The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Not yet Uhuru

    Not yet Uhuru

    Although the April 11 elections were better conducted, there is still room for improvement

    AFTER many twists and turns, and fears of conflagration that could consume the country, the 2015 elections are largely over. Winners and losers have emerged and political parties have seen how they are rated in the states and constituencies.

    Generally, the governorship and state assembly elections held on April 11 were better conducted than the presidential and National Assembly elections held on March 28. While the card reader malfunctioned in many polling units in the earlier election, the degree of failure had drastically reduced by the time state elections were conducted. Polling officials reported promptly at their duty posts and materials were distributed in the correct proportion. It was an election that elicited commendation from journalists, local and international observers who had little to complain about the conduct of the electoral commission’s officials and security agents that were largely less aggressive and obtrusive.

    If things continue to improve, Nigerians can say that democracy is growing in the country. For too long, they have groaned under the yoke of state institutions primed to manipulate the system and process to achieve programmed end. A foundation is now being laid to ensure that leaders could be elected or rejected by the people and their will respected.

    It was obvious tha t the result of the presidential election had a sobering effect on the system. In states like Adamawa, Plateau and Benue, the ruling parties were voted out with little or no incidents. In Gombe, despite the failure of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) all through the North East, the party was the choice of the people and their verdict was respected. In Taraba, it was inconclusive and a supplementary poll would be conducted on April 25. In all the states of the North West, the PDP fell to the rival All Progressives Congress (APC). Yet, there were no protests on the streets, thus confirming that it represented the wish of the electorate.

    In Benue State where the APC alleged that it was short-changed in 2011, it scaled the hurdles effortlessly in the last elections, thus breaking the myth that any political party perceived to enjoy massive support of the Hausa-Fulani would be rejected by the Tiv. In Lagos, the PDP and incumbent president threw everything into the race. It was a close contest, but the APC was returned and peace reigned.

    However, evidence of manipulations, irregularities and widespread violence were reported in states like Abia, Akwa Ibom and Rivers. Lives were lost as security men were allegedly compromised and thwarted the will of the people. After protests, the Abia governorship poll has been declared inconclusive as were the Taraba and Imo elections. It is hoped that the tradition being set would be established and Nigerians would have cause to rejoice.

    However, we find it intriguing that despite the protests by the APC about a possible collusion between the PDP, the police and the Resident Electoral Commissioners in some places, necessary changes were not made. In Abia, the returning officer for Abia North said that the result declared for the March 28 election did not emanate from him. We expected that proper investigation would immediately be launched into the commissioner’s complaint, but this was not so. Until officials found to have betrayed the people are prosecuted and where found culpable punished, manipulation of the process would continue.

    So, we call on the in-coming Buhari administration to continue efforts to sanitise the electoral process by initiating a review of the Uwais commission report towards ensuring that the people’s input into choosing the commission’s chairman is institutionalised. The commission’s clamour for an Electoral Offences Commission should also be revisited.

    The government must acknowledge that electoral corruption represents a virulent form of corruption that is worse than financial and material corruption which has been eating deep into the fabric of the society. It must be stamped out. Similarly, the civil society groups, domestic and foreign observer groups, the media and all lovers of democracy should join in watching the process in the conduct of the supplementary elections of April 25. Progress has been made, but we are not yet there.

  • Mass defection, bad for democracy

    Mass defection, bad for democracy

    SIR: A vital and strong opposition is needed and necessary for democracy to work and develop. It is in the interest of the country as a whole, especially the ordinary people that the opposition should play its role effectively well so that they can give the people a choice whenever they go to the polls. The way the people would get this benefit is to have intelligent, well read and experience politicians on the opposition.

    Following the victory of the All Progressives Congress APC and its Presidential Candidate Major General Muhammadu Buhari at the March 28 Presidential election, a wind of defection hit the camp of the People’s Democratic Party PDP. The defection of high ranking chieftains of the PDP, deputy governors and state commissioners even when their bosses, the governors are still members of the PDP has created a worrisome dimension and an unhealthy trend in the Nigerian democracy.

    Given the immense role that the opposition is supposed to play in holding the ruling government duly accountable to the people, it is wrong for anyone who truly believes in democracy to celebrate the defection of those expected to form a strong and formidable opposition that would hold the incoming government accountable to the people after its inauguration on May 29.

    Quality opposition speaks for the market women, the unemployed youth; it gives voice to the weak and the vulnerable in the society. PDP and indeed all other political parties should therefore rise above the mentality of “I must chop with them” and brace up to the challenge of playing the role of opposition.

    Since the formation of the APC though a fusion of ANPP, CPC, ACN and a faction of APGA over a year ago, APC was able to hold the ruling government accountable and the PDP administration was careful in most of its policies and programmes knowing fully well that the APC is watching with keen interest and always willing to criticize and take it head-on.  This is exactly the same role Nigerians expect the PDP to play after the May 29 handing over.

    PDP should recognize that the reason Nigerians were able to make the informed choice of rejecting and voting her out at the last presidential election was majorly because APC played its role so well. If the PDP is really serious about coming back to power, then they should better get their acts together, put their house in order and move swiftly to halt these defections from their umbrella.

     

    • Hussain Obaro,

    Ilorin, Kwara State.

  • The Fayose paradox

    The Fayose paradox

    It is unfortunate that the law could still rise to protect a man who  has scant regard for it

    THE triumph of the Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayo Fayose, at the Supreme Court, would rankle many who feel genuinely offended, by his maltreatment of the law and its officers, in his fight to keep his position. Resorting to unconventional ways to stave off pre-election qualification suit against him, Mr. Fayose’s thugs allegedly got a judge rough-handled, had a court’s registry upturned, and ensured that the High Court’s proceedings against him were forcefully aborted. Yet, despite these allegations of brazen assaults against the judiciary, the majesty of the law rose to protect him, in the appeal filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) challenging the decision of the Court of Appeal, which upheld his election.

    In dismissing the appeal filed by the APC, the Supreme Court upheld the earlier judgment of the Court of Appeal and the Election Petition Tribunal, which had upheld the governor’s election. In a unanimous judgment, the Supreme Court held that Mr. Fayose was not legally impeached in 2006, and as such he could not be deemed unqualified to re-contest the governorship election held last year. The apex court held that the actions of the then acting chief judge, Jide Aladejana, which set up a second impeachment panel, after the first panel set up by the former chief judge, Kayode Bamishile, had failed to find impeachable offences against the governor, amounted to a nullity, as it contravened section 188(8) of the 1999 constitution.

    The Supreme Court also dismissed the claim that Governor Fayose presented a forged Higher National Diploma Certificate, on the grounds that the appellant failed to prove his allegation. The court resolved that whether Peter Ayodele Oluwayose and Peter Ayodele Fayose are one and the same, had been resolved in 2004, when the then Alliance for Democracy took the matter before the Court of Appeal, which was the apex court on governorship election matters then. The court also failed to rely on the issue of deployment of soldiers as a ground to nullify the election, as it contended that the finding of the Court of Appeal was an obiter dicta (a judge’s incidental remark that is not essential to his decision and therefore not legally binding as a precedent) and not a ratio decidendi (the point in a case which determines the judgment) appealed against.

    Many of Fayose’s opponents expressed sadness that a fellow who has been very callow with the judicial process could be protected by it. In expressing her frustration, the APC in a statement said: “we had expected that the judgment will serve as a deterrent to the like of Mr. Fayose, who believes in impunity and extra-judicial method of doing things. We are shocked that a man who did not allow a case of eligibility against him to be heard till today at the State High Court after assaulting judges and desecrating the judiciary would come out clean at the topmost temple of justice”.

    Even stranger is Mr. Fayose’s capacity aided by the federal authorities, to emasculate the Ekiti State legislature; and the seeming inability of the judiciary to rise up in defence of that critical arm of government. In a manner which smacks of autocracy, Mr. Fayose has so far been able to use seven members of the state House of Assembly to run the legislative arm of the state, while the majority 19 members have been forced out of town. Shockingly, the efforts of the majority members to rely on the judiciary, to save their authority from the cudgels of Mr. Fayose have at best met limp support.

    The sorry state of our democratic enterprise in Ekiti presently, is that with less than one-third members of the state legislature, Mr. Fayose has been pretending to be running a democratic government. The speaker whose position has been usurped, is left in the lurch with his group, while his minority colleagues, turned law-breakers, have been able to ‘pass’ the budget, approve commissioners and engage in other legislative misdemeanours, while the law stands akimbo. That is why those opposed to Mr. Fayose were wishing that the apex court would have ears and eyes to see for itself that the man whom the law seeks to protect has shown scant regard for the rule of law.

    For the ordinary folk, the law surely acts strange. Such strangeness lies in the fact that Mr. Fayose could well abuse the same system that aides him, without any severe consequence. Perhaps the problem lies with those handling the case. Perhaps the litigants have not adequately made their case before the court, or if they did, they were not able to prove it. Perhaps the problem lies with our legal system. Perhaps Fayose’s executive lawlessness aided by the federal power had made it impossible for the court to hear and determine the post-election suit against him. Well, in forcefully emasculating the lower courts, Mr. Fayose’s confidence was well founded, as the Supreme Court has now resolved the germane issues in his favour.

  • Slayer of Tarzan departs

    Slayer of Tarzan departs

    • Prof. Tekena Tamuno (28 January 1932 – 11 April 2015), eminent historian and former vice-chancellor of the University of Ibadan, exits

    One of the inanities of Europe’s Tarzan tales of Africa is that Mungo Park “discovered” River Niger, Africans, lacking neither social order nor great institutions, lived in the jungle with apes — and as a result, Africa had no history!

    Prof. Tekena Nitonye Tamuno, who died on April 11 in Ibadan, Oyo State, was one of Nigeria’s first generation of historians who slay those Tarzan tales and, by rigorous historiography, beamed the torch of scholarship on Africa’s past, which must be understood before plotting a glorious future. Still, at his death on April 11, grim electoral tales, of undiluted savagery, issued from Okrika, River State, his place of birth. That harshly negates the Tamuno spirit: undiluted nobility anchored on a grand civic philosophy.

    Ironically too — and this tragedy is a pan-Nigeria pestilence, in a country that  appears wilfully reluctant to understand its own essence, so as to get the best from its citizens — there is a virtual fatwa on the study of history in Nigeria’s school curriculum.

    So, the Tamuno passage coincides with the virtual labour loss of a scholastic giant, whose brave generation laboured to demonstrate that without a sound grounding in history there can’t possibly be a worthwhile future, to a band of ruling plebs, who career into the future with absolute belief that the past does not matter!

    Their rallying cry is “science and technology!” — no crime, to be sure.  But which peoples of the world have attained adequate technology, without proper grounding in their own essence, as borne out of the supreme mastering of their own humanity, through history, art and culture, theatre and other exertions in the humanities?

    That was the story the first generation of Nigerian historians seemed to teach their compatriots. Of course, with the tragedy of military rule, and a truncation of collective psyche less brutal only to European colonisation itself, that lesson appears to have fallen on deaf ears. Yet, Prof. Tamuno’s passing should serve as a painful reminder to return to those basics, if the Nigerian developmental agenda, and its dream to compete with the best on the globe in science and technology, would not look like building a grand castle with foundation in the air.

    Unlike contemporary decline, borne out of sane and narrow paths not taken, Prof. Tamuno symbolised rare excellence Nigeria’s academia was easily capable of, in happy contrast to the mediocrity which today looms in that sector. For starters, Tamuno was a globally acclaimed scholar, particularly in his own chosen speciality of African historiography. Then his generation belonged to that golden age of Nigerian academia, when Nigerian universities exported and attracted the best in global scholarship.

    He was also a class act in university administration. He, in  1974, was the pioneer principal of the then University College, Ilorin, under tutelage of the University of Ibadan (UI). That institution would later become the present University of Ilorin. In 1975 too, he became the first UI alumnus to become vice-chancellor of the institution. Earlier, after joining the UI teaching faculty in History in 1963 and becoming a professor in 1971, he had risen steadily as Head of History Department (1972-75), Dean, Faculty of Arts (1973-1975), before becoming vice-chancellor (1975-1979). In all of these exalted positions, he left his administrative mark, apart from keeping pact with rigorous scholarship. He was indeed an academic’s academic.

    Emeritus Professor Tamuno, at 83, was not a young man. His passage should, indeed, be a celebration of life. But he departed at a crucial juncture of Nigerian academy when the bright omen for Nigerian scholarship, as signified by his generation, appears not at all given — no thanks to the great destruction of that sector in the long years of military rule.

    His passage is therefore a stiff challenge to Nigeria’s contemporary academia: strive to rise up to, and even surpass, the initial promise of the Tamuno generation. If they failed, they would have failed these great founding fathers. Therefore, failure is not an option.

    Adieu, great historian, academic and patriot!

  • Gunter Grass (1927 – 2015)

    Gunter Grass (1927 – 2015)

    •A man of many parts departs

    What will be recorded as his swan song is scheduled to be published in the summer, and his publisher reportedly described it as a “literary experiment” involving a fusion of poetry and prose. It is a testimony to the passion Gunter Grass brought to his writing life that the publisher was quoted as saying, “He was fully concentrated on his work until the last moment.”

    Ahead of the release, the final instant came on April 13 in the German city of Lubeck. Grass, aged 87, had a reputation for fictional experimentation that drew comparison with Latin American magical realism, and he was regarded as a European exemplar of that style. Grass called his own style “broadened reality.” It is noteworthy  that  the Russian-German writer Lev Kopelev said in an insightful  essay  to mark Grass’s 65th birthday: “Minutely detailed presentations of real things and scientifically precise descriptions of historical events are melted together with fairy tales, legends, myths, fables, poems and wild fantasies to produce his own special poetical world.”

    His best known work and first novel, The Tin Drum (1959), which made him internationally relevant, mirrored his lavishly inventive imagination; and when combined with his novella Cat and Mouse (1961) and novel Dog Years (1963), they constitute what is popularly known as the Danzig Trilogy among his body of work.  It is remarkable and a tribute to the appeal of The Tin Drum that a 1979 film adaptation of the novel won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival that year and also the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

    According to an account, “A severed horse’s head swarming with hungry eels, a criminal hiding beneath a peasant woman’s layered skirts and a child who shatters windows with his high-pitched voice are among the memorable images that made The Tin Drum a worldwide triumph.”  The novel’s outstanding quality was underscored by the respected Swedish Academy which called it “one of the enduring literary works of the 20th century.”  The Nobel Prize awarding body decorated Grass in 1999, praising him as a writer “whose frolicsome black fables portray the forgotten face of history”.

    Beyond his place in the pantheon of Literature, his belated admission that he had served in Adolf Hitler’s Waffen-SS perhaps reduced his standing, especially as it suggested hypocritical self-righteousness. In a sense, the revelation had the quality of “broadened reality” as Grass had led the public to believe he had only been a “flakhelfer” during the Second World War, one of those German youths who did non-violent jobs like guarding antiaircraft batteries. It may be considered a positive reflection of his humanity that he revealed his Nazi past himself, ahead of the publication of a memoir Peeling the Onion, admitting that he had been a member of the elite Waffen-SS, which was guilty of atrocities.

    It is worth mentioning that despite his conscription into the SS in 1944, in the dying period of the war, Grass was never implicated.  The autobiography was a study in the complexities of conscience and memory. Grass, then 78, said: “It was a weight on me…My silence over all these years is one of the reasons I wrote the book. It had to come out in the end…What I had accepted with stupid pride of youth I wanted to conceal after the war out of a recurrent sense of shame…But the burden remained, and no one could lighten it.”

    This represented the voice of truth and reflected the beauty of his artistic life.  More than being a novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, illustrator, graphic artist and sculptor, Grass demonstrated the value of social criticism for societal change. Even though he generated intense controversy, his concern for world peace built on human decency remains a worthy objective for mankind.

  • Open letter to NYSC Director-General

    Open letter to NYSC Director-General

    Sir, I wish to draw your attention to the outcome of the joint NYSC presidential award ceremony for 2012, 2013 and 2014 sets held on March 2. I have decided on this approach because the issues involved are of urgent public interest.

    Records show that 164 (27%) of the 613 nominations were selected.  What happens to the 446 who were not selected of which many were best in their respective batches at the state level?

    I won the state honours award as the best corps member for batch ‘B’ 2012 in Anambra with 47 community developments projects.  NYSC Anambra State paid N50,000 into my account about three months after my service. What about the automatic employment in the state civil service that is clearly written in the orientation guide? A staff in NYSC Anambra State headquarters said it was discretional for states to do so. I think there is need for a little clarification from the NYSC authorities such as yours in this matter.

    I renovated the school gate in honour of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe the first president of Nigeria, whom the school is named after. I cultivated a cassava farm for indigent widows in Abagana community, organized the Students Productive Life Initiative (SPLIN) that bothered on cultural reorientation in line with the Subakwa Igbo agenda of the Anambra State Government for 11 secondary schools in Njikoka L.G.A.  I produced the Nigeria Peace Jingle in the face of insurgency and violence, I initiated the revitalization of the school borehole sponsored by the state government through the rural water supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASA) while also embarking on skills acquisition on liquid soap production across three L.G.A in the state.

    I think this kind of effort deserves a presidential award on merit. What about Lawal Olabode Emmanuel Prince who served at comprehensive secondary Nawfia in the same L.G.A.? He constructed and equipped a five-bed clinic which was his flagship project; organized the maiden Local Government science quiz competition for 15 schools in the L.G.A and presented 12 medals for winners, including academic scholarship worth N50,000. The sick bay he built is currently serving a population of over 1500 within the school and beyond. The school in conjunction with Nawfia community gave Prince the title, Oka A-Obuluzor 1 Na Nawfia, meaning a man that will say a thing and will be the first to do it.

    The case of Udoh Anthony Ekot who embarked on massive renovation of a totally dilapidated administrative block at Community High School Nawgwu in Dunukofia L.G.A is another case in point.  A project the entire community agreed was first of its kind to be carried out by a corps member since over 22 years of the school.

    What about Soro Anthony Olubumi who also clinched the title of the corper the year for the 2012 Batch ‘A’. He was instrumental to laudable projects at Girls Secondary School Abagana.  These cases mentioned are laced with verifiable evidences at the community, L.G.A and state levels.  What then happened to these persons in a whole service year that could not make the presidential list despite their outstanding performances?

    I think the Dr Kelvin Ihenetu-led award committee needs to answer some questions. Was the criteria used for the selection same as the ones contained in the NYSC statute book? How did they arrive at selecting only 164 winners representing 27% out of 613 nominations of most outstanding corps members? How come no one was selected in the entire 2012 set in Anambra State? Were there any special considerations that are not documented?

    If the award really aims to encourage corps members towards higher societal ideals through selfless service to their host communities and if NYSC must live up to its core values of integrity, efficiency, patriotism and commitment, the just concluded 2014 edition must be revisited with the aim of correcting the obvious lacunas in the selection process.

    • Augustine Okorodudu

    austin4crist@gmail.com

  • Chibok girls: 365 agonising days

    Chibok girls: 365 agonising days

    •That there are no words on them ever since is a big minus for the Jonathan administration

    What is the life of a Nigerian worth? What value does the Nigerian state place on the life of its citizens? That about 219 pupils of Chibok Girls Secondary School, Borno State, abducted from their dormitory by Boko Haram insurgents on the night of April 14, 2014, remain unaccounted for over 365 days after indicates that the existence of its people does not mean much to the Nigerian state, especially under the President Goodluck Jonathan administration. A day after the horrific incident, Dr Jonathan was dancing merrily at one of his party’s campaign rallies in Kano. For nearly two weeks, Jonathan was inactive on a matter that required urgent and drastic presidential action.

    It took a worldwide expression of shock and outrage for the administration to bestir itself and begin to respond to the tragic event. Obviously reacting to the seeming paralysis of the Jonathan administration, several countries rallied to Nigeria’s support, providing technical, military and logistical assistance to ensure the girls were rescued. Such efforts were ultimately frustrated particularly by the massive corruption that has characterised the military’s prosecution of the war against terror.

    Nigeria once again attracted global focus on the first anniversary of the abduction of the girls on Tuesday. Several activities were held both within and outside Nigeria to identify with the Chibok girls. We commend those behind the activities. It is, however, disheartening that President Jonathan did not issue any statement to mark the day. This was another indication of the President’s emotional distance from the plight of the girls, their distraught relatives and the traumatised Chibok community.

    True, the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance, Mrs Anastasia Daniel-Nwaobi, representing the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Tuesday met with representatives of the Chibok community in Abuja. She reportedly assured them of the government’s commitment to rescuing the girls and briefed them on the status of the Safe Schools Initiative. Similarly, the National Security Adviser, Colonel Sambo Dasuki, tamely assured that efforts would continue to be made to rescue the Chibok girls as well as other men and women abducted by Boko Haram insurgents.

    Yet, none of this can make up for the President’s thunderous silence. This reinforces the impression that the administration’s intensification of the anti-insurgency offensive in the six weeks before the March 28 presidential election, including gestures to show concern for the Chibok girls, was motivated largely by the desire to win the election.

    It is thus not surprising that the girls’ parents now put all their hopes of seeing their daughters again on the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari. According to one of their representatives, Rev. Mark Enoch, “I know that as General Buhari is now the president-elect, things will be better. He can rescue our daughters; he can bring our daughters back home. He can end all the atrocities of the Boko Haram sect like he addressed the Maitatsine movement in 1984 and our girls will return so we the Chibok girls’ parents are excited”.

    We commend General Buhari for his honesty and candour on the matter. According to him, “Currently, their whereabouts remain unknown. We do not know the state of their health or welfare, or whether they are even still together or alive. As much as I wish to, I cannot promise that we can find them: to do so would be to offer unfounded hope, only to compound the grief if, later, we find we cannot match such expectation. But I say to every parent, family member and friend of the children that my government will do everything to bring them home”.

    We urge the President-elect to make this a cardinal priority of his administration. Its capacity to ensure security of lives and property within its territorial jurisdiction is the basis for the legitimacy and existence of any state.

  • Let the tribunals sit

    Let the tribunals sit

    • JUSUN should not prevent election petitions from being heard

    Election Petition Tribunals may not be able to sit in at least 15 states of the federation due to the strike embarked upon by members of the Judiciary Staff Union (JUSUN) in the states. JUSUN members began industrial action about four months ago, to force state governments that are yet to comply with the court judgment on financial autonomy for the judiciary to do so. The strike was however called off by federal judiciary workers at the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court. But JUSUN members in the 15 states said they would heed the call of their national president, Comrade Marwan Mustapha Adamu, to continue the strike in the 15 states.

    The states are Kaduna, Yobe, Taraba, Adamawa, Nasarawa and Plateau states. The others are Benue, Anambra, Abia, Enugu, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, Edo and Cross River states. Judiciary workers in Rivers State have been on strike over the power tussle between Governor Rotimi Amaechi of the state and the National Judicial Council (NJC).

    We recognise the right of JUSUN to fight for its members’ rights. Even if we have reservations as to whether the union is competent to embark on the strike for the reason of getting financial autonomy for the judiciary, we acknowledge the fact that the judiciary should not be going cap-in-hand to the executive for money if its independence is to be truly guaranteed. In a democracy, there are three arms of government, viz: the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. The essence is to ensure checks and balances and prevent a situation where one arm would lord it over the other/s. This is necessary especially in a presidential system of government that already bestows a lot of powers on the president.

    Moreover, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja had declared as unconstitutional and illegal, the appropriation practice where the NJC sends the judiciary’s budget to the budget office. It said the practice which violates Section 81 (2), (3) (c) and 84(2), (7) CFRN 1999 was responsible for poor funding of the judiciary, and corruption.

    As law-abiding entities, the Federal Government and the respective state governments ought to abide by the judgment. However, while some governments have complied with the judgment, the 15 state governments are yet to. Why, we do not understand and we are not even interested in finding out because what is unconstitutional is unconstitutional; it cannot be given any other name. Any government that has nothing to hide should not play god with the judiciary’s money. So, the state governments should do the needful immediately.

    However, we want to impress it on JUSUN that disruption of election petition tribunals’ activities would be counter-productive because election petitions are time-bound. Section 285 (5) of the 1999 Constitution as amended provides that “an election petition shall be filed within 21 days after the date of the declaration of result of the elections.”

    If judiciary workers now insist that the tribunals would not sit for whatever reason, we may have cases where some of the petitions would become statute-barred as we witnessed in the past. The tribunals are on special national assignments. And, in a situation like this, national interest takes preponderance over all other interests.

    We therefore call on JUSUN to prevail on its members nationwide to at least allow the election petition tribunals’ sittings to hold unfettered. It is important that we protect the sanctity of elections; and we cannot do this when petitions are dismissed simply on account of being statute-barred. In the same vein, state governments that are yet to comply with the court judgment on financial autonomy for the judiciary must do so forthwith, in the national interest.

  • Congratulations, Nigerians!

    Congratulations, Nigerians!

    SIR: With the 2015 general elections concluded, the undisputed winners are citizens of Nigeria.  Yes, Nigerians with an unassailable voice elected their preferred candidates to serve them for four years at the Presidential, state and legislative levels.

    The presidential election was won by Gen. Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and lost by incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). But the ultimate winners are Nigerians that remained united and resolute. These were attributes exhibited by the 30 million Nigerians who trooped out of their homes to vote for the next number one man.

    They defied sun/rain, endured darkness, skipped meals, defied the comfort of their homes and ensured their votes, in the end counted.

    Fifteen million Nigerians representing 54 per cent voted for Gen. Buhari to take over from the People’s Democratic Party’s sixteen wasteful years of rulership over Nigeria. It was a keenly contested match. President Jonathan lost by 2.5 million votes.  Despite his loss, he mustered the courage to concede defeat and congratulate the winner through phone calls and a nationwide broadcast.

    This show of maturity negates the usual nature of African leaders that want to hold tenaciously to power.  Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d’Ivoire’s refusal to relinquish power in 2011 was his undoing. Despite having served for eleven years, he was resolute in holding on to power after losing to Alassane Quattara in a keenly contested election. Former Malawian first female president, Ms. Joyce Banda, attempted to nullify the election after losing out to Peter Mutharika in May 2014. Her attempts failed woefully with the winner sworn into power.

    Indeed, the presidential elections in Nigeria are over but lessons cannot be wished away. The introduction of the Permanent Voter Card (PVC) is a laudable innovation. This innovation was though with pockets of skirmishes. Furthermore, logistics- related issues such as movement of sensitive materials and personnel to polling stations were hampered. The late arrival of materials and persons delayed the commencement of election in some areas in the country.

    Beyond postulations about a ‘foreseeable botched presidential election,’ it goes down history lane as one of the most keenly contested election in the country. It is therefore imperative for preparations towards a successful and improved outing in 2019 to commence immediately.

     

    • Kelechi Amakoh

     political analyst.

  • Polls and investments

    Polls and investments

    In the build-up to the general elections, political parties had created so much tension that even the ordinary Nigerian was apprehensive about what could happen before, during and after the polls. The reasons for the general apprehension were the hate campaigns and killings of supporters of one political party or the other.

    During the electioneering campaign, and especially the six weeks preceding the elections, domestic investments in the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) recorded a substantial decline, owing to fears about insecurity and uncertainties regarding the elections. For instance, the latest investment details from the NSE showed that local investments dropped by N40.1bn at the end of February 2015, although as of January 2015, the total investments by domestic investors stood at N90.61bn while a document obtained from the NSE indicated that this later dropped by 44 percent to N50.24bn by the end of February.

    On the other hand, foreign investments rose in this period; as a total of N133.95bn or 35 percent was attributed to foreign investors, representing an increase of N34.8bn compared to N99.11bn invested at the end of February. In summary, the NSE document reported: “Domestic investors conceded about 45.22 percent of trading to foreign investors as domestic transactions decreased from 47.76 percent to 27.39 percent, while FBI transaction increased from 52.24 percent to 72.61 percent over the same period”.

    Some capital market experts have attributed the consistent reduction in local investments partly to “fears of the general election, the increasing security concerns and the tight monetary policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria”. In addition, Mr. Johnson Chukwu, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Cowry Asset Management Ltd, gave some factors leading to the decline in local investments as external and internal, pointing out that the trend is likely to continue until the second quarter of 2015. According to him, “the factors driving the bear run seem to be declining oil prices; depleting reserves; termination of quantitative easing; likely further tightening of monetary liquidity by the Central Bank and a possible two-horse unpredictable presidential election in February 2015”.

    We wonder why elections should have this much adverse effect on investment, foreign or domestic. Much as we agree that certain events could make calculations to change in countries at given periods, election, particularly electoral violence, should not be one of them. Elections should be a routine event without the restriction of movement that has a bad effect on the economy, as it prevents traders and even financial institutions from carrying out their businesses. The militarisation of the society at election periods also contributes to loss of transactions from legitimate businesses on election days.

    Then, the kind of hate campaigns experienced at this year’s elections are  more than enough to have negative impact on the society. It is obvious, therefore, that under the climate of uncertainties that exist during elections in Nigeria, no investor would like to invest where he cannot guarantee profitable returns on his investment as a result of insecurity or policy inconsistencies of the government. It is, therefore, extremely important that our politicians are made to realise the implications of their behaviours and utterances at electioneering campaigns so that badly needed investors are not discouraged from coming to invest in the country. The political leadership should not allow their supporters to turn election into a theatre of war or a do-or-die affair.

    Although attempts have been made to curtail violence at elections by making the political parties sign peace accords, the accords have not worked because violent acts at elections have become a tradition in the country. We must put a stop to this if we want investors to come to the country. And one way to achieve this aim is to punish people who perpetrate electoral violence.