The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Convicted terrorists

    Convicted terrorists

    • There should be greater clarity

    It appears that the Federal Government has started taking decisive steps to stem the tide of terrorism in the country. The Boko Haram terror group that has been operating in the North East since 2009 before spreading to other parts of the North has been used to being treated with kid gloves.

    When the military apprehends members of the group, the best that comes out of it is their arraignment; thereafter little is heard of the cases, thus further weakening public confidence in the state and its security forces. As was the case with Kabiru Sokoto, a notorious Boko Haram terrorist, he was able to escape from police custody in 2012. It took the intervention of the Department of State Services (DSS) to recapture him in Taraba State.

    So many times, previous governments had promised to name and arraign sponsors of these merchants of death, but nothing more was heard about the issue. That more than 200 terrorists were convicted recently in Kainji, Niger State is a step forward, but there is much more to be done. It would appear that the trials, which were conducted from December 9 to 13, 2024, were private and not open to the media because of security considerations. But it is surprising that the state, which is expected to have the capacity to provide adequate security, could be afraid of non-state actors. If the Nigerian state could be scared of these presumably poorly trained criminals, what about common citizens?

    Going forward, the government should make public all efforts to rout these enemies of state, be they Boko Haram terrorists, bandits, murderous herders or kidnappers. The entire process, from arrest to prosecution and sentence should be made public. Also, efforts should be stepped up to bring terrorism financiers to book. For the state to win public confidence, there must be clarity on the issue of justice for the terrorists and their backers. 

    Even the statement from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) informing the public of the sentences given to the convicted terrorists was not detailed enough. The statement said: “Among those sentenced to the maximum penalty were individuals found guilty of heinous offences, including attacks on women and children, destruction of religious sites, the slaughter of innocent civilians, and the abduction of women and children in a brutal assault at Gina Kara Kai community in Borno State.

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    “Additionally, individuals involved in terrorism-financing – a critical enabler of violent activities – were sentenced to life imprisonment, underscoring the Federal Government’s unyielding resolve to dismantle all aspects of terrorist networks.”

    It merely pointed out that some received the death sentence, while others were sentenced to prison for between 20 and 70 years. Who were they? The statement also suggested that some sponsors were tried and jailed, but their identities were kept secret. Why?

    When armed robbers and other regular criminals are tried, it is usually in open court with journalists in attendance. Why should the case be different for terrorists? Their activities: Churches and mosques have been bombed, traditional rulers beheaded, girls abducted and turned to sex slaves, schools violated, religious leaders and grandparents subjected to indignity without taking their positions and age into account. In many daring moves, they have attacked military formations, planted landmines that caused death of officers and men of the Armed Forces and even attempted to hoist strange flags on Nigerian territory.

    Their activities have arrested national development for more than a decade. Scarce resources that could have been applied to providing infrastructure in the various sectors of the economy and parts of the country have been used for importing weapons to fight the anti-terror war. These are reasons Nigerians should not be kept in the dark concerning the trials of terrorists and their sponsors.  They should be named, shamed and prosecuted in public.

    Importantly, the judiciary should be more sensitive to the need for speedy trials for terrorism suspects. We call on the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), to work with the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, to achieve

  • N189b unspent surplus

    N189b unspent surplus

    • Those involved must be identified and sanctioned

    The report that the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission (ICPC) blocked the diversion of N189b unspent surplus in personnel costs across federal government establishments has, once again, brought into bold relief the inherent inadequacies in the nation’s public finance system. The report, covering 2019 to 2020, was prepared by Agora Policy – a Nigerian think tank and non-profit committed to finding practical solutions to urgent national challenges.

    Titled “Imperative of Strengthening Nigeria’s Transparency and Accountability Measures,” the report observed that the ICPC, achieved this through the monitoring of the Open Treasury Portal, inaugurated by former President Muhammadu Buhari in December 2019 and designed to ensure transparency in government spending. The former president had at its inauguration directed all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to compulsorily publish on the portal, daily summary statements of financial records above N5 million.

    We commend Agora Policy for helping citizens make sense of what is going on in the federal bureaucracy. By so doing, they have added value, in no small measure, to the quest for openness and transparency in the way government businesses are run.

    The same goes for the ICPC for keeping an eye on the financial activities of the MDAs without which the funds would have been gobbled by ruthless government operatives. While Nigerians ought to find it perplexing that the report covered barely one year of the implementation of the initiative, the implicit revelation that this has been the norm in government should itself be frightening.

    Surely, the finding raises the fundamental question, not just of the adequacy, but the continuing relevance of the General Orders and the Financial Regulations and other normative controls built into the civil service operations. If Nigerians are still in search of evidence about how obsolete, farcical and utterly broken the finance system has become, this must be one good example.

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    It goes without saying that both the officials of the Budget Office and those of the relevant MDAS have a lot of explaining to do concerning the findings in the report. The former, to explain how such huge, obviously padded expenditures, came to be accommodated in the budget; and the latter, for their justification of expenditures which ought not to have been in the first place.

    What must be no less disturbing is the report of similar findings by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF). Specifically, among these are irregular payments for contracts totaling over N197.72b across various MDAs by the office between 2020 and 2021.

    Interestingly, the findings, as detailed in the Auditor-General’s Annual Report on Non-Compliance and Internal Control Weaknesses equally reveal a troubling pattern of violations of established financial regulations and procurement laws cutting across multiple MDAs.

    When these findings are taken together, what emerges is a picture of a federal public accounting system thoroughly riddled with arbitrariness and mindless abuses. The only consolation is that whereas the ICPC succeeded in blocking the former, the latter was deftly executed.

    All too often, highly placed officials routinely hide behind the inscrutable walls of the bureaucracy to foist mayhem on the system. And simply because the system is cloaked in anonymity, those engaged in willful infractions are never called to account. This time, things must be seen to have changed, else the Open Treasury Portal initiative will come to naught. Those behind the request, as indeed their network of abetters, must be identified and sanctioned appropriately.

    All that’s required is for the relevant institutions to pore through the paper trails in the bureaucracy to identify the specific individuals behind them.

  • Recovered funds

    Recovered funds

    •Anti-graft agencies should do more

    The figures released by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) on recovery of funds by the anti-corruption agencies are very impressive. They indicate that the war against corruption has been revved up under the President Bola Tinubu administration.

    At a news conference by the Strategic Communication Inter-Agency Policy Committee in Abuja, the Director of Legal Services in ONSA, Zakari Mijinyawa, disclosed that, in 2024 alone, the anti-graft agencies had recovered so much in cash and property and secured 3,488 convictions, describing it as an “unprecedented milestone.”

    In cash terms, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was credited with legally recovering N277b and $105.968m. The EFCC also secured the forfeiture of an estate of 753 duplexes, while the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has been monitoring about 1,500 projects. Both agencies, according to the official, succeeded in securing the conviction of 3,455 persons for corrupt practices during the same period. Mijinyawa also said four former governors and three former ministers were currently on trial in different courts. He, however, did not give their names. 

    Laudable as this is, there is a lot of room for improvement. It is not enough to announce that unnamed former governors and ex-ministers are being prosecuted. If the trial is in open court, as in the case of former Kogi State governor Yahaya Bello that is common knowledge, all prosecution must be in public. If common criminals and petty thieves could be paraded even after such action had been declared illegal in some states, people suspected to have abused their offices to help themselves to public assets do not deserve such protection.

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    Even if an agreement was reached to settle out of court, the charges have to be entered in court, plea taken and the final terms have to be reported and approved in the interest of accountability and transparency. For the sake of uniformity, the procedure for plea bargain should be made standard to guide all judicial officers

    Importantly, the disclosure that so much was recovered as proceeds of corruption is inadequate because it is unknown how much was left unrecovered. The anti-graft agencies should go beyond recovering what had been lost through the porous and weak public accounting process to block leakages.

    About 23 years after former President Olusegun Obasanjo established the EFCC, a stable legal framework ought to have been in place to check grand corruption in the land. The World Justice Project had estimated last year that about N550b was funnelled out of public coffers, thus hindering socio-economic development of Nigeria.

    We are also concerned about the use to which the recovered money would be put. In the past, there have been cases of re-looting of looted funds. Unless a system is put in place to ensure that all such money is used for known causes, there would always be room for corrupt officials to convert it to private use. It is reassuring that the current EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, has vowed to weed out the agency’s officials caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

    There are many areas calling for attention, which the authorities should pay attention to. Recovered funds could be spent on public infrastructure, for instance, including health institutions, the academia and roads, among others. A recent example was giving part of the funds for take-off of the Nigerian Education Loans Fund (NELFUND). This is commendable. There are other important government schemes crying for such intervention.

    We look forward to more cases of the use of recovered funds for national development. The anti-corruption agencies should intensify their efforts to recover funds looted from public coffers.

  • Repetitive directive

    Repetitive directive

    •IGP’s order must be put into effect

    Interestingly, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, may well have been prompted to re-issue an order that had been repeatedly issued by some of his predecessors.  The British Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, who has Nigerian roots, had controversially told a British journalist about how Nigerian policemen stole her brother’s shoes and wrist watch while she was growing up in the country. Egbetokun issued a ban on the violation of the rights of Nigerian youths through arbitrary arrests, harassments, and the random checking of mobile phones and other electronic devices across the country.

    This order, coming four years after the historic #EndSARS protest of October 2020, which was sparked by these same actions by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), seems as laughable as it is curious. The #EndSARS protest attracted global attention.  Due to technology, the protests and subsequent government clampdown on innocent protesters was streamed live on social media and the global outrage still resonates as some of the arrested youths are reportedly still being detained while there is little or no accountability for the dead and missing.

    The youths demanded for and got the SARS disbanded, or so it seems. However, the impunity of the police has not waned. The police mantra, “the police is your friend,” is considered farcical in social circles. There are still hundreds of frivolous arrests.  Wearing any form of clothing with the camouflage design, wearing dreadlocks and jewelry still attract police brutality.  Young people still get harassed to open their mobile phones or answer questions about carrying a laptop. Also, politicians and other influential members of the society still weaponise the police against the youths especially.

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    The idea that in 21st century Nigeria, a young person carrying a backpack with or without a laptop is labelled a fraudster, locally referred to as ‘yahoo yahoo,’ is as pathetic as it is a dent on the image of the police. Young people are constantly being clamped into detention for minor offences and sometimes for no offence at all. Some are still allegedly extorted at checkpoints across the nation; and in a social media era, some of the videos showing such abuse of power often go viral.

    Failed orders by former IGPs created a situation in which the police still need serious image overhaul through improved training and punishment for offenders. We are afraid that Egbetokun’s order may go the way of others before it. There have been orders from former IGPs to remove policemen from excessively guarding politicians and their wives to the detriment of public safety. We still see a disproportionate allocation of policemen to almost all politicians and other influential individuals while regular citizens are left to fend for themselves security-wise.  IGP Egbetokun must deal with this, too.

    The role of the police in any society cannot be overemphasised. A society is as functional as the operations of its law enforcement agents.  We, therefore, want the IGP to not just continue in the trajectory of his predecessors by barking without biting. The citizens can only have confidence in the police if they are seen to be above reproach. We need a police force that recreates the discipline that its officers posted to other countries for international peace-keeping duties are known for. 

    The fact that police personnel posted outside the country excel and often win prizes for excellence shows that the situation is not beyond redemption. We expect Egbetokun to chart a new path for the agency, which will require determination and consistency. He should set better standards that will be enduring. That is the change that is needed.

  • VC appointments

    VC appointments

    • Integrity and merit should be determinants

    In Nigeria, the appointment of Vice-Chancellors (VCs) has a long history of controversy. One of the bases for acrimony is what has been perceived as ethnic dominance of the leaderships of the apex academic institutions. Today, a mirror image of the problem is becoming rampant in the different geo-political zones of the country, with host communities of federal universities insisting that indigenous people be made VCs of the respective institutions.

    In one case, the problem was compounded with the introduction of a religious dimension. When a candidate who duly emerged as VC had a name which sounded like that of a Muslim, protests by the indigenes ensued, and ended only when they discovered that the VC-elect was actually a Christian.

    This anti-intellectual trend may have made the Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Sonny Echono, to declare as follows at the 36th convocation lecture of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State, on December 7, as reported by Punch newspaper: “The sponsorship of the selection process of Vice Chancellors by politicians has made university administration increasingly local.”

     The implication of this, according to him, is that “Our universities have become increasingly local, with the majority of academic and non-academic staff sponsored by local politicians and other leaders from the host communities. Political affiliation has also assumed overarching importance in the selection process.” All of these create problems for the maintenance of discipline within the system.

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    Echono was further reported to have noted: “Principal officers exert enormous influence, especially in procurement (Tender Board) and payments for projects, goods, and services. Contractors have been known to sponsor candidates for Vice Chancellor in return for patronage.” This may be the reason for the widespread allegations of corruption in the Nigerian university system. In one instance, it was an incumbent president himself who made the unflattering allegation. The effect of such corrupt practices in contract award is that it undermines the capacity to enforce implementation rules and ensure quality delivery.

    While noting the need for accountability at every level of the selection process, to guarantee integrity and meritocracy, Echono offered this solution: “The autonomy of universities needs to be strengthened to minimise political interference.” But, is inadequate autonomy the real issue?

    According to The Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Act 2003 (otherwise called the University Autonomy Bill), the composition of the Governing Council of a federal university is as follows: “(a) the Pro-Chancellor; (b) the Vice-Chancellor; (c) the Deputy Vice-Chancellors; (d) one person from the Federal Ministry responsible for Education; (e) four persons representing a variety of interest and broadly representative of the whole Federation to be appointed by the National Council of Ministers; (f) four persons appointed by the Senate from among its members; (g) two persons appointed by the Congregation from among its members; and (h) one person appointed by Convocation from among its members.”

    From this provision, the total number of members of Council is typically 17. Out of this number, 6 (i.e., a, d and e) are clearly external members, and 10 (i.e., b, c (who are normally 3), f and g) are clearly internal members. One person appointed by Convocation from among its members (i.e., h, who is usually the President of the Alumni Association) is hybrid, because they could fit into either of the external or internal member categories.

    The Autonomy Bill vests the Council with the power to appoint VCs without interference from the government or its agencies. Since the internal members of Council are in the majority, indicating a significant measure of autonomy in the VC appointment process, why do the internal members lose control of the process, and why does the process become typically acrimonious and merit-supplanting?

    One of the reasons is the typical provincial perception of a federal university as “our university” by indigenes of the state or even city in which the university is located. The effect of this is that even if an indigene of the area does not emerge as the best candidate, pressure of all sorts (including weird intimidation) is piled on the Council, by traditional rulers or even state governments, to declare that indigene as the VC-elect.

    It is also believed that, sometimes, the pressure is from the regulatory agencies themselves. These are the Federal Ministry of Education and the National Universities Commission. Moreover, it is believed that pressure sometimes comes from ruling party leaders and key functionaries of the Federal Government.

    The internal members of Council themselves contribute to the problems when they and/or the unions they belong to get sucked into the VC selection scheming and so lose their power to insist on making the best interest of the university the overriding consideration in the selection.

    In some cases, the majority status of internal members of Council is undermined when, in pursuit of personal interest, a destabilising number of internal members join the VC race. As contestants, these internal members cannot be part of the decision-making process. This creates a situation in which, by default, the external members of Council become the majority, and the process is open to a higher risk of external manipulation.

    The implication of all of the foregoing is that the choice of external members into the Governing Councils of federal universities should be guided by the patriotic desire to serve the Nigerian university system rather than primordial or pecuniary interests. Moreover, the election of internal members of the Governing Council should be underlain by the desire to promote the best interests of the university and the enhancement of factors that would make individuals within the system to be able to fulfill their roles in relation to the growth of the institution.

    As the saying goes, “The fish rots first from the head.” If a VC is therefore appointed with debilitating psychological, socio-political and financial baggage, the chances of self-replicating mediocrity is high, and it would be difficult for them to effectively lead the university to meet the developmental yearnings of the nation.

  • Scam on seven floors

    Scam on seven floors

    •EFCC made its biggest cybercrime arrests ever. Now, let’s prosecute

    Just a few weeks before, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) engendered a news earthquake in the real estate sector with the revelation of 753 duplexes linked with former Central Bank of Nigeria governor Godwin Emefiele.

    In spite of its diffidence and ambiguity in unveiling the real identity, it was an extraordinary win for the fight against corruption, and the loose morality and acquisitive filth of the governing elite. It was the biggest haul of homes ever to fall into the net of the EFCC. It had never happened in the history of the country.

    The nation had not digested this brick-and-mortar fraud news when the agency scored another humongous first. In one fell swoop, it arrested 792 persons for cybercrime.

    It was not just a Nigerian crime. The profile of the arrests is frightening; it was a medley of Chinese, Filipinos, Kazaks, Pakistanis and Indonesian. The Nigerian number may be high, at 599. But the number of the foreigners, though small, is staggering: 193. The Nigerians were the underlings in the syndicates. The bosses were the foreigners. But the Chinese hoodlums topped the chart with 148 persons, followed by 40 Filipinos and two Kazaks. Pakistan and Indonesia each had one national.

    The crime had a number of intriguing parts. It happened in a tony district of Lagos, at 7, Oyin Jolayemi Street in Victoria Island. It was disguise in plain sight. It eluded the public capacity for suspicion by its grand and bold siting. Hear what the EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, said: “Investigation established that the foreign nationals use the facility at 7, Oyin Jolayemi Street, which could be mistaken for a corporate headquarters of a financial establishment to train their Nigerian accomplices on how to initiate romance and investment scams and also use the identities of Nigerians to perpetrate their criminal activities.”

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    It was a tall, seven-floor edifice, and the façade was not the sort associated with furtive dealings. They operated with the bravado of guilt. They thrived with a veneer of not only innocence but respectability.

    “All the floors are equipped with high-end desktop computers. On the 5th floor alone, investigators recovered 500 SIM cards of local telcos that were bought for criminal purposes,” he added.

    He said further that “The Nigerian accomplices are equally provided with logs that allow them access to foreign communication lines and victims, which they chat with on WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram.

    “Their jobs are to engage victims in romantic conversations and phantom business and investment discussions to trick them to shop on the purported online investment shopping platform called www.yooto.com. For those who show interest, activation fees for an account on the platform starts from $35USD.”

    Their focus was romance and investment scams. Their targets were vulnerable and trusting persons in the United States, Canada, Mexico and several European countries.

     It is significant that the Asians were at the top of the feral game. They took advantage of Nigerian vulnerabilities. One, they knew that Nigeria had already established itself with what is now known as yahoo boys, who have involved themselves with wayward acuity in conning foreigners with breathtaking success. So, the foreigners came here to make a big slice of the market. Two, they also know the level of youth unemployment and the desperation of their generation to take a job.

    The latter worked for them until the EFCC caught up with them. They recruited the young Nigerians on the pretext that they were to do marketing endeavours. But once the Nigerians had started work and realised the sordid job they were asked to do, they caved in, according to their confessions to the EFCC.

    They were outliers in the real act of scamming, the Nigerians. They were hired for their typing skills and ability to obey their format of engagement with their “clients.” So, they contacted the men and women in the western countries.

    “Once the Nigerians are able to win the confidence of would-be victims, the foreigners would take over the actual task of defrauding the victims and proceed to block their Nigerian accomplices from the network. This would then leave them in the dark about the transaction,” Uwujaren said.

    This was the dynamic until December 10 when the agency swooped on them in an operation that lasted from 5:30 pm to about 10 pm. The picture of the crowd of suspects was even unusual for a Victoria Island known for its quiet and upper-crust habitués.

    They are all in the EFCC’s cage and the legal framework for prosecution, according to the EFCC, had not been completed. But this is one other major act that the EFCC under the leadership of Ola Olukoyede has pulled off and he deserves commendation. He has raised the tempo of that agency since he took over, especially in tackling high-profile suspects and international syndicates in cybercrime. There is no doubt, given the profile of the foreigners, that they are part of a vaster organised crime, possibly linked to Asia, with a greater suspicion of China.

    The arrests are not enough. We need the EFCC to examine the operation of the immigration services and ascertain on what basis these foreigners secured visas to work in this country. They could not have been given work visas to con Nigerians and innocent persons in far-flung countries in other continents. These may be bad eggs in the increasing pool of Asians who flock into Nigeria to work. We cannot deny the value of a good many of them. But as they flock in, we need vigilance. We should not only give visas, we ought to format a system of monitoring their activities, especially when they renew their visas. This is not just the work of the EFCC but other agencies, including the Department of State Services (DSS).

    Nigerians, especially the youths, should learn not to fall for the wiles of foreign criminals who want to exploit them. There are reports, already, of foreign firms exploiting local labour and humiliating them just because they want to earn a living. It is also a wake-up call for the government to step up employment opportunities for the young. There is no doubt that they are vulnerable. Morality sometimes cannot stop a jobless and idle young man and woman from accepting such jobs.

    We expect that the prosecution will be a public one, and many will learn in this country that Nigeria cannot serve as a window for international criminality.

  • Will 2025 be a year of reform or chaos?

    Will 2025 be a year of reform or chaos?

    • By Richard Falk|

    Rarely has the crystal ball used to divine the near future seemed so clouded by uncertainties. The year 2024 was dominated by disappointments, disturbing surprises, and continuing devastation in Ukraine and Gaza. It was also a year that underscored the inability of the UN to stop the most transparent genocide ever in Gaza, a senseless war in Ukraine, and mass slaughter in Sudan. 

    Is 2024 a turning point?

    There were a variety of multilateral efforts in 2024 to escape from US international dominance after the Cold War. This dominance had fueled a global politics of resentment and a search for an alternative world order that is law-governed and not subject to the geopolitical maneuvers of the five winners of World War II. These powers were granted unrestricted veto rights in the UN Security Council under the UN Charter, which has long paralyzed efforts to ensure compliance with international law. This produces a deep contradiction in the way the world is organized, allowing the most powerful and dangerous countries, all five being nuclear-armed states, to be legally free of any obligation to respect international law.

    The question in many thoughtful minds is whether these developments in the prior year will continue in the year ahead. One near certain development is the rightward turn of internal politics in the West, given a dramatic twist by the prospects of radical change associated with the second coming of Donald Trump as US president. Trump has already appointed highly controversial political figures to his Cabinet, with the expectation of implementing an ultra-right domestic agenda. However, what is his approach to foreign policy? As well, the leading governments of Europe, including Germany, France, and Italy, all exhibit signs of leaning further toward authoritarianism. 

    Crisis areas in the world

    There are some hopeful signs. Trump seems likely to push for a negotiated peace in Ukraine and bring to a close US President Joe Biden’s “geopolitical war,” involving fighting Moscow by supplying and funding Kyiv with ever more provocative weaponry while turning his back on diplomacy and urging NATO to join in the fight with Rusi to the last Ukrainian. Such a posture raised risks of a confrontation with Russia that could also result in catastrophic nuclear warfare. Trump wants to cut spending on distant and expensive foreign adventures with no genuine American security interest and stand before the world as a peacemaker. Ukraine was a war that never should have been, as a diplomatic compromise between Russia and Ukraine was from its inception in the interest of Ukraine and world peace, as well as being attainable by responsible statecraft.

    In contrast to Ukraine, the context of Israel/Palestine is far bleaker. There is every indication that Trump intends to outdo Biden by being an even more unconditional ally of Israel, fully supportive of the Netanyahu-led project entailing the establishment of Greater Israel. This is a plan to erase the Palestinian challenge through the annexation of the West Bank, parts of Gaza, and to support Israel in extending its “buffer zones” in Syria and Lebanon. The plan also includes intensified efforts to destroy Iran’s nuclear program and promote regime change in Tehran by force. The rightward turn of major governments in the West is likely to repress civil society opposition to the continuation of Israeli genocide and expansionism. 

    Militarism versus symbolic victories: The calculus of legitimacy wars

    The efforts by countries in the Global South to have recourse to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and International Criminal Court (ICC) are a notable expression on the part of non-Western states to invoke international law to serve the causes of peace with justice. And the ICJ has responded in an encouraging professional manner, ruling in favor of provisional measures in response to South Africa’s submission and issuing a separate opinion invalidating Israel’s continuing occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem in an authoritative near-unanimous exposition of applicable international law. Of course, it is expected that Israel will defy these developments, as it has consistently done in the face of adverse rulings by international tribunals. Nevertheless, such rulings sympathetic with Palestinian grievances are symbolically important, delegitimizing Israel and mobilizing civil society activism that gives rise to global solidarity initiatives of a Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) variety.

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    The fate of the arrest warrants issued by the ICC, ordering the arrest and transfer to The Hague for prosecution of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant after a long delay is highly uncertain. Israel has mounted a legal challenge, and its government has made clear that the arrest warrants for the Israeli leaders are antisemitic outrages, and any implementation would be denounced and disrupted no matter what the ICC might decide. As with the ICJ genocide and occupation cases, the mere issuance of arrest warrants by the ICC was a significant symbolic Palestinian victory in the Legitimacy War, which may yet surprise the world in 2025 or shortly thereafter, by its overall impact on the viability of the Israeli state as now operative. It should be appreciated that the anti-colonial wars of the past 50 years were won by the weaker side militarily that managed to prevail on the symbolic battlefields of the Legitimacy War, which gives decisive weight to law, morality, and perseverance of a repressed people. The establishment of the civil society Gaza Tribunal in November of 2024 is a further legitimizing development in the Palestinian struggle for basic rights that seeks to activate global solidarity initiatives that shifted the balance in the global movement against South African apartheid, and before that of the global anti-war movement that nullified US military superiority in the Vietnam War. 

    The rise of multipolarity in 2025?

    At the same time, global society is experiencing a surge of multilateral initiatives. Strengthening the impulse to create autonomous multipolar networks of the sort modeled by the BRICS, and especially to mount challenges to dollarization of trade and finance, which, to the extent successful, will produce a backlash in the form of high tariffs and the economic menace of a trade war, aggravated by an increase in the tendency to replace workers with digitally sophisticated substitutes for human labor to promote profitability and efficiency.

    Above all, 2025 will witness growing tensions between the unified governance of global security by continued US hegemony and a resurgent challenge mounted by the Global South in the ongoing Legitimacy War with the West.

    • This article was first published in www.aa.com.tr
  • Fowl game

    Fowl game

    • A controversial judgment is resolved

    Sanctity of life: that was the important consideration in the case of Segun Olowookere and his companion, Sunday Morakinyo, who were pardoned by Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke after being sentenced to death in 2014 for armed robbery-related offences.  Olowookere was arrested in November 2010, convicted and sentenced to death by the Osun State High Court on December 17, 2014, along with Morakinyo for conspiracy to commit armed robbery, robbery, and stealing.

    There was a campaign to project the young men as sentenced to hanging by the Osun high court simply for stealing fowls and eggs. But details of court proceedings in the case suggested otherwise. Bottom line, however, is that life is sacred and must be safeguarded to the utmost possible limit, which has been our plea in this matter and which, thankfully, the clemency has served.

    Olowookere’s parents had championed a crusade for the life of their son, which sympathisers – most notably netizens – seized upon to promote a narrative of overly heavy-handed justice against the young man for only a slight felony. They thereby impugned the character of the judiciary for its verdict.

    Reports said Olowookere was 17 years old in 2010 when he was arrested along with his accomplice, Morakinyo. They were alleged to have robbed a policeman attached to the Divisional Police Headquarters in Okuku, Tope Balogun, of two fowls and eggs. Justice Sakariyah Falola of Osun State High Court, Ikirun, according to reports, sentenced the two young men to death by hanging after finding them guilty of forcefully breaking into the victim’s house and stealing his fowls. They had been on death row ever since.

    For years, Olowookere’s parents were joined by human rights groups and other Nigerians to crusade for his release. The parents were recently on a podcast where they cried and begged for their only child to be pardoned. There was public outcry over the matter as many people felt the sentence was too harsh. The case raised questions about the disproportion of the punishment for what many considered a minor offence, especially when offences of greater severity often attract a relative slap on the wrist from the courts.

    Governor Adeleke, in response to the outcry, voiced concern over the death sentence for fowl theft and pledged a process of granting him clemency after reviewing the case. He made good on that promise. A statement on December 26 by the governor’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, announced the governor’s pardon of Olowookere, Morakinyo and 51 other inmates.

    The statement partly read, “In line with the recommendations of the State Advisory Council on Prerogative of Mercy, Governor Ademola Adeleke has exercised the prerogative of mercy towards 53 convicts serving various convictions within the Nigerian Correctional Service.” It quoted the governor as saying he was “pleased to extend my grace and mercy unto the said inmates. Convicts recommended for outright pardon for good conduct (capital offences) are: Sunday Morakinyo, Segun Olowookere, Tunde Olapade and Demola Odeyemi.”

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    However, a report from court documents by this newspaper, The Nation, had shown that the two young men were convicted of armed robbery and not fowl stealing, and the court made recommendation for commutation of their sentence by the state governor. The judgment text indicated that Olowookere was 22 when he was docked in January 2013, meaning he was 19 at the time of the offence and not 17 as widely reported. Morakinyo was 21 at the time of arraignment, according to court papers, meaning he was 18  at the time of the offence. The charges against them, to which they pleaded not guilty, included that they conspired to rob persons identified in the judgment of sundry possessions, using weapons.

    According to The Nation’s report, the court had a record of a confessional statement in which Olowookere acknowledged being part of a midnight attack on the home of a woman in which one member of the group was armed with a cutlass and others with iron rods and sticks, although he said he himself did not carry any weapon and only accompanied the group.

    The judgment further revealed that victims of the gang members testified against them during the trial. Whereas Olowookere denied the crime, Morakinyo said he was mentally unfit to oppose the claims by prosecution. There were reportedly confessional statements in which some members of the gang fingered a particular individual as having led them into committing armed robbery and stealing from the identified victims.

    In his verdict, Justice Falola convicted the accused persons of conspiracy, robbery with firearms, armed robbery and stealing, and dismissed other counts that he said the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt. He sentenced them to death and life imprisonment for conspiracy to commit armed robbery and robbery with firearms, and to three years imprisonment for stealing. The judge, however, noted: “In view of the age of the two convicts, it is hereby recommended to the Governor that, if it may please him, he should commute the death sentence and life imprisonment to (say) 10 years.”

    He also recommended concerning Morakinyo that the prison’s medical officer should arrange for his level of insanity to be ascertained, saying: “If the convict (is) found to be insane and constitutes danger to fellow inmates and prison officials, he shall be transferred to and kept in an asylum where the destitute are kept. He shall remain there at the pleasure of the Governor.” It was not clear from the judgment what happened to other members of the gang that got Olowookere and Morakinyo into trouble.

    In a media interview, Olowookere insisted on his innocence, and claimed he was arrested by the police, tortured and forced to make a false confession, adding that at some point the police initially agreed to release him on bail if his father paid N30,000, but his father could only raise N20,000, which the police rejected.

    We have only the judgment of the court to regard as the authentic reference on the case and going by that document the reportage of the case in the media misrepresented the facts. That judgment was not appealed and remains the official verdict of the judiciary on the matter. And notice: the action by the Osun governor, which involved other convicts, stressed pardon for good conduct following conviction and not innocence.  We urge that the judiciary be spared the controversy in this matter.

    Having said that, we have always objected to the death sentence and canvassed its elimination from Nigerian statute books. Just consider the young age of the convicts and how capital punishment could preempt a lifetime of possibly reformed living that lies ahead of them. We welcome the pardon for Olowookere and Morakinyo. 

  • Winners

    Winners

    • Football brings glory 

    Triple awards for Nigerians at the 2024 Confederation of African Football (CAF) Awards in Marrakech, Morocco made a statement about individual performance and teamwork. Ademola Lookman, 27, was named CAF Men’s Player of the Year. Chiamaka Nnadozie, 24, won CAF Women’s Goalkeeper of the Year award for the second consecutive year. Nigeria’s Super Falcons won the CAF Women’s National Team of the Year award, also for the second year running. 

    Lookman, according to CAF, deserved the honour following “a sensational 12 months with Italian side Atalanta and Nigeria’s Super Eagles.” CAF said it was the first time Nigeria had back-to-back winners in the men’s award since Nwankwo Kanu (1996) and Victor Ikpeba (1997) were honoured almost three decades ago.

    He is the sixth Nigerian international to win the award, and succeeded fellow Nigerian Victor Osimhen, winner of the award in 2023. Also, he is the first Nigerian player born outside the country to win the award. He said on stage when collecting his award: “Four years ago my career felt down but now I’m here as the best player in Africa.” He added: “Don’t let your failures stop your dreams.” This was a powerfully inspiring message, particularly to Nigerian youths.

    He described his award as “an incredible achievement,” saying, “It’s not just me but we have a lot of talent, not just in the men’s game but also in the women’s game, and for us to be able to give motivation to the young kids who want to aspire to be like us is the most important, because if we can set a good example, they have good footsteps to walk into.”

    Born in England to Nigerian parents, he had represented England at under-19 and under-21 levels before switching to Nigeria, making his senior debut for the country in 2022. This was a laudable demonstration of love for his roots.  He was in the Nigerian team that were runners-up at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.  He had played for English sides Charlton Athletic, Everton, Fulham and Leicester City, and German club RP Leipzig before joining Atalanta in 2022.

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     He won the UEFA Europa League with Atalanta in May, spectacularly scoring a hat-trick in the final against German club Bayer Leverkusen. All eyes have been on him since that magical performance. Significantly, he was the only African on the 2024 Ballon d’Or list and finished 14th in the race to be crowned the world’s best player. Described as a creative, versatile and explosive winger with a keen eye for goal, he is at the top of his game. 

    Nnadozie, goalkeeper for French club Paris FC and Nigeria women’s national team Super Falcons, had a superlative season for her club, and was named Premiere Ligue Goalkeeper of the Season 2023-24. She joined the French side in 2020, after playing for Rivers Angels in the Nigerian league.  Her impressive performances at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, particularly in the Super Falcons’ match against Canada, which ended in a goalless draw and earned her a Player of the Match award, raised her profile at the international level.  

    The record of Nigeria’s Super Falcons makes it Africa’s most successful women’s national football team. It has won an unequaled 11 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations titles; and it is the only African women’s national team that had reached the quarterfinals at both the FIFA Women’s World Cup and the Summer Olympics. Also, it is the only African team that has qualified for every edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

    Glory for the country at the 2024 CAF Awards should inspire the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), the country’s football governing body, to raise its game. Regrettably, the organisation remains below par, which does not help the advancement of the sport in Nigeria. 

  • Fighting tuberculosis

    Fighting tuberculosis

    • More diagnostic machines an advantage 

    Following the positive impact made by the deployment in 2021 of 39 machines for the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) in Nigeria, an additional 333 Truenat diagnostic machines have been provided across the country this year in a bid to scale up detection as a necessary condition for effective treatment of the disease. It is an infectious disease caused by bacteria that often affects the lungs. It spreads through the air when people with TB cough, sneeze or spit. It is preventable and curable.

    Funded by the Global Fund, an international financing and partnership organisation established to support the fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the provision of the diagnostic machines is implemented through the National Tuberculosis Programme (NTP) and endorsed by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

    There is every reason for optimism that the substantial increase in the number of these machines will considerably enhance the capacity for detection and treatment of tuberculosis in Nigeria, especially as more areas previously underserved or completely excluded from access to these services can now be reached.

    Giving an insight into the immense benefits of the machines, the Head of Laboratory Services at the Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme (NTBLCP), Rita Akpakpan, said:  “With Truenat, we can identify TB cases with as few as 30 bacilli per milliliter, compared to 10,000 required for detection by microscopes. This precision will significantly reduce the number of undiagnosed patients, thereby curbing the spread of TB in communities.”

    She also noted that “Beyond TB detection, Truenat machines can also identify drug-resistant TB cases, enabling tailored treatment for patients who do not respond to conventional TB drugs. This dual functionality is critical for improving treatment outcomes and reducing the burden of drug-resistant TB.” Also noteworthy is that the machines can be used to diagnose other diseases such as COVID-19, hepatitis and HIV with positive implications for the healthcare system generally.

    However, those who administer these programmes have the responsibility to ensure that the machines are maximally utilised and efficiently maintained at the various health facilities to which they are deployed.

    The importance of this initiative in the effort to upscale healthcare delivery in Nigeria cannot be overemphasised as the country is reported to have the sixth largest TB burden globally with an estimated 4.3 percent of new cases being multi-drug resistant. According to one study, there are approximately 590,000 new cases of the disease reported annually in Nigeria and of these about 140,000 are also HIV positive.

    Indeed, tuberculosis is said to be responsible for more than 10 percent of all deaths in the country. While Nigeria has the second largest TB burden in Africa, it is ironic that the country as at 2018 had one of the lowest case detection rates in the world with an estimated 24 percent of incident cases being detected. This is far lower than the WHO STOP TB objective of 84 percent detection rate. The substantial expansion in the number of diagnostic machines will surely help to redress this deficiency.

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    Treatment period for the disease is often lengthy, running into several months, and most vulnerable victims cannot afford the considerable cost. Given the country’s high population, low detection rates and poor primary healthcare capacity, the resultant delay in treating a tuberculosis patient, according to experts, can potentially result in the transfer of the infection. The consequent increase in the number of affected persons worsens the burden both on the healthcare system and on the economy as a whole. This is why increasing the capacity for early detection and treatment is so critical.

    Intensifying efforts to reduce poverty levels and raise the level of economic well-being for most Nigerians is imperative to effectively fight tuberculosis, especially as undernutrition is identified as one of the contributory factors to TB prevalence. Multivarious strategies against diabetes, HIV infection, alcohol use disorders and smoking, which also predispose to tuberculosis, are vital.

    The training of sufficient numbers of healthcare workers in the use of the diagnostic machines is equally essential if the initiative is to be sustainable. According to the NTBLCP, training of healthcare workers on their use has already commenced in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Nasarawa State with additional training centres planned for Lagos, Ogun and other parts of the country. However, training two staff members per facility, as planned, is in our view insufficient.