Thank goodness — stray bullets from the 2 Division Nigerian Army, Odogbo, Ibadan, Oyo State, shooting range didn’t claim any life: just one injury to the arm of a child and another to the back of an elder.

Reports say while the bullet on the child’s arm had been extracted, the one in the elder’s back remains in there. Still, both are responding well to treatment. It could have been worse!

But first setting aside the unfortunate accidents, quoting at length the lamentation of Alhaji Kazeem Ijeru, one of the residents of the affected community: Arulogun area, in Oyo State’s Akinyele Local Government Area, might just expose a peculiar Nigerian mindset, which seems to crave danger, yet declares itself alarmed when that peril comes:

“They have started again. We have been going through this for years. They started again yesterday and it was very bad last night.

“Everybody stayed indoors and we all laid down flat to avoid being hit by bullets right inside our homes. The shooting continued this morning and unfortunately two persons were hit …

“We have staged protests; we have complained to the Army on many occasions but the situation has not changed.”

Just to be clear: the “they” here is the military, doing shooting drills in own shooting range — routine and legitimate duty to get themselves well drilled to defend their country, as demanded by the Nigerian Constitution.

How the military morphed into an accusatory “they”, like some gun touts that must be nailed and blamed, beggars belief. Yet, that’s the self-serving sentiments oozing from Alhaji Ijeru, though he spoke in panic, from a community faced with but a thin line between life and hot death!

That much was clear from the man’s graphic, if eerie, recall of how the people lay flat in their homes, all night, to evade zinging bullets! That must have been scary!

But then, which of the communities was older: the military facility with its shooting range, or latter-day encroachers all over Nigeria, in the country’s endless breach of town planning rules?

The Odogbo shooting range was once surrounded by wild, uncultivated country, if not thick forests. Now, a rash of towns has galloped to hug this facility. Yet, people in those communities now declare themselves victims in deadly situations for which they were partly responsible.

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The recall of the community’s umpteenth protests to the military is both revealing and instructive. What does the Arulogun community want: for the facility to shift base, because the people had bought land and built houses where they shouldn’t have in the first instance? That rather self-serving appeal could rile anyone, not the least the military.

Still, life is paramount. Whatever the mistakes the community had made, gravitating towards avoidable danger as it were, whatever the military can do to safeguard life and property should still be done. It is less about claiming rights — there’s hardly any right to claim here, beyond affirming the sanctity of life. It’s more about compassion, that milk that makes even the hardest of lives tolerable.

However, that can only be in the very short run. The shooting drill is routine military training which cannot wait. If it does, the military faces quandary — as its ability to protect and secure the rest of us — for no military is tick-tock without adequate and consistent training.

The ultimate solution would be to reclaim the area from the encroachers. Sadly, this is no open-and-shut case. It involves humans and it could well translate into acute human anguish. Many of those buildings could have sprung from costly bank loans. Many too could have been owners’ last-ditch investment to fend off hunger and privations at old age.

So, maybe the starting point should be to seek to minimise the suffering. First, the Oyo State government, via its town planning agencies, should do a clinical survey and get rid of habitation in areas in Arulogun extremely prone to danger. The same government must ensure nobody ever develops any property in that buffer zone.

Then, those to lose their homes should be aided with option of fresh plots in safe places and even soft loans to build their new homes. This compassionate package should serve as fit and proper penalty for the government itself.

If it had clinically applied its town planning rules, no one would have bought plots of land in that area, not to talk of building houses and wilfully endangering people’s lives.

The valedictory session marking retirement of Justice Abdu Aboki from the Supreme Court last week provided an opportunity for stakeholders to ruminate over the state of the apex court. His colleagues, led by the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Olukayode Ariwoola, bemoaned the telling effect that depletion of members had been having on their health.

In 2017, in view of the drop in the number of the justices to 12, eight more, including Aboki, were brought on board. But just four years after, the number has again dropped to 13. At the beginning of this year, there were 17, but health and age have taken their toll, and there is no end to that as many are already well advanced in age in the process of climbing the career ladder.

This calls for re-examination of the procedure for appointment to the Supreme Court. While Sections 230 and 231 of the 1999 Constitution prescribe the mode of ascending to the prestigious seats, it appears both the National Judicial Council (NJC) and the President who are saddled with the task have been reluctant to act promptly. This must change if the Supreme Court in particular,  and the judiciary as a whole, are to be saved. The appointment process, as canvassed by the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria at the valedictory session, needs adjustment.

Read Also: CJN laments depletion of Supreme Court Justices

For too long, justices from the Court of Appeal  have been routinely elevated to the apex court. The senior advocates contend, quite correctly in our view, that if no law shuts the door against advocates and academics, it is wrong for an imaginary or arbitrary door to be erected against judges. All that the constitution requires is that only lawyers who have at least 10 years post-call experience could occupy the highest Bench. However, the immediate past Chief Justice of Nigeria,  Justice Tanko Muhammad, had contended that it would be unfair to those who chose life on the Bench if they are sidelined for advocates who had been well paid by their clients over the years.

Both could be merged. Augustine Nnamani was a litigation lawyer who later became Attorney-General of the Federation before his elevation to the highest court of the land. Our Supreme Court should be fit for only the best. Whether serving as an advocate, an academic or on the Bench of the appeal court, no one should be discriminated against.

One reason for the fast depletion of the ranks is that those who moved from the magistracy up to the appeal court are already approaching the retirement age of 70 before landing at the Supreme Court that is saddled with hearing all sorts of matter, ranging from land disputes, chieftaincy and communal conflicts, industrial relations, business contracts and political contests. Yet, as things stand today, the court can only afford one full sitting at a time.

The NJC has a duty to urgently nominate candidates to fill all vacant seats. It is time suggestions to review the structure of the Judiciary are revisited, even if the constitution has to be reviewed. Many cases should terminate at the appeal court that has a spread in many states of the federation, leaving the apex court to handle cases that involve substantial interpretation of the law and intergovernmental disputes. In that case, backed by robust modern technology, the highest court would be able to adjudicate matters before it in good time.

About five months to the general elections next year, the Supreme Court should be in proper shape to rise to the occasion. As the Kenyan presidential election showed, matters could be concluded before the President is inaugurated. In any case, it was so at the inception of our Second Republic.

It smacks of disregard for the third arm of government when vacancies are left unfilled for months. This is the easiest of the weaknesses of the structure to handle. It should no longer be delayed.

Even as the country continues to groan in the throes of economic crisis characterised by drastic revenue shortfalls, escalating indebtedness and spiralling inflation, among others, it is astonishing that Nigeria had a number of times been forced to pay humongous amounts as judgement debts or out-of-court settlements in breach of contract cases filed against her by foreign and local entities. Such cases are reported to have grown in number over the last two years, to the extent that the country may pay out an estimated N7.58 trillion if the cases in question are lost.

For instance, the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, revealed that the Federal Government had agreed to pay a foreign investor, Global Steel Holdings Limited, $496 million to settle a protracted contractual dispute over the share purchase agreement between the two parties under the Alternative Dispute Resolution Framework of the International Chamber of Commerce, and this settlement agreement came into effect on August 19. Although this resolution is said to have reduced the amount for which the country would have been liable by about 90%, it is a hefty loss of resources for a country suffering from acute shortage of funds to meet its obligations.

Most legal experts believe that many of these cases would have been avoided if those involved in drawing up contractual agreements between government and other parties were competent, less negligent and complacent. A case in question, for example, is the $400 million lawsuit filed against the Federal Government by Sunrise Power Transmission of Nigeria Ltd at the International Court of Arbitration, Paris, France, in June 2021. The company is also demanding another $3.454 billion from the Federal Government at an arbitration court for alleged “breach of contract” with regard to a 3,050 MW plant in Mambilla, Taraba State.

The country is currently working towards overturning permanently a judgement by a British High Court which, in 2019, gave a private company, Process and Industrial Development (P&ID), the authority to seize Nigerian assets worth $9 billion in respect of a dispute over a contract awarded in 2010. The grouse of P&ID was that an agreement it entered into with the Nigerian government to build a gas processing plant in Calabar, Cross River State, failed when the government failed to fulfill its part of the deal.

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An application by Nigeria for extension of time and relief from sanctions on the ground that the gas contract was contrived to defraud the country and that P&ID officials paid bribes to facilitate the deal was granted by a UK court in September 2020 and the case has now returned to arbitration and is scheduled for trial in January 2023. The award, which has been accumulating interest pending the final determination of the case is now reportedly estimated at $10 billion.

In another instance, the 36 state governments are in court dispute with the Federal Government over the former’s claim that over N1.8 trillion in recovered loot and another N450 billion worth of non-cash assets recovered from the proceeds of crime since 2015 were paid into the Consolidated Revenue Accounts, which are controlled by the Federal Government and not recognised by the Constitution rather than being paid into the Federation Account and distributable among the federating units. Consequently, the state governments want the said cash and non-cash assets remitted to the Federation Account and distributed as stipulated by the Constitution.

No less distracting and disturbing is the ongoing public altercation between the AGF and the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) over a claim by private consultants that they were entitled to $418 million from states and local governments for services rendered in pursuit of the Paris Club debt refunds. While the NGF has disputed the entitlement of the consultants to these fees and is in court over the matter, the AGF sought the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for approval to effect the payments because, according to him, the state governments were obliged to fulfill the agreement legally entered into with the consultants. Many found it surprising that the AGF appeared less concerned about the legality of the consultants’ claims before such huge sums were disbursed to private parties from the public purse, with inevitable devastating economic consequences for the country.

We agree that foreign and local contractual agreements legitimately entered into must be scrupulously adhered to by all affected parties. But it has been alleged that many of these contentious agreements that end up in judgements that constitute a heavy drain on the public purse, were carelessly and unprofessionally handled. The impression is created in some cases that either the best legal brains were not involved in the processes or that the contracts were designed to fail by corrupt and unpatriotic Nigerian officials in collusion with private interests to defraud the country.

In the final analysis, the responsibility is ultimately that of the AGF and the chief law officers of the various states to ensure that contractual agreements are competently and efficiently handled while officials who compromise their brief for corrupt enrichment are prosecuted and severely sanctioned as a deterrence to others.

The question of a federal state with all the ingredients of authenticity got an unexpected boost from the north recently. All the northern state governors as well as their traditional rulers came out in one voice for the concept of state police.

The clamour has been in the political air for decades, and it seemed a subject that was craved by one region but disdained by another; evangelised by the progressives but anathema to the conservatives.

For the first time, the nation is at one on the issue that each state can have its own police force. It is a big step in the quest for a police outfit made and owned by each federating unit in the country.

Secondly, it moves from the stage of debates and disputation to the more assured level of constitutional amendment. We have had the senate, under its deputy president Ovie Omo-Agege, gather views and memoranda from across the country on what to retain and what to expunge and what to add to the constitution. It has been a long journey. The issue of state police can now be enshrined into its wisdom.

The process to make the new law is demanding, and must secure the endorsement of a majority of the states of the federation. Without the buy-in of the north, progress would not have been possible. Without the north, progress had not come – until now.

Read Also: No going back on call for state police, say Southern governors

The Northern Governors Forum issued a communique to that effect, and the chairman, Simon Lalong, who is also the governor of Plateau State, broke the ice. It is not just a step by the executives, who represent the people of the region, but also the traditional rulers who embody its soul.

We have had, over the years, states that have taken a measure of control of their states. It was not to take over the police in any formal sense but to show what the police can look like when the states take over. For a fact, the states have provided gear, supplies and comfort for the police. Lagos State started the process by providing arms, vehicles and personal comfort for them. Other states followed. So, what existed was a police force that acquired the power to function but with authority from somewhere else.

We appreciate the grace of the centre to allow the states to prop their police even if the state governors did not have the power of command. The power always lay with the inspector-general of police. The decision is immense in its implications. It implies no one can appoint a commissioner of police from elsewhere. The governors have been known under the law as chief security officers. But they have owned that position only in a titular sense.

The police will now have local colour, with persons who come from those states and those who have stakes in the community. It also opens states for imaginative liberty to organise security to match their needs and craft them for their peculiar future.

We saw the foretaste with the creation of A motekun, a local force in answer to the rise of insecurity from the herders and their trails of slaughter. Other regions followed, including the north that has suffered the most from the devilry of the bandits. The centre has lumbered to keep up with the nimble tyrants.

If necessity has compelled the north to come to the urgency of their decision, it demonstrates again how democracies sometimes have to suffer to be wise. It does not have to be so. But all is well that ends well.

Nigeria is a jigsaw puzzle. It is a country that has crude oil but cannot refine it.  A country where vital electrical equipment needed to enhance power supply are abandoned to rot away for years at the ports. A country where government would threaten to name and shame ghost workers’ and terror sponsors but would not carry out the threat. A country where government goes a-borrowing even when it has assets lying fallow all over the place. We can go on and on listing the country’s queer characteristics.

If the report by Sunday Punch of September 10, 2022, is anything to go by, we can clearly see an aspect of the country’s life that is difficult to explain. According to the report, there are over 2,000 assets seized from politically exposed persons, civil servants and others, that are rotting away. And this at a time the government is facing an acute cash crunch and has resorted to massive borrowing to execute some capital projects!

The items are those recovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Nigeria Customs Service, the Nigeria Police Force and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), among others. They were seized from high-profile Nigerians, including a former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, etc., following their convictions by competent courts, for corrupt practices.

We are here talking of more than 90 sea vessels, exotic cars, residential and commercial buildings, several fuel-laden tankers, trucks, machinery, phones, laptops, jewellery, furniture, etc. Because of the little or no attention paid to these items, some of them were said or feared to have been re-looted or sold at rockbottom prices to cronies of some highly placed public officials.

For instance, a 2020 report by the Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets titled, ‘Final Report of the Presidential Investigation Committee on the EFCC Federal Government Recovered Assets and Finances from May 2015 to May 2020’, said that the former chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, an assistant inspector-general of police, could not account for 332 out of the 836 recovered properties, in March 2018. The same way he could not tell what happened to the interest generated from cash recoveries by the commission from 2015 to 2020, which must have been quite substantial.

Read Also: EFCC hands over N4.5b edifice seized from ex-CDS Badeh to VON

The report also alleged that two ships “.….were allowed to sink in spite of several warnings from the Navy on the need to evacuate the petroleum products in the vessels.”

But it is doubtful if Nigerians would ever be surprised about these items that are perishing when the country could have reaped substantial financial benefits from them. That culture did not start today. When the federal capital moved from Lagos to Abuja, a lot of properties were abandoned. Many other public facilities, including stadia, have been similarly abandoned.

That is the way public properties are treated in the country. Public property, here in Nigeria, is like a mad man’s leg that anyone desirous of a piece of the action could go cut his or her own pound of flesh. Perhaps it is so because of the easy way the country makes money from crude oil. Many people have argued that our governments would have been more careful with public funds if they actually labour to get revenue to finance their programmes and projects. Our carefree attitude, even to the country’s cash cow, is such that we even rely on foreigners doing the oil exploration for crucial statistics concerning the quantum of crude that is pumped.

Well, perhaps we should not blame the present government for complete inaction on this matter. At least it set up an inter-ministerial committee on forfeited assets in November 2020, following approval by President Muhammadu Buhari. The problem is that despite his legal background, the attorney-general and minister of justice, Abubakar Malami, who set up the committee did not follow due process and so, the committee as well as all its actions were declared illegal by a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos.

But the government cannot just fold its arms following this judgment. It should do the rightful by following due process in solving the problems militating against prompt disposal of these prime assets that are said to be able to fetch the country about N4trilion. At least this is better than the debt unlimited option that the government is pursuing. One of the things it must do is to ensure the cooperation of the judiciary so that those wishing to use frivolous judicial processes to stall their cases would not find favour in the eyes of the courts.

We must put a stop to this demonic and tragic lackadaisical attitude on the part of our public officials. Here again, Nigerians must wake up to demand responsible and responsive governance, using all legally available means. We cannot have water in abundance and continue washing our hands with spittle.

The name Dangote has morphed into so many metaphors in Nigeria. Globally, the man, Aliko Dangote is referred to as Africa’s richest man. In Nigeria, the name is both a noun and an adjective for several reasons. Nigerians know Dangote as a businessman of repute, an entrepreneur who made his money by investing in industries that have provided jobs for thousands of Nigerians and non-Nigerians alike.

On the other hand, the Dangote in Nigeria’s socio-economic circles seems to often define driver-recklessness due to the fact that the company has more than 10,000 trucks on Nigerian roads, the highest by any company in the country. A myriad of accidents, deaths and destruction of property are therefore often blamed on drivers in the Dangote fleet.  Some of the drivers have been involved in series of fatal accidents and other road traffic infringements, some of which never got the attention of law enforcement agencies for proper prosecution.

Nigerians therefore heaved a huge sigh of relief when one of the Dangote drivers was jailed by a magistrate court in Nasarawa State. The driver had been arrested by the Drivers Patrol Team of Dangote Group of Companies for engaging in ‘unapproved acts’ by using the company’s truck to carry timber.

While we commend the company for listening to the general outcry about the menace being caused by some of the companies’ drivers, we must observe that the arrest and jailing of the errant driver was not as a result of the litany of crimes committed against other road users but for a breach of company policy, valid as that might be. We believe that the media has been very helpful in documenting and publicising the traffic truancy of recalcitrant Dangote drivers, leading to the setting up of the commendable internal monitoring mechanism.

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We however believe that the government agencies in charge of transportation, works, road safety, vehicle inspection  offices (VIOs), police and others have generally failed in doing their jobs as regards the monitoring of road users and insisting on using only road worthy vehicles on our roads, and that drivers are licensed and monitored.

But the problems created by articulated vehicle drivers on our roads are not perpetrated by drivers in the Dangote fleet alone. Indeed, there are documented details about the traffic offences committed by truck drivers generally due to a myriad of reasons that bother on negligence and lack of official vigilance and adherence to traffic rules. Most of the drivers are not trained, some just graduate from being loaders to being drivers, There seems to be little or no background checks to ascertain their mental and physical wellness before they get into the roads.

While we commend the Dangote Group of Companies for setting up a system of monitoring its drivers on the roads, we commend the initiative to other companies using articulated vehicles for their operations. And it should go beyond the teams ensuring that the drivers use the vehicles only for official purposes, to cover the drivers’ behaviour on the roads. Moreover, companies that do not have contacts to call boldly written on their trucks if their drivers misbehave on the roads should do this. Some Nigerians would surely take advantage of such numbers, thereby helping both the companies and other road users.

In the same vein, governments must do their bit too. The roads across Nigeria are in very bad shape and some of these trucks feel the impact in constant repairs and sometimes, the drivers decide to drive faulty trucks instead of staying out of job.

Government agencies on their part must therefore commit to keeping both the drivers and other citizens safe. Nigeria has the unenviable position of being one of the countries with the highest number of road accidents and with that the number of casualties and impact on the socio-economic life of the country.

However, all owners of articulated vehicles must be more responsible with the recruitment, training and supervision of their staff, to save lives. They must ensure that their vehicles are roadworthy all the time and the drivers are not overstretched in their bid to save cost. The point must be made too that these drivers are human beings and are therefore susceptible to human frailties like others. So, their pay should be enhanced to reduce their temptation to make money by recklessly driving at grave risks to other road users.

Likewise, governments must make sure that other means of transportation are functional to reduce the toll on the roads caused by too many articulated vehicles. Life has no duplicate.

That there was a drop in foreign investments in the country’s agricultural sector in the first six months of this year should not come as a surprise. Figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that such investments dipped from $235.87million in the same period in 2018 to $59.17million, a 74.9 per cent drop and the lowest in the last five years. Similarly, foreign investments in the agricultural sector in the first quarter of 2022 was a meagre $1.76milion, representing about 98.7 per cent drop from $130millon in the same period in 2018. These are huge drops that should be a source for worry because food is an indispensable requirement of human existence.

We all know the prerequisites for the inflow of foreign investments or any investment for that matter: safety or security is key. We also need regular and affordable power supply, simplified business registration processes, ability of investors to repatriate their profits, among other criteria. All of these we refer to as a conducive business climate. Where any of them is missing, it is not only foreign investors that would fear for their investments, even local investors too would be apprehensive.

So, if there was a massive drop in the flow of foreign investments in the agricultural sector, it is understandable. We need not look far for the causes: Insecurity, stupid!

The National President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Ibrahim Kabiru, put it succinctly: “All the parameters for investments are clear; you go to a country to invest because it is lucrative to invest there and you’re going to make money out of your investments. But Nigeria has fast become a country where there is no safety in terms of your investment. Even your personnel are not safe,” he said.

It is an open secret that Nigeria has been battling all manner of security challenges in the past decade or so. We have recorded quite a significant number of deaths of farmers and herders in several farmer/herders’ clashes, particularly in the northern part which is the country’s food basket. Boko Haram and other insurgents, including the Islamic State’s West  Africa Province (ISWAP) as well as bandits and abductors have also claimed several lives, including farmers. As a matter of fact, things are so bad in some places that farmers pay bandits and insurgents in order to be able to work on their farms unmolested. Many farmers have either been killed or displaced. Indeed, to say Nigeria is facing one of its most dreaded periods in its history due to the activities of these outlaws is stating the obvious.

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And, as Tajudeen Ibrahim, director of research and strategy, Chapel Hill Denham noted, “It is just natural for foreign investors to slow down from investing in that sector because the news flow out there on farmers’ fate and their farm produce in recent months, are materially negative.”

But insecurity is only an aspect of the farmers’ headache in Nigeria. This has, particularly of recent, been compounded by rising operational costs. Agro-business basically involves the processing of available agricultural commodities/raw materials into finished products, thus adding value to the commodities. This in turn means more demand for power which is still not readily available in the country. The implication is that those in the food processing business, like other producers, also have rising cost of diesel to power their generators, to contend with. Just as they also have to source foreign exchange at prohibitive rates. All of these are uncertainties that investors detest.

But whatever the cause/s of investors’ reluctance to invest in a place, the approach of the government to the issues will, to a large extent, determine how and when they would get out of it. What is required is a thorough appraisal of the situation, with a view to finding appropriate solutions to the challenge.

The problems militating against foreign investment in the agricultural sector have been well articulated. But that is only one leg of the problem. It is now left for the government to  isolate the issues and begin to frontally deal with them one by one. There seems to be a noticeable improvement in the anti-terror war, especially in recent weeks. This must be sustained until the capacity of the insurgents to wreak havoc has been significantly degraded. On the economic front, the government should consider incentives that would ease procurement of farming implements and equipment for food processing to make it attractive for those interested in the business to invest. Efforts must also be geared towards ensuring regular and affordable power supply as well as continue to encourage local investors to be interested in agriculture.

We must look in the way of agriculture because it is a major sector, apart from oil, with the highest potential for foreign exchange earnings and investments in Nigeria. Since investors will naturally drift towards places where they can break even, it is incumbent on the government to put in place an enabling environment for such to happen.

The arrest and detention of Tukur Mamu, the Kaduna-based publisher of the Desert Herald, by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) has rightfully raised concerns amongst the general public. Until his arrest, Mamu was better known as the person who negotiates with bandits for release of victims of the Abuja-Kaduna train attack. He was reportedly arrested at the Mallam Aminu Kano International airport, following his deportation from Egypt, at the request of the security agencies.

Mamu was accused of heading to Saudi Arabia allegedly to hold meeting with members of international terrorist organisations. Subsequent to his arrest, DSS operatives and military men conducted search at his Ungunwan Dosa home and Unguwan Sarki office, in Kaduna State. According to Peter Afunanya of DSS: ‘‘so far, appropriate security agencies have executed valid search warrants on Mamu’s residence and office. During the search processes, incriminating materials, including military accoutrements were recovered.” He went on: ‘‘Other items include large amounts in different currencies and denominations as well as financial transaction instruments.”

Considering the sudden change in the public perception of Mamu, from a compassionate hero risking his life negotiating with bandits, to a potential national security threat, Nigerians are interested in what is happening to him. For now, the DSS appears to be going about their job appropriately. Amongst other procedure, it approached a Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice Nkeonye Maha, to obtain an order to detain Mamu for another 60 days, based on ex parte application by Ahmed Magaji, counsel to the DSS.

But of note, the Daily Trust Newspaper reported that a relation of Mamu alleged that family members and associates of Mamu are apprehensive. The paper quoted the relation: “we are still in trauma and shock over this intimidation. We call on conscientious Nigerians not to allow this injustice to prevail. This is a man who put his life at stake for the sake of others, yet all he could get was harassment, intimidation and threats to life. This can only happen in a country that has suppressed the rule of law and rights of its citizens.”

The DSS alleged in its affidavit before the court, that its preliminary findings established the offences of “logistics supplier, aiding and abetting acts of terrorism” as well as terrorism financing. These are serious allegations and it is important that Mamu is afforded an opportunity to say his own side of the story, and the principle of fair hearing would give him an opportunity to present his answers to those alleged findings of the DSS before the court.

As a country practising constitutional democracy, the call by Mamu’s family for observance of the rule of law in his trial is in order. We hope that fuller findings of the DSS would also be shared with the public, since the allegations of what were allegedly found in his house following the search are already in the public domain. If the DSS would not share all its findings with the public, it should desist from leaking information that may be prejudicial to a fair trial of the detained person.

The alleged request by the DSS for a media blackout of the travails of Mamu is unconstitutional, and we urge them to withdraw it. Section 22 of the 1999 constitution (as amended) clearly gives mass media the authority to hold government and her agencies accountable. We therefore urge the DSS to concentrate its energy on doing its job under the laws of the country, while it allow others do theirs. The resultant checks and balance are ingredients of a constitutional democratic nation, and Nigeria is aspiring to be amongst such nations.

If Nigerians ever needed any proof of the law being an ass, it must be in the latest wave of the clampdown on motorists said to be using faded vehicle number plates across the country. From the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, to the nation’s commercial capital, Lagos, the story is increasingly commonplace of motorists being slapped with a hefty fine of N20,000 for being in contravention of the provision that requires that all vehicle number plates must be visible from at least 50 metres. And that in addition to being required to procure a new number plate known to cost a princely N32,000 in a state like Lagos.

Here is a little-known law which is as unambiguous and well-intentioned as can be; yet, Nigerians are only too familiar with the penchant by government officials to clutch to those legal straws which seek to downplay the bigger issues of justice, equity and fair dealing.

Here, it must have come as a new thing to Nigerians that the number plates manufactured by the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, (with the exception of Lagos State which insists on producing for its own motorists) – have expiry dates.  At least, that is what the statement credited to Bisi Kazeem, the FRSC Public Education Officer suggests: “They have a minimum life span of five years if properly used, hence the provision for replacement.” Just as intriguing is the claim by the same official that the “materials for the number plates are being procured from a recognised manufacturer whose standards could not be compromised” – even when the evidence – so overwhelming – suggest otherwise.

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As it does appear, Nigerian motorists have no problem with the law. In these dangerous times, it would seem as much in their interest as it is of the larger society that the basic elements of vehicle identification are not only maintained but scrupulously kept. Not so however with the idea of a Federal Government monopoly acting not just as the determinant of licensing standards but also as a contractor/agent in charge of number plates’ production. They find the idea as not only bad but anachronistic – particularly when its derivatives are the excessively high cost of procuring the licensing plates, the steady dip in quality arising from lack of competition, and the concomitant extortion by officials in the guise of enforcing the law.

We do agree on the need to have a uniform standard for number plates. But then, the argument that this can only happen when the FRSC is in absolute charge is bunkum. After all, Lagos State successfully challenged the FRSC on its monopoly of same. So is a world of difference between the number plate and the registration number embossed on it. While the former is merely a metal plate on which a vehicle’s identification mark is displayed, only the latter, which constitutes its distinctive mark truly qualifies as a security symbol – whose directory states Motor Vehicle Administrations are mandated to keep. The penchant to conflate the two as the FRSC is wont to do is not only cheap but utterly self-serving. In any case, we find nothing in the present arrangement that cannot be better handled by duly licensed players in the private sector. Therefore, it is about time the process is thrown open to qualified private entities. Aside coming with the advantage of being competitive, it will facilitate better monitoring and control of the process. Needless to add that it would save the motorist from mindless extortion by officials.

We see how neat the vehicle number plates of second-hand vehicles imported into the country is, irrespective of the duration of those number plates. Nothing stops us from attaining that standard. As a matter of fact, we need such neat number plates more because of our peculiar security situation and limitations of the requisite technological tools on the part of our law enforcement agencies to track down traffic offenders.

However, since only a few Nigerians are aware that vehicle number plates have expiry dates, we urge continual enlightenment by the relevant agencies to bring this to public consciousness. Our officials seem usually too eager to arrest even in minor cases where caution or mere warning would do.