By Ochereome Nnanna
The sad story of Justice Ifeoma Jombo-Ofo brings back to the fore the
tragic situation of Nigeria’s negative socio-political development,
better known as the “indigene-settler” syndrome.
Nearly one hundred years after its creation and 52 years after
independence, Nigeria is still unable to provide for its citizens the
canopy of assurance and protection in many ways. Nigerians continue to
be strangers in their country, no better than nationals of other
countries resident in Nigeria.
Justice Jombo-Ofo was born in Anambra State. She married in Abia
State. Since the state was created 21 years ago she has served the
Judiciary “meritoriously” (the words of Governor Theodore Orji, who
recommended her to take up Abia State’s slot in the Court of Appeal).
But some selfish elements wrote a petition to the Chief Justice of the
Federation, Mariam Aloma Mukhtar, pointing out that she was not an
indigene of Abia State and therefore should not take up a seat reserved
for its indigenes. Based on this, the CJN refused to swear her in.
This story resonated around the world and rocked the worldwide social
media. It showed that Nigeria has been moving backward rather than
forward in terms of social and political integration. The struggle for
Nigeria’s independence took off on a Pan-Africanists note, where
Ghanaian, Sierra Leonean and Nigerian early educated elites, such as Dr
James Kwegyir Aggrey, Sir J.E. Casely Hayford, Dr Herbert Macaulay and
Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, among others, saw British West Africa and Africa as a
whole coming out of colonialism if not as one country but at least
united by common bonds of brotherhood and vision.
The movement towards creating a nation where everyone would find
fulfillment was alive in most Southern cities such as Lagos, Enugu, Port
Harcourt, Aba, Calabar and others, before Barrister Obafemi Awolowo and
his group, the Egbe Omo Oduduwa introduced tribalism, which he
characterised as “federalism” into the body politic. From the North,
Sir Ahmadu Bello introduced a regional party. Thus was defeated our
progress towards building a normal nation. We have written several times
in the past to show how, in those early days Nigerians were able to
settle, integrate and struggle with fellow countrymen in parts of the
country. They attained political heights similar to what we see in
advanced Western countries like the USA, a country we admire so much and
emulate in many ways (even if only where it suits us).
America is full of examples of people moving from their states of
origin and attaining their dreams and ambitions in their places of
residence. The most obvious is President Barack Obama, whose father was
born in Africa. Obama hailed from Hawaii, settled in Illinois where he
was elected to the US Senate and later twice as president of the United
States. Since we are talking of the case of a woman, let us use the
example of Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton. She was born in Illinois,
married to Bill Clinton in Arkansas where she became the First Lady.
After her husband’s two terms as president she moved to New York and was
elected as a federal senator in 2000.
America’s infinite capacity to give its citizens the space, platform
and protection to evolve to the best they can be is the primary reason
for their intense patriotic instincts. It is one of the factors that
draw people from all over the world to seek the citizenship of the USA.
But here in Nigeria we allowed our society to degenerate from the
sublime to the subliminal. We proudly proclaim ourselves first of all
products of our tribes before being products of our states before being
Nigerians. And yet we find it very convenient to leave our places of
origin to seek fulfillment in other parts of Nigeria and the world. What
hypocrisy!
The Justice Jombo-Ofo case is very intolerable when we consider the
sacrifices that women make. It is the lot of women to leave their
families at maturity and relocate to strange new families, and sometimes
strange new lands and cultures in order to move mankind forward. It is
cruel and wicked, after she has made such sacrifices, to deny her the
right to grow in her new dispensation. Justice Jombo-Ofo, like other
women in her situation, brought out her God-given talents to serve her
husband’s community and state with all her strength. While she fought
her way from the bottom up, helping to build the state in which she was
married nobody raised any objection. But now that she has come to a
point of self-actualisation some evil-minded people want to stop her and
reap where they did not sow.
The pitiable part of this story is that a fellow woman and head of
the Judiciary is the stumbling block on her path. I remember very well
when Mukhtar was sworn-in as the Chief Justice of Nigeria in July this
year, how the entire nation, particularly women, rejoiced. The Senior
Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Affairs, Senator
Joy Emodi, led a group of women to celebrate the first female CJN.
I would have expected CJN Mukhtar to be the first to say “no” to this
brazen affront on the rights of a fellow woman to move into the higher
Bench. Meanwhile, all the men concerned have thrown their weights behind
his woman – Governor Orji, President Goodluck Jonathan and the Nigerian
Senate with its presiding officer, David Mark, as the chief advocate.
People say that women are often the greatest enemies to other women. CJN
Mukhtar’s intransigence has given credence to this notion, even if it
is not always true. She has climbed to the top and kicked away the
ladder.
We must proceed, in this constitution amendment exercise, to elevate
the citizenship rights of Nigerians above ethnic and indigenous
considerations. Demographic mobility is one of the greatest factors in
national development and individual actualisation.
Justice Jombo-Ofo must be sworn-in as a judge of the Court of Appeal.
Vanguard
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