What could be driving the seeming determination of the Chief Judge of Akwa Ibom state, Justice Ekaette Obot, to go to any length to humiliate Mr Inibehe Effiong, a lawyer and human rights activist? If media reports are correct, why would the learned chief judge initially disrespect the fundamental rights of the incarcerated activist by refusing to furnish him with the Certified True Copy of his judgment, to enable Effiong exercise his right of appeal? The record of proceedings was however later released about 48 hours after Effiong filed a suit at the Federal High Court, Uyo, asking the court to compel the chief judge to release it.

While we leave the Court of Appeal to determine the propriety of the sentence of the activist by the chief judge for contempt in facie curiae (in the presence of the court), we consider it an abuse of power for the judge to in any way hinder the right of the convict to appeal the judgment. We urge the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to look into the circumstances surrounding the trial, conviction and delay of the appeal process, and if the judge has erred, to take necessary steps to bring him to justice.

The news that Effiong’s head and beards have been shaved by the Uyo Correctional Centre where he was transferred to, from Ikot Ekpene Correctional Centre, in controversial circumstance, aggravates the public concern about the motive behind the treatment of the activist. The report that Effiong was also beaten up in the correctional centre should be investigated by relevant authorities, and anyone found culpable should be dealt with in accordance with the law.

While we do not condone lawlessness before the court, the case of Effiong should not attract any special interest of the custodial authorities simply because the chief judge of the state is interested in the matter. We note that rights activists Femi Falana, SAN, and Richard Akinola have condemned the treatment meted out to Effiong by the court and the correctional centre, and we encourage other lawyers to speak up; for injustice to one, is injustice to all.

In his statement Falana stated: “the brutal torture meted out to Inibehe by the prison officials in Akwa Ibom State constitutes a violent violation of his fundamental right to dignity guaranteed by section 34 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, and Article 5 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act Cap A9 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”

Mr Falana recalled the case of Minere Amakiri, who was a reporter with the defunct Nigerian Observer, whose head was shaved with a broken bottle in 1973 on the orders of Alfred Diette-Spiff, the then military governor of the old Bendel State. While the correctional centre has reportedly denied torturing Effiong, and has claimed that shaving prisoners was routine, we wonder why the haste when Effiong had not exhausted his right of appeal.

We also encourage the prison authority to review such a routine policy, which can be dehumanising for those in their custody. It is contradictory for Nigeria Prisons to be changed to Nigeria Correctional Centre, while the prison authorities remain attached to the archaic practices associated with their past. Those sentenced to imprisonment should see their incarceration as an opportunity to mend their ways, and the way they are treated is part of that process.

The sentencing of Effiong by Justice Obot in circumstances that the NBA and senior lawyers have described as untoward deserves the expeditious review of the Court of Appeal, so that Nigerians are assured that justice has been meted out. To do otherwise is to give the impression that Effiong is a victim of an ineffective judicial process.

It appears there is a mixup somewhere in the reportage of what transpired during the House of Committee on Public Accounts investigative hearing on the alleged bush clearing contracts awarded by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. While media headlines largely gave the impression that N18.9billion was spent on bush clearing, the ministry said only about N2.5billion was spent on bush clearing and land preparation of 3,200 hectares in eight states, as allocated by the respective state governments.

Wole Oke’s (the committee chairman) statement seemed to give the impression that the money was not for bush clearing alone when he said that  “during the lockdown  of the country as a result of COVID 19, some companies took contract worth about N18 billion for bush clearing from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, for land preparation, rehabilitation of soil plant lab and others.” The Federal Ministry of Agriculture was later to clarify that it did not spend N18.9billion on bush clearing alone but on other rural projects, including roads in the six geo-political zones of the country, soil sampling and mapping, farmers registration as well as rehabilitation and equipping of four national soil laboratories in Umudike (Abia State), Ibadan (Oyo State), Kaduna (Kaduna State) and FCT Abuja.

“It is also important to state that the ministry did not spend N18.9bn on bush clearing as reported.  The ministry only carried out Bush clearing and land preparation of 3,200 hectares in eight states of Osun, Ekiti, Edo, Cross River, Kaduna, Kwara, Plateau and Ogun states as allocated by respective state governments at a total cost of 2.5 billion Naira”, the ministry said in a statement by its director of information, Dr Joel Oruche.

Again, the ministry denied receiving any audit query to warrant summon by the committee. But the committee chair gave the impression that the hearing was prompted by the query of the Auditor-General of the Federation (AuGF) that looked into the bush clearing contracts.

Indeed, it was based on this that the committee asked the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to furnish it with the details of the companies that got the contracts — their years of incorporation, corporate offices, names of their owners and shareholders. The committee also directed the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to give it details of their financial status.

All said, there are some contradictions in the reports that require clarifications. First, was the public hearing a product of the AuGF’s report? What are the details specified in the audit query concerning the contracts? Was any audit query ever sent to the ministry on the matter? This question is pertinent because the ministry has denied ever receiving any audit query.

Just like members of the committee, the public would also be interested in confirming the execution of all the contracts that the ministry claimed it had executed with the N18.9 billion. As the committee chair observed, “but some of our members whose constituencies these projects were supposed to be domiciled doubted the existence of these projects and for fair hearing, we have invited the companies that got the contract for them to come and tell this committee where and when the jobs were executed.”

On matters like this which involve public funds, there must not be any ambiguity. This is especially so in our kind of situation where corruption is pervasive. There are several cases of fictitious contracts, unexecuted contracts and inflated contracts, none of which is good for the polity.

So, there is need for clarity on this issue. The way things are, it is not good for proper book-keeping. This is why we encourage the House committee that is looking into the matter to be thorough in its assignment. At the end of it all, Nigerians want to know the exact position of things. Was N18.9 billion spent to clear bush alone? Were there other contracts executed with the money? If yes, were they delivered to specification? Was the country short-changed in any way? These are some of the gray areas that must be illuminated to bring closure to this bush clearing saga.

You want to know where the terror war rages the fiercest?  Just follow the trail of hard drugs.  That is the not-so-hidden story behind the seizure of some two million tablets of hard drugs, which the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) just seized. According to Femi Babafemi, the NDLEA spokesperson, the drugs were headed for seven northern states: Borno, Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Zamfara, Gombe and Nasarawa.

Babafemi told the media that 2, 325, 553 tablets and capsules of Tramadol, Pregabalin, Hypnox, Diazepam and Exol-5 were seized by NDLEA operatives at different operations.  Also seized were 353 bottles of ‘Akuskura’, a new psychoactive substance so-called, set to be distributed in those seven northern states.  The seizures were made in Kaduna, Kogi, Sokoto and the Federal Capital Territory.

On August 12, one Umar Sanusi was nabbed during a follow-up raid in Kano.  He was taken back to Kaduna, which appeared his main operational base; and the 50 cartons of Pregabalin  300 mg, containing 750, 000 capsules, which weighed 375 kilograms were weighed in his presence.  The drugs, which ownership was traced to him, had earlier been seized on the Abuja-Kaduna expressway.

Other dangerous drugs were seized on the Okene-Abuja expressway on August 19: 696, 000 tablets of Tramadol and Exol-5, all loaded in a truck from Onitsha, Anambra State, headed for Maiduguri, in Borno State.  Also, 300, 000 tablets of Diazepam were seized from one Faruku Bello, in Sokoto State, on August 17.  Yet, another seizure of hard drugs, bound for Nasarawa State from Onitsha, Anambra State, was made.

Perhaps to show how active such illicit trade had become on Nigerian highways, the driver of the truck, one Osita Nwobodo, allegedly tried to compromise the NDLEA operatives.  But he was promptly arrested and thrown into custody.

The NDLEA must be commended for this feat.  Indeed, since Brig-General Buba Marwa became the agency’s boss, there has been an upsurge in the operatives’ war against trafficking in illicit drugs.  Again, that the raids have been sustained is praise-worthy because not a few had thought it would peter out.  It hasn’t and it mustn’t.  So, the NDLEA must do all within its power to further empower and encourage its operatives to continue in that positive path.

Still, why might these dangerous drugs be heading towards the aforementioned seven northern states?  The answer would appear obvious.

Borno, until much recently, harboured the most virulent of the terror challenge: the Boko Haram plague with the murderous activism of the cells of ISWAP: Islamic State of West Africa Province, a tear-away rogue cell from the original Boko Haram.

Zamfara, Kaduna and Sokoto had latterly become the epicentres of terrorism in Nigeria’s North West, with cells finding the North East corridor too hot to handle, scrambling into some refuge in those three states and becoming new plagues for the luckless locals.

Gombe was a catchment area of North East terror.  Nasarawa and Kogi would appear breeding grounds for opportunistic terror cells.  With the recent jail break in nearby Abuja, Nasarawa appears to teem with many cells, sprung by the jail break.  That much has been volunteered by the state’s governor, in his periodic alerts to the Federal Government on this unfortunate development.

Kano, so far safe from recent terror activities, should pick the interests of the security agencies.  That a huge cache of hard drugs was headed for Kano could well re-confirm the age-old primacy of Kano as a vibrant centre of northern commerce.  But it could also provide early intelligence that some terrorist cells could be finding new homes in the state.  If true, the earlier they were found out, routed and uprooted from the area, the better for everyone.

But again here, the centrality of NDLEA, to the terror war, cannot be over-stressed.  If hard drugs have proved a ruthless trigger and enabler for terrorist acts — Islamist raids and capture, kidnapping, cattle rustling and even wanton murder of luckless farmers by criminal herders — then the NDLEA mop-up of these drugs must be crucial to prevailing over terror.

That is why the NDLEA must not only continue on its present path, it must also go after the barons, using the hands already in custody as leads.  That way, it can rid the environment of these evil kingpins and sundry collaborators.

The more successful these arrests are, the likelier the drug networks would be smashed.  With the network dislodged — in any case, highly degraded — and free supply of hard drugs cut off, terror would start ebbing, and the victims nationwide would finally breathe the air of relief.

It’s curious that the Appeal Court of Nigeria, Kano Division, on August 17, ordered a retrial of the case involving Kano-based Muslim musician Aminu Yahaya Sharif, who was controversially sentenced to death for blasphemy under Islamic law, also known as Sharia.

The Federal Court of Appeal affirmed the judgement of Kano State High Court, Appellate Division, which, in January 2021, had ordered a retrial of the blasphemy case based on observed irregularities in the trial that led to the singer’s conviction.

An upper Sharia court in Kano State, in August 2020, had found Sharif guilty of “insulting religious creed” regarding a song he circulated via WhatsApp.  The Islamic singer’s song was said to have elevated Senegalese Sheikh Ibrahim Niass of the Tijaniyyah Muslim sect above Prophet Muhammad. Qadi Aliyu Muhammad Kani, who sentenced the singer to death by hanging, said the verdict was based on Section 382 (6) of Kano State Sharia Penal Code Law 2000.

In his appeal against the judgement, he had argued that he was not represented by a lawyer during the trial, which was contrary to the principles of natural justice. Importantly, he had also emphasised that his trial, conviction, and sentencing “were unconstitutional, null and void, having grossly violated and conflicted with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999) as amended and having violated the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

After losing the appeal at the state high court, which had ordered a retrial, he had sought justice at the Federal Court of Appeal, which has now also ordered a retrial. The state’s attorney general and commissioner for justice, Musa Lawan, was reported to have described the judgement as a victory for the people of Kano, adding that the federal appeal court recognised Kano State Sharia Penal Code Law, 2000.

This, surely, is the crux of the matter. The question is whether Sharif should have been tried for blasphemy in the first place, considering that the charge is inconsistent with the country’s overriding secular constitution.  The order that a retrial be conducted under the same Islamic law does not address the fundamental issue of the alleged unconstitutionality of the initial trial.  Predictably, the latest judgement is seen as a win by Sharia proponents.

The retrial order by the federal appeal court raises fundamental issues about the operation of Sharia in the country.   Nigeria is a multi-religious but secular country where the Islamic system of justice operates in 12 northern Muslim-majority states alongside a secular justice system. Only Muslims can be tried in the Sharia court. Non-Muslims are required to give their consent before trial under Sharia.

Sharia has been controversial since its introduction in 1999. Apart from conflicting with the country’s constitution, the death penalty for blasphemy under Sharia also violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Nigeria is a signatory to this treaty that is designed to protect basic human rights and restricts the death penalty to the “most serious crimes,” which are crimes that involve intentional killing.

Blasphemy is not a crime under the country’s secular constitution, which is the supreme law of the land. Although the country’s federal system of government accommodates the sharing of power between the national authority and the constituent units, such an arrangement should not redefine the country’s pivotal secularism.

In the circumstances, there is an urgent need to address the Sharia question.  Sharia court judgements can be challenged in Nigeria’s secular Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. The judgement of the Federal Court of Appeal, which ordered the singer’s retrial under Sharia, essentially leaves the matter unresolved.  At some point, the Supreme Court will need to make a clarifying and definitive pronouncement on the operation of Sharia and the supremacy of the country’s constitution.

It remains to be seen if Sharif’s retrial for blasphemy under Sharia will lead to a different outcome. The intervention of the Federal Court of Appeal should have resolved the matter in favour of the country’s secularism.

At a time when it’s all about bad news, it is heart-warming that positive news is coming from unusual quarters. Over the years, surveys by Transparency International have depicted the Nigeria Police Force as the most corrupt institution in Nigeria. But, out of the blues, a Divisional Police Officer in Kano State, Daniel Itse Amah, has been commended by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) for being incorruptible.

Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, who disclosed the IGP’s commendation in a statement said “The Divisional Police Officer in charge of Nasarawa Division in Kano State, SP Daniel Itse Amah, has been commended for his integrity and exhibition of sound professionalism leading to the arrest of an armed robbery syndicate despite being offered a bribe of 200,000 USD to look away, which he rejected.”

Apart from leading a team that bust a high profile robbery gang, he resisted an attempt to bribe him with a tempting sum of $200,000 at a time when the American currency is so valuable in Nigeria that people are selling body organs to earn it.

Amah, a Superintendent of Police, led investigations that enabled the force to arrest the gang, comprising a lawyer and some police officers. The letter of commendation delivered by the state Acting Commissioner of Police, Mr. Abu bakar Zubair, is a step in the right direction. Whenever officers like Amah are identified, they deserve to be honoured officially. This would serve as encouragement to others in the force and other agencies of the government.  Besides, such officers, too, would be encouraged to do more.

This is, however, not enough. Mr. Amah and his team should be awarded national honour for doing what many consider impossible  in the country. Besides, a cash award would not be out of place for recovering N320,500,000 from highly placed robbers and rejecting such hefty bribe.

It is however not enough that such shining lights are projected by the Nigeria Police Force, the IGP should put in place mechanism to prevent collusion between officers and criminals. He should make recommendations to the Federal Government on how to improve the image of the police. The same should be extended to other agencies like the Customs Service,  Immigration Service, the Judiciary and others that have featured prominently as incredibly corrupt.

Anti-graft institutions such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission  (ICPC) should be mandated to move from running after criminals to crime prevention, especially in the public service.

Government should also come up with measures to speedily arrest, prosecute and secure conviction of rotten eggs in the force. This would enhance effectiveness, and thus sanitise the system.

The country has been so raped over the years that it has become one of the three most poverty-stricken in the world. For a country so endowed with mineral resources, corruption is the only explanation for the misery and squalor bedevilling majority of the citizens. Leaders are more of rulers who stash away the common patrimony in developed countries. This monster must be tamed if the country is to move forward.

Law enforcers should not be law breakers if the people are to be made to sit up. We need more Superintendent Amahs if Nigeria is to be sanitised and returned to the path of development.

Speaking against the background of the deepening economic crisis, the looming fiscal and revenue meltdown and the consequent escalating debt profile that Nigeria faces today, experts in the building and allied sectors have expressed dismay at the sheer number of abandoned buildings by all tiers of government in the country. According to the Nigerian Institute of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), there are no less than 50,000 abandoned buildings and projects owned by the three levels of government scattered across the country and valued at about N9.5 trillion as at 2021. Understandably, the bulk of these projects belong to the federal and state governments, as the local government councils incessantly complain of insufficiency of funds to meet their basic responsibilities. The experts decry the state of these abandoned buildings, many of which were built over 30 to 40 years ago, and ought to be generating considerable revenue for the country if properly maintained and utilised.

It is estimated that not less than 2,000 of these abandoned buildings, which cannot meet the objectives of the investment in them, both completed and uncompleted, are  in Lagos. This is not surprising, given the role of Lagos as the federal capital of the country till 1991 when the federal capital was relocated to Abuja. Even then, Lagos continues to be the country’s economic and commercial hub as well as her industrial nerve–centre. It has been estimated that the market value of abandoned Federal Government properties in Lagos is in the range of N9.5 trillion, with an average individual value of N190 million. Perhaps one of the most prominent of these abandoned buildings in Lagos is the old Federal Secretariat complex, a sprawling edifice located in Ikoyi. Professor Olumide Adeniran of the Department of Building, University of Lagos, calculates that the country has lost not less than N88 billion in 27 years to the abandonment of the secretariat complex.

Today, the Federal Secretariat is a pathetic sight, with the buildings dilapidated, its environment overtaken by weeds and sundry rodents and reptiles while undesirable, mostly criminal elements have found the property a safe haven for their nefarious activities. But this is also the fate of other abandoned public buildings all over the city. These abandoned buildings, which have become environmental as well as health hazards in the state, include the Independence Building which used to house the Ministry of Defence; the old National Assembly at Tafawa Balewa Square; NECOM House at 15, Marina Street,  the old NITEL building on Victoria Island and the former National Provident Fund building now the National Social Investment Trust Fund (NSITF) located on Essume Street, Iyana – Ira on the Lagos Badagry Expressway.

Of course, the menace of abandoned buildings is not limited to Lagos. For instance, the Ajaokuta Complex located in Kogi State which was conceived in 1979 to serve as the bedrock of the country’s industrialisation has been practically moribund and unproductive even though it was said to be at least 98% complete as at 1994. So far, the Federal Government has reportedly spent over $8 billion on a project initially designed to cost approximately $650 million and even at that, the facility has not produced any steel and its sprawling premises is virtually lying waste.

Also, the Suleja International Hotel, conceived by the Niger State government about 39 years ago as a five-star hotel and tourist resort because of its strategic location at the base of the historic Zuma Rock along the Abuja-Kaduna Road has since been left to rot. And the Millennium Tower and Culture project, designed to be the tallest artificial structure in the Central District of Abuja was expected to have been completed by 2011 but remains uncompleted till date. It is also the same story with the Minna five – star hotel conceived in 2009 by the Niger State government and which remains uncompleted despite about $500 million expended so far on it. Indeed, it is estimated that an additional N19.68 billion is required to get the project completed.

There are other projects that are uncompleted and long abandoned in many other states of the federation.

These abandoned buildings and projects give a vivid picture of the extent of colossal waste in public sector governance in Nigeria. In some cases, some of these projects were not well thought-out before conception and so could not be sustained till completion. There are also cases where succeeding governments refused to continue with projects commenced by their predecessors due to sheer ego, or for petty partisan reasons. The corruption factor can also not be ruled out when funds appropriated for projects are either misappropriated or simply embezzled. In some other cases, there have been disputes between the Federal Government and state governments on ownership of the land on which abandoned federal properties are located in the states, leading to a stalemate.

As the country sinks deeper into an economic and financial quagmire, the question of abandoned public properties must be addressed with a sense of urgency. Many of them can be disposed in a transparent and credible manner so that the proceeds can be utilised to tackle protracted national problems.

In the midst of an impasse in the negotiations between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU), something to cheer. For the first time since the world established a system to assess universities, Nigeria has come up for mention. The nation’s premier tertiary institution, the University of Ibadan, ranked in the top 1,000 in the 800 to 901 band.

For a country that once flourished in that sector as envy of the world, it is a paradox that we should congratulate ourselves for clutching a place in the top 1,000. But it evinces how low we have dropped in education in the past 30 years.

Many would have expected Nigeria to stand in the top 100 in the 1970s and 80’s if such ranking existed. But this is a good beginning. In the subject-based rankings, known as the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS), or Shanghai Ranking, three Nigerian institutions excelled. In the field of veterinary sciences, the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, sat in the 201 and 300 band while the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, stood in the 201 and 300 group in the field of dentistry and oral sciences. In psychology, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, belonged to the 401-500 cadre.

Read Also; ASUU: now the real strike begins

The positioning of the Nigerian universities did not come by accident. A Nigerian scholar sowed the seed in a lecture in 2016. Professor Emeritus, Ayo Banjo, delivered a lecture that inspired the Nigerian University Commission (NUC) to set up the National Universities Ranking Committee headed by Professor Peter Okebukola, its former chief. A sub-committee led by Professor Joseph Ajienka provided the template that has helped the Nigerian university compete.

The rankings draw from the following criteria. One, the number of alumni and staff with Nobel Prizes and field medals. Two, the number of highly cited researches selected by Clarivate, a global firm that provides insights and analytics on innovation. Three, the number of articles published in the journals of nature and science. Four, the number of articles in Science Citation Index Expanded and Science Citation Indexes. Five, number of articles in Web of Science. Finally, the institution’s per capita performance.

It is a rigorous exercise but the rankings, while fair, are by no means impeccable. But they give a general picture of how the world’s elite fare. Of course, we are nowhere near the top-ranked schools, and on those criteria, United States universities have always ranked better than other universities in the world combined. For instance, other than Cambridge (ranked 4th) and Oxford (ranked 7th) all the top 10 schools are American, with Harvard leading the pack, followed by California-based Stanford University. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology came third, Berkeley came fifth, Princeton sixth, Columbia eighth, California Institute of Technology ninth and the University of Chicago tenth. A member of the Higher Education Observatory for Africa (HEOFA), Dr. Fred Mensah, commended the NUC for its bold effort. It will only make sense for our universities to build on this news. Nigeria is too talented not to have one or two of its institutions in the top 50, given our natural endowment and pride.

The paralysis of our schools with incessant strikes will not help the rankings. It is also instructive that, for all the investments in private universities, it is the public ones that have sprung for recognition. Also ironic is that it is in the areas of sciences that two of the top-ranked schools found traction.

It ignites hope, and Okebukola sums it up: “I urge all stakeholders to be part of the provision of the enabling environment of better resourcing of our universities, better welfare scheme for staff to bolster motivation and enhance commitment to quality teaching and research and all in the context of a stable academic calendar in order to achieve our 2030 goal of top ranking in global league tables.”