The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • REC on the run

    REC on the run

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) alleged last week that suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Adamawa State Hudu Yunusa-Ari was on the run along with his surety. The commission told the Adamawa State High Court that Yunusa-Ari was evading arraignment in court to answer to six-count charges preferred against him.

    INEC’s counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, told the court presided over by Justice Benjamin Manji Lawan that the prosecution could not arraign Yunusa-Ari due to inability to arrest him. The defendant, Jacobs said, refused invitation from the investigative police officer (IPO) upon being served hearing notice. He requested the court to adjourn the matter to enable police to effect Yunusa-Ari’s arrest for arraignment and trial, or in the alternative bring application for the court to issue arrest warrant against him. Speaking with journalists after the court session, Jacobs said: “The defendant has been evasive. You can’t get him or arrest him. He is hiding. The lawyers have been encouraging him to do so.”

    The IPO who introduced himself as Moses Jolujdo, a Chief Superintendent of Police, confirmed to the court that the defendant and his surety had been evading arrest.

    INEC had dragged Yunusa-Ari to court on charges of announcing  false electoral result, violating the oath of neutrality, breach of duty, disorderly conduct at election, inciting disturbance, and impersonating a public servant. Those charges derived from his usurpation of the power of INEC-appointed Returning Officer to declare Aishatu Dahiru (Binani) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of the Adamawa State supplementary governorship poll last April while collation of results was still underway. He was overruled and suspended by the electoral commission, which declared Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winner when results collation ended.

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    In his ruling, Justice Lawan granted the application for adjournment and adjourned the case to 22nd November, 2023, for Yunusa-Ari’s arraignment.

    It wasn’t the first time the suspended REC was being declared ‘on the run.’ In April, in the wake of his controversial call, INEC said he had disappeared without a trace after he failed to honour the commission’s summons to is headquarters in Abuja. “We don’t know where he is because after this particular incident, the commission wrote him and also called him on the phone. He never answered or returned any of the calls. We asked him to report to the commission…,we didn’t see him. Up till this moment, he has not reported and we don’t know his whereabouts,” then spokesman, National Commissioner Festus Okoye, said on television.

    But Yunusa-Ari eventually surfaced and denied ever being on the run, saying he was only laying low. He should re-enact such reappearance act now, unless he is truly on the run and a fugitive from law.

  • Ajaero: outlawry begets outlawry

    Ajaero: outlawry begets outlawry

    In the Joe Ajaero Imo odyssey of November 1, only one thing was clear: outlawry begot outlawry. Everything else was ugly controversy.

    Ajaero, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) president, flush with Aluta,  bucked a National Industrial Court (NIC) order, as he had always threatened to, often claiming such orders were “Jankara” — in local parlance: illicit injunctions procured in bad faith.

    So, Ajaero, an “agbero” (read reckless: thanks to another local parlance) Labour warrior in good faith, blundered into Owerri, ran into counter-”agberos” in bad faith, and got clobbered black and blue!

    When self-help clashes with self-help, it’s chaos in full technicolor! The only safe option is due process.  Yes, it may be slow, or even annoying.  But it gets you there in one piece: no puffy eyes, no broken bones and certainly no jeremiads after — due process!

    Yet, who dunnit?  That’s the big controversy fuelled by mutual finger-pointing.

    Ajaero and his NLC point irate fingers of guilt at Governor Hope Uzodinma and the sitting Imo establishment, who just triumphed at the November 11 poll.  They screech Hope and co have ugly motives to thrash Ajaero but look none the wiser.

    The Imo government returned the grim favour, in full measure.  Governor Uzodinma roasted Ajaero at his own Labour stakes.  

    The Imo local NLC had no problem with him, he claimed.  But joining the political fray, Ajaero had to create one, in alleged illicit aid of the Imo Labour Party (LP) gubernatorial candidate, since Ajaero himself was an Imo native.  It was a rash plot gone awry, that allegedly sparked an intra-Labour “civil war”.  In truth, the Imo NLC had said they had no problem with the governor.

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    Still, an incensed NLC charged back, even claiming that after the vile assault and battery on its president, the governor had allegedly tracked him to his Imo village, thinking he was there, to finish the job!

    Again, who dunnit?  That’s for the Police to find out — except that Ajaero and co are accusing the Police of complicity and called for — and got — the scalp of the Imo State Police commissioner!

    Still, let the Police investigate and dock anyone involved in the fracas.  But let Ajaero too hug wisdom.  

    Honestly, he has been too rash for his own good — and for NLC’s too.  Ajaero would threaten to call off talks with the Federal Government if the Labour and Employment minister sat on the panel.  He would buck an NIC order only to run into a storm.  After, he would threaten a national strike, post his Imo debacle, unless the Police boss was sacked!

    Ajaero had better pipe down before he undid himself — and NLC too.  That would hardly be in workers’ interest.  Already, the NIC has reiterated its injunction.  That’s a chilly warning to Ajaero to behave or take the knocks.  Whoever wants protection from the law must first respect the law.  The Imo excitement just shows that baiting anarchy is bad for everyone — especially the baiter!

  • When reason takes flight

    When reason takes flight

    There is a pattern of behaviour that utterly confounds and begs the question whether agents involved yet had the capacity for clear reasoning. Among the Yoruba, people would ask in bewilderment concerning such agents: ‘Asasi ni, abi eedi?’ This roughly translates to saying: was it bewitchment or fated folly that accounted for such  egregious behaviour?

    Such is the sense you get about some residents of Awkuzu, in Oyi council area of Anambra State, who last week reportedly swooped on the scene of a fallen petrol tanker to scoop free fuel; and when firefighters from the Anambra fire service came on the scene to forestall potential disaster, the scoopers attacked them. The residents, including women and youths, had stormed the scene soon after the truck fell, spilling its contents into a nearby drainage. But the fire service got news of the incident and deployed to the scene, only that the scoopers viewed the firefighters as a hinderance to their freebie ride and pelted them with stones and other dangerous weapons.

    State Fire Chief, Martins Agbili, an engineer, recalled that his office received a distress call soon after the incident occurred early morning penultimate Tuesday. He said: “Immediately we received the distress call, I sent my team of firefighters and firetrucks to the scene, given the possibility of an explosion or fire outbreak from the tanker laden with petrol. On arrival, however, the residents already immersed in the act threw caution to the wind and pelted my men with stones, apparently viewing them as a hindrance and ignoring the inherent danger. It took the intervention of officers from the state police command and military personnel to rescue the firefighters, as well as disperse and control the hostile crowd to enable my men to carry out their duty.”

    The fire chief voiced strong condemnation for the residents’ reckless behaviour, reiterating grave perils associated with such conduct. He reminded the public of the alarming frequency at which people get roasted alive following from similar mishaps, and wondered why people persist in the perilous venture despite hearing of horrific consequences elsewhere and being continually warned of the potential dangers through news reports and advocacy. He sternly cautioned against such behaviour, saying those who tempt fate would bear the blame for their misfortunes.

    It isn’t residents of Awkuzu alone who should pay heed to Agbili’s admonitions, but people everywhere else who hazard such insane enterprise. It is tantamount to cutting off the head to treat headache when people scamper for free fuel from fallen tankers to mitigate whatever hardships being encountered with the economy. A word should be enough for the wise.  

  • Words are not enough

    Words are not enough

    Unsurprisingly, Nigeria’s security crisis was further highlighted at the opening ceremony of the Countering Violent Extremism Course 3/2023 organised by the Martin Luther Agwai International Leadership and Peacekeeping Centre (MLAILPCK) at the Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC), Abuja. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Government of Japan supported the course, which had participants from Nigeria and other West African countries.

    The Deputy Resident Representative (Programme), UNDP, Mr. Lealem B. Dinku, drew attention to the scale of insecurity in the country, and the huge number of lives lost to the crisis. He observed that “violent extremism (VE) has continued to be ingrained in scope and impact since creeping into Nigeria geographical space in 2009 but has been more pronounced since 2013.”

    According to him, “It was estimated that between 2009 and 2023, Nigeria has suffered no less than 35,000 casualties while billions of dollars have been lost due to destruction of property, public infrastructures, disruption of socio-economic activities including livelihoods and displacement of mass population.”

    The authorities should be troubled by this picture of devastation within 14 years. Even more troubling is the reality that the crisis is ongoing. The UN official noted that the country “is still grappling with the menace of VE and its attendant socio-economic implications till the moment.”  

    Japan Defence attaché to Nigeria, Lt.-Col. Morita Tatsuya, spoke in a similar vein, saying, “Nigeria has been subjected to the adverse effects and attacks of Boko Haram and ISWAP in the North-East for quite a long time.” He also noted: “More recently, terrorists have expanded their sphere of influence to the North-West and other parts of the country.”

     He identified solutions, including sharpening the capacity of security authorities regarding counterterrorism and the protection of civilians, and implementing measures to counter violent extremism, which is at the root of terrorism.

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    Tackling insecurity in the country certainly demands more than words. It requires urgent action. The event gave an insight not only into the problem but also the solution.

    At President Bola Tinubu’s inauguration in May, he declared that security would be “the top priority” of his administration, saying the Federal Government would “reform our security doctrine and its architecture,” and invest more in security personnel by providing “better training, equipment, pay and firepower.” He needs to translate his words into effective action.

    According to SBM Intelligence, about 629 Nigerians were killed by non-state actors, including Boko Haram insurgents, ethnic militias, bandits and armed robbers, within the first 45 days under President Tinubu.  

    The International Centre for Investigative Reporting, the Council on Foreign Relations’ Nigeria Security Tracker (NST) and media reports indicated that non-state actors killed 587 people within the same period.

    The Abuja event was a grim reminder of the disturbing reality that the country is far from winning the fight against insecurity.

  • Barracks for auctioning?

    Barracks for auctioning?

    Age-old wisdom teaches that you do not cut off the head to cure headache. But that would seem what the House of Representatives is proposing as redress to the challenge of dilapidated barracks that have subjected police personnel to deplorable living conditions. The House wants police barracks across the country auctioned and service personnel paid housing allowance to make their own private arrangements.

    The green chamber’s proposal followed adoption of a motion by Rep. Murphy Omoruyi (LP-Edo) during plenary recently. The lawmaker argued that expenditures by government on renovation of barracks had yielded no positive result, and that the imperative of community-oriented policing warrants downloading police personnel from isolated barracks to go live among the civil populace. He recalled that the National Assembly passed the Police Reform Bill 2020 that was signed into law by former President Muhammadu Buhari, with a core issue therein being to address police officers’ living conditions. But the challenge of providing befitting housing for them has persisted, Omoruyi noted, saying between 2019 and 2022, the Federal Government spent more than N5billion on renovating barracks without the wretchedness of the facilities lessening. 

    Besides, he argued that amidst calls for community-oriented policing strategies, “having officers of the Nigeria Police living amongst the general population rather than in their secluded barracks will significantly satisfy these calls and enhance public safety.” The barracks system, according to him, is a relic of colonial rule that has been abandoned by the colonialists themselves. Instead, police personnel should be paid housing allowance based on rank and police salary structure, with which they could go procure accommodation among members of the public.

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    Adopting the motion, the House urged Interior and Police Affairs ministries to liaise with the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) in assessing the value of all barracks across the country and announcing a public offering for their auction. Among other things, the House also mandated its Appropriation committee to ensure reallocation of funds meant for barracks maintenance across the country to providing befitting housing allowances for service personnel.

    The lawmakers’ proposal would have had a stronger appeal if auctioning police barracks would not be another guise for selling off public property to well-connected deep pockets at relative pittance. And what will happen to esprit de corps among service personnel – an instinctive bonding useful for operational effectiveness and forged through shared space in the barracks, but which would inevitably be attenuated when they diffuse into private corners? Moreover, the lawmakers didn’t take account of existing housing deficit in the polity estimated currently at 28million, and requiring some N21trillion to close. No, sir, auctioning the barracks is not the answer; rather, it is making the money spent on renovations reflect in improved standards.

  • Adding fuel to the fire

    Adding fuel to the fire

    Suddenly, the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), on November 4, announced that “the 50 percent rebate in transport fare in the regulated transport system in Lagos” would end the next day. The agency said in a statement that the transport fares would “return to the pre-2nd August 2023 rate” from November 6, and urged commuters to be   prepared for the new situation.

    There was just a day between the time of the announcement and the time the old fares would be restored. This meant that commuters in the state were given just a day to prepare for the change. In other words, the agency expected commuters to be ready to face the old fares overnight, just like that.

    On July 31, Lagos State governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had announced that “all public transportation that is being controlled by LAMATA, including high-capacity buses, will be plying all the routes of Lagos with a 50 percent discount.” He added: “For the informal buses… I can say to you that we have agreed with them that they will be doing about a 25 percent reduction of fares on their buses – all of the yellow buses that we have on the street.”  With the new development, it is likely the so-called informal buses will also reverse their fares following the example of the public buses.

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     The reduced fares, he had explained, were part of the state government’s relief measures to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal by the Federal Government. He didn’t say how long the reduced transport fares would be in effect. So, if there was any need for a reversal, it shouldn’t be an overnight matter. The 50 percent discount was not expected to last forever, but it wasn’t expected to end abruptly either. 

    The reversal suggests that the state authorities are unaware that commuters are still facing the effects of fuel subsidy removal, or believe that commuters are no longer facing the said effects.

    According to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s annual inflation rose strikingly in September, reaching its highest level in about two decades at 26.72 percent. The result is an alarmingly deteriorating cost-of-living crisis in the country. Economic analysts blame the grim situation mainly on naira depreciation, higher food and energy prices and logistical costs, among others.

    This reversal at this time, and the manner it was done, can be described as insensitive. The state government’s move, in the middle of worsening inflation in the country, simply adds fuel to the fire.

  • Atiku’s lullaby

    Atiku’s lullaby

    Lullabies are soft songs to lull into sleep a screeching baby.  Alhaji Atiku Abubakar screeches with undignified pain after the Supreme Court quashed his appeal, 7:0. 

    But he invents a lullaby, of self-heroism and “democratic proposals”, to blunt a decidedly ugly swan song.  He can tell all that to the marines!

    Indeed, only the political Gen. Z, too brainwashed to know their country’s history, will regard as “democratic”, Sani Abacha’s National Constitutional Conference (NCC: 1996), “with full constituent powers”; and Atiku’s latter-day glamourization of the six-year rotatory presidency, among the six geo-political zones, which NCC proposed.

    The one was devised to bury the golden June 12, 1993 mandate of Chief MKO Abiola.  The other was invented to impose Gen. Abacha’s own tragic transmutation to horrid civilian president, with the sweet dummy that it would only last a “single” term.  

    Both blew up in Abacha’s face — and just as well!

    Neither is anything but democratic.  Indeed, any claim by Atiku to justify his grave obsession to be president is a tragic claw at the straws — straws that starkly expose his hollow claims as a democrat.

    To refresh: the true leaders of the South West boycotted Abacha’s NCC.  Heroes of that age included the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, who turned his back on the NCC — which was a clever ploy to bury MKO Abiola’s mandate and “move on”.  So did other genuine democrats nationwide, who saw through Abacha’s trick.

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    But political careerists, among whom Atiku proudly counted, trooped to NCC to seek rank, if fresh opportunism, after conspiring against June 12, the true foundation of the 4th Republic, which dawned in 1999.  

    Major-Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua — whose faction of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) traded off Abiola’s mandate for Ernest Shonekan’s Interim National Government (ING) — headed this phalanx, with Atiku, his mentee, in tow.  But Abacha outsmarted them all.

    So, both Abacha’s NCC and its proposed six-year, single-term rotational presidency, were failed coups against Abiola and his sacred mandate.  So, it’s rich for Atiku to flash a collapsed coup, as democratic “solution”, after his crash at the Supreme Court.  

    Karma is so, so sweet: those who fought for June 12 are fairly and firmly in power today!  It is what it is!  Let Atiku and co live with it!

    But again, the Wazirin Adamawa can sing his lullaby of self-praise to the marines.  For all his anti-democracy plots, he got more than his due to become Nigeria’s No. 2 — just as Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, who became president by foxy Army Arrangement.

    Karma laughs last though, as both are still alive to endure the sorry collapse of their machinations.  May God grant them more years yet to endure their political purgatory!

  • Anambra’s gated funerals

    Anambra’s gated funerals

    It is a morbid story, but there are useful morals entailed. Anambra State is showing the way on how burying the dead should not be allowed to become a crushing burden on the living. True, the dead deserve all the celebration they get in the course of being committed to mother earth, but that committal should not in its implementation make relations of the deceased into the living dead. That was what the administration of Governor Chukwuma Soludo brought to attention again lately in highlighting the provisions of an existing Anambra State Burial/Funeral Ceremonial Control Law, 2019 and penalties for violations.

    A statement by Anambra State Information Commissioner Paul Nwosu reminded people of the state that the law on funerals remained in force though being observed in the breach, warning that contravention could incur jail terms. He recalled that the state assembly, since 2019, enacted the law providing, among others, that billboards/banners/posters of deceased persons are not to be erected but only directional posts to funeral venues that shall be erected seven days to burial date and removed not later than seven days after; that no one should leave a corpse in the mortuary beyond two months after death; that no one is to block an access route for burial ceremonies except with permission from appropriate council authority; and that no person shall publicly display a casket for the purpose of fabrication and sale in the state. Other provisions of the law include that there shall be no second funeral rites after burial except in the case of legacy; no wake-keep of any kind for a deceased person and all vigil-mass/service of songs/religious activity prior to burial shall terminate latest by 9pm; no food, drink, live-band or cultural entertainers during and after any vigil-mass/service of songs/religious activity for the deceased; and that all burial/funeral ceremonies shall be for a day, with burial mass/services commencing not later than 9am and shall not last more than two hours. Violation of these provisions respectively has jail terms and fines stipulated in penalty.

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    When the law was being processed in 2019 by the state assembly, its sponsor, Charles Chukwuma Ezeani, said it was aimed at curtailing ostentation and unnecessary show of wealth during funerals in Anambra. Besides, the law is to address unnecessary pressure plied on bereaved persons to borrow money for funeral activities and thereby incur debts they cannot pay back thereafter. Ezeani added that the whole intent of the law is that people should celebrate their loved ones while alive and not spend a fortune buying golden caskets upon their demise. Hardball thinks there is much to say for this law, and it is a marvel other states haven’t borrowed a leaf.

  • After Bawa’s release

    After Bawa’s release

    Interestingly, the release of the immediate past chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, on October 25, after more than four months in detention, was not as dramatic as his arrest. The Department of State Services (DSS) simply said it “confirms release of former EFCC chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, a few hours ago.”

    His detention since June 14, without charge, did not help the anti-corruption war. About two weeks after President Bola Tinubu’s inauguration on May 29, he sent a strong anti-corruption signal by approving the “indefinite suspension” of the then EFCC boss, Bawa, “to allow for proper investigation into his conduct while in office.” The move, according to the federal government, was prompted by “weighty allegations of abuse of office levelled against him.”  The said allegations were not stated. He was later arrested and detained.    

    Just before Tinubu’s inauguration, there had been corruption-related allegations against Bawa that dented the agency’s credibility. For instance, the then governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle, had dropped a bombshell, alleging that Bawa “requested a bribe of $2 million from me and I have evidence of this.”

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    Also, anti-corruption crusaders in the country led by the chairman, Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), Debo Adeniran, had called for an in-depth investigation of the anti-graft agency under Bawa by “a technical Commission of Inquiry,” which would “dig into the modus operandi of EFCC investigations in the last three years by thoroughly analysing records of arrests, investigations, outcomes and final closure of each incident and individual suspects and how the matters were eventually dispensed with.”

    On the performance of the EFCC under Bawa, they faulted his claims that the agency had secured 98.93 percent of convictions in 2022, losing only 1.07 percent, and noted that most of the convictions involved online fraudsters, and that high-profile political players were treated as sacred cows.

    When the president’s spokesperson, Ajuri Ngelale, announced the appointment of Ola Olukoyede as the new EFCC chairman last month, he said it “follows the resignation” of Bawa. He notably described Olukoyede’s new role as an “important national assignment,” adding, “a newly invigorated war on corruption undertaken through a reformed institutional architecture in the anti-corruption sector remains a central pillar of the President’s Renewed Hope agenda.”

     Why was Bawa arrested and arbitrarily detained? How has that treatment helped the war on corruption?  What is the outcome of the investigation of the “weighty allegations of abuse of office levelled against him”?

  • Is Pa George now among the lawyers?

    Is Pa George now among the lawyers?

    Old soldier and PDP war horse, Chief Bode George, is an engineer, who retired as a Navy Commodore — part of the wanton waste of the military era, as a one-time military governor of Ondo State (now Ondo and Ekiti states).

    But pray, when did Pa George morph from an engineer into a lawyer?  He claims he is poring over a rather brief, straight and simple Supreme Court verdict, that made short shrift of the rather vacuous challenge to the February 25 mandate that Nigerians gave President Bola Tinubu.

    George’s latest posturing is part of losers’ post-litigation drama.  They  cannot reconcile themselves to the harsh reality of February 25: their candidates, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi lost, though after both put up a brave show — the one, as exposed northern irredentist; the other, as dangerous demagogue: a clannish ethnic and cynical faith champion, reinforced as what he has always been.

    It’s these acute Nigerian challenges that President Tinubu triumphed over on February 25.  The sponsors, always grandstanding as “patriots”, wouldn’t back off and lick their wounds in respectable quiet.

    Chief George it was that declared should Tinubu win the presidency, he would self-exile to Ghana.  When Tinubu won, and George was challenged to walk his boastful talk, he heehawed: Tinubu’s win was still a subject of judicial challenge.

    Yes, the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) affirmed Tinubu’s election 5-0, after a landmark verdict read over some 12 hours.  But for sore losers, hope sprang eternal, in some open sesame magic at the Supreme Court.

    But after the supreme collapse at the Supreme Court, Pa George was asked whether he’d now congratulate the president. He was still studying the judgment to make up his mind!

    Pray, is Pa George, in old age, now among the lawyers?  Toh!

    Frankly, a George congratulatory letter is neither here nor there.  First, it is perfectly within his discretion.  Either way, it changes nothing.  Tinubu has a country to run.  George has his grudge to milk.  Both are democratic rights!

    Still, it shows the futility of reckless boasts over situations you cannot control.  No matter your level of partisanship, you have no control over another person’s vote — and democracy is still the “dictatorship” of the majority, if you choose to cynically drive it home in that way.

    It’s tough watching Chief George squirm and swallow his vomit of self-exile; not to mention his heehaw over congratulating the winner, because his “foe” had won.  It is what it is!

    But democracy should eschew friend or foe.  It should rather be driven by winning ideas.  An idea that wins today could lose tomorrow. 

    That is hope springing eternal on the democratic front.