The Nation Newspaper

Category: Dele Agekameh

  • Waiting for a Third Force (1)

    Power, to the ambitious, is like an aphrodisiac.  It creates the enabling self-satisfying platform for the realisation of other pursuits and wants that can only be assuaged by a higher dose of its finer or baser attributes.  It has been used by leaders to subjugate and strangulate the opposition in the selfish race to personalise or colonise it. Others want power for its sake as a development tool or a vehicle to emancipate a larger mass of the people they lead. An admixture of these variants sometimes occurs.

    In its pristine form, the beauty of politics is the allure and aura of power.  In the Nigerian context, there is the added tendency for some of the wearers of this power toga to use it to accumulate economic capital for self and cronies.  It is not enough to apportion the accruing “dividends of democracy” as many of those within the periphery of the power modem develop a sense of “resource control” and “self-help,” as the case may be.

    It is in the light of the foregoing that we must situate the desperate and precipitate actions, activities and utterances of a certain section of the political class that has indulged in wanton disregard for constituted authority and rebellious activities designed to instigate other sections of the society to do same with intent to undermine the freely-elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and his administration by overt and covert means.

    This cadre of politicians believes that the art of politicking is another dimension of war that must be fought with bile, angst and uncommon but intense vehemence to achieve the primary aim of acquiring power and all other “appurtenances” that will, necessarily, follow. Ordinarily, the foibles of the average politician are mainly predicated on the need to have a space in the market place of ideas to power his quest for power.

    In recent times, the Nigerian polity has witnessed a subtle but clearly discernible jostle for political power with the most strident and baleful politicking in the nation’s history. It exhibits the frightful potentials for exacerbating the already taut and fragile security in certain parts of the country and the crippling economic recession, the existence of which many people believe some of the politicians are culpable.

    Conversely, a section of the political class, with hidden drum majors, has been fanning the embers of discord, hatred and bare-faced manipulation of the people’s set views through inciting statements, activities and proxy media intervention. These are carried out with pre-determined anti-establishment focus, bent and impact, to rock the boat of focused governance, preparatory to a final assault on the Presidency in 2019. A very important area that most people are not paying any attention to is the frenetic and subterranean moves and posturing for the presidential elections of 2019.  This is even so as the 19-month-old government of President Muhammadu Buhari is still tottering and trying to consolidate on the tenets of good governance it exposed during the 2015 campaigns.

    There is no gainsaying the fact that the virtual ‘war’ for the soul of the National Assembly, on the issue of the election of its principal officers, was one fought solely to position certain persons for the prime positions at the Presidency in 2019 and beyond. Among the top echelon and rank-and-file of the APC, there is talk of the likelihood of President Buhari doing one term and leaving the terrain to the likes of Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Abubakar Bukola Saraki (who is currently in the visible and powerful position of President of the Senate) and lately, the diminutive Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, has silently crept into the emerging presidential list of possible successors in 2019.

    It is pertinent to note that Mallam el-Rufai is steadily building bridges of understanding and networking among the power bases in the six geo-political zones of the country as a dress rehearsal for 2019. He was recently physically present at the annual Ojude-Oba festival, an annual assembly of prominent Ijebu sons and daughters in Ijebu-Ode, three days after the Eid-El-Kabir festival. It is patterned along the ancient Durbar that is also held at about the same time in many cities in the northern parts of the country. A member of Buhari’s kitchen cabinet, el-Rufai is believed to be one of the brain-boxes of the CPC that co-joined with two other legacy parties to form the APC.  Being at the epicentre of the scheming and posturing within the APC, he sees himself as that technocrat who is honing his skills to succeed a geriatric Buhari. The fireworks are expected to be set off as soon as President Buhari engages the home-bend in the dusk of his current term. This is mindful of the possible scenario that the President’s foot-soldiers will, either by self-help or prodding from the principal himself, plot a second term which he is constitutionally-entitled to and in the process, rubbish the ambition(s) of those who are rearing to go after his job.

    As it is, President Buhari has a date with history, positively or negatively, depending on how he will ultimately solve the myriad of problems and challenges besetting his present term of office.  With the present dismal indices, he will be remembered for assuaging the dire circumstances assailing the larger mass of the Nigerian people or for compounding them.

    It is believed that the most glaring leadership flaw that President Buhari has, as usual, is his susceptibility to being hijacked by a powerful cartel or cabal to take decisions and provide direction. It is this shortcoming that el-Rufai feels he is in the best position to reverse through the effective combination of goals and methods in good governance practice. In the camp of those disposed to a new presidency in 2019, the current President has been silently consigned to an Old Peoples’ Home even while he is the de jure occupant of Aso Rock Villa, a fact that is reinforced by the held perception by many Nigerians that President Buhari lacks the required “magic” wand to turn around the crippling economic recession that is currently assailing the heart and hub of the Nigerian economy and by extension the people’s living standard.

    Purveyors of this empirical theory are wont to postulate that: if Buhari at age 73 is wobbling and fumbling to steady the similarly wobbling and tottering Nigerian economy without visible success, what do you expect when he is in the throes of age 80 and above?

    It is this younger cadre of APC faithful that is throwing up an el-Rufai or any other ‘Young Turk’ with a vaunting ambition to shove and shunt a geriatric Buhari aside and replace him with a young and mentally-active president who will be his own man.  He will solve the nation’s problems and challenges with digital approach and alacrity shorn of the drudgery and “slow motion” that is presently the rule of the day. It is rather ironical that el-Rufai had at a forum on October 5, 2010, shot down Buhari’s decision to run again in a fresh presidential election. Hear him in the following words which are still very profound and true in today’s circumstances: “… Babangida and General Buhari should just disappear.  They should give way to a new set of people with new ideas.  Young people, preferably… Obama is 48 and Cameron is 43, for God’s sake. So, why are we recycling leaders that ruled this country very well or very badly, 25 years ago?”

    Many also believe that a long list of possible successors are scheming on the side-lines and are building structures to actualise their projections. Saraki’s sly politicking that made him the President of the Senate has resulted in the orchestrated scheming to remove and disconnect him from the very visible role of the Senate President which many political watchers believe he is using to test waters and mainly to reinvent himself as a welfarist and caring bridge-builder.

  • FUTA: Trouble this time

    FUTA: Trouble this time

    For some weeks now, the Federal University of Technology, Akure, FUTA, has been embroiled in a crisis which has paralysed activities in the usually bustling citadel of learning. Trouble started when the three non-teaching staff unions in the university – the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, the National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT and the Non-Academic Staff Union, NASU – embarked on a protest. The protest lasted for two days between Thursday, October 6, and Friday, October 7. Since then, the university community has known no peace.

    Reports had it that without any previous notice to the university management as a precursor for embarking on any industrial action, the three unions rose from a joint congress held on Thursday, October 6, and immediately embarked on a protest. The aim of the protest was to press for the removal of the institution’s Vice Chancellor as well as the Bursar. The protesters also called for the dissolution of the university Governing Council. Perhaps, to convince the school authorities that they meant business, the unions locked up the two gates leading to the university and also barricaded the road to the main gate, thereby preventing vehicular movement in and out of the campus. As a result of this disruption, normal activities in the university were tampered with.

    According to available information, the crisis precipitated by the three unions is not unconnected with a recent circular by the Federal Ministry of Education on the restructuring of the university’s erstwhile staff primary school. It is also connected with the demand for a controversial allowance the unions christened Productivity Allowance Staff Welfare Package. This allowance ranges from N360,000.00 for all categories of senior staff and N180,000.00 for junior staff in the university.

    It would be recalled that prior to this unfortunate development, the authorities of the university had made concerted efforts to resolve the issues arising from the complaints of the unions over steps taken by the university to implement the recent federal government directive on the ownership of staff primary schools across the country. But if these two factors were the remote causes of the crisis, the immediate cause could be attributed to the recent invitation of Professor Adebiyi Daramola, the Vice Chancellor, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to respond to a petition against the university administration. It was while the VC was away at the zonal office of the EFCC in Ibadan that the unions took advantage of his absence to embark on the protest.

    In recent times, many unionists in Nigeria have made it almost their first priority to embark on protests and strikes at the slightest inkling of a possible industrial dispute, without recourse to the labour laws guiding such actions. Ordinarily, in the case of the issues at stake in the current FUTA crisis as enumerated above, it appears that the unions merely resorted to precipitate action as a shortcut to achieving their aim to hoodwink the authorities of the school to play ball. This is so because as far back as 2014, the National Universities Commission, NUC, drew the attention of all VCs to the position of the federal government that staff schools are established as private enterprises to be funded by the institutions that establish them.

    What this means is that the burden of the wage bill of staff in the staff schools should no longer be transferred to the federal government had been the practice. The directive was communicated through the instrumentality of a circular ref. No. NUC/ES/138/Vol. 60/194, dated September 2, 2014.  This position of government was further conveyed to all federal universities by the Federal Ministry of Education by a letter ref. No. FME/SU/GEN/IVB/60 dated April 21, 2015, as well as a circular from the Budget Office of the Federation, Federal Ministry of Finance, ref. No. BD/EXP/S.800/T/27 dated September 29, 2015. The circular from the budget office of the federation was clear and unambiguous: “Personnel/Teachers of Schools affiliated to Institutions/Agencies (i.e. Staff Schools) should, on no account, be included in the nominal roll of such institutions.” It did not stop there. It went further to prescribe that appropriate sanctions will be applied to defaulting agencies, as such action will be treated as willful introduction of ghost workers.

    In spite of the industrial action embarked upon by SSANU to demand government reversal of the directive at that time, the NUC reiterated the decision of the federal government via circular ref. No. NUC/ES/138/Vol.61/116 dated January 29. It was based on this that the authorities of FUTA disengaged the teachers in its staff primary school and opened a new window of opportunity for them to retain their jobs by applying for same under the services of the school’s management board. But, the teachers will not want to have anything to do with the government directive. Thus, they were poised for war.

    All efforts to dissuade the teachers from toeing the path of confrontation fell on deaf ears. These efforts included the intervention of the university Governing Council, religious leaders, elders in the academic community, royal fathers and even law enforcement agents. Though far reaching decisions were taken at these meetings in the interest of the disengaged staff, the teachers insisted they were not going to apply for their jobs. A stalemate followed. Consequently, attempts to reopen the school since January this year, it was learnt, have been repeatedly thwarted by the unions, especially SSANU and NASU and the teachers themselves.

    Now, the only offence the VC seems to have committed is his commitment to the implementation of the federal government directive by the university management. It was in the midst of this confusion and the unions’ vehement disagreement on the reopening of the primary school for pupils on September 16, that the university also received another letter from the non-teaching staff unions jointly demanding for payment of one year productivity allowance. As stated earlier, the total money involved is colossal – about N360,000.00 for senior staff and N180,000.00 for junior staff. To rub it in, the protagonists of this productivity allowance came up with a propaganda that the allowance in question had earlier been granted approval by the institution’s governing council at its 97th Statutory Meeting held on Thursday, May 24, 2012.

    The school’s management has since denied that any such thing ever happened. According to the management: “At no time did the university Governing Council approved such allowance. At the meeting referred to, Council did not approve a part of the University Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, for payment as staff Productivity Allowance Welfare Package as erroneously conceived by the unions. A major part of the decision of Council at that meeting was that with the lean purse of the university, it would be pretty difficult, if not impossible, for the management to accommodate the unions’ demands beyond the palliatives already paid.”

    On the issue of the EFCC invitation of the VC, since the VC has visited the EFCC and made statements, the matter can no longer form the basis of any protest by the unions because whatever must have been written against the VC would be thoroughly investigated by the anti-graft agency. It is a good thing to allow the agency to carry out its statutory functions. And until the EFCC releases its findings, the unions should refrain from using this as a license to embark on wholesale brigandage on campus.

    Without actually sounding immodest, at this stage of biting economic crisis in the country, the various communities in FUTA should learn to live together in harmony and preserve the infrastructural facilities on campus rather than embarking on senseless and destructive behaviour capable of truncating the peace and tranquility that had prevailed there for quite some time now. That is why the current impasse should be speedily resolved through dialogue in order to allow peace to reign.

     

  • Inside the fortress of Aso Rock

    The Presidential Villa or Aso Rock as it is popularly known in Abuja is the seat of the Nigerian government. It is a place where the country’s “honey pot,” is domiciled. Naturally, people troop there in large numbers on daily basis to have a piece of the action.

    However, gaining access to the fortress is not an easy task. And since it is very difficult to penetrate the place, going in there requires weeks and months of preparation – how to go about it, your psychological frame of mind, the clothes to wear, which contact(s) to explore, what amount of money to stuff in your pocket to enable you manoeuvre your way through the labyrinth of “toll gates” inside the place and all that.

    At any rate, visiting the Villa is no tea party. It is herculean. As your vehicle gets to the Three-Arms Zone, right from the back of the Federal Secretariat Complex overlooking the Eagle Square, you will notice the serenity of the environment. Then, as you descend towards the first roadblock manned by a surfeit of security agents – police, army, DSS and others – nobody will tell you that you are approaching a lion’s den.

    At the roadblock, you are frisked to the pants and your car is thoroughly searched. Perhaps, if you are heading towards the National Assembly, you may find it a little less cumbersome to explain your mission to the security agents. But if you are going towards the Villa itself, you may be in for the greatest interrogation you have ever been subjected to.

    If you are on appointment, you’ll need to prove it. That is, you need to convince the security men that you have business to transact there. In that case, your name must have been supplied to the unit earlier and included in the itinerary of the day. But trust Nigerians, they have various ingenious ways to beat the so-called eagle-eyed security agents at this first gate. Some visitors simply tell them they are heading to the Officers’ Mess located close to the last gate to the Villa.

    At the Mess, there is a big car park that can take very many cars. Sometimes, officials from the villa cross over to the place to attend to their visitors. There is food, drinks and all that. But if there is a need to still thrust further into the bowels of the Villa, your car can drop you at the last gate to the Villa proper, while the driver turns back to the Mess area to park. At this last gate, your particulars are collected and a visitor’s badge is assigned to you.

    Once you are inside the Villa, you are confronted with hordes of presidential aides dashing all over the place, pretending to be busy even though some of them go about gossiping all day. As you move along, the Nigerian factor of rubbing people’s back before anything at all is ever present. Even if you are not subjected to it as a pre-condition to gain access, you must certainly play ball as you exit the place. It takes the form of your host or guide who must have pre-bargained with you for his own take, to whisper to your ears how much you need to part with for the people milling around the reception areas. And mind you, no peanuts are allowed. It must be something substantial or tangible.

    One important thing to note is that, not even the new era of change has eliminated the dirty habit of collecting gratification from those visiting the Villa. The practice seems to be firmly entrenched in the system. Although, in recent times, some officials and presidential aides in the villa have been indicted and subsequently sent out of the place or redeployed to other less sensitive government offices outside the Villa, the practice seems to be an old and recurrent ailment which paradoxically torments everyone visiting the seat of power.

    Though, with the coming of President Muhammadu Buhari, the tempo of recklessness has subsided, there are still many people in babanriga peddling influence around the corridors of power. They are noticeable in the Villa, where they act as fronts for desperate civil servants who prefer to conceal their dirty habits from public glare. These top government officials expect something to fall on their tables when you approach them to carry out any official function for you. Here any currency goes – dollar, pounds, euro and naira – as the case may be. But naira is generally used for artisans and other junior staff, while the big guns prefer other currencies that are less bulky and easy to hide away in their pockets or drawers.

    If you are the type who wants to keep a straight face, those guys in there have a way of squeezing out water from Aso Rock. You could stylishly be accosted with stories about how bad the Villa had become since Buhari took over and how only a privileged few within the confinement are favoured, while the majority of people are left to roast away like roasted corn or fish. If you are not moved by this, then the pains of the nation’s bad economy could come in handy and all that. So, if all the singing and gesticulating go on unabated, at a point you will be forced to lose your guard and do the “needful.”

    The bottom-line is: Nigerians, or do I say Africans, surely know how to worship their leaders or people from whom they expect to get something. Whether the leader is good or he provides good or bad leadership, chances are that he will still find his supporters. The reason is this: Leadership in Africa is often seen as a means to an end. What this means is that, people believe that the closer you are to the seat of power, the more opportunities you have to make a living. That is why people run rings around their leaders in Africa.

    A minister in former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s cabinet once told me that many of the ministers then acted like palace jesters to impress the president and secure his attention any time they wanted. He told me about how some ministers were always dancing around the president in public places to show those present that they, indeed, had the ears of the president.

    According to him, anytime the former president had an outing, the following day, this set of ministers will be the first persons the president will see milling around his office. And all they will do is to come and glorify the president by telling him how beautiful his outing the previous day had been and how a lot of people went home impressed by his speech or some other actions involving the president at the occasion. And it doesn’t matter if the president was even booed at any occasion. They had a way of turning adversity to something else.

    The fact of the matter is that it is not that such practices have changed, even with the change mantra of the incumbent president. I am sure that under Goodluck Jonathan, Buhari’s predecessor, the whole thing became a state art as people cringed and break-danced before Jonathan and Patience, his almighty empress, in order to have a piece of the action. That was a time Ijaw boys flooded Abuja with their ubiquitous bowler hats and almost colonized the federal capital territory.

    In this era of ‘change begins with me’, perhaps, the real change should start from the Villa itself, where all forms of extortion, bribery and rip-off, hold sway. Let us sanitise the place of all the creeping scorpions, before we start chasing the cockroaches (apology to late Dr. Tunji Braithwaite) elsewhere.

  • NLNG: Time for shift in strategy

    NLNG: Time for shift in strategy

    I recently ran into a group of foreign investors who have been trying all they could to break into Nigeria’s energy market without success so far. Their story is as pathetic as it is shameful for a country that has now grounded itself only to start contemplating selling off its national assets in order to survive a self-inflicted economic meltdown.

    As the story goes, these investors have been working to create a business that will enhance Nigeria’s position in the energy market and which should result in greater revenue coming to Nigeria for the products it sells. They have focused their efforts on two of the energy sector’s markets – Natural Gas, primarily Liquefied Natural Gas, LNG, and crude oil. They had chosen to focus on these markets because, according to them, Nigeria is already active in them.  For the time being, they are avoiding the refined energy products as Nigeria does not currently participate in that business.

    To date, what they have discovered in LNG and perhaps, to a lesser extent, in crude oil, is that Nigeria has been selling its output solely to middlemen/off-taker companies and not directly to end-user customers. The challenge in this to the investors is to convince the decision makers who control and can influence the Nigerian energy company executives, to change its business model from one that is selling primarily through middlemen and off-takers, to one that sells directly to end-user customers.  To achieve this, they decided to approach NLNG with a customer that requires the LNG for its business.

    The company they presented is an end-user customer requiring LNG for conducting its business. The company is a public company, listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and there is ample information available for the NLNG people to review and approve them as a customer. The company, the largest shareholder in Chinese energy outfit, Beijing Gas, with 40% ownership, is the largest authorised importer of gas into China. Its second largest shareholder remains either the wealthiest or second wealthiest family in Hong Kong. Besides, the company has its own LNG port receiving facility. With the investment by Beijing Gas, the company has access to Beijing Gas’s receiving port facilities. I believe there are three, thereby increasing its ability to purchase and receive product.

    The company received a cargo of Nigerian LNG in September/October 2015, purchased and delivered through a middleman/off-taker company. That is not the actual goal of the company. The company is interested in creating a true business relationship with NLNG starting with a spot cargo of 60,000 metric tons for delivery in October and has given a forecast need of 60,000 metric tons monthly for a long-term contract beginning in January 2017 and continuing for the length of the agreement to be entered with NLNG for a number of years – 5 to 15 years if possible.

    The company’s second consideration in their desire to introduce their company to NLNG and establish them as a customer, receiving not just this first cargo, but the monthly shipments under the hoped-for long-term contract is that the group with whom they work is a consortium interested in financing the Seventh Production Train Project which NLNG is interested in constructing.  This project is currently estimated to have a cost of $6.5 to $7 Billion (U.S. Dollars). This project would greatly expand Nigeria’s LNG supply potential with the resultant increased revenue that would come to Nigeria from the sale of its product.

    A third reason for choosing the company as the investors’ initial customer to present to Nigeria for direct purchase is the company’s ownership by Beijing Gas.  Beijing Gas is the largest importer of LNG to China.  If it is proved that Nigeria is a reliable supply partner, it may be possible to sell more fuel to Beijing Gas or use the company and the investors as a reference to win other Chinese customers.

    Furthermore, once the investors have worked out the direct supply logistics, they can use this as a reference as they approach other potential customers in other parts of the world where pricing may be higher, thus giving Nigeria a greater revenue yield. Right now, the investors are working on developing a potential customer in the Caribbean.  This customer purchases both LNG and LPG, products that NLNG sells.  This customer has indicated monthly supply needs a bit larger than the earlier company. This customer is also a public company that has a long history of conducting business and is a Shell distributor, hence it has demonstrable strong financial capability.

    You may think that all of these should be important to Nigeria.  It certainly is to the investors!  But it may interest Nigerians to know   that while the investors are very enthusiastic about sealing a deal with NLNG, the NLNG officials have been foot-dragging and very lukewarm about going into business with the investors. And what is the reason? Some vested interests are erecting artificial barriers and obstacles in the way of progress which would have seen the realization of this lofty dream.

    The world LNG market is undergoing great change.  Several new suppliers are entering the market – the United States and Australia are the first two. Australia undertook the simultaneous development of eight export terminal facilities which have come on to the market only recently. The U.S. has several export terminal facilities under development, the first of which has just opened and received export permit approval.

    What these new supply sources mean is a large amount of new product coming to market which is having the effect of lowering prices.  For example, the U.S. domestic price for LNG is approximately $2.65 per MMBTU today. The glut of product availability has driven the world price down from $12 to $14 per MMBTU from only two to three years ago to current spot prices that are 60 per cent to 70 per cent lower. These developments have caused a change in world markets.

    In the past, most LNG was sold under long-term contract with only about 20 percent of the LNG market being sold via spot cargos.  The increase in supply has changed this model and most likely has, and will continue to, put pressure on spot prices and suppliers.  One has to wonder if the off-taker/middlemen with whom Nigeria has contracted to sell its product will continue to take product if they are unable to resell it at the traditional profit margins to which they are accustomed.

    For all of these reasons, I believe it may be in Nigeria’s best interest to change its go-to-market approach and move towards direct selling and relationships with true end-user customers.  That is why I have brought forward this argument.  It is good if the authorities of the NLNG can make this business strategy shift.

    Nigeria has the opportunity to do something that can improve the country’s position in the supply of energy. Doing so should enhance the amount of money Nigeria receives for its products as it can charge a direct customer more than it can charge a middleman/off-taker who must purchase it at a price low enough to allow for resale at a profit to the same end-user customers that are now struggling to enter the Nigerian market.

    The market should be allowed to establish the price rather than middlemen and off-takers dictating to Nigeria.  Bringing customers interested in long-term supply arrangements with Nigeria will give Nigeria stability in the forecast of its revenue from this energy product, allowing the country some greater understanding of its monetary generation.

    Also of great importance is getting Nigerian decision makers to change their go-to-market strategy because of the impact this will have on the development of the LNG business.

  • Engr. (Rev) Etteh: Tracing the Trajectory (2)

    Engr. (Rev) Etteh: Tracing the Trajectory (2)

    As stated in this column last week, Etteh Aro & Partners, a firm engaged in civil engineering works in Nigeria, arose from the crucible of the uncertain aftermath of the Nigerian Civil War which ended in 1970. The duo of Ette Ikpong Ikpong Etteh and Lawrence Oluwemimo Arokodare had been brought together by fate at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where both studied civil engineering and formed a life-long alliance of which Etteh Aro & Partners is the flagship seed. When they came back from the United Kingdom in 1968 with higher academic laurels and further professional experience garnered from their association with the UK office of Ove Arup & Partners, the stage was set for the birth of a collaboration that will re-define civil engineering practice in Nigeria and advance the frontiers of quality professionalism.

    In the course of their professional engagements, Arokodare specialized in sourcing for highway projects while Etteh sourced for bridge construction projects which were treated with the global best practices treatment that has over the past 40 years defined Etteh Aro & Partners as a firm founded on pristine professionalism.

    Two incidents explicitly illustrate the unseen bond that existed between Etteh and Arokodare in the formative years of their relationship.  Arokodare changed his chosen course from Mechanical Engineering to Civil Engineering after observing the busy schedule of civil engineering workers in Shell (where he was deployed for industrial experience).  When he came back to his regular Mechanical Engineering at ABU, he was in the same class with Etteh in their final year.  What was to become a lifelong bond was cemented during this period.  Thereafter, Arokodare was employed by Ove Arup & Partners in Ibadan. When a vacancy occurred, Arokodare recommended Etteh to fill the gap and gain professional experience that would be useful to them later in life as a hybrid of consummate professionals who are technologically grounded and not blinded by tribalism.

    There is no gainsaying that Engr. (Rev) Etteh’s professional engagement has been built majorly around and on the company – Etteh Aro & Partner – that he jointly promoted and ran from 1970 until his founding partner and business soulmate, Lawrence Oluwemimo Arokodare transited from this earth.   It is important to note that Engr. (Rev) Etteh still maintains a very cordial relationship with Arokodare’s family till date.

    Among the major projects executed by Etteh Aro & Partners are the Niger Delta Development Commission building; the Ibom Hall; Stallion House; C and C Towers; the East/West Coastal Road; Access Road and whole network of arterial roads at the Calabar International Convention Centre; Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Lagos.

    Key to the staying power of Etteh Arokodare & Partners over the past four decades is the corporate promotion of and strict adherence to good work ethics as a tool for success. Engr. (Rev) Etteh puts emphasis on the prime issues of due diligence; accountability; abhorrence for use of sub-standard, fake or inappropriate tools and materials; punctuality; dedication to assigned duties and set goals; hunger for the acquisition of experience and knowledge of new processes, tools and equipment and the maintenance of an open-door policy at any stage of doing a project or performing an official chore.  It is well-known among the workers and clients of Etteh Aro & Partners that the company’s success indices also include solid experiential background, continuous innovation, quality control and project monitoring, high and specialised qualification and continuous investment in human capital development and training.

    The corporate decision to embark on human capacity development was predicated on a policy of training budding Nigerian engineers without any strings attached as the company’s main competitor, Ove Arup were wont to do at the time.  Etteh Aro & Partner has the vision to metamorphose into an international firm and be the first on the Nigerian stage, albeit professionally. Among others, the founding promoters of Etteh Aro & Partners (Etteh and Arokodare) were interested in the professional and business growth and advancement of the budding engineers who will bear the mantle in the future. These young engineers were encouraged to seek experience and training and made to drink from the spring of knowledge, practices and innovative ideas provided by Etteh Aro & Partners, free of charge.

    Till date, young and upcoming engineers are encouraged to garner requisite experience and post-graduate training and pass the required professional exams and continue to work with noteworthy and professionally-endowed engineering firms. It is projected that the human capital development policy will, in the long-term, provide a pool of committed corps of project managers who will pay adequate attention to technical detail, manage the aspect of proper and actual costs of project, indicate possible revision of project provisions etc in order not to create major disconnections that may come up in the foreseeable future, especially the system collapse of structure.

    In the estimation of the leadership of Etteh Aro and Partners, the dearth of the above-mentioned professional indices is one of the reasons the incidents of building collapse, road surface malfunction, etc, occur. It is because of this observation that Engr. (Rev) Etteh has, on many occasions, bemoaned the rising incidents of the havoc unleashed on buildings, roads, bridges and other public and private structures as a direct result of the engagement of fake or unqualified “engineers” as project consultants or managers because they come cheaper.

    Engr. (Rev) Ette Ikpong Ikpong Etteh rightly belongs to that enviable class of renowned African men whose personal achievements and contributions towards nation-building and human capacity empowerment, are worth celebrating. Early in life, he imbibed the belief that a man’s success in life is not only measured by his material acquisitions but by how much his wealth brings succour to the under-privileged and by how much the society is bettered on account of his role and influence.  Etteh’s foray into business with his bosom friend, Arokodare, was driven by a conviction that success can only come to fruition if only one would dare to begin.  He is not your run-of-the-mill person whose ethnic nuances you can easily pigeon-hole through your own prism and evaluation. He is a citizen of the world.

    Engr. (Rev) Etteh holds tenaciously to some guiding tenets which he recommends to everyone, especially young people who want to make a success of life. He believes that young people should possess that willingness to learn, eschew tribalism and ethnic considerations, pursue and exhibit the truth always, build friendship on trust and without bias, encourage others with seemingly–insurmountable challenges, that there is always a positive side to life, pass on knowledge and experiences garnered to others, possess unwavering integrity in all dealings, de-emphasise undue craze for money and profit in place of professionalism, dream positive dreams and have undying hope and abundant faith etc.

    No one will accuse Engr. (Rev) Ette Ikpong Ikpong Etteh of being sanctimonious when he says: “Today, I’m who I am, not because of what I studied at school but because of my well-rounded inspiration and experience that has made me to become highly successful.  Suffice to say that I’m very well-equipped to pass on knowledge and inspiration to others”.  And that is the truth told every day since the incorporation of Etteh Aro & Partners in 1970.

    Rev. (Engr.) Etteh has been married to Elizabeth, a former University of Ibadan administrator and an elder in the Presbyterian Church, for over 40 years. Here is wishing him more fruitful years in good health in the service of his chosen profession, Nigeria and humanity in general.

  • Engr. Etteh: Tracing the Trajectory (1)

    Engr. Etteh: Tracing the Trajectory (1)

    Tomorrow, Thursday, September 22, the cream of the engineering profession in Nigeria and people from all walks of life will converge on the Function Suite of the Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, for the second edition of the Annual Engr. (Rev) Ette Ikpong Ikpong Etteh Distinguished Lecture Series. The theme of this year’s lecture is: “Managing the Challenges of Infrastructure Deficits in Nigeria: A Cross-Country Analysis of the roles of Engineers in Economic Development”.

    This is the second edition of the Annual Lecture series instituted by the Board of  Trustees, National Council of the Nigerian Institution of Civil Engineers, NICE, a division of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, in 2015 in honour of one of Nigeria’s outstanding Engineers, Engr. (Rev) Ette Ikpong Ikpong Etteh, OFR, co-founding Principal, Etteh Aro and Partners, based in Ibadan, Oyo State.

    Tracing the trajectory of Etteh’s life history clearly shows that he has had a robust professional practice spanning decades of exemplary dedication to the tenets of the profession as well as training and mentoring of many engineers, who today, can stand to be counted. It is because of the impact his professional practice has had on the profession that his professional colleagues deemed it fit to honour him for his achievements by instituting the Annual Award and Lecture Series in his name.

    A comprehensive chronicle of the life trajectory of  Etteh, rolls out like a command performance premised on a divine script being acted out by a consummate thespian before a thrilled audience.  The script showcases the kind deeds, unequalled philanthropy and positive humanity exhibited by one man – Engr. (Rev) Etteh – who has built solid bridges and forged concrete and mutually beneficial alliances where others who dared failed. From his richly-endowed profile, Etteh emerges as a profoundly celebrated professional who has, through foresight and networking, interfaced with like minds to build goodwill, linkages and connections and deployed same for the benefit of the people, including those who have never met him. Etteh offered himself to provide a fresh platform for the pursuance, realization and consumption of those pristine indices of leadership at both personal and corporate levels, as a personal lodestar.

    Coming from a close-knit family background that thrived on mutually-held positions that will benefit the commonwealth, one would have expected Reverend Etteh to be imperious and uncaring for other people’s interests and feelings except his nuclear family.  No. This early behavioural template, which, in the main, de-emphasised personal interests, formed the concrete foundation and standard for his trademark detribalised disposition, selflessness, humanity, unparalleled philanthropy and positive worldview on diverse issues, which are clear testimonies to the early family training Etteh had. His life, definitely, followed the dynamics of a well-plotted graph. Tracing the trajectory of Etteh’s life journey, one will find a cache of altruistic ingredients, especially in his attitudinal disposition to the welfare of others and his adherence to professional excellence and ethics.

    Engr. (Rev) Etteh, OFR, co-principal partner of Etteh Aro & Partners with head office in Ibadan, Oyo State and branches in many cities in Nigeria since 1970, was born on December 16, 1935 at Akassa, in present day Bayelsa State. His father, late High Chief Ikpong Ikpong Etteh and Deaconess Nkaepe Uketo Ikpong Etteh, were originally from two royal families in Ukpenekang in present day Ibeno Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. He had his elementary education at St. Patrick’s School, Ifiayong, from 1945 to 1947 and Holy Trinity School, Mbiakong in 1948, all in Uruan Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. For his secondary education, he attended Hope Waddell Training Institute, Calabar, Cross River State, from 1952 to 1958. Before he was employed as an Assistant Statistical Officer in the Federal Department of Statistics from 1959 to 1961, Reverend Etteh had a short stint as a Mathematics Teacher with the Lutheran High School, Obot Idim, from January to November 1959. Thereafter, he got admission into Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in 1961 to study Civil Engineering on scholarship.

    A momentous happening occurred in the 1963/1964 academic session in ABU, Zaria.  Two sophomore students, Lawrence Oluwemimo Arokodare, a Yoruba from Ijero Ekiti, in Ekiti State who was studying Mechanical Engineering had changed course to Civil Engineering and his friend, Etteh, from Upenekang in Akwa Ibom State, decided to come together and forge a common business front and compete to ultimately shove aside the dominance of the then foreign-owned Ove Arup and Partners.

    The duo was ready to put into practice a cardinal principle propounded by Professor Naylor, a Professor of Civil Engineering, that emphasised that the five years of professional practice should be paramount, if they hope to succeed in their civil engineering endeavours.  However, the take-off of the new company did not commence until 1970 with an inaugural project of the rehabilitation work on the 80-mile Benin/Asaba Road, Prior to this, the two young friends had worked at Ove Arup in Ibadan and garnered cognate experience with a company they were plotting to compete with and even surpass in the coming years.  It is interesting to note that the two promoters of the incubated Etteh Aro & Partners, went to the United Kingdom for further studies, on loan.

    Reverend Etteh and Arokodare had graduated from ABU Zaria with Bsc. in Civil Engineering and the UK trip was to enhance their professional armoury and prime them well to face the challenges of floating and operating Etteh Aro & Partners. In addition, Reverend Etteh obtained an MSc (Highways) Surrey degree, in 1969; a second MSc (Bridges) Surrey degree, in 1973;  MICE, C.Eng. (1969); MNSE (1971); FNSE (1981) and Foundation Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering (1995).  In recognition of his outstanding performance in theological studies at the Immanuel College of Theology, he was awarded the institution’s Diploma in Theology in 1997.  In addition, he was ordained a minister of Word and Sacrament of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria on June 7, 1998.

    On the state and national stages, Engr. (Rev) Etteh has been saddled with the responsibility of being chairman of the board of Calabar Cement Company (1975 to 1980) chairman, Federal Mortgage Finance Company (1993 to 1994).  At various times, he was a member of the different committees of Road Vision 2000, which gave birth to the Independent Road Fund and the Board for Road Maintenance in 1998; Architect (Dr.) Godwin Odumah’s Committee on the Appraisal of the National Housing Programme in 1995; the Engineer S. O. Fadahunsi Panel on the Review of Federal Government Contracts that resulted in heavy savings on costs in 1978; the Ibom International Airport Implementation Committee.  He has also served as chairman of the Technical Sub-Committee for the same Airport in addition being a current member of the Committee on Road Transportation Framework.

    Professionally, Reverend Etteh has been honoured with several awards which include the Presidential Merit Award (2005), in recognition of his unique support for the cause of engineers in Nigeria. Etteh is one of the first five engineers to be inducted into the Nigerian Engineers Hall of Fame in 2013. Among his other honours are: Nigerian Institute of Civil Engineers Merit Award in 2002; Excellence Award in Engineering by the Nigerian Society of Engineering, Uyo in 1993.  Furthermore, he is a former  Chairman of the Association of Bridge and Structural Engineers, Nigeria Chapter (1989 to 1998). In 2001, he was conferred with the national honour of Officer of the Federal Republic, OFR, by then Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.

  • Edo poll: When ‘Maiguards’ took over

    Edo poll: When ‘Maiguards’ took over

    Since the advent of democracy in 1999, several things, many of them quite unbelievable, have happened in the country. For instance, elections in Nigeria have largely become a do or die affair in which innocent blood is shed with reckless abandon. And this may notchange anytime soon.

    Added to thisis the fact thatNigeria is a nation of many possibilities; nothing really is impossible in the country. Those who have followed the history of Nigeria right from independence in 1960 will attest to this assertion.

    So, it was not too strange last Thursday when the nation was gripped with anxiety over the possibility that the Edo gubernatorial election which had been fixed for Saturday, September 10, could be postponed. Unfortunately, this hint was dropped, not by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which is statutorily mandated to preside over all electoral matters in the country, but by the Police and the Department of State Security, DSS.

    When the possibility of a postponement first hit the headlines, people started talking in hushed tones all over the place with INEC re-affirming the date for the election. The police and the DSS responded with outright blackmail. They simply told INEC that their officers and men will not be available to provide security if INEC will go ahead with the election. That boxed INEC into a tight corner.

    At this juncture, the electoral umpire had no option than to swallow its pride, thereby leading to the shifting of the election less than seven hours after it had affirmed its readiness to proceed with the election. That was how the preparation for the election which had reached its peak with President Muhammadu Buhari and other chieftains of the All Progressives Congress, APC, leading a colourful campaign in Benin to drum support for their candidate on Tuesday, September 6, about 48 hours before the proposed election, came to an abrupt, dead end.

    While the debate to hold or postpone the election was raging, I knew right from the onset that there was practically nothing INEC could do to assert its independence in the circumstances it found itself. I came to that conclusion because I have seen a lot of mischief at play in the operations of some security agencies particularly in this country and even abroad. Outside the country, it takes a discerning mind to actually get to know this, but in Nigeria, it happens almost every day.

    Here is an example of the sort of mischief sometimes played by our security agents in Nigeria. Years ago, some protesters, armed with placards and drums, had made their way into a government secretariat somewhere in the South-west, where the governor’s office was also located. The protesters were protesting over an alleged government interference. That day, I was having audience with the commander of the strike force in the state with his operational headquarters within the secretariat complex.

    The security agents tried as much as they could to prevent the protesters from getting too close to the governor’s office. When they saw that the protesters were hell bent on encroaching further, their commander devised an ingenious method to dispatch the protesters. Pronto, one of the security agents removed his uniform and put on a kaftan and with a stick in hand, he mingled with the protesters for a few minutes. Next, the disguised security agent used his big stick to hit one of the protesters on the head. This was predictably followed by commotion.

    In the ensuing melee, the other security agents swooped on the protesters with an alibi: “you can see now, they have started fighting”. As an eyewitness, I knew it was the security agents who simulated the attack and turned round to blame the protesters for turning violent in their protest. It was a decoy to make arrests and drive the protesters out of the complex. That is the extent of mischief our security agents are capable of causing in order to have their way. I can go on and on, but let us leave it there for now.

    From the above narration, it was wise for INEC to have succumbed to the blackmail mounted against it by the security agents. If it had not done so, who knows, anything could have happened and INEC could have been worse off.

    Down memory lane, theconcocted security scare that eventually led to the last minute postponement of the election in Edo State,falls within a similar but nauseating pattern that was pioneered by Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), the former National Security Adviser, NSA, now languishing in detention in Abuja over allegations of financial impropriety. Barely two weeks to the presidential electionin February last year, Dasuki had caused the election to be postponed by four weeks. In his own case, Dasuki did not drop any hint of postponement in Nigeria, he did it at Chattam House, in faraway London.

    The same reason Dasuki gave for his call for postponement of the presidential election was what the security agents gave as their reason for the postponement of the Edo election. But with recent revelations, it has become distinctively clear that the period of that ill-advised postponement of election in 2015was solely devoted to things that were variance with security of lives and property.

    In the case of the postponed election in Edo, the rumour mill is agog with stories of behind-the-scene moves by gladiators in the election to perfect their rigging plans. That was why the security agents who had nothing to do with the conduct of the election aside providing security, went out of their way to order a postponement of the election. It is like a landlord organising an important business dinner for his associates in his house, only for the guests to be turned back at the gate by the maiguard with a terse statement: “Oga has cancelled the dinner”. If Oga, had indeed, cancelled the dinner, is the maiguard the appropriate person to break the news to the distinguished guests?

    Regrettably, what the unfortunate scare tactic put forwardby the security agents has done is to rubbishthe image of the entire national security apparatus in the country as meddlesome interlopers.It has also raised a fundamental question about the competenceand professionalism of the leadership of our security agencies, especially the police and the DSS in this circumstance. This is not to talk about the extra cost of the postponement to the taxpayers at a time the country is reeling under the heavy yoke of economic recession.

    The point is, the police and the DSS said they had information that insurgents and terrorists were preparing to wreak havoc during the election in Edo. Although no one else is privy to such information, but such a sensitive issue, if any at all, could have been discussed at a closed-door meeting with the hierarchy of INEC, before it hit the airwaves. But it seems the security agents were too desperate and in a blind hurry to truncate the election by all means, which was why they threw decency and protocol to the dogs.

    For now, the whole country is still waiting to see the faces of some of those “imaginary” insurgents and terrorists that so scared the police and DSS leadership as to stampede them into railroadingINEC to postpone the election. In the alternative, let us pray that by September 28, the security agentswould be able to tell Nigerians that the insurgents and terrorists who were about to descend on Edo State, have all retreated back to their habitats in Sambissa forest, Borno State,Falgore or Gomo forests in Kano,or perhaps, the Bauchi forest, in Bauchi State. Perhaps, then we shall congratulate them for a job well done!

     

  • The rot in our judiciary (3)

    The rot in our judiciary (3)

    Over the past two weeks, this column has focused on how the judiciary has succumbed to the polluting influence of corruption that has plagued the wider Nigerian society. However, as we all know, while corruption is not merely a judicial problem, the judiciary is certainly key to solving this particularly endemic problem. This leaves the question of how best to position the judiciary to be as immune to these influences as possible, without doing more harm than good.

    Recent happenings around the world have presented ample lessons on the need to refrain from gung-ho measures that create problems of their own. It would seem that the right approach is to render collusion for illicit gain as difficult as possible. Right now, there is an enabling environment in all sectors of the Nigerian society for corruption to thrive. Add economic strains to this and it is not difficult to understand how an already unstable character can be swayed. Therefore, cleansing the judicial system must begin with limiting or reducing the possibility of compromise at all levels within the judiciary.

    Again, one must begin with the judges. For judges, economic strain is a minor factor in compromising their ethics, or, at least, it ought to be, where greed is absent. Whatever arguments may be made to the contrary, judges are generally well paid, by Nigerian standards of course, and they enjoy better job security than most other public and private employees.

    The single most important attribute of a judge is good character. This affects his/her ethical stance, judgment and even competence. This is why it is important, above all else, that the character of those appointed to the bench be impeccable and unimpeachable. Unfortunately, in our system of appointments with political flavour into the bench, there is a high probability of compromising this all-important quality to accommodate political exigency.

    All appointments to the higher bench are made on the recommendation of the National Judicial Council, NJC, by the President, for federal courts or the governor, for state courts. The NJC itself, headed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, consists of heads of different levels of court and an array of legal practitioners and members of the public in good standing. The system in itself is not flawed, but what is needed is a way to guarantee the impartiality of the individuals appointed at all levels.

    The President or governor makes judicial appointments according to the constitution, but this ‘power’ ought to be understood to be formal only, in order to ensure as little political influence from the executive as possible. This may forestall further misunderstanding and unfortunate rows such as the NJC and RotimiAmaechi debacle in Rivers State over the recommendation of Justice Daisy W. Okocha as Chief Judge of Rivers State.

    The Rivers State judiciary was without an incumbent Chief Judge from August 13, 2013, to May 31, 2015, as a result of this political wrangling. It may not be unfounded to give the power to appoint judges to the NJC directly, subject to the confirmation of the senate (which is even now a requirement) with the President or governor only able to exercise decisive power to make appointment where the NJC and Senate both have compelling but differing opinions on an appointment. This will require constitutional amendment but will set the right tone for judicial independence while retaining the concept of checks and balances.

    For lawyers, who invariably become judges, the route to a legal career in Nigeria starts from the call to the Nigerian Bar. As this is the entry point into the noble profession, extra care needs to be taken to ensure only the best individuals are appointed. There are so many requirements placed on intending lawyers, but not enough monitoring or checks. And this is a countrywide systemic problem.

    Lack of a centralised database where financial history of a person, for example, can be obtained leads to admission and continued allowance of financially unruly individuals who are more prone to be swayed by illicit enticements. In the UK, a person’s credit history is an important part of whether he/she can even undertake the Legal Practice Course for example and continually plays a part in determining if he/she can remain as a practitioner. This applies to judges, solicitors, barristers and even students intending on taking the practice course.

    The problem of Nigeria generally is less that of an availability of rules but more of enforcement of these rules or lack of the capacity thereof. The Rules of Professional Conduct, RPC, for legal practitioners are there to guide the conduct of lawyers, but are seldom invoked meaningfully or even adhered to. There is little incentive for lawyers to adhere to these rules, especially as the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee, LPDC, does not routinely pick up cases on its own but relies on petitions and complaints brought to it or referred by judges. Most times, these complaints only come in the most extreme cases and in malice, rather than by any true intention for a respectable bar.

    Rule 2 of the RPC states, for instance, that ”a lawyer should never show marked attention or unusual hospitality to a judge, uncalled for by the personal relations of the parties. He should avoid anything calculated to gain or having the appearance of gaining special personal consideration or favour from a judge”. Rule 3 of the RPC similarly places restriction on a lawyer’s interaction with a judge during a trial.

    Many will remember Kunle Kalejaiye, then Senior Advocate of Nigeria, representing former Osun State governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who was disbarred after his call log to the chairman of the Election Tribunal hearing a case involving his client was presented to the LPDC. At the time, the judiciary had found renewed vigour in the quest to rid itself of bad eggs under the then indefatigable CJN, Justice Aloma Mukhtar. Before that, the profession was very lax regarding discipline and now, after, it seems there is a slowdown. Such a case as that of Kalejaiye shows a level of commitment by the bar, but the truth is these practices are more common than can be seen from the outside.

    This is why, like the recent Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, conference held in Port-Harcourt unanimously adopted, it is important to fix this laxity in discipline and for the rules of the profession to be held sacred again. The NJC, the NBA, and all other judicial and legal bodies need to realise that to rid the profession of indiscipline, there can be no small offences or passes given to anyone falling foul of practice rules.

    Lawyers and judges need to be on their toes always as it is the relaxed atmosphere that leads to indiscipline and attracts the morally bankrupt into the profession.  Lawyers routinely breach Rule 22 of the RPC which mandates them to only justifiably enter into litigation or Rule 25 that bars them from instigating litigation, which ought always to be the decision of the client. Perhaps, spurred by the promise of new income, these rules are breached and are only met by stern words from a judge while fees are yet promptly paid. There ought to be real consequences for these actions, serious enough to make the decision to err weightier as well as serve as deterrence.

    When lawyers are faced with serious consequences and judges, with greater scrutiny and expectations, and are, therefore, unwilling to risk their jobs, court clerks and registrars will be less inclined to fall out of step. With this, there will be less incentive for entering unethical agreements with litigants, and if rules are set in place for members of the public who attempt to subvert justice to forfeit their claims, then there may be a chance for the judiciary to begin to dispense real justice as it ought to.

    Maybe then, as a nation, we would have the clear conscience to do the right thing.

  • The rot in our judiciary (2)

    The rot in our judiciary (2)

    The fact stands that the quality of some judges who ought to be held to higher standards of character and integrity, is highly questionable. Recently, the NJC sacked the duo of Justice O. Gbajabiamila of the Lagos State High Court and Justice Doris M. J. Evuti of the Niger State High Court. Gbajabiamila got the boot for repeated flagrant non-compliance with court rules, while Evuti was shown the door for falsification of age. Such incidents are a regular occurrence and petitions are flying in by the day.

    The reality is that while many of the shortcomings of the judges are seldom tied, by evidence, to bribery and trading of favours, the saying that there is no smoke without fire will permit one to take the sheer number of allegations as an indication of some level of complicity.

    Within the grapevines of the legal profession, judges with questionable characters, are well known and ‘motion for hire’ judges have developed a reputation that ‘brings business their way,’ so to speak, through equally questionable lawyers who are an active part of these grapevines. As is the age-long legal rule, suspicions and allegations remain exactly that, in the absence of evidence and a firm judgement of a court verifying their truth and veracity. As such, one cannot put down names for the simple reason of not wanting to fall foul of the law relating to libellous publications.

    The truth is that many judges have become gods unto themselves, dispensing cases at their whim and fraternising with prospective litigants behind closed doors. It is no longer uncommon for litigants to visit judges even within their official space, which, even if done innocently, already defeats the aim of justice. In a system where one can now label a judge either as PDP judge or APC judge, we are indeed in trouble. This is not to say these practices do not occur in other countries.

    Certainly, judges are human. It is the impunity with which our judges do not attempt to separate duty from personal bias, that really astonishes. Careless comments of ‘take it on appeal’ are also commonplace, with the underlying message being that “justice is not dispensed at this level”. At the upper courts, even though the judges show more dexterity and meticulous consideration of issues before them, the more sensitive matters somehow produce the most perplexing judgments and omissions which are quickly overruled. To an unfamiliar observer of legal traditions, for a superior court to overrule itself is tantamount to admitting that it made a mistake. Where the mistakes seem to come in cases with the highest stakes and surrounded by the most suspicion of bias and bribery, it is left to anyone’s imagination as to why this is so. The now famous RotimiAmaechi judgment that installed a governor that never ran for election is an authority on perplexing decisions of the Supreme Court.

    There have been talks of rings of lawyers or a cabal of lawyers who are so stitched into the corrupt fabric of the judiciary that they have become experts in questionable court actions and misapplication of law. They do this usually in cahoots with obliging judges. They network and trade favours and questionable contacts seamlessly within the court systems. It is sometimes so bad that a case may become a mere playing to the gallery by lawyers and judges who already know the outcome of such ‘show cases’ – cases that are for show only. Lawyers that represent part of those rings or cabals can be found on opposing sides clawing at each other in the courtroom, bedazzling the sometimes unsuspecting litigants who give them kudos. The theatrics end there as backroom meetings have already concluded which side is to make the mistake that will lead to the favourable outcome desired by the bankroller who could be a litigant or an altogether separate party from the proceedings. As the saying goes, he who pays the piper, calls the tune. This exclusive club of manipulators run nationwide and it includes the most sought-after names in the legal profession that charge a fortune. It may all seem rather far-fetched, but legal insiders know this for a fact.

    The lawmakers who should be concerned and who routinely set up spurious committees to probe judicial shortcomings, are amongst the biggest abusers of the system. They are the ones with the means to pay the rates of hiring these rings or cabals and actively network in golf clubs and behind closed doors with these highly placed legal manipulators. Other members of the public, rich and not-so-rich, actively seek to influence the system, thereby feeding the monster of injustice and later turn around to cry foul when the tables are turned on them.

    The state of the Nigerian judiciary and the existence of these well-connected unscrupulous network that also includes court registrars, is reflective of the moral decay that plagues the society as a whole. Where allegations of forgery are argued and decided in a suit commenced by Originating Summons which ought to be used for non-contentious issues, no lettered observer will be of the opinion that the absurdity of the situation would have been lost on the judge in question.

    One may, therefore, be forgiven if he impugns on the character of the already controversial judge. The matter is made worse by the now worn tactic of duplicating court cases by filing on the same issue in another jurisdiction after obtaining unfavourable outcomes before another uncooperative judge. Justice Abang’s assumption of jurisdiction was despite the decision of a court of co-ordinate jurisdiction in Owerri, presided over by Justice Ambrose Allagoa, which dismissed the forgery case against Ikpeazu. This is similar to Justice AbdulkadirKafarati of the Federal High Court assuming jurisdiction to determine whether the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, could sit on a matter against the embattled Senate President, BukolaSaraki, even after the Supreme Court had decided that the CCT was competent to entertain a matter against the Senate President.

    As always, everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty. And controversial judges and anyone suspected of being a member of any of the numerous rings or cabals of judicial manipulators, can hide behind this. One thing that is also certain is that the system has loopholes in the form of men and women of questionable character and those that dare to speak out are easily and quickly eased out of the system – again, Salami comes to mind. Where those that play along become too notorious and become a liability, they are dismissed in a not-so-decisive fashion. Herein lies the tragedy of the Nigerian judiciary. The truth is: if we are so keen on getting rid of corruption and impunity in the system, how come the government and policy makers seem to turn a blind eye to all the nonsense that has afflicted the country’s judiciary, an arm of government that should be sanitized and made pure in order to fight the monster called corruption to a standstill? Perhaps, because those at the top also benefit from the immoral racket in the temple of justice, they are more or less, inclined to look elsewhere while the foundation of the country rots away.

     

  • The rot in our judiciary (1)

    The rot in our judiciary (1)

    For quite a while now, the Nigerian judiciary has repeatedly come under unfavourable scrutiny from the public, especially with regard to deciding electoral issues. This is because many of the judges involved in electoral matters never seem to hide their bias in most of the judgements they pass. Thus, the issue of corruption in the Nigerian judiciary has continued to echo and re-echo.

    Last week was a particularly bad one for the judiciary. On the issue of who is the legitimate governor of Abia State, an Appeal Court sitting in Abuja descended on an Abuja High Court judge, Justice OkonAbang, for giving a judgement the Appeal Court says amounted to standing democracy on its head.

    The court held that the originating summons issued by Justice Abang, leading to an earlier judgment that removed OkezieIkpeazu, the sitting governor of Abia State and proclaiming his challenger, UcheOgah, as governor, was not properly constituted, and as such, the lower court lacked jurisdiction to hear it.

    The court also held that “although the originating summons was later amended, an amended summons has no capacity to cure a defective and incurably bad originating summons being the foundation of the suit.” According to the appellate court, “the law has laid down principles by which a case can be instituted, but on the motion which led to this appeal, three people indicated themselves as lawyers and signed the document, even while the law says only an identifiable legal practitioner can do so.” The court ruled that it was not its business to embark on a voyage of helping a litigant decide who filed his case, and by so doing, the lower court erred in deciding for the litigants.

    Furthermore, the appellate court held that “Justice Abang raped democracy in his order that the INEC should issue a certificate of return to Ogah when there was no evidence of forgery or criminality against Ikpeazu.” According to the court, “the judgment of Justice Abang was grossly erroneous because it was based on inadequacy of tax receipt that cannot be visited on the appellant.”

    One of the justices of the appellate court, Justice Ogunwumiju, said: “After reading through the judgment several times, I was amazed at how the trial judge arrived at his conclusion of perjury against the appellant when there was no evidence of forgery. To say the least, his findings are ridiculous. “The judge must have sat in his chamber, unilaterally assessed and computed the tax of the appellant and came to the conclusion that he did not pay the required tax.”

    Justice Ogunwumiju added: “In another breath, the trial judge spoke from both sides of his mouth when, in one breath, he claimed that he based his findings on supply of false information and, in another breadth, he came to the conclusion that the appellant in this matter committed perjury, even when there was no allegation of forgery and no allegation that he did not pay tax.”

    The Appeal Court also held that Justice Abang turned the law upside down in his conclusion that the appellant should bear the burden of proof on the allegation made by Ogah. “With respect, we disagree with him in this conclusion because it is the person that makes an allegation of falsehood that must prove it,” the court said.

    “From whatever angle one looks at the judgment of the trial judge, the decision of his court was grossly erroneous. The inadequacies of the tax receipt cannot be visited on Ikpeazu who scored the highest votes in the 2015 governorship election as doing so will amount to a rape of democracy.”

    Since that epoch judgement was delivered last week, many Nigerians have been left wondering why the country’s judiciary has continued to attract odium and disrespect to itself in recent times. Whichever way people look at this particular judgement it is just a case of one bad judgement too many.

    It is pertinent to note that the judiciary is not just another arm of government. In many ways, it is the conscience of the nation. Based on this ascription alone, to say the judiciary of Nigeria is polluted and tainted by corrupt practices should not come as a surprise to anyone. On May 9, while having a conversation with the Queen at Buckingham Palace at an event to mark the Queen’s 90th birthday, David Cameron, the immediate past British Prime Minister, described Nigeria as “fantastically corrupt”. There was outrage because his otherwise private comment was an undiplomatic statement for an intending host on the eve of an international conference on corruption, not because it was false or unfounded. A nation with an unclean conscience can hardly live up to lofty expectations of transparency.

    Everybody has a role in the judiciary. There are, of course, the judges who ought to sit as detached umpires in a dispute and as guides in their role as guardians of the law and interpreters of its purposes. The lawyers and legal practitioners generally are considered ‘ministers in the temple of justice’ applying the law appropriately to practical issues and prescribing the correct usage of the provisions of the law in accordance with its purposes which are usually clarified by the judges in accordance with the times.

    The legislature as a body plays an important role as well. It makes laws based on perceived practical needs of the nation, often in areas of complexities that demand guidance from experts of good standing. The general public also plays a role as a collection of intending and prospective litigants, saddled with the responsibility of presenting their case and facts truthfully and without malice.

    Where any of these identified roles have been compromised, it leads to a rot in the justice system which can spread. As things are in Nigeria today, it is safe to say that all of these roles have been compromised in the Nigerian judiciary. The result is anyone’s guess.

    Following the uproar that greeted the Court of Appeal’s stern rebuttal of the decision made by the controversial Justice Abang in the Abia governorship tussle, the light is again focused on the rot in the judiciary. Bearing in mind all the different roles identified above, there is a long and sorry tale of corruption and abuse of court processes to be told about the players in the judiciary, starting from the custodians of the law itself.

    Magistrates, judges and the justices of the superior courts have long been tangled in the web of corruption that plagues the judiciary. The National Judicial Council (NJC) has had to review, time after time, the activity of these revered umpires, leading to numerous justified dismissals and suspensions and, of course, some suspicious and convenient ‘removals’ like the Justice Ayo Salami saga that called to question the decision of those calling the judges to question. Some of the past decisions of the NJC have often been criticised for some inherent bias as the body has often been accused of prescribing different punishments for what are obviously similar offences. That is, different strokes for different folks.

    Of course, the courts are replete with cases of bias and allegations of outright bribery and corruption against magistrates and judges. In the case of the latter, the allegations are veiled in soft language as lawyers and litigants are reluctant to call a judge incompetent or, worse still, a thief or liar. It should be noted that petitions against judges go beyond allegations of corruption alone; sometimes blatant misapplication of the law is a ground for petition. Whether the perceived misapplication is occasioned by some sort of inducement (financial or otherwise) or by sheer incompetence, is another debate altogether.