaye, was quoted as saying that The Nation’s findings about the  deplorable  state of the hospital were untrue and politically motivated. He accused some staff of the hospital of spreading falsehood about the state of the hospital.  ”What is happening at OOUTH Sagamu is different from the lies being peddled on social media,” he said.

    The report was gripping enough to grab the attention of Governor Dapo Abiodun, who paid an unscheduled visit to the hospital to see for himself.  ”I don’t see how this place can produce good doctors; we shall go back to drawing board. The place is substandard,” he observed. “This hospital is in a depressing state. We shall look into facilities and personnel and would soon put up a team, after a final report from the Medical Director, on how to revive the lost glory of the hospital.”

    The hospital’s deterioration reflects neglect by the immediate past administration of former governor Ibikunle Amosun. Amosun was governor for eight years, and left the hospital in its present discreditable state. That is no credit to him.

     

     

  • A wrist for a fish?

    An eye for an eye” goes the old Mosaic law, all growling and vengeance, with nary an eye for justice.

    But what would you call “a wrist for a fish”, a severe sentence on an 11-year old alleged to have stolen a fish — a fisherman’s law?

    Right in Lagos and loud in infamy, Jeremiah Obifor, 61, a fish farmer, allegedly cut off the wrist of  Goodluck Amaechi, 11, for prowling around a fish pond; and either stealing  or with the intention of stealing fish!

    Geez!  With such a severe sentence, which would have put the severe Greek lawgiver, Draco to shame, Ameachi sure is full of ill luck, even if his parents had christened him Goodluck!

    The story, reported by The Nation of June 10, accompanied with a photo of Pa Obifor and his draconic machete, leaves you winded as what contemporary Nigeria is becoming, with a 61-year old hewing off the wrist of a 11-year old!  A savage urban redoubt?

    The 50-year age distance between them — is it not supposed to count for something? What of parent-guardian/children-wards code — does that vanish in a moment of urban madness, no matter the instant provocation?

    The presumption to strike is even more galling: “The suspect,” the story went, “alleged that he saw the victim around his fish pond and thought that he came to steal his fish and that was how he attacked him.”

    Thought!  The audacity of thinking!  The certainty of cutting!  The tragedy of hewing off a wrist!

    This is a well and truly gory tale, but it’s no fiction told by the moonlight!  It is a savage cut, well and truly condemnable.  What if the 11-year-old ends up with one wrist for life?

    Let the victim get the best medical attention possible to save his wrist.  That should be the first priority.  On that score, appropriate quarters in the Lagos State government should show pay very close attention.

    Then, let the police carry out a thorough investigation.  If the reportage is true, in all material particular, then they must ensure Obifor gets his day in court — and fast.

    But even if Obifor could proffer reasonable reasons for his drastic action, the Lagos State government should ensure he gets medical help for anger management.

    Even with the purest of motives, tempers like Obifor’s are a clear and present danger to any civilized society.  His immediate community must be protected from such savage menace!