The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Case overload

    Case overload

    • Judiciary groans under bulging dockets of litigation

    Nigerian courts, especially the Supreme Court, are overwhelmed by political cases, and urgent steps should be taken to ameliorate the situation. Speaking at the swearing-in of nine newly appointed Justices of the Court of Appeal, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, said: “Political cases, especially, are taking a monumental toll on our dockets. Indeed, the times we are in are not pleasant, to say the least.” He continued: “No court in the land is spared of this. We are constantly on our toes and the dockets are ever rising in response to the challenges of the time.”

    Also at the valedictory in honour of Justice Amina Augie of the Supreme Court, the overwhelming weight on the Supreme Court was a topical issue. Justice Augie, who retired after attaining the mandatory age of 70 years, called for amendment of the 1999 Constitution to make the Supreme Court more efficient. She said: “I implore the National Assembly to undertake the necessary constitutional amendments. By doing so, this Court and its Justices can be freed from the constraints that impede their ability to fulfil their mandate of upholding the rule of law, justice, and democracy.”

    She called for limitation on the type of cases that could go on appeal to the Supreme Court, lamenting that in one instance, the learned Justice sat on appeal over 12 burnt goats. Such frivolous cases stand in the way of the learned Justices’ dealing with the more important responsibility of the apex court. She lamented that sometimes the Justices “sit all day and have to deal with appeals that do not align with the Court’s role as a policy-making court.”

    We agree with the learned Justices that the Supreme Court is overwhelmed by cases that could end at the present Court of Appeal, or even State Court of Appeal, if the 1999 Constitution is appropriately amended to reflect federal system of government. The apex court and indeed other lower courts are also clogged by an avalanche of election petition cases that overwhelm the courts. To further compound the situation, the Supreme Court is presently so depleted that it can not form two full panels as provided by the proviso to Section 234 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

    Read Also: Political cases consuming our time, CJN Ariwoola laments

    Currently, the Supreme Court has 11 serving Justices, instead of 21 as provided by Section 230(2)(b) of the 1999 constitution. While a regular panel is made up of five Justices, to exercise certain named jurisdiction in the constitution, the panel shall be seven. With 11 Justices and a maximum of two panels, the apex court is surely in a quandary to hear the several appeals emanating from the presidential and gubernatorial election cases, not to talk of the pre-election disputes that extend to legislative disputes.

    The import of such overburdening by political cases that are time-bound is that other cases suffer stagnation. While political cases are important for the survival of democracy, other cases of commercial interest, property rights, constitutional cases, and others which are fundamental to the economic and social survival of the country are left unattended to. As is self-evident, a nation’s democracy is imperiled if its economic well-being is in jeopardy. For the nation to survive, there must be a balance, and the earlier the dockets of the Supreme Court and indeed other courts are trimmed down the better the quality of judgments emanating therefrom.

    The solution lies in appointment of more Justices to the apex court, amendment of the constitution to limit the types of cases that go the apex court, and ensuring better welfare package for the Justices. While there is need for improved electoral process, the political elite must also learn to accept defeat at electoral contests. The present situation is strangulating the judiciary and we urge all concerned to let the critical sector breath.

  • Costly menace

    Costly menace

    • Tackling the operations of illegal miners is an urgent imperative

    There is a lot to be said about the wave of the clampdown on illegal mining activities as speaking not just to the dire security situation in the country, but on the need for the Federal Government to get a firm grip on the situation. In Kebbi State, Governor Nasir Idris ordered those engaged in illegal mining to shut their operations in the state; and in Kogi State, Governor Yahaya Bello required all legal operators to henceforth register with the ministry to enhance peaceful and criminal-free operations. The latest is from Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal who last week not only placed a ban on illegal mining in the state, but has gone on to order security operatives to take stringent action against offenders.

    Their dilemma is perhaps best summed up in the words of the Zamfara governor: “Illegal mining is undeniably one of the driving forces behind the rampant banditry plaguing Zamfara State. We must take swift, decisive action to curb this menace and restore peace and security to our communities.”

    In the three cases cited, the governors merely affirmed what is already a well-known nexus between the activities of illegal miners and rampaging banditry in their domains. How the directives will pan out remains to be seen considering that the states possess neither the constitutional power to regulate the activities of illegal miners in any real sense of it, nor the powers of enforcement.

    Of course, the governors might well be speaking for other states in the federation where illegal miners are not only on rampage but have increasingly constituted both security and ecological threats to communal peace. We recall how some four years ago, the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) reported Niger State as leading states where there is illegal mining of solid minerals, with Plateau, Ebonyi, Imo, Enugu and Zamfara following – in that order. It is doubtful that much has changed; in fact, recent reports not only suggest that Osun and Oyo may have joined the league of those front-liners where illegal mining activities are in the upswing, there are increasingly, frightening but nonetheless credible reports of foreigners and big money and arms being funnelled into the illegal trade in what now portends grave dangers to national security.

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    The governors are certainly in order – at least, to the extent of their acknowledging the nexus between the activities of illegal miners and the menace of rural banditry. Interestingly, much of the discussions in the wake of their reported clampdown on illegal mining have devolved around the popular aphorism about whether those drastic measures would not amount to cutting off the head because of a nagging headache. This is precisely because the challenge of making the distinction between the millions of local artisanal miners for whom the trade constitutes legitimate means of livelihood and those powerful illegal players cannot be easy any more than a general clampdown can be expected to achieve any magical result.

    However, that should not be all that there is to it. Government needs to take a decisive action. To the extent that illegal mining activities currently constitute a grave national security threat governments at all levels must rise up to tackle the challenge. The era in which warlords and local militias would carve out vast territories for illegal mining operations must be consigned to the past.

    At the same time, much as government desires to bring every activity under the sector under control in the efforts to tame the violence and banditry, government should not lose sight of the underlying cause, which is rural poverty. It is poverty that has bred the alienation that foreign and local elements have taken advantage of. Government will need to take calibrated measures to address this particular challenge. 

    Banditry and violence aside, we know just how bad things are in monetary, quantitative terms. In 2021 for instance, the solid minerals sector contributed a mere 0.63 percent to the country’s GDP; in 2020 it was 0.45 percent, and 0.26 percent in 2019. We are here referring to a sector that contributed over 12.1 percent in the 1970s. While it is beyond debate that the future of the sector can be brighter than at the moment, that can only happen if government steps in to clean up the rot. One part is to get the illegal operators out; the other is to organise, control and monitor the activities of local artisanal miners. If the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is to be believed, the failures on both counts is said to cost the nation $9 billion every other year.  And this is aside the ecological devastation that is best described as unquantifiable. In the circumstance, there could be no better time than now to tame the monster.

  • Cement blues

    Cement blues

    • Players should explore prospects of more business rather than cry wolf over price

    Recent announcement by Minister of Works David Umahi that all federal roads will henceforth be built with concrete for better durability, should have buoyed operators in the cement industry.

    But the Cement Producers Association of Nigeria (CPAN) has let fly  a jeremiad, claiming such a move could propel prices of grades of cement to N9, 000 and above, especially during the dry season when construction peaks.  A bag of cement now hovers around N6, 000.

    The CPAN stand sounds illogical.  Higher demand for cement should, other things being equal, mean bigger opportunities for everyone: the market leaders that control the largest market share, and even marginal players at the fringe. Still, CPAN insists other things are not equal with the market as presently constituted. 

    First, the group worries about the supply side: that federal roads gobbling up cement could trigger a sudden scarcity which could trigger rocket inflation.

    That point is well taken — and it is good CPAN coupled its alarm with a possible solution: first pondering the supply side before fully pushing the policy. Still, CPAN should have pushed its fear with vivid numbers: total volume of locally manufactured cement right now, the proportion federal concrete roads will likely gulp, and the projected shortfall for housing and allied sectors also thirsting for cement. That would have painted a graphic picture, thus advising government to look before it leaps.

    But again, the point must be made that infrastructure is critical to deepening the economy and getting Nigeria out of current throes — a cardinal goal of the Bola Tinubu administration.  Good, durable roads are central to that goal. So, whatever support, in terms of helpful policies, the government can offer the industry to boost production and achieve its goals are welcome.  But marginal cement players should also tap into long-term loans from specialized industry banks, home and abroad, to raise their capital base and expand their production capacity. 

    Read Also: How to prevent Military rule in Africa, by Ganduje

    That way, both major and fringe players would be propped for the boom to come.  If the supply side is fixed and production vastly expanded to meet demand, then prices should drop.

    But spiralling prices, even with no apparent shortage, prompted the second leg of CPAN’s complaint — the capture of the market by a cement oligopoly that allegedly ratchets up the pricing.  That was the main CPAN bait for its projected soar-away cement price of N9, 000 per bag soon as the new concrete road policy starts.

    Indeed, there are claims that a few players swallow up the cement industry and dictate prices as they please.  Nigeria hardly imports any cement.  In fact, Nigerian cement market giants have been expanding to other African countries. Yet, cement price locally has always headed north — more so in a country that boasts large deposits of limestone, the major raw material for cement manufacturing.

    Might this anomaly have arisen from the capture of the market by a few, leaving the many other players to dive for crumbs or die?  Structurally, might the market have badly evolved, such that only the alleged oligopolies are always in business, leaving the others with the short end of the business stick? From its cry, CPAN must have feared — even if it didn’t specifically say so — that even with the new concrete road regime, only the alleged oligopoly would get most  (if not all) of the business, leaving the marginal players almost empty-handed.

    If that is so, government should probe into it and earnestly remedy the situation.  Every market has dominant and fringe players.  But market forces propel even fringe players to milk their niche, even if their market share is small. Government should discourage monopolistic practices that empowers the strong to unfairly elbow out the weak. A free market is the only way cement pricing can find true equilibrium.  To protect that sanctity is why governments in the West enact strong anti-trust laws. Nigeria needs such a law, if CPAN’s complaints are confirmed.

    Still, CPAN was clearly out of focus by suggesting that the government should, at least for now, stay with a mishmash of concrete and tar in its road policy. To be sure, it can suggest policy options. But it’s rather strange that CPAN that in one breath decries not having enough business opportunities, in another breath shuts out the prospects for market expansion that should benefit its members. 

    Whining and conjuring a price Armageddon chisels away at CPAN’s integrity as a serious trade lobby. Instead on pontificating on issues hardly its business, it should prime its members to grab a bigger share in an expanded cement market.

  • West must realize it’s already at war with Russia

    West must realize it’s already at war with Russia

    The US and its NATO allies try not to provoke Putin, but it is imperative that they accept the fact that Russia is admittedly at war with the West. Ukraine is just a stepping stone. Oleh Dunda writes.

    The Ukrainian pursuit of sovereignty in the face of Russian aggression has been accompanied by a profound gratitude for the unwavering support from the United States. Presently, Ukraine treads the path towards liberation from Russia’s historical hegemony,  much like America’s journey away from the British Crown in the 18th century. Undoubtedly, Ukraine too shall navigate its course towards full independence, driven by fate and the resolve of those willing to safeguard their nation and kin.

    However, it is imperative not to perceive this war merely as regional conflict, akin to the USSR’s incursion into Afghanistan. To relegate it to such would be a misjudgment analogous to regarding Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939 or the Battle of the Atlantic as local incidents. The Russo-Ukrainian war that unfolded in 2014 has always been global.

    The disproportionate economic capacities of the Soviet Union and Russia should not be misleading. The ambitions of the “Russian Empire” to resurrect Cold War-era aspirations were candidly expressed in Vladimir Putin’s ultimatums of December 2021. The West committed a critical oversight by responding as leniently as it did, reminiscent of its approach to Putin’s Munich speech in 2007. That lack of any resolute Western response to the emerging Kremlin threats, such as Russia’s invasion of Georgia and subsequently of Ukraine, proved to be a pivotal error.

    As part of a widespread Jewish renewal, Ukrainian rabbis are reviving an inquiry into relics stolen from the Pidhaitsi and Chortkiv synagogues, which later reappeared in a Moscow Museum.

    Russia capitalizes on weakness

    Hopes of curbing Russian aggression through limited aid to Ukraine and diplomatic solutions are destined for futility. Betting on Russia’s “non-victory” instead of its defeat is seen by the Kremlin as a manifestation of weakness. Regrettably, such a stance escalates tensions rather than reducing them.

    The Western world finds itself making a parallel mistake – as it did in its attempt to appease Adolf Hitler, the fascist dictator, through diplomacy. Russia will escalate its confrontation as long as Western democracies permit. The events of the past 15 years stand as a stark testament to this reality.

    Read Also: An Executive Outcome in Russia

    The battle of democratic nations against Russian totalitarianism extends beyond Europe’s borders, into the heart of Ukraine and across continents like Asia and Africa. Ignoring these facts will not make the aggression and threat disappear; they will merely exploit the opportunities arising from the world’s unpreparedness for resistance.

    Signs of hybrid warfare have reached the shores of Western Europe, gripping France and Germany. Russia, in the shadows of the “Soviet Empire’s” legacy, lends support to radical political parties, seeking to destabilize the situation and propel Moscow-friendly politicians to power. This transcends even the interference witnessed during the 2016 US presidential elections. If Russia triumphs, the repercussions for Western democracies will be far more devastating.

    Cold Civil War: Russia’s blueprint for the West’s demise

    As of today, the Russian blueprint for political polarization is already beginning to materialize within these nations, pointing towards a potential Cold Civil War in the future. In the era of the Soviet Union, this role was played by various communist parties, but now it is the domain of a range of ultra-right and ultra-left political movements.

    The funding for these endeavors will persist as long as the West’s sanctions remain too lenient. The Cold Civil War threatens not only existing political elites, who are hesitant to defend themselves, but also the economic stability of France and Germany. We have seen this scenario before. Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a similar hybrid warfare campaign unfolded.

    In Africa and Asia, Russia is already engaged in hostilities with Western democratic countries. Its tactics range from utilizing regular armies to deploying mercenaries from the Wagner Group. Since 2014, targeted strikes have been made against nations strategically significant within their regions due to their geographical locations. Syria, in the Near East, and the Central African Republic, Mali, and now Niger, in Africa, have all been impacted. Russia is deliberately pushing Western allies out of these regions, expanding its sphere of influence and attempting to form a new network of allies. These actions mirror Soviet methods, which involved coups, regional wars, and terrorism.

    This trajectory, akin to that of the USSR from 1960 to1980. It led to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, followed by an escalation in 1983. Today, Moscow tests the “resolve” of NATO countries using a hypothetical slogan, “Is Klaipeda [a small city in Lithuania] worth World War III?” The absence of a response to provocations out of fear of triggering the Kremlin’s direct aggression fuels the Apocalypse scenario.

    It is now evident that attempts to “appease” Putin result in the geographical expansion of Russia’s military actions, from direct interventions to propaganda offensives. Additionally, the war in Ukraine has passed a point of no return. The hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian casualties have left indelible scars on society, making a return to the status quo of Feb. 23, 2022 impossible.

    How the West must respond

    Most importantly, Western democracies striving to avoid direct confrontation with Russia are already at war with the Kremlin, although not yet fully aware of it. The longer they ignore this reality, the higher the price of their oversight will be. History has shown that policies of appeasement yield no success.

    On the other hand, a mere 3 percent of the US military budget is sufficient to deter the Kremlin in Ukraine and reduce its military capabilities.

    Realizing the fact that they are directly involved in a war with dictatorial Russia requires prompt reevaluation on the part of Washington, London, Berlin, and Paris. The “non-involvement” concept must shift towards a concept of “war to defend democracies against unprovoked aggression,” utilizing Ukraine as a key frontline in the Western world.

    Specifically, the following steps are necessary:

    •A shared understanding among the US and allies of the war’s goals and a general strategy for victory.

    •Direct synchronization of US military branches and partners with the Ukrainian Armed Forces, effectively integrating them into the armies of Western democratic nations.

    •Direct support for opposition forces in Russia, regardless of their orientation or ideology.

    •Mechanisms for involving US and partner businesses in Ukraine’s economy under exclusive terms.

    •Responsive actions by the US and allied domestic security agencies against Russia’s hybrid aggression and attacks on the democratic institutions of Western states.

    •A program utilizing the Armed Forces of Ukraine to curtail Russia’s military activities in African and Asian countries.

    •Involving Ukrainian political forces in cooperation with the US and partner democratic institutions.

    This discussion should be initiated now through closed-door deliberations in committees, analytical centers, and political parties of the US, UK, and EU, involving Ukrainian politicians and high-ranking officials. Only together can we ultimately defeat the Kremlin monster. After all, fate and God favor the bold and bring down cowards.

    •This article was first published in www.kyivpost.com with the headline ‘The West Must Realize It Is Already at War With Russia’

  • Nigeria at 63

    Nigeria at 63

    • More than six decades on, it’s not yet the land of our dreams

    This is the critical point, a juncture at which to reflect on the nationhood journey of the world’s biggest black nation. Quite rightly, it has been pointed out that Nigeria is endowed with all that is needed to make a great nation.

    However, after 63 years, the country is still crawling and her people are among the world’s lowly. Squalor is pervasive, with experts estimating that there is 28 million housing deficit and about N21 trillion needed to fill the gap. The world was shocked when the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) survey last year showed that about 130 million people in the country are multi-dimensionally poor. Every state is blessed with solid minerals, while the Niger Delta area is rich in oil deposits. But, rather than be a blessing to Nigeria, the minerals have been a wasting asset. They’ve been cornered by a few who have thus become stupendously rich, living in opulence while the vast majority wallow in abject poverty and can barely afford to eat.

    A large number of the youth are unemployed, even when their parents managed to raise funds to sponsor their education to the tertiary level, with many having been recruited into cybercrime  and violent gangs.

    Countries that used to be poorer such as the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Rwanda,  Malaysia and other Asian Tigers have outpaced Nigeria once regarded as a land flowing with milk and honey.

    Towards the end of the last millennium, the restoration of civil rule raised hope of a new dawn. As President Olusegun Obasanjo took the oath of office on May 29, 1999, Nigerians expected that his experience as a former Head of State and post-office international exposure would be applied to lift the country economically, politically and socially. Rather, he did much to manipulate things, and by the end of his eight-year tenure, the country was in a worse shape.

    Read Also: Independence Day: Buhari, Akpabio, govs, others optimistic about Nigeria’s future

    Since then, things have gone from bad to worse. The economy is stagnant, and there are fears of a total collapse as inflation has soared to about 25 per cent, with food inflation at almost 30 per cent by official figures. The Naira exchanges at 778 to a dollar at the banks where available, while it is a frightening 1009 to one dollar at the parallel market. But, in 1999, the dollar had exchanged for N98. The hardships being currently experienced have made many young ones to flee the country to developed ones like the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, among others, in what is famously known as the “Japa syndrome.” Some compatriots are indeed heading out to other African countries.

    Politically, too, Nigeria has been taking more steps backwards than forward. A positive record, however, is that civilian rule has endured 24 years and is apparently here to stay; unlike in the First Republic when it lasted less than six years, the Second Republic when civilians lasted the distance of only a four-year term, and the Third Republic that was still-birthed by General Ibrahim Babangida’s annulment of the result of the 1993 presidential election.

    Alteration of the constitution four times has not much improved the polity. Six decades on into Nigeria as an independent country, there is little or no social cohesion. Ethnic groups remain as far apart as they were when shouts of ‘araba’ rent the air in 1966, leading up to the tragic 30-month civil war of 1967-70. 

    It’s time to take a look at the social fabric and the political structure of Nigeria if the country is to make rapid progress as envisaged in negotiations for Independence. In the 50s, the founding fathers at constitutional conferences carefully arrived at a federal system to allow each part (region) develop at its own pace. Each of them had its constitution to ensure a measure of autonomy. However, years of military interregnum pooled power at the centre, and the creation of weakened states only further took power from the people. This is where to start examining the polity if Nigeria is to be pulled back on track.

    President Bola Tinubu has a unique opportunity to lead Nigeria to the Promised Land by implementing a coherent programme of development and rallying Nigerians in support. To achieve this, Nigerians who have lost faith in government over the years need to see sincerity of purpose in his administration.

    Time is running out. Nigeria has to be led into taking her rightful place in the comity of nations.

  • Exemplary!

    Exemplary!

    • Taraba government’s incentive for corps members is worthy of emulation

    To bolster its free and compulsory education policy, the Taraba State Government said it has approved substantial extra allowance for National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members posted to its schools. This, obviously, is to motivate them and shore up manpower provisioning in the vital sector.

    A statement early this week by Information and Reorientation Commissioner Zainab Usman said the extra allowance comprised ten thousand naira to be added to their monthly allowance, one-time payment of fifty thousand naira as medical allowance, and an accommodation allowance of twenty-five thousand naira per term, totaling seventy-five thousand naira for three school terms. The total payment for the service year sums to some two hundred and forty-five thousand naira. According to Usman, the state is as well offering automatic employment opportunity to “exceptional youth corps members who distinguish themselves while serving in schools.”

    The commissioner explained in the statement, Sunday, that the largess was an emergency response approved by State Governor Agbus Kefas to the surge in enrolment recorded in the state’s primary and secondary schools “over the past ten working days.” She added that besides promoting manpower provisioning, the state government would supply pupils with uniforms, shoes, socks and books by January 2024 to support them in their pursuit of education. “Schools that have reached their maximum capacity in terms of facilities will implement the shift system temporarily while additional buildings are provided to meet increasing demand. In the coming year, the state government will cover the examination fees for all SS3 students, enabling them to write both WAEC and NECO examinations. Exceptional students will be eligible for sponsorship and scholarships,” she further stated inter alia.

    Read Also: NYSC DG to employers: Stop aiding corps members’ abscondment

    By all reckoning, the surge in school enrolment occasioned by Taraba’s new policy on free and compulsory education is a good development deserving of applause. More so is the fact that in a national ecosystem where teaching as a career is denigrated and spurned by many who would rather seek opportunity in less noble but more rewarding careers, the Taraba government is providing incentives as could make teaching a preferred posting for corps members in the state. The added promise of automatic employment opportunity for exceptional corps members is a strong motivation to commitment and excellence on the part of the service youths. The beneficiaries will, however, not be just the corps members but also the education system in the state that will be positively impacted by the corps members’ drive for excellence. The commissioner was right when she said in her statement: “These measures reinforced Taraba State’s unwavering commitment to enhancing access to quality education, fostering youth development, and ensuring a brighter future for our children.”

    The initiative by the Taraba government is recommended for emulation by other state governments. In the modest economy of an average corps member, the extra allowances will make a huge positive difference. Meanwhile, it’s not that Taraba is one of the states challenged by the rage of insecurity in parts of the North, such that it could be argued that the slate of incentives is a booby trap to lure innocent youths to the theatre. Rather, the incentives could make the state into a destination of choice for prospective corps members, and its schools preferred places of primary assignment. If the added promise of automatic employment opportunity motivates them sufficiently unto a race for distinctive performance, a rub-on effect towards improved education standard in the state can be envisaged.

    But the Taraba government would not have done the state’s education system any good if the motivation is limited to only youth corps members and not extended to career teachers in the state. It will be self-defeating, for instance, if new recruits are lured into the teaching profession, only for these recruits to soon face cultural demotivating factors upon transiting from ad hoc service into the career proper. Besides, if career teachers are not happy with the job, youth corps members alone cannot guarantee high standard of education in the state. And so, the Kefas administration needs to ensure that career teachers are happy and motivated across board. That  is when a worthwhile investment could be said to have been made towards “enhancing access to quality education, fostering youth development, and ensuring a brighter future for our children,” as the commissioner stated.

  • Dangerous trend

    Dangerous trend

    • Harassment of tribunal judges is an ill omen for justice delivery

    In delivering its recent judgement annulling the election of Abba Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) as Kano State Governor and affirming the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nasir Gawuna, as duly elected, the Kano State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal denounced the harassment, intimidation and threats to the lives of its members in the course of trial. A member of the tribunal, Justice Benson Anya, in his judgement which ran from pages 225 to 228 of the tribunal’s verdict, lamented: “The judges of this tribunal were harassed, intimidated and made to run under cover. What is the offence of the judiciary?” He noted that respondents in the case, Yusuf and the NNPP, “took the position as was widely reported in the media – both print and social – that if they lose the case, they will kill the judges and put the residents of Kano on fire”.

    Indeed, Kano State Commissioner for Lands and Physical Planning Adamu Kabiya had openly threatened the lives of the judges if their judgement did not go his party’s way; although the governor is to be commended for promptly sacking him for such uncivil utterance. But so grave was the situation that the tribunal judges had to relocate from Kano and delivered their judgement virtually. As Justice Benson Anya submitted, “The respondents contributed heavily to the success of this petition. At the pleading stage they made critical admissions. At the trial stage they supplied critical and important documents. Yet at the judgement stage the 2nd respondent (Yusuf) does not want this tribunal to stand by justice by stating the truth of the matter”. Justice Anya was forceful in asserting: “My message to bandits in politics who want to take power by force is that the judiciary cannot be intimidated…The decision of the court must not be taken personal (sic) as to warrant an attack and violence against the judiciary’s functionaries as threatened by the 2nd and 3rd respondents”.

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    The phenomenon of threats against the judiciary in election petition cases is a function of heightened political partisanship, aggravated levels of political intolerance and unhealthy attitude of the political elite, such that losers in electoral contests never accept defeat no matter how obvious their loss at the polls. This inevitably makes the judiciary the ultimate determinant of electoral outcomes, with attendant severe pressure on the institution.

    The extreme intolerance with which elections are contested is often vented on the judiciary where election petitioners expect victory at all costs, irrespective of the judicial merit of their cases. We will recall that before its judgement, the Presidential Elections Petition Court (PEPC) was subjected to similar threats, harassment and blackmail. Vice-presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, had on national television issued threats against the judges if judgement did not go the way he desired. Subtly threatening and inciting billboards with the inscription “All eyes on the judiciary” surfaced in Abuja and other parts of the country shortly before the PEPC was to deliver its judgement. There were also allegations against some of the judges, including Chief Justice of Nigeria Kayode Ariwoola, which turned out to be patently false. It is most likely that attempts to denigrate the judiciary and impugn the integrity of judges will continue even as aggrieved petitioners take their cases to the Supreme Court.

    It is commendable and heartwarming that the PEPC, the Kano State tribunal and other election petition panels across the country have been bold and courageous to deliver justice as they deem proper in accordance with the evidence before them, despite threats and harassment. The penchant of aggrieved elements to blackmail and undermine the integrity of the judiciary in blind quest for electoral victory should further motivate judges to ensure that, more than ever before, they adhere to the highest standards of professionalism, integrity and credibility in hearing and deciding cases before them.

    The judges of the Kano State tribunal no doubt had every cause to be angry at the humiliating treatment meted to them, and this was reflected in their vehement condemnation of “the gang of red cap wearers who, like a violent and terrorist cult, chased us out of Kano and put us in the fear of our lives”. Yet, no degree of provocation should lure judges from courtesy and temperance in the use of language, lest the judiciary descend to the uncouth level of those elements who have no respect for truth, decency or the rule of law.

    Justice Anya stated: “I am in no doubt that the security agencies know and are aware of those who removed their eyes from their case and put it on the judiciary. They are also aware of those who extended the threat further by declaring that they will kill the judges. The threat must not be swept under the carpet”. We agree entirely. It is curious that those who made open threats against the judiciary at various times have not been apprehended by the security agencies and made to face the law. These threats are dangerous portents with serious negative consequences for the institutional integrity of the judiciary as well as law and order necessary for a peaceful and stable society.

  • Familiar nexus

    Familiar nexus

    • It’s not enough to draw a link between kidnap ransoms and terrorism, but to curb the trend

    Terrorism in the three zones of Nigeria’s northern region is at the heart of the threat to national security. This apparently informed the disclosure by Coordinator of the National Counterterrorism Centre in the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) that a nexus has been established between kidnapping for ransom and festering insecurity in the land, especially in Zamfara, Niger, and Katsina states as well as parts of Kaduna. That disclosure is expected to aid security forces in combating the crime and support the Federal Government in its food security drive.

    The resurgence of kidnapping in the northern region has raised fears that not much might have changed, and that life could remain brutish and short for a while, with people forced to live as if they were in the Hobbesian state of nature.

    Under the previous administration, orders were issued many times that criminals be rooted out, equipment were procured for the armed forces and recruitments made; but all these have not re-written the narrative of insurgency activities. What Nigerians want now are no excuses for failure to achieve the goal. The security service chiefs have a duty to prove that they are fit for purpose. Even in the Northeast, there have been fresh rumblings, especially in areas of Borno State where soldiers have been ambushed and some killed of late.

    If proceeds of kidnapping have now been officially confirmed as oxygen for terrorism and other violent crimes in the northern part of the country, the National Security Adviser has a duty to come up with strategies and tactics to cut off this oxygen as soon as possible.

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    It is gratifying that President Bola Tinubu has highlighted the international connection in the growing phenomenon as arms are procured through the Sahel region, while foreign terrorist groups like Al-Queda and Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) have been identified on the battle field. Funding is, therefore, not sourced through kidnapping alone but also channelled through this network. The President’s first participation at the United Nations General Assembly meeting, and bilateral discussions on the sidelines pointed in the direction of seeking international cooperation to wiping out the scourge.

    It is painful that 11 prospective members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC)  being commuted to the orientation camp in Sokoto from Akwa Ibom State were kidnapped on August 21. In the aftermath, three escaped and one got rescued. It is unfortunate that lives of young persons about to be enrolled into a mandatory national service could be so toyed with. Realising that they were posted to a hazardous territory, what plans were made for their safety by the NYSC management, and probably the Akwa Ibom State government? Couldn’t they have travelled by air, even if that would warrant their being given special rebate? And if that was considered too expensive, couldn’t they have been accompanied by armed security men?

    It is time to comprehensively review the NYSC model. Areas that are unsafe should be avoided when posting fresh graduates. The anguish of parents of the kidnapped young persons is best imagined. Worse still, the NYSC has been quite stingy with providing information and showing empathy. For days, NYSC Director-General, Brigadier-General Yaminu Musa,  failed to speak on the sad occurrence, and neither did he visit affected families. It was even suggested that some in the NYSC management team gave the impression that the abducted graduates were not yet under their oversight as they were on the way to the orientation camp. This is an untenable notion because the lads were already in possession of their call-up letter, which served as the Corp’s formal invitation to them.

    Fifty years after the establishment of the scheme, there is need to evaluate its contribution to nation-building vis-à-vis hazards posed to innocent youngsters who may be venturing to the area of their service posting for the first time ever. For now, states in throes of critical insecurity should be excused from the scheme. Leaders of tomorrow should not be exposed to avoidable danger.

  • Deadly blow

    Deadly blow

    • Brutal killing of security operatives by criminals in Imo is unacceptable

    Nigerian security forces have in the last decade fallen ready casualties of insecurity in the country. The numbers of military, paramilitary as well as civilians affected are huge, and this has constituted a moral burden of sorts on the nation. On many occasions, the hunters of insurgents, kidnappers, bandits and other social miscreants have themselves become not just the hunted but sheer victims.

    The Joint Task Force (JTF) was established as the primary organization for joint operations in a way that each unit brings its expertise and personnel in an effort to have a holistic grip on emerging security challenges in the country. The organization was formed in 2013 primarily to contain the Boko Haram insurgency that was at its peak in the North-East. However, while the JTF has recorded some successes in fighting the multiple social ills in the land, members have often become victims themselves. Across the country, many of the members have been killed in conflicts, ambushed or scared away by alleged superior firepower of criminals including Boko Haram and ISWAP insurgents, bandits, kidnappers, unknown gunmen and killer herdsmen.

    The attacks on JTF squads have been more frequent in the North-East and the South-East in the past few years.  The siege of attacks  was at peak when about two years ago, troops of the National Presidential Guard were ambushed in Abuja  and some of them killed. That incident signposted the grave danger of the proximity of the attackers to Nigeria’s seat of power. Few months ago, a military helicopter was shot down with casualties recorded.

    The JTF has also come under attacks at various times in recent years in the South-East, where the notorious ‘Unknown Gunmen’ have mounted a spate of attacks to tyrannise the citizenry. The spate of killing in the South-East seems to defy explanation, because not a few citizens have been killed or abducted by faceless criminals in ways that have left the region in fear of their terror.

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    A recent attack on members of the JTF  was in Ehime Mbano local government area of Imo state. The security operatives were reported to be on patrol along Aba-Oriagu road when they were ambushed, with about seven of them killed and their corpses burnt beyond recognition. Following that tragedy, fear gripped the villagers, most of who fled their homes for fear of reprisal attack from other operatives of the security agencies. Luckily, Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma seems to have played a role in calming the situation to some degree.

    We condemn in the strongest terms the fate that befell the hapless JTF members. It is sad that men whose lives are about sacrifice and patriotism are so needlessly attacked across the nation. Government at all levels must find a lasting solution to this menace. The Nigerian military is so under- populated as it were, and the country cannot continue losing members that it took her so long and so much in financial terms to train across all the formations.  Internal security ought not to so often ring the death knell for persons trained to protect the nation’s territorial integrity.

    Government would need to take a more holistic view of causative factors of all the internal attacks and conflicts. We believe that while no nation has succeeded in totally stamping out insecurity, many countries have tried to minimize the circumstances under which social miscreants thrive. Good leadership is a panacea for stability in any country. Poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and fanaticism feed the population of social miscreants. Government must address the fundamentals. A hungry man is an angry man, and angry people commit crimes.

    On the other hand, we implore members of the JTF to rejig their intelligence gathering in ways that the squads can work as a team where available expertise is harmonized for the objective sought. Members of the JTF are professional trained to fight, they should apply better intelligence to defeat the untrained. Most of the attacks often betray poor intelligence or operational inefficiency. Non-state actors dealing hard blows against state forces does not rub off well on Nigeria’s image, and the country cannot afford such at this time that we are clamouring for foreign direct investments. Besides, internal security has a way of predisposing citizens to great productivity. The suspects in this particular attack must be hunted down to show others the state has higher fire power. 

  • Alake Egba @80

    Alake Egba @80

    • Time to draw attention to sundry irritations to the traditional crown

    The Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo, turned 80 on September 14. It is hearty congratulations from here to a royal father who has conducted himself, and his court, with utmost decorum and grace.  That is despite sundry provocations that routinely question the ancient Kabiyesi – “unquestionable” — concept of the crown.

    We wish Oba Gbadebo, Okukenu IV, the best of health and wealth as he steps into his octogenarian years with undiminished royal carriage and splendour; not to mention his unquestionable community value to which many Egbas readily testified during the epoch’s weeklong chain of activities.

    Yet the monarch’s new age, and the times he lives in, could not but point attention to the unfortunate rudeness to traditional rulers in Iseyin — ironically on September 15, the very first day the king stepped into his 80th year — by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, an Egba subject, though from Owu quarters. Could Obasanjo have denigrated the federation of Egba kings, with the Alake in-situ, the way he did Oyo kings at Iseyin? Much condemnation has greeted Obasanjo’s odious conduct — and just as well.  So, it’s not the focus here. The focus, rather, is the imperative of carving out a dignified place for the traditional stool, so much so that no one, no matter how highly placed or recklessly delusional, would ever again insult our royal fathers in public.

    Again, for context: compare Gen. Obasanjo and Col. Gbadebo, both retired soldiers.  Obasanjo who left the military as head of state, became the Balogun of Owu Egba, made a return as elected president, but still holds on to his traditional Owu title as Balogun, one of the kingmakers. Gbadebo, on the other hand, retired as a colonel in the Nigerian Army to, in 2005, mount the throne of his forefathers as Alake of Egbaland.  So, here are two former soldiers playing prominent roles in the traditional institution. Often, the difference between modern and traditional Nigerian elite is no more than same persons playing different roles at different points in the long drama of life!

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    The Alake, as well as Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III of Sokoto — who retired as brigadier-general — are classics in this changing of roles. 

    But even the modern elite that don’t gain the crown receive chieftaincies from the traditional aristocracy, to validate their life’s achievements in consonance with the self-actualization peak of Abraham Maslow’s pyramid of needs.

    Besides, beyond the physical and the material, the traditional institution headed by the Oba in Yorubaland is a bastion of spirituality. After all, despite the incursion of Christianity and Islam, African spirituality remain alive and well.

    An Olu of Warri (now dead) ran into a storm as he attempted to convert his kingly court into a Christian court, a move that his subjects brusquely shunned, sparking a rebellion until the monarch dropped his plans.  Now, if the traditional institution is so crucial to modern living, why not protect it from the needless disgrace Obasanjo piled on it at Iseyin?

    Besides, traditional rulers go on quiet though seldom appreciated trouble-shooting to keep the peace. In his tribute to the Egba monarch, Yusuph Olaniyonu, ace journalist and himself a distinguished Egba son, alluded to how the Okukenu IV’s reign had “witnessed tremendous physical infrastructure and economic development in both Abeokuta and communities in the six local government areas dominated by the Egbas in Ogun State.”

    The vortex of that developmental push was between 2007 and 2015. During his eight-year governorship, with the audacious stock of flyovers, Governor Ibikunle Amosun, himself an Egba son, transformed Abeokuta into sheer poetry in glittering roads and bridges, making clogged traffic a rarity indeed.

    But that was the sweet part. The not-so-sweet were rumblings among natives alleging non-payment of promised compensations and allied grudges. Has it ever occurred to anyone that things could have gone out of hand had the traditional stool not stepped in to calm the irate folks, channelled their grievances away from government and struck some healthy calm as a prelude to permanently fixing the crisis?

    Those are routine problem-solving roles the traditional institution undertakes all over the country. Governance is better and calmer for it.  The is why the institution must earn our collective honour and respect, without necessarily re-embracing the absolutist “Kabiyesi” ancient era.

    The Alake stool best epitomizes mutual cohabitation between the modern and ancient orders.  The stool is seldom known for radicalism against the modern order.  Yet, it chalks up development and prosperity for its subjects. That is one record the Okukenu IV has maintained, indeed taken to a higher level.  May Oba Gbadebo reign for many years yet on the Egba throne.