The Nation Newspaper

Tag: matters arising

  • Renunciation of citizenship: matters arising

    Renunciation of citizenship: matters arising

    A central constitution should reflect core values common to all the parts of the whole

    There are minor and major matters arising from the Senate’s recent attempt to cleanse the 1999 Constitution of gender bias or discrimination with respect to constitutional provisions on eligibility of citizens to renounce Nigerian citizenship. Some of the matters address surface issues while others make visible some aspects of the constitution that stand federalism on its head.

    With respect to surface issues, one matter that has arisen is the attempt by Ondo Central Senatorial District voters to invoke the sovereignty located in the citizenry. They had rightly called their senator to order and to find out why he voted for an issue that attempts to subvert their long-standing values. On his part, the Senator has rightly opened up by acknowledging that he voted in error. As there is no human being that is above mistake, it is expected that the enlightened voters in Ondo Central would have no difficulty accepting their senator’s open acceptance of acting in error. What is reassuring about the Akure town hall meeting with their senator is that voters and their senator came to an agreement on whose views should determine representative’s voting pattern in a democracy.

    Unlike the focused discussion between the senator and stakeholders in his constituency, another matter pertains to the claim by senate spokesmen that the section of the constitution at issue is an innocuous one that has nothing to do with underage marriage, which is deemed to have been overtaken by the Child Act of 2003 which states inter alia: “No person under the age of 18 years is capable of contracting a valid marriage and accordingly, any marriage so contracted is null and void and of no effect whatsoever.” Section 29 (4) may not be as innocuous as senators who argue that the matter they considered had nothing to do with child marriage imagine. Is the section at issue not inconsistent with the spirit of the Child Act of 2003 or vice versa? If the act being invoked is superior, then the provision that a married woman shall be deemed to be an adult and thus eligible to renounce her citizenship should not have arisen, on the account that if the person wishing to renounce her citizenship is an underage woman who happens to be married, such marriage should in tune with the spirit of the Child Act of 2003 be null and void and of no effect whatsoever.

    If anything, the principle of constitutional supremacy well captured under the General Provisions section: “If any other law is inconsistent with the provision of this Constitution, this Constitution shall prevail, and that other law shall to the extent of the inconsistency be void. It is conceivable for constitutional strict constructionists to argue that the Child Act of 2003 that says any marriage by any woman under 18 is null and void and the section of the Constitution that says that a woman regardless of her age who is married shall enjoy the privileges of an adult: renunciation of Nigerian citizenship, are inconsistent. Should this happen, Section 29 (4b) might be deemed to be superior to the Child Act of 2003.It is, therefore, right for the senate to opt to remove the section 28(4b), to obviate any ambiguity and to also make the provision gender-neutral.

    Another matter that has arisen most recently is the acceptance by the President of the Senate that the senators were blackmailed into re-inserting the provision that women who are married regardless of their age should be deemed as adults, even when they are not up to 18 years of age. More reassuring is the Senate President’s promise that the senate would look for opportunities to reverse itself on the decision to retain the provision at issue in the constitution, after having failed to do so as a result of blackmail.

    One matter arising that appears to have escaped the attention of the media and media pundits is the confusion inherent in the 1999 Constitution itself, especially its unwillingness to reflect the federal character of the country. It is not surprising that this aspect is overlooked by commentators who do not want to be seen as raising issues about the country’s diversity and the possibility of such interrogation’s capacity to heat the polity. But the voting patterns have unearthed the issue of the failure of the current constitution to reflect the country’s cultural diversity. But the fact that only two senators from the South (one from Edo and the other from Ondo) out of the 73 senators voted to retain section 29(4b) indicates visible ideological or value differences between the North and South of the country, a natural illustration of cultural diversity.

    If the provision of this section pertains to religious sensibilities, many of the senators from the South are Moslems and should have voted for retention of section 20(4b). It must be cultural: one section of the country appears to believe that women should have the same rights as their male counterparts, including the opportunity to acquire education that can enrich their citizenship and humanity. The other section appears to favour a constitution that gives men the opportunity to marry women who have not attained the age of majority while also wishing that female victims of underage marriage should keep some of the privileges that accrue only to citizens above 18 years of age. It is important for a federal constitution to allow parts of the whole to keep values that are dear to them without giving the impression that such values apply to other sections of the federation. For example, in the United States, California does not accept capital punishment while Texas does. Conflict is prevented by allowing each state to have its own constitution.

    A central constitution should reflect core values common to all the parts of the whole. Embedding culture-specific practices of a section in a national constitution shows bias. The section that allows women who are married to have the privilege of renouncing their citizenship while other women or men of their age in other cultures do not have that privilege is clearly partial to the cultures of Northern Nigeria. Given the history of the current constitution as a document that was imposed on the nation by military autocrats, it is not unexpected that such provisions exist in a constitution authored by military dictators. What should not be expected in the second decade after the exit of military dictatorship is for elected lawmakers to assign a sacred status to a constitution imposed on the nation, even if this had happened through blackmail,to cite the Senate President’s assessment.

    The fundamental issue calling for attention is the rightness in having a federal constitution that reflects only the values of a section of the country. Whatever might have been the motivation for Senator Yerima’s objection to removal of section 29(4b), the result of the votes to uphold Yerima’s objection or blackmail suggests that Yerima must have spoken for about half of the nation, the section of the country that produced 71of the 73 votes cast to sustain Yerima’s position. If anything, what happened in the senate in respect of section 29(4b) indicates that the current structure of governance cannot be made any more federal by the lawmakers elected under the 1999 Constitution. It may be better for political leaders to stop playing the Ostrich on the issue of the demand for a properly negotiated constitution, first for the country as a whole and, second, for each of its constituent parts.

  • Oguta by-election: matters arising

    Oguta in Imo State has become a metaphor for all that is wrong with our electoral process. More than two years after elections were conducted into state assemblies, it has remained a daunting task for any election to be successfully concluded in that constituency. Last week’s re-run, illustrates most poignantly, the bad example Oguta has become in the nation’s desire to enthrone free and fair polls.

    This sordid record is not entirely new, as the area is home to politicians very notorious for their awesome technology in election rigging and falsification of results. There was a time when election results were written in private homes and hotel rooms even before voting commenced. But all that suffered serious reverses with the insistence by President Jonathan on the principles of one man one vote and general awareness by the electorate for their votes to count. But the behemoths will not let go.

    We have seen how that principle succeeded in demystified prominent politicians in parts of the country as they failed to deliver their wards despite purported claims to huge electoral value.

    The turn of events in Oguta is the predictable outcome of a bad habit that has refused to give way. It is not surprising that the latest election ran into troubled waters; such that it was declared inconclusive by the INEC. According to INEC resident commissioner in Imo State, Prof Celina Okoh, the election was declared inconclusive because the difference in the number of votes between the first and second candidate which stood at 2,011 was lower than the 4,861 registered voters in the remaining eight polling units where election did not hold due to violence. This she said was in keeping with extant regulations in the Electoral Act.

    But this arithmetic is not as simple as it has been presented. A further examination of the ratio of those who voted in the 121 polling units will expose the glaring incongruity in canceling the entire election because of the unavailability of votes from just eight units. Going by the 4,861 registered voters in the eight units under contention, it is estimated that those who registered in the 121 units where elections held will be in the neighborhood of 73,522 voters. Of this figure, only 17,179 actually voted. This represents about 25 per cent of the total number of registered voters. So even if we calculate 25 per cent of the votes in the remaining eight units and add all of it to the figure scored by the PDP candidate in the 121 units, he will still not make it. Even then and going by the pattern of extant results, there is nothing to show that the PDP will win more votes than APGA in the remaining units. The message from this simple calculation is very clear to all. And it is that the people of Oguta have unambiguously demonstrated their preference for the APGA candidate. This must be respected.

    Governor Rochas Okorocha has cried foul blaming the turn of events as part of the grand plan by the PDP controlled government and INEC to rob APGA of its victory. He said APGA won with 9,595 votes as against 7,584 by the PDP in the 121 polling units where election results were collated. The governor also argued that if at all the need arose for any repeat; it should be confined to the eight units where polling did not take place. The last point is unassailable as it draws huge support from the calculations above.

    However, the PDP has equally accused the INEC of collaborating with APGA to rig the election, claiming that its candidate won. It accused APGA of masterminding the irregularities that stalled voting in the eight units. So the game of recrimination continues. From the point of view of both parties, the INEC has issues to resolve concerning its conduct of that election.

    This is about the third time elections into that constituency will turn out unsuccessful since April 2011. Events in Oguta raise serious questions not only on the commitment of the Jonathan administration to free and fair elections but more importantly INEC’s capacity to conduct credible polls. Moreover, reports of late arrival of voting materials in an election involving only a local government, amount to a scandal of unmitigated proportion. And when this is paired with the reported militarization of the local government through massive deployment of soldiers and armoured personnel carriers, it becomes more puzzling why the touted violence could not be contained for the election to proceed unhindered.

    Matters were also not helped by the so-called Abuja politicians comprising elected and appointed officers. They were reported to have stormed Oguta in convoys with their retinue of heavily armed security personnel who added to the tension that characterized the election. Ironically, most of these people had no business in Oguta as they are not even from that local government. Why INEC shut its eyes to the impudence of these politicians and the regulation that no security officer should come to the polling units with arms as was done in previous elections, is one issue that must be thoroughly investigated. Good thing, President Jonathan feels sufficiently concerned by this show of shame that he has tasked the security agencies and INEC to fish out those responsible for the violence. In this task, the first people to arrest are the so-called Abuja politicians, most of them members of the PDP who had no business in Oguta on that day. INEC must summon the courage to bring this category of politicians to book now it is at the receiving end from both parties. Any inquisition that ignores the brazen impunity displayed by these elected federal legislators will be patently meaningless. They are known and their presence and activities in Oguta on that fateful day cannot be denied.

    It has become paramount to check the impunity of these category people who have found it hard to part ways with their decadent and ruinous pasts. The way this singular incident is handled, will send signals as what to expect come 2015. It is either those responsible for this mess are brought to book or we should be prepared for the soaking of the baboons and the dogs in blood as has been forewarned.

    Oguta has become something else. In the April 2011 governorship and state assembly elections, it was the epicentre of popular resistance against high- tech subterfuge by the then government in power to manipulate the outcome of the election. It was a classic test of the will power of the people to take their destiny into their hands. Such was the situation that when the electorate sensed subtle efforts by the electoral umpire in connivance with law enforcement agents to manipulate the election, they rose stoutly and resisted it. Of the 27 local governments in the state, only in that constituency did election not hold due to stiff resistance by the people against attempts to manipulate the distribution of voting materials.

    What we see in Oguta, is the surge of popular resistance against elections that do not reflect the wishes of the people. That is perhaps, what Okorocha meant when he said Oguta has never had elections before now. INEC must rise to that challenge. If it cannot declare the APGA candidate winner because of the issue earlier canvassed, it has no business canceling results from the 121 units where voting successfully held. The right thing is to reschedule voting in the remaining eight units. We have a precedent in the same state to rely on. Canceling the entire results will amount to a plot to procure victory for the PDP through unwholesome means.

  • Lagos bomb: matters arising

    Lagos bomb: matters arising

    Given the way police authorities reacted to the bomb blast that killed a man and seriously injured another in Lagos, one had the initial urge to treat the incident as an isolated one that should not be blown out of proportion. This self-imposed caution was further dictated by the security challenges the nation is currently passing through. The fact that the explosion occurred under a seemingly innocuous bridge and did not take the shape of the terror attacks common in the northern parts of the country also combined to take the shine off that isolated but deadly bomb attack.

    But when my little son came back from school and asked “Daddy is it true that Boko Haram is coming to Lagos”, it dawned on me that the incident cannot possibly be played down no matter how hard one tries. My first reaction was that of surprise and then I asked what he meant by that. He told me he heard Boko Haram was coming and that they had already exploded a bomb that killed some people in Lagos. According to him, the rumour of the impending invasion of the sect was everywhere.

    It then struck me that there are issues the bomb blast at the FESTAC-Amuwo Odofin link bridge has brought to the front burner despite the efforts of the Lagos Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko to play it down. Initial reports that filtered quoted Manko to have attributed the blast to electrical fault.

    But when he visited the scene of the incident, he reversed himself and acknowledged the bomb even as he described it as a minor blast. He said “what happened here was a minor explosion. The improvised device that went off was not the type Nigerians were use to. It is the one common with torch battery”.

    It is apparent that the police chief wanted to disabuse the minds of the public from constructing parallels between this and Boko Haram attacks for fear of panicking. That is why he was quick to add that it is not the type we are used to. That also, is the reason he likened the device to the one common with torch battery.

    But whether torch battery or some other lesser contrivance, the device got the targets and dealt a death blow on them. It left horror in its trail such that the casualty figure could have been much higher were it detonated in a crowded area. This singular realization and the fact that it is the first of its kind since such attacks commenced in the north may have combined to spread the rumor that Boko Haram has infiltrated the state. Though the suspicion that it could be the handiwork of that religious sect is a very remote possibility, yet the incident bears positive correlation with the culture of violence introduced into the nation’s political landscape by the Boko Haram insurgents.

    For all one may wish to care, Improvised Explosive Devices IED’s have since been popularized by the insurgents such that it has sunk deep down the sub-conscious mind of the people. Frequent reports of improvised explosives hurled at the JTF, hidden along the road side and planted here and there, have combined to give the impression that bombs can easily be manufactured by whosoever cares.

    And in an impoverished society likes ours battling with myriads of social problems including high level criminality, the consequences could be very devastating. That is perhaps, the potent danger the incident has brought to the fore. That is the monster Boko Haram has unleashed unto this country. And since one monster begets another, it is not surprising that criminally-minded people will find it easy tool to eliminate opponents and settle personal scores. That is the real danger we are being made to face by virtue of that attack. Perhaps, the only bomb attack in Lagos before now was the one that killed veteran journalist Dele Giwa during the regime of Babangida. Though the nation did not imbibe the culture of letter bombs which that incident tried to introduce, there is nothing to give comfort that the use of improvised bombs for sundry devious objectives will not fester. That is the real danger now confronting us all.

    If our recent experiences are anything to go by, then we are in for another trouble. That was how kidnapping started in a very small scale involving the taking into hostage of foreign oil workers for ransom. It soon blossomed to an all-comers affair, degenerating to a very ridiculous level. In Abia State, it turned out an all comers affair as even commoners and local travellers quickly became easy prey. We saw how that devious activity held the state prostrate and virtually killed Aba until the collective might of the federal government had to be massively deployed to redeem the situation. The same pattern was toed by 419 and similar fraudulent activities. Till date, both criminal tendencies still fester despite concerted efforts by the government to make them a dangerous source of human engagement. That is the danger of importing high-tech criminality into a society that is still grappling with the daunting challenges of development.

    It is not unlikely that these were the fears that informed the casual manner the police set out to play down the wider implications of that explosion. But no matter how hard they try, it is obvious that something with dire repercussions for peace and security in the country has just happened. This is more so, as there is everything to suggest this singular incident had as its main objective, the settlement of personal scores. The target was Chief Pius Oladele, Chairman of the Sand Dealers and Dredgers Association in the area. This is not in any doubt. The bomb was planted around a dwarf brick wall beside the bank of the canal where Oladele usually sat to relax. The security agencies might as well have some other lead on the matter but every indication point to an assassination mission. And this makes the entire affair more frightening.

    If Nigerians have come to that point where improvised explosives can be freely used to eliminate opponents, then every body is in trouble. Before now, the use of hired assassins had been the vogue. We also know how difficult it has been for the law enforcement agencies to resolve the riddle many of these have posed. Now, we are being led into improvised explosives that will further task the energies of those charged with maintenance of law and order. The difficulty in fighting Boko Haram terrorism is instructive. We may soon be confronting IED terrorism.

    The police have said they are on top of the situation. We have heard this worn out cliché over and over again. They have arrested some suspects. We hope they will make serious breakthrough into this issue such that will discourage other evil minded people from taking resort to it to settle personal scores. But the issues must be that weighty since the process of making bombs, planting and detonating same could be a very tasking and risky enterprise. For now, let us watch and see what the police will make of this incident.