The Nation Newspaper

Category: Editorial

  • Ordering Google to Forget

    Ordering Google to Forget

    In a ruling that could undermine press freedoms and free speech, the highest court of the European Union said on Tuesday that Google must comply with requests from individuals to remove links on search results pages to newspaper articles and other web pages that might cause embarrassment.

    The European Court of Justice ruled that an individual’s “right to be forgotten” was so strong that Google and other Internet search companies could be forced to remove links even if the information in question was itself accurate and lawful.

    The court said links could be removed if they were found to be “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant.” But the ruling provided little guidance to lower courts about how to decide when links should be removed. As a result, it could open the floodgates for people living in the 28 countries of the European Union to demand that Google and other search engines remove millions of links from search results. Such a purge would leave Europeans less well informed and make it harder for journalists and dissidents to have their voices heard.

    The ruling was based on a case brought by a Spanish man against a newspaper and Google. He argued that searching for his name led to two pages originally published in 1998 on the website of the newspaper, La Vanguardia, about his debts and the forced sale of his home. The Spanish Data Protection Agency did not require the newspaper to take down the pages, but it ordered Google to remove links to them. Google appealed that decision and the National High Court of Spain sought advice from the European court. The case now goes back to the Spanish court for resolution.

    In 1995, the European Union issued a directive to its members to protect the privacy of individuals. The directive did not explicitly establish a right to be forgotten. But the European court ruled that “after a certain time” individuals can argue that search links no longer comply with the directive and should be erased. The court, however, did not specify how much time has to pass for a request to be considered valid, presumably, leaving that question to Internet companies, privacy officials in European countries and lower courts to answer on a case-by-case basis.

    European lawmakers and courts have a long history of protecting privacy. In March, the European Parliament approved a new data protection law that, among other things, includes an explicit right to be forgotten. European governments still need to sign off on that legislation before it can be finalized.

    The desire to allow individuals to erase data that they no longer wish to disclose is understandable. For example, there are good reasons to let people remove embarrassing photos and posts they published on social media as children or young adults. But lawmakers should not create a right so powerful that it could limit press freedoms or allow individuals to demand that lawful information in a news archive be hidden.

    – New York Times

  • Assault on academia

    Assault on academia

    •We deplore police handling of poly, COE teachers’ protest

    Will this democratic leadership ever purge itself of the better forgotten tyranny of the military era? This question becomes pertinent in view of its unleashing of state instrument of coercion on harmless protesting lecturers over non-payment of their dues by government. Their students from across the country that joined in the protests were also victims of this official highhandedness in a country where the law guarantees the right to assemble and freely express grievances.

    The Federal Government, through some errant policemen in Abuja, wantonly deployed hot water cannon and teargas to disperse striking members of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, their College of Education Academic Staff Union, COEASU counterpart, and their students who went public to protest the government’s failure to implement agreements reached with the unions.

    The distraught lecturers and their home-weary students got to the labour ministry’s end of the Abuja federal secretariat carrying placards bearing, among others, instructive inscriptions such as ‘Wike must go now’, ‘Spend money on tertiary institutions’, ‘Give priority to teacher’s education in Nigeria’, ‘Adequate funding, democratic management of all higher institutions.’ This kind of public procession is not alien to our laws just as the court has also reaffirmed its legality.

    The protesting lecturers could not be unduly crucified given the justifications behind their actions. The ASUP and COEASU as academic trade unions have been on strike for the past 10 and four months, respectively, without any show of concern from the authorities. The government has been lethargic to their demands, which among others, include the appointment/constitution of governing councils for the institutions, release of the white paper on the visitation panels to the institutions, implementation of CONTISS 15 for lecturers and the setting up of the NEEDs committee. Nothing, in our view, shows that these demands are illegitimate, unlawful or unreasonable.

    Despite the fact that the protest was peaceful, the protesters, after being addressed by Chief Emeka Wogu, Minister of Labour, were inexcusably waylaid by security forces on their way to submit their protest letters to Senate President David Mark and Aminu Tambuwal, Speaker of the House of Representatives at the National Assembly. Their reported regrouping caught the attention of some overzealous security men that forcefully dispersed them in various directions. The lecturers reportedly used cold water and kerosene to palliate the offensive effects of the tear gas.

    We wonder why the police at this age and time could be so uncivilised against eggheads engaged in orderly protest for their dues. They were peaceful during the protest. We are not in doubt about their vulnerability and peaceable conducts as nothing shows that their actions provoked or threatened public peace as confirmed by the executive through Wogu’s observation while addressing the lecturers: ‘I am happy about the way you conducted yourself; you are not violent, so allow your leaders to discuss with me at the end of the procession. Before evening, you will get an answer,” the minister reportedly declared. This is an indictment of the Federal Government’s iniquitous handling of the teachers’ protest by its own, which makes the situation more damnable for the government that enjoys trampling on citizens’ rights with impunity.

    The government should realise the incontestable importance of tertiary education that is being put in jeopardy through its unpardonable apathetical attitude to the teachers’  demands. The government should realise before it is too late that no degree of oppression has successfully stifled an unquenchable urge for education in human history.

  • Unauthorised charges

    Unauthorised charges

    •CBN should sanction banks involved in the unethical conduct

    The threat of unauthorised charges on customers’ accounts by banks might soon be a thing of the past if effort by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to nip it in the bud is effectively sustained. The apex bank’s consumer protection department, at a recent media parley to mark the consumer financial literacy awareness campaign in Enugu rattled the public with disclosures that it recovered N13 billion illegal charges fleeced from customers’ accounts by commercial banks in the last two years.

    Hajiya Khadijah Kasim who held forth for Umma Aminu Dutse, director of the department during the parley reportedly disclosed that these untoward sharp practices have led to CBN’s introduction of important banking system reforms to stabilise and sanitise the system. One cardinal component of the reforms is the creation of a consumer protection office in the CBN since 2010, and its subsequent upgrade into a full-fledged department in 2012. The department is expected to help CBN promote a sound and stable financial system as enshrined in its Act, by regulating the conduct of financial service providers to ensure that they deal justly and even-handedly with customers.

    Further steps, according to Kasim, have been taken by the apex bank to also engender a bank-friendly environment, including its intervention in ensuring that Commission on Transaction (COT) charges by commercial banks dropped to N2 per thousand naira while plans have been worked out to make sure that it drops to N1 before the year runs out. The goal of the apex bank, according to her, is to achieve zero COT which has been proved to be one of the avenues for shady bank deductions, by 2015.

    Without equivocation, bank customers in the country need more of consumer financial literacy awareness campaign that would create a public engagement platform for the apex bank to get important feedbacks and also create awareness and promote financial literacy among bank customers. The current enlightenment campaign is important and should be spread across the country because it will imbue bank customers with the requisite knowledge, skills and confidence to make informed choices and take effective actions that will enhance their financial and economic well-being.

    In recent times, the avoidable turmoil in the financial sector of the economy has waned public confidence in banks. And now that the sector is gradually picking up, the idea of consumer protection through a serious beaming of regulatory searchlights on illicit banking activities against customers’ accounts is a move in the right direction. For banks to survive, they need public trust and confidence in their activities. But to achieve this goal, banks also need to be honest in dealings with customers which is currently lacking, especially in view of the scandalous discovery of illegal bank charges on unwary customers’ accounts.

    But the discovery of such corporate theft by banks should not be swept under the carpet. There should be specific sanctions if only to serve as deterrence to others contemplating such unethical act. In our view, those banks caught in the act of this corporate theft should be severely punished for they ought not to have made the deductions, without customers’ notice, in the first place. Their unethical acts constitute a flouting of CBN guidelines which might be the reason behind declarations of outlandish and unreal banking profits by some banks in the country.

    Henceforth, bank inspectors should be more vigilant because, unlike what obtains in better managed climes, banks in the country have consistently shown no respect  for the significant principle of uberimei fidei (utmost good faith) that should exist between them and their customers. This sharp practice should not rear its head again because it is antithetical to economic growth and development.

  • #Bringbackthegirls

    #Bringbackthegirls

    •The president and his team must rise to attention and spare us the agonies and international disgrace

    It is no more news that we have attracted, like many other times, attention to our dear country for the wrong reasons. We have attracted attention not only because 200-plus young girls were ferreted away by dedicated rascals who called themselves God’s disciples. We have attracted attention not just because we have a military that stumbled at every turn at a formidable opponent. We have, more tragically, drawn the world’s ridicule because of a bumbling presidency that has exposed a naiveté and lack of understanding of governance in an age of expectation. In the midst of it, we suffer pain, tensions, apprehensions, fantasies of tragedy.

    That explains why the president, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, reacted only three weeks when the vulnerable citizens were already ominously secure in the arms of their predators. That explains why the president displayed a stunning disbelief that the young girls were missing when, in the last presidential chat, he thrust the onus of responsibility on the parents, and asked them to cooperate by providing pictures. His wife, Patience, demonstrated no virtue when she chided protesters and even ordered the arrest of those who expressed not only their inalienable rights in a democracy but also showed open emotions. She shamelessly quipped that no girl was missing. We are sure she saw the pictures now virile in the world media. If, of course for her, seeing is believing.

    When such unfortunate incidents such as the kidnap of many girls happen, it is time not only for action but also accountability. One of the cries of the past half year since the escalation of the violence of the Boko Haram insurgents is the call for accounting for the budget allocated for security since the Jonathan presidency started prosecuting its war against the militants. The budgets of 2012, 2013 and 2014 have been especially high.

    For 2012, the budget allocation was N921.91 billion. In 2013, the sum budgeted was N950 billion. This year’s budget is N845 billion. For the three years, the Federal Government has budgeted N2.7 trillion for security, and this covers the armed forces, police, the office of the national security adviser, and other operational costs. We are still in the throes of 2014, so we cannot say that all N2.7 trillion have been spent on security in the past three years.

    Yet, we can say that with 2012 and 2013 behind us, at least N1.8 trillion went to security in the past two years. But this is not early days in 2014, so we can surely say that at least the Federal Government can say it has spent at least N2 trillion so far on security, since we are in the second quarter of the year.

    Yet with all that humongous outlay, we do not justify that generous eye on our money with the stature and capacity of our military. In his presidential chat, President  Jonathan said the military lags in equipment and training. In spite of over N2 trillion? That is why we need the Jonathan administration to render account to Nigeria on how we have expended such a sum of money and we cannot see any form of surveillance technology to monitor and track the hoodlums who have roamed, with leonine defiance and damage, plundered lives and property in the Northeast of the country, complete with rapine and ruin.

    Yet, last week, during the World Economic Forum that Nigeria hosted for vanity, former British prime minister announced a $10 million donation to protect the schools in the area. This is small money in comparison but it is money already accounted for at N3.3 million per school in a year. We need such clinical numbers from the presidency and the National Assembly should not play coy in this matter. They ought to step in since they approved this meaningless jamboree in the name of the people’s safety.

    It is this failure to account for the money that leads to foreign countries promising to provide equipment that we ought to have bought with our money and implemented to prevent the tragedy we live through practically every day as a people.

    We still wonder why the president uttered with confidence the untruth that he had called the United States President Barack Obama to help with equipment and soldiers. He was exposed by both British and American governments when they announced that offers to help came but his government rebuffed the overtures. That was disingenuous governance and failure to connect with the people who voted him into office.

    How can the president have been serious about the fight against terror in the eyes of the Americans and other western countries when the same presidency fought furiously against even the Christian Association of Nigeria when the clamour came to brand Nigeria a place of terror. The presidency balked at such branding because top brass of the administration would fail to enjoy travel privileges and visas. Their private vanities trumped national interest. They lived in denial and expected Boko Haram and its murderous scourge to, in line with the president infamous quote, somehow quietly and providentially disappear.

    Amnesty International reported that the army was informed hours before the Boko Haram onslaught on Chibok, but the military failed to act. Yet, the Nigerian army had fought back that they had no such forewarning. If such documented evidence can be denied by the military brass, it only confirms what Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka described as the government’s sense of denial about the crisis. They have not been able to explain why several trucks could ram through the streets of Borno State to the now mythicised Sambisa forest.

    It is amazing that apart from the symbolic changing of the service chiefs, Jonathan has not demonstrated seriousness by sacking or asking for the firing of men down the military and political chains who have failed in critical moments of Boko haram tragedy. Merely changing service chiefs only shows that the problem lies with the commander-in-chief who has failed to provide the vision and the discipline of example. In more organised climes, President Jonathan would either have been impeached or resigned.

    Apart from the president’s rhetorical stumbles, we have also witnessed some of the president’s lieutenants who have weighed in but not with logic. They have proffered inelegant untruths like Doyin Okupe’s assertion that 200 sorties had been executed in the area at a time the president said they were advised by the military not to go into the Sambisa forest. Okupe who is the president’s spokesman also said two battalions had been unleashed. A battalion is a subset of a brigade which is a subset of a division. Yet we have a division deployed in the area at the time of the onslaught at Chibok.

    It is the string of inelegances that has turned the president and his team into a laughing stock not only in the diplomatic circles and international press but also in the bursting temper of the social media. The president must wake out of his lethargy and show leadership. It must also do that by giving us daily, if periodic, updates of reports and words that inspire rather than the insipid air that sterilises our hope.

  • Tariff review?

    Tariff review?

    Yes, but the GENCOs and DISCOs have a lot to do to earn it

    BARELY six months after take-over, the new investors in the power sector have been reported as pushing for a review of the current electricity tariff. Articulating their case penultimate week while playing host to members of the House Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, Mike Uzoigwe, Chief Executive Officer of Egbin Power Plc, informed his visitors that the assets taken over from the defunct Power Holdings Company of Nigeria (PHCN) are – with the current tariff being paid by electricity consumers – not bankable. He maintained that only an increase in tariff would ensure adequate Return on Investment.

    His illustration of the case of the 1,320MW Egbin Power Plc is as persuasive as can be.  From the November 1, 2013 date of the take-over by the private investors to date, the company generated N13.3 billion worth of power to the national grid – an amount discounted to N13.16 billion by the market operator under the interim market rule.

    Meanwhile, the investor’s expenditure outlay was N13.7billion for the period – a loss of N576 million.  Of this, he claimed that only N6.5 billion had been paid by the market operator.

    Clearly, the case for the review could not have been better made. It was after all expected that the service providers would seek to align their tariffs to ensure cost recovery and on such terms as to guarantee favourable returns on their investments and as befitting a truly deregulated electricity market. In other words, it comes with the territory that the operators retain the flexibility to adjust their tariffs under the keen eye of the regulator – the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

    Moreover, we understand the huge capital outlay in terms of the equipment and technology needed to turn the sector around, and the demand for credit from lenders are such that would require cash flow projections which the current tariff structure might not be able to support.  In those circumstances, the case for review cannot be said to be lacking considerable merit, given that the alternative is for the sector to suffer further relapse.

    Having said that, there are however, other sides to the tariff review argument which the operators cannot afford to ignore. The first is the need to overhaul the value chain to ensure that players keep up with their obligations. The suggestion, at least from the submission from the chief executive of Egbin Power Plc, is that this is not yet the case. We expect NERC to step in.

    The second issue is the pervasive corruption that has hobbled any meaningful progress in the sector. Nearly six months after, Nigerians are right to wonder whether indeed anything has changed. Not only have the vices associated with the PHCN festered, workers’ general attitude to work has remained largely the same. This is in spite of the new operators’ advertisement of improved and efficient service delivery. It is time for the operators to quit whining by focusing on what needs to be done. A major part of this is to devise means to collect their revenue.

    Related to this is the high level of inefficiency in the value chain –by-products of obsolete and outdated equipment. This is a major source of loss in power generation and hence revenue to the operator. Unfortunately, it is also responsible for denying the electricity consumer value for his money’s worth.

    The truth of course is that the electricity consumer has not been able to discern any headway in terms of new technologies and business model put on the table to justify the hyped take-over. It remains business as usual. Not only are they still hung on the old estimated and sometimes, crazy bills, promises of supply of pre-paid meters have gone unfulfilled; meanwhile service delivery continues to plummet.

    Tackling these issues would seem as fundamental as the craving for tariff review, which, in any case is much easier to effect.

  • Cheap chat

    Cheap chat

    President Jonathan’s media chats do more harm than good

    THE Seventh Presidential Media Chat given by President Goodluck Jonathan came at a particularly auspicious time. The country was reeling from almost-continuous terrorist attacks masterminded by the militant Boko Haram which had left dozens dead and injured. As if that was not enough, nearly 300 young girls were abducted by the same group, provoking global indignation. The official response to this upsurge in terror had been widely condemned as unfeeling, insufficient and belated. The media chat was a golden opportunity for the president to clear the air, to comfort the grieving, and to reassure the citizenry.

    Tragically, the president failed on all three counts. Auspicious the opportunity, but inauspicious the response. Far from clarifying issues related to rescuing the abducted girls, he implied that the delays were caused by a refusal of their parents to cooperate with the security forces. Other than perfunctory regrets, no real sympathy was expressed for the hundreds of Nigerians who had lost their lives or suffered injury or abduction on his watch. As for reassurance, the president’s gaffe-laden statements only served to make the country even more uneasy. The media chat was vintage Jonathan: nothing new was said, new howlers emerged to complement old ones, and scandalous statements outraged the sensibilities of many.

    There were the usual comments about Nigeria’s size and importance as an investment destination; the routine excuses that the country’s problems were so deep-rooted that they would take a very long time to fix; the same argument that things were not as bad as they seemed to be; the usual criticism of the alleged hostility and disloyalty of opposition politicians.

    Even worse, the media chat was tainted by outrageous opinions that should not be associated with any reasonable person, much less a sitting president. Jonathan somehow managed to draw a distinction between stealing and corruption, appearing to argue that Nigeria was plagued by the former to a larger extent than the latter. He argued that U.S. $20.9 billion could not be missing from the national coffers because its absence would certainly be noticed; in any case, since it was American currency, “America will know” about such a theft.

    Then there were the flippant remarks that left much to be desired. The president seemed to be serious when he told the journalists interviewing him that they probably knew more about security-related issues than he did. He claimed that the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, had appeared before the National Assembly “200 times.” He recalled that entertainment had been provided for those who protested fuel price increases in Lagos in 2012.

    A media chat is intended to offer a means whereby the president can communicate with the citizenry in a manner devoid of the officiousness and formality of high office. The presence of interviewers creates the semblance of discussion, enabling the president to respond more directly to public concerns. In the hands of the right person, such chats are veritable tools of public enlightenment: Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fireside chats were very popular during his presidency of the United States.

    However, this has not been the case with President Jonathan. His media chats are a failure to the extent that they do not enlighten the public, but further confuse, annoy and repel them. The president’s infamous “I don’t give a damn” remark, made in a previous media chat, will never be forgotten.

    When the president continues to blatantly repeat himself, it is a sure sign that he has run out of definitively new things to say. When he utters unworthy sentiments, he dishonours the office that it is his privilege to occupy. When he attacks political adversaries, he comes across as partisan and small-minded. The president’s media chats have failed to achieve their aim and should therefore be discontinued.

  • What’s behind the WHO’s emergency declaration on the spread of wild polio

    What’s behind the WHO’s emergency declaration on the spread of wild polio

    THE WORD “emergency” was emphasized in the headlines about the World Health Organization’s May 5 declaration on the spread of wild poliovirus, and rightly so. The high season for the spread of the virus is approaching, and the WHO emergency measures are aimed at deterring transmission of the virus and protecting the hard-won gains of recent years.

    Actually, the polio situation this year has been promising in some places. In Nigeria, where the virus has been endemic, only two cases have been reported this year, following declines last year; in Afghanistan there has been some spillover from Pakistan but only one case of the endemic virus in more than a year. Dr. Bruce Aylward, assistant director-general of WHO for polio, said that in both countries “we’re at a level of control there that we’ve never seen” before. In Syria, where a civil war has raised concerns about the difficulty of carrying out vaccination campaigns, the last case was in January.

    The dark heart of the polio scourge lies in Pakistan. According to Dr. Aylward, of the 74 cases of polio due to the wild poliovirus this year, 59 have been reported from Pakistan and within Pakistan; 46 of those 59 were from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas; and 40 of those from just one agency or semi-autonomous administrative unit. By contrast, no other country this year has reported more than Afghanistan’s four cases, and three of those came from Pakistan.

    What caused the WHO to sound the alarm — this is only the second such emergency declared; the first was for the H1N1 influenza pandemic in 2011 — is the fear that travelers are spreading the wild poliovirus, threatening to export it to nations where it does not now exist. Many populations are at high risk of infection due to fragile states, war and broken immunization systems. The WHO estimates that about 60 percent of the cases last year were due to international travel. Although the virus mainly strikes young people, there was evidence that adult travelers were contributing to the spread.

    The target of the global polio eradication program has been to stop transmission by this year, but Dr. Aylward said Pakistan is the one country that is really “off track.” Attacks on polio vaccination workers there have stymied vaccination campaigns, opening a door to the highly contagious disease. The government has made some efforts in Peshawar to beef up security and resume vaccination campaigns, but it is not enough.

    The WHO has called for travel restrictions in Pakistan, Syria, Cameroon and elsewhere to stop the spread by those who fly or travel by land. It may be tempting for the affected nations to shrug and take half-steps, but the threat of polio spreading is very real and poses a danger not only for their own populations but also for peoples far beyond.

    – Washington Post

  • U.S. to the rescue?

    U.S. to the rescue?

    Ominous auguries as America moves to save Nigeria from herself

    This must be the lowest moment in Nigeria’s post-independence (1960) history. Not even the civil war era would compare with the momentous twist last week in the raging war against terror in Nigeria. Last Tuesday, a weary nation received, with mixed feelings, the news that President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan had acceded to the request by President Barack Obama of the United States of America (U.S.A) to deploy US security experts and equipment to Nigeria to help in locating the school girls abducted from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, about three weeks ago. Up until this point, the entire Nigerian military, security and intelligence community had no inkling as to the location of the over 200 young girls plucked from their dormitory beds in the dead of night on April 14. We cannot even determine the exact number of girls herded away by the terrorists.

    A news release by Dr. Reuben Abati, presidential spokesman intimated that: “President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday welcomed and accepted a definite offer of help from the United States of America in the on-going effort to locate and rescue the girls abducted from the Government Secondary School, Chibok, three weeks ago.

    “The offer from President Barack Obama, which was conveyed to President Jonathan by the United States Secretary of State, Mr. John Kerry, in a telephone conversation which began at 15:30 today (Tuesday), includes the deployment of U.S. security personnel and assets to work with their Nigerian counterparts in the search and rescue operation.

    “Mr. Kerry assured President Jonathan that the United States is fully committed to giving Nigeria all required support and assistance to save the abducted girls and bring the reign of terror unleashed on parts of the country by Boko Haram to an end.”

    Recall that on January 21, 1962, the Federal Government had to abrogate the Anglo-Nigerian Defence Agreement which the departing British colonialists had extracted from the Nigerian authorities in order to keep a hold on the sovereignty of the newly independent state of Nigeria. But Nigerians across all strata had rejected the pact, staging relentless protests for more than one year. At the peak of the defiance, over 3,000 demonstrators had encircled the parliament building in Lagos, forcing the abrogation of the pact.

    Though the circumstances are not quite the same, it is noteworthy that today, 52 years after, a helpless people and a confused government hurriedly accepted, apparently with a sigh of relief, an offer of a foreign military intervention to manage an internal and localised insurrection. Yes, Nigerians want the girls found and returned safely to their homes; they desire that the daily blood fest, involving largely innocent Nigerians be stemmed; they want peace and order to return once again to their dear country, thus even aliens from mars would be welcome if that is what is required. But there are implications and consequences to be mindful of.

    First, the spontaneous embrace of the Americans is a clear admission of failure by the Federal Government; failure of governance, failure of leadership. That a country that prides itself as the ‘giant of Africa’ cannot contain a local insurgency by a band of desert thugs terrorising her in the last five years is, to say the least, worrisome. That a foreign force had to be invited must be a most humbling and humiliating experience both for the military and the entire people of Nigeria. For a military establishment that has performed so spectacularly over and over again in foreign missions, this must represent its moment of catharsis.

    Again Nigeria’s current debacle is symptomatic of an unravelling, failing nation, a fact Nigeria’s leaders have chosen to deny over the years. An underfunded, underequipped and ill-motivated military-cum- security establishment serially out-gunned and out-maneuvered by local insurgents would only signify one thing: decadence. This manner of rot is deep and pervasive in all ramifications of the polity.

    One illustration will suffice: the dreaded Sambisa forest, the abode of the miscreants from where they unleash terror on the rest of the country was once a forest reserve. In that age of reason when institutions still worked, the 23,000 square miles forest was a carefully charted enclave with shelters, tracks and thoroughfares, and manned by forest guards. Had Nigeria not been in rapid recession in the last four decades, Sambisa would have metamorphosed into a global eco-tourism haven complete with nature trails, game reserve, bird watching zones, scientific observatories, airstrips and holiday resorts. Today, it has grown into a jungle, an evil forest, forgotten, forbidden and the nemesis of the nation. Sambisa is the metaphor for a failed Nigeria.

    To drive home the point of the Sambisa metaphor, Mr. Labaran Maku, the Minister of Information, answering questions on CNN on the inability of the military to rescue the girls, told his interviewer that Sambisa was a remote and impregnable forest, suggesting that it is a no-man’s land outside the purview and control of the state. How ironic and how true? In fact, most of the local government areas a little removed from capital cities and towns of Nigeria have become Sambisas in their own right – abandoned, ungoverned and susceptible to insurrection. And we ask: whence is a state failed?

    Yesterday, our fathers protested vehemently against a foreign military overlord, today we crave for foreign military assistance. Of course, we know that as things stand, this is about the only option open to us if really we are desirous of getting the abducted girls back to their respective homes; events of the last five years have shown that we cannot stop the terrorists alone. We can only urge the Nigerian authorities to be alive to their duties and take stock of what has happened so far, with a view to making amends so that we would never have to travel this road again.

  • Our ‘Socrates’ is gone

    Our ‘Socrates’ is gone

    •Justice Oputa, legal prodigy dies at 96

    Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, retired Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, who died on May 4, 2014, at 96 years, has deservedly been receiving flowery encomiums from Nigerians of all works of life. Among the several sobriquets for the departed legal icon, are ‘Socrates of the Supreme Court’, quintessential oracle of law, legal prodigy, and one of the finest legal minds, of our time. As a gifted wordsmith and showman, Justice Oputa, as lawyer and judge, was enchanting in words and appearance. With degrees in History, Economics and Law, the jurisprudence of his judgments were like crafted ornaments.

    His judgments reflected his connectedness with the society. In an interview, Justice Oputa captured the essence of justice thus: “Without Justice, government would be a pack of rascals. Justice has no two ways of measure. It is not justice for the rich and lack of justice for the poor. No.” Oputa lost his father when he was eight months old, and his mother when he was a year and half. But through perseverance and the support of his grandmother, he went to Christ the Kings College, Onitsha. He also studied at Higher College, Yaba, Lagos, and later Achimota College, Ghana, where he secured his degree in History and later Economics.

    With two degrees, Justice Oputa easily secured employment in the colonial service. Oputa was also a teacher and a principal in a secondary school. But at the prompting of a lawyer friend, Oputa resigned from what many considered a lucrative job to travel to England to study Law, at the Grays Inn. In 1953, he came back to Nigeria, to establish his law chambers in Owerri; and he had a flourishing practice spanning across cities in Nigeria and Cameroons. According to the preeminent jurist, he was on his way to represent a client in a matter in Abakaliki, when he heard over the radio, that he had been appointed a high court judge, in the then Eastern Nigeria.

    Justice Oputa, as a jurist brought his training in History, Economics and Law, to bear in his judgments. He understood the interrelatedness of the wellness of the society and justice, and he was never shy to propagate social justice in his judgments. But he would also be well remembered as Chairman of The Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission, otherwise known as the Oputa Panel. Even during the military’s involvement in governance, he held tenaciously to the rule of law as the greatest essence of a civilised society. He boldly advanced this in his judgments, despite the military’s suspension of the constitution. Excitedly in his bold judgments he never abandoned the poignancy of English language, as his tool.

    Because he crafted his language of law in poetry and incandescence, he was crowned the ‘Socrates of the Supreme Court’. Because he understood and advocated the majesty of jurisprudence as a legal tool, his judgments were in tandem with the essential demands of social justice in pursuit of legal justice. For him, law was an instrument to foster a functional society. Upon retirement from the Supreme Court, he devoted time to writing and reading. He also delivered lectures at several academic and social forums, and he was a sought-after speaker and lecturer.

    For him, the lawyer or judge must look smart, so he dressed well and carried himself with a dignified gait. Whether as a lawyer or jurist, young or old, he carried himself with dignity and aplomb. As the eminent jurist departs, we wish him an eternal repose and extend our condolences to his family and the legal community.

  • Adieu, Sir Michael

    Adieu, Sir Michael

    • Sir Michael Otedola, former governor of Lagos State, passes on at 87

    Sir Michael Agbolade Otedola, who died at his Odorangunshin, Epe, Lagos State country home on May 5, was a good man. But he was hardly a good governor. Still, he died a model citizen.

    That a good man could end up a bad governor is one of the contradictions of Nigerian politics. To start with, Governor Otedola was an accidental governor: the fallout of the feuding political progressives in Lagos State, during the long and winding political transition of General Ibrahim Babangida.

    The factions of Dapo Sarumi (made of young Turks) and Femi Agbalajobi (made up of the old guard) feuded to virtual death, in disputed primaries. In the ensuing war of nerves, the Sarumi faction, in Yomi Edu, gained the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) gubernatorial ticket for Lagos State.

    But the Agbalajobi faction, backed by heavyweights such as Alhaji Lateef Jakande, another former governor of Lagos State, ensured Mr. Edu lost the governorship. The happy beneficiary was Sir Michael, whose surname even gave, in the electoral conspiracy,  some grim poetic ring: Otedola — Yoruba for “intrigues translate into fortune.”

    Still, Sir Michael’s intrigue-powered romp into power became his eventual albatross. For one, he had a Lagos State House of Assembly thoroughly dominated by the rival SDP, to the detriment of his own  conservative National Republican Convention (NRC).

    For another, Sir Michael’s victory must have been a happy surprise, even to himself. Though his campaign slogan was “That Lagos May Excel”, he seemed unprepared for that dreamed excellence, from his programmes and policies in office.

    Besides, Sir Michael had the exceptional ill-luck of taking office when the Babangida transition programme, and the diarchy under which he served as governor, was unravelling. Protests that greeted the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election came to a head and Lagos was the hotbed of those protests.

    So, the poor governor, already more than 70 years, was pitted against the people who just one year ago voted him in; and the military, who became outlaws, trying to sustain an illegal annulment. Gen. Sani Abacha muscled the poor old man, ordering him to stop the protests or else face dire consequences. Shortly after, Governor Otedola’s rule was history, as Abacha took over and dissolved all democratic structures. That was November, 1993.

    Still, though Sir Michael’s highest political point turned out his lowest in achievement and esteem, he had logged stellar achievements before becoming governor. His reputation as a solid philanthropist, the one that granted scholarships to indigent youths of his native Epe, among other endeavours, had cemented his fame as a model citizen.

    Besides, his brand equity as a public relations professional, plying his trade as full time staff and later consultant to oil giants, Shell Nigeria, was stuff of which legends were made. So, was his love for his native Epe, so much so that not a few charged him with political clannishness.

    He insisted that charity must begin at home. Epe, considered a “periphery” by many, enjoyed a boom in road infrastructure, at a time metropolitan Lagos, the “centre”, was rotting. Epe and surrounding communities, long used to government neglect, roared their approval for the new lease of life. But others accused the governor of misplaced priorities.

    But whatever the travails of Governor Otedola, in and out of office, he till his death maintained his dignity, his integrity and his nobility. In a Nigeria of free-wheeling sleaze, Otedola went to his grave with his good name intact.

    Even if he lost everything else in the vicissitudes of life, his golden name is enough legacy for the coming generation. Adieu, Sir Michael!