The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • Police hypocrisy

    Police hypocrisy

    Seriously, it looks like a case of the pot calling the kettle black. The Police Service Commission (PSC), headed by Solomon Arase, painted the Special Police Constabulary black, and said there was a “need to overhaul the organisation and operations of the outfit.” The commission’s position was publicised in a recent statement by its spokesperson, Ikechukwu Ani.

    According to the commission, “There have been several reports of unprofessional conduct by officers of the outfit, a quasi-police formation created to assist in community policing.

    “Reports of their unprofessional conduct range from highhandedness in dealing with citizens and bare-faced extortion on our roads and communities.”

    This is bad for the image of the regular police, the commission observed. That is true. But interestingly, the same can be said regarding the regular police officers. The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) introduced the Special Police Constabulary in 2019. There were plans for the unit to recruit 20,000 personnel within five years. The first set of constables in the outfit were deployed to local governments in 2020, after training.

    There is no doubt that the NPF had an image problem, which has not disappeared, well before it introduced the Special Police Constabulary. Indeed, the negatives highlighted by the PSC in its demand for an “overhaul” of the outfit sounded like the long-term public criticism of the regular police.  

    Read Also: JUST IN: Police begin demolition of Lagos POWA complex 

    The commission proposed a solution to the image problem allegedly caused by the special constables, and called for “an entirely different set of uniforms for officers of the outfit that should be easily differentiated from that of the regular police officers.”  It argued that this “will help to track appropriately the conduct of men of the outfit and that of the regular police officers and free the Nigeria Police Force from blame associated with the misconduct of men of the outfit.”

    The PSC is hypocritical. The regular police also have been accused of such misconduct allegedly associated with the special constabulary, and need not only self-redemption but also reinvention.

    The PSC’s position is possibly connected with the recent dismissal of two police constables in Oyo State following a viral video that showed their involvement in extortion of a foreign tourist. The Police Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said the men were not regular police officers but special constabulary personnel.

    It’s easy and convenient to accuse the special constabulary of “unprofessional conduct” and “misconduct,” which is a narrow approach to the image problem of the police. A holistic approach demands that the regular police first “take the log” out of their own eye.

  • Fubara finally embraces realism

    Fubara finally embraces realism

    The conflict between Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his mentor, former governor Nyesom Wike, is yet to be finally resolved. It blew open in October, and has simmered since them, despite the interventions of President Bola Tinubu. From being at first pugnacious and daring, to being lachrymose about the eight-point peace deal that brought the open war to a tentative end, the governor in his Christmas Day address has begun to speak with somewhat countervailing melancholiness. Hear him: “I have said before, there is no price too much to pay for peace. And with the realisation that the worst peace is better than the best war, we will strive to make peace with all segments and interest groups without surrendering our freedom or jeopardising the interest and well-being of the good people of Rivers State who graciously entrusted us with their cherished mandate…As a principal participant in the entire saga, I have taken some time to study the terms therein and have come to the conclusion that the Peace Pact is not as bad as it is being portrayed by those genuinely opposed to it. It is certainly, not a death sentence. It offers some way towards a lasting peace and stability in our dear State. Accordingly, I reaffirm my acceptance of the Presidential Peace Proclamation and my commitment to implementing both the spirit and letter of the declaration in such a way and manner that will restore political stability to our dear state without compromising the collective interest of our people and our cherished and shared democratic values.”

    No one has dared to taunt him for accepting the peace deal. He has insinuated that the deal could be better packaged, and obviously in the coming weeks some of the provisions will either be naturally attenuated by the force of litigation and as the parties to the dispute become more realistic. Whatever the case, the street protests urging him to disavow the pact, and the state elders’ disingenuous stoking of the fire and even relentless buffeting of the governor urging him to resoluteness may in the end amount to nothing. The worst peace, as the governor philosophised, is better than the best war. Whoever inserted that phrase in his address has done him a huge favour. Of course that statement is not original to the governor, but it is a pearl of wisdom the state’s elders sadly derided. More wisely, in his address, the governor also suggested that while peace had not been fully achieved, the pact presaged a sensible and final resolution to the catastrophe the state had just dodged.

    Read Also: Reps approve securitization of N7.388 Ways and Means

    Gov Fubara is much calmer and wiser than the state’s fractious and overweening elders who had sought to hijack the conflict for their own personal ends. The elders were right to seek freedom for the governor from anyone breathing down his neck; and they were even righter to feel dismayed by Mr Wike’s obtrusions. But when conflict ensues, the option is not more flammable statements or actions by the combatants. The governor has perhaps realised that in the end the buck stops at his desk. The peace deal may wobble and be imperfect, but as he has soliloquised, it is better than war. He has seemed burdened by some of the provisions in the pact, especially the return to the state executive council of some 10 members who left of their own volition, and the representation of his budget before the whole state assembly, but these are issues and bottlenecks he can navigate with wisdom and tact. Nothing precludes him from winning them over, and even prising them loose from Mr Wike’s tentacles. And nothing says biding his time until he gets a second term would not be immensely gratifying and beneficial to him. What is more, Mr Wike can’t surely be so implacable that the governor, deploying some artifices, cannot disarm him.

    The moment calls for brilliance and patience requiring Mr Fubara to bravely tackle the difficult challenges mocking his person and resolve. Those egging him on to wage war using the instrumentality of the constitution may be oversimplifying the crisis. Instead, they should put pressure on Mr Wike to be more statesmanlike in his dealings with the governor, regardless of the former governor’s extraordinary contributions to the elections of his successor and dozens of legislators. The governor has, however, begun demonstrating the ability to manage difficult and complex problems; he should be encouraged. Let Mr Wike, who has the more difficult task of managing his coquetry with the APC and cuckoldry of the PDP, now demonstrate nobility.  

  • Boozy bandits

    Boozy bandits

    The challenge of insecurity in parts of this country is showing up in different shades – some, bizarre. In Taraba State, bandits were reported to have extorted beer drink as levies from farmers in Ardo-Kola council area before they were allowed to harvest their crops. The bandits fixed levies to be imposed proportionate to the size of the farmland, and accepted that the levy be settled with booze.

    Farming communities where the levy was imposed by the bandits in the local government area include Baka, Kasakuru, Majowere, Digun, Nyapori, Buzi, Dare, and Sakala. A report by Daily Trust newspaper cited a senior civil servant in Jalingo saying he was compelled to buy beer worth over N200,000 before being allowed to harvest his benniseed farm. The official disclosed that the levy imposed by the bandits ranged from N20,000 to N200,000 depending on the size of the farm, adding: “I paid with beer worth N200,000 before getting access to my farm.”

    Read Also: Troops kill 14 bandits, rescue kidnap victims in Kaduna, Niger

    A resident of the council area was reported saying farmers had become used to paying levy to the bandits before harvest. “Some people abandon their farms if they are levied too much and project that they can’t recover the amount after harvest,” the resident explained. Another source said the bandits were working with local informants who tipped them off on people coming to harvest their farms. “Most of the farmers that farm in Baka, Kwando and other areas reside in Jalingo and whenever they come to work on their farms, the informants alert the bandits, who quickly come down from the mountains to surround the innocent farmers,” the source revealed, adding that the bandits moved freely in groups with their arms at daytime and nighttime.

    Another instance of the transactional mode of bandits was what happened with the traditional ruler of Nkalagu Obukpa community in Nsukka council area of Enugu State, Igwe James Agbogo, who was kidnapped on December 21st and set free on Christmas day after the bandits collected victuals, apparently for celebration, along with the ransom money. Agbogo was getting set for his coronation on December 28th after emerging Igwe-elect when the abductors struck. The Nation newspaper cited a community source saying: “The funny thing about his kidnap is that the guys demanded N6million and insisted that a bag of rice, a carton of wine and other food ingredients must accompany the ransom or they would kill him.” The Igwe’s family reportedly delivered those items demanded to the kidnappers before they let him off.

    The sense one gets from cases like these is that bandits are getting more comfortable in their skin perpetrating their evil. Security services are making heroic efforts, but will have to do more in neutralising them.

  • Plateau massacres as litmus test

    Plateau massacres as litmus test

    Who is to blame for the Christmas Eve massacres in over 15 communities in Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi Local Government Areas of Plateau State? Not only the unidentified assailants who attacked the communities but also the federal authorities, according to the state governor, Caleb Mutfwang. He said the attacks by armed groups were “unprovoked,” and called the violence “barbaric, brutal and unjustified.” The picture of destruction showed at least 160 fatalities and hundreds injured.

    Mutfwang lamented that the Federal Government was partly responsible for the mass murder, saying, “Part of the problem we have is that so far, there have been no arrests, no prosecution.” He observed that under the administration of former president Muhammadu Buhari, the feeling of the people in Plateau State, particularly the victims of “these terrorist attacks,” was that “the terrorists were given official government backing to be able to terrorise them because little or nothing was done to repel these attacks.”

    Attributing the continued attacks to settlers who want to acquire land in the state by force, he added that in Barkin-Ladi Local Government Area, “schools have been occupied by these terrorists for some years now. Not less than 64 communities have been displaced and the lands have been taken over by these marauding terrorists.”  According to him, “some of those schools have been occupied for the last three to five years. Children in those schools have had to relocate, and primary healthcare centres have been abandoned.”

    Read Also: Nigeria is in good hands, Tinubu assures citizens

    Two days after the latest attacks, President Bola Tinubu directed security agencies to immediately move in, scour every stretch of the zone, and apprehend the culprits. He also ordered immediate mobilisation of relief resources for surviving victims of the attacks, and medical treatment for the wounded, assuring Nigerians that those responsible for the attacks would be brought to justice.

    It remains to be seen whether the attackers would be caught, prosecuted and punished.  It is necessary to ensure that justice is done for deterrent effect. Against the backdrop of Mutfwang’s allegations, the Tinubu administration needs to demonstrate that the country has entered a new phase of zero tolerance for lawlessness and insecurity.

    The raids on the affected communities were terrible. Governor Mutfwang’s allegations are alarming, particularly that the Buhari presidency shielded terrorists in the state from justice. The fresh massacres may well be the litmus test to determine whether the Tinubu administration has the necessary political will to make a difference security-wise.

  • Lonely night, rowdy day

    Lonely night, rowdy day

    Sages have long observed, and rightly so, that failure is an orphan whereas success is everyone’s kindred. When an objective gets accomplished, many players claim instrumentality in bringing this about, even when you could hardly recall what exertions or personal sacrifices they made in the pursuit of the stated objective. And nearly all life’s accomplishments take after that pattern. They typically involve gruelling and lonely nights of pursuit of the objective, but rowdily celebratory days of achievement of that objective. It was no different with the recent exemption of universities and other tertiary institutions from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) by the Bola Tinubu presidency.

    The administration announced penultimate week that it was taking federal universities, polytechnics and colleges of education out of the IPPIS with immediate effect to allow the institutions deal internally with staff salary issues. Education Minister, Professor Mamman Tahir, said the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the exemption because heads of those institutions should not have to abandon their work and be coming to Abuja to process the salaries of their personnel. He explained inter alia that the IPPIS issue had impaired management efficiency in the institutions, noting that tertiary institutions are governed by laws and they should be allowed to exercise their autonomy.

    Read Also: IPPIS: COEASU lauds Tinubu, calls for decisive action against saboteurs

    Following that announcement, there  has been loud accolades from stakeholders in the tertiary education sector; only you would wonder where some of these stakeholders were in the long ‘night’ of agitation for same concession that the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari unyieldingly resisted. The IPPIS was one of the issues for which members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) downed tools for more than 10 months in 2022, and for which their salaries were withheld and remains so even until now. The Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVCNU) is one of the stakeholder groups that have applauded the exemption from the centralised payroll system. Secretary-General of the committee, Professor Yakubu Ochefu, said universities in particular could not cope with IPPIS because it “does not accommodate the kind of flexibility that the system requires, and that is why we said this thing is antithetical to the way universities are operated.” He disclosed that the committee had an interface with the minister, who is a former VC, sometime last August on the challenges with IPPIS, suggesting that this was instrumental to government’s change of stance.

    Well, if IPPIS was so problematic, it is curious ASUU was left alone to fight the Buhari administration at huge costs to members’ welfare and personal image. Amidst ongoing celebration, those lecturers deserve special commendation; indeed, apology for having been left alone to fight a universally beneficial battle. 

  • Universities and anomalies

    Universities and anomalies

    Strange things are happening in public universities in Nigeria, according to the National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, who mentioned such anomalies at a recent event at the University of Uyo (UNIUYO), Akwa Ibom State.

    “Before now, the university employment was done through advertisement, followed by rigorous interviews,” he said.  ”But now, how do people get here? It is through temporary appointments. That’s the problem that we have today. I do not know of any university for the past six to 10 years that has advertised.

    “Vice chancellors just sat down somewhere and packed people from traditional rulers, governors, and all other politicians into the Nigerian universities as lecturers. Most of them are now scavengers in the system, going after money and all manner of things.

    “Unfortunately, university employment has turned into a constituency project. We have to struggle to reverse this misnomer and bring sanity to the system.”

    These are serious observations. There should be no room for such a method of employment in the country’s university system because it does not ensure that the best brains are employed.

    In an investigative report on shortage of lecturers in Nigerian universities, published last month, the ASUU Chairman, Federal University of Kashere, Gombe State, Dr Shehu El-rasheed, was reported saying filling existing vacancies “has become very difficult due to the tough bureaucratic bottlenecks.” According to him, “A vice-chancellor needs to get clearance from about seven Federal Government agencies and parastatals before a single staffer is recruited.”

    Read Also: Rivers crisis: appreciate Tinubu for intervening  – Wike

    In the same report, the ASUU Chairman, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Prof. Nurudeen Almustapha, noted that bureaucracy prevented university governing councils from exercising their “power to hire and fire” under the law.   

    Also, the ASUU Chairman, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Dr Adeleye Oluwagbemiga, who said the academic vacancies in the university were over 350, observed that “the last employment was done around 2019 or so.” He attributed this to the government’s “embargoes on employment,” saying, “The standard, according to the National Universities Commission, is to have one lecturer to 50 students or so, but what we have here in our university is one lecturer to between 200 and 300 students.”

    It is no news that many academics, discouraged by unfavourable conditions in the country, continue to leave for greener pastures abroad. The alarming brain drain, which partly explains the shortage of university teachers in the country, is compounded by the identified staffing issues.    

    Nigeria’s university system cannot be expected to improve under the current circumstances. The authorities must address the anomalies. 

  • A junta’s temerity

    A junta’s temerity

    There’s an axiom that when you are not wanted in a community, you do not go calling a tune and expect a supportive refrain. The ruling junta in neighbouring Niger Republic apparently wasn’t mindful of this when it recently approached the ECOWAS Court of Justice to seek orders lifting sanctions imposed on the country by the regional bloc following the military coup that displaced President Mohammed Bazoum from power. Lest the junta actors become oblivious of their illegitimacy, having survived about five months in power, they got a harsh reminder lately as the ECOWAS Court rebuffed their request to lift sanctions.

    On the heels of the 26th July coup, ECOWAS’s highest authority chaired by Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu had slapped a range of sanctions on Niger, including border closure and Nigeria cutting off electricity supply, thereby triggering power crisis in the junta-led country. In November, the junta, joined by seven other applicants, entered a plea with the ECOWAS Court seeking interim orders lifting the sanctions as part of a broader litigation challenging the legality of the sanctions. The applicants, including six Nigerien organisations and a national, said the sanctions have had adverse effects on Nigeriens such as food, medicine and electricity shortages. They requested the court to issue interim orders compelling the authority of heads of governments to immediately suspend the sanctions.

    Read Also: Yuletide: Don’t think of vacation this season, we’ve burden of Nigerians on our shoulders, Shettima tells NEC

    But the ECOWAS Court, penultimate week, declined the request for interim orders, saying the junta failed to meet the requirement for the case to be admissible. The three-member panel, comprising Justices Edward Asante, Gbéri-bè Ouattara and Dupe Atoki, held that the Nigerien junta lacked competence for the suit because its unconstitutional emergence in power robbed it of the right to institute a suit before a constitutional body like the ECOWAS Court. The court held the view that an entity resulting from an unconstitutional change of government, and not acknowledged by ECOWAS as a government of a member-state, inherently lacks the standing to institute a case with the aim of obtaining reprieve. Consequently, it dismissed both the substantive suit and the request for interim orders sought by the junta on Niger’s behalf. Concerning the seven non-state applicants, the court held that they failed to provide specific details on the nature and extent of the harm suffered by each of them from the measures imposed on Niger. This lack of specificity, it ruled, made it challenging to differentiate their legal interests in the case from those of Niger.

    It was sheer temerity that made the jackboots of Niger seek legal remedy for their illegal enterprise and it was good the court gave a shock reality check.

  • No noise, please

    No noise, please

    Interestingly, two states were in the news last week for their efforts to tackle noise pollution. Also known as sound pollution, it has been found to have adverse effects on the lives of many people, particularly causing health problems. 

    Stress-related illnesses, high blood pressure, speech interference, hearing loss, sleep disruption, and lost productivity, are among problems associated with noise.

     Not all sound is considered noise pollution. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), noise above 65 decibels (dB) is noise pollution. Noise is considered harmful when it exceeds 75 decibels, and painful above 120 decibels.

    When the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) met with religious leaders, its General Manager, Babatunde Ajayi, said the majority of complaints the agency received that concerned religious organisations had to do with noise pollution. “From the data we have this year, we have over 2,500 reports from across Lagos alone; at least half of them are about religious organisations,” he stated, adding that it was important to “understand what the law says and how we can go about peaceful coexistence.”

    Read Also; Two held for alleged manufacturing of fake drinks

    Also, when the agency took its campaign against noise pollution to nightclubs last month, Ajayi observed that club owners needed to soundproof the walls of their clubs to prevent noise pollution. He noted that noise from clubs could have a “debilitating” effect on people’s health. “So, beyond the money you are making, you have a responsibility to your neighbour,” he told them. In the same month, the agency announced that it had sealed seven hotels and a church for noise pollution.

    In Enugu State, the Chairman of Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority (ECTDA), Uche Anya, highlighted the agency’s zero tolerance for noise pollution. He said: “The Catholic Bishop of Enugu informed us that he cannot sleep again in his residence. So, if the government cannot enforce the law and ensure that people can sleep in their residential neighbourhoods, what is then the essence?”

    He noted that noise from nightclubs had a negative impact on the mental health of residents, especially children and retirees, saying the agency would “ensure that all night clubs, especially those in residential neighbourhoods, embrace acoustic technology.” His words: “Anything short of that, we will not allow it.”

    Enforcement is essential; words are not enough. These states must ensure that word and action are on the same page.  Importantly, other states in the country should learn from the anti-noise campaigns in Lagos and Enugu states.

  • Ball game in Kaduna

    Ball game in Kaduna

    Authorities in Kaduna State have hit on a terminal cure for errant libido of rapists. Male rapists in the state will have their balls cut off, while female rapists will be de-fertilised by having both of their fallopian tubes removed.

    State Commissioner for Human Services and Social Development, Hajiya Rabi Salisu, recently said male rapists would be subjected to surgical castration as punishment, while female rapists would be made to undergo bilateral salpingectomy. These penalties, according to her, are stipulated in the state’s Violence Against Persons Prohibition Law (VAPPL), 2018, implying they have been in the statute books and will now be enforced.

    Speaking at a press conference in Kaduna after a parley with stakeholders organised in collaboration with the Centre for Integrated Health Programs (CIHP), Hajiya Salisu said the law was enacted following a lengthy process of advocacy, lobbying and awareness campaign by civil society groups in the state working with relevant government agencies. Rape cases in Nigeria are notoriously under-reported, but the commissioner said  there had been more reported cases of violence against women and girls (VAWG) in Kaduna State since the passage of the VAPPL in December 2018. This, according to her, is attributable to increased awareness about VAWG campaign and availability of the castration law.

    Read Also: Kaduna, Kwara, Lagos, four others named most viable states

    Those penalties stipulated by the Kaduna codebook may ordinarily appear harsh, but rape is such a monstrous offence against hapless victims that perpetrators deserve the worst that they get. Surgical castration for a male rapist will involve emasculating the offender by excising his testicles. Chemical castration that involves using pharmaceutical drugs to deactivate the testes could be tidier, but apparently would be less painful to the rapist. Similarly for the female rapist, bilateral salpingectomy will involve removal of both fallopian tubes, translating to terminal birth control for the offender. Unilateral salpingectomy, which is the removal of only one fallopian tube, would be more benign since medical authorities say a person can get pregnant with only one fallopian tube.  But the Kaduna law stipulates taking out both tubes, which is female equivalent of male castration.

    And you really can’t blame the Kaduna government for going for the rapist’s procreative jugular. The offence is highly dastardly because it not only affrontingly violates the victim, it as well leaves many victims in a psychological prison of forced silence out of fear of social stigma should the violation be reported. The offence is therefore sufficiently grievous that it isn’t asking for too much if other states borrow a leaf from the Kaduna law. Cut off the rapist’s balls!

  • A dog’s world

    A dog’s world

    If you describe Nigerian prisons – they call it correctional  service –as a dog’s world, you won’t be speaking metaphorically. Literally, it is a dog’s world. Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) Controller-General Haliru Nababa gave that much indication when he said the service spent N800 daily to feed a security dog whereas N750 was being expended on feeding an inmate.

    In his defence of the 2024 budget for the service before the National Assembly last week, Nababa disclosed that there are 81,358 inmates nationwide, out of which 53,362 are awaiting trial – meaning they are yet to be found guilty of any offence. “We feed each inmate with N750 daily and they are fed three times daily (@N250 per meal). We have 900 security dogs and to feed a dog each day, we spend N800,” he said in response to a question by the chair of Senate Committee on Interior, Senator Adams Oshiomhole. He further said in the course of his defence that the effective allowance for each inmate was N720 after VAT and tax deductions.

    That disclosure didn’t sit well with Oshiomhole, who questioned the quality of feeding given to inmates at the stated rate. “One thing that has come out is that an unconvicted Nigerian is being fed with N750, and you feed each of the dogs under your care with N800 per day. So, a dog is better fed in the Nigerian prison than an innocent Nigerian in your custody,” he told the NCoS boss, adding inter alia: “Your organisation has transformed from Nigeria Prison Service to Nigeria Correctional Service, but you have yet to change in your attitude toward inmates. It’s not just your fault, because the government appropriates little money for you. It is either you don’t feed the inmates or you feed them only once. Even at that, it’s with very miserable food. That is why they are completely emaciated and some can never live a decent life again, even when they did not commit an offence.”

    Read Also: Lagos, Ogun, five others named most viable states

    But there’s a context to Nababa’s disclosure that must not be glossed over by mere populist indignation, if the challenge with the prisons would get tackled. The NCoS boss said his service had written government to propose an increase in feeding allowance for the inmates but was yet to secure approval. “The NCoS has written to the Minister of Interior requesting a review of the amount we are using to feed the inmates from N750 per day to N3,000. We are still waiting for approval. We therefore seek the assistance of the  NASS to approve the increment,” he said.

    The lawmakers will do well to address their energy to this plea in getting a better deal for the inmates if they’re genuinely concerned about them.