The Nation Newspaper

Category: Commentaries

  • Between Tukur’s altruism and Anenih’s subterfuge

    Between Tukur’s altruism and Anenih’s subterfuge

    The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) put up a contradistinctive show on Monday when two of its leading lights gave us insight into the party’s expectations in 2015. In Abuja, the party’s chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, told the Southwest caucus of the party led by Professor Taoheed Adedoja that it was necessary for party members to gird up their loins to ensure the party won 32 states in the 2015 elections compared with the 23 states they now have. Whether we believe his altruism or not, Tukur actually spoke unambiguously and with a decent measure of civilised honesty and logic. According to him, “We have to show electoral strength this time. In doing it, we will work hard and work well. We will move with the speed of jet and we will deliver without any foul antics. I use this opportunity to appeal to our members to bury the hatchet and cast away whatever forlorn hope they nurse about the future. I appeal to our members to begin to invest in the future right away and doing so involves hard work, diligence and dedication to the cause of PDP.”

    On the other hand, Chief Tony Anenih, chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT), gave hint that the party was likely to play hardball in the 2015 polls. Together with top PDP leaders, including a few governors, Anenih had visited Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president, at his Hilltop residence in Abeokuta, Ogun State on the same day Tukur was acting coy in Abuja. Since Anenih is not given to niceties or diplomatese, he predictably spoke invidiously about the strength of the party and its chances in the coming polls. Said he gravely: “PDP is not dead in Ogun or any part of the country. PDP is the party to beat. When the time comes, I assure you we will do what we know how to do best.” There is of course a chance, given the elementariness and accessibility of his terse language, that all he is suggesting is that the PDP is so big and strong that it invariably and naturally wins elections – against all odds. But there is also the discomfiting possibility that what the man with the drawn and sometimes sepulchral visage is saying is that his party knows how to subvert popular will through electoral chicanery.

    Yes, Tukur shocked Nigerians by alluding to a presidential directive to the party faithful to win nine more states than the party has at the moment, but it is Anenih who is likely to attract more attention, if not revulsion, with his offensive and mocking assertion that the next polls would be a cakewalk. Pressed to clarify what he meant by his party doing ‘what it knows how to do best,’ the BoT chairman would readily explain that his statement was a mere indication of confidence rather than subterfuge. But far more disconcerting to everyone is the appalling inability of the ruling party to gauge public mood, its apparent detachment from reality, and its overestimation of its modest record of achievements. The public will find it hard to understand why the party hopes to make political gains in 2015 when it has demonstrated nothing but sheer incompetence in the face of mounting insecurity.

     

  • ACN: A beacon in the dark

    ACN: A beacon in the dark

    SIR: There is a broad consensus among Nigerians that the problem of our country is largely due to failure of leadership. In a competition, the team that desires to win must field its bests. But our country has rarely fielded its most capable hands. It has largely been governed by individuals who are nowhere near the best we could produce. With all the great minds the country can boast of, why is it that we are still governed mostly by individuals who could at best be described as average. Why is it that our best minds hardly make it to power, do we have a fondness for drab leaders, for mediocrity?

    There is indeed the existence in the country of a cabal or rather kingmakers. These individuals who are entrenched in critical sectors of the society to a large extent determine who makes it to power and who does not. They are able to exercise this influence due to our weak electoral system and judiciary, and the ignorance of a large percentage of the electorate. And who do they support to power, what is their criterion?

    The kingmakers are largely concerned with the protection of their interests. Unfortunately, these interests mostly conflict with that of the majority of the citizenry. They therefore search for and enthrone individuals who could be trusted to maintain the status quo, persons that would dance to their tune, weak characters, average souls. This is exactly why the country boasts of many nationally and internationally acclaimed administrators, technocrats, great minds, etc. who nevertheless have been unable to make it to office. The situation is indeed depressing, it seems like the country is blanketed by a dark cloud. But in the midst of the darkness I see a beacon.

    There exist outstanding governments and governors in quite a few states of the federation. Besides one or two other states, the rest of them reside in those controlled by the ACN. There is this sophistication about the ACN governors. They represent a departure from the crudity and shallowness that so characterize our polity. Their commitment to bettering the lives of their people is clearly demonstrated in their deeds. My memory of Benin City , for instance, used to be that of an 18th century kingdom that has successfully resisted modernization. When I passed that city recently, there was no denying the fact that there exists a government there, and that the government is working.

    The positive attributes are, however, not limited to the governors but also extend to many other political office holders from the party including my own Senator Chris Ngige. This category of politicians actually represents the real breath of fresh air in the polity. But how come the party field mostly quality candidates?

    While the leaders of the ACN are no petty Nigerians –in fact, some rank among the best the country can boast of, they, however, cannot be grouped among the kingmakers. They do not control the country’s resources or power and consequently cannot seriously hope to win elections through malpractice. To win the party must field the best candidates. But they put forward quality candidates not just to win elections but because of their commitment to excellence. Very fortunately the party’s leaders are mostly credible and patriotic Nigerians whose interests seem to coincide with that of the majority of the citizenry. Like most Nigerians they sincerely yearn for good leadership. They are mostly progressive-minded.

    When I consider some politicians that the ACN has produced, I get the feeling that there’s still hope for the country. If we work hard and make the right choices we could still overcome our leadership crisis. For the moment, the party appears to be the most credible route to our promise land and I wish it all the best as it holds its special national convention on April 18.

     

    • Nnoli Chidiebere

    Aba, Abia State.

  • FROM THE CELL PHONE

    For Olatunji Dare

     

    A charlatan in any human endeavour is sure to like other sorts of charlatans. The propagandist who probably wants to be appointed a commissioner under the administration of the proponents of the anti-rumour law should have based his response on solid and hard facts in place of dangerous fallacies, wobbling logic and incoherent reasoning. He should ensure that Bayelsa State government is always doing the right things at the right time, so as to give critics little to complain about. From Adegoke O. O., Ikhin, Edo State

    Toriyo Akono is an agent of Balyesa State government. He delved into the work that is not his, that shows he had been paid for the job. He should concentrate on the original job assigned to him. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Docyard Apapa Lagos

    Sir, I believe Torinyo Akono has been promised chairmanship of that committee. From Feyi Akeeb Kareem

    Re: Bayelsa’s rumour epidemic: a propagandist at work. To me, what is important is that you already made point on your observation of the proposed law on anti-rumour. You need not engage further discussion with Akono’s love for ‘eat without work’ by a free-fund Permanent secretary! From Lanre Oseni

    Re: Murdered policemen. For all those advocating for amnesty first by Federal Government, is that a sensible course or path to follow first? It will be a shame on Federal Government if those who murdered the 12 Nigerian soldiers recently in Niger-Delta be they MEND, be they Hurricane Exodus, go free. If I were Nigeria’s President, I know what to do to arrest these thugs called militants! From Lanre Oseni

    From what I have just read on the ‘Bayelsa’s rumour epidemic: A propagandist at work’, I think the Information Commissioner and the Press Secretary to the Governor should watch out! Their jobs could be at stake. Political jobs pay well and one can jostle for the position with the advantage one has. Use what you have to get what you want! Any law against that? Fire on Akono! From Davou, Du, Jos South

    Oga Dare, I too read Akono’s clarification. But I was rather disappointed that he made no attempt to deny the angle of a certain super permanent secretary who earns a hefty salary . . . and who does not show up for work but wields enormous powers. Anonymous

    Dare, thanks for your displayed professionalism. However, remember, Akono is not all called to serve and in an attempt to be appointed by a serving governor, he must drop his profession and sense of judgment. From Dr. Bello, Ilorin

    Do not bother yourself with what the so-called ‘journalist’ Akono wrote. Prof., I had a good laugh when I read it. The most demeaning part was that, it was so glaring his ‘Ogas’ did not think he was good enough to write the stuff himself, so they wrote it and just asked him to put his byline on it. And the price? Some filthy stuff that is easy to guess. It could be that he works for one of the government owned media outfits in the state, so, he is easy pick. Let us have pity on the guy. In a nation where pervasive poverty is no respecter of ethics or professionalism, it takes only the thoroughbred to resist the marauding dragons who now preside over the Nigerian state. Regards! From Olu

     

    For Segun Gbadegesin

     

    If you are running and you are looking behind you are bound to stumble. Anybody or organisation that criticises the government is free to do so because you have the right to do so. Nigerian government has taken law into its hand, because the law court is there to determine it. It is only the government that has run out of ideas that clamps down on opposition or journalists. The present government lacks focus and determination that is why its decision is always unpopular. If it continues on its decision of clamping down on journalist, it will lead it to destruction. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Docyard Apapa Lagos

    Leadership matters: The late President Yar’adua Umaru preached and practised “Rule of law” others have “Laws of the Rulers” to contend with. Anonymous

    Leadership is all about enduring other people’s utterances no matter how bitter. If you are aggrieved about what people say or what they write about you go to court for interpretation. Clamping down on them is tantamount to the violation of their fundamental human rights. It is as if the present government has run out of ideas. From Hamza Ozi Momoh, Dockyard Apapa Lagos

    If I were Mr. Jonathan, I would have started from day one to work for Nigerians, who saw him as one of their own, and voted for him massively at the 2011 presidential election. Now that he has blown the opportunity to endear himself to the masses by choosing to work for the cabal that holds the people by the jugular, he is now running from pillar to the post, sowing seeds of division among those opposed to his uninspiring leadership to remain relevant. Such desperation is doing so much damage to his presidency than he can imagine. From Ifeanyi O.Ifeanyi, Abuja

    Re: Leadership matters. While I agree that democratic considerations should be in minds of the Presidency, police and the Journalists, democracy should not be abused by both the government and Journalists, more especially the journalists. It is common to see them write against whoever they hate. That belittles Journalists who practise unfounded information-passage. Although LEADERSHIP matters, respect begets respect! From Lanre Oseni

     

  • Lady Thatcher and Africa

    Lady Thatcher and Africa

    SIR: The late Lady Margaret Hilda Thatcher who died last week in Britain at the age of 87 years will be remembered for a very long time in British political history. From a humble background as a grocer’s daughter, she became the first female Prime Minister in Britain. Added to this unique achievement, she had the distinction of being the longest serving British Prime Minister in the twentieth century. Although not known to be a political tactician in the mode of leaders like Wilson Churchill and Harold Wilson, she achieved what these two leaders cold not achieve by wining three consecutive general elections.

    The actions of the late Lady Thatcher when she was in power were felt not only in her country but throughout the world. Her domestic policies were based on her rabid disdain for socialism. She revived the comatose British economy and many of her admirers said that she put ‘Great’ back into Great Britain. She led Britain against all odds to regain Falkland Island from Argentina and won the hearts of many people by pruning the power of the unruly British Trade Unions. On the other side of the coin she created inequality and polarized people of Great Britain.

    On the world stage, she earned the title of ‘Iron Lady’ from the Russians because of her bellicose stand on many international issues. She was unapologetically pro-America and supported Ronald Reagan on many international issues. In Europe she was an irritant to many of her fellow heads of government because she liked to force her views down the throats of others.

    Despite the adulations and praises heaped on her after her demise, many people especially in her own country had nothing but odium for her memory. There were jubilations in many towns in Britain when her death was announced. This is the first time the death of any leader in Britain is celebrated. This is reminiscent of the jubilations that followed the death of Sani Abacha in Nigeria in1998.

    In Africa, although there were no open celebrations of her death but many people will no doubt have a sour memory of her because of her unhelpful policies on Africa when she was in power. When she became Prime Minister in 1979, the independence of Southern Rhodesia and the liquidation of the heinous apartheid regime in South Africa were the intractable problems facing African leaders.

    She showed unbiased sympathy towards the minority white settlers. Instead of recognizing the genuine nationalists, Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe, she aligned herself and her government with Ian Smith/Muzorewa scheme in which the puppet Muzorewa would be the Prime Minister while the real power would still remain with white minority.

    To her eternal shame, she did everything within her power to prevent the dismantling of the heinous apartheid regime in South Africa. She considered the genuine leaders of South Africa including the revered Nelson Mandela as terrorists. Her greatest damage to the struggle against apartheid was her persistent and vocal opposition to the imposition of economic sanctions against South Africa. In 1985 she vetoed the proposed European Community sanctions against South Africa.

    Like her stand on Southern Rhodesia, she was isolated from the rest of the world because of her romance with apartheid regime of South Africa. Despite her support of the heinous apartheid regime, the regime collapsed like a pack of card even when she was still the Prime Minister of Britain

    Most writers on the political life of the late Lady Thatcher agreed that her defining characteristics as a politician was a need for enemies. She chose these enemies and demolished them as she did to Ted Heath her former boss, Arthur Scargill the leaders of the Miners Union and the woolly form of socialism practiced in the sixties by the British Labour party, The late Lady Thatcher tried to have her way on Southern Rhodesia and South Africa but she was flatly defeated as a result of the concerted efforts of the rest of the world

     

    • Prof. Olabode Lucas

    Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti

  • MEND tastes blood, adds macabre threats

    MEND tastes blood, adds macabre threats

    It may sound downright farcical, but the fresh threats by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) to murder Islamic clerics, bomb mosques and hajj camps should not be dismissed casually. Indeed the threats assume ominous proportion in a country that is neck-deep in unimaginable, irrational and unjustifiable violence from its northernmost tip to its southernmost recesses. On April 6, a boatload of policemen had been ambushed somewhere along the creeks of Azuzama in Southern Ijaw local government area of Bayelsa State. In the encounter, 12 policemen were murdered and many others injured. Soon after, MEND and the little known ‘General’ Adaka Boro Jnr group claimed responsibility for the killings. There is no consensus on who carried out the killings, but it was observed that the Bayelsa ambush came shortly after MEND threatened to resume attack in the oil region on account of the jailing of their former leader, Henry Okah, in South Africa.

    If indeed MEND was responsible for the Azuzama killings, as it continues to assert remorselessly, then the new threat to widen the scope of its attacks should not be dismissed with a wave of the hand, whether its militants manage to carry out attacks as ferociously as the Islamist sect Boko Haram or as restrictedly as its limited resources can accommodate. The group anchors its fresh threats on the implausible logic of saving Christianity in Nigeria from annihilation. Hear MEND: “On behalf of the hapless Christian population in Nigeria, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), will from Friday, May 31, 2013, embark on a crusade to save Christianity in Nigeria from annihilation. The bombings of mosques, Hajj camps, Islamic institutions, large congregations in Islamic events and assassination of clerics that propagate doctrines of hate, will form the core mission of this crusade codenamed ‘Operation Barbarossa’.”

    Beyond its fecundity for labelling its operations with evocative and high-sounding code names, it is clear MEND recognises that its new targets are much softer than oil facilities and extremely difficult to police or defend. In addition, the group sees the preparedness of the Goodluck Jonathan government to offer amnesty to Boko Haram as insidious, illogical and discriminatory and an admission that impactful attacks on soft targets enervate the government. MEND’s claim to defend Christianity should consequently be seen as a mere pretext to pressure the government into taking a fresh look at the Okah case, a case it claims the federal government fraudulently connived at.

    It must of course not be forgotten that Boko Haram itself began modestly as a small-time proponent of terrorism, pretentiously threatening more violence than it had the capacity to deliver. It is also recalled that in 2009 the government haughtily dismissed the sect as a ragtag force. But less than three years after the sect seized newspaper headlines and started dominating public discourse, the government began suing for peace. MEND obviously thinks that that unsavoury tactic is guaranteed to bring results. Many analysts had in fact warned that entering into dialogue with terrorist groups, let alone offering them amnesty, would spawn other more violent groups armed with little grudges, all pressuring the government for favours or concessions. Even before Boko Haram had been placated, MEND is proving the fears of pessimists justified.

    Insecurity is today at its highest level in Nigeria. No one is safe anywhere. Unfortunately the government is unable to conceive intelligent solutions to the nightmare or to forge a security force capable of waging effective war against the sects, while showing restraint. In consequence, the problem of insecurity is compounded. If MEND carries out its new threats, even by a fraction, it will take a miracle to salvage the situation. Boko Haram itself had hoped its undiscriminating attacks would cause a conflagration. For nearly two years its wish was not granted because of an unusual countrywide restraint. Sadly, now, its wish may be about to be realised through MEND. Will the government dialogue as it is its habit, or will it fight brutally as its feverish mind sometimes leads it? Or will it continue to embroil itself in a needless dispute over whether pre-amnesty MEND is involved in the attacks or copycats are at work?

    More than ever before, the country is at a very delicate crossroads. It is not just the political and economic structures of the country that need fundamental change, considering that the status quo has proved hopelessly inadequate; new faces, confident and charismatic leaders are desperately needed to salvage the country and its democracy. The current situation is simply untenable.

     

     

  • Letter to Inspector General of Police

    Letter to Inspector General of Police

    SIR: I, like many people in Nigeria, heaved a sigh of relief when you were appointed the Inspector General of Police. Within a few days you ordered the removal of police roadblocks through which policemen had been bleeding the civilian population with illegal road tolls and taxes, and you moved around the fat-cat Commissioners of Police into whose pockets these illegal tolls and taxes usually found their way.

    You have generally been an IGP who addresses issues the way a thoughtful IGP should, indicating considerable analytical thought in your words and actions. I was however shocked to know that you recently authorised your Commissioners of Police to crack down on all vehicles with tinted windscreens, as if buying a car with tinted glasses is a crime in Nigeria. If it is a crime, and since most of such cars are imported, should the Nigeria Customs not prohibit the importation of cars with tinted windscreens? In your opinion, is there a difference between factory-tinted car glasses and glass-tints applied locally in Nigeria? Finally is there any empirical evidence linking crime and use of vehicles with tinted glasses?

    I ask these questions because in the past two weeks, those of us living in the South-east and South-south states have been besieged by hordes of police men mounting road blocks, stopping cars and extorting money from motorists whose cars have tinted windscreens. Between March 29 and April 10, I was stopped about 20 times while travelling through Enugu, Anambra, Imo, Abia and Rivers States. In each case I patiently showed the police men the letter I had from Police Force Headquarters in Abuja dated December 14, 2007, permitting me to use a car with tinted windscreens. Each time, I was told that the new directive from the IGP made no allowance for such letters and that my vehicle would be seized unless a paid a substantial amount for its freedom. In most cases I was delayed for about 15 minutes and allowed to go when I paid a token toll of five hundred naira. In Port Harcourt I was threatened with being taken to the mobile court. When I asked to taken to the mobile court, the police man let me go “on compassionate grounds of age”.

    I was using my SUV with factory-tinted windscreens in the USA before I shipped it to Nigeria in 2007. I subsequently obtained the authorisation letter from Police Headquarters in 2007 and have been using the vehicle ever since I returned to Nigeria in 2009. With your new instruction, what am I supposed to do? How do approach the impossible task of removing the factory tint from the glasses? Do I now buy plain windscreen glasses to replace the six tinted windscreens in my car? At what cost and to what avail?

    I write you on behalf of millions of Nigerians who have vehicles with factory-tinted windscreens to reconsider that crackdown on such factory-tinted glasses. It is not as if we went out to a glass technician and asked for the windscreens to be tinted and can thus remove them as and when we like. I, like most of my compatriots in this dilemma, cannot afford the N200,000 to N300,000 it will cost to replace these windscreens. In any case your police men should do their work well; kidnappers do not keep their victims in the front or back seats of tinted vehicles. They put them in the booths or trunks of vehicles.

     

    • Dr. Emmanuel Nwokolo,

    Port Harcourt

     

  • Directive on cars with tinted glasses: Letter to IGP

    My attention has been drawn to your widely publicised directive to officers and men of your organisation to commence physical apprehension of persons who use vehicles with tinted glasses insisting that the ban on the use of vehicles with tinted glasses is still in force.

    I am greatly disturbed and concerned by this fresh directive and insistence whereupon I have also elected to openly express my resentments for the following indisputable facts:

    On Friday March 4, 2011, the then Hon. Minister of Police Affairs, Humphrey Abah caused to be published an advertorial titled ‘EXPIRATION OF THE DEALINE ON THE USE OF VEHICLES WITH TINTED GLASSES’ by which his ministry announced that Saturday March 5, 2011 was the deadline given to the general public against the use of tinted glasses, covered number plates and unauthorized use of siren. Accordingly, Commissioners of Police in all the states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory were directed to commence physical apprehension and prosecution of offenders pursuant to the Motor Vehicle (Prohibition of Tinted Glasses) Act.

    Five days later, on March 9, 2011, I formerly wrote to the Minister of Police Affairs urging him to reverse his decision regarding the ban on the ground that it directly violates my fundamental human rights of movement and freedom from discrimination as guaranteed under Sections 41 & 42(1) (a) (b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) as well as Article 2 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.

    Although the said letter duly received and acknowledged at the ministry was also dispatched to your office and duly acknowledged by your office on March16, 2011, our appeal was completely discountenanced and unattended to.

    In consequence, I approached the Federal High Court Ikoyi, Lagos on May 24, 2011 in Suit No FHC/L/CS/622/11 Between Malachy Ugwummadu Vs. Minister Of Police Affairs; Inspector of Police and Attorney General of Federation for an Order of Judicial Review by way of Certiorari to quash the decision.

    The matter commenced in earnest on January 19, 2012 before Hon. Justice Okechukwu Okeke with legal representations from both the Ministry Of Police Affairs and the Office of the Attorney General Of the Federation.

    While I acknowledge, appreciate and commend your force for the perceived principle behind this ban which is to moderate and mitigate the rising incidence of crimes allegedly perpetrated with vehicles of such tinted glasses, I am constrained in the interest of justice, rule of law and the fate of democracy in this country to resist the brazen discrimination inherent in your policy and directive.

    The threshold of the concept of rule of law as a primary condition for every civilized nation is equality before the law. The present government under the presidency of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan touts its total commitment to this cardinal ingredient of democracy, yet by your categorical exemption of the President, Vice President, Governors and their Deputies, Senate President, the Deputy Senate President, Senate Leader, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Deputy Speaker and the House Leader the rule of law has been captured as the first casualty of your directive.

    First, it should be placed on record that the extant law MOTOR VEHICLES (PROHIBITION OF TINTED GLASS) ACT CAP. M 21 LFN 2004 under which you exercised your powers limits the exercise of your discretion as to permission and exemption to the twin conditions of health and security and not political. I am therefore taken aback to note that the exemption accorded the aforementioned category of persons were purely on political grounds.

    Assuming without conceding that there are security considerations in the exercise of your said discretion thereat, I hold the view that such security consideration constitutes a serious affront to the fundamental rights of every other Nigerian including my humble self against discrimination as enshrined under Section 42 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999.

    Assuming further that your directives are predicated on security grounds, I am surprised at the level of insensitivity which you have displayed in limiting such security consideration to such highly placed public officers in total disregard of the defenceless, vulnerable and predisposed citizens of this country whose lives are cut short on daily basis without clue by the Nigeria Police Force.

    I am aware, as you are bound to know, that all the persons whom you have exempted from this ban are public officers who are entitled to huge monthly security votes by reason of the fact that they hold and occupy those offices. In other words, they have sufficient security votes to take care of all security exigencies and other issues incidental thereto. It is a common knowledge that all of those persons who have benefited from your exemption are political office holders who have retinue of heavily armed security men and women drawn from all the security agencies in the country and handsomely paid from our common purse to guard them both in their respective homes and offices and to protect their private interests and concerns all over the country.

    It is therefore my considered view that such persons whom you have exempted from the ban to use the tinted glasses are already “over secured” both physically and financially to the detriment of the ordinary Nigerians who depend solely on the minimal security they can afford and provide for themselves including the use of tinted glasses for their vehicles.

    Did it also occur to you, even as the chief law enforcement officer that neither the Chief Justice of the Federation nor the President Court of Appeal or the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court or indeed any judicial officer benefited from your exemption yet Deputy Speakers and House Leader were qualified for this patently skewed exemptions? Meanwhile, these Justices and judges handle very sensitive cases that regularly expose them to danger.

    On the whole, it is evident that your directive is biased, selective and discriminatory against the express provision of Section 42 of the 1999 Constitution notwithstanding the idea behind it. It is also not supported by the law under which you purported exercised your discretionary powers.

    In view of the foregoing facts and considering that they are the same issues we have submitted to the Lagos division of the Federal High Court for adjudication, we most respectfully urge you to desist from your present insistence pending the determination of the matter to which you have entered appearance and have been represented in court. It is the least expected disposition of all parties involved in the matter no less the office of the Inspector General of Police. To persist with your directive and insistence is to openly call the bluff of the court and foist a fait accompli on the judiciary in the circumstance of this matter which will be very unfortunate.

    • Ugwummadu Esq. is a Lagos based attorney

  • Girls who risk their lives for education

    LONDON — Almost unnoticed, one of the great civil rights struggles of our times is being fought out in our midst. Across the Indian subcontinent, in Afghanistan and in Africa, supporters of universal girls’ education are being threatened, assaulted, bombed and murdered.

    Within the past two weeks alone, a 41-year-old teacher was gunned down 200 meters from her all-girls school near the Pakistan-Afghan border; two classrooms in an all-girls school in the north of Pakistan were blown up; and at an awards ceremony in the heart of Karachi, a principal was shot to death and another teacher and four pupils were wounded after grenades were hurled into a school that specialized in enrolling girls.

    It was perhaps no coincidence that the Karachi teachers had been visited last year by Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old who was shot in October simply because she wanted girls to go to school and is now a global symbol for the right of girls to education.

    In the last two years hundreds of schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan have been firebombed and closed down by religious fundamentalists determined to stop the march of girls’ education.

    But just as in 1960s America, when unspoken resentments against discrimination slowly transformed into a wave of public defiance, Pakistan’s silent majority is refusing to stay silent any longer. More and more are saying that neither bombs nor bullets nor arson will now stop them from sending girls to school.

    And, for the first time, it is not adults but girls themselves who are pushing this civil rights movement forward. A few months ago, when Morocco’s education minister visited a Marrakech school, he told a 12-year-old named Raouia Ayache she would be better off leaving school and becoming a child bride: “You! Your time would be better spent looking for a man!”

    But Raouia stood up to him and stayed in school, her family protesting to the government about how the education minister had betrayed his obligation to promote education.

    Across the Indian subcontinent, teenage girls are joining together, village by village, to create “child-marriage-free zones.”

    In Bangladesh, the so-called “wedding busters” have now created 19 such zones, pledging that they will support one another to stay in school and resist being married against their will.

    Add the child-marriage-free zones, the Malala demonstrations, the petitions against child labor, the growing movement exposing child trafficking, and there are a million young Malalas. All are trying to uphold and affirm their human dignity and battling for their rights, doing so far from the glare of publicity, fighting a daily unrecorded battle for human decency and fair treatment.

    Of course many of the rights that girls are fighting for are those that have been taken for granted, at least for a century, in most countries. We have moved from an old world where, if you were a girl, your rights were what others decreed, your status what others ascribed to you, and if your mother was poor, so too would you always be.

    But today’s movement is not just for emancipation — a 20th-century demand for freedom from injustices — but for empowerment, a 21st-century demand for freedom to make the most of your talents. It is a liberation movement more akin to the Arab Spring.

    And it is, potentially, a game changer. The movement challenges world leaders to recognize that, despite the Millenium Development Goal promise to ensure universal education for girls by the end of 2015, progress has stalled. As Martin Luther King said in his time about the “promissory note” on black rights, the check has been returned marked “insufficient funds.”

    Next week, The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and the president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, will meet with countries that are off-track to discuss the legislation, incentives, reforms — and money — needed to speed up the enrollment of girls in schools.

    I will share with them the testimony of the two friends of Malala Yousafzai, Kainat Riaz and Shazia Ramzan, who were also shot on the Swat Valley school bus that fateful day last October. Both want to be doctors. Both are still in Pakistan, protected in their homes by security guards, escorted to school by police. I have talked twice to the girls, and, as they repeated to a foreign TV crew only a few weeks ago, they are being persecuted but will never again be cowed.

    Four years ago, Kainat says, girls were hiding their books under their burqas. Now, she says, the Taliban “can’t stop us from going to school. I want to study. I am not afraid.” Now, Shazia says, “We are strong.”

    • Gordon Brown is the United Nations secretary general’s special envoy for global education. He was Britain’s prime minister from 2007 to 2010.

  • Police ban on cars with tinted glasses

    SIR: The recent ban on use of tinted windshields for all car owners by the Inspector General of Police appears to be another avenue by the police authorities to extort Nigerians. While I’m not engaging on any campaign of calumny against the police, or trying to dent already battered image of the force, my personal experience has given me every reason to doubt the sincerity of the police that the ban is based on security reasons. I have observed that since the ban by the IGP, policemen across the country have embarked on an aggressive enforcement of the ban.

    My encounter with the police occurred on Sunday April 7, when I was stopped on the road by a team of policemen on grounds that I was driving a tinted vehicle. All efforts to explain to them that my vehicle has a factory-fitted tinted windshields fell on deaf ears. Eventually, I was allowed to go when it became clear to the policemen that I won’t part with any “tip”. Nevertheless, I enquired how I could obtain the permit and the policemen said only the IGP at the force headquarters in Abuja could grant such request.

    On arrival at the force headquarters for guidelines on how to obtain the permit, the policemen at the gate told me that I need to produce my vehicle particulars and pay N25,000 to get the permit! To my consternation, two other persons willing to pay for the permit were promptly attended to and granted access into the building by these policemen.

    Whereas it would be preposterous to blame the police authorities for the action of these policemen who demanded money for the permit, the negative antecedents of the force, coupled with the avoidance of clear guidelines on how to obtain the permit has given rooms for suspicions. Thus, certain salient questions require urgent answers from the Nigerian Police. Why should Nigerians pay to obtain these permits? If the reasons for the ban are security related, why would police authorities collect money and issue permit without any security check on the vehicle or the owner?

    Can the pronouncement of the IGP, which would affect all Nigerians become a law without legislation? Is the pronouncement by IGP a subtle ban on the importation of cars with factory fitted tinted windshields? Is the police now a revenue generating organisation? Where will these monies go to?

    It is not enough for the IGP to announce a ban. He should also let Nigerians know the procedures and modalities of obtaining a permit, especially by those whose cars have factory tints. The police have a duty to protect its integrity by ensuring that its directives are unambiguous.

    • Ayo Martins

    Utako, Abuja

  • Who wants the National Theatre sold?

    SIR: The report in the media that the Federal Government is moving to turn the National Arts Theatre, Iganmu-Lagos, to a five-star hotel is appalling, disappointing and defeats the spirit behind the building of this great monument.

    The National Arts Theatre built in the 1970s to celebrate the Festival of Arts and Culture, popularly referred to as FESTAC ’77, to showcase, promote and preserve Nigeria and by extension Africa’s arts and rich cultural heritage must not be allowed to die. Truly this historical edifice has been neglected and practically abandoned by every successive government to the detriment of our rich cultural heritage, young and talented artists. We cannot continue to wipe away our history because a few amongst us has refused to get it right. What the masterminds of this National Theatre conversion is telling Nigerians is that we may not have the edifice to point to our children and grand children when telling them the story of FESTAC ’77.

    The National Theatre complex is a cultural edifice belonging to the people of Nigeria and must be protected by the Federal Government on behalf of the people. It is just because our tourism ministry is not thinking positively that the place is lying comatose. It is in this edifice, in the mid 1980s, that I, with others in my student days watched live a popular Nigerian play by Ola Rotimi, The Gods Are Not To Blame. Why would a country like Nigeria not know that it is very vital for us to have such a complex and equally put it in use for the benefit of the people?

    Today in Nigeria tourism is gradually dying, not because we lack tourist sites, or we do not have things to show but, because the managers of those in the ministry are not positively positioning or investing greatly in the tourism industry. It is said that in Nigeria, the only way people relax is visiting drinking joints and that is why we have more drinking bars, parks and gardens scattered everywhere in Abuja, Lagos, Port-Harcourt, Calabar, Uyo, Enugu, Owerri, Kaduna, Jos, etc.

    No theatres, no cinemas, it is very absurd!

    There were reasons for putting up such national buildings by the Federal Government in the first instance; they worked before until bad management brought them on their knees. It is still possible to bring them on their feet again. It is corruption that we must fight to get back the nation on sound footing.

    • Uzodinma Nwaogbe

    Maitama – Abuja.