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Tag: failed

  • Failed expectations

    Failed expectations

    •Caution must be exercised on the ‘japa’ syndrome to avoid tales of woe

    Many Nigerians are getting dumped in the lurch in the United Kingdom after they left their home country on skilled worker visas with which they had hoped to work abroad. Reports said these Nigerians have fallen into destitution in the UK. Meanwhile, they’ve cleared out their savings back home to pay ‘agents’ who promised  them job placements in the country of their relocation.

    Contrary to their expectations of greener pastures, however, these Nigerians are left on UK streets begging for food, shelter and other basic needs.

    A Sky News report showed Nigerians who said they paid agents – effectively, visa middlemen – who obtained skilled worker visas for them and got them documents indicating job placements in the UK that they found to be phony upon arriving the country. With no job, they find themselves lacking in means of sustenance and struggle to survive by resorting to sleeping rough and going to humanitarian food banks to beg food.

     A victim who spoke to Sky News said she arrived the UK some three months back after paying an agent £10,000 to arrange her a job as a carer, but which upon arriving in that country she found to be non-existent contrary to assurances by the agent. Another victim, who said she was destitute in the UK, showed her passport and other documents corroborating her claim of having been promised a job that she found to be phony. To boot, she was advised not to take matters up with the agency that led her on out of fear of legal reprisals. “Their pathetic stories attest to how agents or middlemen are manipulating Nigerians desperate to travel out of the country with the skilled worker visa system, who have been promised opportunities only to find out that such do not exist,” the report said.

    Read Also: UPDATED: APGA, ADP, NRM presidential candidates, others lobby Tinubu for inclusion

    And there were indications the trend was expanding. The founder of the Nigerian Community Centre in Rochdale, Mary Adekugbe, was reported as saying those on skilled worker visas now needing support had become a big issue overbearing on her schedules. According to her, about 15 out of some 40 people who come to the food bank in a week on the average have skilled worker visas. “We are overwhelmed. People are desperate. It’s so worrying: a grown-up man crying like a baby. Children crying without food because their parents can’t work to support them. No houses. No job. This is alarming,” she said.

    The reported experiences of Nigerians on skilled worker visas in the UK should serve as a cautionary line on the blind flight – known as ‘japa’ syndrome – of our compatriots from their native country owing to the prevailing anomie at home. People leave, of course, for diverse motivations they view as ‘greener pastures.’ But desperation to emigrate should always be with thorough evaluation of the prospects ahead. In other words, whatever may be the motivation, risks involved in leaving one’s country must be well calculated and prepared for. And there should be no route of emigration sufficiently attractive outside of the legal channels and procedures.

    Nigerians have been reported to have found themselves in sex exploitation and work servitude rings in the most improbable alternative countries, all because they submitted themselves to trafficking rings in the desperation to relocate from Nigeria. They’ve always had sour tales to tell of such misadventure.

    In any event, the promise of better life abroad is sometimes exaggerated compared with modest means that are freely and readily available at home. There is no question that people make much money when they have the opportunity to work abroad. But much of what is made tend to go on services for self-maintenance, whereas those services in Nigeria are much cheaper and largely underwritten by communal interrelationships. That apparently is the sense to make of the common saying that: ‘East, West, North or South, there’s no place like home.’ But this also implies that the home governments must improve the conditions in the country to reduce the desperation of our youths for the so-called greener pastures abroad.

  • Corruption war: Federal, state auditors-general offices have failed, says Justice Salami

    •Retired jurist seeks Audit Act, commission

    FORMER Appeal Court President Justice Isa Ayo Salami yesterday recommended the insulation of the federal and state auditors-general from legislative and executive arms to check incidents of corruption.

    The retired jurist also suggested the establishment of Audit Act and Audit Law for the Federal and state auditors general in addition to making provisions for the report of the auditor-general to be considered.

    Justice Salami made the recommendation at the national conference and annual general meeting of the Committee of Heads of Internal Audit Departments/Units in Nigerian Universities (CHIADINU) at Kwara State University (KWASU), Malete, Moro Local Government Area, Kwara State.

    He said: “Office of the Auditor General of the Federation and its state counterparts are expected to play key roles in our fight against corruption. The primary functions of these offices at both federal and state levels are to nip corruption in the bud; frustrate commission of the offence before it rears its ugly head. However, some of the offices have failed to perform the roles ascribed to them.

    “The main reason for this impression of these institutions is traceable to the Constitution and their respective state and federal enactments as well as dearth of qualified personnel. This challenge is rooted in lack of insulations of the offices from the executive arm of government it is established to audit. By the same token, the internal audit departments of the various universities are not insulated from or independent of the various vice chancellors they are meant to audit.

    “The public account committees of the National and state assemblies with our most recent experience may not augur well or be salutary. In their respective stead, I would respectfully suggest establishment of a commission with both the accountant-general and auditor-general as members with a retired auditor-general or reputable or seasoned accountant from private sector as the chairman.”

    He raised the alarm over current level of corruption, saying that the country is heading for a doom, if it fails in its continued fight against corruption and corrupt people.

    Justice Salami emphasised that Nigeria was at a threshold of monumental disaster, if drastic measures were not taken to “avoid the holocaust” that corruption could bring.

    Read also: Falana urges NLC to lead workers on anti-corruption war

    Justice Salami, who said government and individuals should promote culture of high regard for dignity of labour and integrity, said sense of integrity was gradually being eroded from professionalism.

    Also delivering a paper on “Fight against corruption: The role of internal auditors”, Auditor General for the Federation Anthony Ayine said that corruption is a major governance challenge in Nigeria.

    Ayine, who said that corruption, a global phenomenon, was becoming endemic in Nigeria, added that an estimated $2.6 trillion was stolen through corruption every year- a sum equivalent to more than five per cent of the Global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to the United Nations.

    “The effects of corruption to the socio-economic and political system of the country and the attendant poverty and misery it imposes on the citizenry have been so depressing over the years. This prompted establishment of institutions like the ICPC, EFCC, code of conduct bureau, bureau of public procurement and others.

    “It is however, my strong belief that if the audit function had been operating efficiently and effectively, there would not have been for all these additional anti-corruption agencies,” he said.

     

     

  • APC has failed to meet our aspirations, says Kwara governor

    Youths, artisans, local government chairmen and associations yesterday urged Kwara State Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed to take them out of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    They spoke in Ilorin, the state capital, during a meeting with the governor.

    Ali Baba, who spoke on behalf of the youths said: “Your government has empowered and prioritised the youths. Therefore, the only structure we know in Kwara is (Bukola) Saraki. Everywhere you, our leaders go, we are with you.”

    Leader of the market women Idiat Lambe said: “Take us to where our welfare will be guaranteed and our expectations met.”

    Ahmed said: “We are gathered here to consult with our supporters, market women, artisans, youths and women on how to guarantee our people’s interest and our state’s progress.”

    He said the APC had failed them, adding that “Our leader Senate President Bukola Saraki will soon come home to announce where we will go. APC has not met our expectations.”

    The governor added: “Stakeholders have come to tell us here today that you don’t want to remain in APC. You have told us that they have not met your aspirations as a people in APC. You have come to tell us that you want us to move on to a new platform that will give us room to meet our aspirations for the good of Kwarans.

    “By the grace of God almighty, you will have a response very soon and very clear. But one is as clear as crystal you the stakeholders have told us to move out of the APC and because we run an inclusive process, that is why we have come to sit here and seek your opinion which you have expressed.

    “And certainly your decision is our decision. So whatever you want is what we will do. God will guide us aright.”

    The governor recalled how key stakeholders in the ruling APC in the state built the party in 2014 alongside other notable Nigerians with high expectations but were disappointed about the failure of the government at national level to address insecurity, economy and unemployment challenges confronting the nation.

    He said: “Ee formed APC together in 2014 with the hope to meet the needs and aspirations of the people in critical areas of our national life”.

    He said the leadership of the APC had failed to intervene on critical issues affecting the party and its members, pointing out that injustice within the party is unbearable.

  • ‘Oil has failed to address Africa’s grinding poverty’

    THE oil and gas industry in Africa has failed to address grinding poverty on the continent, despite operating for between 50 and 60 years, it was learnt at the weekend in Lagos.

    Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc, Managing Director Mr. Austin Avuru, who chaired a panel session at an oil and gas forum in the United States where “Oil and gas industry in Africa: Prospects, challenges and opportunities for regional collaboration”was discussed, stated that the African petroleum industry has not been able to eliminate poverty in the region.

    According to him, the issue of regional collaboration or the lack of it has been identified as critical way of addressing the oil and gas issues in Africa. Data were presented at the forum to demonstrate that all of the oil and gas production and revenues derived from them between the last 50 and 60 years have not managed to alleviate poverty. Poverty remains prevalent in most parts of Africa where, in fact, these resources are most dominant including Nigeria, Avuru said.

    The data showed that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations are essentially designed to eliminate poverty while preserving the environment. Avuru agreed with that position, adding: “If we are not creating wealth, eliminating poverty and preserving the environment, we are wasting our time, and the oil and gas industry in Africa has not done this.” He also point out the issue of corruption.

    He said: “Any resource that creates a rent economy breeds corruption. In the past 50-60 years, oil and gas have only contributed to rent collection, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. And when you collect rent, and when five per cent of the population generates 98 per cent of the country’s income and all the discussion is how to share that income, that is what breeds corruption. Everybody will scamper for political power so they are in a position to share that revenue. That is where corruption starts from.

    “Therefore, when we have mature discussion on corruption, the question we need to ask ourselves is “when are we going to make a change in Africa from our oil and gas resources being just revenue and rent to being enablers for economic development?

    “When we speak on collaboration, unfortunately, we had the ECOWAS (Economic Community of Westa African States) 45 years ago, there was supposed to be sub-regional collaboration across West Africa even before the European Economic Commission was formed for serious economic collaboration, which eventually grew into European Union (EU). Today, the EU has one market, total collaboration, gas flows east and west across boundaries as if those countries’ boundaries are not there.

    “In West Africa, we managed over a 20-year period to build one gas pipeline that should distribute gas to the entire West Africa. Today, gas doesn’t flow in that pipeline. We keep passing the buck. If you ask West African Gas Pipeline Company, they will tell you when they send gas to Ghana, Ghana doesn’t pay. If you ask Ghana, it will say they don’t get the gas. In the meantime, United States’ companies are planning to build a regasification plant in Ghana so they will take liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Nigeria to Ghana, re-gasify and sell to them (Ghanaians) at about $11 per 1000 standard cubic feet (scf).’’

     

    And we have a gas pipeline that is available to Ghanaians gas and everybody is passing the buck.

    “So in the 45 years of sub-regional collaboration in West Africa, we have West African Power Pool, one gas pipeline for distribution of gas but neither power nor gas flows across West Africa.”

     

  • Rivers governor has failed, says Amaechi

    Transportation Minister yesterday declared that Governor Nyesom Wike has failed Rivers people by not ensuring good governance.

    The lawmaker representing Rivers Southeast Senatorial District, Senator Magnus Abe,  kicked against the All Progressives Congress (APC) rally in his Bera-Ogoni hometown in Gokana Local Government Area of the state, where Amaechi spoke on Saturday.

    Speaking at the rally where he received supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) into the APC, the transportation minister said: “Every government has a responsibility to protect lives and property. The reason there is a government is because the people are alive,  if you die there will be no government.

    “Any government that watches its people killed everyday is an irresponsible government. Wike watches his people killed everyday. I met a woman yesterday whose husband was killed in front of her with her son watching. I can assure you today that this government of Wike has failed.

    “When I was your governor, you slept and I kept awake. As governor, I chased away the criminals to their holes. I know that the reason why they are into crime was because there was no money for them. I knew that for you to stop a man from crime, you need to provide an alternative means of livelihood.”

    Amaechi was received in Bera-Ogoni by an indigene of the ancient town, Chief Victor Giadom, who is the Deputy National Secretary of APC and an ally of the transportation minister, who used to be a bosom friend of Abe, but they disagreed over the senator’s 2019 governorship ambition.

    Abe,  through his Spokesperson, Parry Benson, described as illegal, the rally attended by the new Rivers Chairman of APC, Ojukaye Flag-Amachree, whom he accused of provoking the people of Gokana LGA, especially APC members loyal to him (Abe).

     

     

  • ‘Our varsities have failed the arts’

    Legendary dancer and arts icon Mr Peter Badejo is 70. The culture ambassador is one of the world’s leading teachers and choreographers of African dance. In 2001, he was decorated with the Officer of the British Empire (OBE) medal by the Queen of England for promoting African arts and culture. In this interview with Segun Ajayi, Badejo, reminisces on his odyssey in the arts world.

    You just celebrated your 70th birthday; what significance does it hold for you?

    I think clocking 70 is just in the number. It’s like clocking 40, 50 or 60. However, by our religious predictions, 70 is a landmark and it must be celebrated. That explains why a lot of people rallied round me to make the celebration special. I thank God for my life and for enabling me to move around. Just like my logo, ‘movement is life’, God has blessed us with good weather, which allows us to move around. Ironically, nobody likes to walk around in Nigeria. You would have seen the flurry of activities going on; all about me. My friends in the UK also made their input into the celebration. It is as if I was trans-continentally admired. For me, life begins at 70.

    What’s next?

    If you perceive life and the way nature has constructed us, there are three stages in life. There is a stage you crawl, walk and run. Then, there is another crawling stage. Meanwhile, maturity comes into everything we do. At the later part of our lives, we’ll have our physical limitations. We climb to a stage of excellence, then, we’ll begin to descend. Along the line, all the knowledge that we have acquired from whichever discipline we chose, we’ll begin to mobilise those energies and disciplines and redistribute them to benefit humanity. So, I should be able to help the younger generation so that they too can be better creative and celebrated than we. In this country, we have to inspire the young people. We’re going through challenges and it is the duty of us all to see how we can influence the younger generation to do better.

    From the foregoing, I can see that you’re an artist, how come people know you more as a dance artist?

    The shift to dance started when I became a little bit political in my artistic thinking. Don’t forget, every art form is a means of communication. Being a Yoruba person also, I believe in our adages, tested philosophies and short proverbs. There is a Yoruba saying that ‘a kiitiojuonikamesanka’ (You don’t stand before a man with nine fingers to count by the finger tips). For me, dance is an art medium through which you can entertain people and at the same time talk to their senses. Dance is a manipulative medium with which you cannot deny what you have said yet you can put it in such a way that the person you’re referring to would not be hurt immediately. That’s why I chose dance and I’ve pursued it in all its ramifications. I believe we have beautiful dance forms in Africa, Nigeria,Yorubaland and everywhere. Among the Yoruba, there is ijo ode (hunters dance), bridal dance, royal dance and so on. However, we lack the techniques to make them acceptable worldwide. If we want to preserve these dances for posterity by teaching the younger generation, and using them as meaningful means of communication in a contemporary setting, then we have to codify them and develop them into techniques. This is what my work has been all about and as regards what I’ll be doing for the future generation, I’m interested in codifying and building techniques for our dance expressions.

    Why has this been lacking in Nigeria?

    It is lacking because,take a typical traditional dance like bata orodudu, the only thing that makes those dances teachable in another culture is the name. If we look at the way the dances are performed, they are different whereas if they have been codified; that is, looking at the ABC of it, there would have been consistency in technique-building. The same thing I’m applying to dance and codifying dance does not detract from the creativity. All these are possible if only we have the basic tools. The tools are the techniques; the ABC of dances.

    From your vast experiences, has dance attained the status of a profession in Nigeria?

    Yeah, however, there are three basic things. We have the talents, but we don’t have the institutions to develop them. At least, we have not developed our dances to the point of making them sellable. We have not invested in it and if we don’t invest in our art, we cannot make gains from it. So, if all the factors are not pulled together, we won’t be able to develop our dance or any art form to the point we can export them. Rather than export arts, we’re exporting individuals. There are numerous talents walking on our streets, but have we invested in them; have we given them any opportunity? It’s just like our football, once in a while, we win laurels, but we have not been consistent. Until we begin to institutionalise our art and open the doors for young talents to explore their potentials, we’ll not grow creativity in this part of the globe.

    From your position, art is driven by passion first, or money?

    I believe that passion comes first in everything, including the love for our country. Money is an artificial thing. It comes and goes. But if you can grab the right tail of development of your passion, you’ll succeed and leave behind legacies. Meanwhile, money is not a legacy. Many people had left money behind but today, the money has disappeared. However, some people left behind good names.

    What is your take on the planned sale of the National Theatre?

    The system destroyed the structure up to the point it is being put up for sale. And you could imagine the kind of people they will sell the building to. No arts organisation will be able to afford the price. Businessmen will buy structure and sift the business of the arts away from it completely. The National Theatre was built with the sweat of Nigerians to promote and develop the arts of the people. But we’re losing that legacy. Unfortunately, the whole thing started as a mistake. If the resources pumped into the building had been used to build smaller theatres in different states, the buildings would have been manageable.

    Can you recall your connection with the artistic city, Osogbo?

    Osogbo is an artistic town. I was lucky to have experienced Osogbo early in my life. My late father worked in the North in the 1950s. I had my elementary education in the North but I came down to the South for my secondary education. After I completed my secondary education, I had to return to the North because my dad remained there. Shortly before the civil war, my family members came down to the south and settled in Osogbo. Naturally, Osogbo became our second home after our ancestral home, Ijebu Ode.

    Moreover, I was involved in the Ori Olokun Theatre, which was an offspring of the Osogbo arts tradition. With the Osun Osogbo Festival and the influence of the German researcher and culture promoter, Ulli Beier, Osogbo became a centre of culture. Coupled with that was the influence of institutions such as the University of Ife (OAU) and the University of Ibadan, which was nearby.That was how I became an Osogbo person. Actually, many people think that I hail from Osogbo.

    You acted in Tunde Kelani’s Arugba, how was the experience?

    Yes, I acted in a couple of films by Tunde Kelani. Apart from Arugba, I featured in Maami as a sports officer. I acted in films here and there, but the quality of films made here is what bothers me. But we have begun to make quality films, produced by good directors. This is unlike before when you could count the quality films  produced in Nigeria by your finger-tips. Some of them, including Tunde Kelani haven’t got all the money but they have been turning out films for the love of the profession. And Kelani’s films have been winning awards. I also acted in a couple of films in northern Nigeria and in the US.

    Will you feature in more movies if the opportunity comes your way?

    Oh yes! But this time, I’ll like to hit the art world from a more matured perspective. In doing that, one needs to be careful. There are several artistic talents around but one has to make his choices carefully. Moreover, I’m still interested in opening a training school for artists in Osogbo. In the school, there is going to be a high percentage of academic works. The objective is to turn out artists who understands why they are into the arts. They must see beyond the physicality of the arts. They should be able to understand the relationship between arts and society.

    Are our tertiary institutions not doing similar things?

    No! Our universities have failed us. Imagine the thousands of thesis that are turned out yearly, which ones among them have they implemented? Of what use are papers that are not implementable? You don’t train people for training sake.

    Apart from the arts, what else do you do? business?

    Oh no! I’m done when it comes to business. I’m not a business person. I’m an artist through and through. You see, I like to sleep when I want to, and I don’t think that is possible in business. Again, to make it in business, you have to be shrewd and being shrewd implies outsmarting the other person.

    How do you relax?

    I watch shows whenever I can. In those days, I used to play games. Now, I enjoy reading and watching sensible films.

    Is pounded yam your favourite delicacy?

    I love to swallow food once in a while. As for pounded yam, it should no longer be ascribed to Ekiti people only, it is a national delicacy. What about the Ijesha and people from Benue State? Even the Ibo enjoy their ponded yam. It’s like saying that gari is a preserve of Ijebu people.

    What is your advice for the younger generation of artists?

    I want the youth to be sincere to one another. They should re-examine their lifespan and understand that there is a beginning; a middle and ending to life. If one rises too early, there is the tendency one would fall early. Naturally, if one wakes up as early as 3am, by noon, he or she will be itching for another sleep. Nature has constructed us that way and that is what we are. With all the scientific advancement, we’ve not been able to do anything to slow down aging. With that as a typical phenomenon of life, why the rush? So, I advise the youth to live by nature. That will not slow down their ambition or self-development. So, everything that has a beginning must have an end and there are in-betweens.

  • Wike: workers ‘ve failed by not showing concern about insecurity

    RIVERS State Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike yesterday accused labour of failure by refusing to act in the face of killings in some parts of the country.

    The governor said it was uncharitable for labour to be only concerned about salary increment when their  kith and kin were being killed daily.

    In an address during the 2018 Workers Day in Port Harcourt, Wike said: “Labour is only after the increment of wages and emoluments without showing concern for the mass killings going on across different states of the federation.

    “Labour is quiet in the face of deaths. Of what benefit will increment of  salaries be when all your children, friends and relatives are killed in the course of this national insecurity?  It is incumbent on labour to rise up in defence of Nigerians by demanding for immediate cessation of killings.”

    The governor said labour has a duty to work towards the progress of Nigeria as they  battle for their welfare.

    He added that labour must rekindle their pre-2015 posture when they participated  in occupy Nigeria during the Jonathan era.

    The governor urged labour to defend the nation’s democracy,  which, he said, is under threat by the alleged failure of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-Federal Government to respect the rule of law and democratic tenets.

    He said the state was investing in building a strong economy that would enable workers earn decent wages, empower entrepreneurs to create jobs and provide improved livelihood opportunities for Rivers people.

    He said: “We have  approved an interest-free revolving loan scheme for civil servants. The annual sum earmarked for this programme is N1, 200,000,000 only, with a monthly disbursement of N100, 000,000.00 only.

    “We have also approved another interest-free loan for owners of small businesses to access to enhance their businesses, create jobs and grow the economy. An annual sum of N2, 400,000,000.00 only has been set-aside for this purpose with a monthly disbursement of N200, 000,000.00 only.”

    The governor said his administration was already working to fix some of the subsisting challenges, including the contributory pension scheme, the contributory health insurance scheme and the payment of gratuities to retired civil servants.

     

     

  • How abducted Dapchi girl, Leah, failed in escape bid

    •Sends present to mom

    LEAH Sharibu, the only Dapchi schoolgirl left in Boko Haram captivity, is said to have made an attempt to escape from the camp of her captors.

    The bid however failed and was returned to the terrorists three days after by those who found her in the bush, according to The Guardian of London quoting her fellow captives.

    Leah, the only Christian among the 110 abductees, remains in captivity because she refused to renounce her Christian faith.

    Her mates also said she was emotionally strong enough to send her mother a present as a remembrance.

    The present is the jerry can she and her friends were given milk in by the man who thwarted their escape.

    The girls have not had time to give it to her mother yet, the Guardian reported.

    The Dapchi girls speaking in their first face-to-face interview since they were returned to their families related what they went through in captivity.

    Aisha Ibiwa said Leah and two others were involved in the escape bid.

    She said: “She didn’t tell us she was leaving. We thought she was just going round the corner, but she sneaked out along with Maryam and Amira [two classmates].”

    After wandering about for three days in the bush, the three hungry and exhausted girls met a nomadic Fulani family from whom they sought help on how to return to Dapchi.

    It turned out to be a big mistake on their part for the Fulani, rather than assisting them took them straight back to their kidnappers.

    “The Fulani man said to them: ‘So you are the missing girls that we’ve heard about on the radio,’” Hajara Adamu said.

    He gave them a jerry can filled with cow’s milk and returned them to the terrorists.

    “Leah and her group weren’t flogged. They [Boko Haram] said it was because they had suffered a lot while trying to escape.”

    Hajara herself also attempted to escape.

    When she was found, the terrorists were furious and whipped and frogmarched her back to the camp with a gun at her back.

    She was given out by some local women she had asked for directions.

    Hajara said they were insulted and told “we wanted to go back to the land of unbelievers.”

    Painting a graphic picture of their journey into the den of the terrorists which claimed the lives of five of them, Fatima Abdullahi said: “They (the victims) were saying: ‘Pull us up or we’ll die,’ but I couldn’t help them.

    “They just threw us all into the vehicle, that’s why we were piled up like that. I was lucky that someone pulled me up.”

    The girls shouted that some of them were dying, but by the time their kidnappers paid attention, five were dead. They kept driving through the night.

    “In the early morning, they dug a hole and put their bodies in it. They didn’t give them an Islamic burial, and they didn’t pray,” Hajara said.

    When they eventually got to a village – Tumbu Gini  – near the Lake Chad, the girls were left with only two guards watching aircraft circle overhead.

    Every week, a tall, dark-skinned, youngish man with a long beard whom the girls only knew as “the Khalifa” would come around to see them and preach to them.

    The “Khalifa’, reportedly reassured them that they would not stay in captivity for long.

    They quoted him as saying: “We don’t have any issue with you – our issue is with the government.

    “They’ve taken our men. Don’t worry, you’ll all go home soon.”

     

  • Failed criminal justice system

    Our criminal justice system has failed woefully and not much is being done by federal and state governments to redress the fundamental causes of this malady. At the low rung of our national life, you have tens of thousands of persons languishing in jail on awaiting trial while at the upper echelon, you have intractable thousands of corruption and financial crime cases bogging down the judicial system as the manifestation of this failure.

    The stark statistics are indeed scary. According to a report credited to the Country Director of Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants, CURE – Nigeria, Mr Sylvester Uhaa, as at the beginning of this year, there were 47,817 awaiting trial inmates out of 69,200 detainees across the prisons in our country. On the other side, the recently inaugurated Corruption and Financial Crimes Cases Trials Monitoring Committee (CONTRIMCO), has identified 2,306 existing corruption related cases across the country.

    Another manifestation of the crisis is the disproportionate number of cases struck out for want of diligent prosecution by the courts. According to a senior magistrate who was expressing his frustration in the presence of this writer, nearly 100 per cent of the cases he had handled since the beginning of this year were all struck out for want of diligent prosecution. The situation is not different with corruption and financial crimes related cases lost by the prosecution in the high courts.

    A recent dramatic development which further confirms this national challenge is the spirited effort of the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN, and chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Professor Itse Sagay, to stop the runaway gold medallist, with respect to allegations of corruption, in President Goodluck Jonathan’s era, the delectable Diezani Alison-Madueke, from coming home to face corruption charges in our courts.

    In what will rank as a classical irony, Malami and Sagay argued stringently that Alison-Madueke, who served as petroleum minister under Jonathan, should stay in London to face criminal trial instead of coming home to face squarely humongous allegations of mismanaging, embezzling, and stealing billions of naira and dollars belonging to Nigeria while she served as the chief exchequer of the Peoples Democratic Party’s failed re-election gambit. In making that assertion, the two principal officers in the anti-corruption war were confirming what we all know, even though we pretend.

    The living example that their fear is potent is the former governor of Delta state, James Ibori, who was discharged and acquitted in Nigeria over corruption cases only to be tried and jailed in the United Kingdom for offences, whose ingredients were curried in Nigeria.  Of course, the establishment of the Sagay committee by President Muhammadu Buhari’s government was a manifest vote of no confidence in the functionality of the criminal justice system.

    Unfortunately, after the initial public excitement created by the early morning raids of the houses of senior judges and retired military officers, the fight against corruption has been bogged by the scum drudgery of our failed criminal justice system. Stalled, distracted and disarticulated, the fight has not met the huge expectations. To buttress the prevalent frustration across board, PACAC’S chairman, Professor Sagay’s major contribution to the fight against corruption may be his media exposé against the National Assembly.

    But the feeling of despondency that led to the inauguration of the Sagay committee was not misplaced. The real challenge is that the committee can only exercise minor influence as a change agent, considering our extant criminal justice laws, the procedural hurdles in criminal prosecution, limited forensic capacities, the sociological disposition to crime and other general legal technicalities which make prosecution a nightmare, for the prosecutor and the state.

    Seeing that the Sagay committee has lost steam, the National Judicial Council (NJC), which was thoroughly embarrassed by the braggadocio of the security agencies, which were encouraged to invade the constitutional prerogatives of NJC, to show the determination of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s government to wrestle corruption down, has seized the moment with the establishment of CONTRIMCO, to give verve to the criminal justice system, in the fight against corruption.

    Again, Nigerians have invested a lot of hope in the new committee, with many believing that since it was set up by NJC, the wahala bedevilling the system will vanish. But I doubt if the new committee would achieve much, considering the enormity of powers in the hands of the judges, the unfair technical advantages in favour of the accused even with prima-facie cases of corruption, and of course, and the incompetence of the judicial officers and prosecutor agencies.

    By the provision of our constitution and other extant laws, a judge substantially owns his court. These powers are enormous in the hands of a trial judge. With most of the courts operating a manual recording system, the powers could be very overwhelming in the hands of compromised judge. After all, it is his record of proceedings and first hand observations that an appellate court can only rely upon, assuming there is an appeal against miscarriage of justice.

    Under our laws, truth most times suffer in the hand of over-bearing technicalities. This burden on criminal justice system is exploited by lawyers who have core competence in technicalities. This undue advantage turn the Achilles hills of our justice system, with the absence or low level of technology or forensic expertise across board. Add this bedlam to the evidential burden on the prosecutor, who is always required by law to prove his case beyond reasonable doubt.

    A further challenge is the process of recruiting and promoting judicial officials, based on several other considerations away from competence, which ordinarily should be the major consideration. This challenge also exists in choosing the prosecutors, and even in choosing which cases to pursue and which cases to frustrate. With the defence hurling technicalities at incompetent judicial officers, the problem facing our criminal justice system gets even more compounded.

    So, while we engage in fire-fighting measures with CONTRIMCO and PACAC, and several law review commissions which mainly dust up some of the changes that have taken place in Europe and elsewhere and recommend them as the solution to the scourge of our failed criminal justice system, I think it is time to engage in a wholesome review of the system. We should consider introducing the jury system which deals more with facts than technicalities in the assessment of guilty or non-guilty verdicts. Of course, the current system where the responsibilities of the judge is so restricted by law and practice, instead of allowing him to sift facts from the fiction, filed by technically savvy lawyers, does further intractable damage to our decadent society.

    For the average citizen, what we currently practice as the criminal justice system is a complete aberration. Even for the elites, it is surely absurd that cases last for decades in the courts and even more absurd that persons caught red-handed committing crimes go scotch free because they are always smarter than the system.

  • Obiano has failed Anambra, says Chidoka

    Obiano has failed Anambra, says Chidoka

    The Osita Chidoka Campaign Organization has expressed dismay over the threat by the Governor Willie Obiano administration to teachers and other civil servants in the state to vote for the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Saturday’s governorship election or face victimisation.

    The campaign organisation, which claims to have evidence of the threat, described the move as wicked and “a vicious act of extreme desperation, symptomatic of a drowning leader cast in a frenetic mode to hang unto power even when it is obvious that the time is up”.

    A press statement from the organisation reads in part: “While we know that the Obiano administration and the APGA have been in morbid fear of the popularity and overwhelming public endorsement of our candidate, Chief Osita Chidoka and our great party, the United Progressive Party (UPP), it is however despicable, to say the least, that in their nervousness they are seeking to drag down innocent civil servants for rejecting them.

    “We salute the courage of the workers for mounting a stiff resistance and exposing this threat. We also know that Governor Obiano is already on his way out. But the Osita Chidoka Campaign will still leave nothing to chance in protecting our civil servants, especially knowing they are dealing with very vicious elements.”