The Nation Newspaper

Tag: defence

  • Buhari’s implausible defence of rule of law

    Buhari’s implausible defence of rule of law

    On the same Tuesday the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, was filing charges against a senator who accused the Inspector General of Police (IGP) of corruption, President Muhammadu Buhari was at a forum in Abuja also propounding interesting theories about the recession that convulsed the country for more than a year, a recession the authorities claimed the country was just overcoming. According to the president who spoke at the opening of the 22nd annual conference of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), “…If our numerous resources were appropriately managed, corruption duly checked, patriotism deeply imbibed in everything we do, the spirit of rule of law was observed, and the citizen’s political freedom was ensured, Nigeria could not have been in recession.” Simply, incredibly great.

    The president was represented by the Accountant General of the Federation, Idris Ahmed. Had the president read the speech himself before the accountants, incredulous reporters would have watched his stresses and facial expression as he pronounces those uplifting phrases. It was natural of him to speak of appropriate application of resources, checking of corruption, and imbibing patriotism. But then he began to delve into strange territories, speaking of concepts and terms he hardly ever emphasised in all his past speeches: of observing the spirit of the rule of law, not just the letter, it seemed, and of, remarkably, ensuring the citizen’s political freedom. It is doubtful whether the president saw the speech before it was read on his behalf. Very doubtful.

    Had he seen the speech and read it, he would have winced that he is being credited with worrying himself over the rule of law, particularly of the spirit of it which is more delicate and more nuanced than the letter. He would have been aghast that he is being credited with professing concerns about the people’s political freedoms. His antecedents, particularly his silences on the controversial concepts, show that he sees both concepts as inconveniences in the battle against corruption, in fact, as obstacles to what he has described as an existential war of survival. As many of his aides have repeatedly said when asked why the president was indifferent to the niceties of the rule of law, “where was the rule of law when the corrupt were indulging their corruption?”

    It is safe to imagine that the president neither saw the speech attributed to him nor read it. But if he saw it and in the unlikely event that he read it, he was probably distracted. Of all the weaknesses the president is accused of, observing the rule of law and protecting the people’s constitutional freedoms are not among them. He is unlikely to enunciate these two concepts anytime soon, or perhaps for the duration of his tenure. He sneers at them, refuses to understand them, and will not be incommoded by them in his messianic, ‘salutary’ fights to sanitise the country. He should, however, pay attention to speeches read on his behalf in order not to be accused of mouthing words and ideas that contradict his person and belief.

  • In defence of Operation Python Dance

    Many well-meaning Nigerians who are genuinely concerned about the survival of our nation are pained that President Muhammadu Buhari and his bungling APC, after mouthing restructuring and government of change to secure our votes   are set to fritter away an historic opportunity  to resolve  the national question that has haunted our nation since the derailment of our federal arrangement by the military following its infiltration by Igbo and Fulani politicians fighting for the soul of Nigeria shortly after independence.   But it will amount to intellectual deceit to equate this with the resolve of South-east’s defeated PDP politicians and their IPOB surrogates or those the Minister of Information calls “coalition of the politically disgruntled and the treasury looters” to make the nation ungovernable in order to protect the disproportionate share of our nation’s wealth, they illegally  confiscated.

    Were the current war about restructuring or marginalization, the disgruntled groups now fomenting  trouble had  had 14 years  to join hands with their Yoruba compatriots who have been at the vanguard of  restructuring since 1993 following the annulment of MKO Abiola’s pan-Nigeria mandate. A greater opportunity came six years before Buhari’s presidency during which time Igbo- dominated Jonathan Presidency ate with their 10 fingers. And even if it is agreed the current struggle is about restructuring, how is that advanced by a relentless attack on the person of President Buhari?

    Unfortunately, critics of Operation Python Dance, have by their own level of assault on the person President Buhari on the pages of newspapers and in the social media tried to outdo the misguided Igbo youths that Joe Igbokwe describes as “association of hate preachers and wailing bigots who see nothing good in Buhari”.

    First, they claim Operation Python Dance was antithetical to democracy  without pointing out that our own brand of democracy  already under a siege  by a self-serving legislature, a judiciary whose leadership is undergoing  inquisition for corruption and the two dominant political parties, PDP and APC, lacking in ideological distinction, is already on trial since  democracy cannot thrive with sick institutions.

    Some even said Operation Python Dance was motivated by Buhari’s hatred for the Igbos.  How can it be otherwise when President Buhari left out Igbo office seekers while ceding key positions in his cabinet to his Daura village school mates who many believe are now holding him hostage, they reasoned?  They however forgot that not long ago, there was  a President Azikiwe Jonathan  who ceded over 60% of key positions to his South-south and South-east supporters, 30% to the north and less than 10% to the South-west only to complain later that he was caged during his presidency. Hawkers of Buhari’s anti-Igbo sentiments also forgot to remind Nigerians that in his last two unsuccessful outings as presidential candidate, Buhari bypassed other ethnic groups to pick Igbo vice presidential candidates.

    With Fulani herdsmen’s mindless killings across the country, how has Operation Python Dance in the embattled South-east become a priority – others critics want to know?

    As a self-admitted absentee Fulani herdsman with 500 herds of cow, he could not but be sympathetic to the herdsmen’s plight, others explained. The problem is that if critics conveniently forgot Buhari’s order that Fulani herdsmen caught in action rampaging other people communities  be shot on sight, they are not likely going to remember how even an inattentive Governor Fayose of Ekiti found a final solution to  the Fulani nuisance and menace.

    And finally, critics, especially those who Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said hardly notice differences of ethnicity and religion when looting our resources, questioned the President’s motive for resorting to use of a military whose leadership is tilted towards the North and Islam. I think it can be said that while the military still carry the scar of infiltration by Igbo and Fulani politicians in the first republic and in the years they lord it over Nigeria, the military as custodian of our constitution, remains our only hope and the last place of refuge when our survival as a nation is threatened. The military, after all owns the state.

    President Buhari deserves commendation for Operation Python Dance.  It is a disservice to Nigerians that critics have not weighed the consequences of the last two years of relentless attack by Igbo misguided youths on someone who enjoys a cult-like following in the north. As Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, my former teacher and former foreign affairs minister put it last Sunday, ‘An average person on the northern streets believes in Buhari. He stands now in the kind of position that the late Sardauna stood in the sixties’. Tragically, Kanu’s madness and the intemperate language of his supporters can only be compared with the pre-coup years of 1963 and 64 when Zik’s West African Pilot and the Nigerian Citizen tried to outdo each other in name-calling and hate messages.

    Operation Python Dance, I believe has saved the South-east from itself. Sixty percent Igbo live in other peoples land far away from their ancestral home. Governor Okezie Ikpeazu who last week claimed “God averted the greatest bloodbath in history” put the figures of Igbo in the north as 12million. According to Nasir el Rufai, the Governor of Kaduna State, Igbo occupied a land area larger than all the south-eastern states put together. The Igbo put the figure of their investments in the north at N44 trillion.  Kanu and his group are knowledgeable; the problem is that they lack wisdom… As clear headed Joe Igbokwe put it even before Kanu became law on to himself, “ethnic bigotry and hate speeches our people both at home and abroad dish out every day endanger our people living in all parts of Nigeria”.

    But beyond hate speeches and the ranting of a demented mind, Kanu has gone beyond the cliff by threatening to plunge the nation into a second civil war.  It is on record that  Kanu at the 2015 world Igbo Congress  in Los Angeles, said  “we need gun and we need bullets to fight the Zoo government in Nigeria”. There are also clips of Kanu’s hosting of Abdulkadir Erkahraman , who was said to be a Turkish diplomat  in his home town  Isiama Afara  Umuahia  where he was reported to have said: “The Turkish citizen visit  was in line with IPOB plan to solidify the actualization of Biafra”.  Since that boasting, 22,000 pieces of pump action rifles in three consignments have been seized by customs in Tin Can Island Ports, Lagos, all shipped from Turkey – a case of the witch cried yesterday and the child died this morning.

    While critics of Operation Python Dance who seems to weep louder than the bereaved keep calling Buhari names, however, relieved elected representatives of the people of the South-east have found their voices. As soon as Kanu crawled into a hole at the approach of Operation Python Dance.

    Governor Umahi of Ebonyi State issued a statement saying: “All activities of IPOB are, hereby, proscribed. IPOB and all other aggrieved groups are advised to articulate their position on all national issues to be submitted to the committee of governors, Ohaneze Ndi Igbo and National Assembly members from the South East zone through the chairman of the South East Governors’ Forum,” adding that the forum believed in the unity and indivisibility of the country and reinforced their desire for the restructuring of the country.

    Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State followed with his own statement  urging the federal government and citizens to treat the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu  as an individual whose views do not represent those of the generality of Igbo, adding no reasonable Igbo man ‘would support secession or division of the country”.

  • Boko Haram: We need injection of fresh ideas in the military –Minister

    Boko Haram: We need injection of fresh ideas in the military –Minister

    A fresh injection of new ideas and strategy is needed in the Nigerian Armed Forces in order to fully win the war on terrorism in the northeast and defeat other acts of criminalities in troubled areas of the country, Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali has said.
    The Minister, who spoke at the maiden graduation ceremony of Air War Course 1 of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Air War College in Makurdi said the threat of terrorism and insurgency demands new skills in the development of a new containment measure.
    Represented by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Abayomi Olonishakin, the minister said the injection of new ideas and strategy has been a priority for the three Services as it is the only way to effectively defeat terrorism in the country.
    He praised the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) for the establishment of the Air War College and successfully graduating its first set of students six months after the establishment.
    He said the NAF has played a critical role not only in defending the territorial integrity of the country but also playing crucial roles in maintaining internal security.
    Dan-Ali said: “The Air War College came on board at a challenging time of our national security when we are battling a myriad of internal security issues particularly terrorism by the Boko Haram set in the northeast. The threat posed by the insurgents has impacted negatively on human capital and resources of the nation.
    “As the Air arm of the armed forces, the NAF has been playing crucial role in the counterinsurgency operations in the northeast where our officers, airmen and women have performed gallantly. We are proud that in less than two years, we have revitalized the armed forces for the full restoration of Nigeria’s territorial integrity that was once violated by Boko Haram insurgents.”

  • In defence – and clarification – of comparing Nigeria with the United States (2)

    In defence – and clarification – of comparing Nigeria with the United States (2)

    Let the eagle perch and let the kite perch; whoever says the other should not perch, may its beak break!
    Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

    Two weeks ago in this column, I wrote the first of the two-part series of which this week’s piece is the concluding essay. Last week, the column was devoted to a tribute to my friend, Dr, Yemi Ogunbiyi, for his 70th birthday anniversary. Because a tribute is only really worthwhile when it is made at the appropriate time, last week I had to interrupt this series on comparisons between America and Nigeria. Now in returning to the series after the tribute to Dr. Ogunbiyi, I find it fortuitous that an untold part of my friendship with Yemi provides a very useful point of entry into this second and concluding installment on the series begun two weeks ago. Why is this so?

    Well, as I promised in my concluding paragraph in that first essay in this series two weeks ago, my comparison in this concluding piece will shift to the field of higher learning in the tertiary educational system of Nigeria and America respectively. Now it so happens that after our undergraduate education at the University of Ibadan, (UI) Dr. Ogunbiyi and I had our postgraduate education in the US, in New York University (NYU) to be precise. I wish to start my observations and reflections in this piece on insights derived from that experience of Dr. Ogunbiyi and myself in which for us, higher learning in America came after the foundation laid by our education at UI. What exactly do I have in mind in making this observation?

    In response to that question, I wish to say, unequivocally, that the foundation of and for higher learning that Yemi and I had received at UI was so solid that it consistently astonished our professors and mentors at NYU. This is not a boast, it is a statement of fact which, by the way, applied to all the graduates of the so-called first-generation universities in Nigeria that went abroad for advanced doctoral and postdoctoral studies, especially in America. Thus, if I speak specifically about the experience of myself and my friend at NYU, it is only because I wish to make use of the unassailable value of personal, biographical experience. This is why I wish to place the highest emphasis possible on the fact that at NYU, our professors were astonished by the fact that, (a) Yemi and I were much better prepared for the challenges and rigor of doctoral studies than most our American course mates that had had their undergraduate education in the US and, (b) by the fact that we finished our studies and got our Ph D’s in record time, long before the average time that it takes to do all the necessary course work and write and defend your doctoral dissertation. Again, let me repeat: this experience was not peculiar to Yemi and I; it was common to most of the members of our generational cohort that went to America for higher learning armed with the tremendous advantage provided by the solid foundations of the undergraduate education that we had received at UI. Today, slightly more than a half century later, it saddens me immensely that deep, tectonic crises are rocking the foundations of higher learning in both Nigeria and the US and things are far from what they were then in both Nigerian and American higher education. This is the central issue that I wish to address in this concluding piece to the series begun two weeks ago in this column. What are the manifestations of these crises and how do they differentially but also similarly affect higher education in Nigeria and the US respectively?

    At this point in the discussion, permit me to pause briefly to reflect on exactly what I mean – and do not mean – by the phrase, the term “higher learning”. In essence, it is not the certificatethat you are given with the successful completion of your studies. Neither is it the elaborate ceremonies arranged to formally mark that act of certification. I make these observations because, rather intriguingly, Nigerians and Americans love certification and graduation or “commencement” ceremonies endlessly, perhaps more than any other nations in the world. I swear that in the last three and half decades when I have been going back and forth between Nigeria and the US, nothing else has struck me as so similar, so identical in the folkways of both countries than this love of certification and graduation ceremonies! But anyone who has ever had anything to do with teaching and mentoring students in institutions of higher learning knows that the “real thing” lies elsewhere and not in mere certification, not in festive ceremoniesin which political, economic and social dignitaries converge with the graduating students and their families in rituals that are so surreal, so spectacular that they often seem to be taking place in film, in a Hollywood high melodrama!

    I do not wish to argue that higher learning does not take place, or cannot take place side by side with certification and the surreal ceremonies of “commencement” or graduation. My point is that higher learning, when it is actually taking place, when it is protected and assured by vast financial and infrastructural investments and the dedicated work of teachers and mentors, higher learning is one the greatest means of the reproduction of intellectual and cultural capital from generation to generation. Let me state this in as simple and uncomplicated a manner as possible: in and through higher learning, the high-level mental and professional skills and capacities that every single society in contemporary global civilization needs to survive are safeguarded from deterioration and attrition. And there is also this important thing about higher learning, distinct from though related to the needs of reproduction of intellectual and cultural capital: it develops and nurtures critical thinking as an inestimable end in itself. As a teacher in institutions of higher learning all my adult life, I testify that this is perhaps the greatest professional satisfaction that one gets as a mentor: young, fledgling students take up hints and suggestions that you give them; and they take these hints and suggestions much farther than you had yourself thought…

    Let us stay with the issue of the social reproduction of intellectual and cultural capital. Perhaps after my coming retirement, in a memoir about my experience as a teacher, I shall reflect on the finer points of the cultivation of critical thinking through higher learning. For now, and in the context of the present discussion, my focus is on how certification and the ceremonialization of being or becoming certified as graduates have brought unprecedented crises to higher learning in Nigeria and America. The crises have different expressions and consequences in each of the two countries, but so also do they have surprising similarities. In what follows, I will first deal with the similarities before concluding the discussion with reflections on the huge and instructive differences.

    In America, it is called the “corporatization” of the university. Simply stated, this means, as the term implies, that all universities in America, public and private, are more and more run exactly like business corporations are run. The fees are getting astronomical, causing students from poor backgrounds to get into huge debts in order to get university education; administrators are getting much higher salaries and emoluments and are becoming more influential, more decisive than academics in running the affairs of colleges and universities; and students and their parents are behaving like consumers who must get their money’s worth in their dealings with their teachers and professors. In Nigeria, in slightly different circumstances, the same basic processes are taking place in our tertiary educational institutions. As federal and state funding for public universities and polytechnics get into a freefall with no bottom in sight, private universities that charge astronomical fees are increasing exponentially, to the point where they now vastly outnumber the state-financed public universities. As a consequence of these developments in higher education in Nigeria and America, university education is more and more tied to certification as the visible, tangible index of the exchange value of what has been learnt in the marketplace of economic and commercial transactions. To emphasize my sense of how very similar these developments are in Nigeria and America, let me reveal here how much I have been struck with how greatly diplomas or certificates – the document, the paper –  are cherished in the two countries. It is as if both what you now “know” as a graduate, what you can provide potential employers and the world as the end product of your university education is somehow fetishized in your certificate.

    There are many books, monographs and documentary films on the current dire consequences and equally troubling future prospects of these developments in American higher education. Two of my personal favorites in the vast body of print, electronic and digital materials on the subject are the book, The University in Ruin, by the late Bill Readings and the stunning documentary, “Ivory Tower” by Andrew Rossi. There are tens of scholarly articles and dozens of journalistic writings on the Nigerian version of the same crisis in our educational system, but we have nothing approaching the seriousness and the concern with which the Americans are engaging the crises in their own tertiary educational system. This, for me, is symptomatic of the chasm that separates how the two countries, especially scions of their respective national intelligentsia, are approaching crises that have similar roots in the capitalist organization of higher learning on a global scale in the new millennium.

    I could write a whole monograph, or even a book-length study on these differences between how the Americans are dealing with their own crises of higher education and how we in Nigeria are barely doing anything significant about it. One main and quite telling difference is that the American educational, economic and social elites are confronting the crises head on, with a view to saving what they can from the seemingly unstoppable march of “corporatization”. Mighty struggles are being waged against the astronomical rises in fees, and against the takeover of the running of the universities by administrators whose first, second and third loyalty is to the profit margin and the satisfaction of students and their parents as “consumers”. In all of these instances, you get a distinct feeling that the liberal and progressive elite in America knows, remembers and wants to preserve and even expand what was and is good in their country’s system of higher learning. By contrast, this element seems to be completely missing in Nigeria. I have said that when Dr. Ogunbiyi and I went to NYU for graduate studies in the early 1979s, we had the solid foundation of the education we had received at UI as a bulwark for the challenges we faced in America. What are we, the educational elites in Nigeria, doing to salvage and reproduce what remains of that solid foundation for higher education?  With the exception of small pockets of concern and protest by an organization like ASUUand a stellar educationist like Pai Obanya, there is deafening silence where there should be loud and unrelenting outcry over the slow death, the withering away of higher learning in our country.

    Above all else is the bankruptcy and hypocrisy of our economic elites. They are forever complaining that mere and empty certification has replaced true, useful and employable education in our universities. They say for everyone to hear that the graduates being produced in our tertiary educational institutions are so mediocre, so bad that most of them are “unemployable”. But they do absolutely nothing to respond to the crisis. In fact, many of them, as chairmen and members of the governing councils of the public universities, participate in the brazen looting of the meager funding provided by the state for the same universities that our economic and political elites lavishly pour scorn upon.

    Why are the economic elites, the capitalist class in America deeply concerned about the crises of higher learning in their country while the same class in Nigeria couldn’t care less? That is the question, compatriots!

    • Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

     

  • Bamaiyi’s lies: In defence of Osinbajo and Justice Ade Alabi

    Savouring his court-ordered freedom after spending about eight years at Kirikiri prison, Lagos for alleged complicity in the attempted assassination of Alex Ibru, then publisher of Guardian newspaper, a former Chief of Army Staff, Lt- General Ishaya Bamaiyi, has come out with his book.

    The book, titled “Vindication of a General” ought to have been aptly titled “Lies of a General”.

    The book, which purports to be his own story, detailing his travails during his trial, is unfortunately riddled with falsehood and gross misrepresentation of facts as far as the incident regarding his false allegation against the first presiding judge, Ade Alabi was concerned.

    Bamaiyi was charged along with Major Hamza, Al-Mustapha, former Lagos police Commissioner, James Danbaba, CSP Rabo Lawal and Col. Baba Yakubu, over the attempted murder of Mr Ibru.

    As the trial got underway, the defendants tried all tricks in the book to delay and scuttle their trial and one of the strategies was to accuse the presiding Judge, who incidentally was the Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Ade Alabi, of demanding a bribe of $10 million (not N10 million as stated by Bamaiyi in his book), to enable him grant bail to the defendants.

    First, the defendants made the allegation in the open court, ostensibly to annoy the judge and eventually to get the case transfered to another judge who would then start the case de novo.

    The case was being prosecuted by the Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, who was ostensibly incensed over this spurious allegation.

    The defendants, thereafter petitioned the National Judicial Council (NJC) which investigated the allegation and exculpated the judge, having found that the allegation was spurious and baseless.

    To underline his ignorance, Bamaiyi, in trying to pooh-pooh the NJC’s investigation, claimed in his book that the judge “refused to enter the dock” during the investigation. If the retired General had availed knowledgeable people, versed in law the privilege of going through his poorly written manuscript, they would have told him that NJC administrative panel is not a criminal court where a defendant facing criminal charges enters the dock. They would also have advised him against the defamatory statements he made in the book concerning the judge and Osinbajo.

    According to Bamaiyi, “Specifically, that prof. Osinbajo brought what he said was the panel report during one of the motions. Unfortunately, pages one through to twenty-nine of the report were not produced”. He went on to allege that the NJC protected the judge, while he similarly alleged that Osinbajo and the presiding judge were invited to Abuja and directed to convict the defendants within six months. He went on with his cocktail of lies of how the judge allegedly demanded a bribe of N10 million.

    As someone who was a witness during the trial and conversant with the facts, l say without any equivocation that nothing could have been farther from the truth.

    Bamaiyi should have known the additional steps taken by his lawyer, Mike Okoye during the trial, in repeating this allegation of bribery and how he recanted and apologised to the judge.

    Mike Okoye had addressed a press conference, where he repeated the allegation of Bamaiyi but in his own case, he alleged it was $10million and not N10 million as stated by Bamaiyi. These spurious allegations were published by the press and Mr Okoye was subsequently charged to court for criminal contempt.

    He was charged before Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour (now Justice of the Supreme court).

    In court, Okoye recanted and apologised to the judge.

    Below is the full text of the ruling by Justice Bode Rhodes- Vivour in the Mike Okoye Contempt case.

    In the High Court of Lagos state

    Holden in the General Division, Lagos

    On Friday 8th Day of March, 2002

    Before the Hon. Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour

    Suit No.LCD/9/2002

    Between The State

    And

    Mike Okoye

     

    RULING

    Mr. Mike Okoye, a legal practitioner was charged on an information with the following offences:-

    Count 1

    Statement of Offence

    Contempt of Court Contrary to section 133 (4) of the

    Criminal Code Cap 32 Vol.2 Laws of Lagos State 1994.

    Particulars of Offence

    Mike Okoye (M) on or about the first day of January 2002 at Lagos in the Lagos Judicial Division did cause the scandalizing of the court with utterances and statements spoken and made in news item  of “THISDAY” Newpaper of 7/1/2002 and concerning the Honourable Mr Justice A. Ade Alabi in the public capacity, to wit, qua the presiding trial judge seized  of the conduct of charge No. LCD/108/99: The State vs. Lt. Gen. R. Ishaya  Bamaiyi and 4 others.

    Count 2

    Statement of offence

    Contempt of court contrary to section133 (4) of the Criminal Code Cap 32 Vol. 2 Laws of Lagos State 1994.             Particular of Offence:

    Mike Okoye (M) on or about the 4th  day of     January 2002 at Lagos state in the Lagos Judicial Division, did cause the scandalizing of the court with utterances and statements spoken, published and made in a news item on the back page of  Daily Times newspaper of 7/1/2002 and concerning the Honorable Mr. Justice A. Alabi  in his public capacity to wit, qua the presiding trial Judge seized of the conduct of the charge number LCD/108/99: The State vs Lt. Gen R. Ishaya Bamaiyi and 4 others.

    He pleaded not guilty to both counts , and immediately proceeded to read out a prepared text to the court. The operative part reads thus:

    “I apologize to the Bench and the Hon. Justice Ade Alabi for any injury he may have suffered from his unwarranted and unnecessary publications. I am aware that the publication has the effect of bringing to disrepute, office, integrity and position of Hon. Justice Alabi but l would want to disabuse the minds of the public of this impression and state that these allegations of corruption leveled against Hon. Justice Ade Alabi are not true to the best of my knowledge”.

    Thereafter, the Lagos State Solicitor General applied to withdraw the charge on behalf of the Hon. Attorney General and the Commissioner of Justice. This is what he had to say:”I wish the  court understands the attitude of Office of the Attorney-General to prosecute or otherwise. Because Mr. Okoye has apologized and because more fundamentally, he has admitted that the allegations are not true, it is our view that the mischief/damage which this proceedings were filed to correct, to wit: maintenance of the institution and it’s officers,  I would, considering the plea of the accused person, be willing on behalf of the Attorney-General to withdraw the charge.”

    After listening to

    1. Mr. Femi Falana,  counsel for Mr. Mike Okoye
    2. Mr T.E.Williams representing Chief F.R.A Williams
    3. Mr Dabiri, Chairman, Nigeria Bar Association, Lagos Branch
    4. Mr. L.Yusuf, Chairman, Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja Branch

    5.Mr O.O. Salu, representing  Mrs. Ayo Obe of the Civil Liberties Orgnisation.

    I adjourned this suit till today. I adjourned for a ruling and not to seek appropriate directives as reported in the Guardian Newspaper of 2/3/2002. See proceedings of 1/3/2002.

    It is about time that when a reporter is not clear as to what a judge said, he would do well to seek an explanation from  the registrar  of court, rather than credit the judge with what was never said.

    The Honorable Justice Ade Alabi is the trial judge in suit  No.LCD/108/99.  The accused persons are Lt. General Bamaiyi, the former Chief of Army Staff, Major H. Al- Mustapha, Chief Security Officer to the former military

    Head of state,  Rabo lawal, a Chief Superintendent of police, Mr  James Danbaba,  a one time Lagos  Commissioner of police and Col. T. Baba Yakubu, ex-administrator  of Zamfara State. They are charged with attempting to kill the Guardian Publisher, Mr. Alex Ibru.

    During the trial, which is still in progress, Major Al-Mustapha accused the trial judge of demanding bribes from him. Mr. Mike Okoye who at the time represented one of the accused persons, held a press conference and told newsmen that he could prove the trial judge demanded for $10 million from the accused person. The Daily Times and THISDAY Newspapers of Monday 7th day of January 2002, gave wide coverage to Mr. Okoye’s wild, unguarded and unfounded statements which to me, amount to the most despicable assault on the Bench. Mr. Mike Okoye’s conduct constitutes an intolerable attack on the Bench and the well being of society. A crime of monumental proportions. Such dare devilry must be checked, otherwise the foundations of the judiciary may very well crumble.

    The Honourable Attorney-General quickly rose to the occasion, filing this information.

    One can imagine the days, weeks of grinding hell, an awful strain these unguarded and untrue accusations caused his Lordship , a judge  no doubt with transparent integrity and manifest probity, whose tireless energy and unquenchable enthusiasm are too clear for all to see.

    Okoye said openly in court that his statement with the press are not true. The need to proceed with a trial with be pointless since the statement fundamentally addresses the issue and the trial will not do the same.

    It is not the practice of courts to question the Attorney-General when he decides to withdraw a charge . He can not be questioned by anyone and owes no one an explanation for prosecuting or deciding against prosecution.It is clear that the offensive publications were given very wide coverage by the press and other electronic devices.

    Petitions were addressed to the Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary, accusing the highly respected Jurist of taking bribes. It becomes imperative that a retraction is given similar wide publication.

    1. Mr Okoye shall cause to be published, the entire statement he made to this  court on 1/3/2002 in the following Newspapers:

    (a)    The Daily Times

    (b)    THISDAY

    (c)    The punch

    (d)    The Guardian and

    (e)    THE Tribune

    1.   This ruling and the proceedings in the suit shall be forwarded to

    (a)The  Body of Benchers

    (b)The Privileges  Committee and the

    (c)And the Disciplinary Committee of the Bar.

    1. The matter would be further adjourned to Friday, the 15th day of March  2002,  for compliance.
    2. Rhodes-Vivour

    Judge

    8/3/ 2002

    Appearance

    Mrs. B.B. Ayodele,  T.K. Shitta-Bey with her for Lagos state;

    O.Okorojie, I. Okoli, L. Okoroafor, A. Ebohon with him holding F. Falana’s

    Brief for the accused person;

    T.E. Williams, M. Giwa Amu with him for Chief F.R.A.

    Williams SAN as friend of the court

    Bode Kowe holds brief of L. Yusuf, friend of the court.

    B.Rhodes-Vivour. J

    Based on this ruling, it would amount to sheer mischief for General Bamaiyi to make such defamatory statements against Hon. Justice Ade Alabi and Prof. Osinbajo on the so-called bribery.

    Instead of belching out despicable lies against innocent people, Bamaiyi should rather use this time of respite for sober reflection on the controversial roles he played during the General Sani Abacha junta.

    More importantly, it would also be interesting for the former Chief of Army Staff to explain how he came about the $4.8million dollars that was swindled off him while in Kirikiri prison, Lagos, for which Fred Ajudua is currently standing trial.

    Ajudua, has been charged to an Ikeja High court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly defrauding Bamaiyi of $4.8 million, having approached the former Army Chief while at Kirikiri prison that he could help him secure his freedom.

    Already, a court registrar, Ronke Rosulu, an alleged accomplice of Ajudua in the fraud saga, is currently serving a 10 – year imprisonment, having been convicted by Justice Lateef Lawal -Akapo over her role in the fraud saga.

    It may be necessary for the EFCC to ask Bamaiyi to come and explain how he came about such amount of money, even during his incarceration.

    • Akinnola is the Director, Media Law Centre
  • Defence gets new spokesman

    Defence gets new spokesman

    Nigeria’s Defence Headquarters  has a new spokesman, Major General John Enenche.

    He replaced Brigadier General Rabe Abubakar who is now the Director of Information Management in the Department of Civil Military Affairs, Army Headquarters.

    Until his appointment as the new Defence Spokesman, Major General Enenche was the Defence Liaison Officer at the Defence Headquarters.

    He has since taken over with effect from 6 March 2017.

  • Alleged N1.64b fraud: Court insists Nyame must enter defence

    Alleged N1.64b fraud: Court insists Nyame must enter defence

    •No-case submission dismissed

    Ex-Taraba State Governor Jolly Nyame yesterday suffered defeat in his trial for fraud.
    A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Gudu, Abuja, dismissed his no-case submission and ordered him to enter his defence.
    Nyame is being tried on a 41-count charge for allegedly misappropriating N1.64billion belonging to Taraba State. On November 22 last year, the prosecution lawyer, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), announced the closure of the prosecution’s case after calling 14 witnesses.
    Rather than call witnesses, Nyame, represented by Charles Edosomwan (SAN), made a no-case submission, arguing among others, that the prosecution failed in linking him with committing the offences alleged.
    He urged the court to hold that the testimony of prosecution witnesses had been damaged and could not be relied on, adding that crucial elements were missing.
    Nyame asked that the court dismiss the charge, discharge and acquit him on the strength of the alleged inability of the prosecution to prove its case.
    Justice Bukola Banjoko dismissed Nyame’s no-case submission on the ground that the prosecution established a prima facie case against him, requiring the defendant to be called upon to enter his defence.
    The judge said a prima facie case implies a ground for proceeding.
    She added that it did not require proof beyond every reasonable doubt, as is required to find a defendant guilty or not.
    Justice Banjoko said in determining whether a prima facie case is made, the court is required to determine whether the prosecution has made some case requiring clarification from the defendant, no matter how slight.
    “In relation to this court, having had a close look at the evidence and exhibits, I hold that this case requires him to provide information and give explanation with regards to evidence presented by the prosecution. So he is ordered to enter into his defence in the interest of justice,” she said.
    The judge adjourned till March 8 for Nyame to open his defence.

  • In defence of Ibori and Niger Delta

    James Ibori, celebrated at home by his people but haunted into prison by his Nigerian and foreign detractors, is unarguably a Niger Delta hero. Jailed by Southwark Crown court  on April 17, 2012 for 13 years after he ‘pleaded guilty to 10 counts of money laundering and stealing $50m from the Delta State treasury’, he was released from prison last week. For turning out in their thousands across Niger Delta region to celebrate his release, the good people of Niger Delta have gone through severe stress and strain.  Professional mourners who weep louder than the bereaved have continued to libel, malign and vilify Ibori’s Niger Delta compatriots. Critics have not been restrained by the Delta State government official statement that acknowledged Ibori as the political leader of the people of Niger Delta. Speaking on behalf of the government, the Commissioner for Information, Patrick Ukah, stated unequivocally, “We are all very happy that our son, our brother, former governor has been released. … As a state, we don’t have issues with our former governor.”  “Ibori remains our political messiah”, added Chief Robert Eyaufe, One of Ibori’s classmates in secondary school,

    Neither have they been restrained by the intervention of Senator Peter Nwabaoshi (PDP, Delta North) who flew to London to pass a vote of confidence on James Ibori as ‘a good man’. According to him, “There may never be a governor in Nigeria who will sit in the cell or prison and make a governor; make a senator, support the Senate President, and make his daughter a member of the House of Assembly… and make a Speaker (of the House of Representatives).

    Rather than be humbled by this level of support, what we got was a cheeky remark by Debo Adeniran, the executive chairman, Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, that “Ibori has become a king in a community of thieves”, adding that   “demonstration and celebration of Ibori’s release  is a demonstration that crime is a cultural act in that community”. He was joined by Olanrewaju Suraj of Civil Society Network against Corruption, who also says that ‘Ibori’s conviction cannot be said to be politically motivated because it was not carried out by Nigerian courts but by courts of international jurisdiction.’ If you ask me, I will say such statement is in itself politically motivated. Who but the victim is in a better position to determine a politically motivated conviction? Suraj instead of stopping at that went on to add that ‘the majority of the people there (Niger Delta) don’t see their so-called own people as the enemies of the progress of the region”. The verdict of those who voted for him twice and declared him ‘political leader and a messiah’ after serving prison term for the theft of their funds should in my view carry more weight.

    I think what can be said of the Niger Delta region is that it is a land of two extremes where the poor and disadvantaged suffer persecution complex while the privileged who Ken Saro-Wiwa christened “vultures”, that live on the blood of their poor”, suffer from entitlement complex. To the former, outsiders are the villains while those live by swearing in their names, are the heroes. This perhaps explains why Ibori’s other Niger Delta leaders were no less loved.

    Navy Commander Alfred Diette Spiff, governor of River from May 1967 to 1975, who could not pay River State teachers’ salaries as at when due was found to be cruising on the high seas in his private ship on the night of Murtala Muhammed’s coup against Gowon in 1975. Following the probe of Gowon’s military administrators, Diette Spiff lost a rank, his ship and some 16 properties in choice areas of Port Harcourt. His people’s faith in his leadership remained unshaken. They went on to crown him the ‘Amanyanabo Twon’ of Brass in Bayelsa. Peter Odili was governor of Rivers 1999-2007. He was accused by EFCC of diverting N100b states fund for personal use at the end of his tenure. He however secured Justice Ibrahim Buba’s perpetual injunction against trial, an injunction recently described by Presidential Advisory Committee on Corruption (PACAC) that has gone on to recommend his retrial by EFCC, as ’odious, perverted and irresponsible’. Odili, highly respected by the dreadful Niger Delta militants was the kingmaker of all his successor governors including Wike who recently acknowledged his contribution during a church thanksgiving service to his emergence as governor of Rivers. We had the late Diepreye Almieyeseigha, governor of Bayelsa 199-2007. He was first arrested in London in 2005 for stealing the resources of his people to buy four houses worth about 10 million pounds in London and for keeping one million pounds cash at his London home and about two million pounds in his bank account. After jumping bail to escape to Nigeria, he was accused by EFCC of spending his people’s funds to buy $401,913 house in Massachusetts and another $600,000 house in Rockville Maryland USA. EFCC got him indicted through the courts but received presidential amnesty from President Jonathan, another illustrious son of Niger Delta in 2013. Lucky Igbinedion was governor of Edo 1999-2007. He was found guilty of embezzling $24m and was ordered by Justice Abdulahi Kafarati of Federal High Court Enugu to pay a fine of N3m. His indictment had little effect on his popularity among his people. Despite the decay and collapse infrastructure he left behind at the end of his tenure, the candidate he openly supported and promoted in the recent governorship election in Edo State scored about 250,000 votes to the 290,000 of Obaseki, the candidate of Oshiomhole generally praised for his outstanding performance compared only to the Ogbemudia magic era of the 70s.  And finally was Ibori for whom the drums are being rolled out after successfully serving a prison term for stealing $50m from the Delta state treasury.

    Add to the above the declaration of President Jonathan the most successful Niger Delta politician of this century that ‘stealing is not corruption’; we begin to see a trend. It is not an accident that women from Niger Delta along with some 23 different groups from the area have been demonstrating in Lagos and Abuja in solidarity with Mrs. Patience Jonathan who without shame belatedly laid claim to some fictitious accounts to which EFCC had traced some of the ‘Dazukigate’ slush funds.

    And finally, we cannot vilify groups within a federal set up, if they choose to celebrate their culture without apologies. The British we have blamed for our woes for 50 years warned us that as a multi-ethnic society where different groups are at different levels of cultural development, the federating units must run a government based on the culture and creativity of their forebears. Our ill-equipped military for selfish reasons turned our country into a ‘unitary federalism’ creating in the process more divisions. What is going on in the Niger Delta region is not different from what obtains in even advanced cultures of the Western societies where the privileged elite exploit the underprivileged. The difference is only in paradigm change from the law of nature which is the survival of the fittest.

    With a federal arrangement based on consensus of federating ethnic groups, political elite that choose to retain the strategy deployed by the Fulani invaders of the Hausa states after 1804 and those who believe it is in their enlightened self-interest to advance to the one Awo and his new emergent political elite adopted to transform their agrarian Yoruba society between 1952 and 1959 will be at liberty to do so.

  • Rangers begin title defence against Abia Warriors

    Nigeria champions Enugu Rangers will begin their title defence at home against regional rivals Abia Warriors on the opening day of the new season.

    However, the date for the big kick-off is yet to be announced.

    In other matches, Enyimba take on Sunshine Stars, MFM are home to Niger Tornadoes, Kano Pillars face FC IfeanyiUbah, 3SC welcome Lobi Stars and Wikki battle Nasarawa United.

    In other opening day clashes, Akwa United  will be away to ABS, Rivers United face El Kanemi in Port Harcourt, Katsina are home to another promoted club Gombe United and new boys Remo Stars battle Plateau United.

    Four clubs have been promoted to the top flight – Remo Stars, ABS FC, Gombe United and Katsina United.

    Rangers were champions last season with Rivers United finishing as runners-up.

    Both teams will represent Nigeria in next year’s CAF Champions League.

    Wikki Tourists placed third and will feature in the 2017 CAF Confederation Cup.

  • ‘Copy Lagos’ public defence service’

    The United States Ambassador to Nigeria Stuart Symington has recommended the Lagos State Office of the Public Defender (OPD) as a model for other states seeking to provide free legal services to the indigent.

    He spoke last weekend at the Trial Advocacy Training for state counsel organised by the OPD in collaboration with US-based National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) and Lawyers Without Borders.

    Symington, who was represented by the embassy’s Director of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Rosalyn Wiese, said he appreciated “the wonderful work being done at the OPD.”

    “It is exciting to witness this productive and mutually beneficial partnership between the U.S. and the Nigeria justice sectors,” he added.

    OPD Director Bukola Salami said the training had left “an indelible mark.”

    The programme featured three U.S. federal judges, Justices Ann Williams of the Court of Appeals, George Washington of the San Diego County Superior Court, California and Margo Brodie of New York District Court.

    The judges, with 18 lawyers from both countries, provided a four-day free training for 68 state counsel from the OPD and Ministry of Justice in, among others, the art of examination-in-chief and cross-examination.