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Tag: LAW

Law as tool for national development

At the just-concluded yearly conference of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), speakers, including President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), were unanimous that the nation’s quest for reawakening and sustained growth is imperilled without the support of the judiciary. They suggested ways law could be effectively deployed as a tool for national development. Eric Ikhilae reports.

For eight days last week, lawyers gathered in Abuja to examine, among others, ways to improve society through the law.

From August 21 to 28, speakers and other conferees examined the suitability of the nation’s legal framework, identified some flaws and recommended ways the Law and the judicial system could be effectively deployed as agents of national development.

The event, the 55th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), which was well-attended, attracted dignitaries, such as President Muhammad Buhari; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Mahmud Mohammed; Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court of Kenya, Dr. Willy Mutunga, and key players in the critical sectors.

About 39 papers, touching all aspects of legal practice, were presented by experts, who were both lawyers and non-lawyers.

Drawing from the broad theme of: Lawyers and national development, speakers at the various breakout sessions, addressed issues affecting every facet of the nation’s sector and suggested how, with everyone diligently playing his/her part, the required growth and development could be attained.

Areas explored included: “the role of lawyers in national development; contribution of lawyers in public office to national development; providing legal support for talent based industry; special focus on movies, music, comedy and sports; law officers and national development; the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in election petitions; ending the scourge of abandoned projects in Nigeria, anti-corruption: Fresh strategies, new initiatives.”

Realising the importance of the involvement of the law community in his administration’s anti-corruption stance, President Buhari, while inaugurating the conference on August 23, urged lawyers and judicial officers to partner with the people in this crucial period of national reawakening.

Buhari, while enlisting the lawyers’ support for his administration’s resolve to combat corruption and impunity in the land, acknowledged their professional responsibility of defending their clients. He urged them to do so without compromising their professional ethics and the integrity of the legal system no matter how lucrative the brief may be.

The president drew the lawyers’attention to how pervasive corruption and impunity, which signposted past administrations, have combined to deny the masses access to basic needs.

“It is the reason pensioners are not paid and potable water is scarce. In effect, corruption diverts public resources meant for millions of people into the private pockets of a greedy few, thereby causing a lot of suffering, deprivation and death. In my view, there can be no greater violation of human rights.

“Viewed in this way, I think we can all fully appreciate the gravity of this oppressive and destructive evil. This should rouse us to fight it with the same zeal and doggedness as we deploy in the defense of fundamental rights.

“I am convinced that law, lawmakers, lawyers, law courts and the law enforcement agencies all have pivotal responsibilities to discharge, if the change we seek is ever to materialise,” Buhari said.

While speaking on the topic: “The role of law in national development,” Prof Osinbajo laid before the gathering, the policy thrust of their administration on the reform of laws necessary for economic growth and strengthening of legal and institutional framework of key justice institutions in the country.

Osinbajo, who assured Nigerians of the commitment of the Federal Government at ensuring the effective management of the nation’s resources for the benefit of all, said the government will ensure that all avenues of leakages were plugged and take steps to change every aspect of the economic value chain, while working to improve infrastructure, food production and power generation.

•President Buhari (right) and Vice President Osinbajo.

The Vice President, however, noted that there was need to reform the justice sector to enable it function in aid of government’s objectives. This, he said, was imperative, because the effective interplay of the components of the justice sector will largely affect the performance of the national enterprise, which elements include security of lives and property, the economy and rights protection.

Osinbajo stressed the need for players in the justice sector to work with the government to effectively deal with “theft, official corruption and the privatisation of public resources” to allow for the attainment of the anticipated national growth and development.

“We have to deal with the issue of integrity in our judicial system even as we deal with general problem of corruption. There is no question at all that, if we don’t handle corruption squarely, if our justice system is so degraded, that it will be practically impossible to get very much done or to encourage anyone to come into our environment.

“We should be able to hold people to account; to ensure that people cannot escape justice. The self-seeking ways of a few should not be allowed to stall our national enterprise,” he said.

In apparent response to the challenges thrown at his sector by the President and Vice President, Justice Mohammed assured of the support of the Judiciary and his commitment to sustain the ongoing reforms in the judiciary, which include the review of the process of judges’appointment, deployment of information and communication technologies (ICT) to aid court process and moves to ensure commitment and dedication by judicial officers.

The CJN, who blamed the delay in court proceedings on mostly lawyers, sought an enhanced collaboration between the Bench and the Bar for the court to effectively play its role of justice dispensation.

“While it must be acknowledged that our Judiciary is not perfect, we cannot overlook the role of counsel in facilitating the onset of delay.

“As we all are aware, delay in most instances are either occasioned by the lack of diligent prosecution of a case, antics of counsel such as the use of interlocutory appeals to stall and frustrate a legitimate expectation of justice, or indolence on the part of some Judges.

“My learned colleagues this state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue. It is one thing to talk the talk, but I am also determined to walk the talk.

“As we continue to fish out and discipline indolent and lazy Judges by showing them the way out of the system, we must also acknowledge and praise those judges that are diligent and hardworking. To this end, the NJC’s Judicial Officers Performance Evaluation Committee has also been strengthened to perform its functions,” the CJN said.

He called for enhanced financial allocation to the Judiciary to enable it meet the expectation of the society.

The conference, in one of its breakaway sessions, emphasised the importance of infrastructural development in the realisation of a nation’s quest for development. It was the general position that there was the need for a synergy between the public and private sector for the nation to overcome its current infrastructure deficit.

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Wale Babalakin, argued that the government has no reason to abandon any ongoing project on the ground of paucity of funds. He said with planning and proper management of resources, the scourge of abandoned projects in the country will end.

Babalakin, who spoke from a private sector perspective, warned that the nation’s hope of developing critical public infrastructure as a vehicle for economic development, will remain a mirage without a change of attitude by public officers.

Relying on his experience as private investor in public infrastructure, Babalakin contended that the prevailing practice, where public officers violate contracts and agreements at will, perceive private investors in public infrastructure as either competitors or inferior partners, would only help sustain the scourge of abandoned projects.

Babalakin said it was impossible for the government to fully meet the nation’s infrastructure need without the involvement of the private sector, particularly in the face of dwindling national revenue from oil sales.To him, achieving success requires conscious effort by the government to protect private investors from the activities of self-centered public officials.

Citing cases where negative attitude of government officials have destroyed beautifully conceived private initiatives in the past, Babalakin noted that the lack of cooperation from government officials helped to frustrate such projects that would have helped resolved the infrastructure deficit.

He argued that, had government officials planned, the current fall in government earnings from oil would not have had any major impact on government’s spending capacity because there were sufficient indicators before now of impending fall in revenue.

The conference also examined the role of lawyers in the protection of consumers’ rights in Nigeria: Lessons from the telecoms and power sectors in view of the realisation that the interplay of market forces and the investor’s quest for enhanced returns mostly work at the detriment of the consumers.

Speakers, including the Chairman, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Sam Amadi and, Joe Gadzama (SAN); Head of the Consumer Protection Council, Mrs Dupe Atoki and Moyo Onigbanjo (SAN) examined the nature of violation of consumers’ rights in both sectors, issues of enforcement and effectiveness of the Consumer Protection Act, and how the legal profession can contribute to the promotion and protection of consumers’ rights.

Amadi, who recently queried the court’s right to question his commission’s decisions, attempted to defend the nebulous charges his commission and marketers of power impose on Nigerians,

Superior arguments, however, prevailed and it was the general opinion that these charges, particularly the fix charge was not justifiable, and amounted to multiple taxation, a position the NBA adopted in its communiqué, and which it specifically sought the abolition of the fixed charge.

On how to improve the legal and regulatory framework of the petroleum industry, speakers, including the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Ibe Kachikwu, and Senator Victor Ndoma Egba said there was an urgent need for the review of the regulatory framework in the oil sector if the country seeks to improve its earnings from the sector.

They reviewed key fiscal, commercial and regulatory changes proposed in the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), discussed how the Bill could address the challenges in the sector and suggested an urgent passage of the Bill into law, but with some amendments.

Some of them recommended that emphasis should not only be on the upstream subsector for export purposes, the downstream subsector should also be emphasised for job creation and diversified developmental purposes

They advised that a review of the Bill should include provisions to ensure that oil companies causing environmental degradation, shall, in addition to fines imposed by the government, pay a fair, full and adequate compensation to any persons aggrieved as determined by a judge sitting in the jurisdiction of injury whether state or federal, provided that the sum payable shall be as determined by an advisory ad hoc multi-disciplinary college of referees appointed by the judge comprising toxicologists, surveyors and values, whose fees shall be charged to the polluter.

They also suggested the streamlining of the new agencies, which have overlapping functions, the removal of clauses, which disregard the right of citizens to legal redress in the courts and the reduction in the overriding powers of the Minister for Petroleum, before the PIB is passed by the National Assembly.

Presenting the conference communiqué last Friday, the NBA President, Augustine Alegeh (SAN) reassured the commitment of the body to support the government’s anti-corruption effect and all other efforts aimed at the good of the society.

“The NBA shall play a leading role in the fight against corruption; the NBA shall continuously pursue systemic reform of the legal system in Nigeria in order to enhance national development.

“The NBA shall make as a cornerstone of its advocacy, transparency in the appointment of judicial officers as critical to building confidence in the judicial system, a necessary plank in national development,” Alegeh said.

September 1, 2015
Lagos insists law on sanitation still in force

The Lagos State Government has reiterated that the law on the monthly environmental sanitation and restriction of movement within the period is still in force.

It enjoins residents of the state to ensure total compliance with the law and keep their surroundings clean.

Offenders, reiterated the state government, would be made to face the penalties as stipulated in the environmental sanitation law.

Stating the position of government was the deputy governor of the state, Dr. Ididat Adebule, while monitoring the monthly exercise at Ikorodu West Local Council Development Area.

Addressing residents of Ori-Okuta, Agbede and Idiroko communities within the LCDA, the deputy governor charged them to ensure regular cleaning of their surroundings and obey all the environmental laws of the state, assuring that government will continue to provide basic infrastructures for the people.

She said: “We are here to see things for ourselves within Ikorodu West LCDA and I want to implore our people to be committed to the issue of the environment and ensure adequate cleaning of their surroundings at all times.

“We have noted your complaints and I want to assure you that appropriate government agencies would be mobilised to address them, but you must also be ready to take ownership of these facilities once they are in place and ensure their adequate care of them.”

The deputy governor added that the state government remains committed to making life better for the citizens of the state, stating that the government is already compiling list of projects to be embarked upon across all the 57 local governments and LCDAs in the state, while assuring that the people would soon begin to feel the impact of the administration.

August 30, 2015
Group urges Buhari to sign safety bill into law

Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) practitioners have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to sign National Safety Bill into law.

This, the group said, will aid enforcement of safety regulations in the country.

The bill, which has since been passed by the seventh National Assembly, is rumoured to have been signed by into law but safety practitioners said the bill had remained on the president’s table for consent before the last general elections.

The Director General of the Lagos State Safety Board, Mrs Dominga Odebunmi, said the speculation about the signing of the bill was fuelled by unconfirmed statement by officials of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity.

She said it could not be confirmed if the bill had become a law, since there had been no signed copy made available to the Lagos State government, which established the first safety body in the country. She added that safety practitioners also had no information about the status of the bill.

She said: “We are proud that the Federal Government pushed the National Assembly to pass the National Safety Bill before the last general elections. But, we are pleading with President Muhammadu Buhari to sign bill into law. Given that the president is a man that puts his pen where his word is, we are optimistic that, before the end of the year, he would sign the bill into law.”

If President Buhari signs the bill into law, Odebunmi said, it would empower federal and state emergency response agencies to enforce regulations that would promote best international safety practices.

She added the bill would play key role in preventing recurring industrial accidents, such of gas explosion and keep dangers away from work places.

The Executive Director, Safety Advocacy and Empowerment Foundation (SAEF), Mr Jamiu Badmos, said economic growth of the nation is tied to the passage of the bill, noting that a safety law is needed to prevent needless loss of lives and properties.

He said the Factory Act of 1990 could no longer guarantee safety and wellbeing of workers at their places of work, adding that there would be more job creation through establishment of State Safety Council if President Buhari signs the National Safety Bill.

August 17, 2015
Between Sagay and Falana: the law, the people and the social cannibalism of corruption (1)

The first thing we do is kill all the lawyers. Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2

Doctors are just the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too.
Anton Chekhov, Russian dramatist

On Saturday, July 13, 2013, I gave a public lecture at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) under the auspices of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism. The lecture was titled “The Freedom of Information Act and the Dictatorship of Corruption and Mediocrity”. In the extensive research that I conducted before writing and delivering the lecture, I came across many facts, figures and statistics that both depressed and enraged me to no end. Of these, no item among my discoveries was as depressing and infuriating as my finding that a Sub-Committee of the House of Representatives had issued a comprehensive report on the oil subsidy mega-scam of 2011 in which the names of all those who had wrongfully and illegally benefitted from the scam had been published, together with the astronomical sums that each of these Nigerians had looted. I swear that before conducting that research for my lecture, I had been completely unaware that the names of the mega-scam looters were known, that they were not shadowy figures who had forever disappeared into the night of personal anonymity and legalistic oblivion. But together with my astonishment that these men and women were known and indeed meticulously identified, there was also my greater frustration that they had all without exception tied up the cases pertaining to their prosecution in the law courts by all manner of so-called “interlocutory injunctions” and “stay of execution” writs. That was in the year 2013. Two years later, the cases are still tied up in the law courts and not a single one of the men and women indicted in that oil subsidy mega-scam has either paid a kobo back or gone to jail. Their lawyers and the judges before whom their cases are being tried have seen to that; they have provided what seems to be a permanent and impregnable juridical cover and protection for these men and women whose looting of our national coffers has caused untold suffering and hardship to millions of Nigerians. In this context, the law may be said to be the last refuge, the last redoubt of the looters who, as human vampires, are sucking the blood from the economic arteries of our national commonweal.

If the language I am using here seems too emotive, too sensationalistic, I plead guilty to the charge. Even more, I plead guilty to the charge of deliberately clothing myself in a long tradition of savage linguistic and literary critique of lawyers and the law as moral cesspits wherein some of the most unscrupulous and cynical professionals can be found. This is the context that makes the extraordinarily ferocious attack on lawyers in Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part Two, that supplied the first of the two epigraphs to this piece seem not too harsh, not too extreme: “The first thing we do is kill all the lawyers”. This was said by a character in that play against the background of a looming uprising of the people against centuries of oppression by their social superiors in which lawyers had played a significant role in maintaining the legal infrastructures and practices of a dog-eat-dog social order. I quote the words here in the hope, the wish that the lawyers and the judges who have for long prevented the men and women bleeding our country and its resources dry may perhaps get a glimpse of the sentiments that some of the world’s greatest literary minds have expressed about them and their kind.

The second epigraph from the great Russian dramatist, Anton Chekhov, seems a tad gentler in its critique of lawyers and the legal profession on the same count of being always prone to acting as accessories to cynical, merciless robbery: “Doctors are just the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too”. However, if we juxtapose this ludic and playful Chekhovian quote with the one from Shakespeare’s play, we can see that lawyers, like incompetent and conscienceless doctors, kill too. They “kill”, not directly and interpersonally but by the indirect and epiphenomenal effects and consequences of the legalistic protection and cover that they give their clients, the looters who, it seems, can never be successfully prosecuted in the law courts of the land.

If all this talk about “killing” seems unwarranted in its application to lawyers and judges that are, after all, merely practicing their lawful profession (no pun intended), please consider the N2.53 trillion naira that was looted in the oil subsidy mega-scam; consider too, the fact that thanks to lawyers and judges, not a kobo of that loot may ever be recovered; and finally, consider the number of lives that could have been saved or made richer and more fulfilled if a fraction of that N2.53 trillion naira had been productively spent to create jobs, build roads, improve hospitals and clinics and raise the quality of teaching in our primary and secondary schools. And indeed, there are no literal cannibals anymore, if ever they existed as a distinct social or “tribal” group; what we have now and have aplenty, thanks to many of our best trained lawyers and judges, are social cannibals who have not the slightest inkling that they are “killing” hundreds of thousands, millions through the sense of total protection that they feel when they loot, and loot, and loot yet again.

At this stage, it is perhaps time in this discussion to bring into our conversation two lawyers who indeed recently have had much to say on these issues. Moreover, they are eminent, progressive and patriotic lawyers. These are none other than Professor Itse Sagay and Mr. Femi Falana, SAN. In an article published in The Nation on Sunday, July 19, 2015, titled “Politics, Public Service, Morality and Integrity in Nigeria”, Sagay more or less admitted that the law and the manner in which it is applied in our law courts at the present time make it near impossible to recover stolen loot and put an end to rampant corruption. Indeed, so sanguine was Sagay on this point that he was quite willing to go as far as to suspend the protection of the individual rights (of looters), if any headway is to be made in the struggle to recover stolen loot and curb corruption in our society. Perhaps it is best to hear directly from the Professor himself on this point:

“There will a need to amend our laws to strengthen the state at the expense of individual liberty at least for a short while, if we are to get to redemption point. All legal provisions permitting preliminary objections to prosecutions for corruption must be repealed from our laws. The power of any court to issue an order of injunction against a trial for a crime, particularly corruption, should be repealed. Interlocutory applications, in cases concerning corruption, should be banned.

You cannot read such words from the pen of a lawyer who is also a teacher of lawyers and still repeat, like a robot, the savage indictment from Shakespeare, “the first thing we do is kill all the lawyers”! For in the struggles against the social cannibalism that is at the root of the corruption that has penetrated so deep into the political, economic and juridical order in our country, some of the most eloquent voices have, in fact, been that of lawyers. As everyone knows, Sagay and Falana have been frontline professional and intellectual activists in those struggles.

And indeed, the main point of my bringing Sagay and Falana together in this piece is precisely to try to reconcile what seems to me to be a tension, a contradiction between recent pronouncements of both men on this issue of the seemingly immovable obstacle that the law and its operations in our country pose to the fight against corruption by the new administration of President Buhari. On the one hand, Sagay says laws must be repealed and that we may even have to suspend protection of individual liberty, at least for a while. But on the other hand, Falana says that the enabling acts have now been enacted by the National Assembly and that all that is required now is for the bills to be forwarded to Buhari for them to be signed and made into effective laws. How did I come by this information? Well, Falana himself through an email forwarded to me a speech that he recently gave that contained these claims. The speech was a keynote address that he gave at the 7th Annual Distinguished Lecture of the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (Lagos Chapter) on Tuesday, July 21, 2015. The lecture bore the title, “Involvement of the Nigerian people in the anti-corruption war”. Here’s a relevant quotation from the lecture:

“While the decision of the Federation (sic) Government not to interfere in the work of the anti-graft agencies is a welcome development, the National Assembly should forward to President Buhari for his assent the Witness Protection Bill and the Whistle Blowers’ Bill. The National Assembly deserves commendation for enacting both laws together with the Administration of Justice, 2015.

Under the new Act, the granting of stay of proceedings and other delay tactics have been banned in the trial of criminal cases. Accordingly, a criminal trial shall be concluded within 6 months unless there are exceptional circumstances which may prolong any trial beyond that period. Indeed, the elevation of trial judges to the Court of Appeal will no longer lead to fresh trial before other judges as judges will be given the fiat to conclude part heard matters.”

Have the issues raised in Sagay’s article been resolved by the revelation of the passing of new laws by the National Assembly in Falana’s lecture? And is this a matter to be settled only by and among lawyers? These will be our starting points in next week’s concluding piece.

Biodun Jeyifo

bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

August 2, 2015
Of JAMBGATE and Nigerian Law School
“Surely, Allah does not change the situation of a community until that community is ready for a positive change” Q. 13:11

Preamble

The Nigerian mass media throbbed, last week, with the shocking news of an unprecedented scandal allegedly perpetrated by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in relation to post JAMB examinations and admission into Nigerian Universities for 2015/2016 academic session. The strange game is tagged ‘JAMBGATE’ by this column (The Message).

The Shocking News

According to the shocking news, which spontaneously caused a national brouhaha, JAMB had surreptitiously shortchanged thousands of Nigerians by unilaterally changing the choices of applicants for admission into certain Universities without the knowledge of those applicants. For instance, names of applicants who made Universities of Nigeria, Lagos, Ibadan, Ahmadu Bello, Obafemi Awolowo, Benin, Calabar and others their choices of study were sent to certain private Universities or public Universities far away from the ones they chose without any recourse to them.

It was a monumental fraud typical of the impunity with which the immediate past Nigerian Federal government was known. The cat was first let out of the bag at the University of Lagos where hundreds of parents and their wards resorted to protests even as some of them took JAMB to court. Anyway, enmeshing in such a scandalous act is not strange about JAMB.

In Retrospect

In the 2009 for instance, the University Matriculation Exam (UME) in Nigeria was subject to serious controversy when the poorest results ever released by that body almost caused a revolution. Much to JAMB’s embarrassment, the spokesmen for the Board later revealed that the machines which optically graded the papers had erroneous answers and the JAMB changed some students’ scores by as much as 15%. Ever since, there has hardly been a year without some examination skirmishes continually paving way to public loss of confidence in that Board. Surely, something fundamental is wrong with JAMB which requires sanitization.

Reaction

Reacting to the alleged scandal, the Federal Ministry of Education ordered an immediate reversal of that obnoxious act which was not known until the affected candidates had reached their post JAMB examination centres. Although the ministerial intervention was welcomed as a momentary relief for the affected candidates and their parents, analysts think that the highly embarrassing case must not end there. They contend that the scandal should be officially investigated by an independent body and the culprits be brought to book. To some observers, that scandal was part of the usual ‘under table’ bunko by which most Nigerian public office holders are known and which gave Nigeria the international appellation of a ‘corrupt nation’.

Observers’ Thought

The similitude of that scam, according to those observers, was like the case of the so-called fuel subsidy removal which Goodluck Jonathan government callously forced on the already wretched masses of Nigeria to further deepen their abyss of penury in 2012. The end result of that evil policy was a monumental official scam that is still haunting today Nigeria like a demonic spectre. It seems that the customers of the Jonathan’s era of scandalous impunity are yet to realize that a clement wind of CHANGE has begun to sweep our dirty country clean hence the current JAMBGATE.

Were the government of impunity still in place, the JAMBGATE saga would have, as usual, been upheld to justify the usual ‘under the table’ deal that would have forced thousands of qualified University admission seekers to either go to private University or forget University education altogether. That is Nigeria for you a country in which sanity, until two months ago, was an aberration and impunity was the rule.

Information

The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) was established in 1977 by the then Federal Military Government of Nigeria. It has since become Nigeria’s official Entrance Examination Board for candidates below the Advanced Level (A/L) education seeking admission into all Universities in the country. Before then, the existing federal universities in Nigeria (numbering seven by 1974) conducted their own ‘concessional’ entrance examinations and admitted their students according to their individual policies. With time, however, that system of admission was observed by the federal government as having limitations through a waste of time and resources in the process of administering the examination especially on the part of the candidates.

The Committee of Vice-Chancellors therefore felt concerned about the general clumsiness in the coordination of admissions into the nation’s universities especially when the problem of admission into the universities became more acute with the establishment of additional six universities in 1976 by the Federal military government.

Duties of JAMB

In addition to its functions, JAMB is also supposed to undertake the following duties statutorily:

Conducts the Universities Matriculation Examination (UME) and sends the results to Universities chosen by the candidates, so that each university selects and recommends candidates to JAMB for admission.

Allows each university to conduct tests/interview termed screening for candidates (since . . .) before selecting those to recommend;

Conduct similarly, entrance examination for candidate applying to Polytechnics and College of Education;

Admits qualified candidates by Direct Entry to Universities that recommend them;

Allows these institutions that operate Remedial Programmes to admit successful candidates, but announced in 2007 that it was counseling such from 2008. (For further information, please, see Perspectives on the History of Education in Nigeria, 2008).

Key Departments of JAMB

JAMB consists of eight key departments which statutorily carry out the day-to-day operations of the Board. These are:
1. Office of the Registrar which is headed by the Chief Executive who is appointed by the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, on the recommendation of the Ministry of Education. The Registrar is responsible for the execution of policies of the Board and the day-to-day running of the affairs of the Board.
By law, the Registrar shall hold office in the first instance for a period of five years and shall be eligible for reappointment for the same period as the president may be pleased from time to time. It is through this process that all applicants do register and get printed results online.

Comment

With JAMB becoming the gateway to tertiary education in Nigeria that examination body must live up to its responsibilities by upholding the national trust reposed in it and by utilizing that trust to propel the potential greatness of Nigeria as a foremost African country. It is pertinent for JAMB to understand that any failure on its part is Nigeria’s failure in all spheres of life since without qualitative education any nation can be pronounced dead. Thus, with such a strategic position, JAMB must know that it cannot afford to take the Nigerian populace for granted.

Like JAMB like Nigerian Law School

For good observers of education in Nigeria, JAMBGATE could not have come as a surprise. What JAMB did to cause uproar last week is what the Nigerian Law School has been doing in recent time. As a matter of fact, it was as if JAMB borrowed an idea of a ‘profitable’ venture from the Nigerian Law School. How many Nigerians know today that the Nigerian Law School that was once the right of every Law graduate in the country to be qualified for practice has become a privilege for just a few?

Point of Departure

Unlike in the past when the test of the prowess of the legal profession in Nigeria was accentuated by the Nigerian Law School, the real accentuation of Law practice in the country today, in grooming the practitioners of that profession, has become an instrument of power in the hands of a few who hold sway in that School. Through the use of that power the children of the poor have been tacitly declared personal non-grata in the Law profession. For instance, out of about 6000 students of Nigerian Law School in 2013/2014 session, only about 2000 were able to cross the huddle of the Bar exam. Although that cannot be strictly attributed to administrative policy the conditions laid down for enrolment in the Law School are strict enough to dissuade some students from concentration.

Objective of Decentralisation

The original objective of decentralizing the Nigerian Law School was to enable the Law Students from each geographical zone to attend the Law School in his or her zone with convenience. But this was changed by the authorities of that School who are now allocating Law School campuses arbitrarily to those students irrespective of their zones of origin and depriving them the right of changing their allocations if they are not satisfied. For instance, students from the Southwest of Nigeria who wanted to attend the Lagos Law School were arbitrarily posted Yola, in Adamawa despite the Boko Haram threat to lives. And those from the North-West who chose Kano were posted to Enugu campus without an option. The cost of this alone especially for indigent students is distractive enough. Yet, these students will still be forcefully posted to anywhere for in the country for National Youth Service after their call to the Bar. What kind of country is this?

Unaffordable Charges

The exorbitant, unaffordable levies charged for reseat in the Bar exam have prevented thousands of potential Lawyers from becoming legal practitioners. The imposed cost of feeding per meal alone is enough to scare away any prospective Law student from enrolling in that School. Eventually, thousands of University graduates in Law who are unable to realize their dream by passing through the Law School have become like marauders roaming the streets of Nigeria like Egyptian gypsies of yore, after five years of rigour in the University. What kind of country is this? And in this case, what is the difference between JAMB and the Nigerian Law School?

Autocratic Song

The song of these days, as far as the Nigerian Law School is concerned is that ‘the Law Profession is not for the Poor’. And to emphasize that oppressive song, the tuition and other fees in that school have been taken beyond the affordability level of an ordinary Nigerian. Besides, all sorts of oppressive polices are being regularly formulated to reduce the number of Nigerian Lawyers drastically and to discourage new entrants into the profession. Thus, the Law profession in Nigeria is gradually becoming an exclusive right of the senior practitioners in the profession whose children are seen and treated as their heirs apparent. For how long will this be allowed in a country that claims to maintain human rights and freedom of exercising such rights? God save Nigeria.
July 31, 2015
Desopadec: Intrigues, politics and fight over a law

Indications that the planned restructuring of the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission may not be easy appeared after Governor Arthur Okowa presented an executive bill to the House of Assembly for amendment of its law. Okowa’s predecessor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, also failed a similar attempt.

DESOPADEC is very dear to the people of oil-bearing communities in the state, despite its shortcomings and turbulent eight-year existence, they see the commission as a half bread that is better than none.

•Protesting Ijaw host communities

It was against this background that Ijaw youths threatened to shut down oil facilities in Warri, Ogulagha, Egbema, Odidi, Batan, Ogbe-Ijoh and other parts of the state over part of the new law that they view as being against their interests.

DESOPADEC came into existence in 2005, pursuant to Section 162(2) of the Nigerian Constitution, which deals revenue paid into the Federation Account, which provided for the development of oil producing communities. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo had directed states receiving the 13 per cent derivation fund to establish agencies, similar to NDDC, to cater for the communities.

Yet, the commission was not constituted until the last weeks of the ex- Governor Ibori administration in 2007. Uduaghan, who succeed him, incessantly complained of financial shortfall emanating from give half of oil revenue to the commission.

Chief Wellington Okirika, a founding member of the Host Communities Oil and Gas of Nigeria (HOSTCOM), which fought for the creation of the commission, was made the chairman, while Andi Osawota, lawyer, was appointed secretary.

In 2009, Uduaghan appointed a commissioner to oversee the activities of the commission due to infighting between board members, allegations of administrative ineptitude, financial recklessness and corruption. Yet, reports of mind-boggling expenditures on hotel and medical bills continued. Uduaghan once cried out over a bill of over N10million presented to the commission for the treatment of malaria which was beautifully wrapped in the medical term Plasmodiasis.

It was not only such scandal that dogged the commission under the Okirika-led board.

Due to the huge fund accruing to it, top official of the state government and House of Assembly members inundated chairman and other members with financial requests.

A member of the Assembly abandoned his legislative duties and ‘decamped’ to the commission headquarters in Warri as soon as he became chairman of the House Committee on DESOPADEC.

Allegation of underpayment

It was against this backdrop that at the expiration of the three-year tenure of Chief Okirika board in July 2010, a caretaker committee headed by Mr Reginald Bayoko, was set up to clear its mess.

After cleaning the Augean stable, a new board-led by Oritsua Kpogho, was inaugurated, with Henry Offa, Joseph Ogeh, Michael Diden, Johnson Boro, Rev.Chukwudi Eke, Benedicta Osakunih Izuegbu, Mr. Kingsley Otuaro (now Deputy Governor) and Dr. Peter Egedegbe representing the various nationalities.

Through all these processes, the leaders of oil-bearing communities had constantly checkmated the government and commission; they raised alarm when they felt the government was taking step detrimental to the commission and their interests.

In spite of their close watch, rumours of underpayment to the coffers of the commission were rife; there were also allegations of government ‘releasing funds with the right hand and taking it back with the left hand’. Various sources say the past administrations underfunded it by N300billion.

It was against the backdrop that Uduaghan’s amendment bill faced stiff opposition from the oil-producing communities. While some accused Uduaghan of attempting to cover up alleged misappropriation of its fund, contractors who had executed jobs for the commission feared sinister plot to avoid payment for jobs they did.

However, the resistance against the Uduaghan amendment bill has been a child’s play when compared to the vituperations and reactions toward Okowa’s. The incumbent governor hails from the non-oil producing Ika area of the state and it was against this backdrop that some parts of his bill were viewed with intense scrutiny and suspicion, particularly in the face of rumours that he planned to scarp the fund to free up fund for the development of his area and the state capital.

His bill proposes the scrapping of the office of the executive secretary, while appointing a managing director, with executive powers to carry out day to day running of the commission. The hazy details of how the MD would be appointment led opponents of the bill fearing an ominous plot and agenda. They prefer the old system where communities have a voice in appointees

The amendment recommends: “The MD shall be the Chief Executive and Accounting Officer…responsible for the day to day running of the commission… Executive Director shall be in charge of the three directorates.”

“What this means”, Comrade Sheriff Mulade, spokesperson of the Ijaw Wellhead and Flowstation host communities youths, told Niger Delta Report, “is that management of the oil fund is again shifting back into the hands of the governor and politicians who have being mismanaging the oil revenue over the past decades.”

Also, the replacement of ‘Oil Producing Communities’ with ‘Oil Producing Ethnic Nationalities’ is a contentious issue in the proposed law. Ijaw, Itsekiri and Isoko host communities view it as a move to rob them in favour of the governor’s area.

Documents sourced from the commission indicate that Itsekiri produces about 29 percent of the state’s oil; closely followed by Ijaw and Urhobo with 27 and 23 percent respectively with (12) Isoko and Ndokwa (nine) percent.

In view of the above, the southern part of the state accounts for 68 per cent of the state’s oil revenue, while the central and north have 23 and nine percent. This too explains why the south is against part of the bill which provides for the appointment of directors from across the three senatorial districts on equal basis.

A leader of the Delta Ijaw Oil Producing Communities, Chief Favour O Izoukumor, who spoke with Niger Delta Report when he led a protest to the House of Assembly, explained: “What this means is that although the Ijaw, Itsekiri and Isoko produce the bulk of the oil revenue, we will be at disadvantage in the sharing of position, as it is already being done.

“The bill does not address the present injustice were Urhobos have three commissioners, Ndokwa has two and Ijaw, Itsekiri and Isoko together have one each on DESOPADEC board. What this means is that the people that produce about 70percent of the oil revenue enjoy less than 40percent appointments, employment and contracts while those with will barely 30 enjoy over 60percent.”

The Urhobo ethnic group, on their part, viewed the amendment as a move to rob them of their right to produce the executive chairman of the commission. By the provisions of the existing law, the position is rotated among the oil producing nationalities. With the Ijaw (Okirika) and Itsekiri (Kpogho) having produced chairmen, the next in line is Urhobo.

Public hearing turned public combat

But no arena has produced as much anger towards the amendment as the public hearing, which was dogged by protest, scuffle and violence. Blood literarily flowed at the House of Assembly with various interest groups clashing among themselves and with security operatives.

The Chairman, HOSTCOM Delta Chapter, Benjamin Eweta sustained injuries from attacks by members of a faction of HOSTCOM. Police had hectic times containing stakeholders who insisted on being part of the public hearing. In more than one occasion, they police had to wield the stick and throw punches.

Proceedings suffered incessant disruptions as various interest groups held entrenched positions refusing to budge. Inside the chamber, the Chairman of the ad-hoc committee, Hon Dennis Omovie, threatened to send those who breached the peace to jail.

In a presentation, on behalf of Host Communities Oil and Gas, Ndokwa Chapter, former Speaker, Dr Olise Imegwu, noted that the problem with interventionist body was not its structure, but inadequate funding.

A leader of the Ijaw, Itsekiri and Isoko Elders and Leaders Forum (I3S), Mr Amorighoye Mene, argued that the interventionist body has been unfair to the three ethnic groups, adding that projects and social works to benefitting communities should be based on volume of oil produced by such communities.

Izuokumor, agreed with that position and also reaffirmed his group’s opposition to the bill’s lack of equity in representation on the board of DESOPADEC. He also rejected the overbearing influence of the State government in the affairs of the interventionist agency.

Who produces what, how much?

An underlying grievance brought to light in the latest attempt to amend the DESOPADEC is about the production of each ethnic nationality. Some of those who spoke at the public hearing and others who confided in Niger Delta Report expressed concern that their groups were not credited with their true production value.

For instance, a representative of Ndokwa Elders and Leaders Council, Mr Oyibosochukwu Nwabueze, noted that the current nine percent allocated to the Ndokwa nation is incorrect. He said available data suggested that Ndokwa nation contributes 18 per cent. He urged the legislators to investigate the reduction.

The Ijaw and Itsekiri also expressed suspicions about the 23 per cent allotted to the Urhobo ethnic nationality. An anonymous source hinted that the figure was inflated by former Governor James Ibori to favour his kinsmen, to which he also allotted three (highest) commissioners slots.

An Ijaw further said, “Before Uduaghan became governor (2007), the Ijaw had the highest production; how did the Itsekiri jump from number two to one? Did they discover new oil wells in Itsekiri land?”

An Itsekiri leader insisted that Ijaw are not a close second as records indicate, insisting that oil wells in Jones Creek, Odidi and other parts of Warri South West Local Government Area are owned by the Itsekiri of Omadino.

Okowa’s peace shuttle, suspension of ultimatum

Worried by the avalanche of opposition to the bill, Okowa tried to calm fray nerves by meeting with the various interest groups.

“We are not repealing the old law. It is not a new bill. The amendment we are proposing is to structure DESOPADEC in line with the NDDC (Niger Delta Development Commission) model.

“This is democracy and I am not expecting that the amendment bill will come out exactly as we proposed it. There will be public hearing and people will make their contributions. I don’t believe in forcing the hands of the legislators,” he explained.

Last Friday, two days before the expiration of the Ijaw’s ultimatum, he met with traditional rulers and leaders of the Ijaw Oil Producing Communities.

A reliable source at the Friday meeting disclosed that Okwa expressed shock at opposition from the Ijaws, who passionately supported him during his race to become governor.

“One of the revelations from our meeting with the governor was that some prominent members of the House of Assembly are trying to take advantage of the bill for their selfish interests.”

It was gathered that the Ijaws reaffirmed their opposition to the change of nomenclature of the law to oil producing nationalities, instead of communities and they also insisted on fair representation, overbearing influence of government official and misapplication of fund accruing to each group.

“A situation whereby a member of the board, because of his powers, corners funds for a particularly group to his group would not be tolerated. We have made that absolutely clear.”

Based on the meeting with the traditional rulers, the Ijaw youths agreed to suspend their ultimatum. Confirming the development, Izoukumor told Niger Delta Report, “Due to the intervention of the Ijaw traditional rulers and some Ijaw leaders, which culminated in a meeting with the governor, the traditional rulers pleaded with the Ijaw Oil Producing Communities and those that gave the ultimatum to shelve the ultimatum and give room for further dialogue.”

Mulade also confirmed the development, adding that the group had relaxed its warning to foreign missions and urged oil firms to go about their normal duties.

At the time of going to press, peace had returned to the state, yet many are skeptical that the controversies will continue unabated regardless of the final outcome.

July 31, 2015
No one is above the law, says Osinbajo

•VP: rule of law must work

No Nigerian is above the law, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said yesterday.

This is the first rule in any developed nation, said the Vice President, who insisted that the rule of law must be maintained in Nigeria.

He spoke at the Presidential Villa when the leadership of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) visited him.

According to Osinbajo, there was no reason why Nigeria should not be well run as other countries.

In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media & Publicity, Laolu Akande, the Vice President said: “Good economies are run by men, not spirits. There is no reason why our country cannot be like that.”

Noting that the key to a good society is the rule of law, he said: “We insist that the rule of law be maintained, that no one is above the law.

“It is the first rule, the President has committed himself to this. He said it again in the United States.”

“If somebody is held according to the law, we must support that. Let us support what is good and right for the country,” he added.

Commending the important role road transporters play in the economy, the Vice-President said the union is “one of the truly national organisations that Nigeria can boast of”.

He said the union’s role could not be ignored, observing that its members provide the “most accessible form of transportation for our people.”

Osinbajo said because of the union’s strategic role, its members carry “a great deal of responsibility”.

“Your role comes with a great deal of responsibility and with tremendous opportunity,” he said

He thanked the union for obeying the law.

The Vice-President said: “One of the things President Muhammadu Buhari has said consistently is that our elite must understand that every privilege comes with responsibility, like maintaining the peace and stability of this nation. Without the peace, none of us can function.

“I believe we would see the end of Boko Haram, because we hold ourselves responsible to ensure that the insurgency does not continue.”

He urged NURTW members to remain vigilant, because “those who are being used for the attacks, the children, are conveyed from place to place.”

The union’s President, Najeem Usman Yasin, said the leaders came to congratulate the President and the Vice President on their electoral victory.

He praised the Buhari presidency for “adopting various strategies to end corruption and insurgency”.

July 23, 2015
Law students honour CAMPUSLIFE reporter

For being outstanding in news reporting, Toyin Ali, a 300-Level Law student and CAMPUSLIFE reporter, has been honoured with Most Creative Law Student award by members of Law Students’ Society (LSS) of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN).

Toyin was honoured at the Society’s dinner and award night at Bovina Suits in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.

The event started with a red-carpet session and music performance by campus artistes, including Nytspass, Monali and Horain. There was also a comedy session.

While presenting the award, the outgoing LSS president, Mujeeb Imran, described Toyin as “creative student”, saying the campus writer had made the Law faculty to be proud.

Responding, Toyin said: “I feel elated that my creativity is being recognised by the prestigious Law society. I started as a lone writer when I was in 100-Level, before I became well known within the school. I dedicate the award to every member of the Society.”

July 23, 2015
That law may not obstruct ‘change’

•Being concluding part of the article published on June 16

“Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose, they become dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress”
– Martin Luther King (Jnr.)

The Law must enforce unadulterated internal democracy in all political parties, to ensure the best persons accepted by the people ultimately find their way into public service as against the awkward cronyism that will do nothing but weaken the democratic process in the long run.

To take a second example, the President has indicated in the unfolding agenda that ‘pervasive corruption’ is one of the enormous challenges confronting Nigeria. No rational person doubts this. But is the Law currently modeled to treat corruption as a National emergency that requires dynamic and sustainable annihilation?

One is unsure but either way, the Law must now align itself, and quickly too, with the aspiration of Nigerians to end corruption. Corruption cannot be successfully fought without a reduction of the mindless public salaries and allowances, especially of Law makers, to make public service emoluments come in alignment with the realities of our battered economy. The Law must therefore be clear that no public official can earn beyond wages and allowances fixed by the requisite agency of Government which is currently the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) and it must be clear that the wages and allowances cannot be fixed outrageously by even the RMAFC itself.

Corruption also cannot be fought without open and transparent governance that gives the public access to unfettered information on the true state of public finance, and its use. Here, the Freedom of Information Act must now be allowed to take its prime place in the anti-corruption crusade. First, every State must pass it failing which; it should be made a Federal Law binding on every State irrespective of whether the States pass it or not. This will task the Law-making and Law interpretation foots of the Legal Order. But none should fail to lend its weight to a long cheated people’s quest for transparency in the affairs of their Government.

Every lofty idea, however revolutionary, must have a sturdy legal framework to succeed and be sustainable in the long term. When America needed to lay its foundation for universal freedom and rights, we saw the American Declaration of Independence and the accompanying American Constitution which have both helped to deepen the Nation’s democratic growth and its enviable experimentations with the endless possibilities of human freedom. When it needed to checkmate slavery, we saw the Proclamation Act. When Civil Rights had to be made universal, we saw the Civil Rights Act. When Britain had to lay foundation for civil rights, we saw the Magna Carta. When Depression came, threatening to obliterate the US economy in the 1930s, we saw the Social Security Act, Emergency Banking Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Agricultural Adjustment Act, the National Industrial Recovery Act among several other Laws which were all Legal frameworks designed to breathe life into the ‘New Deal’ vision of the remarkable President F. D Roosevelt. The US Congress recognized the urgency of the times and did not constitute itself as a clog to the people’s recovery; neither did any member of its judiciary derail the recovery efforts of the administration with reactionary law interpretations.

When Brazil also needed to lift millions out of poverty, the world saw the “Bolsa Familia Programme” successfully passed into Law. The programme made the government legally transfer conditional wealth to the most vulnerable families in Brazil and it remains the largest wealth transfer intervention in any developing country to date. When South Africa needed to set the stage to ascend from its sordid Apartheid past, its Apartheid era Laws were repealed with dispatch and had in their place, a revolutionary Constitution and Laws such as Provision of Certain Land of Settlement Act, 1994, Extension of Security of Tenure Act of 1996, Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act, 2003 which all sought to align themselves with the progressive changes then taking place in South Africa. Its Constitutional Court also keyed into the vision to create a new society from the ashes of the failed one and the jurisprudence emanating from the Courts have served to deepen the Country’s thirst for freedom, rather than diluting it.

Yes, none of these instances have made the respective Countries become fully challenge-free; but the alignment and support of the Legal Order had helped in making the countries far better off than they would have been had the Legal Order used Law making or Interpretation to delay, or obstruct the progresses made.

So, for sustainable progress, Law must always be remodeled to align with the pressing expectations of the people it serves. And now that a new agenda to reverse decades-old decadence is unfolding in Nigeria, the Nation’s Legal System must brace up to the reality of changing times and the legitimate expectations of the people that must be met. With the leadership promised to be provided by the Law enforcement foot of the tripod, the Law-making and Law-interpretation foots must align themselves, to ensure that never again would any foot super-intend the making, enforcement or interpretation of Laws that deepen citizens’ experiences with socio-economic, political and electoral injustices. The Law must not be exploited to abort the legitimate rebirth now being earnestly awaited for the Country.

Iwilade Akintayo, a Legal Practitioner.

July 21, 2015
Boko Haram insurgency: Beyond the law

The state of insecurity in our country is mind boggling, there is renewed Boko Haram offensive in parts of the North particularly in the Northeast leaving thousands of Nigerians dead and valuable property destroyed including millions displaced from their homes because of the activities of terrorists. Nigeria has never had it so bad in terms of insecurity. It is against this background that the sacking and replacement of Service Chiefs ought to be x-rayed considering the monumental challenges on governance precipitated by increasing wave of terrorism in the land.

Given this scenario, how can the threat posed by Boko Haram insurgency be confronted and Buhariadministration deliver on its promises on the economy, infrastructure, corruption and security?

This intervention is meant to offer ideas to the new service chiefs on the way forward having regard to best practices including international standards and models for dealing with terror.

Studies particularly findings sourced from international organisations and agencies including United Nation Office on Drugs and Crime, Global Terrorist Database (GTD), Global Terrorism Index (GTI), Country Reports on Terrorism complied by the United States Department for States, Global Study carried out by the London based Institute for Economic and Peace and United Nation’s Global Counter Terrorism Strategy 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014 and various international conventions to counter terrorism including, the Legislative Guide to the Universal Anti-terrorism Conventions and Protocols have recommended five major measures generally associated with terrorism prevention and control. These five measures are hereby recommended to the new service chiefs for dealing with the Boko Haram scourge in the belief that all measures to wear down the terrorists must be deployed in the interest of the Nigerian state.

The recommended five measures are as follows: i. Measures aimed at addressing the planning and preparation for terrorist activities.

ii.Measures to counter financing and perpetration of acts of terror. iii. Countering terrorism by ensuring the criminalisation and penalisation of acts amounting to terror. iv. Ensuring international cooperation in the area of controlling terrorism; and

v.Establishing mechanisms for periodic reviews and strategic monitoring of the compliance regime with international counter-terrorism measures.

Under the first measures, what is contemplated is addressing conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism, including the Boko Haram insurgency. This implies investigating the root causes of the Boko Haram insurgency and deploying mechanisms and institutional support to address those root causes including local grievances. The security chiefs may have to in collaboration with institutions of governance address the nature of conflicts in Nigeria particularly the extent to which such conflicts creates conducive environment for the growth and development of terrorism. The focus should be on issues bordering on marginalisation, fiscal federalism, resource control, poverty, religious extremism, ignorance, illiteracy, disease, collapsing infrastructure, discrimination, structural inbalances, corruption, impunity, treasury looting and other factors capable of precipitating the formation and development of terrorists groups in Nigeria. It is in this sense that investigation by way of sociological study proposed by Mr. President is timely, urgent and relevant.

The second measures also require the deployment of intelligence gathering and technique with precision, monitoring and efficiency. It is important to investigate the sources of funding of these terrorists. Who are their sponsors? What is the source of their funding? Where did they get their arms and ammunitions from? And who are funding these sources and supplies? Where did theyprocure their vehicles and equipment and who is paying for these services? Unless the service chiefs focus their searchlight on the financing of Boko Haram activities and deploy energy and resources to block these sources of funding, the quest to rid the country of their activities may remain illusory.

The third measures recommended to the service chiefs are ensuring the criminalisation of acts amounting to terror. This will involve placing the investigative, prosecutorial, adjudicatory agencies on red alert to deliver maximum punishment to terrorists act including ensuring adequate mechanism for prompt diligent and swift punishment of those involved in these mindless acts of terrorism against the Nigerian nation and its peoples.

The fourth category of measures is the element of international cooperation which is very critical and fundamental. The service chiefs must ensure cooperation and collaboration first with the diverse entity that make up the Nigerian federation because except Nigerians unite to fight this course rather than indulging in blame game and politicization, our efforts would come to naught. It is not useful to conceive Boko Haram as merely religious, political, economic or acts of mere sabotage. It is perhaps useful to see it as a combination of all of these and more. In summary, it is more useful to see it as evil and deal with it as such – evil against progress, evil against humanity as a whole. Beyond these, we need to seek the cooperation of our neighbouring countries such as Niger, Chad, Cameroon and other countries within the West African Sub-region in terms of sub-regional task forces and the sharing of intelligence and information. Cooperation must also be enlisted at the regional level, at the level of the commonwealth and at the level of the United Nations. Unless international cooperation is enlisted, it will be difficult to trace and prevent movements of terrorists, movements of finances and supplies of equipment and other instruments of warfare deployed so savagely by the terrorists.

The fifth category of measures entails establishing mechanisms for periodic reviews and strategic monitoring of compliance regime with international counter-terrorism measures. These categories of measures are important in that terrorist methods and tactics are constantly changing with implications that counter-terrorism measures must also respond to these changes as they unfold. These responses cannot be effective and efficient in the absence of periodic reviews and strategic monitoring. These would ensure that Nigeria is in tune with international standards and best practices in dealing with the scourge of Boko Haram.

It is in this sense that we need to keep close contact with the United Nations Global Counter Terrorism strategy which reveals responses for dealing with terrorism every two year interval. In our own situation since we are dealing with daily attacks, the service chiefs may need to constitute a standby task force and think thank that would be thinking twenty four hours on their feet and offering suggestions and alternative approaches for dealing with the scourge

It is also suggested that without prejudice to the foregoing, authorities should endeavor to put all options on the table without foreclosing the deployment of any of the options if Boko Haram is to be brought to a standstill. The options that could be explored include: dialogue, offer of amnesty, negotiations and the use of military force depending on situations and circumstances.

The realization that security is the major item on the agenda for now may be the key to our collective survival before we start addressing other governance issues.

Fundamentally, the service chiefs in prosecuting the war against Boko Haram ought to be guided by international standards and best practices including respect for the international rules of engagement, international law, international humanitarian law, international refugee law and international human rights law.

In summary, the service chiefs may wish to be guided by the elements of a book titled ‘The Present’ which I have just read providing for the following salient fundamentals:

The service chiefs should forget the past happenings but learn from those happenings as a matter of strategy and tactics.

The service chiefs should then be guided by the present realities meaning they should always focus on the present problems and how to deal with them.

The service chiefs should plan ahead drawing lessons from previous occurrences and focusing on the most important problems and challenges of the present.

Lastly, the service chiefs should regularly review developments and priotise strategies to deal with these developments as they emerge.

Finally, the Buhari administration is advised to redesign, reconfigure and retool its developmental agenda to emphasise security, security and security.

July 21, 2015