Category: Editorial

•AGF must act on NHRC’s report on alleged election offenders

THE National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is on the right path in the exercise of its mandate, with its findings and recommendations on human rights abuses in the country. The commission, in a report to the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) recommended various alleged election offenders for prosecution. Among the 41 indicted persons and institutions are a former Governor of Edo State, Professor Oserhiemen Osunbor, a former Speaker of Kogi State House of Assembly, Clarence Olafemi, a former Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Ekiti State, Mrs Ayooka Adebayo, and an Assistant Superintendent of Police, Christopher Oloyede. Also indicted were INEC, the police and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Some of the offences for which the named persons and institutions were indicted are forgery, perjury and breach of trust. The commission, in its report to the AGF, said the report is “in exercise of its mandate under section 5 which empowers it to refer any matter of human rights violations requiring prosecution to the AGF or of a state”. Accordingly, the list forwarded to the AGF contains names of “persons and institutions indicted for various offences committed under the Electoral Act 2006”. The report also quoted judgments of electoral tribunals and courts which indicted some of the persons named in their report.

We earnestly ask the AGF to make haste to prosecute all the persons and institutions indicted in the report, as a warning signal to potential electoral offenders during the 2015 elections. We also enjoin civil rights organisations to ensure that the AGF is not allowed to sleep on this matter. Indeed, Nigerians who desire free and fair elections must join hands to pressure the AGF to discharge his constitutional obligations in the overall interest of our fledgling democracy. For, until electoral offenders are made to face the consequences of their crime, it will remain attractive for desperate politicians and political parties to use all means to take over or retain power, in the name of elections.

We also unequivocally condemn the actions of the indicted institutions, particularly INEC, the police and the party that has controlled power at the centre since 1999, the PDP. The indictment is telling on how the PDP has been able to hold on to power, even when available evidence shows that the party has failed to perform. While the party should hide its head in shame, we encourage it not to hamstring the AGF from performing his constitutional role of bringing those indicted to justice. For, while the alleged electoral offences are already a slur on our democracy, we want the party to note that failure to prosecute the offenders is a greater indictment of our country as a lawless country.

It is also important that the prosecution should commence with the very notable persons indicted by the commission. Such an act will send signals to those who may be planning to rig the up-coming elections in Ekiti and Osun states, and more significantly, the 2015 general elections. It is also important that INEC should take immediate steps to weed from its fold those with the potential to further bring the commission to disrepute. The commission owes Nigerians the responsibility to cooperate with the AGF and civil rights groups to ensure a successful prosecution of the indicted individuals and institutions. After all, the alleged offences were primarily committed under its watch.

Also, the police and other sister security agencies must see the indictment as a wake-up call. They need institutional discipline, and an understanding that their mandate does not extend to helping the party in power win any election at all cost.

• He was a distinguished scholar, educationist, technocrat and patriot

Today, Oru Ijebu, Ogun State, will host dignitaries that would be in the town to pay their last respects to Emeritus Prof. Cornelius Olaleye Taiwo, an illustrious son of the town who died on April 8. His burial is the climax of the funeral obsequies that began in Lagos on Wednesday, with a service of songs. Prof Taiwo deserves everything that is being done to mark his passage. He was a great man by any standard, considering his accomplishments in life. To crown it, he was also privileged to live to an old age, having died at 103.

Born on October 27, 1910, at Oru, Ijebu Taiwo started school at St. Luke’s School, Oru, Ijebu around 1921. From there he went to St Andrews College, Oyo, for his teacher training course, and later Yaba Higher College, Lagos, where he read mathematics and distinguished himself, just as he did at St Andrews College. He then joined the staff of CMS Grammar School, Lagos, as a tutor in mathematics and assistant master of the boarding house. Taiwo’s diligence as a tutor in mathematics was instrumental to the school’s turning out of many brilliant students, with many of them becoming engineers later.

While at CMS Grammar School, Taiwo was awarded a colonial government scholarship to read mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge, which was quite uncommon in those days. Prof Taiwo proceeded to the Institute of Education of the University of London for a post-graduate course in education; he was one of the first Nigerians that did that course in London. He also earned a Barrister-at –Law and was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple (Inn of Court), London, on February 4, 1964.

As usual, Prof Taiwo distinguished himself when he returned to the country and was offered appointment as Education Officer in what later became the Western Region. He taught in a number of government secondary schools in the region and later became the first African to head Edo College, Benin, a position hitherto reserved exclusively for expatriates.

Prof Taiwo served in various capacities including Administrative Officer, Inspector of Education and ultimately as Permanent Secretary in the Western Region before moving to the University of Lagos where he spent 11 years; he delved into private legal practice and authored several books. He enrolled as Barrister-at-Law and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria on July 3, 1964.

Even though the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo saw the potential in Prof Taiwo and a few others and appointed them permanent secretaries, against the usual civil service practice, Prof Taiwo never had the time for politics. “I was too busy to play politics,” he said in an interview on his 100th birthday. Perhaps this is why his demise has not attracted the kind of noise that usually trails the typical Nigerian politician’s death.

Yet, he was a man with immense contributions to national development; a man of many firsts: Prof Taiwo was the first Emeritus Professor of Education in the University of Lagos (UNILAG) as well as UNILAG‘s first and only provost. It is only unfortunate that such an apolitical bundle of talent could be disillusioned as to leave the services of the Western Region at the time he did simply because the new premier in the region then, Chief Ladoke Akintola, became suspicious of his loyalty. Anyway, whatever the region lost to his exit, the University of Lagos and other places that he served, including University of Ilorin where he was appointed as Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council in September, 1990, gained.

Prof Taiwo was Fellow of Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration; Fellow, Nigerian Academy of Education; and Lord LUPEN (Luminaries of Professional Educators of Nigeria), among others. Prof Taiwo who was also the Baba Ijo (Father of the congregation) of St. Luke‘s Church, Oru, Ijebu since 1973, was also inducted into the International Educators’ Hall of Fame.

May his soul rest in perfect peace.

•Gracia Marquez, a master story teller, fabulist, enchanter and stylist, dies at 87

For a compact characterisation of the writing life and impact of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the distinguished Colombian literary artist who made his exit to resounding global applause at age 87 on April 17, his Nobel Prize in Literature provides illumination.  He received the world’s most prestigious garland for letters at age 55 in December 1982 “for his novels and short stories, in which the fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly composed world of imagination, reflecting a continent’s life and conflicts”; and his acceptance speech aptly entitled “The Solitude of Latin America” not only mirrored the enduring theme of his creative career in both individual and corporate contexts, but also defined his aboriginal passion. As the first Colombian and fourth Latin American to win the esteemed literary award which has been in existence since 1901, Marquez who died in Mexico City where he lived for over 30 years belongs indisputably to the pantheon of Spanish language and world literature.

Widely acknowledged for his unique style labelled “Magical Realism,” which was informed by his sense of the marvellous and sensitivity to the fantastic, Marquez created stunning fiction that inspired a world-wide boom in Spanish language literature. The success of his well-known 1967 novel regarded as his magnum opus, One Hundred Years of Solitude, is believed to have paved the way for the Nobel Prize as well the earlier Romulo Gallegos Prize in 1972. It reportedly took him 18 months of daily writing to produce the book, which was a commercial hit and has sold over 30 million copies around the world, with translation into more than 30 languages. Against the background of the abundance of accolades that the novel has received, it is instructive that a particular critic, William Kennedy, described it hyperbolically as “the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race,”

However, as an author, his oeuvre transcended novels, novellas and short story collections; he also did non-fiction, wrote a number of screenplays and was a film critic. Significantly, he started the Film Institute in Havana, Cuba, and headed the Latin American Film Foundation. It is noteworthy that he came to creative writing from a journalistic background, which is believed to have enhanced the quality of his work.

A fascinating aspect of his life and times was the way his activities generated questions about the nexus between political ideology and literature, and in this respect his friendship with former Cuban president and leftist leader Fidel Castro was continually under focus although Marquez described their relationship as “an intellectual friendship.” In this connection, it is worth mentioning that his expressed views reflected  anti-imperialist ideas  for which he was branded a subversive and denied entry into the United States (US) by the country’s immigration authorities. It is a telling commentary on the influence of his literature that, following the election of former US president Bill Clinton in 1992, the travel ban was reviewed and Clinton referred to One Hundred Years of Solitude as his favourite novel.

Another facet of his personality manifested in his long-term feud with 2010 Nobel laureate and Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa which had an undercurrent of rivalry and lasted over 30 years, during which time Llosa famously punched him in the face. Indeed, in a profound sense, that discord described as “one of the largest feuds in modern literature” had the likeness of a Marquez fictional plot, with the implication of an incredible story masterfully narrated.

His magical imagination was underscored by his answer to a question on his literary ambitions in a 1981 interview. He said:  ”I don’t really like to say this because it never sounds sincere, but I would really have liked for my books to have been published after my death, so I wouldn’t have to go through all this business of fame and being a great writer.”