The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Incompetent

  • ‘PDP must avoid incompetent leaders’

    A group under the aegis of Peoples Democratic Party Volunteer Movement has blamed the party’s failure in the 2015 general elections on incompetent leadership.

    The group said the party must not repeat the same mistake. National Patron, PDP Volunteers Movement Ambassador Auwal Alhassan and National Organizing Secretary of the group, Hon. Desmond Minakaro, spoke  at a news conference on Wednesday in Abuja.

    The movement, which is supporting the chairmanship bid of a former Ogun State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, urged members to resist people with questionable character.

    The group said: “The problems that dragged our Party to failure during the 2015 general election was solely due to incompetent leadership. Having come this far, it is therefore, very important never to repeat such a mistake of leaving our Party in the hands of unscrupulous elements again.

    “Men and Women of high proven integrity and genuine love for our Party must be identified and handed over the affairs of our great Party, if we must regain our lost glory.

    “People of questionable character, who have been tested before on different capacities and found wanting, should be resisted. Its time to sanitize and make our party the envy of all.

    “It may interest you to note that, the PDP Volunteers Group have X-ray all the contestant for the position of PDP National Chairman and found out that all the Contestants are good but His Excellency, Otumba Gbenga Daniel is found to be the best.

    “He has been a strong supporter and lover of PDP and above all, he has the right connections with people from all over the federation to administer good leadership to PDP, haven served as Executive Governor.”

  • Police not incompetent, says spokesman

    Police not incompetent, says spokesman

    The Lagos State Police Command yesterday reassured residents of its resolve to detect and prevent crime.

    Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Kenneth Nwosu, a Deputy Superintendent (DSP) said, the command had been proactive in crime investigations.

    Lagosians, he said, should disregard any report describing the police as incompetent.

    “For any crime that is committed, we are to do investigation, nobody tells us how or when to do this. Our duty as police officers mandates us to do so and as a command that is very proactive to issues like this, we do that,” Nwosu said.

    He noted that it was the police responsibility to prevent or detect crime, adding: “We are to do investigations on every crime committed either detected by the police or reported by the public.

    “It is one of our paramount duties according to Section 4 of the Police Act. We try to prevent crime, if we cannot prevent it, we detect and it is during investigation that we detect.” he said.

  • ‘Special case procedure incompetent’

    The appeal is against the Judgment of the High Court of Lagos State, Lagos  Division delivered by A. A. Phillips J. on the 25th Day of January 2013. The Suit leading to this appeal was commenced in the High Court of Lagos State, Lagos Division by the Claimants (now Appellants) vide their writ of summons filed on 24-11-1994. The original 1st Defendant in the suit was (Pinnacle Commercial Bank Ltd) but subsequently substituted with the Liquidator (Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation) now 1st Respondent. The 4th Respondent herein was not part of the original defendants in the suit but subsequently applied on 13-3-1997 to be joined in the suit and was thus joined as the 5th Defendant.

    The bone of contention was all that property situated at plot 308 Younis Bashorun Street, Victoria Island, Lagos. By Tripartite Legal Mortgage made between the 1st and 3rd Appellant and the 1st Respondent dated 27th January 1993 and registered as No 64 at page 64 in volume 1945 of the Land Registry office at Lagos, the said property was mortgage as security for a credit facility granted by the 1st Respondent to the 1st Appellant. Due some difficulties in repayment of the loans as agreed, the 1st Respondent in accordance with the loan agreement, appointed a Receiver who after series of correspondences with 3rd Appellant including threats of sale if the property of the loan is not repaid eventually informed the 1st Appellant that the property has been sold for the sum of N60 million naira and that the balance due to the 1st Appellant from proceeds of sale after deduction of the amount due for payment as loan was being returned to the 1st Appellant.

    This prompted the Appellant to commence the action in the Lower Court on the 24-11-1994, claiming certain reliefs. It was followed with a motion for interlocutory injunction to restrain the 1st Respondent from selling the mortgaged property. The Defendants (now Respondents) filed their statement of defence as well as counter affidavit to oppose the application for interlocutory injunction. The said application was refused by the Lower Court and this issue of injunction was fought up to the Supreme Court for a period spanning ten years until the Supreme Court in 2004 ordered that the matter be remitted to the trial court for hearing of the substantive suit. The suit however, did not take off at the trial court until 2010. During the Pre-trial conference, the 2nd, 3rd and 5th Respondents brought an application for special case to be, considered pursuant to Order 28 Rules (1) & (2) of the High Court of Lagos State (Civil Procedure) Rules 2004. Upon the concurrence of parties and approval of the Court, written addresses were order filed and served on the issues stated in special case. The said written address were subsequently adopted and in a judgment delivered on 25-1-2013, on the special case, the Appellants’ suit as well as the 4th Respondent’s counterclaim were dismissed and the Appellants were asked to yield up possession of the property in dispute. The Appellants were aggrieved with the outcome of the special case proceedings and accordingly filed a notice of appeal at the Court of Appeal. In the Appellant’s brief of argument, five issues were formulated for determination as follows:

    (1) Whether the learned trial judge was right in granting an order for possession forthwith against the Appellants in this suit in respect of the property at Plot 108, Younis Bashorun Street Victoria Island Annex, Lagos, when same was not claimed in the application of the 2nd, 3rd and 5th Respondents.

    (2) Whether the learned trial was right in considering the written statement on oath of the claimant’s witness, Mr. Gabriel Oseke and the Documents to be relied upon at the trial in her decision on the application for special case brought by the 2nd, 3rd and 5th Respondents when trial had not commenced.

    (3) Whether the learned trial judge was right in holding that there was voluntary admission of debt by the Appellants in their amended statement of claim and the Respondents are entitled to judgment dismissing the action without taken oral evidence.

    (4) Whether the learned trial judge was right in determining this suit of the Lower Court on the special case application of the 2nd, 3rd and 5th Respondents and dismissing the suit without taking oral evidence from the parties.

    (5) Whether the learned trial judge was right in delivering judgment in the suit when it was not ripe to do so.

    In determining the appeal the Court noted that issues 2, 3, and 4 can be conveniently taken together given the fact that they all relate to the proper interpretation and application of Order 28 Rules 1 and 2 of the High Court of Lagos State (Civil Procedure) Rules 2004. The Court in interpreting the Rules stated that Rules (1) and (2) apply under two different settings. The Court stated further that while parties may by consent initiate a special case procedure by stating the questions of law arising in the case for the opinion of the judge under Rule (1); a special case procedure can also be initiated before trial proper by the judge where it appears to him that there is a question of law which could be conveniently decided in any cause or matter before any evidence is given, or any question or issue of fact is tried. In other words, the Court held that while under Rule (1), the concurrence of the parties to the suit is required at the case management conference stage for a question of law arising in their case in the form of a special case to be presented before the court for the opinion of the judge. Under Rule (2) it is the judge that will raise such questions of law in any cause or matter before it at the case management conference stage for the parties to address the court on such question of law and that this is only possible where such question of law could conveniently be decided before any evidence is given or any question or issue of fact is tried.

     

    The Court stated that the distinction between Rule (1) and Rule (2) is made clearer by Rule 3 which provides that “Every Special case agreed pursuant to Rule (1) shall be signed by the several parties or their legal practitioners and shall be filed by the claimant or other party having conduct of the proceedings.”

     

    In the instant case, the Court noted that the special case procedure was initiated at the instance of the 3rd, 4th and 6th defendants at the trial court (now 2nd, 3rd and 5th) Respondents. The Court noted a preliminary point that from the record of appeal which contains all the processes filed in the trial court as well as the proceedings recorded therein, it was nowhere shown that the parties complied with the provisions of Order 28 Rule 3 of the High Court of Lagos State (Civil Procedure) Rules 2004.

     

    The Court stated that the provision of the Order 28 Rule 3 cannot be said to have been complied with by the mere fact that the learned trial judge agreed with the issues raised by the counsel for the 2nd 3rd and 5th Respondents in their application for a special case procedure and ordered the parties to file written addresses on the issues so raised. The Court held that the approach adopted by the learned trial judge is alien to Rules 1 and (3). The Court held that failure to comply with the provision Order 28 Rule 3 is not a mere irregularity but a fundamental vice. The Court held that Rules of Court having been made pursuant to a statutory provision derives its strength therefrom and must be complied with stricto sensu that any indulgence that should be granted upon failure to comply with the Rules of court shall be limited to where the non compliance is minimal or where there is a specific provision in the Rules granting the Court the discretion to either enforce it or grant a waiver. See KALU VS ODILI (1992) 6 SCNJ 76; (1992) LPELR-1653(SC) and G.M.O. NWORAH & SONS CO. LTD VS AFAM AKPUTA (2010) 9 NWLR (PT.1200) 443; (2010) LPELR-1296(SC).

     

    The Court held that failure to comply with Order 28 Rule 3 of the High Court of Lagos State (Civil Procedure) Rules 2004 rendered the special case procedure undertaken thereto incompetent. On the whole the Court held that the appeal succeeds and it was allowed. The judgment of the High Court of Lagos State delivered on the 25th January 2013 by Hon. Justice A. A. Phillips Mrs. in suit No. LD/5318/1994 was set aside. The said suit No.LD/5318/1994 was thereby ordered to be remitted back to the Chief Judge of Lagos State for reassignment to another judge for accelerated trial on the merits.

     

    •LawPavilion Citation: (2014) LPELR-23343(CA)

    Compiled by:

    LawPavilion

  • ‘More incompetent ministers must go’

    ‘More incompetent ministers must go’

    Some members of the Oyo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Concerned PDP Youth Forum (C-PDPYF), have urged President Goodluck Jonathan to sack more ministers.

    In a statement yesterday by its President, Ayoola Adeseun, the group said the reshuffling of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) was long over-due.

    The group said: “While we commend Mr. President for the courage in effecting these changes, we make haste to add that we are opposed to the retention of some ministers who have divided the party along their selfish and inordinate ambitions like we have in Oyo State. We need a level-headed, humble and respectful minister who will rise above selfish interest and serve as a rallying point for the young and old; not a disrespectful, caustic and hot-tempered brat.

    “In order to restore sanity to the party and make it stronger. This is the only way to woo people back into the party and free it from the vice-grip of governors and godfathers who singlehandedly nominate appointees in the past. Even if the Presidency has some nominees, they should be presented to the party. Do not let anyone come straight to the Presidency as this will undermine the party and suppress the structure of the party. It should be noted that any party without portfolio is an empty barrel.”

  • Incompetent teachers

    Incompetent teachers

    •This is a serious problem that governments must address because it is ‘garbage in, garbage out’

    THE problem we are facing today is as a result of problems in the education sector … Our failure to train these youths is making us to spend more money on security. If you fail to spend money on the education of the children, one day you will spend more money in buying bullets to kill them.” This statement from the Chairman of Kaduna State Universal Basic Education, Ishaya Dare Akau, in reaction to a survey recently carried out on teachers in the state, is thought-provoking.

    At least 1,300 teachers in the state were said to have failed in tests generally meant for primary four pupils. The state commissioner for education, Alhaji Usman Mohammed, made the revelation at an education summit tagged “Education for all is responsibility of all,” held at the Hassan Usman Katsina House.

    “A total of 1,599 teachers selected from across the state were given primary four tests in Mathematics and Basic literacy. Only one of them scored 75 percent, 250 scored between 50 to 75 percent and 1,300 scored below 25 percent,” he said. According to the commissioner, the same examination was conducted for 1,800 primary school pupils and many of them failed woefully. If gold rusts, what would iron do?

    Unfortunately, the story is the same in most parts of the country. Perhaps what is sadder in the Kaduna episode is that this scandalous development is just being discovered now. Teachers in Kwara State also performed woefully in a similar test in 2008; the Ekiti State government has been having a running battle with teachers in the state since it mooted the idea of teachers’ proficiency test.

    If we talk of falling standard in education in the country today, perhaps this can be situated within the context of the wobbly beginning that many pupils had. Primary education is supposed to be the foundation on which subsequent learning would be built. Where the foundation is weak, whatever is erected on it is bound to crumble. Sadly, the government is to be held responsible for this trend. Years back, it came up with a policy lowering admission requirements for people seeking to pursue careers in education, thus giving the impression that teaching is an inferior course.

    Again, most of the satellite campuses in the country have crash programmes for teachers, where they certify them competent to teach after two summer programmes. The implication is that we have half-baked teachers all over the place who have little or nothing to offer. These are unleashed on hapless pupils and students who come out of their academic programmes only a shade better than they were when they gained admission. This is contrary to the practice in some other countries like Finland and South Korea where teaching is held in esteem and their best are sent to the classrooms.

    Nothing here suggests that there are no good teachers in the country. But the point is that many of the people in our classrooms are not qualified and this is a challenge we have to address. The starting point is to ensure that only qualified teachers are recruited.

    Gone were those days when teachers’ rewards were in heaven; teaching is a great profession and until we recognise it as such, we would continue to have problems in our classrooms and this would tell on the country because education is the bedrock of development. Even when we have qualified and competent teachers, they must undergo regular training to build their capacity and they should be encouraged to upgrade and update their academic qualifications periodically. Also, their welfare and remuneration must be enhanced to retain and get the best from them.