The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Recurring disaster

    Recurring disaster

    •Urgent measures needed to make the Majiya tanker explosion that killed over 150 the last

    Since the Jesse, Delta State, pipeline explosion of October 18, 1998, in which 1,082 persons were killed, one would have thought that Nigerians had learnt enough lesson not just to run but flee from scenes of fuel leakages or explosions. This is so, given the sheer number of casualties of the tragedy, especially with graphic pictures of their burnt bodies. People who wanted to learn would have said never again to such experience, no matter the temptation.

    Unfortunately, we have recorded many similar incidents with varying casualties from several other fuel explosions in several parts of the country.

    The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) said there were more than 1,500 such accidents of fuel tankers overturning, resulting in 535 deaths in 2020 alone.

    The most recent incident of tanker explosion in which scores also died while scooping up fuel from a tanker that overturned occurred at Majiya Village in Taura Local Government Area of Jigawa State early on Wednesday morning. As at the time of writing this editorial, at least 153 victims had reportedly been buried and about 100 hospitalised due to injuries they sustained.

    Jigawa State Police Command spokesman DSP Lawal Shiisu Adams who confirmed the incident in a statement said: “Today (Wednesday) a petrol tanker from Port Harcourt going to Nguru in Yobe State reached Majiya village of Taura Local Government Area at around 12:30 am., the driver lost control at Majiya and falls down.

    “The content in the tanker flooded gutters and drainages in village. The villagers started fetching the fuel” when suddenly the petrol burst into flames and the tanker exploded.

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    It is unfortunate that 153 lives were lost to this yet avoidable tragedy that nothing can justify. Not even poverty that some people adduce as the cause. Things are hard, no doubt. But some people had been engaging in this act ever before things became tough in the country. Yet, there is nobody that does not know that life has no duplicate. Those who died from the incident can no longer be revived, even as life cannot be the same again for some of those who sustained injuries.

    It is bad enough that articulated vehicles continue to fall on our roads due to a lot of reasons that ordinarily should worry us. For instance, what is the state of many of these vehicles? Are they roadworthy in the first place? Are their drivers having enough rest? And what about the roads, are they in good shape? There is no doubt that many of what we pass for roads in several parts of the country are death traps. Moreover, some of the drivers of the articulated vehicles, like their other counterparts, take all manner of drugs and alcoholic drinks before beginning their journeys, or on the road. All of these require the attention of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and other agencies responsible for safety on our roads.

    How about our fire services that should move swiftly to the scene when tragedies occur? This is as good as dead in many states. Just as emergency responders are either non-existent or inadequate in many parts of the country. In other places where they seem to exist, they have been reduced to sharing of relief materials. Perhaps the casualties in these incidents would have been far less if all of these agencies were functioning well.

    While we commiserate with the families of the victims, we call on the appropriate agencies and governments to be more alive to their responsibilities. It is high time the government considered seriously ending fuel transportation by road. It is in our collective interest to do the needful in this regard because accidents or tragedies do not give notice. They just happen, and when they occur, they do not discriminate. Just anybody could become victim.

  • Peter Fregene (1947 – 2024)

    Peter Fregene (1947 – 2024)

    •His death, after a protracted illness, tells us the country should do more for its heroes, to encourage others

    It was yet another touching tale of how one of Nigeria’s sporting heroes died waiting for help to overcome ill health. Peter Fregene’s last days were captured by ex-football star and columnist Segun Odegbami, who drew attention to his plight in a statement, saying he was “lying comatose on a hospital bed in Sapele.”  At the time, he was said to be “waiting for help to come in order to be moved by ambulance to the Ohara Teaching Hospital, Ohara, Delta State.”

    It was a striking public appeal for help on behalf of Fregene, who was said to be hospitalised at Obule Medical Centre in Sapele, Delta State. A concerned friend of Odegbami, according to him, paid for the cost of the ambulance that would convey the sick man to Ohara.  But he still had other bills to pay before he could be moved. It was a gloomy picture. 

    In another statement some days later, Odegbami announced that the “former goalkeeper for Nigeria’s Green Eagles, who has been on life-support for the past one week,” had died. He died on October 13, aged 77. He hailed from Sapele, in present-day Delta State.

    Known as ‘The Flying Cat’ because of his superb goalkeeping skills, he kept goal for Nigeria’s national football team across three decades, from the 1960s. As the first-choice goalkeeper for the national team from 1968 to 1971, he enjoyed immense popularity among football fans in the country. He was in the squad that represented Nigeria at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, the first time the country qualified for the football event of the Olympics. The team spectacularly played a 3-3 draw with the great Brazil. It was a testimony to his distinction that he was recalled to the national team for the 1982 Africa Cup of Nations in Libya.

    Interestingly, at different times he kept goal for two top Lagos football clubs well known for their rivalry, ECN and Stationery Stores, an indication that he was a goalkeeper very much in demand. He won the Nigerian FA Cup with both clubs.

    The circumstances of his death yet again highlighted the need for a scheme to deal with healthcare issues concerning the country’s athletes and sporting heroes, especially those who are retired and unable to help themselves. “The danger now is that the number of retired aging sports heroes languishing in poverty, neglect and ill health is legion already, and growing. Their stories are ugly and shameful,” Odegbami observed.

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    Several times in the past, empathetic and benevolent Nigerians, who should be commended, have had to come to the rescue of some of the country’s sports heroes who were struggling with serious health challenges. These include Femi Otedola, Mike Adenuga, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Babatunde Fashola, Benson Ejindu, and Allen Onyema. Indeed, Globacom, the telecoms company owned by Adenuga, was reported to have taken care of Fregene’s “every need” in the past one year before his death.

    In a tribute, former national team player and goalkeeper trainer Amusa Adisa said Fregene, “alongside some other illustrious players… formed the core of Nigerian legends in football.” He added: “The country should do more for its heroes. Only then can more people be willing to make sacrifices for Nigeria.” That is one side of the coin.

    Notably, Odegbami presented the other side of the coin, suggesting that the country’s sports personalities should consider the option of self-help. He said: “Why don’t we have, or why can’t we set up, even on our own, a simple welfare scheme for active and retired athletes across all sports in the country, to take care of our declining health in old age, long after our sports careers?  What are needed are the will, hard work and a few good and committed people of integrity.”

    Ultimately, Fregene’s death demands that the perennial welfare issue in Nigerian sports should be tackled without further delay. He will be remembered as a Nigerian football great.

  • Tough tackle

    Tough tackle

    •Government goes for broke over out-of-school children, but it needs tact

    The Federal Government entered into what seemed like full crisis mode over the out-of-school children phenomenon, this week, by beginning to pick such children from the streets. Women Affairs Minister Uju Kennedy-Ohaneye said the initiative, which took effect from October 15, was to frontally tackle the challenge and promote child education across the country.

    Speaking late last week at the unveiling of the ‘Girl-Child Education Ambassador’ event organised by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) at the Banquet Hall of the State House in Abuja, the minister said government was set to start picking out-of-school children from the streets beginning October 15. “Bringing these children off the streets will enable the government to reach their parents, particularly their mothers,” she explained. “The Federal Government plans to empower the mothers of out-of-school children so that they can better care for their children,” the minister added as she urged relevant stakeholders and well-meaning Nigerians to come together to empower underprivileged women across the country.

    Vice-President Kashim Shettima sketched the crisis in sharp outlines in his address to the international conference on girl-child education last week Thursday. Represented by Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, Senator Ibrahim Hadejia, Alhaji Shettima said statistics of out-of-school children in Nigeria were a stark reminder of the “urgency of this mission,” noting that the risk posed by each out-of-school child should alert all stakeholders to the need for concerted, multi-sectoral approach.

    According to the vice-president, the latest multiple indicator cluster survey showed that 25.6 percent of children of primary school age are out of school. “And this rate rises to 29.6 percent for secondary school age children,” he said, admonishing: “Each child abandoned to the streets is a liability that the nation will one day pay for. We must therefore remember that the child who remains out of school today will be a threat to their peers in the classroom tomorrow. We cannot afford to turn away from this reality, and the need for creative and innovative solutions is now more urgent than ever. The issue of girl-child education is for every nation, but in our part of the world, her vulnerability is especially pronounced.”

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    Alhaji Shettima acknowledged data confirming the challenge as more acute and needing to be urgently addressed in northern Nigeria. He said states in the Northwest and Northeast with highest out-of-school children population included Kebbi, Zamfara, and Bauchi. “For example, more than 60 percent of primary school age children are not in school, with Kebbi at a staggering 64.8 percent,” he stated. “The secondary school numbers are similarly alarming with Bauchi at 66.75 percent, Kebbi at 63.8 percent and Jigawa, like my own state at 62.6 percent,” he added. The way out, according to him, is to not “allow ourselves to be held hostage by these frightening numbers. Now is the time to treat them as an emergency.  And the only way forward is to take specific action plans that address the unique needs and barriers in each region.

    He added that education financing has been a critical plank of government strategy over recent years: “We have seen a significant increase in education expenditure. For example, in 2022 states spent one trillion naira on education, representing 12 percent of total expenditures. By 2024, states committed N2.4 trillion to education, while the Federal Government allocated N2.2 trillion. This brings the combined total allocation to N4.6 trillion. Although states have 14 percent of their budgets dedicated to education, we must aim higher. Our campaign to see 15 to 20 percent of the state budget allocated to education is not just a target, but a necessity as it is the surest way to guarantee the future of our children and our nation.”

    The Vice-President was bang on the nail in saying the challenge calls for action plans that address unique needs and barriers in each region. And that is why we advise caution and societal contextualisation of the policy to pick out-of-school children from the streets as the women affairs minister made known. High drama will not deliver the results desired in addressing the social menace of out-of-school children across the country.

    Rather, the proposed initiative should carry along governors who are in the best position to domesticate the redress that the central government’s initiative announced by Kennedy-Ohaneye aims at.

  • Stiff punishment

    Stiff punishment

    •Rapist who dumped victim in a well and stoned her, with intention to kill her, deserves no mercy

    Violence against women is a global epidemic and reflects the power dynamics between the different genders. Its different forms can be identified with different thought systems in different societies. Proverbs reflect such thought systems. A most despicable example is the English proverb, “A woman, a dog and a walnut tree, the more you beat them, the better they be.” It is unfortunate that a similar mindset is reflected in the sayings and idioms of various non-Western societies. It is also worrisome that, even today, striking correspondence can be found between this proverb and the high incidence of wife-battering globally.

    Another long-standing female-demeaning and violence-enabling English saying is “When a woman says ‘No’, she means ‘Yes’.” This female-speech-denigrating stereotype has been identified as a predisposing factor for rape. In other words, as Eden Peace puts it, “When anyone … makes a statement like ‘When a woman says no, she means yes,’ that person is propagating rape.” So, women working to reduce and prevent rape have found it necessary to counter that proverb with the variant “No means no” or “When a woman says ‘No’, it means ‘No!”

     The degradation of women’s speech and the discountenance or suppression of female resistance are associated with the recent widely-reported case of rape in Katsina. The police have been reported to have released the following information on the crime: “On September 27, 2024, at about 12:16hrs, the Katsina State Police Command succeeded in arresting a suspected rapist for the brutal assault and attempted murder of a 16-year-old girl in Ambassadors Quarters, Katsina. The victim was sent on an errand by her mother when the suspect, one Usman Mohammed Iyal, m, age 24, of Ambassadors Quarters, armed with a knife, accosted, threatened, and dragged her into an uncompleted building where he then violently assaulted and raped the victim.” The police further said: “In a desperate bid to conceal his crime, the suspect threw the victim into a nearby well and hurled stones down the well, with intent to kill the victim. Upon the victim’s disappearance, her father, Abdullahi Sabitu, m, reported the incident at the GRA Divisional Police Headquarters, leading to our swift action. An investigation was immediately launched, and successfully, we rescued the victim from the well, and we arrested the suspect. The victim is currently receiving medical attention.”

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    The police deserve commendation for their swift action and efficient investigation that have led to the apprehension of the suspect and the saving of the victim’s life. They must complement this with the efficient prosecution of the case to serve as a deterrent to others who may be contemplating such a dastardly act.

    In the Penal Code that operates in the North, the punishment for rape is life imprisonment, with a lesser punishment possible under certain conditions. Considering the additional attempt of the suspect to commit murder to hide his original crime of rape, he should be made to face the full wrath of the law, if convicted.

    Concerted efforts should also be made towards countering the wrongful socialisation of young males into female abusers and rapists through misogynistic or women-derogating proverbs like the ones cited above and other forms of anti-female language. Moreover, adequate measures need to be taken to protect victims of rape from stigma. Society-wide enlightenment programmes are also needed to apprise people of what constitutes rape, its effect on the victims,  how to avoid vulnerable situations, and the consequences of rape for the perpetrators.

     In this regard, the establishment of the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA) is commendable and should be emulated by states that do not yet have corresponding outfits.

  • Inexcusable barbarism

    Inexcusable barbarism

    • Soldiers involved in alleged murder of final year student must be prosecuted

    It is an utterly astonishing tale illustrative of the height of man’s inhumanity to man, beastly barbarism and atrocious lawlessness more characteristic of banana republics or feral jungles rather than the civilised and humane polity Nigeria purports to be. This newspaper had on October 5 extensively reported the gruesome murder by soldiers, on September 7, of a final year student of Isa Mustapha Agwai Polytechnic (IMAP), Lafia, Nasarawa State, Terhile Timothy Achinya, after he and a fellow student, Olagundoye Favor, had been arrested, detained and tortured the previous day for reasons that still remain unknown.

    The soldiers, who reportedly belong to the state’s anti-crime outfit, ‘Operation Wild Stroke’, and led by one Captain Kaakara, arrested the students while they were on a motorbike on their way to write their final examinations on their school premises, whisked them away to their detention facility and subjected them to gruelling physical punishment that led to the death of Achinya, while his colleague is currently receiving treatment at the Dalhatu Arab Specialist Hospital, Lafia, for internal wounds he sustained at the hands of the soldiers. Four other students of the institution were also reported to have been arrested on the same day and separately detained.

    Achinya, a final year Ordinary National Diploma (OND) Mechanical Engineering Student of IMAP, was scheduled to graduate on September 9 before his dream was prematurely cut short. He is survived by his father, David Achinya, who resides in Benue State, his 20-year old widow, Doosuur, and two kids aged one and three. His distraught widow’s lamentation was harrowing. In her words, “My life is ruined and there is no hope for me again. The military officers have finished me. Killing my husband for no justification and leaving me behind with these little kids is too much for me to bear. Life will never be the same again…What is the future of his two kids? Who is going to train them? Who will take care of them? I have no means of livelihood. All along, our hope was that he would complete his OND and look for something doing before furthering his education”.

    The actions of the perpetrators of this crime after the death of Achinya demonstrated even greater impunity and heartlessness. Obviously in a bid to cover their tracks, they tried unsuccessfully to deposit the corpse, which was tagged as an unknown person and a cultist, at the morgue of the Dalhatu Arab Specialist Hospital. The latter refused to accept the body because the soldiers declined to write a statement. Most curiously and inexplicably, the assailants then took the body to the anatomy department of the Federal University of Lafia where it was accepted for the experimental use of students without any documentation or due legal or administrative process. Surely, the institution has a case to answer as regards this sordid affair.

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    We commend the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Chris Musa, who, on receipt of a petition from the deceased’s family, directed the affected military officers to report to the Criminal Investigation Department of the Nasarawa State Police Command, where they made a statement relating their side of the story. An autopsy was reportedly carried out on the body of the deceased on September 22 by two professors of pathology and two medical doctors with representatives of the police, the military and the family as witnesses. The family’s lawyer, Ayiwulu Baba Ayiwulu, had cause to commend officers of the homicide department at the SCIID “for the effort made in tracing the whereabouts of the deceased body on the 11th of September, 2024”. We also applaud their diligence and professionalism.

    This heinous crime must, however, be thoroughly investigated to its logical conclusion and all found culpable punished in accordance with the law in the interest of justice, and to serve as a deterrence to others. We expect the Nasarawa State government to take a keen interest in the conclusive resolution of the matter through the judicial process. The military and the state government also owe the widow and children adequate compensation to enable them face the future without their breadwinner.

  • Fighting malnutrition

    Fighting malnutrition

    • We welcome collaboration among Fed Govt, CAN and World Bank

    Malnutrition is one of the dangers of existence, either out of ignorance about the right nutrition, poverty, or deliberate choice not to eat healthy. However, malnutrition poses grave dangers to women who, due to their physiology go through reproductive phases to bear young ones. In what seems as a chain cycle, young children born by malnourished mothers suffer developmental deficiencies. The most endangered demographic when it comes to malnutrition are the 0-5 children, especially in a developing country like Nigeria.

    Nigeria has one of the highest numbers of malnourished children, women and youths. This is not surprising, given that more than 133 million Nigerians live in multi-dimensional poverty. Nutritious food costs money. Even those that are rich are often very unaware of the value of nutritious diet and often merely indulge in unhealthy foods, usually in a flawed sense of affluence. The years of food insecurity and deviation from an agrarian life has equally affected how families feed in Nigeria.

    Indeed, there are fears that Nigeria might be surreptitiously raising a generation of physically and mentally retarded children due to chronic malnutrition cases across the country, especially in most states of the North. The reasons are not far-fetched. The lack of empowerment for most women is an issue, child marriage has implications. A child-mother cannot understand as a child herself, the nutrition she needs, either for herself or her unborn or born children.

    The millions of malnourished children, women and youths in Nigeria impact productivity and, by implication, the socio-economic health of Nigeria.

     It is therefore commendable that the Federal Government, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the World Bank are partnering to intervene by supporting at least, 11 million malnourished children, focusing on pregnant women, adolescent girls and the under- 5s in about 11 of the most affected states across the country. The partnership was officially launched at the Faith Actors Workshop/Public Sensitisation Lecture on Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRIN), in Abuja.

    The workshop had stakeholders like faith leaders, healthcare professionals and government officials discussing realistic strategies for improving nutrition and its value amongst the people. It is commendable that the CAN president, Archbishop (Dr.) Daniel Okoh, explained that, “… nutrition is not merely a matter of sustenance, it is a foundation to human development and societal progress”.

    We commend the fact that he pointed out the socio-cultural hurdles hampering good nutrition, by challenging certain cultural beliefs often enforced by equally ignorant local people, which impact the choices of food eaten in several communities. He rightly pointed out the impact of malnutrition on pregnant women, nursing mothers and children. When a society gets the feeding of its women and children wrong, the results can be dire.

    While we commend the Federal Government for the collaboration, it is important to address the fundamentals that lead to malnutrition. The nurturers of children, either during pregnancy or after birth, are women. What this means is that the young woman must be educated enough to understand her body and reproductive health. This means that the laws prohibiting child marriage must be enforced, else it would just be like the proverbial pouring water into a basket. Conferences and seminars cannot cure malnutrition. Education for the girl-child is key.

    Government must understand the need to take good care of the citizens. It means, amongst other things, that the government must pay special attention to the agricultural sector. Nutritious foods must be available and affordable. In most countries in the developed world, priority feeding is given to pregnant women and children. Some countries supply pregnant women with basic proteins like milk and eggs, while school age children are supplied nutritious foods in schools.

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    Farmers are often assisted with subsidies to produce enough. In fact, farming is not seen as the business of school dropouts as it is highly mechanised and each state is supported to maximise its agricultural products. A state like Florida in the United States, for instance, is popular for its orchards that produce fruit juices that are often exported.

    Governments invest in agriculture, making it very attractive to the young. In Nigeria, there is undue pressure for certificates and most of the graduates fill the job market while depending on old subsistence farmers for food.

    The tripartite collaboration is commendable but rejigging of agricultural policies and education curricula are equally important for a better nourished population.

  • Final push

    Final push

    •Arewa leaders’ move should go a long way towards ending insecurity in the North

    Leaders of the north apparently are aiming to give their best shot at making banditry and terrorism that have wracked that region since late 2000s history. Security forces have in recent times been making modest gains in tackling the security challenge by killing some notorious leaders of the terror cells and their foot soldiers, thus forcing others to surrender or renounce their errant ways. Now, northern leaders are weighing in with moves to deal the menace a final blow.

    Kidnapping for ransom by bandits has been rampant in the Northwest but was fiercely fought in recent times by security forces, while Boko Haram insurgency had hobbled the Northeast but is now losing steam owing to incessant pounding of insurgents’ hideouts through air strikes and land operations by the military.

    Northern leaders under the auspices of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) lately raised two panels to make recommendations that should finally pull the brakes on insecurity in the region. And they seem to have in view a dual approach involving the carrot and the stick. The panels, which have mid-November as deadline to submit their proposals, are respectively headed by a seasoned technocrat and a consummate ex-military general. Former Head of Service of the Federation Alhaji Yayale Ahmed heads the Unity, Peace and Reconciliation Committee while former Chief of Army Staff and one-time defence minister, General Abdulrahman Dambazau, heads the Committee on Security. Former Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji Mohammed D. Abubakar, is to serve as deputy to Gen. Dambazau.

    ACF General Secretary, Professor Tukur Muhammad-Baba, was reported saying the initiative stemmed from “concerns over the worsening state of inter-group relations in the region, which have hampered peaceful coexistence and development.” He explained that the committees are to, by mid-November, generate proposals that will be considered by ACF, “which will in turn collaborate with northern state governors and federal agencies to ensure the recommendations are implemented.”

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    The concerted pitch by the Arewa forum aligns with the strategy that Northwest governors earlier reported they were taking to tackle down the insecurity menace. In June 2023, shortly after taking office, Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani said efforts to contain insecurity in the Northwest failed in the past because some governors wined and dined with suspected terrorists, and that the current set of governors had resolved to adopt a united front against the menace. “We agreed that we have to have a common approach to the issue and we have to move away from the mistakes made by some previous governors that decided to compromise the operation in the past when they started giving money to the bandits and negotiating with them… We have to work together with a common agenda, plan and operation. That is the only way we can be able to solve the problem,” he had stated inter alia.

    We consider it useful that northern leaders are mindful of the need for reconciliation in inter-group relations as one of the ways of addressing the challenge. It has been argued that at the root of the insecurity menace is a historical tribal war between the Fulani hegemonic class and the Hausa tribe that may be what informs curious measures of accommodation that bandits enjoy in some northern communities and among community leaders. It is also helpful that it is recognised that kinetic approach alone isn’t sufficient to end the menace, because after you have won the war, you would also need to win the peace, and that won’t be by kinetic exertions.

    But let’s be clear. We have always argued against negotiating with bandits and we remain firm on that stance. Negotiations should never be with bandits but with communities, groups or persons sympathetic in whatever manner or measure with bandits. This would be a form of ‘soft war’ against the criminals. What government owes the bandits – in that manner of speaking – is to speedily ameliorate the depressing economic conditions that have often been cited as a motivating factor for banditry.

    Even then, it can be argued that those conditions are not in themselves sufficient motivators onto banditry since many other Nigerians live under the same conditions and have not resorted to banditry, and there are some other countries with worse economic conditions that do not experience the banditry menace. There are possibly political instigators of the insecurity menace, and these should be the ones to be targeted for negotiation onto reconciliation.

  • Supreme Court Rules 2024

    Supreme Court Rules 2024

    •This should not go the ACJA way if the judiciary is to be taken seriously

    The question many are asking is whether the new Supreme Court Rules 2024, will enhance justice delivery in Nigeria? We earnestly pray it does, considering its far-reaching provisions to enhance speed, technology, efficiency and justice delivery. But sceptics are pointing at similar revolutionary laws like the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015, geared to improve criminal justice delivery, but which so far appears to have turned a mere wimp. We urge relevant parties to ensure the new rules deliver a better outcome.

    Speaking about the new rules, the immediate past Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, said that when the repealed 1985 Rules were made, “things that are now ubiquitous like information technology, electronic transactions and global telecommunications, amongst others, were either not in existence or in their formative infancy.” He asked “how then could such obsolete rules be adequate for the challenges of today?” According to him, the new rules are dynamic, technology driven and contemporary, and are intended to meet the changing demands of both the Bench and the Bar.The drafting committee included the current CJN, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun; Justice John Okoro, Justice Helen Ogunwumiju, Dr. Muiz Banire (SAN) and the immediate-past Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) president Yakubu Maikyau, (SAN). Justice Kekere-Ekun praised the innovation. She said it would eliminate delays occasioned by applications for an extension of time to file processes. In the new rules, “the period provided for the filing and exchange of briefs has been reduced, while greater responsibility is placed on legal practitioners in certain regards to ensure the speedy hearing of appeals.”

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    Other innovations include that “where service of a process is effected on a legal practitioner who has ceased to appear for a party, failure to inform the court expeditiously would be deemed an act of professional misconduct.” Again, where costs have been awarded against counsel personally as a result of abuse of court process, “he shall file a certificate of compliance within 90 days of the order, failing which he will not have the right of audience in any superior court of record until he complies.

    ”Furthermore, that “where costs are awarded by the lower court, they must be paid into an escrow account in a commercial bank in the name of the chief registrar.” After the payment, “a certificate of compliance duly verified by the registrar of the court below must be compiled along with the record of appeal.” A failure to do that will render the appeal nugatory.

    We agree that these and many other provisions should aid the administration of justice at the apex court, if strictly observed. Our fears are however that lawyers, litigants and even judges have an uncanny way of rendering such innovative provisions ineffective. Otherwise, how come that despite the laudable provisions of the ACJA, which was hailed as a revolutionary law geared to engender fast and efficient dispensation of criminal justice in the country, there is still undue delay in the administration of criminal justice? Perhaps, the provision in the new rules which will impact the pockets of recalcitrant lawyers or litigants is geared to forestall similar abuses. Hopefully, the new rules will even enhance the efficiency of the ACJA. We urge that similar rules be adopted at the Court of Appeal and the high courts, to expedite justice delivery in the country. The current practice where it takes two to three decades for cases to move from high court to the Supreme Court is unacceptable. After all, justice delayed is justice denied. We wonder why politically related cases speedily go through the system, but other cases, including commercial cases, linger languidly through the courts. Such aberration depicts us as unserious, even within the comity of nations.

  • 16 states vs. EFCC

    16 states vs. EFCC

    •How come some governors are just realising that EFCC should not operate in states?

    It is important that Nigerians see through the subterfuge artfully packaged in altruistic colours by the 16 state governments currently lined up at the apex court to challenge the legality of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The suit, instituted by the Kogi State government, has 15 other states of Ondo, Edo, Oyo, Ogun, Nasarawa, Kebbi, Katsina, Sokoto, Jigawa, Enugu, Benue, Anambra, Plateau, Cross River and Niger joining.

    The main plank of their argument is that the Supreme Court had in Dr. Joseph Nwobike Vs Federal Republic of Nigeria held that it was a United Nations Convention against corruption that was reduced into the EFCC Establishment Act and that in enacting the law in 2004, the provision of Section 12 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, was not strictly followed. They thus argue that the law, as enacted, going by the provisions of the constitution, could not be applied to states that never approved of it.

    Seeking judicial interpretation of the EFCC and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) statutes, at least to the extent that their operations affect the states would ordinarily be seen as perfectly legitimate. This time around, unfortunately, we are neither persuaded nor convinced that the issues that drove the suit are motivated by any concerns with the niceties of constitutionalism or any lofty concerns with the delicate balance of powers among the nation’s federating entities.

    So much for the conceitedness of those behind the suit; it is apparent that they are still living in the past. Had it not been so, they ought to have known that whereas corruption may have grown in cancerous proportions in the country, so have the pressures towards open government and transparency been just as relentless and demanding. EFCC/NFIU or not, these state operatives ought to know that the era in which some public finances could be operated in secrecy belong in the past. And that those crimes, for which they now seek the ousting of the powers of the anti-graft bodies in their domains, are no less federal crimes for which ample provisions already exist in the statutes for restitution, and that the EFCC and NFIU are merely implementing them.

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    The fact of course is that Section 15 of the constitution grants the National Assembly powers to make laws to curb corruption. In any case, the law in question didn’t just come into operation. It has been with us in the last two decades. The question is – why is the challenge only now coming? 

    Are the states saying that the Federal Government cannot pass a law relating to criminal acts of state operatives – and by this we mean the governors in particular?

    We cannot agree more with the elder statesman, Robert Clarke, SAN when he says: “They cannot challenge the Federal Government for implementing an existing law. They cannot challenge the police or any other agency of government that is executing an existing law. This law they are trying to challenge is a law that was created at the start of our laws as of today.”

    It is unfortunate that some of our governors have tended to act like local sovereigns, neither answerable to their parliament nor subject to the strictures of their bureaucracies with their financial regulations. All too often, we have seen a number of them deploy state funds as they wished, with supine legislators acting more like appointees as opposed to providing effective checks against the governors’ excesses. And because the constitution vests them with impunity and so their actions cannot be questioned while in office, they think little of foisting another layer of protection for themselves. Of course, that is the purport of the suit which seeks to keep their financial activities beyond the purview of the federal anti-graft bodies.

    This, in our view, is injurious to public policy and global best practices. In fact, this utterly selfish, unpatriotic and licentious move by the tiny elite whose understanding of stewardship and public service is dangerously warped must be roundly condemned by all.

    Warts and all, the EFCC has certainly served as a force for the good of the country than a few Nigerians are willing to give it credit for. While it may not have been perfect, and its activities have sometimes appeared controversial, it has largely provided a measure of deterrence to fraudulent activities. Over all, it has certainly acquired substantial capacity in tracking and bringing to book financial and other public sector crimes such that the move to restrict its powers as the 16 states are wont to do would pose greater dangers far more than the interests being championed by the governors. Nigerians surely cannot be fooled; to the extent that this country is greater than the sum of its disparate parts, they have no reason to doubt that the Supreme Court will side with the people to stanch the culture of impunity in high places.

  • Stop TB

    Stop TB

    •Though the Lagos burden is high, the grassroots focus to battle it is right

    Unfolding her latest push against tuberculosis in Lagos – the Stop TB Partnership — Dr. Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, medic and First Lady of Lagos State, came up with wake-up numbers that compel immediate action.

    But the good news: this latest anti-TB war hits the right place — the Lagos grassroots. It’s a deft incorporation of council chairs and spouses in the 20 original local government areas of Lagos State; and their peers in the 37 local council development areas (LCDAs), carved from the original 20, thus making 57 grassroots units in all.

    That is like warring against TB with well-tested “Generals” of the “home front” — to borrow a phrase made popular by the late Mrs. Maryam Babangida — with council chairs and spouses mobilised as model foster-parents: to guide, comfort, counsel and point treatment choices to nucleus families with the TB challenges. Just brilliant!

    TB patients in Lagos, from World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, number 18, 541, out of a total 479, 000 Nigerians being treated for the disease. That share — 3.8 per cent of the national burden — might not sound so alarming.

    Yet, that can change in a jiffy. TB is air-borne, it spreads fast in slums and Lagos has its own share of slums and ghettoes. Slums show poverty and squalor fuel TB. Over-crowded and badly ventilated housing spread TB like no other. Choked drains, uncleared wastes and polluted water sources drive other common diseases.

    Read Also: Tuggar urges patience among Nigerians, says Tinubu’s reforms will ease economic challenges

    Many poor people live in slums. Hence, the imperative to at least radically improve basic health and good sanitation in these areas. Besides, since Lagos is Nigeria’s No. 1 opportunities centre, the more job-seeking Nigerians flock to Lagos, the more the chances of slums.

    Since these folks can’t afford better-serviced areas, better sanitation plans can make their environment at least livable, if not outright wholesome. That appears core to this “Stop TB” campaign.

    But its big promise is that municipal services, needed to improve slums, fall within the ambit of local government councils. With expected better funding — thanks to the new local government autonomy and direct cash transfers to the councils — Mrs. Sanwo-Olu’s latest TB initiative couldn’t have come at a better time.

    The social/environmental/support systems and the core medical intervention, needed to drive the initiative, could easily be accessed at the local precincts. Already, public hospitals and approved private ones offer free consultation and treatment for TB. The challenge facing this new plan is to integrate as many primary health centres as possible, into council’s consultation/counselling/ treatment hub.

    In the Lagos First Lady’s own words: “The role of chairmen, the female chairpersons and wives of our local government area chairmen is crucial as having grassroots advocacy, TB awareness initiatives, advocacy reforms and sustainable budgetary lines to be implemented, every year, to ensure realistic care planning for the community is put in plan from the onset.” 

    The plan also has components to fight TB stigma — which scares patients away from early detection and treatment — aside to debunk myths, weaving fibs around TB: beyond logical and traceable environmental factors, and a proven treatment regime, already free in Lagos public hospitals and approved private ones.

    So, setting up the Stop TB Partnership, with the TB Steering Committee, are to fuse development partners, implementing partners, collaborating partners, healthcare professionals, community and religious leaders, businesses domiciled in each of these council-communities, the market folks, the security agencies and lawmakers at state and federal levels — all well-woven into this anti-TB advocacy and treatment army.

    As the Lagos TB champion, the First Lady and the governor sit at the apex of the pan-Lagos family care. Under them are the council chairs and spouses, driving the “Stop TB” initiative, with other critical partners that the TB Sterling Committee has thrown up. 

    “Stop TB” looks promising, if it is well driven and effectively implemented. The family focus is especially alluring. But the campaign should try to draw as many as possible, in these communities, to join “Ilera Eko”, the Lagos Health Insurance scheme, using cooperatives and sundry community-based associations. 

    TB might be free, but all other common diseases — malaria, dysentery, diarrhoea, cholera, etc — are not. This TB campaign can be used to draw as many of the poorer folks as possible into the formal health care net. Lagos can only be healthier for it.