The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • IBB, OBJ, PMB and June 12

    TOMORROW represents a remarkable moment in the political history of our country. Since the struggle for democratization started in the early 50’s, with the exception of October 1, 1960, no date has been as momentous as June 12 1993.  By a curious coincidence, a soldier attempted to obliterate this memory while another brought it into focus and reality.

    In the long struggle by Nigerian nationalists, it is the fortune of one man to actualize the dreams and aspirations of the majority of our people. This dream came about on June 12 1993. The independence that was granted to Nigeria on October 1, 1960 did not last long. The centrifugal forces were there, internal wrangling, ethnic confrontations and a lopsided constitution and so on. Ultimately, (in 1966) the inevitable happened and the army took over the administration of our country. This threw up several characters in the military, most of who pretended to be destined to save Nigeria. The list is fresh and long. Our concerns here are three characters so much different one from the other, IBB, OBJ and PMB (Nigerians love short names). In the contest of our discussion, the three military men were most concerned with the events that led to or flowed from June 12.

    Gen. Ibrahim Babangida concocted reasons to cancel elections that were, and still are, generally regarded as free and fair, because in the first place he never thought for a moment that Nigeria could conduct a national election that would be free and generally acceptable by the world. It beat him hands down. By many maneuvers, he succeeded in cancelling the results and shifted the political goal post as many times as he could.

    In the long run, June 12 came and the elections were conducted, lost and won. IBB looked for solutions to wipe out not only the election, but its memory. Several concoctions came to his mind. The mind of the ‘evil genius’, as some detractors called him. In the long run, the rightful owner of the crown was not only abandoned but put in jail for declaring himself president at a neighborhood market in Lagos. Not only that, all his supporters were hounded from pillar to post, many escaped the country while the not so lucky were imprisoned.

    The gruesome murder of Abiola’s senior wife, Kudirat, was a crime of monumental dimension. Nigerian would never forget this dark period of our political history.

    Curiously, OBJ – our ‘man Friday’ inherited the fruits of the struggle of the nationalists, especially the NADECO. He mounted the throne in 1999 after he narrowly escaped from the death sentence of the ‘goggled dictator’ Sani Abacha. The international community thought that Obasanjo was fully prepared to assume office. For months, he traversed the world, informing anybody who would listen that Nigeria had come of age and that a new country had been born in Africa. Many including this writer believed him.

    OBJ soon showed his true colours, dictating all the tunes, appointing, dismissing government officials including governors at will. He ended up ignominiously by wanting to be president the third time and perhaps for life, as against the clear letters and spirit of the constitution he had sworn to uphold. He fell flat in all his political maneuver. He served more than eight years in government including the time he was military head of state. He was a stranger to democratic norms which he had earlier preached worldwide.

    Now, Muhammadu Buhari. I will crave the indulgence of readers to quote   specific sections of my book which I wrote some years ago before PMB became president of Nigeria. “…………The Spartan soldier/politician of Nigeria was phenomenal in the army; he is also pivotal in the new political setting of Nigeria. Attempting to be a bridge builder, he connects easily with the Conservative North and the Progressives of South West and of the Middle Belt.. The pilot of the Nigerian ship immersed in fruitless self-esteem, enmeshed in filth and corruption.

    “The nation looked helplessly for a leader and one emerged in the person of Buhari who with General Tunde Idiagbon diverted the Nigerian nation as it were, from disaster and gave the country another breathing space. He quickly took over in words and deed. He made drastic laws to address deteriorating conditions in the life of the nation; he instituted new ad-hoc organs of state e.g. War Against Indiscipline which enthroned certain behaviour in public life. Today, his war against indiscipline is observed nationally on the last Saturday of the month when the nation is forced to clean the environment. He restored discipline to both military and civilian lives, sought to recover stolen properties and money, jailed hundreds of Nigerians for impossible long sentences-some up to 50 years – and by these and other actions instilled fear in the minds of ordinary citizens, most especially politicians.

    “…A problem of Buhari in those days was that he lacked good communication skills, was brash and brutish, especially when dealing with corrupt politicians……… He wants to be president but his past as a stern military officer and head of state continues to haunt him. He has mellowed down considerably having been influenced by the realities of the Nigerian situation and also by his new found love, the Progressives, Gen. Buhari loves this country and history will record him appropriately………..”

    Now more than that is contained on page 168-169 of my book “Political Gladiators of my time”. Buhari has done two significant things. One, he declared June 12 as Democracy Day, two, he canonized the leading warriors of the struggle including Gani Fawehinmi and Kudhirat, Abiola’s slain wife. He daringly told the whole world that the Presidential Inauguration day of May 29, is of less significance to the Nigerian nation than June 12 1993, when a free, fair and generally accepted elections threw up Nigeria’s real political leaders. What a greater honour can a person do to his country than what Buhari has done to Nigeria? PMB has renovated our political process. He has made many enemies-people who cannot differentiate between personal and public property. In this regard, he lives by name forever.

     

    • Chief Fasuan,  an elder statesman, wrote from Ado-Ekiti.

  • Unlawful Earnings (9th National Assembly)

    As the 9th National Assembly is inaugurated, is there a chance the members will return to a constitutionally approved income bracket, or are they going to remain recalcitrant like their predecessors? The previous assemblies, particularly the 8th assembly, led by Senator Bukola Saraki treated the national treasury like a bazaar sales, open for raid by the fittest. From their vantage position as federal lawmakers, they maximally looted our common patrimony, through budget padding, unconscionable allowances and sundry extortion of the exchequer.

    All warnings by well-meaning Nigerians, that a legislative assembly operating as an outlaw is an anathema and because of its vantage position casts aspersion on the very foundation of constitutional democracy, fell on deaf ears. They treated with disdain section 70 of the 1999 constitution (as amended), which provides without equivocation that: “A member of the Senate or of the House of Representative shall receive such salary and other allowances as the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission may determine.”

    That mandatory provision has been treated with ignominy by majority of past National Assemblies, yet section 153 of the constitution created the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) as a federal executive body to determine the remuneration of certain public officers. Under its Third Schedule Part 1N (paragraphs31 and 32), itprovides the composition and powers of the RMAFC. By paragraph 32 (d): “The commission shall have power to: determine the remuneration appropriate for political office holders, including the president, vice president, governors, deputy governors, ministers, commissioners, special advisers, legislators and the holders of the offices mentioned in section 84 and 124 of this constitution”.

    Why our federal lawmakers choose to ignore a clear provision of the constitution is strange. But even stranger is the condoning of this illegality all these years. Between the executive and the legislature there appears aconsensusad idem to allow the breach in the spirit of brinkmanship. Even such a concordat will be unconstitutional, for the Supreme Court in A. G.Bendel State vs A. G. Federation (2001) F.W.L.R. Pt. 65 page 504 unequivocally held: “Neither a state nor an individual can contract out of the provisions of the constitution. The reason for this is that contract to do a thing which cannot be done without a violation of the law is void.”

    Any agreement between the executive and the legislature to allow the payment of any form of remuneration beyond the contemplation of the constitution is therefore void. Even when the previous legislators have unconstitutionally engaged in what amounts to self-help, ‘such arrangement’ can not estop a return to constitutionality. In the A.G. Bendel’s case (supra), the court held: “There can be no estoppel against the assertion of the supremacy of the constitution.”

    No doubt, the constitution has imbued the national assembly with enormous powers over the consolidated revenue of the federation. These powers are contained in the provisions of sections 80-84 of the 1999 constitution. But as humongous as the powers are, there is no provision for self-help with respect to the remuneration of members of the federal legislature by whatever name called. So the clear remonstration of the Supreme Court in Military Governor of Lagos State vsOjukwu 1 ACLC pg. 392 is apt, if the incoming federal legislature gives a damn about the rule of law.

    In that case, the learned Justices held: “The Nigerian constitution is founded on the rule of law, the primary meaning of which is that everything must be done according to law. It means also that government should be conducted within the framework of recognised rules and principles which restrict discretionary powers….” The 9th national assembly must resist the temptation to sustain the aberration of self-help, as practised by their predecessors in a constitutional democracy. Such strange behaviour was unequivocally deprecated by the Supreme Court in theOjukwu’s case aforesaid.

    In the words of the Supreme Court Justices: “In the area where ruleof law operates, the rule of self-help by force is abandoned. Nigeria, being one of the countries in the world, even in the third world which profess loudly to follow the rule of law, gives no room for the rule of self-help by force to operate.”

    There is no gain saying that the 1999 constitution operates on tripod, made up of the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. The fine essence of such distribution of powers is to ensure checks and balances, without which democracy will slip into autocracy. The makers of the constitution knows that if the executive is left to raise the money and singularly determine how to share same, such enormous powers will be abused.

    In the same manner, since the legislature has the powers to legislate who gets what, their income cannot be left for them to also determine. The same principle is applicable to the judiciary and executive whose remuneration is not left by the constitution in their own hands. In the case of A. G. Federation vs Guardian Newspaper Ltd (2001) F.W.L.R. Pt. 32at pg. 87, the Supreme Court, despite the aberration of a military dictatorship held: “Under 1979 constitution (which is inparimateria with the 1999 constitution), the principle of separation of powers operated with the division of functions of government between the executive, legislature and the judiciary under Decree 107 of 1993.”

    Despite public opinion, formernational legislatorsunconstitutionally appropriated humongous allowances and other remunerations to pooh pooh the 1999 constitution, since the advent of the current republic. Going forward, the nation will see whether members of the 9th national assembly are possessed with the same genes as their predecessors, or whether they are children of constitutional order. If they persist in the error, the federal government under President Muhammadu Buhari owe a duty to test the constitutionality of the legislature interpreting the law as it suits its whims and caprices.

    After all, by the provisions of section 6(6)(b) of the constitution, it is the prerogative of the courts, to determine any dispute as to the interpretation of the laws of the country. That section provides: “The judicial powers vested in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this section: shall extend to all matter between persons, or between government or authority and to any person in Nigeria, and to all actions and proceedings relating thereto, for the determination of nay question as to the civil rights and obligations of that person.”

    Since the courts have been circumspect about who has the locus standi to institute an action to deal with this perennial challenge, despite public outcry, the next Attorney General must accept the gauntlet in public interest, should the 9th national assembly persist in the unconstitutional conduct of determining what its members earn.

  • A bouquet for Bisi Fayemi

    Bisi Fayemi who turns 56 today is the wife of Ekiti State Governor and this is her second tenure as the first lady of Ekiti State  but that is not all. She is such a rare breed that needs to be celebrated at every given opportunity. She is talented with brains and beauty. She is an internationally recognised gender specialist, policy, women and child rights advocate and an intellectual of note.  She recently bagged the 2018 Zik Prize for Humanitarian Leadership alongside the former Ghanaian President, John Mahama, immediate past National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, who won in the political leadership category. Also the governors of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel and his Niger State counterpart, Abubakar Sanni-Bello, emerged winners in the good governance award category.

    Before her recent Zik award, she was on April 5, 2011, presented with the David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award, one of the most prestigious awards in the field of philanthropy but narrowly missed the African Leadership Hunger Prize Award in 2008 when she was nominated. With the Rockefeller  Award, Mrs. Fayemi joined the rank of past winners such as former South African President, Nelson Mandela, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Sheela Pattel, Fazle Hasan and Queen Rania. In 2011, she was appointed as the Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Nigerian Women Trust Fund (NWTF) by the Federal Government. She was listed in March 2012 as one of the 100 personalities working for the advancement of women and girls in the world. Her contribution to important national discourse was very key such that former President Goodluck Jonathan noticed her absence during a discussion about HIV/AIDS in Abuja when the former President asked: “Where is the wife of Ekiti State Governor? I enjoyed her contribution the last time she was here.” Prof Utomi described her as ‘a reputable feminist activist, Gender Specialist, Social Entrepreneur, Policy Advocate and writer, who has devoted her time, talent and resources to the promotion and defence of rights of women and the girl child’. She has been doing this before her husband became Governor in October 2010 through her organization, the African Women Development Fund (AWDF) through which she has empowered many women groups especially widows across Africa.

    I have known her since January 2007, though my association with her husband who is second term governor of Ekiti State and now Chairman, Nigeria Governors’Forum (NGF), dated back to 1984 when we were both students at the University of Lagos. I later served as Senior Special Assistant on Research and Documentation to him during his first tenure between October 2010 and October 2014.

    Since I have known Erelu Bisi Fayemi, she has remained her pleasant and humble self. During her first tenure as wife of the Governor, she made her impact felt in that administration through many life-lifting programmes such as the Multiple Birth  Trust Fund to cater for the needs of couples who gave birth to twins or more children at a go;   sponsored the gender based violence law and the Child Right Act in Ekiti State, established the Ekiti Development Foundation, an organisation she used to empower many Ekiti women and women organisations. She collaborated well with the Ministry of Women Affairs and her positive impact was felt on Ekiti women and children. She embarked on a programme called Erelu mbe Oja wo ( Erelu visits markets ) where she interacted with the market women, gave them measuring bowls and  wallets, bought ingredients from them and supported them financially. She gave 16 buses to the market women leaders in each of the 16 Local Government Areas. She supported many indigent women and offset the medical bills of many patients. She is behind the food bank project and soup kitchen with a Non-Governmental Organisation whereby elderly and indigent Ekiti citizens were provided with foodstuffs, both raw and cooked. She has a pure heart and she is a cheerful giver who is kind to a fault.

    Bisi Fayemi was a pillar of support for many in the government of Fayemi at that time. She is a problem solver and humility personified. Like many other stakeholders in the first Fayemi government, she was devastated by the electoral loss on June 21, 2014 but she took it with equanimity and handled the post-election trauma in a matured way such that she came out stronger and played a more active role in the re-election of her husband on July 14, 2018. As she would reveal later, she was devastated not by the loss per se, but because of treachery from those she trusted and assisted during that administration. Many of them turned their backs against her, castigated her and her husband for the electoral loss even when they knew more  serious reasons for the loss ! Narrating her experience to me one evening after we were out of government, she exclaimed with disappointment  in her voice, how people you trusted most could suddenly turn against you because you are no longer in position of power where you can dispense patronage. I instantly remembered  the words of Bertha M. Clay in his novel,  “Beyond Pardon”  when he wrote, “There are many sorrows; the bitterness of death; the tortures of jealousy; the anguish of long suffering; but there is nothing that rends the heart, that destroys all hopes, that ruins a life so quickly as treachery from the one we love best”. Even though she was disappointed about betrayal from unexpected quarters, there was no bitterness in her heart.

    Perhaps the greatest attribute of this woman of virtue is her forgiving spirit and her large heart. She embraced and forgave many of those who betrayed her in the first tenure and moved on. In fact, she influenced the present appointment of many of them in this present dispensation.    She will always say in Yoruba, ‘e woo ta baa gbagbe oro ana, a o ni ‘reni ba sere mon (Look, if we don’t let by gone be byegone, we won’t have any friends left). This special attribute shocked and drew many to her,  who had  thought she would adopt the an-eye-for-an-eye approach when against all odds, Fayemi won election for his second tenure and she also automatically commenced her second tenure  as the first lady.

    During the electioneering campaign between May and July 2018, Bisi Fayemi led other women in an elaborate road show and visited almost all farmsteads in the state to campaign for her husband just as she did in 2014 when seeking re-election.

    She has intimidating credentials yet, she is as gentle as a dove and humility personified. She had received standing ovation on the floor of the General Assembly (UNO) for her efforts through the AWDF to make life better for African women. She is until recently, a UN Women Nigeria Senior Advisor, and is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Africa Leadership Centre, King’s College, London.

    Bisi Fayemi is the author of Loud Whispers (2017), a masterpiece which I was privileged to review and recommend for all secondary schools, Speaking for Myself (2013), and an autobiography,Speaking above a Whisper (2013). She also co-edited Voice, Power and Soul. She is a motivational speaker who has delivered many public lectures including the recent convocation lecture of the University of Medical Sciences , Ondo.

    Bisi Fayemi holds many traditional titles like Erelu of Isan Kingdom, Iyalode of Ilemeso, Yeye Ajiseye of Awo-Ekiti and   Ochiora of Umezi Owa, Enugu State.

    As we celebrate this woman of substance, we in Ekiti are proud to call her our own and we thank God for sparing her life till this day. We wish her Happy Birthday and many more prosperous years of service to humanity.

     

    • Hakeem Jamiu wrote from Ado Ekiti.

  • Dames of honour

    FG honours Kudirat, Adadevoh, Tinubu and 19 others

    The 12th of June would officially become the Democracy Day replacing May 29th that had since 1999 been celebrated as Democracy Day in Nigeria. June 12 has a profound historical relevance to the Nigeria’s democratic journey. It was the day in 1993 that late MKO Abiola made history in a presidential election that has been adjudged the freest and fairest in the country.

    However, for the Nigerian women, the celebration would come two days earlier on June 10th when twenty two illustrious women would be inducted by the federal government into the Nigerian Women Hall of Fame. This is a brainchild of the National Centre for Women Development (NCWD) through the Ministry of Women Affairs.

    The significance of the choice of these very admirably outstanding women in Nigeria cannot be over-emphasized. They all stand out as beacons not only for younger women but for a nation in dire need of heroes/heroines. They would help re-direct the focus of the country towards the holistic development of the girl-child and women in general so they can contribute to national development.

    It is apposite to recall the qualifying criteria, according to the DG of NCWD, Mary Ekpere-Eta, the honour is reserved for, “first woman, historic or living to achieve recognition in a field of endeavour; a significant statewide contribution to arts, athletics, business, government, philanthropy, humanities, science and education”.

    The late Kudirat Abiola, as top of the list cannot be more enchantingly awesome as the nation marks the 23rd anniversary of her martyrdom. The other twenty one outstanding women are no less deserving of the honour. They have spoken loudly of the strength, ingenuity, diligence and cerebral capacity of women. They all are possibly energized by the heroines of the past, Moremi, Aba Women, Queen Amina, Hajia Sawaba, Margaret Ekpo, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti etc. who all deserve the highest honours possible beyond the hall of fame.

    The list is a rainbow of excellence. From politics; besides the late Kudirat, the first Nigerian female Local government chairperson, Mma Regina Achi Nentui in the defunct Eastern Region from 1960-1962, Iyom Josephine Anenih, spearheaded the admission of females as regular combatants into the Nigerian Defence Academy, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, (OON) first woman to win three consecutive elections into the Senate and the first First lady to introduce the Spelling Bee Competition in Nigeria, Senator Binta Garba, the first woman to win elections in two different states.

    From health, the legendary Dr. Stella Adadevoh who gave her life by professionally curtailing the spread of Ebola in 2014 and Dr. (Mrs.) Stella Okoli, the MD of Emzor Pharmaceuticals. From business, late Alhaja Abibat Mogaji, the first President General of Market Women and Men Association of Nigeria and Iyalode Alaba Lawson, first female President of the National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA). Mrs Folorunso Alakija is the richest woman of African descent.

    Rear Admiral Itunu Hotonu is the first female Rear Admiral in West Africa, Flt. Lt. Blessing Liman was the first Military Pilot, Captain Abimbola Jaiyeola, first Helicopter Captain who equally saved 11 lives through a controlled emergency landing on water. Maureen Madu, is the first female to coach a top club in Europe after a historic 100 appearances for the Women’s National Team.

    An outstanding sense of philanthropy pushed Hajia Mariya Sanusi Dantata into the hall of fame. She feeds an average of 5000 people every day and mentors young women. Professor Adenike Osofisan is first female professor of Computer science while Mrs. Priscilla Ekwueme Eleje is the first female director of currency and the first female to sign on Nigeria’s currency. Mrs Adebimpe Balogun is the first female President of the Chartered Institute of Taxation Nigeria.

    The Media is represented on the list by the late Hajiya Bilikisu Yusuf, the first female Northerner to become Editor of a national newspaper and Mo Abudu, the CEO of a Pan African television channel. Barr. (Mrs.) Oby. Nwankwo was a pioneer of gender advocacy at a continental and global level and a two-time Representative at the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Committee. Chief Nike Okundaye, the positively exuberantly flamboyant lecturer at Harvard even without strict formal education is an inspirational woman whose sun would continue to shine and speak of the ingenuity of the human spirit.

    We commend the decision of the government and congratulate the women for their inspirational careers. However, the state of the Nigerian girl-child is still very dire. We hope that this can point to the capacity of the female to achieve just as the male and sometimes even better and engender more government action.

    While we commend the recognition, we seem to have observed that too many women achievers in most sectors seem left out. This is particularly obvious with the media, liberal arts, sports, Financial sector and academia. Names like Professor Grace Alele Williams, first female Vice Chancellor, author Buchi Emecheta, first published author, Professor Bolanle Awe, renowned Professor of African history, the late Professor Sophie Oluwole, the late Jadesola Akande, first Nigerian female Professor of Law,   Mrs. Doyin Abiola, the first woman PhD holder in Mass Communication and a pioneer female MD of the defunct Concord Newspapers. In sports, Chioma Ajunwa made history in 1996 Olympics as the first woman to win an individual gold medal in long jump, we have  numerous others and some older names ought to have made the list lest their achievements be lost in history.

    Recognition is as important as the value of correct data because history is made of those and the old achievers ought to be the pillars and references for the future generations. The women Affairs Ministry must make effort to get its documentation right and sustain a steady compilation for better impact and progress.

    While it’s not yet uhuru for women across the world in terms of gender equality and justice, most nations have realized the value of inclusiveness to national growth given that almost half the human population is made up women. The education and health of women must be prioritized. A 180 out of 190 position on the global chat of Women in National Parliaments speak volumes of how far behind Nigeria is as opposed to a Rwanda that is number one! We are supposed to be the giant of Africa through valid actions and choices.

  • My Nations Cup story and Super Eagles chances

    Football is like opium, the addictive analgesic, taken by football fans around the world – the evidence abounds in every stadium environment and around television sets screening live matches. Now, you can also watch a tension-soaked match on your tablet or smart phone, as long as it is internet enabled and the appropriate apps are downloaded, many thanks to rapidly growing technologies! Nigerians are very passionate about football and the English Premier League (EPL) and other leagues in Europe have driven this passion to an all-time high. For those who do not know, I’m an Arsenal FC fan – a Gunner for life!

    The excitement is usually palpable – chants of ahhs and oohs rent the air arising from additional surge of adrenaline; energetic victory songs and gloomy faces of defeat tell the inevitable stories after 90 mins. Sometimes, a team can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat as in the cases of Liverpool versus Barcelona and Ajax versus Tottenham – two nerve wrecking semi-final Champions League matches thatproduced miraculous comeback victories by Liverpool and Tottenham that set the stage for an all-England clubs final in Madrid, Spain recently. Liverpool won the game 2 -0 with Mohammed Salah scoring the first goal from the spot in less than two minutes and Divock Origi scoring the second goal three minutes from full time.

    The Super Eagles of Nigeria are set to participate at the next Africa Cup of Nations scheduled to hold from June 21 to July 19, 2019 in Egypt, with their group matches holding in Alexandria. Having missed the last two tournaments hosted by Equatorial Guinea in 2015 and Gabon in 2017, what are the chances of the Super Eagles now that the competition has been expanded into a 24-team format?The fighting spirit displayed by Liverpool and Tottenham is what the Super Eagles need to become relevant again in African football. Nigeria has won the Nations Cup three times – in 1980 when we hosted the competition; in 1994 in Tunisia and 2013 in South Africa.

    I was right inside the FNB Stadium six years ago in Johannesburg, South Africa, when the Super Eagles guided by the late “Skippo” Stephen Okechukwu Keshi – may God Almighty preserve his soul — lifted the Nations Cup trophy as champions of Africa beating Burkina Faso by a lone goal in an epic encounter on February 10, 2013 when the tournament featured 16 countries.

    Since 1957, Egypt has dominated African football by winning the Nations Cup a record seven times but the remarkable back to back wins in 2006, 2008 and 2010 stands the Pharaohs out as the Kings of African football. Cameroon and Ghana on the other hand have won the Nations Cup four times each and the continental rivalry between these three counties has become legendary.

    It is being speculated that Egypt is ‘hosting to win’ again – that’s what they did in 1959, 1986 and 2006. This should be a source of concern to the other teams including Nigeria, merely looking at the historical records. Expectedly, Mohammed Salah, the confident striker and EPL highest goal scorer last season — an honour he shared with team mate Sadio Mane and Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang — will lead the attack for Egypt.

    In trying to assess the chances of the Super Eagles and understand how our national team can overcome the formidable challenge posed by Egypt, Cameroon and Ghana, I called Bode Oguntuyi, a sports reporter of note and long standing colleague, to share his views on the matter. Bode told me the Eagles will not be disgraced at the tournament but they have to work very hard.

    Nigeria will play alongside Burundi, Guinea and Madagascar in Group B at the tournament in Alexandria. This is a group Nigeria should win without breaking too much sweat, with the toughest opposition likely to come from Guinea.

    Recent statistics suggests that the Eagles should not under rate the Guineans. The two countries were in the same qualifying group for the 2012 Nations Cup, and the Syli Stars prevented the Eagles from taking their place at the main event following a harrowing 2-2 draw in Abuja after the Guineans had won the first leg 1-0 at home.

    Then, at the 2016 Africa Nations Championships, Guinea handed the home based Eagles another 1-0 defeat in the last group game to move into the quarter-finals while Nigeria headed home. For the Eagles to remain super and qualify from their group in Alexandria, Coach Gernot Rhor and his players should beware of the Guineans because, apart from Egypt further down the road, the Syli Stars will be out to stop them again.

    Going by their current form, Bode expects the Eagles to qualify from their group but where they finish on the table may determine how far they go in the tournament. “If the Eagles take care of business and finish top of the group, they will be handed the relatively easy draw of playing the team that has the best third place finish in any of Groups A, C or D. But if they finish in second place, they will have to square off against the second placed team in Group F which has Ghana and Cameroon,” says Bode.

    I’m sure the Eagles would like to avoid a confrontation with Ghana and Cameroon so early in the tournament, a very good hint for Gernot Rhor. The competition gets tougher from that point on, since the chaff of the tournament would have been burnt off and only the teams with a real chance of winning the trophy would be left. By the time we add Guinea and Egypt into the mix, the Eagles and the coaching crew should know from Day One who their tough opponents would be and assess their chances critically.

    Michael Porter, the world renowned professor of strategy, says strategy is all about winning by gaining competitive advantage. For example, having an influential midfielder or a top striker or a goalkeeper with a safe pair of hands could be a good advantage. Mikel Obi was an influential midfield supremo at the 2013 Nations Cup in South Africa, and I expect him to lead by example again in Egypt, especially now that he is the team captain.

    Realistically, it should be considered a successful tournament for the Eagles should they make it to the semi-finals. After that, any other achievement is a bonus. The reason for this is simple: despite the impressive results of both the 2018 World Cup and 2019 Nations Cup qualifiers during which they won their tickets with a game to spare, the team is still in transition. But because they are the Super Eagles of Nigeria, you underrate them at your peril. In fact, former international and ‘Prince of Monaco’, Victor Ikpeba, believes the Super Eagles will get to the semi-finals. “The team will do well having missed the last two tournaments,” says Ikpeba confidently. “Although we shall miss Victor Moses in the Eagles line-up, Odion Ighalo and Ahmed Musa will lead the attack and they will be supported by Alex Iwobi and Mikel Obi,” Ikpeba further assures Nigerians.

     

    • Braimah is a public relations and marketing strategist based in Lagos.

  • Kwara: Not yet time to celebrate

    No doubt the historic crushing defeat of the Saraki political machinery, hitherto considered formidable, is bound to go down as one of the suspense-filled folklores to be narrated to our children for decades, if not centuries to come.

    The new leaders are coming at a time expectations are very high and the average Kwaran has been fully mobilized to participate fully in governance and thoroughly scrutinize every government policy. Therefore, there will be no room for flimsy excuses, despite the fact that the state’s purse is as lean as a patient battling renal failure.

    The two biggest opposition groups that’ll keep the Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq government in check are the army of unemployed youths and citizen reporters on social media. On the one hand are the masses who trooped out en masse to send the former occupants out of the village square. The two categories are expecting miracles and their wants are rather insatiable.

    Isn’t the Saraki group the only organized opposition in the state? Whoever thinks so is mistaken? Certainly not. The Saraki group is the least headache of the new administration’s headache, provided the administration never disconnects from the masses.

    As it is already getting obvious, the political class, majority of whom had been fenced off, the honey pot since the ouster of Gov. Muhammed Lawal of blessed memory in 2003, are already salivating at the new opportunity offered by the OTOGE tsunami, yet the incoming administration owes its all to the electorate. How AA handles this set of people will have a major say as to the trajectory and path his administration will take and in the long run, how history will record his days as Governor.

    The scheming for spoils of war is already manifesting, it’s visible to the uninitiated and glaring to Steven Wonder. How AA balances between competency and political correctness would have the acidic potential of making or marring the infant government.

    Bookmakers had already predicted AA will need the combined wisdom of Solomon and the trickery of Delilah to effectively contain this set of politicians that have been deprived of lucre for almost 16 years, yet he can’t afford to push them completely off the radar.

    It’s however already glaring that the honeymoon had long elapsed even before the official solemnisation, as the youths who were the canon fodder of the O TO GE crusade are already singing cacophonous melodies. How AA handles their missiles would determine the long term fate of the government.

    The youths, mainly unemployed, derive joy in criticising government and its policies mainly on social media, having realised that the only means of gaining cheap popularity and mass followership on the social media is to criticise and knock the powers that be.  So, it is no more than a popularity game to majority of the social media population. Yet, the government cannot afford to have this set of stakeholders as foes.

    Another major banana peel is the disoriented government workers, who were undoubtedly one of the major reasons why we all can gleefully call the defeated hegemony, men of yesteryears today. This vital stratum of the state only understands the language of improved welfare. But AA is coming at a time that the free goodies are drying up if not already dried.

    Kwarans have made it expressly clear that they won’t take empty purse narrative as an excuse, yet we all know the State is near insolvent and no Jupiter can command a turnaround overnight.

    With these explicit contradictions, the demands both personal and public goods keep pouring in for AA and whoever is seen as a potential power broker in the infant government.

    Sadly, majority are only interested in identifying with the new power blocs and brokers, that’s why congratulatory messages are busy flying around, with majority not sparing time to put to test their cerebellum and come up with sectoral scientific backed trajectory the administration must follow to succeed.

    It must be made clear to all discerning minds that the time to celebrate is not now, this is the time to echo and act the ISE YA mantra, we all must roll up our sleeves and work for Kwara and Kwarans and not to please AA or anybody else.

    This is no time to congratulate AA, he deserves the pity of all and sundry. He’s like the proverbial cerebellum operation specialist, going for an operation. While the operation takes hours, the recovery period requires the patience and perseverance of the patient’s relatives and even the patient himself, yet emotions wouldn’t allow patience.

    Rather than congratulate AA, we  must pray for him for having to come at this egregious time in the history of democratic governance in our dear state, with the attendant decades of manmade abject pauperization.

    Perhaps, with the oneness exhibited by all aspirants during the post primary campaigns not minding their misgivings with the primaries, the selfless sacrifice of official and unofficial members of APC, solidarity and camaraderie of the workforce and indeed the all Kwarans, we’ll be able to make merriment and celebrate after four years of people-oriented governance. Until then, celebrating Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq now will be premature. What I think we should start drumming into the ears of the new governor should be “ise ya; it’s time to rebuild Kwara!” May God guide AA aright!

     

    • Abdulrasheed Akogun, a media practitioner, writes from Ilorin.

  • Plea of alibi

    In legal parlance, ‘alibi’ means ‘elsewhere’, but in ordinary terms it is understood as a reason offered to exculpate one from culpability. I suspect that some of the Governors who just finished their tenure will offer various alibi for untoward actions taken while in office, especially when confronted with the mismanagement of state resources. Many of them will seek alibi to explain the monumental disaster their tenure was.

    In Njovens vs State (1973)5 SC 17 at 68, the Supreme Court stated the position of law on alibi, thus: “There is nothing extra-ordinary or esoteric in a plea of alibi. Such a plea postulates that the accused person could not have been at the scene of the crime and only inferentially that he was not there.” Public officials who abuse their power while in office look back and seek for ways to escape culpability, but the law must rigorously examine their excuses and hold them to account.

    In Wisdom vs State ((2019) All FWLR Pt. 973 at page 393-394, Ariwoola JSC stated: “Ordinarily, even though the law does not saddle the accused with burden to prove alibi, but he is not expected to merely state that he was not at the scene of the crime without more. The law requires him, and it is a duty on him to give the lead and particulars of his where about as he claimed which will lead the prosecution in its investigation of the alibi.”

    In Chukwunyere vs State (2019) All FWLR Pt. 974, the deceased, one Beatrice Kwemma, was murdered in her farm. While she was getting set to go to the farm, her grandson Chijioke Kwemma noticed the appellant who was wearing dark glasses, and another person gazing at their house as they passed. At that time, the deceased was instructing her grandson to come to the farm later, to carry the harvest. While approaching the farm, the boy saw the appellant hacking down the deceased with an axe, while another person held her legs.

    Terrified, he ran and raised alarm that brought the villagers to the scene. Another witness testified the dark glasses were picked at the scene of the murder. While the appellant admitted owning the glasses, he lied that it was seized by the villagers a different day – a cock and bull story, the court rejected. The appellant gave an alibi that on that day he travelled out of town, but never gave verifiable details of where he travelled to or exactly when.

    Dismissing the alibi, the court while discharging the 1st accused person, believed the prosecution and convicted the appellant and sentenced him to death by hanging. Even though the appellant raised the alibi at the earliest possible opportunity, as required by law, the court did not believe him. In his lead judgment, Okoro JSC, opined: “It must be emphasized that the plea of alibi, whenever it is raised, the prosecution is under a bounden duty to investigate the alibi. This is so because the plea presupposes that the accused not only claim he never committed the offence but that he was not all at the locus delictis.”

    The learned jurist further held: “However, the alibi must be definite as to time, place and the persons who know about accused’s whereabouts. It should not be just to set the police on a wild goose chase.” Going forward, those who have mismanaged state resources in their care will attempt to lie about that, when confronted by their misdeeds. Post power, when they wake up without the retinue of officials waiting to receive commands, or to offer advices that are mostly ignored, even when such advice was in the best interest of the state, they will seek alibi.

    When the missed opportunities to do the right things while in power, return to hunt, they will plead alibi. Many of them who thought that eight years was so long it will never end, and were acting very recklessly, will seek alibi to cover their failings. For example, former Governor Rochas Okorocha was severally advised by this column to tread with caution, knowing that today will come. He was encouraged to lead his people diligently with humility and candour, but he ignored such advice, believing that he would install a stooge to cover his tracks.

    While he ruled like an emperor, instead of allowing elections at the local council level, Okorocha deceived the aspirants for eight years, conning them to pander to his hirelings, who misrepresented the true intentions of the emperor. What will he tell those he encouraged to sell their houses and businesses to raise money to participate in the local elections that never materialized? What alibi will he plead when those he encouraged to build roads without a formal contract meet him now he has no state bodyguards to shield him at marriages and naming ceremonies?

    There are other former public officials that mismanaged the rare opportunity God gave them to preside over states. Interestingly, to convict for murder or any crime, there must be intent on the part of the accused. On the proof of intent, learned Justice Okoro stated: “I accept the views expressed by the House of Lords in the English case of Hyam vs D.P.P (1974) 2 All ER 43 that an intention to cause death or grievous bodily harm is established, if is proved that the accused deliberately and intentionally did an act knowing that it was probable that it will result in the death of or grievous bodily harm to the victim.”

    Those who diverted to their personal use, the state resources put in their care, cannot be allowed to say they had no intent to steal, more so when they are definitely in charge at the material time. One serving governor that behaves as if there will be no tomorrow is el-Rufai of Kaduna state. He prattles and acts as if he owns everywhere. He treats part of his state with disdain, and yet he swore an oath to abide by the provisions of the 1999 which forbade discrimination based on tribe or religion. He treats his opponent like enemies of the state, and yet it is just his personal ego that is at stake.

    When the time to account comes, those who have abused their powers must not be left off on flimsy excuses. Like the appellant in Chukwunyere vs State (supra), they must be made to answer for their actions, and even inactions. As was held by the Supreme Court in Njovens vs State (supra), “If the prosecution adduced sufficient and accepted evidence to fix the person at the scene of crime at the material time, surely this alibi is thereby logically and physically demolished.”

    Those exercising authority granted by law must be ready to answer according to law.

     

  • Dapsy: A reporter’s encounters with a man of unusual courage

    It was a few minutes to midnight. Then, the folks who man the rail lines between Maryland and Washington in the United States of America had slammed the access to the train station against late night commuters. “WG,” he said casually, “let’s go”. He picked his car key and a 40-minute journey was underway. Some not too disapproving smile panned the sitting room.

    What if some hooded guys in DC blocked this man? Or if anything happened to him at midnight? Ladi, as he calls his wife of uncommon dedication, the Lord of the Manor, seems to be ruminating as my intruding presence made Dapo Olorunyomi, aka Dapsy, leave his wife’s arms some minutes to midnight. She managed a smile and waved him bye.

    What manner of a man will leave his family a few minutes to midnight, just to help a JJC in DC? But Dapsy cares no hoot. If the goal is to deny himself of sleep, money and comfort to straighten out your path, he is game. A Greyhound bus at the Union Station was where he emptied this nocturnal visitor. North Carolina was my destination.

    The following day, I attempted to make some heavy weather of this courtesy through superfluous thanks. Just to appreciate this unusual being.  Typical of him, he deliberately downplayed his heroic sacrifice and made light weather of the huge help. This was in Washington, where every minute weigh in huge dollars. A few days before, he had abandoned his busy itinerary to drive me to Gen Alani Akinrinade’s (rtd) home, for an interview published in The NEWS magazine. He didn’t toss a map at me like your typical Washingtonian would do.

    That was in 1999.

    Close to a decade later, he had summoned me to a point close to Louis Edet House, the Police headquarters in Abuja, yielded his car and eloped into another.

    And throughout Abuja we meandered round the city, in a seemingly disorderly fashion, but as it emerged, calculated order-until the duo were done with their discussions. It turned out that some demented goons with access to state powers, mean and merciless in taking out folks like the man in question, were after Dapsy’s guest, a patriot, one who had served Nigeria at the detriment of his physical and psychological health, friendship and bales of tempting lucre.

    In those two hours when we scoured Abuja’s streets, avoiding –in mathematical precision, all police checkpoints in the city, the ingredients and bureaucratic ‘scrolls’ that eventuated in nation building news copies, was the subject of the duo’s encounter.

    Such is Dapsy’s love for his fatherland that he once quipped: “But is it a crime to love your fatherland? Is it a crime to love your nation?” -apparently bewildered why a cell in a government he was serving will seek to do him in. Then, the media reported the case of some gunmen who wanted to take him out. “But we will continue to do our best. All I know is that good will always triumph over evil”, he concluded in response to himself.

    Such reassuring elan, it seems, lay at the root of his unexplainable risks for this nation called Nigeria. Dapsy seems to have some unshakeable faith in God, nature and some ethereal forces that the good in his good, his exertion for this good, in this immensely blessed but mismanaged nation will always trump whatever risks lay on the risky paths which he often trod.

    Which is why you will catch Dapsy, at times– racing to Abuja from Lokoja at some hours to midnight, just to pave a path for a young fellow. Or do a stop by in Lokoja to broker a discussion, see an old family member or ask after your health. And doing this with a reassuring mien like God has assured him that he will take off the bad boys off the road.

    And which is why Dapsy will go and confront Gen Oladipo Diya (rtd) when the late Gen. Sani Abacha was new in power and the ‘interimists’ were just trying to gain a foothold and ask: “Sir, with due respect, are you guys not being naïve with your perception of the late General Abacha?”. Angry at BAT who brought him into Diya’s presence, Abacha’s deputy will ask, “Why bring this kind of man into my place”.

    Abacha was to ensnare Diya three years down the line. Dapsy’s words seemed to be prophetic. Dapsy, Bayo Onanuga and their colleagues in The NEWS magazine were at the head of a titanic battle that ensured that Diya did not bite the bullet. What mattered to Dapsy and his colleagues was justice and the common good.

    Such streaks of courage are why only the six odd men of Dapsy’s mindset: Babafemi Ojudu, Bayo Onanuga, Seye Kehinde, Idowu Obasa and Kunle Ajibade and Kabiru Yusuf will spurn Buhari’s counsel. Buhari?  Yes, General Muhammadu Buhari’s admonition that they should be wary of Ibrahim Babangida as The NEWS magazine began its crusading genre of journalism in 1993.

    Then, Bayo, Dapsy, Ojudu and Seye had finished an explosive interview with Muhammadu Buhari in Kaduna. Buhari had sat Dapsy and others down and lectured them on security and the new phase the nation was entering, as they began the patriotic but perilous business that was the publication of The NEWS and Tempo news magazines. It was not long before Buhari’s fears began to manifest; first in dozens of arrests, arson and questionable deaths of journalists. Kunle Ajibade lived to tell his stories in Abacha’s gulags.

    Dapsy’s courage is steeped in history.  His late friend and banker, Mr Adeola once recalled one of such encounters about 17 years ago. Not a fashion buff-and he protest with his wears – often, Dapsy’s wife, Ladi, once poked fun at him as she scoured their house for just one trouser for him from a pile. Some fashionistas could worry about that.

    Dapsy had emerged asDapsy. The Principal of his secondary school-somewhere in old Kwara, was up in arms and slammed a fatwa against his entrance into the school premises. Forever calm and always radiating an inscrutable peace in an ocean of chaos and confusion, Dapsy shot out: “I had a slight. I had a slight.” It was the young lad’s own riposte. For a secondary school student, in the back waters of Kwara, the late Adeola recalled, this was too good an expression. The principal allowed the protesting lad to be carried shoulder high.

    There are a lot of good things to say about the self-effacing gem of a soul that is Dapsy. So many bits and pieces of him that it might fill another volume. His  native wisdom, perennial bother of not exposing the seamy sides of good men and women-even when they screw up. It is a strangely excellent trait that only a Dapsy could balance.

    Forever patriotic, forever looking at the bigger picture, Dapsy’s constituencies broaden into a vast amalgam of colour, generation, religion, ethnicity, profession, class and race, in a fashion only Dapsy could explain. If he is not discussing how to train the next generation of professional journalists, who will have ethics at the heart of their trade, he would be bouncing ideas on the role of data driven copies, how that could foster accountability in public space and strengthen democracy.

    • Gbadamosi, a Deputy Director, is of the Communications & Servicom Department, Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS.

  • The scourge of drugs: at what cost?

    In a recent national survey about drug abuse, the drug problem in Nigeria has been confirmed to be massive. In clearer picture, it means the rate at which young persons and adults are using psychoactive drug substance (popularly referred to as ‘getting high’) is more than the global average rate at 15% Nigeria’s and 5.6% global. This was revealed by National Bureau of Statistics and Centre for Research and Information on Substance Abuse.

    Previously, the prevalence was among adults and young adults, but most alarming and worrisome now is the rate at which under-age teens are embracing drugs freely and unchecked. Worst still, young people are generating their mixtures, using conventional substances with unusual elements to create their own formula for severe drug intake – they are often called ‘science students’ for these practices.

    This means that drug intake has graduated from the use of sedatives like cocaine, heroin and cannabis that we used to know, to potent mixture of several drugs to attain fatal overdose.

    For example, a cocktail of drugs like codeine, tramadol, rohypnol, cannabis with juice or soft drink is called ‘gutter water’. More crude is the smoking of lizard part, manure (dung), sniffing of petrol, glue, urine and sewage as inhalant. It is really that bad!

    I am utterly worried because this is gradually eating deep into the flesh of our society like cancer. Actually, drug abuse is not new to the modern society, but very bothersome is the alarming rate at which youngsters are embracing hard substance, unchecked.

    Do you know that four out of every 10 teenagers you meet on the street now abuse drugs? And if this goes unchecked, seven out of every 10 young persons on your street would become drug addicts by the year 2030 particularly in the major cities?

    Crimes such as spontaneous shootings triggered by drug related poor mental health may become a regular occurrence in our society such as you see it happen in a place like America?

    Recently, a news station picked a very disturbing drug abuse scene by an under-aged, with bottles of hard drugs littering the sight. The rate at which young boys and girls are being introduced to dangerous narcotics calls for serious concern.

    Now, young boys and girls display proudly their love for dangerous drugs and even get endorsements from some of our local musicians thereby promoting this dangerous trend.

    While we agree that the inflow of opioid is not limited to Nigeria alone, but our rate has surpassed ‘normal’ percentage. Last year, two major high profile raids led to seizure of over half a billion tablets of Tramadol. And apart from the imports, the local pharmaceutical companies are also riddled with high level of corruption related to boosting of illicit supply of codeine-based cough syrups to these drug users. Often time, a teenager will drink complete bottle of cough syrup at once to get ‘high’.

    This case was worsened by the fact that our healthcare system is not adequately equipped to contain consequences of disorders emanating from drug abuse, leaving victims to degenerate into complete decadence and irreversible mental states. It is not surprising why the rate of depression and anxiety induced suicides is on the increase.

    I can say authoritatively that this problem is not getting the attention it requires both from government and our communities. In the past, it is a taboo to smoke marijuana (popularly called weed) in the public. But now it is a trend and thing of pride among the youth.

    Systemic consumption of drugs by adults makes them see nothing bad in youth drug abuse. The rate at which young criminals are paraded on the television is alarming but we can stop the menace before it gets to that stage.

    Young people now have free access to dangerous weapons as much as they have to drugs, making the situation more dangerous. We are in the ‘blue tongue’, ‘purple tongue’ and ‘red tongue’ era with our youths consuming drugs freely at will. When cultism meets drugs, the result is that most rubbery gangs now consist of below 24 years old youth.

    In addition to previous and predominant crisis in the country, can we cope with drug menace given our population and energy?

    So what can we do?

    My experience in the health sector has proven that there is need for more severe laws at the federal level to prevent drug abuse with tactical check on the inflow and free distribution of illicit drugs in our society.

    Nigeria may need to borrow a leaf from countries with severe penalties against illicit drug peddling to check imminent catastrophe looming on the nation. This truth is bitter though, but can we cope with the consequences of this societal hazard as we are beginning to experience?

    Religious institutions should focus more on messages that can help revamp the society. Unfortunately, we have few organisations championing cause for prevention of drug abuse in the country. We need more.

    Prevention, they say, is better and cheaper than cure. For those already addicted, there are various forms of restorative approach in the society. But the most potent solution is to break the chain…that is where the biggest success is.

    Drug addiction is a preventable. Research has shown that preventive programmes that involve the family, schools, communities, and the media are effective in reducing drug abuse.  It is necessary, therefore, to help youth and the general public to understand the risks of drug abuse and for teachers, parents, and health care professionals to keep sending the message that drug addiction can be prevented if a person never abuses drugs.

    Above all, we need to check the music too!

    • Olulade is a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, representing Epe Constituency II

  • Oyetola vs. Adeleke

    The legal tango over the Osun State gubernatorial election held on 22nd and 27th September 2018, would be determined by the Supreme Court if the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) carriers out its threat to appeal the judgment of the Court of Appeal delivered last Thursday, setting aside the March 22nd judgment of the Osun State Governorship Election Tribunal, which sacked Governor Adegboyega Oyetola. While awaiting the apex court, let us examine some gravamen of the legal dispute.

    Of particular interest to this column is the issue raised at the appeal by Wole Olanipekun SAN: whether the absence of learned Justice Peter Obiorah (who authored and read the lead judgment) at the tribunal sitting on February 6, has not rendered the majority decision of the tribunal a nullity. The learned Justice Obiorah was a member of the three-man panel that heard and determined the petition of Senator Ademola Adeleke and the PDP. On a majority of two-to-one, Adeleke carried the day at the tribunal.

    That judgment has now been set aside on appeal, by a four-to-one majority panel, led by Justice Jummai Sankey.  While Justices Abubakar Yahaya, Isaiah Akeju and Bitrus Sanga agreed with Justice Sankey, Justice Ita Mbaba dissented. Interestingly, there is a plethora of cases on the validity of a judgment delivered by a panel different from the one that heard a case. In Awolola v Governor Ekiti State (2019) All FWLR, (Pt. 971), 1-55, the Supreme Court was invited to overrule its decision in Ubwa v Tiv Area Traditional Council (2004) 11 NWLR (Pt. 884) 427 as well as Sokoto State Government v Kamdex (Nig.) Limited (2007) 7 NWLR (Pt. 1034) 466.

    In Ubwa v Tiv Area Traditional Council, Magaji JCA who did not participate in hearing the appeal wrote and delivered a concurring judgment, in the case heard by Akpabio, Umoren and Chukwuma-Eneh, JJCA; while in Sokoto State Government v Kamdex (Nig) Ltd, Justices Ogebe, Aderemi and Chukwuma-Eneh heard an appeal, however Justice Galadima who did not hear the appeal, wrote and delivered a concurring judgment, instead of Ogeb JCA. In Ubwa’s case, the apex court had after considering sections 247(1), 294(2) ad (4) of the 1999 constitution declared the judgment a nullity and ordered a retrial.

    Also in Sokoto State government’s case, the Supreme Court held that the judgment was not a complete judgment of the Court of Appeal ‘because one of the Justices who heard the appeal did not reduce his judgment or opinion in writing capable of being delivered … as required by section 294(2) of the 1999 constitution.’ However in Awolola v Governor Ekiti State, the Supreme Court reversed its earlier decisions, including Shuaibu v N.A.B. Ltd (1998) 5 NWLR (Pt. 551) 582, (1998) 4 SCNJ 109.

    The learned Justices referring to section 258(1), (2) and (3) of the 1979 Constitution held: “Sub-section (3) (supra) clearly provides a solution like the one at hand in this case, as it stated that where the decision of the court consists of more than one judge, the concurring opinion expressed by the majority justices shall be the binding.” They further held: “The sudden appearance of the name of Adio JCA as delivering a concurring judgement must be without doubt a genuine mistake made in the course of compiling the record.”

    Interestingly, in Awolola v Governor Ekiti State, if the judgment of the judge who is not a member of the original panel is discountenanced, the judgment still stood as judgment of the majority. However, in Oyetola v Adeleke’s case at the tribunal, the panel is made up of three members. So should the Supreme Court find the judgment of Justice Peter Obiorah, one of the panellist invalid, because he did not sit with the other two members on February 6, as shown by the records of appeal, there will be no majority judgment left to stand, since the tribunal was made up of only three judges.

    The surviving judgment, will become a minority judgment, just like the dissenting judgment of the chairman of the tribunal, and may therefore not meet the threshold established in Awolola v Governor Ekiti State and Shuaibu v N.A.B. Ltd, or even the earlier case of Adeigbe v Kusimo (1965) NMLR 284, wherein the Supreme Court held: “We are therefore of the opinion that variations in the bench do not make the judgment a nullity; they may make unsatisfactory; and it may have to set aside for this reason, but whether they do or not depends on the particular circumstances of the case.”

    The circumstance in Oyetola v Adeleke may be such that the sitting of only two members out of three at a stage of the proceedings, may render the judgment nugatory as held by the dissenting judgment of Mary Peter-Odili JSC in Awolola v Governor Ekiti State. In her judgment, Justice Peter-Odili, quoted Justice Kutigi JSC in Ubwa v Tiv Area Traditional Council, wherein he said: “The entire proceedings before the Court of Appeal were a nullity because all members who heard the appeal and those who wrote the judgments were not all present throughout the hearing of the appeal which includes delivery of judgment.”

    Should the Supreme Court come to the conclusion that the absence of learned Justice Obiorah “throughout the hearing” of the petition (a position affirmed by section 285(4) of the 1999 constitution: which provides that the quorum of an election tribunal shall be the chairman and two members) affected the validity of judgement at the tribunal, and choose to order a retrial, Senator Adeleke and the Peoples Democratic Party may then face the challenge posed by the provision of section 285(6) of the 1999 constitution (as amended). That section provides that an election tribunal shall deliver its judgment within 180 days of the petition.

    No doubt, should PDP and her candidate proceed on appeal, the coming days will be days of anxiety for Governor Oyetola and Senator Adeleke and their supporters. That is because section 285(7) of the constitution (as amended) provides that “an appeal from a decision of an election tribunal or court shall be heard and disposed of within 60 days from the date of delivery of judgment of the tribunal.” Clearly, the reversal of the judgment of the trial tribunal brought a lot of excitement to the people of Osun, and many of them look forward to a favourable judgment at the apex court.

    Reacting to the victory at the appeal court, Adeniyi Adesina, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Oyetola, on behalf of the governor wrote: “After months of uncertainty and wait in judicial wilderness, truth has finally prevailed over falsehood….” The next 60 days will determine who finally carries the day in the legal tangle.