The Nation Newspaper

Tag: impunity

  • $2b arms probe shows impunity in last PDP govt, says Nwodo

    Former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Chairman Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo has said revelations at the arms purchase probe have shown the impunity in the last PDP administration.

    Speaking after receiving an honorary Doctor of Science degree of the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUAU), Nwodo said the party deviated from the expectation of Nigerians and its founding fathers.

    Nwodo said: “I am of the PDP, but the government reached a point of impunity, a lot of which is being revealed in the investigations.”

    He said the Muhammadu Buhari administration came with tremendous goodwill not common in the Third World, to be able to beat an incumbent administration.

    His words: “We needed somebody to fight corruption and bring sanity to government expenditure and I believe we are getting it from this government.

    “I believe that no Nigerian should go to bed hungry and that this country has enough resources to feed us and provide the enabling environment for us to achieve our desires.

    “But when public resources are plundered as have been done by previous administrations, you can see that the waste in governance has made it impossible for Nigeria to reach its potential.”

    He urged Nigerians to be patient with President Buhari as the task ahead could not be tackled overnight.

    “The problem is that we have suffered so long that Nigerians have become impatient but it takes time for policies to be formulated and implemented, so I want to plead with Nigerians to give the President time.”

    He advised the Federal Government to meet the Biafra agitators halfway just as the late President Yar’Adua met the Niger Delta militants and doused the tension it would have generated.

    Nwodo said to ignore them would be counter-productive, fearing that it might escalate as the Boko Haram insurgency.

    The former national chair aligned with those calling for the implementation of the report of the National Conference, saying it enunciated the way forward for the country.

  • PDP vows to resist APC’s ‘impunity’

    PDP vows to resist APC’s ‘impunity’

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has vowed to resist what it described as the growing culture of impunity exhibited by the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led administration.

    The party, rising from a one day national conference in Abuja yesterday, condemned the “growing authoritarianism” of the Federal Government.

    In a communiqué read at the end of the conference by the National Secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo, the party decried the “sudden decline in the economy and quality of life of Nigerians.”

    According to the PDP, the Muhammadu Buhari administration had been characterised by gross violation of human rights, constitutional infractions, invasion of a governor’s lodge and private homes, deliberate interference and instigation of crisis in the legislature.

    The opposition listed arm-twisting of the judiciary, undermining of democratic institutions, such as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), nepotism in appointments, abuse of power and clamp down on opposition elements.

    It urged the international community to note the constitutional infractions, violation of human rights, selective war against corruption, clamp down on the opposition, divisiveness and high-handedness.

    These, the party said, were tendencies that posed threat to democracy and unity.

    PDP leaders bemoaned what they termed the lack of direction of the APC government and the growing tension and rancour in the polity, as the consequences of the divisive tendencies of the government.

    They viewed the administration’s anti graft war as being selective, targeted at opposition elements and perceived opponents of the Buhari government.

  • Taraba governorship poll verdict: PDP paying price of impunity, says APC

    Taraba governorship poll verdict: PDP paying price of impunity, says APC

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said Saturday’s judgment of the Taraba State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal is the clearest indication that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has started harvesting what it sowed in its years of impunity and recklessness.

    The ruling party noted that the opposition should blame itself for the tragedy that has befallen it.

    In a statement yesterday in Lagos by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC said the PDP had always been a party of “anything goes”, adding that it was a matter of time for the party to come to grief.

    APC said PDP’s first harvest of its woes was tumbling from the pinnacle of power, adding that it had now begun losing, incrementally, whatever remained of its crumbled empire.

    The party said the PDP was only trifling by attributing the judgment to a supposed manipulation from the Presidency.

    The statement added: “President Muhammadu Buhari, as well as his party, the APC, are strong believers in the rule of law, as against the rule of impunity; hence, he will never manipulate the Judiciary for whatever reason.

    “The PDP is clearly aware of this, but has chosen to blame everyone but itself for the fate that has befallen it. The PDP should have known that it will pay for its years of impunity and recklessness. For this party, the chicken has now come home to roost.”

    The party said if the PDP is not blaming the Judiciary, its favourite whipping boy, it is blaming the APC, the Presidency or even Nigerians, for its plight.

    It warned the opposition to stop shifting responsibility.

    The statement also said: “The PDP should leave the Judiciary, the Presidency and the APC alone and accept responsibility for its actions. From the judgment of the tribunal, it is clear that the impunity of the PDP cost it the election. Not only did the party breach Section 78 (b) (1) (2) of the Electoral Act, concerning the organisation of party primaries, it was not even deemed to have participated in the April 11, 2015 governorship election in Taraba State in the eyes of the law.

    “Apart from not complying with the Electoral Act, the election of the PDP candidate, Mr. Darius Ishaku, in the purported primaries in Abuja, was done after the stipulated time for party primaries had elapsed, according to the tribunal. It is thus clear that the election result in Taraba State was not annulled for any other reason but the impunity and recklessness that permeated the life and times of the cadaverous PDP.

    “It is noteworthy that this is not the first time the court was ruling against PDP’s impunity of violating its own constitutional provisions and the Electoral Act with regard to ensuring internal democracy in the conduct of primary elections.

    “The first landmark judgment came from the Supreme Court when it ruled against PDP’s impunity in 2007 and ordered that Rotimi Amaechi be installed the governor of Rivers state, instead of Celestine Omehia, who was illegally imposed.

    “Secondly, the Supreme Court also ruled against PDP in the case of Ifeanyi Ararume (Imo State), when the party took his mandate as validly elected governorship candidate and handed it over to another aspirant.

    “It is instructive to note that these judgments took place while the PDP was in control of the Presidency. The opposition parties then never questioned the integrity of the Judiciary by making wild and weighty allegations as the PDP is doing now.”

    The APC stressed that the PDP should blame itself for its gross impunity with regard to the conduct of primary elections in Taraba State.

    It said: “For instance, if all political parties, including the APC, which was then in opposition, could hold their primaries in the state, why would the PDP, which was in control of the state government, come down to Abuja for its primaries against the provisions of the Electoral Act and the PDP constitution?

    “The impunity was not only in the case of Taraba State because the PDP also moved its governorship primaries for Borno and Adamawa states to Abuja, in breach of the Electoral Act. The irony was that whereas the PDP claimed the primaries were shifted

    to Abuja because the capitals of Taraba, Borno and Adamawa states were not safe for primary elections, the PDP held presidential campaigns in the same capitals of the affected states (Jalingo, Taraba State; Maiduguri, Borno State and Yola, Adamawa State).

    “Now that the PDP’s chicken has come home to roost, the party must be courageous enough to accept full responsibility and stop seeing enemies everywhere. The PDP is its own enemy.”

  • Thy name is impunity

    THE poet, John Keats, said to his “Grecian Urn” in his “Ode”: “‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty, — that is all/Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know’”.

    Now, Hardball is no poet.  But if he can be allowed some poetic licence, he will without flinching, tell the wailing, bad-tempered and hurting former federal ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), with due permission to ape the famous poet: “Brawn is impunity, impunity brawn, — that is all/Ye know in politics, and all ye need to know”!

    Since the PDP murderous electoral muscling has been falling, like some tragic dominoes, particularly in Rivers and Akwa Ibom states, the brawny PDP has developed a Samson syndrome, making insane accusations, reckless allegations and tarring everyone  in its crazed sight — and foaming in the mouth to boot!  Power’s Delilah has brought Samson to grief — and the defanged superman of yore would be glad everyone perished with him!

    Ah, the Yoruba are right!  In one of their endless wits, they often quip: the merry executioner  goes ga-ga with a mere swish of the sword near him!  So, it is with PDP.

    In its heyday of untrammelled power, it made it clear it owed no one any apology however it mercilessly spurred the people — rule of law be damned!  Now in opposition, it hurriedly assumes — and wails! — everyone embraces power outlawry, as it did in its notorious days in government. PDP, impunity is all you know on earth, and all you need to know!

    Take the Senate Rotimi Amaechi ministerial clearing drama, and compare (and contrast) to a similar clearing of Musiliu Obanikoro,  as minister again, in the final months of Goodluck Jonathan’s doomed presidency.

    Obanikoro, as minister of state for Defence, had been indicted in sucking the Army into brazen partisanship to rig the Ekiti gubernatorial election of 2014, courtesy of the scandalous Ekiti audio tapes.  When the ruling PDP rode roughshod over the opposition in the Senate, the then opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) walked out of the red chamber.

    Now, things have turned full circle — and it is PDP doing the walkout!  But that’s not even the story.  Amaechi, a minister-designate, has been accused of all sorts; but by a politicking local Rivers PDP, with a barely veiled motive to  unhorse who it rightly believes is its nemesis.  Hardly a crime!

    But it becomes democratically criminal when the minority PDP believes its lie that its poisoned chalice, of partisan gore, was pure and wholesome; and swears it is either others drank from it or …

    Excuse me!  Does PDP have the numbers to back its bluff?  Even if that sounds as a dictatorship of the majority — which  starkly, what democracy is, shorn of requisite morality and good faith — has PDP established the good faith of its own dubious crusade?

    Notorious fact: Rivers PDP electoral conduct — maiming and killing people to “win” election — crossed the border of bad politics (which is bad enough) to out-and-out evil and brazen criminality.  This heinous criminality triggered the fresh anti-Amaechi campaign from the Rivers PDP.  Yet, PDP would throw tantrums because no one — outside its tragic and deluded camp — was convinced of the earnestness of its claim.

    Lai Mohammed, PDP’s publicity nemesis, said it all: PDP, rebrand or die!  But how has PDP reacted?  With a rash of vulgar abuse and personal insults from Olisa ‘Janjaweed’ Metuh!

    But Alhaji Lai wastes his breath.  Impunity is what PDP knows, and all — it thinks — it needs to know!

  • Impunity as maiden test of Tobacco Act

    Not many know that there is a new law known as the Tobacco Control Act. Recently passed by the 7th Parliament and signed into law a few months ago, the Act seeks to bring order into the manufacture, promotion and distribution of tobacco products in Nigeria. The reason is simple: Tobacco has long been found to have dangerous public health implications. For instance, while smoking may be legal, such that an adult may choose to smoke and damn its consequences, cigarette smoke can potentially also affect non-smokers. The government has an obligation to its citizens to protect public health, ensuring that access to potentially dangerous products like tobacco by the under-aged for instance is outlawed and that innocent non-smokers are not subjected against their will to passive smoking and its after-effects, among others.

    The Tobacco Act is by many accounts, now a much stronger piece of legislation than its predecessor. Stakeholders including legislators and health sector workers are unanimous in the view that it will, to a large extent control the production, promotion and distribution of tobacco products across the country and in the process help to safeguard the lives of Nigerians.

    Having been passed into law, the Act is currently being gazetted into the country’s statutes by the Supreme Court.

    It is shocking that while the Tobacco Control Act has attained this degree of progress, to the commendation of several anti-tobacco NGOs, a certain manufacturer of tobacco products with a manufacturing factory somewhere in Senegal, has been granted a licence to import tobacco products into Nigeria, by the Standards Organization of Nigeria. Using the platform of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme, which avails members the prerogative to export their products within the West Africa sub-region, the tobacco manufacturer will in due course import cigarettes and other finished products to Nigeria.

    At face value, the issuance of this import licence may appear laudable, one aimed at promoting trade and commerce within the West African sub-region. On deeper interrogation however, it raises a number of issues, all of which further question the rationale or motive behind the action.

    For instance, whereas the Tobacco Control Act clearly stipulates that a licence to import tobacco products may only be granted by the Federal Minister of Health, it would appear that perhaps taking advantage of the absence of ministers, the Standards Organization of Nigeria may have gone ahead to issue the licence itself. If as reports indicate this is true, then SON would have acted in clear contravention of the new Act, and mortgaged the lives of Nigerians, by literally opening Nigeria’s borders to the influx of tobacco products, especially at a time when the country is still grappling with a suffusion of internally-produced tobacco products as well as smuggled ones. In fact, not long ago, SON itself advertised the presence of several non-registered foreign brands of cigarettes that are to be found on the shelves of retailers across the country, warning that these cigarettes are dangerous.

    In stipulating that “no person shall manufacture, import or distribute tobacco products except the person has obtained a license or is authorized in writing to do so by the Minister”, the Tobacco Control Act obviously seeks to put a systematic leash on the influx of tobacco products in the country, in so doing, making the availability of cigarettes far more restricted and controlled than it currently is as one way of managing the public health challenge of tobacco.

    Granting a license to any importer of cigarettes in the face of this clear regulation therefore raises a number of questions, chief among which is what is the motivation of the officials of the Standards Organization of Nigeria who have granted this manufacturer a license? Is the Standards Organization of Nigeria ignorant of the Tobacco Control Act? Has its action been predicated on a need to enhance its coffers by the massive licence fees and charges which it will obviously slam on the importer on an annual basis? Tobacco is renowned globally as big money business. Are there mouth-watering counterpart underhand deals as an accompaniment to this hurriedly awarded licence to import cigarettes?

    The licence awarded by the Standards Organization of Nigeria, if true indeed raises yet another issue; it brings to light the question of lack of congruence and disharmony in Nigeria’s policy making space. For instance, the Central Bank of Nigeria only a few weeks ago issued regulatory guidelines that seek to conserve our foreign exchange regime through strategic restriction of the importation of spurious items. Items like toothpicks, plantain chips, wooden doors and others were placed under this systematic restriction in a manner that makes it easier for the legendary camel to pass the eye of the needle than for them to be legally imported. Why issue a licence to anyone to import cigarettes when the country is strategically restricting the importation of non-essential and spurious items, anyway? It raises the question of whether or not Nigeria’s regulatory agencies bother to talk to themselves and understand the rationale behind various government policies.

    The current Standards Organization of Nigeria scenario is the reason why government policies often seem to contradict one another. While one agency may understand and have a far-sighted view of the problem and institute policies with which to manage it, another agency may have a completely different understanding if not a total misunderstanding of the same issue and act in such a way as to undermine well-thought out policy. Ultimately, in the bedlam of confusion, well-intended policies and programs are jettisoned and the country starts from point zero all over again. This has been our lot for decades in Nigeria.

    The happenings regarding this reported issuance of a license to a tobacco manufacturer to import cigarettes and other tobacco products to Nigeria in contravention of the Tobacco Control Act, should pique the interest of all Nigerians and very importantly President Muhammadu Buhari who in the last few months has embarked on a painstaking mission to return Nigeria to a culture of doing things right. Many Nigerians are positive that the era of corruption and impunity is in fast retreat to be replaced by an era of transparency and purpose in governance and public affairs. It would be a disservice to all Nigerians if Standards Organization of Nigeria were to pull the hands of the clock back in an attempt to return Nigeria to an era which it is struggling to shake off. To make matters worse, it would be an even greater disservice to Nigeria, if its platform for doing this is the importation of cigarettes and tobacco products which have been proven to be dangerous to the health of smokers and non-smokers alike and which therefore ought to be rigorously controlled.

    • Ms Obi is of the Centre for the Promotion of Enterprise and Business Best Practice, Abuja.

  • Impunity and carpetbaggers in Bayelsa

    Bayelsa State is in the news, but not always for the right reasons. The All Progressives Congress (APC) held a primary election for the prime seat of governor. The news said former Governor Timipre Sylva won with what was apparently a landslide. But a new narrative came into the spotlight. One was the announcement credited to the party Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun that the election had been cancelled and a new date would be set.

    The second was the issue of who built the party, who sowed and who wanted to reap.

    First to Oyegun’s statement. He made a statement to the News Agency of Nigeria, and said the primaries had been cancelled. Yet, a few days later, the APC announced that its National Working Committee (NWC) would examine the complaints today and arrive at a verdict. Meanwhile, former Governor Sylva still holds the ace. The questions is, why did Chief Oyegun say the elections had been cancelled when the party had not sat to decide the way forward. Hardball smells a rat. The party chairman was not in a position to decide whether or not the primary election was in order. Yet he flew to the media with a glib remark on behalf of a party.

    It was a clear case of impunity. Those who were sent to the field to conduct the election had not returned to Abuja. The process is usually simple and straightforward. The panel was expected to submit a report to the NWC, and then an appeal committee presides and recommends to the party.

    So was Oyegun the panel that went to Yenagoa to conduct the election? No. Is he the NWC? No. So when did Oyegun become the panel and the decision maker at the same time?

    As a party chairman he should beware of the statements he utters. He should not be seen to be a chairman of a group of people. That is not the logic of his high chair. Tragically, he has not uttered any retraction of that ignoble statement. In democracy, we do not work from answer to question. That is what is called impunity. When we work from question to answer, it is called due process. That should be lesson 101 in democracy for the APC chairman.

    The other issue that arose was the question of who sowed and who wanted to reap. Those who made much of the acclamations during the primary election said no one should reap where he did not sow.

    The APC was regarded as anathema by the political elite in BayelsaState during the inglorious era of former President Goodluck Jonathan. They all pitched tent with Jonathan and mouthed their solidarity with various degrees of volubility to the Otuoke man.

    Suddenly with Buhari’s victory, APC became the bride, and the elite who swore by Jonathan suddenly made a shameless pirouette and APC became the Mecca. It is not only that they did not sow, they want to be lords of the manor. This is becoming a trend in our politics, and it is an opportunistic game that rewards carpet baggers. As the Good Book says, those who did not sow should not reap. It is high time it meant something in our democracy, if it should grow.

  • How impunity encourages sexual crimes

    How impunity encourages sexual crimes

    The Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT) has an important job: the eradication of gender-based violence in Lagos State. In this interview with  YETUNDE OLADEHINDE, ADEBISI ONANUGA and ROBERT EGBE,  the group’s Coordinator, Mrs. Lola Vivour-Adeniyi, during a visit to The Nation, spoke on the scale of the problem in the state as well as the government’s strategies to combat the scourge. Excerpts.

     

    There are already many organisations handling issues relating to domestic as well as sexual abuse and violence, why was it necessary to establish the DSVRT?

    There was a case of a four-year-old girl that was sexually assaulted. Due to the intensity of the defilement, her pelvic dropped, so she couldn’t control her urinal passage, and, of course, you know that different agencies are doing different things to address these issues, but there was no coordinated response to it. For example, you know some NGOs carry out sensitisation campaigns to try and pressurise relevant agencies to take relevant action and, then, the police are supposed to investigate, but sometimes this doesn’t come through. And even when it does, there’s sometimes the issue of out-of-court settlement. Sometimes the case gets to the Director of Public Prosecutions, other times it does not. So, the former Attorney-General felt that the best thing to do was to have representatives from all these agencies under one umbrella, come together, since we’re all working towards one common goal, which is, ultimately, to eradicate sexual and gender-based violence. And that is why the Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team was established in 2014.

     

    So, the DSVRT is a coalition of the government as well as law enforcement agencies?

    The team comprises representatives of relevant agencies and the private sector; it is a public-private partnership, so you have civil society organisations, the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Ministry of Education, that of Youth and Social Development, we have the Directorate of Public Prosecution and some media partners.

     

    What kinds of challenges have you been facing?

    This month alone we’ve attended to eight cases and the major challenge is the community. You have a victim and we say girl victim, but it can happen to boys or men. You find out that when the girl or woman has found the courage to come out and speak up, you have her family members, the society, the community representatives begging,saying things like ‘please forgive him, are you God? Can’t you just forgive? At least, you didn’t die, let God deal with him, etc.’ And you just wonder if these people know these things are crimes? Just a couple of days ago, the uncle of a victim called and said he heard I would speak to the Divisional Police Officer, requesting for the status of the case. I told him to come to my office so we could talk, but he said no, that they had reported it to the police and they want the police to ‘just punish him small, and let him go one week later.’ I looked at him and said, ‘Are you the Attorney-General? You’re not the government, you’re not the person that is allowed to mete out punishment. You’ve done a good job, you’ve reported the case, now allow the law to take its course. So, we have a lot of work to do to in terms of sensitising members of the public that rape is a crime and it is not for anyone to encourage.

     

    Rape is a crime. What about its prevention? Is there anything are you doing towards sensitising people about this and to find out why they do it?

    We’re not only interested in punishing the perpetrators, we’re also putting in a lot of preventive measures. Part of that is why we’re here, because when the public is aware of what we do it makes everything easier. We go to schools, we sensitise all stakeholders who have one thing or the other to do with the issue. We go to churches, we go to mosques; anywhere there’s a gathering. If you look at the way our culture is evolving, children see adults as uncles and aunties, as trusted people and most of the perpetrators of sexual violence are not strangers, so, as much as possible, we focus on the young. We tell them things like, nobody should touch certain parts of their bodies, whether or not the person is an aunty or an uncle. We’re even educating caregivers as well. The case you heard of the four-year-old, the girl was calling the perpetrator ‘uncle’, yet he was defiling all the little girls in the school, more like a serial rapist. We organize programmes, we have posters, handbills, etc. Wherever we can get these young people, we go there and tell them.

     

    The victims of these crimes go through a lot of pain both physical and emotional. What do they tell you about their experiences?

    One thing that the victims go through is that sometimes they are actually harassed; they are threatened, their lives are threatened. Then when it comes to threats, we’re yet to get to that level where we develop a mindset that no matter what you do to me, I’m going on with the case and that is why we want the media to bring out articles that people can read whether adults or the young, and understand that they shouldn’t feel threatened. We need you to help us tell people that what we do is a holistic package, that sexual violence is a crime against the state. Bringing all of these various organisations under one umbrella is very helpful, because it means that people now know that there are different doors that they can approach.

     

    Why is defilement usually treated differently than rape?

    Well, we have the Criminal Laws of Lagos State 2011, and the difference between rape and defilement as you rightly said, is that we have Section 137 that provides for defilement, then we have section 258 for rape. But I think the reason we find that most defilement cases get handled differently is because the victim is unable to speak out by his or herself, you’ll find that it is through the parents or guardians that are the mouthpiece of the victim, it is through them we get to know about the victim. We actually think that defilement is a very serious matter, and defilement is not just being perpetuated by men, you’ll be amazed that female teachers are inserting things, inserting pens into children’s vaginas in the school premises.

     

    What can we say is the cause of this new trend?

    I think it is impunity. I think people are doing these things because they think they can get away with it. And even from best practices, when we look at how other countries that have had these kinds of incidents, how they’ve been able to handle it, the most effective deterrent is conviction. When you read the Punch, The Nation, and you see so and so defiled a child convicted for life; so and so person defiled a child, convicted for 30 years; it’ll send a message that it is no more business as usual.

     

    Talking about conviction, the UNILAG lecturer’s case, what are you doing about that?

    The part-time lecturer? We’re actually on top of it. You know the case was reported to the Office of the Public Defender, which is a member of the team, and the Director sent a letter to the University of Lagos (UNILAG) management to inform them about it, but the victim has received medical treatment, the part-time lecturer case has been arraigned before an Ikeja Magistrate’s Court and he’s on remand in Kirikiri. The reality with rape is, it is ‘she said, he said’. The perpetrator will say it was consensual, the victim will say ‘I did not consent’, so, it’s only when they get to court that the court will now say ‘where is the evidence?’

     

    When it comes to these crimes, what kind of people should children, parents and guardians be most wary of?

    You’ll find out that most people who perpetrate these acts are people that the victims know. Sometimes these people know that a daughter is sneaking out of the house, they’ll blackmail her and say ‘I’m going to tell mummy and daddy if you don’t let me do this.’ That’s how it starts, and once there is a scar, it leads to some of the social problems we’re now having, because the scar is there, it didn’t heal. They have long-term effects on the victim. And we have a lot of problems now, taking care of the people who have been sexually abused. Every home must start educating its children. Not only on ABC and 123, but on whatever name you want to call it, whether it’s sex education, talk shows or whatever, you must discuss it at home.

     

    There are stipulated punishments for perpetrators of domestic and gender-based crimes. Does your agency have any programme or system for identifying and rewarding ‘good behavior’ or ‘sanity’ for instance in schools?

    Well, in terms of the Mandatory Reporting Policy, I don’t know if you’re familiar with that. It mandates anybody employed by the Lagos State Government that has dealings with children to report actual or perceived cases of child abuse to the Office of the Attorney-General, and we came up with this manual and there’s a form that they’re supposed to fill. What we intend to do is to see the mandated reporters that have reported; we note reports that have been made by a particular set of mandated reporters and we intend to reward them. I believe we’ll do it in the open and get organisations to partner with us and give them their products and so on and so forth, just to encourage them that, okay, they’re doing the right thing.

     

    What should a rape victim do to preserve evidence immediately such a crime occurs?

    The first thing is that the victim should not take a bath, and that is a stiff challenge because when a rape occurs, the first thing the victim wants to do is to wash. But when you’re washing, you’re actually washing away the evidence. The next thing is to go to the nearest hospital; ideally, the victim should go to the Mirabel Centre. The Mirabel Centre is a sexual assault and referral centre where you receive free medical and counselling aid. If the Mirabel Centre, which is located at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) is too far, the victim should go to the nearest hospital. It’s not about prosecution at that stage; we simply want to protect the victim. If the victim presents herself of himself within 72 hours, which is the golden period, tests can be administered which reduces the chances of the victim contracting sexually transmitted diseases like HIV and all of that. So, the first thing is to get medical help.

     

    Are you doing anything towards discouraging the subtle denigration of women in popular culture, such as in the featuring of scantily dressed ladies in Nigerian songs or films?

    To be fair, that’s adult content. They’re not meant to be shown during regular hours. But, I don’t know if you’re familiar with Nigerian musician Olamide’s song ‘Story for the gods’? That song is promoting rape from the beginning to the end. “You come to my house, you’re telling me it’s getting late. I don’t need your permission. Now you’re saying my hand is hurting me.” People were singing the song and I didn’t know. Then somebody interpreted it and I went online and saw the interpretation, and I said wow, this is a rape song. I don’t know if you’ve even seen the video. We didn’t hear of it on time, in fact, we got wind of it like a year late, but when we did, and though there’s a limit to what we can do in a matter like this, we wrote to the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and advised the NBC that if these kinds of songs are aired at all, they should be aired during off peak hours. And then we even attacked Olamide on Twitter and told him his song was promoting rape and he needed to desist from this. Obviously he didn’t respond. We all need to canvass more that these kinds of things should not be encouraged. Radio stations should not be playing these kinds of songs when children are listening, but I don’t think it’s reasonable to say, no don’t show those kinds of videos.

     

     

     

  • Caging impunity

    • We await with baited breath the audit reports of all MDAs

    The Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (AGF) is the institutional fulcrum against graft and official corruption. Where this office is properly established and functional, corruption in public offices is often a rarity. This is why any attempt to curb fiscal indiscipline and financial recklessness often starts at the office of the AGF.

    This office tracks all financial transactions in all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) by releasing annual audit reports. It issues queries to individuals and units found to be remiss in handling finances. The report is statutorily presented to the Senate annually and also placed in the public arena.

    By the very act of this report from the office of the AGF, accountability and transparency in government’s finances are ensured. This way, too, individuals and civil society groups would be able to track government expenditures both generally and as it concerns them.

    The last time a proper report was presented to the Senate was in 2004 when the then AGF, Mr. Vincent Azia, released the report for 2002. The report which was in itself a novelty as there was hardly any notable one before then, caused so much uproar in the polity. The report was a showcase of financial malfeasance and recklessness in the extreme. Hardly any MDA was clean, even the Presidency and National Assembly (NASS) were not only held up for finagling over finances, they had many unanswered queries.

    Not many other serious audit reports had been released since then. It seemed quite convenient both for the Senate and the Presidency not to care about the AGF’s reports. In fact, all through the era of President Goodluck Jonathan the only reports that emanated from the office of the AGF were about the poor funding of this critical office.

    It is based on the foregoing that we applaud the recent directive by President Mohammadu Buhari that all outstanding audit queries must be resolved within 30 day. Miffed by the wretched state of the AGF’s office currently, President Buhari during a meeting with the AGF called for an immediate return to the standard operating procedures and financial regulations in the service.

    In addition, the president ordered that going forward, audit queries must be answered within 24 hours. “The era of impunity is gone,” said the president. As stated by his media aide, “President Buhari will ensure that public officials and civil servants in the service of the Federal Government pay heavy price from now on for violating financial regulations and disregarding audit queries.”

    The real issues here are impunity and a complete disregard for laid-down rules and procedures governing public service. Just as is the case with tracking expenditures, so it is with monitoring remittances from MDAs to the federal treasury. Impunity reigns supreme in this area too, for instance, it was reported last week that the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) found that the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) company failed to remit about $11.6 billion (N2.32 trillion) between 2009 and 2012.

    Particularly notable is the frustration of the NEITI chief, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed who lamented that issues thrown up in her agency’s audit reports had remained unimplemented, describing the situation as “an unfortunate recurring decimal.”

    All these indeed paint a picture of a state mired in fiscal anomie. Revenues both at the state and federal levels are not tracked while expenditures have no proper accounts. The individuals and bodies concerned ignore audit queries when they manage to come and nobody seemed to care. There is no better way to gauge a collapsed polity than by the way finances are managed.

    While we salute President Buhari for identifying one of the main sources of graft in the system, we urge him to go beyond the periphery. The rot is very deep so he must make fundamental changes to the system.

    The office of the AGF is a key institution of state; it requires a complete overhaul and retooling to enable it carry out its crucial assignment. There is also a need to set up a body to track the revenues of MDAs and ensure that they are duly remitted to the treasury.

    We must cage impunity now.

  • ‘Impunity in Senate threatening democracy’

    ‘Impunity in Senate threatening democracy’

    •Unity Forum’s spokesman writes Saraki, Ekweremadu

    THE senator representing Kano North and Chairman of the Publicity Committee of the Unity  Forum, Barau Jibrin, has warned against impunity by some lawmakers.

    Unity Forum is the group of senators supporting Senator Ahmed Lawan for the leadership of Senate.

    The senator, who made the observation yesterday in an open letter to Deputy Senate President Ike  Ekweremadu  and Senator  Muhammed  Danjuma Goje, said impunity was threatening the nation’s democracy.

    He said: “Unless the rule of law is restored in the Eighth Senate, the foundation of impunity and double-talk being played out in the Senate is capable of derailing the Buhari administration.”

    Jibrin  noted that the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki and Ekweremadu as Senate president and deputy Senate president had affected the nation’s democratic values and direction.

    He regretted that “the Saraki-Ekweremadu group, in their desperate political ambition, which manifested a few days before the June 9 betrayal, suddenly turned upside down the time-tested values of democracy and leadership they had professed publicly and privately”.

    He noted how Ekweremadu,  in a paper, titled: Leadership in the National Assembly, he presented  in  Abuja at the Induction Certificate Course on Legislative Studies for the Eighth National Assembly on April 27, espoused party supremacy, particularly as it affects the appointment of the principal officers of the Senate.

    Quoting from Ekweremadu’s paper at the lecture, Jibrin said: “The offices and functions of officers of the Senate, for instance, are enumerated in Chapter 6 of the Senate Standing Orders. Thus, in addition to the Presiding Officers captured therein, Sections 25 to 32 provide for the following Offices: 1. Majority/Senate Leader; 2. Minority Leader; 3. Deputy Majority  Leader;  4. Deputy Minority Leader;  5. Majority/Chief Whip;  6. Minority Whip;  7. Deputy Majority Whip; and 8. Deputy Minority Whip.

    “However, whereas the entire members of the House elect the Presiding Officers, whether in the Senate or the House of Representatives, the above listed offices are party affairs and are supplied by the affected parties, accordingly. Generally, as the titles imply, the posts of Majority Leader, Deputy Majority leader, Majority/Chief Whip, and Deputy Majority Whip are supplied by the party with majority members in each house of the National Assembly while the reverse is the case for Minority Leader, Minority Whip and their deputies.”

    Calling Ekweremadu’s attention to his comments about developments at the National Assembly, Jibrin said: “…Lately, you made an unfair remark that the National Assembly was not a party secretariat when our great party (the All Progressives Congress, APC) insisted that its supremacy and wishes in the matter of who occupied leadership positions be respected.”

    He added: “It is not only the flouting of the rules concerning the party’s latitude to present the leadership of its Senate caucus that Senator Ekweremadu had provided support for, but he had also provided support to Senator Saraki to flout the ranking rule in the legislature, unlike what he explained at the same public gathering inter alia:

    “Ranking Rule: Both the House and Senate Standing Orders lay emphasis on legislative experience or Ranking Rule. In the Senate for instance, Order 2 provides: ‘Nomination of Senators to serve as Presiding Officers and appointments of principal officers and other officers of the Senate or on any parliamentary delegations shall be in accordance with the ranking of senators.

    “In determining ranking, the following order shall apply: 1. Senators returning based on number of times re-elected. 2. Senators, who had been members of the House of Representatives. 3. Senators elected as senators for the first time.’

    “This rule, though not law in itself, is a parliamentary norm, even in the United States of America (USA), and has been variously upheld by the courts. It is protected by Section 60 of the 1999 Constitution’.”

    He noted that the parlous situation foisted on the Senate by impunity and double-talk would persist until ”we see to it that the rules you have enjoined others to breach are asserted”.

    Jibrin reminded Saraki  and Ekweremadu that ”as they remain in the Eighth  Senate,  wanting to make laws for the people of Nigeria, they must  themselves obey the rule of the game”.

    On Goje, who was Gombe State governor, the senator said he could not understand his sudden change from being an adherent of the rule of law and a party disciplinarian.

    Jibrin said: “Senator  Goje  told me, among others at the  Aminu Kano House at  Asokoro, Abuja, before the  purported inauguration of the Eighth Senate what we already  knew, that the appointment of principal officers of the Senate is in the purview of the concerned political parties that have their members in the Senate, guided by ranking rule of the Red Chamber.”

    He added: “But I was surprised to hear Senator  Goje insisting on the floor of the Senate that the so-called zonal caucuses should appoint the principal officers instead.

    “I wonder which part of the Senate’s Standing Order  Senator  Goje relied on to make his  assertion.”

    Jibrin urged well-meaning Nigerians to resist the desecration of the Eighth Senate  through impunity.

    He said the development   could undermine the sanctity of the Senate, the present administration and ”our entire democracy”.

  • Fed Govt must end impunity, says Amnesty

    Fed Govt must end impunity, says Amnesty

    Amnesty International has said the Federal Government can end impunity by investigating and dealing with all cases of human rights abuses.

    AI, in a statement by its Africa Director – Research and Advocacy, Netsanet Belay, said President Muhammadu Buhari was committed to ending impunity.

    The statement reads: “Observing the public debate following the publication of Amnesty International’s recent report on war crimes committed by the military I am reminded of the words of Wole Soyinka: “Power is transient, justice eternal”.

    “Since we came back from Abuja, I have noted the positive commitment from the President as well as the usual dismissive response from the military. I have heard from Nigerians from all walks of life.

    “Time will tell whether truth and justice will prevail in Nigeria. But let me set the records straight to clarify some emerging misconceptions.

    “Amnesty has documented and condemned in the strongest terms the atrocities committed by Boko Haram and we will continue to do so.

    “As recently as April 14, 2015, the first anniversary of the abduction of the Chibok school girls, we published a comprehensive report, ‘Our job is to shoot, slaughter and kill’ documenting and condemning the horrific crimes of Boko Haram in the Northeast of the country.

    “The April report showed that in addition to abducting at least 2,000 women and girls, Boko Haram had killed at least 5,500 civilians and brutalized tens of thousands between 2014 and March 2015.

    “And this report was not the first. My team have been on the ground documenting and exposing multiple war crimes, crimes against humanity and other human rights abuses committed by Boko Haram since the start of the crisis. These findings were published in Amnesty International reports in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. And each time, we have called for justice for the victims of Boko Haram.

    “But we have also documented serious human rights violations perpetrated by the military in the course of the fight against Boko Haram.

    “In our sister report to the report about Boko Haram atrocities, ‘Stars on their Shoulders. Blood on their Hands’ we documented war crimes and crimes against humanity by the military.

    “What Amnesty International uncovered in Nigeria was not a handful of civilian casualties caught in the cross-fire. It was evidence of a systematic process whereby more than 7,000 mainly young Nigerian men and boys died in military detention and more than 1,200 people were unlawfully killed. The vast majority of those unlawfully murdered were non-combatants, most killed following arbitrary arrests.

    “These are Nigerian fathers, sons and brothers. They are the missing husbands of the women interviewed by Amnesty International who cannot afford to feed their children or send them to school since their husbands disappeared. They are the sons of the parents who have spent the past year visiting every barracks, police station and jail they can reach to search for their missing children.

    “As an independent, impartial organisation, dedicated to documenting and exposing the most serious human rights violations wherever they are committed and whoever they are perpetrated by, Amnesty International is speaking out about these violations, and with a clear purpose.

    “We are asking what happened to the thousands of young men arrested without any evidence against them and who have never been brought to court.

    “We are demanding justice for the people trapped by the cycle of violence and impunity, perpetrated by both Boko Haram and the very military that is supposed to protect them

    “The horrific acts committed by Boko Haram must end and perpetrators of crimes under international law in its ranks must be punished. But their horrific acts cannot and should not be used to justify the Nigerian military’s unlawful conduct and human rights violations. The military cannot tackle war crimes by committing war crimes. Safety and security cannot be delivered by executing, torturing and ill-treating thousands of people.

    “The findings of this recent report resulted from years of detailed research including more than 400 interviews and the analysis of 90 videos and 800 official documents. We travelled repeatedly to the Northeast, gathering information and interviewing witnesses, victims and the families. People told us how they had been rounded-up with hundreds of other young men and boys after cordon searches and held in overcrowded cells. Many were starved, suffocated, and tortured to death.

    “We also spoke to other witnesses who are themselves senior members of the security forces, but who felt that these abhorrent practices within the military must be stamped out.

    “We shared our findings with various sections of the Nigerian government. Since 2013, we have sent 57 letters to the federal and state authorities: sharing research findings, raising concerns about ongoing violations and requesting information and specific action, such as investigations. We only received 13 responses, none of which demonstrated the previous government’s commitment to launching an independent, impartial and effective investigation into these serious crimes. Where investigations were launched they were conducted by the military and the conclusions have never been published.

    “The Nigerian government has had repeated opportunities to confront and investigate these allegations but, despite mounting evidence, they have failed to do so.

    “President Buhari has stated that his government will leave no stone unturned to investigate and deal with all cases of human rights abuses. We join millions of Nigerians in welcoming this commitment.

    “We hope that this will be the beginning of the end of impunity in Nigeria and that it will bring hope to those desperate to find out what has happened to their loved ones.

    “No military is beyond scrutiny. All we ask is that the government of Nigeria does what is right, and what it is bound to do under international law, and delivers justice to the thousands of victims of this conflict.

    “The time to act is now.”