The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • A shot in the arm

    A shot in the arm

    • But the N220b MSME fund initiative ‘ll succeed only if past pitfalls are avoided

    IN an economy where venture capital is perennially in short supply, and when available, is never really accessible to a sector regarded as critical in the nation’s growth matrix, the N220 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Development Fund, an initiative of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), could not have come at a better time. Launched by President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja last week, the fund seeks primarily to boost funding to this critical sector.

    Under the guidelines of the fund, each state of the federation will be able to access N2 billion, to be administered to beneficiaries at an interest rate of nine per cent. Sixty per cent of the fund is said to be earmarked for women in order to address their peculiar financial exclusion circumstances; another two per cent is reserved for economically active physically challenged entrepreneurs.

    In all, 50 per cent, according to CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele, will go to Small and Medium Enterprises, while 9.75 per cent will be used for capacity building for prospective entrepreneurs.

    Ten states have reportedly signed Memoranda of Understanding with the CBN to access the fund. These are Delta, Akwa Ibom, Osun, Oyo, Bayelsa, Gombe, Zamfara, Enugu, Ondo and Benue.

    It must be said that the beauty of the latest initiative isn’t necessarily because it is anything new, but in the possibility that it will profit from similar initiatives in the past which failed. After all, we have had, before now, all manner of micro-credit schemes ostensibly designed to give succour to the informal sector. The challenge is to understand why previous well-meaning efforts failed.

    A lot has been said of how some beneficiaries in the past treated such funds as freebies –their proverbial share of the national cake – with no obligation to repay. Capacity issues which reflect not only in the poor understanding of the environment for doing business, but in the businesses’ failures to undertake the elementary tsask of book-keeping, have equally been highlighted – aside the twin issues of non-responsive bureaucracy and corruption.

    The bigger part of the story however, must be seen in the hostile, if not impossible economic terrain in which small and medium scale businesses have only a fleeting chance of survival. Clearly, nothing has changed in any significant sense, at least as far as the environment for doing business is concerned. Not only has the challenge of infrastructure endured, there has been little progress in terms of getting SMEs adopt best practices so vital to accessing credit. There is also the issue of inadequate skills pool from which the prospective entrepreneurs can hope to draw upon.

    These challenges, though not insurmountable, remain impregnable. The latest initiative will do well to have these challenges at the background.

    Having said that, the N220 billion can make a lot of difference, in direct terms and also by way of multipliers to the economy. We cannot agree more with the perspective of the trade and investment minister, Olusegun Aganga, when he noted that only eight percent of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in the country have access to financing despite accounting for about half of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). No doubt, the sector deserves more than a shot in the arm.

    As for the proposal to set 9.75 per cent of the funds aside for capacity building for prospective entrepreneurs, we see it as an important step forward. We can only add that the Federal Government complement this by fast-tracking the pace of development of critical infrastructure without which the businesses stand no chance of being competitive. Shorn of the typical tardiness and graft as we have seen of other initiatives, this one might just make a difference.

  • Fraud by bankers

    Fraud by bankers

    •CBN, other stakeholders must provide solutions to online scams by insiders

    THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Bankers Committee need to urgently find the strategy to combat the growing number of online frauds perpetrated in banks across the country. That should be with the support of the criminal justice officials.  For, it is disheartening that the emergence of technology in our banking sector, with variety of lofty innovations, has exposed customers to heart-rending losses running into several billions of naira yearly.

    This is despite the advantages of introducing biometrics into the banking process, which represent unique data of individuals that cannot be replicated by another. The crisis in our banking is made worse because fraudulent officials with access to the banks and customers’ vital personal data have become veritable agents for the burgeoning syndicated frauds.

    The commonest of the frauds include wire transfers of money in customers’ account, using supposedly secure personal data and controls supplied by the bank officials. In such instances, the personal information data of the customer is traded among the gang members, enabling strange transactions on customers’ accounts, while the bank turns back to insist that the customers were careless with their data.

    Other forms of fraud include unlawful deductions from customers’ accounts, in form of one nebulous charge or penalty by the fraudsters, which is passed off as regular bank charges, to unsuspecting customers. In some other instances, the officials steal the customers’ money in small quantities, especially where the account has been dormant for long, or where the customer has died. Of course there are several other varieties of these  bank frauds.

    To stem this tide, all stakeholders should combine their various competences and capacities to deal with the crisis. The banks on their part need to employ more robust technologies, with capacities to deal with our peculiar challenges. This will require better training for the staff to administer the innovative technologies, greater efficiency and transparency by bank inspectorate and audit units; and of course insurance to compensate customers who become victims.

    On the part of the criminal justice system, there is need to train the police investigative units to acquire competence in forensic investigation of these types of fraud and  even to organise sting operations to weed out staff members with the predilection for such fraud. The judicial officials also need to be specially trained for speedy trial of the offenders. It is also important for stakeholders to plug the loopholes in our evidence laws, some of which predate these innovative technologies. There is also the need for increased customer sensitisation and awareness campaigns, to stem the number of potential victims.

    It is heartwarming that the CBN and the Bankers Committee are already apprehensive of these challenges, and are addressing them. As acknowledged by the chief information security officer of the apex bank, Taiwo Longe, “when the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data is impacted, security is said to have been breached. There are various threats to information security. Some are very dangerous and disruptive, others are just nuisances”.

    While acknowledging the challenges and the efforts of the banks to contain the threats, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Access Bank Plc, Mr. Herbert Wigwe, affirmed that “online frauds in the banks are connected to biometrics. All frauds will end up in some accounts; so if you have details of the person that post that account, that is the biometric details, it will be easy to basically track or determine the culprit within the overall system”.

    On our part, we urge quicker and more stringent efforts by the stakeholders.

  • On Ukraine, any bargain is a bad bargain

    On Ukraine, any bargain is a bad bargain

    EASTERN UKRAINE remains a violent caldron as Ukrainian soldiers shell pro-Russian separatists in the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk. It appears that Ukraine’s forces are making headway, while the separatists seem to have lost ground. There’s a sense that the crisis may be at a turning point. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to visit Ukraine on Sunday and, on Aug. 26, Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine will meet in Minsk, Belarus, to discuss the conflict.

    With so many innocent civilians caught up in lethal combat, it is tempting to look for a cease-fire or some kind of time out that would lead to a period of diplomatic negotiation. But what would a pause and diplomacy accomplish? Any negotiations that leave this blight festering in Ukraine must be avoided. The only acceptable solution is for Mr. Putin’s aggression to be reversed.

    Aggression is the right word. Although the separatists may not be wearing Russian military insignia, no one should be under any illusions: This was a rebellion with roots in Moscow. After seizing Crimea, Mr. Putin set a wildfire ablaze in eastern Ukraine in order to meddle and control. Mr. Putin’s approach has been terribly sly, from the “little green men” who took over Crimea without noticeable military insignia, to the “uprising” in eastern Ukraine of separatist fighters who just suddenly happened to possess anti-aircraft missiles. Mark Galeotti of New York University wrote recently in Foreign Policy that Mr. Putin has demonstrated in Ukraine a method of fighting with his military intelligence service that is “a mix of stealth, deniability, subversion, and surgical violence.” We would add: outrageous lies and propaganda.

    The answer to these tactics is not to compromise and legitimatize them. Any discussion that leads to a shred of success for Mr. Putin’s nonlinear war would encourage the use of such tactics again. Mr. Putin must be shown that it does not work and that the West has the fortitude to block his subterfuge.

    A second reason to push back is to deny Mr. Putin the benefits of an unresolved dispute. If Mr. Putin can keep the battle for Donetsk simmering, he can keep Ukraine off balance and under his thumb. It would hurt Ukraine’s chances for integration with Europe, which Mr. Putin wants to spoil. The Kremlin leader may also be calculating that the United States and its allies will lose interest and leave him free rein. No cease-fire or diplomatic bargaining should be contemplated that would effectively freeze this conflict in place, creating another Abkhazia or Trans-Dniester.

    If conflict in the east is prolonged, even in a low-key fashion, it could poison Ukraine’s future and once again threaten its fragile stability. That would be a win for Mr. Putin and a loss for everyone else.

     

     

    – Washington Post

     

  • Jega and security

    Jega and security

    We support the call by the INEC Chairman that hooded men have no place during elections

    Professor Attahiru Jega’s assurance that never again shall the “unknown security official” be a feature of the nation’s electioneering process comes as a soothing relief. As the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) pointed out, the practice in the recent Osun State governorship election was a deviation from the norm and an attempt to rob the process of transparency, fairness, honour and integrity. These are qualities every electoral system is expected to have to be adjudged in line with global standards.

    Following the Delta Central Senatorial election and the Edo and Anambra governorship polls, the electoral commission had come under heavy criticisms by domestic and international observers, the media and political activists, for falling short of expectations. As usual, materials arrived late at the polling units, officials were poorly trained and remunerated, while INEC officials were easily compromised by desperate politicians. The commission then promised to return to the drawing board before the Ekiti and Osun polls.

    As key stakeholders have pointed out, the commission largely lived up to its promise in conducting the elections in Ekiti and Osun states on June 21 and August 9, respectively. Yet, it was pointed out that there was confusion in coordinating the activities of security agents drafted for the assignment, while some displayed open partisanship. The three arms of the military- the Navy, Air force and Army were made to send troops, while the Police and Nigeria Civil Defence Corps also deployed officers, men and materials, ostensibly to ward off trouble makers.

    For the first time in the history of elections in the country, the Department of State Security (DSS) also played a visible even if detestable role as its men were seen menacingly armed and pointing guns at innocent citizens. Worse still, the men were masked, thus making it difficult to differentiate them from hoodlums who could have procured the military uniform. The use of hoods, now common with the Boko Haram insurgents, was first noticed as some gun-toting men accompanied the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) candidate on his campaign. It was condemned. But, the practice continued as, a few days to the election, some of the men were seen at the Osogbo Township Stadium where they refused organised Labour that had booked its use for a rally entry.

    Then, on Election Day, some men wearing masks turned up at strategic nooks and crannies of the state, threatening the same peace they had apparently been deployed to secure. In a nocturnal raid on the eve of the Osun election, prominent members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had also been picked up for no justifiable reason, with some released three days after the election. In none of the abductions was any reason adduced for the action.

    The defence put up by the service’s spokesperson, Ms. Marilyn Ogar, is not only ludicrous but an indication that the high command might have instructed the men on the field to align with a particular party. Her linking the APC to attempted rigging is an indication that she knew more than she volunteered and her men would gladly do anything to pervert the process. This trend must stop.

    The introduction of hooded security men on Election Day is a dangerous development as we earlier pointed out in an editorial after the election. It is commendable that Professor Jega has come out boldly, not only to condemn the development but assure that the commission would not accept them for future elections.

    We call on the INEC chairman to insist that the security functions during polling can only be coordinated by the commission. This is the practice in many parts of the world today. Part 1, Paragraph 15 of the 1999 Constitution as amended saddles the electoral commission with the power to “organise, undertake and supervise all elections to the offices of the President and Vice President, the Governor and Deputy Governor of a state, and to the membership of the Senate, House of Representatives and the House of Assembly of each state of the Federation.”

    We also call on the National Assembly to accord priority to reforms needed to restore honour to the electioneering process. Six months to the 2015 general elections it is to be noted that the needed fund, legislative cover and administrative rules should be made expeditiously available to empower INEC perform its role without fear or favour. The electorate needs time to get familiar with the rules and the terrain.

    Hooded security men must be removed from the scene; the military has no business participating in elections. It is a civil responsibility with which the Police and Civil Defence should be saddled while the military men should be left with tackling the more damaging threat posed by the Boko Haram insurrection.

  • National shame

    National shame

    •It is sad that some of Nigeria’s best students on FG’s scholarship have been abandoned abroad

    The uncharitable handling of issues in Nigeria’s public life has been replicated abroad, and this is no cheering news. The latest of such dishonourable and blasé conduct is the callous failure of the Federal Government to pay the allowances of 322 Nigerian students on scholarship in Russia. The worse thing is that these students were not there on their own volition. The scholarship is not for all comers but the best brains in the country. The kid scholars were awarded scholarships after scoring distinctions in their secondary school certificate examinations and scaling the hurdles of competitive examinations before the final awards. The same applies to most graduate scholars that are pursuing higher degrees in various disciplines abroad, after bagging distinctions in their first degrees.

    These students look forward to a promising study abroad, and future, subsequently. They are expected to be the trustees of the nation’s posterity. But with the official laid-back disposition and near outright abandonment by the Federal Government through non-payment of their welfare dues, it is becoming apparent that the patriotic zeal of these brilliant minds is being avoidably killed. We doubt whether any serious country will toy with the future of her best brains in this manner.

    Nigeria signed a Bilateral Education Agreement Scholarship Awards (BEA) for undergraduate and post-graduate studies with some countries, including Russia, Cuba, Morocco, Algeria, Romania, Ukraine, Turkey, Egypt, Japan, Serbia, Macedonia, China and Mexico. The thrust of the agreement is that the Federal Government pays for the upkeep of the students while the country of scholarship award origin pays the tuition. Russia, as host country of these students, had fulfilled her own part of the obligation to these Nigerian scholars but her Nigerian counterpart has shamelessly defaulted.

    It is sad that these brilliant Nigerian students on scholarship in Russia now have to engage in demeaning jobs to survive. It is unjustifiable that for eight consecutive months since January, these 322 gifted Nigerians on the BEA initiative in Russia have not been paid any allowance by the government. Each of the beneficiaries is entitled to a $500 monthly stipend for feeding and a paltry $450 each as annual medical/clothing allowance. How much is this compared with the scandalous amounts that are reportedly being stolen from the public till by public officials on a daily basis?

    As a matter of fact, these scholars’ stipends pale into insignificance when compared with the huge amount that many of our public officials spend in maintaining their wards in high profile schools abroad. Sadly, some of these public officers’ children are not as brilliant and responsible as those on scholarships, not only in Russia but in other countries, who are compelled by avoidable circumstances to face hardship. It is unimaginable that Nigerian scholars beg for food and money from less endowed citizens of countries like Ghana, Namibia, Uganda and Sierra Leone that are on the same BEA with them. Does it mean that those countries better appreciate their citizens than Nigeria?

    This irresponsible act that compels Nigeria’s brilliant young girls and boys in Russia to engage in menial and odd jobs/lifestyles for survival is a dent on the country’s image. More worrisome is the report that some of the girls among them now go to clubs and dance semi-nude for a meagre fee while the boys go for mind-numbing distracting jobs of clearing of snow, working as labourers on construction sites and at warehouses despite not having work permit, with the apparent risks of arrest by the police. Some of them that are due to come for compulsory internship programmes in Nigeria are reportedly stuck in Russia due to lack of funds to procure airfare tickets. What a national shame!

    We ponder scores of other sponsored luminous students in foreign universities, at government’s expense, that are facing similar fate as those that are currently suffering in Russia. Our verdict: This official dereliction of duty to these students is inhuman and capable of killing whatever patriotism is in them. Remedial steps must forthwith be taken not only on the suffering students on scholarship in Russia but on others across the globe in similar circumstance.

  • Heroic self-sacrifice

    Heroic self-sacrifice

    •Dr. Adadevoh died of Ebola that others may live

    News of the death of Dr. Ameyo Stella Adadevoh, a consultant physician, which followed her infection by the Ebola virus contracted from Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American who was the first patient to succumb to Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the country, gave a telling and chilling insight into the deadliness of the affliction. A statement by the Federal Ministry of Health, which described the tragedy as an “unfortunate development”,  said she was “one of the primary contacts of the index Ebola Virus Disease case, the most senior doctor who participated in the management of the patient.”

    However, what was especially striking and tragically sad about Adadevoh’s case was the fact that she was, ironically, a victim of her professionalism, dedication to work and concern for the sick. A family member was quoted as saying, “She was not on duty on the day Mr. Sawyer was brought to the hospital, but she responded to the emergency. She left what she was doing to save a life.”

    In an instructive reinforcement of Adadevoh’s commendably rare demonstration of respect for the Hippocratic Oath of her profession, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, also painted a thought-provoking picture of the late Senior Consultant/Endocrinologist of First Consultants Medical Centre, Obalende, Lagos. He said of her role: “She it was who took the initiative to intimate the ministry concerning the index case; and substantially to her credit, the moderate containment achieved we owe to her and her colleagues.” Speaking of containment efforts, it was reported that Adadevoh had to “physically restrain” the infected patient from escaping from the hospital after he had been diagnosed with EVD.

    It is impossible to build scenarios or to imagine the scale of the public health crisis that would most likely have developed in the country in the absence of the thorough diagnostic efforts and a firm application of safety measures and standards, without a huge sense of gratitude to Adadevoh and others who worked with her in the management of Sawyer’s case.  There is no doubt that the professional intervention of Adadevoh and other health workers greatly reduced the  high possibility of a wide-spread dispersal of the virus, which  causes a haemorrhagic fever that can kill infected people in a week, although patients reportedly begin to show symptoms within three weeks of infection.

    It is useful that, following Adadevoh’s death, a clarifying portrait of the blessings resulting from the heroic and patriotic handling of the potentially overwhelming situation was provided by the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu. He said: “As at today, Nigeria has had a total of 12 cases of Ebola, which include the index case, the Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer, 11 Nigerians who were primary contacts with the one index case. Of these 12, the total number of successful cases who have been discharged stands at five but the total number of deaths, including the index case, stands at five dead.”

    Although the recognition of Adadevoh’s supreme sacrifice by the Lagos State government and the Federal Government is creditable, it would be even more honourable for the relevant authorities to acknowledge her sacrifice in a befitting manner, beyond mere words of praise. However, such consideration should apply not only to her, but also to the other medical workers who equally paid the ultimate price in the line of their duties. In a very literal sense, they gave their lives for the country, and saved many lives even without having contact with them.

    Regrettably, it took their deaths to teach enduring lessons in high-minded devotion to duty and elevated patriotism. A grateful country should reward their heroic self-sacrifice.

  • A brazen heist in Paris

    The audacious hijacking in Paris of a van carrying the baggage of a Saudi prince to his private jet is obviously an embarrassment to the French capital, whose ultra-high-end boutiques have suffered a spate of heists in recent months. It is also unnerving for France, which values its links to Saudi Arabia, and for the Saudi ruling clan, which would prefer not to have a spotlight focused on the wealth of its princes. But to judge from the online commentary, many others seem to relish the Robin Hood-cum-Pink Panther quality of the robbery.

    “The prince lost his day’s pocket change? Bof!” wrote “Nico” in the newspaper Le Monde, using a French expression loosely translated as “big deal.” The next comment, from “un illuminati,” was: “3 little minutes of production from their oil wells … tax included.” And so it went, a litany of disdain for the prince, identified by the French news media as Abdul Aziz bin Fahd. The 41-year-old youngest son of King Fahd, who died in 2005, is best known for his lavish lifestyle, flitting from one jet-set playground to another with a huge retinue, eliminating initial suggestions that the attack may have been political.

    On Sunday, Prince Abdul Aziz had concluded a stay at the Four Seasons Hotel George V, a luxurious Paris hotel owned by another Saudi prince where the top suites go for $2,200 a night, and was headed for Le Bourget airport when a band of gunmen in two B.M.W.s halted his convoy and drove off in the lead vehicle: a Mercedes passenger van with cargo that included a suitcase stuffed with at least 250,000 euros in cash (about $330,000). Three members of the prince’s entourage were released unharmed, and the burned-out van — along with one of the B.M.W.s — was later discovered in a suburb.

    This latest robbery is alarming, and scaring off the ostentatiously wealthy who for generations have made Paris their shopping destination would be bad for France’s sagging economy. Yet many people, their egalitarian instincts activated, have shown little sympathy for the prince, who is said once to have left a tip of €80,000 in Ibiza. And so long as the heists have no casualties, private jets will continue to bring supershoppers to Paris.

     

    –New York Times

     

     

  • Protesting wives

    •The Nigerian Army and government should address the root of these spousal objections

    In a most unanticipated manner, female power, or feminine influence, has emerged as a potent factor in the Federal Government’s counter-terrorism campaign. Within two days, soldiers’ wives staged protests at two barracks in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, insisting that they would not allow their husbands to go to battle against insurgents in Damboa and Gwoza, two towns in the state that continue to witness heavy fighting between the country’s troops and members of the Islamist guerilla force, Boko Haram. It is worth considering the possible moral influence of the wives on their husbands.  

    Remarkably, these protests at Maimalari Barracks and 21 Armoured Brigade, Giwa Barracks, reportedly involved about 100 women who actually blocked movements into the barracks and caused quite a stir. One of them, who captured the reason for their action was quoted as saying: “Those that their breadwinners were killed in the course of defending their fatherland are suffering; the government has not done anything for them to alleviate their sufferings.” She also said: “As soldiers, our husbands are supposed to defend their fatherland in the face of both external and internal aggression as enshrined in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, but that could only be done when they are supplied with modern war equipment and properly motivated as obtained in countries in other parts of the world.”

    In other words, the objective of the demonstrations was to drive the point home that sending allegedly ill-equipped soldiers to the battlefield amounted to sending them on a suicide mission. This is an unassailable position, and the courage exhibited by the women in carrying out such protests reflected their serious concern and apprehension, which is understandable. It is true that, in the event of fatalities, the wives would have to bear the brunt of the tragedy and deal with the consequences, especially in the context of alleged neglect of such affected families by the military authorities.   Against this background, it was timely and appropriate that they chose to speak out.

    There is no doubt that the democratic environment implies an accommodation of such protests, even though it was rather strange and jolting to have civilian women interfering in what should be considered a strictly military affair. It would appear that this was an aberrancy designed to combat an aberration.

    It is noteworthy that, in relation to the government’s counter-insurgency operations, there have been public complaints by soldiers themselves on welfare and professional issues. So, the wives were not mere alarmists. Furthermore, it is relevant to recall that a number of powerful and concerned individuals, including the Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, had alleged that the Boko Haram fighters were better armed and more motivated than the country’s soldiers, which was said to be responsible for the seeming difficulty in crushing the insurgency. Perhaps expectedly but unconvincingly, the military authorities have continued to deny this grave assertion; however, denial is not enough as the demonstrations by the soldiers’ wives have shown.

    Instructively, there are reports that the military this month reclaimed Damboa town, which was seized by Boko Haram in July; and in the case of Gwoza, reports said the military tried unsuccessfully to retake the township from the rebels.

    The piercing lesson of the wives’ protests should not be lost on the military authorities, and indeed the government, no matter how shocked they must be that the demonstrations happened.  In fact, the stunning incidents should serve as a wake-up call. Now that issues relating to the terror war have reached this novel height, the military and governmental response should focus less on the odd messengers, the wives, and pay greater attention to the message, which is, arm the soldiers fittingly and effectively, motivate them and take care of the families of those of them who died in the cause of serving the fatherland.  

  • Chike Offodile (1922-2014)

    Chike Offodile (1922-2014)

    •Though brilliant, he will be remembered chiefly for two savage decrees

    The passage of the former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Chike Offodile, SAN, on August 3, 2014 raises mixed feeling for most Nigerians. To some, he is affectionately remembered for his brilliance and as a legal theorist who believed that law can be used as an instrument for social engineering to effect the necessary changes in the society.

    Perhaps that was why his was the first appointment by General Muhammadu Buhari who overthrew the corrupt and inept government of President Shehu Shagari in 1983. As Buhari’s attorney-general, Chief Offodile crafted the legal instruments that enabled that regime forcefully move the society in the regime’s determined direction.

    Of course this made many others to perceive the late jurist in a different light. In a sense therefore, an account of Offodile’s stewardship as attorney-general would depend on the person giving the account of how the Buhari/Idiagbon regime fared. The point though is that the regime might have meant well at inception, it eventually derailed in the course of its barely 20 months in power. This was evident in the way it handled the civil service purge which many believed destroyed the system; the issue of the 23 suitcases, and most especially the decrees promulgated by the regime.

    Chief Offodile is remembered as the attorney-general who presided over the promulgation of the infamous Decrees 2 and 4, of 1984, which enabled the regime to trample on the fundamental rights of Nigerians. One of the farcical imports of the military decrees crafted by the late attorney-general was the retroactive law which enabled the regime to prosecute and execute two drug dealers, against the norms of the criminal justice system around the world. It was also under his watch, that journalists and human rights activists were hounded and jailed for criticising officials serving the government of General Buhari.

    Indeed, journalists and people who believe in press freedom would continue to remember Offodile’s era as one in which the journalism profession became endangered with the promulgation of the infamous Decree 4. The decree was bad through and through in that it was not about ensuring that journalists reported the truth but that they should not report stories that could embarrass the government, even if it was true. The attorney-general who provided the legal cover for what many considered the excesses of General Buhari’s government could not have been perceived in good light, and understandably so.

    Ofodile was born to Ofodile Ezeugo of Umu Obi Udogwu royal family of Ogbeozala village – and Umunebe of the Olisa Ojiede family in Odojele village, both from Onitsha, Anambra State in 1922. He attended the Immanuel Church Infant School, St. Mary’s Primary School and Christ the King College, all in Onitsha, taught briefly at the Holy Trinity School at Onitsha Waterside, before joining the Post and Telegraphs (P&T)  Department, Enugu. He thereafter travelled to the United Kingdom for further studies and was called to Bar at the Middle Temple in 1959.

    Offodile belonged to the prestigious inner circle of the Bar known as the Senior Advocates of Nigeria, and was before his appointment as the federal attorney-general, a prominent legal practitioner in the commercial city of Onitsha. He retired from active practice in 2009 after 50 years of his call to Bar. He was also a prominent Onitsha son and until his death was the Onowu Iyasele (the Traditional Prime Minister) of the Kingdom of Onitsha. Offodile was conferred with the National Honour of Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic by President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2008.

    As Chief Chike Offodile joins his ancestors, we join other Nigerians to wish his soul a heavenly repose.

  • Warrior cops on America’s streets

    – Missouri riots show that US police are far too militarised

    Last Saturday, Michael Brown, a black 18-year-old man, was shot and killed by a policeman in Ferguson, a suburb of St Louis, Missouri. In the days that have followed, the circumstances of his death have been deeply disputed by local police and community leaders. The police say that Brown attacked the officer and was shot in a scuffle. A friend who was with Brown says that, on the contrary, the teenager had his hands in the air and was shouting “Don’t shoot” when he was killed. Whatever the truth, hundreds of irate Missourians have taken to the streets of the predominantly Afro-American suburb every day this week to protest at his killing.

    Brown’s shooting is one more example of the appalling race relations that afflict towns across America, which have their roots in the long history of segregation. However, one aspect of this case that has been particularly alarming is the scale of the police response to the riots. This week the outer suburb just north of St Louis has looked like a town under military occupation, with men in uniform toting M-16 rifles, sitting on armoured vehicles, sporting night-vision goggles and moving around with grenades hitched to belts. These men have not been from any army, nor from the local National Guard, but are local police officers.

    Many Americans believe police brutality is a relic of the past, something associated with figures such as Bull Connor, the commissioner for public safety in Birmingham, Alabama, who unleashed fire hoses and dogs on civil rights demonstrators in 1963. But what the Ferguson case has brought home is the remarkable extent to which the US police has been militarised over the past 20 years. This has been happening under a programme known as 1033, whereby the US military sells surplus and redundant supplies to local law enforcement. Last year, this amounted to a $500m-plus business.

    There may have been some initial justification for the 1033 programme. The assistance was originally requested by the police force, which said it was being outgunned by drug gangs at the height of the narco wars. The emphasis placed on national security after the 9/11 attacks made it seem an even more logical precautionary measure, since anybody who could destroy the twin towers in New York was surely capable of extreme violence anywhere. However, Ferguson has exposed the downside of the practice because a 55-strong small-town police force has not been trained to use such weaponry correctly – nor does it appear to answer to higher authorities.

    Amid the furious political debate over the Ferguson riots this week, there has been some common sense on display. President Barack Obama has ordered the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate the killing of Brown. Governor Jay Nixon of Missouri has taken all responsibility away from the local law enforcement and vested it in the state police, which happens to be headed by a black man raised in Ferguson. Senator Claire McCaskill from Missouri said the issue of militarised police forces should now be examined.

    But it would be a pipe dream to imagine that any more substantive response will emerge from a deadlocked Congress. More to the point, there will be no consensus among legislators over a tragic event which involves the use of guns, a matter on which America’s National Rifle Association is sure to let its views be known. No changes were made to gun laws after 20 young people were killed in Connecticut in late 2012. No changes are likely to be made now. The scenes in Ferguson look as though they might have taken place in Fallujah at the height of the US invasion of Iraq. Even that will not be enough to curb the growing threat posed by the militarisation of America’s police forces.

    – Financial Times