Category: Editorial

The report that a Federal High Court in Lagos has nullified all marriages conducted at the Ikoyi Marriage Registry and other federal marriage registries caused apprehension amongst Nigerians, and we consider the measured reaction of the Ministry of Interior as appropriate. After all, under the 1999 constitution (as amended), the Exclusive Legislative List provides as item 61: “the formation, annulment and dissolution of marriages other than marriages under Islamic Law and Customary law including matrimonial causes relating thereto.”

That provision implies that federal legislators have exclusive jurisdiction to make laws regulating marriages which are not based on Islamic or customary laws. While we sympathise with those who argue that such a provision stultifies federalism, we note that the provision however remains the law. What is in controversy is the claim that subsidiary legislation made by virtue of the provision of the constitution, gave exclusive jurisdiction to local governments to conduct marriages, to the exclusion of the federal marriage registries.

To add to the raging controversies there are various interpretations of the judgment of Justice Daniel Osiagor delivered on December 8, 2021 in suit marked FHC/LS/CS/816/18. Of note, what is in the public domain is the report of the National President, Association of Local Government Marriage Registrars, Deji Sokeye, who claimed to have been in court while the judgment was being delivered. However, there is a different version in the public space that Ikoyi Marriage Registry and the one at the federal capital territory were excluded from the ban.

In her reaction, the Federal Ministry of Interior observed that what is trending in the social media is misleading and a deliberate falsehood. It stated that in Suit No. FHC/L/870/2002 between Prince Haastrup and Eti Osa Local Government, the court held “that the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Interior is constitutionally empowered to conduct marriages in Nigeria and held that the Local Governments were delegated by the Federal Government to conduct marriages, by virtue of Legal Notices issued pursuant to the Marriage Act.”

The ministry cited the case of Olumide Babalola vs Ikeja Local Government and the Registered Trustees of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) in Suit No. LD/1343/GCM/2016 delivered on 15th May, 2017. It noted the decision of the court that “while registration of marriages are regulated by local governments, being under the concurrent list, formation of marriage is under the Exclusive Legislative List, within the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, regulated by the Ministry of Interior.”

We view the controversies as inappropriate, considering the importance of marriage in any society. Since the family is the nucleus of every society, there should be certainty as to how to legally contract a marriage. It cannot be left to speculative reports in the social media. Like we stated above we are sympathetic to marriage being made a local affair, but the law must state so unequivocally, so that the decision of a court with regards to that would be predictable.

We believe the unnecessary controversy stems from the perception of marriage registries as a money-yielding venture, which is why there is a struggle between the contenders. But more importantly, marriage should be viewed as a solemn and sacrosanct affair that unites couples in the eyes of the law. So the law should state clearly the institutions that are imbued with authority to conduct that important social contract. If it requires amending the constitution, so be it.

In the meantime, the Ministry of Interior should obtain the certified true copy of the judgment of the court, study it, and take steps as it deems appropriate. But what is the position of law and the court on contracting a valid marriage should be certain and not left to speculation.

Although sad – it is however not entirely surprising that the Bank of Agriculture (BOA), has, like other supposedly strategic national institutions, succumbed to the debilitating killers of corruption, and mismanagement. Among others, the foremost agriculture lender is said to carry a staggering bad debt portfolio of N77.1 billion as a result of which its operations are now technically unsustainable. There are also grave questions on the N91 billion it disbursed under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP), most of which appears to have gone down the drain. And with the restructuring and recapitalisation plans proposed by the Federal Government since 2019 proving nigh impossible, its continuing rationale as a public entity has itself become utterly questionable.

For a bank that started off with a glowing promise to address the specialised needs of farmers, it is sadly, a bad turn of events that things seem to have finally hit the nadir even if the issues of mismanagement, huge non-performing loans, absence of corporate governance and functional organisational structure, all of which have led to the current state of the bank did not start today.

Nonetheless, the questions remain: what manner of management would allow not just a disproportionate chunk of its loan portfolio to go bad but would not be forthright on measures to address the situation?  And why will the government neglect to act promptly, particularly as it has long realised that the bank has derailed from its original mandates?

Truth unfortunately is that the problem with BoA is no different from those of our publicly-owned entities; untoward influences, particularly by the supervising ministry; managerial incompetence, virtual absence of effective supervision as a result of which sound business practices are routinely jettisoned. As if these are not daunting enough, the government appears to have run out of will soon after it correctly identified what needed to be done.

To allow the bank to die will certainly be most tragic. Most Nigerians would certainly recall, with fond memories, the good old days of the Nigerian Agricultural and Cooperative Bank (NACB), when farmers through their cooperative groups enjoyed the benefits of seamless access to funds often with the collaboration of River Basin authorities and the extension services of the state agriculture ministries. Time perhaps it is, to return to the old order.

After all, the problem is not so much about the need for the specialised bank; rather, it is more about a lending template that works – that ensures that the majority of our honest farmers are not only availed credit in a timely manner and on such terms that are cheap and affordable, while also ensuring that mechanisms are in place to ensure that they pay back with little or no stress.

Interestingly, it was the government itself that first mooted the idea of restructuring and recapitalisation of the bank with the target of between N200 billion and N250 billion. The idea then was for farmers to own 40 per cent of the shares of the bank, with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Ministry of Finance holding 10 per cent each; while the private sector operators hold the balance. It seems the best time to push that initiative to its logical conclusion.

In the meantime, the issue of the bad loans needs to be addressed – urgently too. A stern message to the club of delinquent borrowers who have apparently chosen to see the loan as their own share of the so-called national cake has become an imperative. This will obviously apply to those loans under the Anchor Borrowers Scheme. This measure should be followed up with whatever other measures might be deemed necessary in the circumstance to get the debtors to pay what they owe.

After years of keeping secret the salaries and allowances drawn monthly by federal legislators, the Senate President, Dr. Ahmed Lawan, has disclosed their remunerations. At the first Distinguished Parliamentarians Lecture Series last week, Dr. Lawan told his audience that each Senator is paid a salary of N1.5 million, while members of the House of Representatives are each paid N1.3 million. He said the allowance for running the office is 13 million for each Senator, while members of the House draw 8million quarterly. In the Senate President’s view, this is a paltry sum that should not attract so much opprobrium from citizens.

This is surprising. In a country where majority of the people live in abject poverty and squalor, it is an affront to the public psyche for one of the leaders to justify the outrageous sum they draw from the public coffers. Perhaps Senator Lawan temporarily forgot that the minimum wage in the country is N30, 000. And, at that, many state governments as employers of labour have not started paying. Many of those represented in the federal legislature are already out of job as a result of inclement economic environment. Food inflation is at an all-time high, consequent upon which many Nigerians go to bed hungry daily. Yet, the legislators contend that the fat salaries and allowances amount to nothing.

Contrary to the figures released by the Senate President, former Senator Shehu Sani who represented Kaduna Central in the Eight Senate had disclosed in March 2018 that each of the Senators were paid N15 million monthly, not quarterly, while their counterparts in the second chamber are regularly paid N13 million as running grants for their constituency offices. No one disputed the figures then as the Senate merely made a feeble attempt to shut him up. It was already too late. The legislators are public officials and we challenge them to make full disclosure of what they draw from the till. Failure to inform the public about their pay is a disservice. The relevant institutions responsible for deciding the federal pay structure such as the Wages and Salaries Commission, as well as the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) should come out with the full figures of how much all public officials draw from the coffers. If we could know how much the judicial officers are paid, we should be told how much the legislators also draw by various names.

Any allowance not paid to Federal Public servants should not be made available to legislators and ministers. The argument by Senate President Lawan that the aggregate recurrent and capital expenditure of the National Assembly stands at less than N130 billion, which is a mere one per cent of the national budget is not tenable. At this point, every kobo means so much as the government literally lives on foreign loans that the people are afraid could enslave coming generations in view of what is currently happening in some East African countries. There should be an alignment of the pay structure. Paying senior judicial officers and university Professors less than half a million monthly while political office holders earn more than triple is unacceptable. Each time the legislators go on recess, they do so at the expense of the tax payers. They are regularly paid furniture allowance, stationery allowance, newspaper allowance running into millions monthly and other sundry unexplained payments.

It is true that the legislators are supported by a full-fledged bureaucracy, including the National Assembly Commission, the Legislative Institute and legislative aides. But, how many of them are really sincere in the appointments? The Senate President says they collectively have about 6,500 aides in Abuja and their constituencies, is this true position of things? And the few who are so employed, how much and how regularly are they paid? It has become a common sight to behold the staff unfurl banners and placards depicting the cruel treatment being meted to them by the legislators and the Commission. But, the lawmakers are never owed their humongous emoluments.

The Civil Society Organisations and general public should step up to challenge the legislators to make known every Kobo they draw from the coffers and prune the indefensible allowances. These are not normal times. Rather than defending the indefensible, the Senate President, not only as Chairman of the National Assembly, but as the longest serving lawmaker should take the lead in ensuring that the public is well served. The CSOs should take the lead in mobilizing the electorate in this regard if Nigeria is ever to crawl out of the debt cave into which the elected officials have put the country. The young graduates would remain unemployed for as long as the fund that could pay 100 fresh graduates is allocated to one legislator.

While we agree that the executive arm should not be any less open about their salaries and allowances, the lawmakers should realize that the public is focused on them because they were elected to check the excesses of those in the executive arm. This duty has not been discharged satisfactorily. Rather, there is obvious collusion to keep the truth away from the public. It is time to promote the spirit of patriotism and nationalism in the leaders without which there would be no development.

Among prominent traditional rulers in Nigeria, particularly in the Southwest, the Soun of Ogbomoso, in Oyo State, Oba Oladunni Oyewumi Ajagungbade III, was a relevant royal. He died on December 12, aged 95.

He ruled with a sense of his role in social development. His 48-year reign, which made him the longest reigning king of Ogbomoso, brought remarkable development to the land. He initially demonstrated his intentions by building a modern palace to replace the mud palace he inherited.

It is striking that he successfully used his traditional influence to get the political authorities to develop his domain without devaluing the cultural essence of his position.

“When I became Soun, education was my first priority. I pursued how we would have many primary and secondary schools and the Lord crowned my efforts with success. We have more than 150 schools in Ogbomoso today,” he said in an interview to mark his 90th birthday in 2016. There are also tertiary educational institutions in the city, including a university.

He mentioned other notable successes: “I ensured that law courts were established in Ogbomoso. Prior to that, people in Ogbomoso used to go to courts in Osogbo in present-day Osun State…I ensured that we have one of the Area Command headquarters of the police in Oyo State in Ogbomoso.”  Indeed, various manifestations of his declared motto, “Progress of Ogbomoso,” can be seen across the city.

Born as a prince in Ogbomoso on May 27, 1926, he ascended the throne in October 1973 at the age of 47. He attended St. Patrick Catholic School, Oke-Padre, Ibadan and Ogbomoso People’s Institute, Aku, Ogbomoso, before he went into business for himself.

Importantly, his business activities didn’t stop him from pursuing self-development through further education. When he moved to Jos in 1944, he attended evening classes, which raised his level of education and equipped him for greater heights in business.

By 1954, his determination to succeed in business earned him a major dealership from the French company, Compagnie Française de l’Afrique Occidentale (CFAO).  This enabled him to expand his business and import beer and goods from Europe. He travelled to London, Ireland, and Germany as his business flourished.

From trading under the business name of Prince Stores, he established J. O. Oyewumi and Co. Ltd in 1967, with interests in real estate, hospitality services and merchandise, which showed not only his business growth but also his financial increase.  The popular Hotel Terminus chain with branches in Jos, Ogbomoso and Osogbo, and Royal Crown Hotels formed part of his business empire.

His background as a successful businessman before he became a traditional ruler was useful to him in setting development goals for his domain and pursuing them with a sense of purpose. “If you are a king…you must ensure that the kingdom experiences continuous progress,” he said.

Apart from serving as Chairman of Oyo State Council of Obas and Chiefs, he was also active at the national level.  He was a member of the National Council of Traditional Rulers, and served as a member of the Federal Government Hajj delegation.

He received two national honours at different times, Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) and Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFR), which underlined his recognition.

Oba Oyewumi was self-respecting and demanded respect for traditional rulership.  ”I don’t go to people in power for personal gain… A paramount king should respect himself,” he said. Traditional rulers in the country should learn from this philosophy which helped him to keep his honour intact.

He will be remembered for his good name and his contribution to making Ogbomoso bigger and better than he met it.

Sixty-eight-year-old Innocent Onwuchia was recently reported to have been set free after spending 19 years on death row for a high court conviction over an offence he espoused innocence of. His escape from the hangman’s noose came, not by way of acquittal by a higher court but through a clemency deal offered him by government. Onwuchia is now a free man, but he had recollections of an awful experience he claimed he was unjustly subjected to. The narrative in Vanguard newspaper was based on his own account of the entire incident, though.

Onwuchia, a native of Umuahia in Abia State, was reported to be a cook at the home of a very notable accountant in Ibadan, Oyo State, when a team of policemen seized him one fateful morning and bundled him off into detention after brutalising him for putting up initial resistance to the arrest, having not been told why he was being arrested. He said he was first taken to Sango Otta Police Station in Ogun State where he was battered for fighting the policemen who arrested him, and that despite his persistent inquiry, no one told him what his alleged crime was. Subsequently, he was transferred to Bodija Police Station in Oyo State because the officials said there was no cell available to hold him at Sango Otta. Onwuchia reported that he was all the while continually brutalised, and it was two days after his arrest that he was told that a man had died in hospital from an acid attack he allegedly carried out on him. According to Onwuchia, his only connection with the acid victim however was that the victim formed part of a group that had duped him of some money months earlier, and against whom he had enlisted soldiers to help recover the money but to no avail.

Onwuchia recalled that his trial for the death of the acid victim lasted eight years, moving from a magistrate’s court to the high court following the advice of the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) that he had a case to answer. He said he couldn’t afford a lawyer for the trial and had to rely on the services of a pro-bono lawyer from the Office of the Public Defender (OPD). The high court eventually convicted him and sentenced him to die by hanging on December 16, 2002, and that verdict never went on appeal because he couldn’t afford it. A lawyer who offered free services to appeal the verdict had a fatal accident on his way to file the court processes, and that put paid to any attempt to prove his innocence at a higher court. That was how Onwuchia spent 19 years on death row, concerning which he had nightmarish recollection of daily expectation of the hangman. The best he had hoped and made pleas for was commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment. But in the last week of November, he got the news that his name featured among those government had granted full clemency.

There are questions thrown up by Onwuchia’s narrative, if truthful. The alleged manner of his arrest and brutalisation by the police leaves much to be desired in terms of societal decency. Then, how substantial was the incriminating evidence against him, such that the death sentence was dumped by administrative fiat and substituted with clemency? Was Onwuchia’s fate in the courts a function of his not having rigorous representation by a paid lawyer? If that was the case, we need a judicial system that protects the interest of the poor as much as it does the rich; for instance, if an accused person is unable to afford a lawyer, the system should supply enthusiastic legal representation that will see the person’s case through the trial and all appellate stages.

Besides, it is high time our judicial system took full advantage of technological advances to thoroughly verify the innocence or guilt of accused persons and thereby minimise miscarriage of justice. Onwuchia walked the fortunate path to freedom, but for Mother Luck he might well have ended up on the gallows still professing innocence. That would’ve been tragic.

One thing that anyone would easily recall about the life and times of the late Chief Joseph Wayas is that he was Nigeria’s Senate President and number three citizen upon the return to civilian rule in 1979. He would be easily remembered as a gentleman politician who was never carried away by the high office he occupied.

So many things would have disqualified him from being the Second Republic Senate President. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he did not have the privilege of a university education. He left for the United Kingdom after his secondary education at Dennis Memorial Grammar School, At the United Kingdom; it is instructive that he attended Colleges such as Higher Tottenham Technical College, Southampton College of Commerce and Aston Villa College. At best, that was modest and could have precluded him from holding very high offices at the federal level where competition for such positions is very keen. Wayas broke the moulds.

The journey to the top started when he was appointed the South Eastern State Commissioner for Transport in 1972. He served in that capacity for two years and moved on to participate in the 1977/78 Constituent Assembly where he met and rubbed shoulders with the movers and shakers of the country who later formed the National Party of Nigeria. The nursery for that political party that later ran the affairs of the nation in the Second Republic was the National Movement formed at the Constituent Assembly.

It might never be known why and how the “men of timber and calibre, juggernaut and caterpillar” of the Second Republic as the late Dr. Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe referred to them settled for Wayas as Senate President. He had no legislative experience and never occupied a high-profile political office before that opportunity came. To be elected to the Senate, he had to defeat a far more experienced politician, Chief Matthew Two Mbu, who had first been noticed on the political radar when he was appointed a minister at the age of 24. At the inaugural meeting of the Senate, he was pitched against Justice Franklin Atake, a former Chief Judge of Bendel State who was put forward by the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). Of course, Wayas who enjoyed the support of his party, the NPN, and the Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP), sailed into the office. It might be interesting to note that the NPN then controlled 36 of the 95 seats in the Senate while the NPP had 16 Senators. The UPN had 28, while Waziri Ibrahim’s Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP) and Aminu Kano’s Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) were represented in the chamber by 15 Senators.

To Joseph Wayas’s credit, he was able to manage the star-studded Senate throughout the Second Republic such that his party re-presented him for a second term that he easily won being backed by a resounding victory that the NPN had somehow recorded, even if it turned out to be pyrrhic victory that ultimately consumed the Republic. On the shoulder of 38-year-old Wayas with little political experience was laid the responsibility of stabilising that Republic. He discharged that duty creditably. The Senate had such prominent personalities as Chief Jaja Nwachukwu, Jonathan Odebiyi, Abraham Adesanya, Nathaniel Anah, Offia-Nwali, Alhaji Uba Ahmed, Ayo Fasanmi, Banji Akintoye Franklin Ateke, among others. How he managed the House, especially when his party did not enjoy even a simple majority and the accord with NPP broke down early is something that political scientists may yet have to study. He ensured that the executive had little problem getting legislative backing for its policies, programmes and Bills. He equally managed to ensure that the opposition caucus had confidence in his leadership all through.

When the military struck in December 1983, Wayas managed to sneak through the country’s borders and found his way back to the United Kingdom until 1987 when he resurfaced. Although detained for two years, little was heard of him thereafter. He receded from high-profile political participation to the background such that attempts to leap into prominence once again through the All Peoples Party (APP) and later the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) failed.

They are part of us, but for most part in this country, Nigerians treat people living with disabilities like pariahs. This is a tragedy. The news story recently puts this in perspective. It says that only a few state governments are treating the disabled as important citizens 36 months after the Disability Rights Act by the government of Muhammadu Buhari. According to David O. Anyaele, the executive director of the Centre for Citizens with Disability, over 31 million Nigerians belong to that community. Only 13 states, though, have put measures in place to help the disadvantaged demographic.

The states include Lagos, Anambra, Ekiti, Ondo, Plateau, Bauchi, Kano, Kaduna, Jigawa, Kogi, Niger, Kwara and Niger.  That means most of the states are lagging behind.

Said Anyaele: “We call on the state governments yet to adopt the National Disability Rights Act to do so without further delay. This is important because failure in this regard is an indirect endorsement of discrimination and other harmful practices against citizens with disabilities.”

Even at the federal level ministries, departments and agencies known as MDAs still have not joined the world at large in adhering to the necessities of the community.

Advanced countries have gone a lot further. In order to access major buildings, whether government or private, there are special access platforms for the community. The elevators and staircases are also formatted for their comfort and access. Buses are constructed to allow entrance and exit, and wheelchairs can glide in and out. In major parking lots, they have their special assigned lots.

The care is not for those who are disabled in their extremities or limbs alone. Adaptations are necessary even for those who cannot see or hear, or even speak. It is not a monolithic community. The needs of one community vary from another. For instance, about 4.5 million Nigerians are visually impaired, according to a survey between 2005 and 2007, which means the number may have multiplied. The absence of that sectoral survey over a decade ago also signifies the paucity of research resources in that demographic.

One of the strategies for adjusting to their reality is budgeting. It has been proven that some of the states pay lip service to their pledges. They allocate paltry sums to them. Even when they do, the money is diverted to other matters, showing that they do not privilege the sentiment of inclusion.

Anyaele praises some states for appreciable work. “We commend Lagos, Plateau, Ondo and Anambra that have taken measures to not just pass the disability bill, but also taken steps to create offices for disability affairs in their states.”

We cannot play down their value in our electoral experience. They are a hefty number as well. They need a voice, and yet the electoral process disenfranchises them. Hence, we also call on the president, Muhammadu Buhari, to append his pen to the 2021 electoral bill now on his desk. This will be a democratic landmark. The bill  when passed into law will remove roadblocks in elections for national, state and local government.

One way for helping the community is the use of technology. Just as Covid-19 has made it possible to work without leaving one’s home or undertaking the physical drudgery of civilisation, technology also can help the community to do a lot of tasks without the efficiencies of faculties that may not be necessary for their tasks and the flowering of their genius.

To help the people living with disability is not their tasks alone. It is a collective burden, and a challenge.

He was an important bridge between a period of military rule and a period of democratic governance in Nigeria. As Chief of Army Staff (COAS) from 1981 to 1983, under a democratically elected civilian government, he was expected to reorient the Army to civilian governance following 13 years of military rule from 1966 to 1979.

Ironically, he was forced to retire on January 3, 1984, after a military coup on December 31, 1983.  He was in his forties at the time. This raises the question whether he failed regarding his role to make the Army submit to civil authority. On his part, Lt. Gen. Mohammed Inuwa Wushishi (retd) demonstrated allegiance to civil authority. He died in London on December 4, aged 81.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who came to power as a military ruler following the coup that necessitated Wushishi’s retirement, notably described him posthumously as “a thoroughbred professional soldier, an officer and a gentleman whose contributions to the fatherland are immeasurable.”

He attended Mons Officer Cadet School, Aldershot, UK from 1961 to 1962, Nigerian Military Training College in 1963, Staff College, Camberley, UK in 1972 and US Army War College from 1978 to 1979.

He became a second lieutenant in 1961, platoon commander 1962 to 1964, Battalion Adjutant General 1968 to 1969, sector commander 1969 to 1971, Deputy Commandant, School of Infantry 1972 to 1975, and General Officer Commanding, 4 Infantry Division Nigerian Army Staff College, Jaji 1979.

In the 1960s, he served in peacekeeping operations under the United Nations in Congo, and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now African Union (AU), in Tanzania.

He was Federal Commissioner for Industries, January 1975 to March 1976, and a member of the Supreme Military Council from 1976 to 1978.

His military career coincided with a period of military rule in the country, and his membership of the ruling council at a point was a pointer to his power and influence.

His position as Army boss during the President Shehu Shagari administration was a challenge to his capacity to adapt to new situations. Not only was he expected to submit to democracy after having tasted political power as a soldier, he was also supposed to guide the Army in the same direction. He may well have adjusted to new realities in the power sphere, but it is another matter whether he was able to get the Army to adjust.

After retiring from the Army, he entered the world of business. He was chairman of the board of directors of UAC of Nigeria, a prominent conglomerate, and retired in 2010 at the age of 70.

His activities in business showed more of his adaptive quality. He was also chairman of the board of UPDC, a property development company, a director of Stanbic IBTC Bank and MTS First Wireless, a telecoms operator, and a member of the board of Acorn Petroleum, an indigenous oil and gas company.

He remained relevant after his years of service in the military and government.  In particular, he coordinated the activities of elder statesmen in his state, Niger State.  Governor Abubakar Sani Bello said he “continued to offer useful counsel” and “made immense contributions to the peace, growth and development of the state and Nigeria as a whole.”

Born in Wushishi, in present-day Niger State, he was a Nupe Muslim. For his services to the country, he received two national honours at different times.  He was a recipient of Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) in 1981, and Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON), one of the country’s highest honours. There may be no greater testimony to his military professionalism and patriotism.

Mercifully, no life was lost in last week’s rocket attacks on Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, by suspected Boko Haram/Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) insurgents. Apparently unleashing their missiles from within the precincts of Maiduguri, the rockets hit several targets inside the city, inflicting injuries on a 6-month old baby, razing down a Honda Civic car and destroying the fence of a building. The attack was said to have been launched from the outskirts of Ngomari Old Airport not far from Borno State University. It was certainly a close shave and lucky escape for the residents of the state capital as the level of destruction both of lives and property could have easily been more grievous.

Sounding somewhat triumphal, the Director, Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu, while admitting that the attacks had caused some level of damage and apprehension in the targeted residential areas, noted the gallantry of the military in reacting to the challenge. He stated that ground troops in conjunction with the Air Component of Operation Hadin Kai (OPHK) responded swiftly and dominated the area with ground and air interdictions that successfully neutralised the threats and infiltration attempts by the terrorists. The Army spokesman urged the residents not to panic assuring that troops were on the ground and aggressively dominating the city to effectively thwart any perceived threats. There is indeed no doubt that the military is doing its best under the most difficult of situations to rise up to and contain the challenge of insurgent terrorism and other forms of insecurity across the country.

However, speaking after an on-the-spot assessment of affected areas, Borno State governor, Professor Babagana Zulum, made the critical point of how this latest incident illustrates the ominous threat that the terrorists pose to the security of the state capital and indeed the entire state, if urgent preemptive and remedial action is not taken. In his words, “It seems the insurgents came very close to the town, the military has to wake up and ensure adequate surveillance. This is something that we can avert its occurrence. For the insurgents to have come so close to fire rockets, I think there is something wrong that we should have to check. We have to fortify Maiduguri town, we have to ensure adequate patrols on a daily basis to avert future attacks”.

An eye witness, Usman Zanna of Gomari, who resides in one of the targeted areas hit by the rockets gave an insight into the attack, which the relevant authorities should not treat with levity. According to him, “the explosives landed in our area and we suspected it was launched by Boko Haram terrorists and we assumed the target is the Hajj Transit Camp where their former colleagues are being kept in the camp. You know we have been complaining about the continued camping of the former insurgents in the city. If you noticed, they have been trying to attack all communities where their ex-colleagues are kept. We complained about this for so long but no one is paying attention”.

The increasing number of former Boko Haram insurgents who had repented, renounced their former violent ways and committed to a new life of peace has often been cited as one indication of the successes being recorded in the war against terror, especially if such ex-militants are genuine in their remorse. However, the rocket attack on Maiduguri demonstrates, once again, that there is still a long way to go in the war against terror and the security agencies cannot afford to rest on their oars. Indeed, the relevant authorities should give more meticulous thought as to where to camp the repentant insurgents so that they do not become a source of risk to their host communities.

While some see the descriptive labels attached to these violent groups such as bandit or terrorist as being largely a matter of nomenclature, the recent court ruling describing some of these groups as terrorists and no more bandits indicates a welcome new level of seriousness in responding to the security challenge, even if it does not address the meaning of the word. Result is more important than labels.

From kidnapping school children in large numbers from both rural and urban centers, attacking the nerve centre of the country’s military, the Nigeria Defense Academy (NDA), to shooting down a sophisticated Nigerian Air Force jet, the insurgents have shown increasing boldness and audacity. It behoves the Nigerian military to come down with the full weight of its arsenal to utterly crush these anarchic elements once and for all as it well has the capacity to do. It has become incumbent on the military to take the fight to these terrorists right in their bases so that they do not enjoy the luxury of traveling long distances to the vicinity of state capitals to launch rocket attacks as they embarrassingly did in Maiduguri.

No fewer than eight children were reported dead penultimate weekend in a vehicle parked within a community on Badagry Expressway, Lagos State. The children, aged between four and six years, were suspected to have died from asphyxiation after being locked-in inside the airless vehicle for an uncertain length of time, and being unable to get out. It was a horrific incident regarding which answers are yet sought to many questions.

There were varying accounts of particular details of the tragedy. Some accounts said the Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) in which the children were found dead was parked within a fenced premises on Adelayo Street, near Jah Micheal Bus Stop in Magbon area of Badagry. The vehicle was reported to belong to a lady named Saliat Kazeem, who had parked it in front of her house. Other accounts cited a senior official of the Lagos State Civil Service Commission, who apparently resided within or at least was familiar with the community, saying the vehicle belonged to a retired personnel of the Lagos State University who is now deceased. Bottom line is that the car wasn’t under close attention at the time of the incident.

Matters of detail also left some posers open: for instance, how the children got access into the car without being noticed early enough despite that the car was reportedly locked and on fenced property. The guess by community residents was that the children in course of playful adventure somehow forced open the vehicle door, entered in and closed the door on themselves unaware there was a child-lock feature by which the doors could only be opened from without. No one noticed they were there nor knew for how long until a parent started looking for her ward. The eight children were said to be from four different families: three from one family, two from another family, two from yet another family and one being a granddaughter of Saliat Kazeem said to own the car.

According to community sources, it was when Kazeem was searching for her granddaughter whom she wanted to feed that it was discovered the children were locked up in the parked SUV. Reports said at the point of discovery, the children were already unconscious though some, like Kazeem’s granddaughter,  were suspected to be yet alive. But the ensuing confusion didn’t help the community folk to respond with sufficient dispatch in getting medical help, and the barely alive victim eventually gave up on the way to the hospital. Badagry General Hospital Medical Director, Dr. Tunde Bakare, was reported confirming that the children were brought in dead. He also downplayed hopes of painstaking medical interrogation of the cause(s) of the deaths, saying some of the parents had come to claim the bodies of their children for summary burial in accordance with Islamic tenets. “While we told them to leave (the bodies) so we could carry out autopsy, one of the Muslim clerics who followed them disagreed with our staff and said burial should not exceed Saturday. Unfortunately, the police that brought the corpses supported the cleric, so we had to release the corpses to them,” Bakare told journalists. The Lagos State police command as well confirmed the incident. “The eight children were said to have mistakenly locked themselves in an abandoned car while playing. Their bodies have been recovered and deposited at the Badagry General Hospital morgue for autopsy to determine the actual cause of death,” its spokesman, Adekunle Ajisebutu, said in a statement, adding that state Commissioner of Police Hakeem Odumosu had ordered thorough and speedy investigation into circumstances surrounding the children’s death. Some affected parents spoken to by journalists said they were away at prayers when news of the incident got to them; they largely adopted the fatalist stance of ‘the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh.”

It is good that the police are investigating this tragedy. It is difficult to ignore indications of some negligence, both on the part of the community and affected parents which resulted in the mishap. Children are prone to dangerous adventure and should never be left to their own devices. We commiserate with the parents and the community over this tragedy. But necessary lessons must be learnt to avert a recurrence.