Category: Editorial

Nigerians have started to enjoy the great benefits of the rail system. From the north with the Abuja-Kaduna project, from which even the rich and mighty take a ride as shelter against the depredations of the kidnappers and militants; to Lagos-Abeokuta-Ibadan Expressway to cushion the pressure on the busiest highway in the West African region, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

The Buhari administration has made leaps in this regard as more work is on the way to install a network of such projects across the country.

But some unpatriotic Nigerians are profiting from vandalism on the rail tracks in nefarious activities that bode ill for the lives of Nigerians and the rail infrastructure project entirely. It is therefore a trend that must be treated with urgency.

Managing Director of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Fidet Okiria, lamented the trend.

“So it is becoming alarming and very serious. I don’t want to mention particular regions but people are sabotaging the tracks so bad mostly on the narrow gauge, up till the extent of going to the standard gauge. We have had issues between Papalanto and Abeokuta. We have had issues close to Kaduna on the standard gauge and we have issues close to Ajaokuta where some people are trying to vandalise the tracks and even steal the coaches,” he cried.

He made this lamentation in the context of the arrests of three persons. They are Kelechi Ononiwu, 36; Kalu Egbe, 30, and Stanley 27. The suspects were no mere thieves. They were gun-handed goons who engaged the security forces in a duel until they lost out and one of them sustained injuries.

The incidents indicate that it is a big-time crime involving people of high net worth, who are commissioning the thefts for business purposes.

There have been such reports in the past few years. In Nasarawa State, the culprits included men of the law. Last year, the following were arrested: Richard Joseph, an inspector of police; Mali Peter, a sergeant; Ibrahim Usman, an official of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps; and three others who were arrested at the crime scenes.

An extensive investigation into the case led to the arrest of one Mr Musa and 10 others.

Others arrested included Mohammed Isiaka, a former supervisory councillor on education, Nasarawa Eggon LGA; Marra Thai, a Chinese national and the Manager of Yong Xing Steel Company, Tunga Maje, FCT Abuja, and Samuel Shagbaor, a staff of the NRC. The arrest of Thai is instructive because he manages a steel company. It means that the racket steals the slippers, melts them so as to sell them, possibly back to the railway authorities.

Okhiria said the corporation is taking some steps to curb the menace. One, they are deploying sensors as well as satellites. This is a good step, but sensors are a technology that seem to track broken tracks but not anticipating the criminality in Nigeria. But it will add its benefits. The second step is position security personnel. Railways tracks are vast, and so they cannot be monitored without having personnel everywhere. That is well-nigh impossible. The NRC wants to make the tracks harder to unplug.

They are also focusing on community communications, sensitising the nation to the perils and repercussions of such thieving.

To the extent that sensors are limited, we urge that walls be installed. It is a big expenditure, but lives are at stake.

Broken or missing tracks can derail trains. The consequence for lives and trains is enormous. Hence, we also recommend life sentence, if not capital punishment for culprits. They are committing murder by their actions. Only severe measures will do.

That Nigeria’s estimated 15 million out-of-school children are a dangerous nursery for future Boko Haram Islamists is a notorious fact that can hardly be challenged.  But even that is underestimating the peril: out-of-school children are not a northern monopoly.  On the contrary, they are a growing pan-Nigeria pestilence.

Speaking at the 2022 Murtala Muhammed Foundation Annual Lecture, former President Olusegun Obasanjo nailed it right on the head: “It does not matter how we deal with Boko Haram, bandits, kidnapping and abduction today,” he declared, “those 15 million children that should be in school [but] are not are the potential Boko Haram of 15 years from now.”  Nothing to add.

But a few days earlier, Hajia Sadiya Umar Farouk, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, gave a gloomier pan-Nigeria picture, though her own reference was 10 million out-of-school children.

“We sent a team to Lagos.  They went to Makoko.  They met 7, 000 out-of-school children picking things from the dirt. The guy came shaking,” she told Vanguard.  “We sent another chap to Jos.  He came shaking also.  We sent another guy to Enugu — and for the first time,” she confessed, “everybody realised that out-of-school children is a national problem.”  Indeed!

It is dire that Makoko (though a lagoon-front community in Lagos and a bastion of the dirt poor) could harbour up to 7, 000 children fiddling with dirt, while they should be in school.  This is because Lagos lugs far better public education records than most of its 35 peers.  Yet, that the city sometimes convulses with cult and sundry youth restiveness, and their attendant violence, gives the Makoko shock find some credibility.

If tiny Makoko has 7, 000 children idling and wasting away, how many do Mushin, Ketu, Ojota, Kosofe, Ajegunle and the close-cropped communities of Lagos Island, from Idumota to Obalende boast?  Same valid questions could be asked of Jos and Enugu; and other Nigerian cities.  That is rather frightening and chastening.

But that frightening national outlook cannot take away a possible future Boko Haram blast in the North, as Obasanjo rightly warned.  The thing though is that, if we don’t act now, the plague from our abandoned children could come back to haunt us all, though in different forms: Boko Haram (North); cults and sundry violent crimes (in other parts of the country).

Already, children-abandonment and youth restiveness have midwifed teen indoctrination and radicalisation in the North.  Also, they shaped oil militancy in the Niger Delta; and are possibly shaping the current Biafra anomie in the South East.

Incidentally, Boko Haram Islamists and oil militants morphed from youths, armed to muscle elections but abandoned after by unscrupulous politicians.  Out-of-school children, therefore, would seem to produce a ready stream of these young hoodlums.  The omen that everything could continue, unabated, is well and truly scary!

Obasanjo’s recommendation for massive education to capture all of these kids is spot on; minus his thumb-down on safety nets, which he claimed may be unsustainable.  The policy should not be “either or”.  Rather, it should be an emergency package that should move as many children as possible to school but still offer little succour to these children’s vulnerable parents.

It’s good that some states in the North are already taking responsibility.  Kaduna, for instance, made news when it was reported that many children it enrolled, with the lure of mid-day meals, often vanished after taking their meal!  Kaduna should never tire of this scheme but continue fine-tuning it until it blossoms into a near-permanent magnet for its out-of-school kids.

Borno too, though the epicenter of Boko Haram, is distinguishing itself with big futuristic schools to accommodate the schooling needs of its war-displaced minors and teens.  More states should take advantage of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) national policy.  By paying their counterpart funding, they can seize UBE to massively expand educational opportunities for their teeming kids and youths.

But beyond states’ efforts — and many more in the North should compete with, nay outdo Kaduna and Borno — the northern elite (social and religious) should mainstream a culture that frowns at children dropping out of school. The Almajiri practice, for instance, would draw less traction were the religious elite to de-couple it from its general perception (false, many insist) as a core Islamic belief.

The spectre of out-of-school children turning into an avoidable future plague is scary.  Now is the time to move against it.

Most Nigerians, quite typically, would neither be surprised nor alarmed at one of the revelations that emerged at the probe of the e-customs modernisation project by the House of Representatives Joint Committees on Customs and Excise, Finance, and Banking Currency which opened last week. Among others, it emerged that the modernisation project, which has since stalled due to litigation is actually costing the country some $8.810 billion in lost revenue annually. Admitting that the suits which are three in number are “impeding the commencement of the e-customs project”, Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, who was represented by Stephen Okon, the ministry’s director of home finance, told the committee that her ministry was already working with the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) to conclude the arbitration quickly.

The matter obviously deserves expeditious action not just because of the quantum of unearned revenue said to be involved, but also on the urgent need to reposition the Nigerian Customs Service for effective service delivery.

Even at that, Nigerians could not but marvel at how things got to this unfortunate point. In 2020, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) was said to have awarded a $3.1 billion contract for the automation of the operations of the NCS. Soon after, a private firm, Adani System Limited, went to court, claiming that it had already signed an agreement with the CBN Technical Committee on Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme (CISS) to modernise customs in 2017. As it turned out, both the finance ministry and the agency directly involved – the Nigerian Customs – would claim to be unaware of the contract. In fact, the chairman of the CISS was said to have been invited by the Comptroller-General of Customs and, after a series of discussions, made to realise that the committee not only lacked the capacity to enter into any legal agreement but couldn’t have done it on behalf of the customs.

In the end, the customs would claim that their investigations actually revealed that the company, Messrs Adani Mega Systems Limited, not only outsourced the agreement to an unauthorised third party, Adani International Limited (UK) registered four months after the agreement was signed, but also that the company had since been dissolved.

The country as a whole waits on the AGF to help untangle the knots. In the meantime, we must state that such turf wars, neither borne of national interest nor driven by best practices, are hardly new. If anything, they are a reflection of how narrow interests, as against the public interest, have long become the standard fare in public procurements across the board. Nigerians would recall a particularly odious example – that of Process and Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID) in which a foreign entity nearly swindled the country of billions through arbitration based on a flawed contract. This latest tussle on customs modernisation would appear to have exceeded the boundaries of the typical dysfunction and the benumbing dissonance that have come to characterise governance and its processes. What is apparent is the triumph of special interests over the national will. It reeks of corruption.

Without prejudice to the cases in court, Nigerians deserve to know the details of a contract in which the direct implementing agency – the customs – could neither be taken into confidence let alone allowed to make an input on a project that is at the heart of its operations. That probe should help address specifically, the question of whether or not the CISS actually possesses the powers under which it purportedly parcelled out those controversial contracts and whether due processes were followed.

And to think that the government’s hands are needlessly tied on a matter in which monetary remedies ordinarily exist should the litigant eventually prove his case in court is not only unfortunate but regrettable. Once again, we expect the AGF to act quickly to put this matter to rest.

• Are there different laws for the rich and the poor? How do we explain N1m fine for N450m bribe?

The conviction of a former Minister of Water Resources, Sarah Ochekpe, former acting chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Plateau State, Raymond Dabo, and Evangelist Sunday Jitong, former campaign coordinator for ex-president Goodluck Jonathan, for receiving N450 million bribe from former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, and their sentencing to three months imprisonment with an option of N1 million fine, by Justice Musa Kurya, of the Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, has naturally elicited mixed reactions.

The convicts were tried on charges bordering on conspiracy and money laundering. The controversial fund, according to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) did not pass through a financial institution. Moreover, the fund exceeded the amount authorised by the law. So, the convicts committed an offence contrary to the provision of sections 18 (a) and 16 (1), (d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2012 (as amended) and punishable under Section 16 (2), (b) of the same law.

For us, while the conviction is a merited comeuppance for the criminal abuse of public trust, the punishment meted out by the court is a travesty. We are concerned that such a slap on the wrist does not serve as a deterrent to other public officers who may be seeing public funds as a free-for-all game. The punishment is too light, when under our laws the punishment for stealing anything capable of being stolen, is seven years imprisonment.

So, we wonder what is wrong with our criminal justice system. Is it that the laws under which those who stole from our common patrimony are charged are different from that for other criminals who get longer sentences for what may be less impactful crimes? Or is it the case as stated by former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, and echoed by former President Jonathan, that corruption is not stealing, which we consider a double-speak to protect the political class.

Perhaps, the redefinition of taking what belongs to all citizens – which is stealing, as money laundering and similar pseudo-charges, is a deliberate act by the political elite to save their skin and remove the stain of being called a thief, upon conviction for such crime. In the instant case and similar others like it, we are disagreeable that after fiddling with such a huge amount, those found guilty should receive a mere three months jail term, with an option of a paltry N1 million fine.

Interestingly, and as if to further rub salt on our collective injury, the former minister has vowed to appeal the judgment. Her counsel, S. Oyawole, said based on the fact that the money was paid through a financial institution, the ruling would not stand. According to Oyawole, “The said money was paid through a financial institution. And the branch operations manager brought in by the EFCC as a witness admitted under cross- examination that the bank was a financial institution and he dealt with our clients in his official capacity as a banker”. He added: “To say that the accused did not go through a financial institution is a contradiction. Definitely, the judgment will be challenged.”

While we agree that anyone dissatisfied with a court judgment has the right to appeal, we do not think it is in a seemingly glaring matter like this.

If Justice Kurya deliberately chose the sentencing, relevant authorities like the National Judicial Council (NJC) should investigate if there is an ill-motive, but if that is the provision of the law, then the law needs to be amended to reflect the damage done to the society by such act. Like many Nigerians, we are also concerned that while those who received the bribe of N450 million bribe have been convicted and sentenced, Mrs Madueke, who offered the bribe has consistently evaded arrest and trial.

Unfortunately, in spite of the efforts of the EFCC, Diezani-Madueke is peacefully ensconced in a foreign country, though a fugitive from the law. While we do not recommend extra-judicial measures to ferry her back to the country, we demand that more efforts be made to bring her back, so that in the public eye, the trial and conviction of the receiver without the corresponding giver, does not look like a charade.

We urge the elite to understand that while the criminal law serves to punish for a crime, it also serves as a deterrent measure. And it can only do so if the provision for similar crimes are seen as equitable and deterring across board. If, for instance, in the same country, one person could be sentenced to seven years jail term upon conviction for stealing a goat, and another, three months for partaking in sharing hundreds of millions of naira taken from the common patrimony, the philosophical underpinning of criminal law is defeated.

So, the National Assembly and state assemblies should look more closely at our laws, and ensure there is harmony between the expectation of the society and the provisions of the law. It is not appropriate to have different laws for different classes of citizens, or make it look so in the public eye. Such a situation breeds acrimony amongst the citizens and the consequence is social dislocation. If the lower class see themselves as unduly done-in by the upper class, the result is friction and upheavals.

Such disequilibrium could manifest in different forms; from increase in crime by the lower class in an attempt to join the upper class, or deliberate fleecing of the common patrimony by the upper class since the punishment is not deterring enough.

Again, the resulting animosity between social classes may be a contributory factor to the incessant riots, mayhem, banditry and unfathomable criminality that have become the bane of our society. The malicious destruction of public property during the #EndSARS protest readily comes to mind.

In our view, those who have stolen from the public till should face more severe consequences or at least similar punishment as those who steal from private persons. We doubt if the punishment meted to those convicted for conspiracy and money laundering met that threshold.

What the judgment did was not to punishment but to justify the former minister of petroleum.

Young graduates serving their fatherland as members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) deployed to Benue State have shown that anyone could wipe tears away from faces of the needy. On seeing an amputee student, Sunday Tartenger, of All Saints Academy, Ahine, Makurdi, who was unable to pay his fees and was thus confronted with hardship, participants in the Community Development Scheme (CDS) in the area decided to take up the burden from the indigent and physically challenged boy. They succeeded in clearing the N36,000 school fees and got their supervisor, Mr. Anaja Mohammed, involved. Anaja was moved by the commitment of the corps members and pledged to see what could be done to sustain the initiative.

This is the way to go if Nigeria is to fully harness the potential of all her citizens. It is unfortunate that governments at various levels have failed to guarantee social security as well as provide scholarship for the challenged, compatriots could fill the gap by sharing what is available with the indigent. The example of these corps members should be embraced by all, as there is nothing too little to share with the less privileged. Sunday’s parents could barely hold their joy as they saw the impact of the young ones’ efforts. We commend their giving out of the pittance they receive as allowances to Sunday and hope the NYSC would live up to the pledge to extend the gesture to full scholarship to university level. Everyone could contribute to filling yawning gaps in the society if we are determined.

The effort has once again illustrated the failure of government to put in place viable scholarship schemes and loans for students. This is the way even affluent societies have travelled over the years. Brilliant students hardly drop out of school on account of paucity of funds. Both the public and private sectors have put in place institutional mechanisms that keep the indigent off the streets. In Nigeria today, the physically challenged still hold the short end of the stick as there is no provision for them in public schools, nor are they able to afford the cut-throat fees of private school proprietors. These corps members have shown that where there is a will, there is a way.

It is unfortunate that the inequity in the system has not helped in terms of getting the physically challenged and the poor represented in our governments. It is therefore difficult to fix their interests in the scheme of things as politicians busy themselves with measures for self-perpetuation.

In the instant case, we call on the Benue State government to take this initiative further as there are many other Sunday Tartengers in the system that have lost hope. Tartenger’s determination to succeed has helped him to find help. It is a lesson for the youth and less privileged that if they persist, success is always around the corner. Corporate Nigeria did a lot to assist during efforts to combat the Coronavirus pandemic. They could do more in shaping and sharpening human capital in the country. Unless we are able to expand access to education, social ills are likely to multiply.

If we are to catch up with the developed world, or live up to the appellation “giant of Africa”, we must build a socially inclusive society. Official statistics indicate that there are about 25 million Nigerians living with a form of disability or the other. It is therefore best imagined if most of them are empowered to contribute to nation-building. Everyday, we have youths who have become bitter about their status in life. Many young Nigerians are taken up by universities in the United States and Canada with the sole criterion being their brilliance. Others through sports are granted scholarships. But, in their own country, one is unable to obtain anything unless he has access to the powers-that-be who have turned public resources to personal property. It took scholarships awarded in the US to freed Chibok girls, and to the United Kingdom for former Niger Delta militants, to discover that they could yet live useful lives.

The shining example of these young Nigerians from Benue is an indication that if the right things are done, the future could still be bright.

Lagos State government has closed a major chapter of the 21-storey building that collapsed on Gerrard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, on November 1, 2021. The government’s White Paper is out, with the state government adopting 26 of the 28 recommendations of the panel set up to probe the unfortunate incident. The panel was headed by Mr Toyin Ayinde, a town planner. About 50 persons were killed in the tragic episode, including Mr Femi Osibona, the promoter of Fourscore Homes, the developer of the ill-fated building.

The panel’s recommendations are far-reaching, and it is gratifying that the state government accepted almost all, with the exception of the two that it considered “nebulous”. Even then, the 26 recommendations accepted addressed almost all the areas needing attention and which, if faithfully implemented, would go a long way in checking building collapse in the state. We commend the government for a transparent approach unless the habitual tempo rising and dodgy coverups of many Nigerian governments.

The recommendations as well as the White Paper easily confirmed systemic breakdowns in virtually all the processes involved in the construction.

To start with, Fourscore Homes was both the builder and architect of the structure, a misnomer and negligence which led to avoidable loss of lives, and for which the company is to be prosecuted. The state government has consequently directed the Office of the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice to institute appropriate charges against the company. The developer is also to forfeit the project site to the state government, in accordance with section 25(4) of the revised LASBCA regulation 2019.

Moreover, the remaining of the high-rise buildings will be pulled down through controlled demolition. Also, two other structures being simultaneously constructed in the vicinity are to be demolished because they failed structural integrity tests. The point is; even if the structures had passed integrity tests, it is doubtful if they would pass commercial tests because potential customers would think twice before parting with their money on such high-risk buildings. The White Paper also recommended the “evacuation of all occupants within a 45m radius from the extreme boundaries of the blocks in the interest of public safety.”

Unsparing but fair, the White Paper said “All the various participants, including civil/public servants, found culpable are to face disciplinary actions and prosecution, where applicable.

“These included all those that were involved in the 2019 approval of the collapsed building. The civil servants are to first face the personnel management board, in line with the public service rules. The disciplinary process is to be set up immediately and concluded within 14 days.” The document chided three civil servants for allegedly lying on oath. They are consequently to be prosecuted for preparing a consultant’s report through a dubious method.

In addition, other professionals involved who are not civil servants have been referred to the appropriate  professional bodies for disciplinary actions. These included engineers, town planners, and architects. In the same vein, some companies have been referred to the Architects Registration Council of Nigeria for disciplinary actions while others, such as the urban primer have been blacklisted.

There is also going to be an audit by an independent consortium of professionals who would scrutinise all high-rise buildings in the state. This is good in that we do not know how many of such structures are disasters waiting to happen, having passed through similar shoddy processes under construction.

But it was not all sticks. There were also a few carrots as one Oluwole Oludimu of Prowess Engineering Limited was highly commended for exhibiting professionalism in the project despite the challenging circumstances, and for standing firm despite intimidation by the developer, a thing which led to his subsequent removal from the site.

Moreover, the state government has accepted the need to train officials involved in the building approval section, as well as the recruitment of more personnel where necessary for agencies that are short-staffed.

We commend both the Ayinde-led panel and the committee chaired by Mr. Tayo Bamgbose-Martins, the state commissioner for special duties, which reviewed the panel’s report, for the dutiful manner they conducted their assignments. Equally praiseworthy is the state government’s political will to deal with the scourge of building collapse.

Without doubt, these are bold and welcome decisions, especially in view of the pervasive influence of the promoter of Fourscore Homes (a thing which led to the serial impunities witnessed during the construction of the structures) and the usual cover that governments provide for their own when such incidents occur. The Lagos State government has, by agreeing to implement 26 of the 28 recommendations, demonstrated its resolve to cleanse the Augean stable in the agencies involved in the built industry in the state.

The government has talked the talk. We expect it to walk the walk. It is only when this is done, and the respective professional bodies that the government has referred some of their members to for appropriate sanctions do the right thing, that Lagos State would have set a new and safer template for the building industry and the incidence of buildings collapsing would be reduced in the state.

Yes, sanctions may not bring back the dead but they are necessary to bring the appropriate closure to the Gerrard Road building collapse and to serve as deterrence to others that it is, henceforth, business unusual.

This is clearly one of the worst decades for children in Nigeria. The heartbreaking stories of adults hurting children in different ways seem to be getting worse by the day. It is worrisome that on a daily basis, both orthodox and social media report various cases of inhumane treatments of adults on children.  From child factories where several teenage girls are kept and made to produce babies for sale, to sexual and other domestic violence against both genders down to trafficking, abductions, murder and just all forms of cruelty against children. Stories of children being killed for rituals and other fetish purposes, to some being lynched for alleged witchcraft and sundry accusations, the Nigerian child seems to have no respite. There are reports of about 200 abducted children whose whereabouts are yet unknown. Most children  are suffering in many internally displaced persons’ (IDP) camps across the country.

The recent abduction of five children between the ages of 18 months and four years in the Rukpakulus area of Port Harcourt in Rivers State by a woman who disguised as a school teacher is coming on the heels of a report of the alleged flogging and death of a 19-month old baby in a school in Delta State. It has been a litany of tragic tales for the Nigerian child more than ever before.

The recent abduction sounds like a script from the movies but it is sadly a true life story. The woman who abducted the kids in the same neighbourhood must have taken advantage of a people that take security for granted. For a new tenant in the neighbourhood to convince the parents that she could handle home lessons for the kids and they agreed and availed their children, to us, is the height of parental irresponsibility.

The story tells a lot about parental care in the country. To some extent, parents seem to continually cede the responsibility of child care to schools or just anyone who can relieve them of the burden of catering for their kids. In the past, there was an age below which a child cannot be admitted in school. It was to make sure that the child is physically and mentally developed enough to assimilate any form of instruction in school. These days, besides the crèche culture for working mothers, even non-working mothers now literally dump their kids in any semblance of a building with people who lay claims to  being teachers.

It is the obsession with sending children out to some teaching environment that has in the last two weeks caused the death of a 19-month-old in Delta State and the abduction of the five kids in Port Harcourt. These children’s ages range from 18 months to four years! In the past some of them would still be breastfeeding and cannot be taken to outsiders for any form of formal instructions.

The parents in both cases must be held liable for child neglect. We however fear that these cases might just be ignored like most other cases of pupil abductions in Nigeria. There are child protection laws and international treaties but it does seem they are observed in breach as it seems cases of child abuse and neglect have not been seen to be prosecuted conclusively. The child rights and protection treaties Nigeria is signatory to seem just on paper, as not enough is done by states and even the Federal Government to protect children in Nigeria.

The sentiment of sympathising with negligent parents when their actions and inactions cause harm or death to children must give way to real prosecution and those involved punished as deterrent to others. There must be a system that protects children from irresponsible parenting and guardianship.

Children are very vulnerable and laws must be made to protect them because they are the future of any nation. Far too many children are endangered in Nigeria and that must change for the better. Adults must be made to pay for harming or predisposing children to any form of harm. That is the norm in most countries. Nigeria cannot be different.

At last, the Supreme Court has ruled on President Buhari’s Executive Order 10 of May 2020 that sought to force financial independence for the state judiciary and legislature. True, the constitution provides that the executive branch of government at all levels should not arrogate all power to itself, thus separating the legislative, executive and judicial powers. The President thus reasoned that the separation would only be meaningful if each branch controls its finances, hence the Executive Order meant to enforce constitutional provisions.

However, the governors kicked, arguing that the President had overstepped his bounds by seeking to meddle in affairs of the states. While agreeing that the arms of government should be separate indeed, they approached the Supreme Court in a bid to stop the President’s instruction to the Accountant-General of the Federation to allocate funds directly to the judiciary and legislature at the state level. The court accepted the averment and struck down the order. Justice Dattijo Mohammed who read the lead judgment supported by five other justices of the court said the President acted unconstitutionally and ultra vires in making moves to give effect to what he considers a constitutional imperative since most governors have turned the other arms of government to extension of the executive branch, starving them of funds when they deem fit and releasing when those officials are deemed to be doing the governor’s bidding.

However, it was a narrow majority of four of the seven justices who rejected the prayer of the governors that the responsibility for capital projects of the state judiciary should be borne by the Federal Government. That contention stemmed from the fact that the personnel costs are paid directly by the National Judicial Council that is also saddled with appointments, promotion and discipline of all judges of superior courts in the country. The Supreme Court, by the majority judgment, felt to the contrary that it would amount to abdication of responsibility if an arm of government at the state level is totally funded from the centre.

The judgment would appear ambivalent. The equivocation seems to stem from the constitution. Since the National Assembly is reviewing that constitution bequeathed by the last military administration, the contradictions, equivocations and confusion that have constituted booby traps should be weeded out. They have been the cause of conflicts among officials and institutions of state. In this instant, the manner the governors have controlled the other arms of government has left so much to be desired.

It is therefore imperative to strengthen them as workers of the legislative and judiciary have regularly clamoured for. It derogates from the honour of the judiciary when chief judges have to regularly knock at the doors of the executive before basic maintenance work could be done. Where new court rooms are needed, and technology desired to ease the burden on their lordships, there must be a way they could effortlessly draw from funds allocated in the appropriation law for the year. The legislature appears to suffer even more. At some point in the clash between majority of elected lawmakers in Edo State and Governor Godwin Obaseki, the chief executive who takes up the task of fixing even nuts and bolts, got the roof of the chamber removed and loads of sands dumped in the premises, ostensibly with a view to stopping the legislature from sitting. He then moved his faction to the Government House.

While we agree that the law is as interpreted by the courts, especially the apex court in this case, all those involved in running the country should realise that federalism should not be practiced partially. By that pronouncement of the Supreme Court, the Executive Order 10 is dead. So is any order that has been made by presidential fiat, contrary to the spirit of the grundnorm. But, the time-honoured philosophy of federalism and constitutionalism is that decency should prevail in all affairs of state. The general public and civil society organisations should realise that their responsibilities do not stop at the periodic general elections. They should monitor the executive at all levels and ensure that no one does violence to the letters and spirit of our laws.