The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Softly, softly, Oritsejafor, Okoh

    Softly, softly, Oritsejafor, Okoh

    Leaders of the Christian fold in the country should not turn the body to a partisan platform

    Every time analysts and scholars dissect the Nigerian crisis of development, they are unanimous in returning the verdict that leadership is the bane. It appears that that same challenge has crept into the Christian fold as leaders of treasured moral platforms now take advantage of their positions to feed primordial predilections.

    It is unfortunate that a platform as formidable as the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is being transformed into an organ of the presidency. Since Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor took the leadership of the umbrella Christian association, the Nigerian people, Christian and non-Christian alike, have observed that the relationship he cultivated with President Goodluck Jonathan and so flaunted has generally eroded the dignity of the office. Observers are sometimes tempted to see CAN as a parastatal of the Federal Government.

    This is a far cry from the standards set by Christ for all those who would follow and serve him and derogates from the vision of the founding fathers of the body. The recent scandal regarding the use of an aircraft owned by the CAN President to ferry $9.3 million to South Africa in circumstances that are yet shady is a blight on the organisation and suggests that many such things might have been on unknown to Nigerians. While it is taken that the CAN President merely owns the aircraft so used, there are still questions as to the role he might have played in getting the contract for the lessee. Besides, Pastor Orisejafor would not have been enmeshed in the moral crisis if he had not strayed from his primary calling – preaching the gospel. The rate at which pastors chase material things has become so alarming that Church leaders should call themselves to order.

    As if that was not enough, the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) chose to give a Primatial award to the President last week. Everything about the award was wrong. First, why was it created? There is no record that anything like a Primatial award was ever given anyone before. Besides, the Church, beaming the light of the gospel ought to have acted above worldly standards. In Nigeria today, there are all sorts of awards worth nothing. They promote vanity and are designed to extract financial support from those in power. The Anglican Church failed to tell Nigerians the criteria for the award.

    Second, we feel uncomfortable by the timing of the award. There are so many questions that Nigerians are asking of their President. Insecurity has never been this bad, the Chibok girls are still in captivity, nothing has changed in critical sectors like education, health and employment. How then did the Church arrive at the decision? We can only imagine that the Church, wittingly or otherwise, has been dragged into the President’s re-election bid. The coincidence is too striking to go unnoticed – Primate Nicholas Okoh is Oritsejafor’s deputy in CAN and he is from Delta State, too.

    This time calls for discernment. Leaders of the Church should realise that they are meant to be ambassadors of Christ and shine the light to dispel darkness. We call on leaders of CAN to return to standards set by Prophets of old who spoke truth to power and were not fazed by the grandeur of the office of the monarchs.

    This is a critical time in the life of our country. It calls for true men of God to rise to the occasion and ensure that leaders are kept on their toes. The churches are non-partisan platforms and should not be dragged in the mud. Christians are of different political persuasions and should not be willy-nilly herded into narrow partisan choices. Primate Okoh and Pastor Oritsejafor should beware as we move closer to the next general elections.

    The reason this comment is necessary is not Christianity per se. But a huge chunk of the Nigerian population professes the faith and it has become a template of conduct and human relations in societies where they prosper. Its mores and values have permeated our society. Therefore, those who are charged to fend for the spiritual health of that critical cultural group must understand that their burden goes beyond the faith but it is also about faith in the sense of justice and wellbeing of Nigerians, whether Christians or non-Christians.

    For the leadership of one of the oldest Christian bodies in the country, even the world, to enmesh itself in a partisan stake is to demean what religion applauds in its highest form.

    Oritsejafor and Okoh ought to realise that faith belongs in the realm of the spiritual and not in the murky waters of the temporal. As the good book itself says, “to whom much is given, much is required”.

  • Institutional cruelty

    • A study reveals how vulnerable Nigerians suffer indignity from persons in authority

    Nations desire the global appellation of being civilised. Yet, the civility of a nation is best appraised by the manner in which people within her territory are treated. Nigeria obviously desires being tagged as a civilised country, but is she living up to that status? Amnesty International (AI) gave a hint in the negative through Netsanet Belay, its Research and Advocacy Director in Africa in a report titled, “Welcome to hell fire: Torture and other ill-treatment in Nigeria.” Belay describes the brutality going in the land as “medieval witch-hunt.”

    Through that 2014 report released in Abuja, Amnesty derided the thumping and sexual mugging that men, women and children – some as young as 12 – are being subjected to by state’s institutions of coercion, including the police and the military. The report was purportedly based on interviews and testimonies of 500 torture survivors and evidence gathered over a decade. It depicts the military and especially the police force as having institutionalised torture through designated informal torture officers in police stations and military detention camps across the country. The report further reveals that the military, since 2009 when it rose against Boko Haram, had detained not less than 5,000 persons for terrorism, with most being tortured and ill-treated. We are aware that the United Kingdom-based human rights group has over time been engaging the African Commission on human and people’s rights to investigate cases of torture by the police and the military in Nigeria.

    The nation cannot afford to ignore inhuman police and military’s torture methods, including routine beatings, shootings, rape and the deployment of electric shock to extract confessions. Quite shockingly too, Amnesty reveals that several victims alleged that they were subjected to nail and tooth extractions as well as sexual violence aside from denying victims access to courts, family and lawyers.

    We concur with the group on the need for criminalisation of torture as a tool of investigations by state’s institutions. This becomes pertinent in view of the fact that Nigeria currently outlawed torture and other forms of ill-treatment in its constitution and, as equally underscored by the various international human rights protocols/instruments banning the violation of rights that she was signatory to. We still wonder why previous reports of rights abuses have received cold shudder from official quarters. The promises from government to investigate such barbarity have been fostered with even greater barbarity against the right to dignity and decent treatment of Nigerians.

    We cannot exculpate the Nigerian judicial system from the present debilitating human rights conditions in the country. This important arm of government has not been particularly outstanding in its protection of human rights abuses. Although the victims also shared in the blame for shying away from approaching and seeking redress in the court of law when their rights are trampled upon – partly due to high cost of litigation and poverty and; more importantly due to delay in the nation’s justice system.

    Henceforth, the Nigerian government must show its readiness to discharge the nation’s obligations under international human rights law by ensuring that no detainee is subject to torture or inhuman and degrading treatment by members of the security forces. In this regard, there is the need for institutional checks to remedy these barbaric acts. We call on the federal lawmakers to ensure speedy passage of the two bills on criminalisation of torture pending before the National Assembly for over two years.

    The government needs to respect its laws and other civilised legal obligations if she truly wants to be seen as belonging to the committee of civilised nations.  Doing this will demonstrate commitment of purpose that the country’s systems is determined to protect the rights of the citizenry.

  • Limping on at 54

    SIR: It is clear that our country faces a big choice: We can either have a hard decade or a bad century. We can either roll up our sleeves and do what’s needed to overcome our post-colonial excesses and adapt to the demands of the 21st century or we can just keep limping into the future. Given those stark choices, one would hope that our politicians would rise to the challenge by putting forth fair and credible recovery proposals that match the scale of our economic, political and social problems.

    But that, alas, is not what we’re getting today. While we accuse the military leaders of leaving behind, a political morass and socio-economic mess, nepotism, mismanagement and corruption, the civilian leaders, even in the presence of anti graft agencies such as the Economic Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) and the ICPC continue to bribe, steal, smuggle and speculate; accumulating vast illicit fortunes and displaying them lavishly in stunning disregard for public sensitivities. In this regard, political activity is seen by ambitious Nigerians as the most direct way of securing wealth and social standing, as a result, post independent Nigeria has become an orgy of power being turned into profit.

    In the words of one of the Nigeria founding fathers, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa in 1959 –”When we have our citizenship, our national flag and our national anthem, we shall find that the flame of national unity will burn bright and strong”. Nigeria, pre-independence was a country of equal men and women who came together for a common goal whereas today, Nigeria is a country made up of gathering of divided people along religion, ethnic and political lines.

    The founding fathers of this great country never envisaged a Nigeria where tradition of autocratic governance and paternalism are all embedded in the institution of governance; they never envisaged a country where massive culture of impunity and total failure of accountability will overwhelmingly thrive unchecked.

    At 54, government has not been able to do anything to break the mould of poverty and to move the nation towards sustainable growth. After 54 years, our political leaders are not bold enough to access our hospitals for their own health needs due to high level of decay they know they have brought to the sector. Our healthcare delivery system is still comatose as a result of massive brain-drain of medical experts due to poor welfare and poor working conditions. Our hospitals can best be described as corridors of death just as Nigerian children are still dying of preventable diseases such as cholera and malaria and high level of infant and maternal mortality.

    At 54, our farmers are still using the same crude agricultural implements used by our forefathers – a reflection of how much our agricultural experts have failed us. It is practically the case that almost all other areas of our national life are equally sick.

    Today in Nigeria, governments at all levels have disowned primary education; public primary schools in many states of Nigeria have been closed down for periods ranging from four months to 11 moths in some states as governments are being wilfully indifferent to the plights of primary schools’ teachers hence their resort to downing tools.

    Despite the esoteric rebasing which placed Nigeria as the largest economy in Africa, over 65% of the population have no access to basic amenities such as clean water, good healthcare system, motorable roads, quality education and so on.

    At 54, Nigeria remains politically, economically and socially malnourished nation.

     

    • Onogwu Isah Muhammed,

    Lokoja, Kogi State.

  • The real honourees

    •Four outstanding Nigerians whose values should educate our political elite

    In spite of its glaring imperfections, this year’s National Honours bestowed on 305 Nigerians on Monday has a few redeeming features. Four of the beneficiaries particularly deserve mention. They are Mr Michael Akinkunmi, the man who designed the National Flag; a taxi driver, Imeh Usuah; Mr Isaac Michael Onuh, a presidential steward, and a traffic warden, Corporal Solomon Dauda.

    The  four stand out because they represent the usually unsung in a country that has made award of the country’s honours an exclusive preserve of the privileged, and all shades of characters, including murder suspects, political jobbers, awaiting-conviction robbers, etc. While Onuh and Dauda bagged Member of Order of the Niger, Usuah received the award of Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR).

    Mr. Akinkunmi designed the country’s green-white-green flag in 1959 but successive governments had refused to honour him.  It is gratifying that at 77, Mr Akinkunmi is still lucky to have personally received his reward; many others who contributed immensely to the country’s development in diverse ways have died unsung while many others were rewarded post-humously. Pa Akinkunmi’s award of Order of the Federal Republic (OFR), and appointment as a special assistant to the president on lifetime salary are commendable.

    The appointment may only be symbolic because at his age, Pa Akinkunmi cannot function efficiently in that capacity (even if he had been in the civil service, he would have retired a long time ago), but it is still something to cheer for a man who must have lost hope that any good could ever come his way from any Nigerian government. At least the question of what he would eat and where to lay his head has been settled with the president’s proclamation. Of course, many other things are to be added unto him in his official capacity.

    Also worthy of commendation is Usuah, who displayed uncommon honesty in a country where values have taken flight and honesty is no longer the best policy. Usuah returned N18 million forgotten by a passenger in his vehicle in 2007. Many people in his shoes would have regarded the money as manna from heaven and appropriated it. That a taxi driver would take the kind of pains that Usuah took in locating the owner of the money dismisses any causation or even correlation between status and stealing; it shows that people often steal due to inordinate greed.  Usuah has also proved that all is not lost for the country in its search for honest men and women. It is significant too that time was not a factor between Usuah’s deed and his reward; the most important thing is that the reward came after all.

    In the case of Onuh, President Jonathan succinctly justified his award thus: “A very dedicated steward who has served every head of state loyally since President Shehu Shagari …” As the president observed, Onuh must be a great man indeed, because the nine presidents he had served included military dictators and their wives. To have remained on his job for more than three decades in the nation’s seat of power sufficiently commends Onuh for his award.

    If ever a man loved his work, Corporal Dauda is it. “For many of you in Abuja or who visit our nation’s capital, you must have seen a hard-working traffic warden who does his job with great dexterity, glee and happiness …” President Jonathan spoke glowingly of this traffic warden whose sense of duty differs from that associated with many policemen in Nigeria.

    It is gratifying that in addition to the national honours bestowed on them, Usuah, Onuh and Dauda are also to get a one-bedroom flat each in Abuja. The president did well by bringing out these Nigerians for national honours. He has sent the appropriate signal that the honours are not only for the elite but indeed for all categories of Nigerians. It is also a way of encouraging many Nigerians down there to aspire to greater heights in whatever areas of life they find themselves.

    However, as human beings have a lot to learn from soldier ants; Nigeria’s ruling elite also have a lot to learn from these worthy Nigerians. If only they can take a cue from these men and lead the country along that path, Nigeria would obviously be a better place for all.

  • Shelve it!

    Shelve it!

    •INEC should concentrate on its core duties, leaving listing and delisting parties until after the 2015 polls

    Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) plan to register more political parties before the 2015 general elections fixed for next February is difficult to understand. The commission’s chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, disclosed that it would be exercising the powers conferred on it by relevant laws to deregister political parties considered moribund, as well as approve new ones that could field candidates for the presidency, governorship, federal and state legislature seats.

    The commission is apparently relying on provisions of Section 78(7) (i) and (ii) of the Electoral Act, 2010 which states that , “The commission shall have power to de-register political parties on the following grounds: “(i) breach of any of the requirements for registration; and “(ii) for failure to win a seat in the National or State Assembly election.”

    The power conferred by the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) derives also from sections 221 to 226 of the 1999 Constitution, and paragraph 14 of Part 1 of the Third Schedule to the Constitution.

    However, it is puzzling that the electoral commission is dissipating energy on issues that could be controversial instead of addressing more serious ones. In the first instance, while INEC considers the provisions of the relevant laws clear, other experts and political parties do not think so. They say the attempt to muzzle parties runs against the principle of democracy which is to open the door of participation to as many as possible. Some of the parties deregistered last year have gone to court to contest such powers and, if only to err on the side of caution, since it would not infringe any law in doing so, INEC ought to have awaited the final judicial pronouncement on the matter before taking any further step on the issue.

    It is our view that the spirit of the judgment delivered by the Supreme Court on the registration of parties in the matter brought before it by the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi on behalf of his party, the National Conscience Party (NCP) is enough to inform INEC that the supreme law of the land intends to allow as many associations as want to participate in the electoral process access to the soap box and ballot box. The apex court had, in the matter, ruled that the very general criteria stipulated in the constitution were sufficient to guide INEC in performing the task of registering political parties. It has also been argued that if the constitution meant to grant INEC power to deregister parties, it would have done so expressly.

    The commission may have a point in canvassing the view that, if the parties were registered on condition of the criteria spelt out in section 224 of the constitution, any time they fail to meet up the criteria, they should cease to function since they would no longer be better than those that failed the test.

    Whatever may be the argument, we fault INEC’s decision to exercise these powers at the moment given the closeness to the elections and possible futility of the action. The parties to be registered would have very little time to put in place the structure needed to elect candidates and canvass for votes against the already entrenched ruling and opposition parties. Besides, at a time that the existing parties have commenced canvassing for votes, it is too late to be bringing in new entrants.

    The task before INEC now is to ensure that the continuous voter registration is well handled; permanent voter cards get to all registered voters, controversy on new polling units is satisfactorily resolved and stakeholders are carried along on the journey. The commission has a responsibility to ensure that overzealous security men are tamed and that the voters have confidence in its capacity to deliver credible elections. It should therefore leave deregistration of parties out for now.

  • Graft in judiciary

    Graft in judiciary

    •It’s the CJN’s duty to flush out the bad eggs across-the-board

    Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Mariam Aloma Mukhtar, made the right observation when she asserted that corruption in the judiciary is not limited to magistrates and judges, but a common thing among members of staff of the entire judicial process.  The chief justice made the observation at the opening of a national workshop organised by the National Judicial Institute (NJI). According to her, corruption is rampant among court registrars, process clerks and bailiffs.

    “Now more than ever, the public has become more critical of the conduct of the judicial staff, perhaps buoyed by public outcry against unwholesome conduct of the judicial staff like leakage of judgments before delivery, demanding bribes before the preparation of records of appeal, acting as go-between for some overzealous litigants and some corrupt judicial officers, ostentatious lifestyles beyond legitimate earnings, and a host of other activities”. It is good that the CJN admitted again that cases of massive corruption in the judiciary throughout the country are real and not mere speculations.

    Indeed, we appreciate her concern for fighting corruption in the system. It is rather frustrating that while many judges have been sanctioned over one malfeasance or the other, corruption persists in the judiciary, with the connivance of senior lawyers, some of whom have also been sanctioned. On this matter we cannot but agree with the CJN who suggested a change of attitude among lawyers as well as judges, and even called for a review of the pattern of assessing the performance of judges, to which we must include the performance of lawyers as well. This is necessary because corruption in the judicial system would continue to thrive with the connivance of lawyers with judges, and vice-versa.

    Cases of frivolous adjournments to whom judges readily concur but from which lawyers benefit illegally, frivolous and midnight injunctions and some other corruption-induced activities arising from connivance of judges with lawyers, like the case of the reported telephone conversation between a lawyer and a judge at an appeal case before an Osun election petition tribunal and many such misconducts have almost succeeded in reducing Nigeria’s courts to kangaroo courts.

    As Justice Mukhtar rightly observed, we have had cases of some judicial staff that had solicited and collected huge sums of money from unscrupulous litigants on the pretext that they were acting on behalf of some judges. As a result of this, “many judges and magistrates have been violently attacked by hoodlums on the mistaken belief that they did not perform even after money had been given to them through their staff”, the chief justice said. Although many of such staff had been apprehended and disciplined, many have so far escaped detection. This is not good for the system.

    Therefore, Justice Mukhtar must ensure that her threat that “If you indulge in any misconduct and you are caught or reasonably suspected to have done so, you will not only be disgraced out of the judiciary but will also be made to face the legal consequences of your ignoble and nefarious action”, is not an empty one.

    The judiciary is the last hope of the common man. And, to justify this assertion, the judiciary should be seen to be above board. When judicial staff collude with litigants to leak judgments and judges compromise themselves for pecuniary gains, the judiciary can no longer be the last hope of the common man but a veritable architect of his hopelessness and misery. This is why we applaud the CJN’s warnings. She should not relent in her efforts to clean up the rot in the system in the interest of Nigerians.

  • That PDP offer of first refusal to Jonathan

    That PDP offer of first refusal to Jonathan

    SIR: As a prelude to the 2015 general elections, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, offered what they call an offer of first refusal to President Goodluck Jonathan to fly the party’s flag in the forthcoming Presidential election. This means that the party has endorsed President Jonathan as its candidate and other aspirants will only contest the primaries and vie for the ticket if he rejects the offer.

    For the past two years or so it would have been clear to any keen observer of Nigerian politics that President Goodluck Jonathan has not had any serious challenger to the office. Aside from that fact, when has any executive incumbent in Nigeria either at the federal or state level lost a re-election bid at the primaries?

    In 1983 the National Party of Nigeria, NPN did not make Shehu Shagari an offer of first refusal yet he was re-elected to the Presidency.  In 2003 despite the near-miss that President Obasanjo suffered in the hands of his deputy and power broker Atiku Abubakar, he was still not offered a right of first refusal to the Presidency.

    That this lexicon is gradually creeping into our political dictionary even when it has existed with us in an unorthodox manner as the “power of incumbency” shows that something is wrong and spin doctors are making a hell of an effort to justify it.

    They are so quick to point out that it also exits in United States of America from where we copied our presidential system of government but that is where the comparison ends. Those that make the unnecessary comparison however forget to tell Nigerians that the offer in the US is always tied to landmark achievements and performance.  Thomas Jefferson who was the first American President to be made that offer in 1805 was because of the landmark achievement of acquiring the massive Louisiana territory in 1803 from France thereby almost doubling American land mass as it was then. Several other American Presidents have been made that offer on the strength of their solid achievements and performance in office.

    To what then does President Jonathan merit this offer? Is it because Nigerian undergraduates stayed at home for more than six months because his government reneged on the agreement it made with university teachers some years ago? Is it because public hospitals were shut in Nigeria for more than two months  on account of a strike action by medical doctors as a result of an unfulfilled agreement on the part of the government?

    Is PDP making President Jonathan the offer on the grounds that Nigeria is the biggest economy in Africa where there is no stable power supply or where hunger is rising even as the economy is growing?

    The offer of first refusal did not even just come ordinary. It came with a baggage full of dirt and insult to the sensibilities of Nigerians. As part of the offer, all the first term PDP governors are to be returned unopposed whether the governor performed well or not; all serving PDP governors who aspire to go to Senate will be returned unopposed; the Senate President David Mark will have a jolly ride back to the Senate and all sorts of compromises at the expense of the ordinary Nigerian whose future is tied to an elite that conspires and consolidates for its own selfish interests.

    Why are we so blessed in copying the wrong things and leaving out the good ones?

    The efforts dissipated by the party and presidential image makers should better be channeled to more creative endeavours instead of trying to hoodwink Nigerians. Nigerians know better and will have their day in the polling booths come next year. It is for the party to make an offer of first refusal to anybody but the person will have to contend with Nigerians come February next year.

     

    • Chukwuma Okoro,

    Abule Oshun, Lagos

  • Nigeria still in the woods

    Nigeria still in the woods

    •54 years after obtaining independence, leadership remains the bane of a once promising country

    It is, again, that period of the year when it is conventional to take stock of national development. Every year, analysts and critics bemoan the state of the nation, but leaders keep dancing ballet, perhaps mocking the people. Little really has changed in the last 54 years.

    At independence in 1960, expectations were high that the country would soon soar so high that it would be the envy of the world. It was expected that Nigeria would assume a role that appeared so natural in pulling other African countries out of the woods and buoying the spirit and pride of the black race. Nigeria has therefore, by failing to fulfill its destiny, not only failed her citizens, but the entire black race. It has contributed to the derision with which black people all over the world are held.

    It had been expected that within the first decade after independence, Nigeria would have sorted out the basics and set the foundation for development. This has remained a pipe dream. It took only two years for the first set of leaders to lose focus and selfishly launch at one another’s jugular, rather than join hands to realise that the hopes of the people would depend on them. It was therefore no surprise when soldiers, without articulated vision, rolled out the tanks in 63 months to sack the rudderless leadership.

    Writers and analysts have over the years identified leadership as the bane of national development. Policies are unstable and short-term. Although it has often been said that a problem identified and diagnosed is half-solved, the Nigerian leadership challenge has defied this reasoning. The fundamental challenge has been narrowed down to ill-prepared leadership, wrong recruitment processes and procedures and lack of vision. Yet, nothing has been done to correct these ills.

    On the political plane, elections are still regarded as battles for which the contestants – both the political parties and candidates – are well fortified with all forms of arsenal and whose machines are lubricated with money usually taken out of the public till. Politicians do all within their power to pervert the process and the result is the emergence of the current set of leaders.

    Thus, the economy is a casualty. Funds appropriated for welfare and security of the people as well as provision of infrastructure are diverted to private accounts in preparation for the next election. Works done are shoddy as contractors understand the language of the leaders. No sector stands out. The education sector remains comatose; hospitals designated centres of excellence have become glorified mere consulting clinics, power supply continues to haunt big and small businesses; the roads are in poor state and infrastructure for economic progress remain a source of national embarrassment, performing below even regional standards.

    Perhaps the worst evidence of retrogression is the dizzying height to which insecurity has been taken. Life, as depicted by the Hobbesian state of nature, is truly nasty, short and brutish, as death’s shadow is cast on every inch of the Nigerian land. The Boko Haram insurgency has not only claimed thousands of lives, it has also seen daring terrorists hang their flag in parts of the country

    October 1 has thus lost its mystique; the symbolism of a nation, its authority and power are now illusory. Celebration of the day that Nigeria obtained independence is therefore now a hollow ritual. It is unfortunate that the youths who should represent the face of tomorrow have been led to romanticise the past, depicting it, despite leading us to this sorry pass, as a golden era.

    On the eve of another general election, we call on all Nigerians to see it as a patriotic duty to elect leaders who can rise to the occasion. The future is here once again. It behoves us to do the needful.

     

  • Raising the alarm

    Raising the alarm

    •Dilapidated buildings in barracks and religious institutions are exposed

    In the light of the recent collapse of a six-storey building under construction at The Synagogue, Church of All Nations (SCOAN), it is welcome to see that the Lagos State Government has decided to make pre-emptive action its watchword by raising the alarm on structures that it deems unsafe.

    In pursuance of this objective, the General Manager of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), Dr. Abimbola Animashaun, last week alerted the nation to the difficulties it had been encountering in enforcing town-planning laws in police and army barracks, and religious institutions based in the state.

    It appears that the agency’s operatives are disallowed from inspecting or evaluating buildings in these zones and are often physically assaulted if they attempt to do so. According to Animashaun, several barracks have buildings which are clearly unfit for human habitation, given the huge cracks, crumbling balconies, blown-off roofs and other signs of profound disrepair. The police barracks located in the Iponri and Ikeja areas of the state were singled out for dishonourable mention.

    LASBCA’s assertions can easily be verified merely by glancing at many of these barracks from the outside. Such is the filth and disrepair that characterise them that it has long been a wonder that human beings of any kind, to say nothing of security operatives, can live in such insalubrious circumstances. Instead of the elevated levels of cleanliness that are ostensibly an inherent aspect of military discipline and religious faith, what is often encountered are unpainted buildings, fetid and overflowing gutters, piles of trash, abandoned cars and general disorder.

    It was indeed the sorry state of the barracks at the Police College, Ikeja (PCI) that compelled the scoop by a television station in January 2013 revealing an in-depth portrayal of its wretched situation as a prelude to remedial action. However, rather than respond accordingly, the police hierarchy and the Federal Government chose to focus on what they regarded as a concerted attempt to “embarrass” them. Given such attitudes, it is no surprise that the squalor of places like the PCI has taken a turn for the worse.

    The SCOAN disaster is a costly reminder of the terrible consequences that ensue when laws are flouted and benign neglect takes the place of regular and comprehensive maintenance. It is especially disheartening that police and military barracks as well as religious institutions would be so opposed to the enforcement of building regulations. All three bodies are supposed to be embodiments of discipline, self-control and respect for constituted authority, and cannot regard themselves as being above laws that apply to everyone else.

    The police and the armed forces are especially notorious when it comes to the lack of subordination to civil authorities. When members of both organisations are caught in the commission of offences, it is extremely difficult to apprehend them. Religious institutions seem to have picked up this bad habit as well; members of SCOAN infamously obstructed first-responders from approaching the collapsed building for almost 72 hours after the tragedy struck.

    This situation can no longer be tolerated. The Lagos State Government must work with the police, military and religious authorities to ensure that they understand the rationale behind the enforcement of town-planning laws and building regulations. It might require that a code of conduct be drawn up for all corporate bodies to sign up. Those who refuse to adhere to the law should be taken to court and legally sanctioned.

    Agencies like LASBCA must build upon the proactive stance of the state government. No construction should be embarked upon without their written permission. A comprehensive regimen of continual inspections and repeated checks should be established to ensure that unscrupulous individuals and organisations are not allowed to get away with short-cuts. Defaulters must be made to face the full weight of the law.

     

  • Impartiality VS impunity

    Impartiality VS impunity

    •Vital organs of state should not be used as political tools

    One of the pillars of any functional democracy is the neutrality of its police force. As the primary enforcers of law and order, their impartiality is crucial to the credibility and effectiveness of the noble institution they serve. This is why it is so disheartening that the Rivers State Command of the Nigeria Police would act in a clearly partisan manner in the long-running dispute over the position of chief judge of the state.

    Last week, about 30 heavily-armed policemen broke into the Rivers State High Court which had been under lock and key since June 12 when the state branch of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) went on strike. The police undertook the action at the behest of Justice Daisy Okocha, who was appointed Administrative Judge of the state by the National Judicial Council (NJC) in May.

    The crisis began when the Rivers State Government appointed Justice Peter Agumagu as Acting Chief Judge of the state in August 2013, in defiance of the NJC, which recommended Justice Okocha for the position. Justice Agumagu’s appointment was successfully contested at the Federal High Court by several individuals acting on behalf of the Kengena Unity Forum.

    The Rivers State Government filed a suit in the same court, challenging the powers of the NJC to appoint a chief judge for the state. The court ruled that the state judicial service commission (JSC) rather than the NJC was best-suited to carry out this task, adding that seniority could not be the sole criterion in the selection of a viable candidate. On the basis of this second ruling, Justice Agumagu was confirmed as the state’s chief judge. The response of the NJC was to suspend Justice Agumagu, who has taken the matter to court.

    Regardless of the relative merits of either side, it is encouraging that all parties initially sought to deal with the matter in an acceptable manner through recourse to courts of law. Ironically, it was the NJC which decided to undermine the judicial process in its efforts to achieve its aims when it made Justice Okocha administrative judge.  By so doing, the council became a judge in its own case, ignored the ongoing legal process initiated by Justice Agumagu, and further confused an already-complicated conflict of opinion by introducing the hitherto-unknown appellation of “administrative judge.”

    The intervention of the Rivers State Police Command has taken the issue a step further. By breaking into locked court premises, tear-gassing and threatening bystanders, it has demonstrated a partisanship that is very likely to affect public perception of all of its actions in these and other matters henceforth. Under its new commissioner of police, Mr. Dan Bature, the command has clearly taken sides with Justice Okocha, even though her status is still in dispute.

    For a state which was still in the process of overcoming the depredations of the self-acclaimed “lion” of Nigeria, Assistant Inspector-General (AIG) of police, Mr. Mbu Joseph Mbu, the actions of Bature are a sad reminder of the constitutional anomaly which undermines the position of state governors as chief security officers of their states. Because state police commissioners report directly to the Inspector-General of Police rather than state governors, it is easy for them to disrupt the stability of the states in which they work. However, this comes at the expense of their basic duties of upholding law and order. The sooner the Nigeria Police understand this, the better it will be for everyone. As for the NJC, it would do well to remember that it cannot afford another fiasco so soon after the self-inflicted wounds it caused itself in the matter of Justice Ayo Salami.