The Nation Newspaper

Category: Opinion

  • Lagos and the nuisance of land grabbers

    Buying a  piece of land in Lagos state and putting up a structure on same is usually a tall order, no thanks to the belligerent activities of land grabbers and land speculators popularly known as Omo Oniles who make life unbearable for intending house owners through their voracious frivolous demands. There have been many instances where unsuspecting buyers paid for land only to be told to come and pay again to reclaim their land, or settle some aggrieved family members who were not factored into the sharing formula of the previous payment. Omo Oniles simply have no regard for the law of the land as they have become a law unto themselves charging and fining prospective land owners’ different absurd bills as it pleases them.

    They also ensure the buyers are not free from their strangulating grip as they exact different fines on them, at every stage of the development of their properties. Prominent among such fines are foundation bill, lintel bill, decking bill, roof bill, fencing bill and a whole lot more. The value of such bills could sometimes be equivalent of the total value of the land or a little less depending on their scale of relevance and location of the property.

    In addition, they employ the use of force and threat in collecting these monies from their victims who are at their mercy with no option or defense. Some of their victims have had their structures demolished, as the Omo Oniles storm their sites in commando-like style, wielding harmful weapons and attacking the workers on site. Property owners are often mercilessly beaten up, wounded and forced to stop work until payment is made. Through this trend, land grabbers have successfully stalled the development of many projects.

    Consequently, in Lagos, individuals and organizations planning to put up structures have learnt to factor the cost of Omo Oniles into their expenditure. This has not only hindered development; it has also made individuals and organizations to consider relocating to neighboring states where the activities of land grabbers are not so pronounced.

    The activities of land grabbers are not only illegal, but anathema to society, development, peace and progress. They speculate on land with little or no recourse to land use laws, as they engage in the illegal sale of government land to unsuspecting individuals. They sometimes even dispossess people of land that are legitimately bought from the government. They also sell lands with no proper planning or cognizance of a mapped out environmental outlay, this is especially so, with new satellite settlements in the suburb of the state. Some houses within such locations don’t have a pathway for movement as other houses have been erected on their path; more appalling, some are built under high tension wires.

    Although some of the notorious ‘Omo Oniles are known but the society is helpless in dealing with them. To stem the tide of Omo Oniles nuisance, there is a need for accurate and efficient record keeping were the history of every property is preserved and conscientiously kept and protected. The courts are congested with land cases because landed properties are not properly documented.

    It is not in doubt that the state has recorded enormous loss to the unlawful activities of these hoodlums, most of whom are lay about, opportunists and exploiters who go about rubbishing the image of the state. It is in order to decisively tackle this nuisance that the Lagos state Government recently inaugurated a Task Force to check the menace of land grabbers in the state.

    The Task Force is saddled with the task of reducing to the barest minimum activities of individuals or corporate entities that use force and intimidation to dispossess or prevent people or organizations from acquiring legitimate interest and possession of property acquired through the state Government or private transactions. The Force is also empowered to co-ordinate the efforts of various agencies of Government charged with enforcing the State Government rights over lands in Lagos; and to work with all security agencies to ensure enforcement of State Government and private property rights in Lagos State.

    The state government has vowed to deploy the full force of the state and the law to tackle the issue permanently, noting that the havoc and chaos being caused by land grabbers would no longer be tolerated. Consequently, henceforth any person who uses physical force, threats or arms to dispossess people of their legitimate property will be treated as a criminal in accordance with Sections 52, 53 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, which stipulates a 2year jail term for any person found to have forcefully entered or dispossessed a legitimate land owner of his property. According to Section 281 of the criminal law, land is part of items that can be stolen.

    A few days back, the Lagos State House of Assembly made good its promise to move against the threat of Omo Oniles in the state. The House passed a bill to prohibit forceful entry and illegal occupation of landed properties, violent and fraudulent conduct in relation to landed properties in Lagos State and for connected purposes into law. If found guilty, by the provisions of the bill, land grabbers, popularly known as Omo Onileswill face a maximum 21 years and minimum of five years imprisonment respectively. The bill, passed at its plenary, after scaling through Third Reading was later sent to Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode for his assent. The passage of this bill into law is, no doubt, a massive step towards a lasting solution to the activities of the land grabbers in the state.

    It is heartwarming that the state government is coming up with the legal and institutional framework to tackle the menace of Omo Oniles once and for all. A society that thrives on lawlessness cannot attract meaningful development and growth. The citizenry, especially masses who daily struggle to make ends meet would, without a doubt, benefit from this renewed attempt to sanitize the land sector in Lagos State. Meanwhile, it is crucial that the state government demonstrate sufficient political will to follow through this fresh process in order to repose the citizenry’s confidence in the rule of law.

    On its part, the citizenry must brace up to fully support the government in this new bid to restore law and order into the society.

    Aruya is of the Features Unit, Ministry of Information & Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos.

  • OAU and rule of the mob

    One image that lingered on the screen of my mind for a few days as I consciously monitored the crisis invented by the Non-Academic Staff of University (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) of Obafemi Awolowo University over the emergence of the process that produced Prof. Ayobami Salami as the 11th Vice-Chancellor (VC) of the university is that of the mob in William Shakespeare’s plays. Specifically, the mob depicted in the eponymous Julius Caesar possesses everything but tact, character, discipline, and structured thinking.

    As a matter of fact, as the seminal play shows, the first casualties of the mob’s actions are those adumbrated virtues. To achieve their nihilistic goals, the mob dispenses with discretion and organised thinking, speaks in decibels higher than their numerical strength, and believes its own lies and passes them off as truths. As the mob loathes civility, so does it detests justice. It does not care about the corrosive consequences of choosing evil as good.

    The OAU crisis of the last one month was inspired and sustained by the mob. The present fragile resolution puts in place by Abuja also satisfies the hankering of the mob. Let’s not pretend about it; the actions of NASU and SSANU members in OAU against the process that threw up Prof. Salami were glaringly in tandem with that of a mob. These unions behaved violently, repudiated civility, embraced indiscipline, and acted lawlessly. In their organised violence, they demanded two things and got them.

    The NASU and SSANU mob said it wanted the Governing Council of the university dissolved. President Muhammadu Buhari, the Visitor, granted it without first investigating their claims that the body was incompetent and manipulated the process leading to the appointment of a new VC. The mob demanded an Acting VC and the Visitor obliged them. The two rudderless unions boasted they could commit punishable offences and get away with them. They did – they disrupted a meeting of the Governing Council at a point and locked up the members before the Ooni of Ife came to secure their release the following day. The offences of disrupting a lawful meeting and the one of false imprisonment were freely committed by the unions without any corresponding condign legal retribution.

    Even the defunct leadership of NASU in the university hardheartedly beat up representatives of their National Executives and seized their vehicle. No comeuppance greeted that barbarous behaviour.  The unions said they could determine when school open and close. They got it. It was on account of their violent conducts that the university was shut down in June. They have also swanked that they would only ‘hand over’ the control of the school to the Acting VC of their liking. NASU and SSANU in OAU do not believe in civilised conducts. They abhor dialogue as a means of solving social problem. It is the reason they went to court but decided to take laws into their hands, declaiming that the court would not dispense justice. Governed by the mob mentality, the two unions accepted as gospel truth the misinformation given to them by certain roguish minds that the court notice they got for the Governing Council was a restraining injunction to stop the appointment process of a new VC.  They swung into destructive actions by effectively making the school ungovernable.

    For those who wonder why non-state actors thrive in the Nigerian space, I ask them to look to the weak crisis management capacity of state actors. Look to their hollow sense of justice. Those two bellicose unions in OAU did call on the Visitor and the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu (someone The Punch newspaper in one of its editorial aptly carpeted for his ‘reckless desecration of university values’), to intervene in the contrived crisis (to quote Femi Macaulay, a columnist with The Nation newspaper) before they carried on too far with their campaign of impunity. The improper intervention of the Visitor via the Education Minister in the OAU matter is another striking illustration of the present central administration’s telling incompetence in crisis management.

    The sacking of the OAU Governing Council without an investigation to establish whether it was guilty of the imagined crimes levelled against it by the two unions in the university was hasty and improper and remains an example of how the Visitor picks and chooses when it comes to obeying the law of the land. The law is clear that the Governing Council of a federal university whose tenure has not ended can be disbanded by the Visitor where an investigation proves that it is incompetent and corrupt. In fact, the Universities Autonomy Act No.1, 2007 (Section 2A) clearly states that ‘The Council so constituted shall have a tenure of four years from the date of its inauguration provided that where a Council is found to be incompetent and corrupt it shall be dissolved by the Visitor and a new Council shall be immediately constituted for the effective functioning of the University’.

    But because the Visitor is less a man of justice than it is believed, and his Minister of Education an alien to the rule of law, he gave in completely to the demands of the mob in OAU. He trampled on the law, froze the appointment of Prof. Salami, asked for an Acting VC via the back door, and eulogised that to the unquestioning public as justice. This also aligns with the unlawful sacking of 13 VCs of federal universities and their Governing Councils last March. Not even the admittance of the wrong by the Visitor compelled a reversal of the illegality.

    Let it be noted that the new peace in OAU is brittle. The solution generated by the Visitor is insubstantial. It is a rape of justice that will still boomerang. The Visitor ought to know by now that anywhere justice is contemptuously denied as in the case in OAU, unity and peace cannot reign. The cockeyed action of the OAU Visitor, to wit doing the bidding of a party to a case without even the least understanding of the core issue, has widened the gulf of disunity in that university. He has done exactly what Chinua Achebe’s Obierika in Things Fall Apart says of the coloniser: ‘He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.’ The undisputable fact is that, to borrow the words of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the Visitor and the mob-like unions in OAU have only ‘scotched the Snake, not killed it’. And because the brazenly belligerent unions were not made to account for their follies and lawlessness, they will soon behave like the camel of the Bedouin in a story which after his master acceded to its request to allow it warm its nose in the room later brought in its whole body and deprived its master of his abode. It is a matter of time; the mob is forever besotted to the logic of anarchy and impunity. Anytime SSANU and NASU in OAU or those of the branches in other universities rake up impossible demands and insist on who they want as VCs but get turned down, they will resort to the rule of the mob and make the universities ungovernable.

    Alawode writes from Obafemi Awolowo University

    Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria

  • Affliction will not rise again

    While we thought we had achieved relative peace as the Nigerian Army heavily battled the Boko Haram Insurgency and banished its embers feather by feather, wing by wing in the North East; Nigerians could now heave a sigh of relief of peace gradually returning to its dwelling as a nation popularly regarded to be the Haven of peace.

    While we had stopped for a moment to catch our exhausting breaths; another evil again arose in the east- they took to arms and brandished leaves: taking off exactly where the Niger Delta militants stopped- avenging their grievances by blowing oil pipelines into black fumes, further desecrating their land with more self- imposed oil spills.

    It is said that evil rebirths itself. One big evil though cleared will regenerate itself unless there is a great atonement.

    And so it happened that under our noses; the inevitable happened. Hoodlums migrated first to Ikroudu to showcase themselves as they ruthlessly inflicted terror on various residents, before we knew it; they had let themselves in through the inland water way at Iba and abducted the Oba: Not without putting his youngest wife in a state of coma, killing his night guard and making themselves scarce through the river where they once appeared.

    The story of Fatoki, in Egan town, near Igando; Alimosho, a fast developing suburb can only be told in hushed tones. When the one million boys- a professional armed robbery gang who, also termed to be gunmen migrants accessed the little town through the border at Odo where the inland water way leads to Ogun state are not left out of this terror filled unrest.

    Rumour has it that this notorious gang reportedly handed a letter to the Igando Local Government Area police promising to visit heavily armed and dangerous last Thursday after sporadically shooting innocent people in the street earlier on Tuesday the same week.

    Rumour also has it that while they are heavily fortified with diabolical voodoo; one that prevents them from being shot as some police men were rumoured to have absconded their duty posts last Tuesday when the reported hoodlums paid a fearful visit.

    Just like many lawful abiding citizens; it has been a wonder; a question why these uprisings have migrated from the North to the East and now the West. Who is left out or who is next? The South? We can only hope to God to keep us dear.

    The matter, very serious has thankfully alerted members of the Lagos State House of Assembly- a matter which the senators have condemned and deliberated fortification of the border towns.

    They only spoke about the abducted Iba Monarch and Ikroudu rampage. We can only hope the cries of the residents of the Egan community are heard.

    Have you stopped to ask yourself where is Mr President?

    Is it until these “little” cases involve a bomb blast that the Presidency will issue a press statement and condemn? How long will the lawmakers dwell on Dino Melaye’s recent word brawl or the CCT trial or Fani Kayode’s freedom at last. He should do a huge Thanksgiving now; and write a book on how much he has suffered.

    Well, back to trending matters.

    But I have wondered whether these simultaneous attacks are a by-product of an old proclaimed bill now being put to act- The banishment of itinerant hawkers.

    Sources say this bill has been signed far back as 2004 but was the Lagos State Governor too fast to stretch his hands?

    Giving the itinerant workers a timetable- a workable timeline would have done that job better. It is not every time the father scolds the child.

    But must we fold our hands and let this reign of terror ravage our lands?

    No, God forbid! Whatever it will take that affliction would not rise a second time must be done. Get the army, get the Navy but don’t let this words die.

    Affliction will not rise again.

     

  • Hadiza Bala Usman and the Nigerian mentality

    Hadiza Bala Usman and the Nigerian mentality

    When the news broke that Hadiza Bala Usman, the then chief of staff to Governor Nasir El-Rufai, was being considered by President Muhammadu Buhari to head the Nigerian Ports Authority(NPA) based on the recommendation of Rotimi Amaechi, the Minister of Transport, I was very happy and optimistic for three reasons. I felt Buhari has finally seen reason to do the needful by bringing more young people on board, that the Nigerian project under the change mantra was on course and most importantly, the country is moving away from ethnic politics.

    An Ikwerre man is now recommending a Hausa woman to the president for a very sensitive and tedious national assignment is gratifying. This is because the Buhari cabinet has been bogged down by criticism of having too many ‘’dead wood’’ in its fold. This according to critics is because some of the ministers are too old to cope with the demands of governance in a digital age. Secondly, some of them have been part of past governments that have taken the nation to its present state where Nigeria is still learning to crawl at 56.

    Few hours later, her appointment was confirmed by the Federal government. I am at a loss why some Nigerians have continued to criticize Usman’s appointment on the basis of where she comes from. It is gratifying that no-one to the best of my knowledge has talked about her capacity to do the job, which is a plus for her. If there are, her experience at Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE), federal capital territory and lately as chief of staff in one of the three most difficult states to govern in Northern Nigeria is good enough. Borno, Kaduna and Kano are the most difficult states to govern in the North because there are so many interests groups that can hold government hostage. Anyone who has seen Nasir El-Rufai since he became governor should ask him why he suddenly started growing grey hair.

    This to me should be the focal point. Her appointment signifies a paradigm shift by government and a ray of hope for our generation that the much talked leaders of tomorrow slogan of many years is finally materializing. The NPA is also too strategic in these lean times to be left in the hands of some political god fathers who consider juicy appointments their birthright.

    I believe her critics are missing the point. The founding fathers of Nigeria have always stressed the need for us to emphasize issues that brings us together rather than those that divide us. The question is Should Hadiza Bala Usman reposition NPA in the next 24 months, up its revenue base just like Hammed Ali has done for the Nigerian Customs; will the money go to Northern Nigeria or federation account? It is an undisputed fact that our infrastructure have gone so bad that one will think there is no government in place to fix things. This is why many Nigerians have become their own government fixing their roads, drilling boreholes for their homes in the absence of public water supply, paying vigilante watch to guard their houses due to inefficiency of the Nigerian Police and relying on generators as an alternative to Disco’s ‘’festival of darkness’’.

    All these challenges underscore the fact that the system is not working due to weak institutions. I see a new NPA as a partial step towards ending budget deficit that has become Nigeria’s middle name in the last few years. I guess this is what the president had in mind when he accepted Amaechi’s recommendation. Then, why the issue of where she comes from? I believe many years of nepotism has so much blinded some us that we find it difficult to see the larger picture in any situation. Any attempt to talk about her state of origin amounts to throwing away the baby with the bath water. It is unprecedented for an average Nigerian to recommend someone outside his/her ethnic stock for sensitive political appointment.

    Rotimi Amaechi could have used his position by recommending someone from Rivers state and the candidate will still scale through. He chose merit over ethnic solidarity and political patronage.

    I have lived in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on the East Coast of the United States for the past six years where I went to graduate school. I have never experienced power failure for a second, driven on a road ridden with potholes; neither has my tap run dry.

    The power in my house is supplied by a company popular on the East Coast called National Grid. I have never thought or heard someone raising the issue of where the Chief Executive of National Grid comes from. Or whether he is black, African American or Hispanic? This is because it is irrelevant as what matters is service delivery and people knowing that they have a government that is caring and responsible. What has made the United States great is the focus on what one is bringing to the table, rather than his color of skin or state of origin. Why can’t we begin to have a civilized conversation about how to move this country forward without bringing ethnicity or religion?

    Since my sojourn in the US, I have been to Nigeria over a dozen times especially in the last two years. One thing that makes me sick is the epileptic power supply as someone who has an aversion for generators. I also pity people who do business in Nigeria due to the high cost of powering generators and double taxation. Why then should we rubbish a bold attempt to move the nation away from its sordid past? There is the need for us to do away with this Nigerian mentality that makes us look at things as Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa or Idoma.

    This mentality has done so much damage to our psyche that Nigeria is today more divided than we were during the civil war. I have never been a fan of federal character or quota system. It is responsible for the rot in the civil service today that a barber or welder gets the job of a permanent secretary without having the requisite experience to do the job.

    I have never met Hadiza Bala Usman, but only read about her at the early stages of Bring Back Our Girls Group (BBOG) and her stint as Chief of Staff of ‘’Chief Feather Ruffler’ of Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai. I see her as someone with vision. Hence, I do not care where she comes from, knowing what transpired at the NPA during the Goodluck Jonathan years.

    All that I care about is the repositioning of this strategic parastatal for improved revenue generation as a place where every Nigerian will be proud of. On the other hand, I never met her late father, Bala Usman either, but was opportuned  to be at an event where he presented a paper at one of the Northern states some years back. I had to go to the mini secretariat of the event organizers within the same premises to ask for a copy of Usman’s paper.

    As I entered the room, a Yoruba woman who was manning the computer told another young man who was making photocopies in Yoruba, “Can you imagine this Baba from Ahmadu Bello University, came with his return ticket, when other resource persons were waiting on government to pay for their flights.

    He is just too principled and honest that he never wants to take anything that is not for him’’.  The young man beamed and said ‘’Olododo ni Baba yi’’. This means Dr Bala Usman is a man of integrity. I could see admiration and respect in the eyes of these two people while the conversation lasted. Inside me, I shared the same respect for Bala Usman’s conduct. It is a radical departure from the culture I know as a journalist where resource persons invited by governors bill upfront regardless of how important is the presentation to the people and wanting their host to pay for everything including the polishing of their shoes. The import of this flashback is that in Hadiza I see her late father or what some call a chip of the old block. I see determination, courage and a change agent. Thus, she should be given a chance to justify the confidence reposed in her by President Buhari.

    Hadiza should see the criticism trailing her appointment as a shot in the arm to prove her critics wrong, by surpassing everyone’s expectation at NPA. The organization as it is today is in dire need of reforms that  even an “F’’ candidate in school knows the NPA is sick, malnourished and infected with the disease of Nigerian mentality. Her appointment among the many qualified persons is a litmus test for our generation and a challenge to test whether the Nigerian youth are still  their own  worst enemy.

    Go, Hadiza, as the torchbearer of this generation and the daughter of a comrade who never had the word ‘’impossible’’ in his dictionary, change the face of Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) just like your father brought Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) from relative obscurity to a center of academic excellence of national and global significance. Yar Mallam, Allah ya yi miki kyakyawan jagora.

    Lawal, a Public Commentator writes from Boston, United States. He can be reached via rafla2002pl@yahoo.com

  • The Hadiza Bala Usman they don’t know

    The Hadiza Bala Usman they don’t know

    Let me confess that at the Government House, Kaduna, we all received the news of the appointment of Hadiza Bala-Usman as the new Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), with mixed feelings. It is an appointment roundly deserved. But the Kaduna State Government House without the gallant Hadiza seems unthinkable, at least for now as she is one of our finest. Following her appointment, slightly over a year ago, by Governor Nasir el Rufa’i as his Chief of Staff, Hadiza speedily become the bulwark and the engine room of sorts of the ever-busy Kaduna State Government House. However, moments after digesting the news of her appointment, it downed on me, once again, that our great nation is truly at the cusps of change – positive change, that is. In placing the young but extremely energetic and innovative Hadiza Bala Usman at the helm of the Nigerian Ports Authority, President Muhammadu Buhari abundantly underscored the direction of the new Nigeria: a nation where mediocrity will no longer find space; a nation where the energy of young, educated, talented, patriotic and incorruptible citizens will be harnessed to re-work a country that was totally ran down by successive uncaring and insensitive governments.

    I will not dignify the few critics of the appointment of Hadiza as the Chief Executive Officer of the NPA with a reply. It is not necessary. The Hadiza Bala Usman that I have known and worked closely with for almost two decades, has shown serially that she is more than able to defend herself and even other unduly oppressed persons at all times. But I concede that it may well be true that some persons do not actually know Hadiza Bala Usman beyond her role as the co-convener of the Bring-Back-Our-Girls (BBOG) Campaigned that she and few other persons commenced in 2014 after nearly 300 girls were abducted from their secondary school in Chibok, Borno state.

    The BBOG Campaign was to force the embarrassingly lukewarm Nigerian government, then under Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to act expeditiously to rescue all the girls alive. The very tenacious Hadiza Bala Usman and other members of the BBOG, fearlessly and relentlessly called out the government to act and their campaign helped to draw global attention to the plight of the hapless Chibok schoolgirls. Till date, the about 300 girls have not been rescued but the story might have been different if the Jonathan administration had acted fast and decisively.

    Long before the BringBackOurGirls campaign commenced in 2014, Hadiza Bala Usman, at a relatively young age had begun living indelible marks in the sands of time. Groomed very early in life to speak to power and to take responsibility for her actions by her equally indefatigable father, the famous Historian, Dr. Yusuf Bala Usman, Hadiza has never ever missed an opportunity to make a mark. I had my first close interaction with Hadiza in 2001 at the Abuja Head Office of the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) whilst she worked as an aide to my very close friend and associate, Mallam Nasir el Rufai, the current Governor of Kaduna State. At the BPE, Hadiza, though fresh from the University was generally viewed as way older than her age. She was bold and courageous in her handling of huge projects at a time the BPE was at the peak of the disposal of federal government’s interests in hundreds of firms and enterprises. Under the legendarily profound Mallam Nasir el Rufai, Hadiza Bala Usman and several other young Nigerians cut their teeth in the management of very complex projects. She and a number of her colleagues while at the BPE benefitted from several management courses both within the country and abroad. It did not come to several of us as a surprise when Mallam Nasir el Rufai absorbed several of these well-groomed aides into the Federal Capital Territory Administration structure when he became the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory in 2003. It is an open secret that Mallam Nasir el Rufai inherited an FCT Administration that was steeped in uncommon corruption and land racketeering that had culminated in the total distortion of the Abuja master plan. Defying huge odds, El Rufai and his team of young and well-groomed aides commenced the arduous task of restoring the dignity, beauty and original master plan of Nigeria’s Federal Capital. They generally succeeded.

    At the FCT, Hadiza was feared.  Being the special assistant to the no-nonsense Mallam Nasir el Rufai on project implementation was never going to be a tea party but Hadiza was clearly tailor-made for the job. She never bent the rules for even the closest friends and political associates of Mallam El Rufa’i.

    Since the appointment of Hadiza as the Managing Director of the NPA, I have had series of discussions with Mallam Nasir el Rufai on this matter. Of course the Kaduna State Governor, like a good father or teacher is extremely proud of Hadiza Bala Usman and he is also proud of the leadership recruitment prowess of  President Muhammadu Buhari. It is the view of Mallam Nasir el Rufai that Hadiza’s appointment would help unlock the huge potentials in the nation’s maritime sector at a time the diversification of our economy has become compellingly inevitable.

    • Uba Sani is the Special Adviser, Political Matters to Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna State

     

  • Re-OAU crisis: Sacked council members petition Buhari

    I was rudely shocked to read about the violent behaviour of two unions (NASU and SSANU), Obafemi Awolowo University chapter, in the petition written by the Chairman of the unjustly dissolved Governing Council of the university, Prof. Rowland Egba, to President Muhammadu Buhari.
    According to the news report filed by Onyedi Ojiabor, Abuja, members of those unions were reported to have held the members of the Governing Council hostage and prevented them from holding their lawful meeting on the appointment of a Vice-Chancellor for the university. It was reported that the unions wielded dangerous weapons and threatened to kill their ‘captives’. It took the Ooni of Ife, as indicated in the report, to come to their rescue by 12:30am.
    Actually, I have heard the allegation on a Splash FM radio programme in which the Chairman of OAU SSANU, Mr. Ademola Oketunde, featured. On that programme, he could not debunk the claim of his opponent on the violent behaviour he and Mr. Wole Odewumi, former NASU Chairman, superintended over. But I did not give much attention to it. But now that Prof. has come out before the world to say it and with no denial on the part of unions, I no longer find it difficult to accept it as the truth of what transpired. Indeed, those are unions besotted to the logic of violence as a way of resolving issues.
    Without mincing words, the actions of the unions constitute a serious constitutional infraction that must not be overlooked. By now their leaders ought to have rounded up for questioning by the Nigeria Police Force and processed for prosecution in the court. Under the law of torts, what they did to the Governing Council members amount to false imprisonment and threat. It is an offence that should not be ignored so as to deter other persons who may want to do the same in the future. If they are allowed to go away with that punishable offence, it will be easier for them and others in the nearest future to do worse than that. There must be deterrence. These unions must be made to take responsibility for their unlawful actions.
    This brings me to the heart of the matter that inspired the disgusting  misbehaviour of those unions. From the account of Prof. Rowland as reported, it is clear that the Federal Government acted too hastily in dissolving the Governing Council. There is no problem with some unions making allegations about the actions of a Governing Council. But there is a big problem in accepting the accusations as truth and making a grave decision like the dissolution of the Governing Council therefrom. At least there should have been an investigation to establish the veracity or otherwise of the charges. This becomes even important in view of the fact that the unions who made the allegations had even behaved in ways that make their claims questionable. Had the Visitor through the Minister of Education taken its time to investigate the claims, he would not have settled for the embarrassing decision against the Governing Council.
    Certainly, the OAU SSANU and NASU cannot be taken seriously. The university laws on the appointment of a Vice-Chancellor do not even recognise any input from them in the process of appointing a university executive. Why their clangour of disapproval of the emergence of Prof. Ayobami Salami as the Vice-Chancellor of the university sounds more deafening than those of the legitimate actors is beyond me. I agree with Prof. Rowland’s position: There is no doubt that candidates who lost but do not want to come to terms with their loss are the hidden hands pulling the strings of the unions’ puppets. They are the ones coaching the unions to stick to the flat tale that the Governing Council usurped the duty of the Joint Council and Senate Selection Board (JCSSB) in the process that produced Prof. Salami. But since the contrived narrative of the gelded trainers hit the public, no single member of the JCSSB has come forth to corroborate their account. The JCSSB is not even saying its role was hijacked.
    The Nigerian public must see the unions for what they are: They are mischievous and inveterate liars wasting the time of students and giving the university a bad name. If the unpaid allowances some of the unions’ members secretly reveal is their grouse, let them quit their violent conducts and return to work and negotiate with the school management. If they do not favour dialogue, then nobody can help them in any way.
    President Buhari must reconsider the disbandment of the Governing Council. Apparently there was no due diligence favoured before it was disbanded. There is also in office a substantive Vice-Chancellor that he cannot sack. If he cannot reverse his step as men of justice are wont to do, then the view that his government is hostile to justice and the rule of law is true.
    In the name of all that is good, I appeal to President Buhari to consider the petition of the dissolved Governing Council and cause an investigation to take place. This should go on while the school is going on with its normal activities. The court case by the unions should go on too. There is a substantive Vice-Chancellor in place; if an objective investigation proves the process that produced him was improper, then the right thing can be done. Justice is never known to be served where the claim of a party to a dispute is upheld as gospel truth.
    ‘Wale Erinfolami wrote from Mayfair, Ile-Ife.

  • Dangers of Executive takeover of NASS

    It has become necessary for all lovers of democracy and haters of autocracy to beam their searchlight on the unfolding events at the National Assembly, particularly the Senate.

    Even before the inauguration of the Eight Senate, controversy had been thick in the air and there was plenty of jockeying for power, supremacy, and control of the leadership of the Senate. It is not a secret that the powers-that-be prepared particular candidates to emerge as leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives, but failed woefully in their unholy and clandestine bid to pocket the legislature. And there has been no respite for the senate and its leadership ever since, as it has been one allegation of criminal offence or the other and dragging about of Senate leadership from one court to the other.

    As a democratic State, implicit in the existence of the three arms of Government is the doctrine of separation of powers and the principle of checks and balances, which are particularly key in a presidential system of government. The idea of separation of powers is aimed essentially at guarding against absolute power that comes with the fusion of the enormous powers of state in a few hands. Fashioned out by great thinkers and activists of the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly Jean Montesquieu and A.V. Dicey, the principal aim of the concept of separation of powers is to ensure the smooth sail of democracy and to scuttle impunity by those in government. By this principle, each branch of Government is independent of the other, though they cooperate.

    Allied to this concept, is the principle of checks and balances, whereby each organ of government acts as a check on the other without interfering with its internal affairs. That way, dictatorship is kept at bay.

    I have taken the pain to elucidate on these principles to show the complete threat to democracy and the gradual descent to the cesspit of anarchy, which the ceaseless interference of the executive in the affairs of the Senate portends.

    Despite the laborious efforts by the executive to deny the incessant efforts to pass off the presiding officers of the Senate as common felons, it should be clear to them by now that they can no longer take Nigerians for fools.

    The harassment, intimidation, and campaign of calumny, steadily waged against some principal officers of the Senate since their emergence to the outrage of the powers-that-be can no longer be hidden.

    If some patriotic Nigerians gave the ruling civilian junta some benefit of doubt when it arraigned the Senate President to be tried by a clearly partisan Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, who himself was facing corruption allegation before the EFCC, those doubts have since evaporated following the arraignment of the presiding officers of the Senate alongside one retired, and a serving, bureaucrat on trumped-up forgery charges at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory.

    Indeed, this desperation to flush out Senates presiding officers by hook or crook was made clearer to doubting Thomases by the recent ruling of Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court, Abuja, who described the criminal charges as a gross abuse of legal process.

    Instead of preventing the abuse that arose in filing criminal charges despite a pending suit challenging the police report, which the criminal charges rest upon, Justice Kolawole rightly pointed out that: The converse situation, which the drafters of the Constitution, perhaps never envisaged, appears to have occurred in this case as the 2nd defendant (Attorney-General) who is required, by section 174(3) of the constitution, to discontinue at any stage before judgment is delivered, any such criminal proceedings instituted or undertaken by him or any other authority or person where such proceedings constitute abuse of legal process, is in fact the very person who initiated a criminal proceedings in a matter in which he had, as a private legal practitioner, acted for one of the interested Senators who had petitioned the 1st defendant (Police) on 30/6/15″. He also averred that the desperation to arraign the men does not portray the AGF as acting in public interest.

    Lovers of democracy should, therefore, be worried that the arm of government (legislature), whose existence symbolises the existence of democracy, and which our constitution has vested with critical responsibilities is in grave danger. Even if we do not like the face of some people that populate the National Assembly, we cannot afford to be so blindfolded to its constitutional role as a check against absolute power, which corrupts absolutely.

    The NASS is the only institution where the President comes to bow at least once in a year. The 1999 Constitution confers on NASS the powers to make laws for the good governance of Nigeria; powers to oversight the other arms of government and their agencies; powers to approve certain appointments (eg. Ministers, Ambassadors, Heads and Members of statutory commissions, and certain judicial appointments like Supreme Court and Chief Justice of Nigeria, etc); and above all the powers to approve how the nation’s wealth is spent through the Appropriation Act.

    I must warn loudly and clearly that a legislature in the pocket of the executive, coupled with the prevailing situation where the executive flouts court rulings with impunity, is an open invitation to tyranny and anarchy. It must be resisted by all lawful means.  Those drumming support for this emerging totalitarianism should also remember in mind that hardly has there been anyone who rode on the back of the tiger of dictatorship that did not eventually end up in its tommy. We must join hands to resist this drift to dictatorship before it is too late.

    • Yakubu wrote from Jos

     

  • Beyond #ReopenOAU

    If you are ever repelled by the loud silence of a lying waste grave land, a walk through the streets of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife in its present state will bring those memories back.

    The tale of the great institution has been sung by many; the waters of academic prowess has been drunk by thousands and it’s greatness has been professed from generations to generations.

    However its present state of academic paralysis and infrastructural decadence is worrisome. The institution has been shut for over 90 days following the suspension of the 2014/2015 session on April 6; not forgetting the tension over the appointment of a Vice Chancellor and Acting Vice Chancellor.

    While one would not want to take sides nor dwell on whether the Visitor’s action was an aberration or a good decision, the Visitor’s action actually doused the raging tension that saw the school shutdown for months as the already stunted academic calendar was now relegated to the background.

    The fact that the students only had a semester in the seventh month of the year was not anyone’s grouse; all the Unions want is a Vice chancellor to represent their own separate interests.

    Not even the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) , Non Academic Staff Union of Universities ( NASU) nor the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) felt the need to act in the interest of the students. Ever since the appointment of the Acting Vice Chancellor was announced, there has been a media war in which none deemed it fit to soldarise with the students.

    While it is important to have a good head, it is apparent that when two elephants fight, the grass is subjected to a stampede calpable of over throwing the elders at the top.

    Saddened by the outcome of events, Olanrewaju Oyedeji, the current President of the Association of Campus Journalists ( ACJOAU) recently began a social media campaign tagged #ReopenOAU to draw attention to the need to reopen the institution. The campaign has since garnered interests and full support of students who are tired of remaining home.

    A walk through the streets of OAU Campus lady early this week does not reflect the famous slogan of the institution, “for learning and culture.” Learning has completely eluded the campus. So also has culture since there are no students to ignite the dream and vision of the founders of the institution.

    One thing the students pushing the hashtag #ReopenOAU seems to have clearly forgotten is that; the reopening of the University isn’t the only thing they must fight. There are several wars to be won as well as tactically fought; the current infrastructure decadence that led Sahara reporters to publish pictures of the poor state of hostels, the poor state of the toilets; the lackadaisical attitude of Health Centre workers to students when they are ill; Overcrowding in hostels; Overcrowded lecture halls with no breathing space and the most important; reinstatement of the now defunct union.

    While students would love to resume soon and hopefully catch up with various levels of their academic pursuits, they should not forget the origin of previous lost struggles largely due to poor welfare.

    New projects like hostels and lecture rooms must be built, power has to be more regular, Students’ Union has to be reinstated, as well as the inclusion of students in the governing process of the University.

    – Olaoluwa is a student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife.

  • The message of hope

    One deep but admirable quality that Africans and most especially Nigerians possess is the strength of their belief.

    The belief to be better against all odds; that belief of a better tomorrow and a better future for themselves and their loved ones.

    We have been worse hit in recent times as a people. Our democracy is already experiencing the greatest decline; the Government has been unresponsive as always, even as the implications of good representations of democracy have eluded us.

    However, Nigerians haven’t stopped believing. They haven’t stopped hoping and wishing for a better tomorrow.

    We are so quick to forgive the failed promises and the over inflated economy; we haven’t forgotten that a litre of fuel still sells for #145 but we deliberately chose to ignore it and hope for better things.

    Individually, Hope is a Nigerian thing. It is our practice and there is no better virtue than this- to hope for better things.

    Despite all the failings both personal and collective; Nigerians are never the type to back down from their inert dreams. Others may give up, but definitely not us.

    Hope is all that sustains us and it is our fundamental bedrock. This is what we should imbibe and find solace in, for in due time good fortunes will smile on us.

  • FG dissolution of OAU council: Legalities

    What has been trending in the last few days has been the powers of the Federal Government to dissolve the OAU Governing Council and stop the appointment of Prof Salami.

    My phone has been besieged with calls from quarters, at some point I really did not know what to say since I am not a law student, but I have become a law “Student” in the matter of hours.

    However, all I will do is to ask logical questions, and readers can draw logical Conclusions.

    One thing I am beginning to get confident about is that President Buhari may not or will not rescind this decision on Dissolution, even if he were to be wrong, although I would not say the decision was wrong or right, but I have spoken with personalities who have different interests, definitely they are from the two sides of the coin, but there are arguments even while some have been filled with emotions, I have just learned and concluded that the allegations of illegality surrounding this issue cannot be fought on the pages of the paper.

    The Presidency recently had to rescind decisions bordering on sacking 13 Vice Chancellors of the Federal Universities established under Good luck Jonathan, we don’t expect same Government to come out to rescind this again, it will definitely paint the Government as not knowing what she is doing.

    I am not a fan of emotionality in analyzing issues, but before I delve into the legal perspective of this issue, I believe that whoever has a claim should use the power of the law and file a petition at a competent Court of Law.

    I spoke with a Public analyst and a major stakeholder in Osun State who was a guest on Splash FM and we cross fertilized opinions, he strongly opines that the action of the Federal government is illegal and should be reversed.

    I had the opportunity of seeking the legal opinion of Barrister S.T.A Raji, although he did not give me a position, but he said, filing a case in court will be best not talking on pages of paper, he did not form my position, but I have always believed the issues that border on legality should be tackled on Court of Law to save the space of unnecessary tension.

    I have sampled the opinions of the University management at the moment and it seems they have no issue with the dissolution of Council, just yesterday 4th of July, some persons came out as ASUU members to ask for an Acting Vice Chancellor.

    Looking at all issues surrounding this dissolution, one would have to take a look at the law that has caused controversy, I have studied Section 2A of Universities’ autonomy law and the bone of contention is the fact that Federal Government never set up an investigative panel before announcing dissolution.

    True, I subscribe to an investigative panel, but we cannot completely rule out the fact that the dissolution may have bordered on incompetency.

    Remember very well that the University Public Relations Officer Olanrewaju Abiodun said: “The FG dissolved the Governing Council to ensure normalcy on campus,” what we should if we feel the dissolution is illegal is to call on the Federal Government to tell the public why the Council was dissolved, it has been clearly stated that the Visitor can dissolve the Governing Council, commentators have claimed that the FG did not set up an investigative panel, that was not in the amended act, according to Section 2A.

    However, the same constitution has said: “The Governing Council is empowered to remove a Vice Chancellor,” the Presidency or Visitor was not empowered, that’s the fact, but there has been complications from the onset.

    What do we say about the Counsel of Obafemi Awolowo University saying there was no appointment made at all, he claimed this in a court of law and said it twice, that would mean in the Face of Law, there was no VC appointed but there was a Vice Chancellor in the real sense after all processes were said to have been completed.

    One may want to assume that the Presidency was acting based on what the Counsel, Anu Ogunro said that “Prof Salami was not appointed VC,” it took the NASU and SSANU counsel provision of the Guardian Newspaper that was documented before the Counsel began to agree that a VC was chosen.

    It  was stressed indirectly on June 17 at a Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo that no case of Contempt can come up because there was no appointment, that could have been a mistake but the mistake would have a huge role to play on the long run.

    Issues bordering on illegality or legality should be based on the law.

    I do subscribe that the Presidency needs to state a reason for the dissolution, you cannot dissolve a Council without telling why, it only leaves agitations here and there. People need to know which basis was used, whether based on lack of Competence which many are suggesting or Corruption which none can affirm, let’s remember that we are toiling with future of Students in OAU.

    On issues bordering on the decision to ask Prof Salami to Set aside, I have heard people saying it was to ensure that Court process is not bastardized as there was the case in Court even before the University completed the process of appointing a New VC, Barrister S.T.A Raji argues that once a matter is in Court all issues on the matter should be suspended till the Court processes are over, Mr Ademola a Public Analyst however disagrees completely.

    Even if there would be an Acting VC, the Presidency cannot appoint such, only a reconstituted Governing Council can and the tenure of Such person should not last for more than 6months.

    The government should know that it ought to have actually constituted a Governing Council soon after the Dissolution of one, but one would be forced to imagine that the FG is waiting for another one year before constituting a Governing Council for OAU.

    One needs to question the operations of the FG, why did they give Certificate showing Confidence in the process that brought in Prof Salami if issues like this Would come up? Is it incompetency of the Ministry of Education or hurried process?

    In the paradox of it all, the emotional attachment of the issue has given several interpretations to it, but there are issues beyond Law and Legality left unattended to that may be the real decider of the case here.

    Olanrewaju Oyedeji writes from OAU, Ile-Ife

    President, Association of Campus Journalists OAU

    olanrewajusamuel8@gmail.com
      +2348164847752