Category: The NewsMaker

Till he breathed his last, Prince Bola Ajibola was a first-class lawyer and patriot. Little wonder Nigeria bemoans his loss as an irreparable blow to the legal profession.

Ajibola died at 85, after a long illness associated with old age, and he has since been buried according to Muslim rites.

Throughout his life, Ajibola inspired many with his significant contributions to nation-building and legal practice. The common impression about him was that he was not only brilliant at law alone but he was also a fair and humane jurist.

He wore the toga of an elder statesman for the common good and sustainable development of South-West and Nigeria as a whole. A cursory look at Ajibola’s intimidating profile reveals a man who did not stumble on stardom but intricately sketched his ascent via diligent, honest endeavour. It was a hard climb, assisted, as all such are, by perseverance.

“Prince” as he was fondly called, was born on March 22, 1934, in Owu, Abeokuta, Ogun State, to the family of Abdul-Salam Ajibola Gbadela II, who was the traditional ruler of Owu between 1949 and 1972.

He attended Owu Baptist Day School and Baptist Boys’ High School in Abeokuta between 1942 and 1955. Ajibola obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Law (LLB) at the Holborn College of Law, University of London between 1959 and 1962 and was called to the English Bar at the Lincoln’s Inn in 1962.

Ajibola returned to Nigeria to practise law, specialising in Commercial Law and International Arbitration. He became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in 1980. Due to his pivotal role, the practice of Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) became composite parts of Nigerian legal practice.

In 1984, he became the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and his performance as NBA president reportedly caught the attention of the then military President, Ibrahim Babangida, who appointed him as the Attorney-General and the Minister of Justice of Nigeria in 1985 to 1991.

Even if Ajibola had not attained the high position of the country’s Attorney-General and the Minister of Justice of Nigeria he would still stand as an important figure in the history of Nigeria.

In his six years in the office, Ajibola was said to never have collected a salary. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo credited some of his professional and personal virtues to the several years he spent understudying Ajibola.

The late Ajibola held numerous international positions and led several Nigerian Delegations to sign many treaties, conventions and protocols; he was equally charged with many international arbitration assignments.

After leaving office in 1991, Ajibola moved to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Den Hague, Netherlands. After a three-year stint at the World Court in 1994, he served as judge ad hoc of the World Court until 2022. Around that period, he also served as the Nigerian high commissioner to the UK between 1999 and 2002.

Ajibola is best known as Judge of the International Court of Justice, The Hague, Netherlands, 1991 – 94; Judge of the Constitutional Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1994 – 2001; President and Judge of the World Bank Administrative Tribunal (Washington D.C and London) 1994-2005; President of the World Association of Judges of the World Jurist Association.

He was appointed judge of the constitutional court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and also chairman of the Nigerian delegation to the Nigerian-Cameroon Mixed Commission on the Bakassi Peninsula.

He also became the Vice-President and later President of the World Bank Administrative Tribunal from 1994 to 2005 and he headed the World Association of the World Jurists and Arbitrators, Ethiopia-Eritrea Boundary Dispute Commission.

Ajibola was a walking encyclopedia; he authored different papers and articles on different legal subjects and he also provided legal consultancy services to multinational companies like Avon Cosmetics Limited; Masms Solicitors and Co. of London; Exxon, Houston, Texas, USA and Arthur Anderson and Co., London and Lagos.

His contributions to the education sector have also been significant. Asides from deploying his formidable intellect to progressive educational ventures, he founded the Crescent University, in Abeokuta, Ogun State, in 2005, under the banner of the Islamic Mission for Africa.

Ajibola’s death has been variously described as a great loss not only to Nigeria but to the global society.

He was unarguably one of Nigeria’s finest minds and he would be remembered for his selfless and remarkable contributions to international law, politics, and education.

There is no denying that he lived his principles and departed as an icon of professional integrity and personal probity. When comes another?

The latest victim of ‘Obi-dients’ mob justice is Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka. Still smarting from the loss of their preferred candidate, Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), in the 2023 elections, they recently unleashed their venom on Soyinka for daring to criticise Obi’s running mate, LP vice-presidential candidate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, over the latter’s comments during a recent interview.

The Nobel Laureate had criticised Datti for addressing the Supreme Court in “fascistic language.”

When Datti went on air, he spoke carelessly, saying the country had no president-elect despite the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announcing Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the election.

The LP vice-presidential candidate fumed that Tinubu would be leading an unconstitutional government if sworn into office because the APC candidate “has not met requirements of the law.”

The interview did not go down well with many, especially the opposition. It equally elicited criticism from diverse segments of the public. Subsequently, the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) sanctioned the TV station for airing a “volatile broadcast capable of inciting public disorder and violating sections of the broadcasting code,” as well as a N5 million fine.

Soyinka’s take on the issue was characteristically blunt. He wondered why the LP vice-presidential candidate tried to “dictate to the supreme arbiter of the nation,” he went on to accuse Datti of broad-daylight blackmailing of the judiciary.” His comments were unbecoming and a threat to the judiciary. It is a fascist language that alienates the people. It is unacceptable, and I refuse to be a part of it.” Soyinka fumed.

Soyinka believes that Datti’s commentary presents a false narrative of the supporters of the party, especially the “Obidient” family, thus fanning the flames of fascism in politics.

Analysing the aftermath of the 2023 polls, the Nobel laureate didn’t leave out the ethnic tension episodes that characterised the Guber elections. He condemned the attacks on non-indigenes in various states, especially in Lagos State, where violence and open threats broke out. He also suggested a decentralized system of sharing political power

Expectedly, Obi’s supporters launched attacks on Soyinka declaring him an enemy of the “Obidients.”

The incessant verbal abuse eventually irked many who rose sharply in defense of the renowned playwright.

Over the years, the 88-year-old novelist has remained vocal and expressive, hardly ever talking about himself; but always speaking out about issues in the country and the way forward.

Soyinka, without mincing words, said he had warned Obi that if he lost the presidential election, it would be as a result of his followers’ attitude. But clearly, Obidients have metamorphosised into a social media lynch mob, attacking opponents in packs and tyrannising those who do not share their views.

Since Obi joined the presidential race, his horde of supporters have been the most intemperate, and at worst, find their expression in abuse, intimidation, the threat to use violence and utter disregard for the feelings and rights of others. Summarily, anyone who does not support them or share in their sentiments is an enemy.

Aside from Soyinka, the likes of Pastor Poju Oyemade, Femi Otedola, Father Mbaka, Reno Omokri, Pastor Adeboye, Deji Adeyanju, Pastor Adefarasin, Femi Fani-Kayode, and a host of others once, had their fair share of hateful comments and threats from Obi’s supporters.

Although Obi, had repeatedly made a show of admonishing his supporters to stop insulting or attacking his opponents and their supporters, the intolerance of opposing views by his supporters escalates in real-time thus truncating the beauty of democracy.

While the dust raised by Soyinka is yet to settle. Soyinka is not new to controversies, many observers admire his courage and knack for speaking truth to power. Just like former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) deputy governor, Kingsley Moghalu echoed, Soyinka will survive the attacks.

Out of the blues, the catchphrase — ‘Yes Daddy’ joined the slang phrases trending on social media among netizens.

The catchphrase, by its connotation, was initially a way of responding respectfully by Christians in interaction with their pastors. Two prominent personalities have, however, made the news over the catchphrase — one a politician, the other a pastor — and they have literally leapfrogged into a dilemma that may not go away anytime soon.

The alleged discreet telephone conversation between the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, and the founder of the Winners’ Chapel, Bishop David Oyedepo, has come under severe public censure. The leaked audio which has been refuted to be fake by the former Anambra governor became the subject of discourse. Obi was heard repeatedly saying: “Yes Daddy” while the conversation lasted.

Over time, a lot of controversies have surrounded both Obi and Oyedepo. While they are both of the same faith, they belong to different church bodies — Catholic and Pentecostal respectively. But most strikingly, they share a sweet relationship.

What caught the attention of many in the leaked audio was the declaration by Obi that the 2023 presidential election was a religious war. It generated heated conversations with many condemning the LP candidate for championing religious bigotry in a multi-dimensional country like Nigeria.

The incident stirred deep questions about Obi’s touted integrity: “Is this the type of leader Nigeria needs at this time? Will Obi not cause ethnic and religious war in Nigeria if elected?”

Obi may have won in the hearts of so many Nigerians, young and old, but he has failed to rid himself of ethnic and religious prejudice; several Nigerians have accused him of introducing ethnic and religious bias into national politics.

Expectedly, Obi’s supporters rose stoutly in his defence. They dismissed the leaked audio as an unnecessary distraction from the LP candidate’s resort to legal redress over perceived irregularities in the just concluded elections.

Obi’s camp is clearly in disarray as the Labour Party has found it difficult to articulate a coherent response to the controversial audio. While the platform that leaked the audio stands by its story, early reactions from ‘Obidients’ and other LP apologists depict confusion.

Some were quick to discredit the audio, arguing that it was created by artificial intelligence. But Kenneth Okonkwo, a spokesperson of the LP campaign, in a series of posts on his official Twitter handle admitted that “political criminals are trying to spin the conversation as if the LP candidate was making a religious comment,” thus affirming that the leaked audio is indeed authentic.

Obi, on his part, has described the audio as fake even as Oyedepo maintained that he had no favourite candidate for the 2023 elections. Speaking during a church sermon, he skirted around the controversy of the leaked audio and cleverly avoided issuing a direct rebuttal or confirmation of it.

In the just-concluded 2023 polls, Nigeria’s democracy faced a crucial test. Asides from ethnic sentiments, religion was deployed quite recklessly by political actors to gain an advantage over their rivals, at the expense of the country’s fragile peace and unity.

Several religious leaders brazenly used their influence on the pulpit to campaign for their preferred candidate thus deepening the religious tension that seized the polity.

Obi easily became the beautiful bride of the church. He wooed church bodies and sought the anointment of several pastors, who prophesied that he would emerge as the next president. His pronouncement: “Church, take back your country!” while addressing Christian voters resonated jarringly across the political circuit. It generated worry that his 2023 campaign was “a religious war” against the APC’s Muslim-Muslim ticket. Some observers wondered why the LP candidate was not frequent with his visitation to imams and major Muslim leaders in the North as he was with the pastors.

Apart from Rev. Father Mbaka who took a swipe at Obi for being stingy and did not see him becoming the president this year, some prominent church leaders — Oyedepo, Paul Enenche, Johnson Suleman, Chris Oyakhilome, and others queued behind Obi.

Some of the few takeaways from the 2023 elections are that an electoral contest should never be a ‘do-or-die’ affair and clerics should know where to draw the line in expressing their support for a political candidate. They are expected to demonstrate some sense of understanding that in the churches they lead, almost all the political parties are represented, hence the need to exercise restraint where necessary, rather than drag the pulpit to disrepute.

Obi, on the other hand, must be prepared to play the long game ahead. Having resorted to litigation to wrest political power to his advantage, he must abide by the rule of law and urge his supporters to do likewise. Nigeria, after all, is bigger than any candidate and political party.

It was an Italian philosopher, Antonio Gramsci, who said that “History teaches, but has no pupils.” This profound saw applies to the embattled ex-National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Iyorchia Ayu.

The unfolding drama rocking the PDP recently took a new turn as Ayu was relieved of his office as National Chairman, about two years after he assumed the position.

Ayu took over from Uche Secondus in October 2021, immediately after the latter was removed from office over an allegation of poor management of the party’s affairs.

Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, was fingered as the mastermind of Secondus’ unceremonious exit; recall that Wike helped to install him as the chairman of PDP in 2017.

Ayu’s ordeal has been linked to the Wike-led Integrity Group that metamorphosed from the G5 governors clique. Had the PDP participated in the 2023 general election as a united body, it probably would have put up a better performance, according to pundits.

One dilemma which Ayu battled with was the zoning issue. It became the most sensitive issue, not only in the PDP. But the party’s eventual presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, made things a little worse when he asked some northern leaders in Kaduna State to endorse him, a northern candidate, and shun Yoruba or Igbo aspirants. Many faulted the careless statement from a candidate who calls himself a unifier.

Following its loss of the Presidency and most other political offices in the just concluded general election, the PDP has been mired in protracted internal wrangling. At the precipitate ouster of Ayu, the PDP once again affirmed its repute as a party beholden to an intractable leadership crisis. The party has paraded three national chairmen in less than three years. It is familiar terrain, no doubt.

Ayu, before his ouster, battled two opposing forces: Those who think his continued stay in office was against southern interest; and those outside who were dissatisfied with the imbalance in the composition of the party’s leadership positions which seems to have northern dominance. After a series of initial efforts made by Atiku and other members of the party to pacify Wike and his supporters, failed, they decided to call the Rivers State governor’s bluff.

On the heel of the PDP’s defeat at the presidential election, however, some party leaders have reportedly declared their dissatisfaction with Ayu’s leadership style. They believe he needs to be removed to save the party from implosion. The emergence of the Labour Party as a strong force has also become a source of worry to them.

More worrisome for Ayu, is the recent ruling against him by a Benue Court; the court has barred him from parading himself as the party’s national chairman. In a way, Ayu’s travail can equally be traced to his home state. Just like Wike roared, he lost in his polling unit, lost in his ward, lost in his local government, and lost in his state. Ayu failed to deliver for his party and this factored into the consideration for his ouster.

Umar Damagum (North) has since been appointed to act as the acting national chairman. W.I. Kpochi, a judge of the Benue High Court, Makurdi, issued an interim injunction restraining Ayu from parading himself as the party’s chairman.

He issued the order following an ex parte application brought by a member of the party in the state, Terhide Utaan. The order came a day after Ayu was suspended by his ward, Igyorov Ward, in Gboko Local Government Area of Benue State.

The Ward Secretary, Vangeryina Dooyum, who announced Ayu’s suspension, said the national chairman worked against the success of the PDP in the ward. Ayu had also been blamed for the party’s abysmal outing in the 18 March governorship and state assembly election in Benue State.

It would be recalled that Ayu’s refusal to vacate his office for a southern candidate made Wike’s group distance itself from the party’s activities, including Atiku’s campaign train. The crisis, started at the party’s presidential primary at the MKO Abiola National Stadium, Abuja, following Wike’s grievance over the outcome of the election.

According to the Wike-led group, they had urged the party to honour its constitution on zoning, particularly since Ayu (a northerner) accepted that he would step down if a northerner emerged as a presidential candidate.

Senior party chieftains especially those on Atiku’s team called Wike’s bluff, and Ayu did not leave. Walid Jibrin was the sacrificial lamb who resigned from his position as the chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, for the sake of peace and unity in the party. He was immediately replaced with a former Senate President from Abia State, Adolphus Wabara, in an acting capacity.

 When the party eventually produced a 600-member Presidential Campaign Council, Wike, Makinde and Ikpeazu’s names were on the list, but they pulled out of Atiku’s campaign insisting that Ayu must go.

Wike opened more cans of worms as he accused Ayu of receiving a double pay of N100 million from a PDP governor and the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) for the same project. The Rivers State governor’s allegations generated greater controversy when some members of the NWC began to return money to the chairman. At least four NWC members returned over N120 million. The sum ranged from N28 million to N36 million. In separate letters to the chairman, they said they had to return the money tagged ‘housing allowance’ because of allegations in the media that it was a bribe.

Ayu’s style of leadership may have also gotten him into deep trouble with some big guns in the party. Under him, the party witnessed a gale of anti-party activities. But while he grappled with the Wike-led group, he neglected the forces gathering against him at his homefront in Benue State.

Wike’s face-off with the party was also fuelled by the choice of Delta State governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, as Atiku’s running mate. Wike believed Ayu was instrumental to Okowa’s selection even while party chieftains suggested him for the post in order to placate him.

Consequently, Wike, working alongside four other governors – Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Sam Ortom (Benue), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu – resolved to ignore Atiku’s campaign unless the perceived marginalisation of southern Nigeria by the PDP is redressed.

The fallout with the Wike-led integrity group reportedly devastated the PDP and proved a major handicap to the party through the general elections. The party went into the elections divided and the consequence is better imagined.

Unless Ayu stages a miraculous comeback, the current imbroglio will end his tumultuous reign as the national chairman of the party.  He will also have followed in the footsteps of his predecessors, who got booted from their office in the 25-year history of the PDP.

Except for Ahmadu Ali who completed his four-year tenure in 2008, no other chairman, including the first, Solomon Lar, has seen out a term as PDP chairman. The others are Barnabas Gemade, Audu Ogbeh, Vincent Ogubulafor, Okwesilieze Nwodo, Bamanga Tukur, Uche Secondus, and now Ayu.

Electioneering activities have a way of bringing out the worst in Nigerians. Each time an election comes we begin to remember that there are indigenes and settlers.

Words and actions of certain individuals and a section of the media, foisting attacks on different ethnic groups, is a serious threat to national cohesion. History has clearly shown that ethnic profiling has grave consequences for the stability of a nation.

The dangerous tenor of rhetoric, however, reached a crescendo in the ethnic slur recently attributed to Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, the Chairman of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Council of Elders.

Iwuanyanwu became the target of harsh criticism as a video of him allegedly labelling the entire Yoruba race as rascals went viral. Although he has since refuted the allegation claiming he was quoted out of context, the news has assumed a life of its own.

Iwuanyanwu reportedly made the comment at Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s one-year-in-office ceremony.

Reacting to alleged attacks against the Igbo in Lagos, following the tension-soaked presidential and governorship polls in the state, Iwuanyanwu said what he did at the ceremony was to admonish the Igbo who felt threatened by alleged attacks in Lagos that they had no cause to worry because there were no problems between the Igbo and Yoruba.

He said he did, however, mention to them that the alleged attackers “are political rascals and their action does not reflect the good relationship between the Yoruba and Igbo.”

Some pundits have equally dismissed the video in which Iwuanyanwu reportedly committed the ethnic slur, claiming it was edited with mischief; yet many people would rather go with the narrative that appeals to their personal politics thus reinforcing the rash of ethnic venom that has taken root among Nigeria’s ethnic nationalities.

The elder statesman had condemned the reported violence and informed the gathering of the efforts made by Igbo’s apex organisation to address it, even as he warned the Yorubas against further provocation.

The Ohanaeze chieftain was referring to the alleged harassment of Igbo in Lagos during the February 25 and March 18 elections.

Afenifere, however, fumed at Iwuanyanwu’s statement while appealing to Nigerians and particularly the Yoruba, to eschew violence and embrace people of all races, cultures, and backgrounds.

Ike Ekweremadu is a man in fetters; driven by paternal love, he has landed in grisly cuffs in faraway London, United Kingdom – the jailhouse bonds render him captive and constrained. Likewise his wife, Beatrice shares his fate; she wears her manacles like a despicable bracelet on her wrist.

The embattled former Deputy Senate President (Ekweremadu) and his wife are in a serious dilemma. Their fate hangs precariously in the balance as they await their sentencing by the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey.

Ekweremadu, 60; his wife, Beatrice, 56; and their medical ‘middleman,’ Obinna Obeta, 51, were found guilty of facilitating the travel of David Nwamini, 25, to Britain with a view to exploiting his kidney, after a six-week trial at the Old Bailey.

They probably thought they would beat their ordeal. They may have said to themselves, “This too shall pass.” But sadly, it won’t. However, their daughter, Sonia, for whom they allegedly sought to procure Nwamini’s kidney, was cleared by the court.

These are certainly not the best of times for the Ekweremadus. While their conviction signposts a personal tragedy to the family, it signals yet another triumph for the British legal system.

Since news of the deputy senate president and his wife’s arrest broke in June 2022, their travail had occupied the front burner of public discussion. Expectedly, the accusation of organ harvesting elicited a flurry of reactions.

In the United Kingdom (UK), forced organ harvesting and organ trafficking are serious crimes.

The trafficking of organs is illegal in the UK and legal donation of organs can only take place following a person’s consent.

Under the UK’s Modern Slavery system Act 2015, organ harvesting is punishable with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

But how did Ekweremadu and his wife land in their present predicament? The desperation to save their daughter, Sonia’s life, landed them in detention. Following their arrest, they were denied bail severally, triggering the couple’s apprehension and worries from their friends and family.

Ekweremadu, a three-time Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate, has since surrendered his passport to the British government over the issue. In the most humiliating fashion, the Ekweremadus have been left pining for freedom.

Many have sympathised with the senator and his wife; standing in solidarity with them are the former national publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh, a retired FCT permanent secretary, Fred Chukwulobe, Chief Chinyeaka Ohaa, and relatives of the embattled senator.

En route to his conviction, Ekweremadu stated his case before a 12-member jury pleading that he was moved to save his daughter’s life, as a dutiful father.

He said he did what “was expedient” and disclosed that he was advised by his doctor against seeking a kidney donor from among his family members. But the prosecution lawyer, Hugh Davies, countered saying that Ekweremadu ignored medical advice to find a donor for his daughter among genuine family members.

Beatrice, however, pulled the rug from under the feet of her husband when she denied involvement in the search for an organ donor for their ailing daughter. 

On the family’s finances, the 56-year-old told the court that her husband took care of the house, just as she pointed out that she only carried out domestic duties which included visiting their children in school, in the UK.

Sonia was diagnosed with a kidney problem in 2019, and since then, there had been frantic efforts to get her a donor. The 25-year-old, on her part, pleaded “not guilty” to the charge levelled against her when she appeared again in court this year.

In the end, Ekweremadu, his wife, Beatrice, and their doctor accomplice, Obinna Obeta, were found guilty. The jury found that they conspired to bring the 21-year-old at the centre of the matter, David Nwamini, to London to exploit him for his kidney. According to the UK Guardian, it is the first verdict of its kind under the Modern Slavery Act.

Their daughter, Sonia, was however cleared of the charges. They were alleged to have attempted to convince doctors at the Royal Free Hospital in London to perform an £80,000 transplant on the donor who was presented as Sonia’s cousin. However, during the trial, the couple apologised for claiming that the donor was a relative.

The prosecutor said Ekweremadu, a lawyer and lawmaker, “agreed to reward someone for a kidney for his daughter – somebody in circumstances of poverty and from whom he distanced himself and made no inquiries, and with whom, for his own political protection, he wanted no direct contact.”

Throughout the trial, Ekweremadu denied all accusations and maintained that he was the victim of a scam. Obeta, who also denied the charge, claimed the man was not offered a reward for his kidney and was acting altruistically.

Beatrice vehemently denied knowing anything about the purported conspiracy. Sonia did not enter any defense after presenting the court with a medical report claiming she is unfit for trial.

Nwamini, the 21-year-old at the epicenter of the controversy. Contrary to initial rumour, he was not a minor; based on the details provided by the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) and Westminster Magistrate Court last June and July respectively.

The young man said he thought he was coming to Britain to work. He also told the court how he was born and bred in a village in Nigeria, the oldest of nine children to his carpenter father and mother.

He went to a village school until the age of 15 when he left because his parents needed money, the court heard. His uncle took him to live with him in Lagos and gave him work selling phone accessories, he said. After four years, he started his own business selling phone accessories from a wheelbarrow in the market, earning N3,000 or N4,000 a day.

He further disclosed that he was taken by Dr. Obeta for his consultation at the Royal Free Hospital. He told judges he thought it was for a test before he could start work.

The prosecutor, Hugh Davies KC, told the court that Ekweremadus and Obeta had treated the man and other potential donors as “disposable assets – spare parts for reward.” He said they entered an “emotionally cold commercial transaction” with the man, The Guardian UK report added.

The behaviour of Ekweremadu showed “entitlement, dishonesty, and hypocrisy,” Davies told the jury. He said Ekweremadu “agreed to reward someone for a kidney for his daughter – somebody in circumstances of poverty and from whom he distanced himself and made no inquiries, and with whom, for his own political protection, he wanted no direct contact.”

There is a likelihood that the Ekweremadus may not get the minimum 12 months option attached to summary convictions, but if they are found guilty of “intent to commit human trafficking” — seeing as the kidney transplant did not eventually happen — they will be handed a sentence not exceeding 10 years. Perhaps, a soft landing for the Ekweremadus will bring respite for them.

All eyes are on the presiding judge, Justice Jeremy Johnson who has reserved the sentencing to a later date. Ekweremadu and his wife have been remanded in custody and await sentencing on May 5.

The ordeal of Senator Ekweremadu and his family should serve as a lesson to all and sundry.

THE Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele may have forgotten that everything in life is ephemeral. While the cashless policy he introduced caused many Nigerians so much hardship, his initial silence over the Supreme Court judgment pitched him against the suffering citizenry.

Even as the controversies rage, Emefiele should be concerned about what people would judge to be his legacy since he assumed office in 2014.

In other climes the CBN governor would have either been told to resign with immediate effect or be suspended over his defiance of the Supreme Court verdict on the controversial cash swap policy.

An eminent professor of law, Itse Sagay (SAN) even echoed that Emefiele should be jailed for contempt of the Supreme Court. He believes spending some time behind bars will make the CBN helmsman realise the enormity of the “merciless pain,” the naira crisis has subjected Nigerians to.

It is no longer news that the scarcity of the new naira notes brought about by the CBN policy has generated tension and visited untold hardship on the masses.

With the catalogue of misgivings highlighted over the naira redesign policy, Nigerians are passing through hell due to the scarcity of the new naira notes and unavailability of the old notes. It has aggravated the cost of living of cash-strapped Nigerians.

Many wondered why Emefiele-led CBN failed to heed the verdict of the Supreme Court which ruled that the old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes should be allowed to co-circulate with the new ones until December 31, but the apex bank was quick to react when over a less-than-palatable newspaper report about the apex bank chief.

Excerpts of the statement which read “… the CBN governor does not take part in politics,” amused many because he had once not only dared the public condemnation of his partisanship, he also went to the High Court, Abuja to file a suit against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, alleging an attempt to disqualify him from the 2023 presidential poll over his rumoured ambition on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). But the court refused his prayers.

The consequences of Emefiele’s political aspirations still ring hard. He brought the CBN under huge reputational risk. No one would forget in a hurry how some groups obtained the N100m APC expression of interest and nomination forms on his behalf. Dozens of vehicles branded with Emefiele’s image were also procured.

Governors Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State; Yahaya Bello of Kogi State; Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State; and Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, among others, had condemned the silence of the President and Emefiele on the Supreme Court judgment.

History can sometimes be cruel or good. It took the Emefiele-led CBN exactly 10 days after the Supreme Court judgement to officially order commercial banks to comply with the court verdict when he learnt some state governments were planning to initiate contempt proceedings against him.

One woul d recall a different kind of silence when he announced the naira policy in October, last year. The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed had told the National Assembly that she was not consulted.

Emefiele’s curious actions since the naira crisis exploded created animosity between the presidency and the camp of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). The governors had openly challenged a critical policy of a Federal Government headed by their party.

Now that the scenes are unfolding, glaringly, the bizarre naira redesign policy appears to be validating those who have argued that it was a subtle move to scuttle the presidential ambition of the party’s candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

Buhari clearly threw Emefiele under the bus when he denied instructing the CBN boss and the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, to defy the Supreme Court order on the naira redesign policy. His statement sounded like an end of romance with the CBN governor.

The president said the apex bank had no reason not to comply with court orders on the excuse of waiting for directives. To observers, the press statement explaining Buhari’s innocence about the disobedience to the Supreme Court judgment appears to be an attempt to absolve itself from the whole drama, and letting one’s self off the hook.

Now, the hunter has become the hunted. Some observers contend that Emefiele, who has been sabre-rattling, is about to be consumed by political intrigues. When the history of his time at the Central Bank would be told the whole naira fiasco which has greviously damaged the economy and devastated trust in the banking system would overshadow all. He would go down as a one-man wrecking ball.

A professor of History and African Diaspora Studies at Florida International University, Saheed Aderinto, is excited yet again after becoming the first Nigerian to receive the $300,000 Dan David Prize.

It is not surprising that one of the trending searches throughout the week was ‘who is Saheed Aderinto?’ The 44-year-old don had become the cynosure of all eyes. It reminds us that every epoch has its defining moment for men and women, who shape history, either for good or for bad.

Unarguably, many Nigerians, just like Aderinto, are breaking grounds and shattering glass ceilings across the world. Nigerians all over the world in different areas are celebrated and valued for the exposure.

Expectedly, Aderinto’s feat earned him a truckload of congratulatory messages. The news about the record-breaking achievement took over social media. It was a pleasant antidote, breath of fresh air and a refreshing departure from the heated political atmosphere.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to congratulate the don, many confused Aderinto’s image and personality with a former Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) of the University of Ibadan, Prof. Abideen Adeyinka Aderinto.

To many academic giants, Aderinto’s achievement didn’t come as a surprise. He has been knocking on the doors of success over the years through hard work due to his consistent pursuit of excellence. This latest feat, the Dan David Prize, is the largest financial reward for excellence in the historical discipline in the world.

The Dan David Prize was founded in 2000 with an endowment by Romanian-born Israeli businessman and philanthropist Dan David. Between 2001 and 2021, it awarded $1 million, each, to three very senior extraordinary humans in science, medicine, public health, politics, economics, art, and literature.

Past recipients include Dr. Anthony Fauci, the public face of the US fight against COVID-19; former American Vice-President Al Gore; and MIT economics professor and Nobel Prize Winner Esther Duflo.

For Aderinto, winning the Dan David Prize could not have come at a better time. It reminded the world of the greatness that is in and of Nigeria, despite the odds. Make no mistake about it, Nigeria has everything it takes to be great and occupy a front-row seat among nations as a world leader.

While the conditions at home may be excruciatingly challenging and overwhelming, Nigerians are still making waves in many areas of human endeavour across different fields, and this should be seen as the start-point of the path to redemption.

Aderinto, born in Ibadan, in 1979, did not stumble on stardom by accident but intricately sketched his way to the top. In 2004, he received his Bachelor’s in History from the University of Ibadan and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas, Austin in 2010.

In the same year, he started his teaching career at Western Carolina University where he became a full Professor of History in 2021. He later moved to Florida International University in 2022.

Not many are aware of Aderinto’s journey to academia. Like the best of his contemporaries – the professor has published 8 books, 37 journal articles and book chapters, 41 encyclopedia articles, and 21 book reviews.

His recent book ‘Animality and Colonial Subjecthood in Africa’ examines the role of animals in Nigerian history. He is also at present writing a book and making a documentary on Fuji music.

The Nigerian-American don is also the founding president of the Lagos Studies Association and a senior research fellow of the French Institute for Research in Africa. Aderinto is a tribute to dogged determination born out of an uncommon conviction.

Aderinto, who lectures at the Florida International University, was one of nine announced as winners of $300,000 each for their contributions to history research.

Announcing the winners, Professor Ariel Porat, President of the Tel Aviv University, and Chairman of the Dan David Prize Board, described the works of the nine recipients as exemplifying outstanding research in history and related fields.

Taking to Facebook to celebrate his win, Aderinto expressed delight in winning what he described as the biggest financial reward for discipline in the history discipline.

“Yes! I just won the largest history prize in the world. It’s $300,000. For me, alone. One lump sum. N220 million, in Nigerian currency

“I have just received the highest financial reward for excellence in the historical discipline, on planet earth. It’s a prize, not a grant. I don’t think there is any history prize worth $100,000 in cash — much less $300,000.

 “While 300k is a lot of money in any strong global currency, the true value of the Dan David Prize is not the cash per se but what it would help me do for my students and mentees, institutions, global infrastructure of knowledge, and communities of practice. Hence, the award is about my scholarly achievement as much as about the people, institutions, and communities I represent.”

Aderinto said the selection committee lauded his work “for situating African history at the cutting edge of diverse literatures in the history of sexuality, nonhumans, and violence, noting that it is exceptional to see a single person leading scholarship in all of these fields”.

Quite apart from the euphoria of having a Nigerian winning this prize, those at the helm of affairs have many great lessons to learn from the episode, especially prioritising the funding of education and research at all levels.

For the authorities, so much could otherwise have been achieved to put the country in much better standing worldwide, but for crass neglect, ineptitude and corruption. This is however, a strong message that they must begin the work of making the country a fertile ground for nurturing more persons with Aderinto’s kind of excellence.

Even as the country celebrates Aderinto, it is not too late to change attitude, use education and research to redefine the country and reverse her declining status in the comity of responsible nations.

There are many Aderinto(s) in Nigeria, but the challenge has always been the country’s inability to put together a system that can nurture their talents and turn them into world class scholars.

Prof. Mahmood Yakubu superintends one of Nigeria’s most talked about institutions, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). As INEC Chairman, he faces an impossible task: to fuse a tumultuous and corrupted electoral culture with the puritan formality of a neutral, ethical oversight. Yakubu was meant to sanitise the country’s corrupt system and the February 25 presidential polls was his litmus test.

But while the exercise has been hailed in several quarters as a dependable foundation for more remarkable poll administration, a motley of aggrieved parties comprising defeated aspirants and their supporters and some foreign media, accuse the Yakubu-led INEC for holding a flawed election.

Amid the barrage of commendation, criticisms, and threats, Yakubu’s calling asserts two big changes in Nigerian politics. The first is a paradigm shift from knee-jerk electoral superintending to a proactive, punctilious, cultured ethic – politics after all, is a social science.

The other big change manifests in the conduct of a technologically-compliant INEC amid unforeseen contingencies; E.g. the procedural shortcomings and resort to manual upload of results to forestall a record 1.2 million attempts by mercenary hackers to hack INEC’s portal and compromise the results of the presidential and legislative elections.

“On the election day alone, we were able to block more than 200 attacks, and the next day, the attacks geometrically increased to about 1.2 million,” said the Managing Director (MD) of Galaxy Backbone (GBB), Muhammad Abubakar. The GBB is the federal government’s information technology and shared services provider.

Thus it may be said that under Yakubu’s leadership, INEC successfully neutered criminal cyber attacks on the commission’s portal.

It’s debatable whether these changes have been good for Nigeria. There’s little doubt, however, that Yakubu has midwifed a remarkable electoral process, albeit suitable and improvable, for keeping Nigeria afloat through the most competitive transitions ever.

Nonetheless, he suffers virulent criticism of his oversight functions as INEC boss. Critics and supporters of the PDP and LP accuse him of rigging the election for All Progressives Congress (APC)’s Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who emerged victorious polling a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat his closest rival, Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 6,984,520 to emerge second. Labour Party’s Peter Obi scored 6,101,533 votes to come third and Rabiu Kwankwaso of New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) scored 1,496,687 to emerge fourth.

Against the backdrop of the criticisms, however, it must be said that there are no perfect elections even in the Western world. The United States, for instance, suffers major challenges in its electoral processes including deepening party polarization over electoral procedures, the vulnerability of electronic records to hacking, and the impact of deregulating campaign spending, compounding the lack of professional standards of electoral management.

There is no gainsaying the 2016 US presidential elections deepened the cracks and hinted at a pervasive problem in the conduct of American elections. Hillary Clinton (Democratic Party) and ex-president Donald Trump (Republican Party) battled through exceptionally bitter primary and general election campaigns polarizing the electorate and generating serious claims of vote rigging, voter suppression, fraud and hacking. The flaws in America’s electoral process have become more apparent over the decades. The contemporary tipping point in public awareness occurred during the 2000 Bush-versus-Gore election count. Several major structural weaknesses, thereafter, exacerbated doubts in the 2016 campaign, thereby worsening party divisions and corroding public trust in America’s electoral process.

Such anomaly has been experienced by some other major democracies of the world. Hence it is mischievous of a few foreign media to cast aspersions on Nigeria’s electoral process while deliberately ignoring the electoral challenges of their homeland.

Since 2019, INEC facilities across the country have been attacked over 50 times while its officials and security personnel have been injured and killed, in some cases, especially in Nigeria’s southeast.

Speaking at the Chatham House, recently, Yakubu stated that “The 2022 attacks constitute the deepest concerns for the Commission…This is so not only because they are increasingly happening closer to the general election, but also because some of them seem to be coordinated.”

But while violence constituted a major challenge to credible elections in this year’s elections, another hindrance manifested in the scarcity of funding generated by the ill-fated currency redesign and naira swap policy initiated by CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, with the backing of the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari. This impoverished the masses and aggravated widespread insecurity as voter divides resorted to extreme violence to register their resentment.

Notwithstanding, Yakubu assured that INEC has put in place measures to ensure safe, free and credible elections. The commission’s deployment of technology to protect its portal and the polling exercise via the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was widely hailed as a visionary step well suited to Nigeria’s clamour for a free and fair election.

But meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) from all over the country in Abuja, following the February 25 presidential polls, Yakubu noyed that, “The issues of logistics, election technology, behaviour of some election personnel at different levels, attitude of some party agents and supporters added to the extremely challenging environment in which elections are usually held in Nigeria.”

Citing that “a lot of lessons have been learnt,” Yakubu stated that INEC will correct its shortcomings en route to the polls for the 28 State governorship seats and the 993 State Houses of Assembly seats.

He said, “On Election Day technology, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) will once again be deployed for voter accreditation and result management. The deployment of BVAS has gone a long way to sanitise voter accreditation as can be seen from the result of recent elections. Since last week, the Commission has intensified the review of the technology to ensure that glitches experienced, particularly with the upload of results are rectified. We are confident that going forward the system will run optimally.”

Such a pledge by the INEC boss should be enough reassurance to stakeholders in the election. As Yakubu leads the charge of administration and supervision of the March 18 gubernatorial and state legislature elections, the onus is on him, no doubt, to guarantee an efficient exercise.