| Nigeria has never been ruled by a true believer in the democratic credo. It is a lineage of despotism that stretches back to independence and to the colonial foundation of Nigeria. Goodluck Jonathan is the latest in a long line of Viziers selected to superintend the Nigerian post-colonial collage. No matter the garb our viceroys wear or the creed they profess, the result has always been the same: a deepening of the crisis of the state and the further emasculation of democratic norms. Unluckily for Goodluck, this situation cannot subsist for much longer. All evidence and statistics point to the fact that the beast of burden has been straining its leash for quite some time under the torture of its crushing baggage. No one is sure of which straw will break the proverbial camel’s back. But given Jonathan’s relative inexperience and the lackadaisical flippancy with which he appears to be sleepwalking his way from one avoidable crisis to the other, we may be set for a major rumble in the jungle. The way and manner Jonathan has endorsed Justice Issa Ayo Salami’s suspension from office, despite the crass illegality and judicial absurdity, leave much to be desired. It does not portray a president interested in deepening democratic norms or expanding the frontiers of the rule of law. Jonathan seems to have acted with the cynical calculations of a political survivalist rather than the ennobling discretion of a statesman interested in civilized procedures and the progress of his nation. Surely, this cannot be part of the transformative leadership Jonathan has promised Nigerians. Enemies of Nigeria pretending to be friends of Jonathan seem to have persuaded him that he should do all that is in his power to avoid Justice Salami at the Appeal Court no matter the damage to the system. The prospects of the fiery, no-nonsense judge tearing into his case with his customary severe frown are enough to put the fear of the lord into any president’s heart, particularly one that seems to enjoy the perquisites of office more than its prerogatives. Having demonized the poor Justice out of all proportions, the PDP power-mongers are mortally afraid of the monster they have created. But even monsters are entitled to reliefs. For Jonathan to have relied on the report of an improperly constituted Kangaroo panel, a panel that willfully and criminally avoided lawful writs and sat without a quorum just to arrive at preordained punishment, is a sure invitation to political anarchy. The Nigerian judiciary has had its moments of low self-esteem, but this is the lowest depths of abject self-abasement it has sunk in its history. As usual, the grand irony that may escape all the major actors in this deplorable drama is that in its resort to self-help, and in its attempt to shore up the fortunes of the state, the judiciary might have created a major crisis for the state. The subsisting crisis of the Nigerian post-colonial state inheres in the fact that despite the veneer and cosmetics of modernity, it is essentially an authoritarian feudal state which treats its citizens as subjects and one in which a feudalized selectorate replaces the electorate as a succession of strongmen rule and rape the roost. Ordinarily, there ought to be a major contradiction, indeed a violent anomaly, between judicial feudalism and a modern state. The very notion of judicial feudalism is a stark oxymoron, because the modern judiciary is not an ideological apparatus of the old feudal state. But in all its modern and ancient history the Nigerian judiciary has always acted as a loyal and dependable ally of the feudal state in its struggle and war against its own captive citizens. Rather than helping to deepen democracy and facilitate the rights of humanity in a modern society, the judiciary has proved a willing tool in deepening despotism and strengthening the hands of tyrants. Such is the anomaly and fundamental absurdity of nationhood in contemporary Nigeria. If anybody believes that this is a mere hysterical assertion, the concrete facts are sobering enough. In its colonial incarnation, the judiciary was a willing tool in the hands of imperialist interlocutors dishing out improbable punishments to Nigerian freedom fighters while helping to turn the prison yard into the default abode of Nigerian patriots bent on seeing the end of colonial subjugation. The likes of Herbert Macaulay, Mokuwgo Okoye, Raji Abdallah, Bello Ijumu and Anthony Enahoro paid a stiff price for their nationalist recalcitrance. After independence, the judiciary famously and willingly tied its hand behind its back in order to perpetuate a feudal and tyrannical status quo. There was the infamous Treasonable Felony trial, the tacit endorsement of ouster clauses by the military which put the judicial nose out of joint, the 12 2/3 chicanery and judgments that cannot be quoted as a legal precedent, the annulment of a presidential election and the murder of its putative winner with the connivance of the bench, the judicially sanctioned state-execution of Kenule Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni nine, the politically motivated endorsement of the fraudulent presidential elections of 2003 and 2007, the arrest of a pending judgment because the interest of a feudal fiefdom may be jeopardized, and now the criminally motivated ouster of a sitting president of the Appeal Court by elements within the judiciary. Yet, this is not to say that the Nigerian judiciary does not parade its glorious avatars and immortal icons; men and women of intellectual caliber and moral timber: the CID Taylors, the Agudas, the Oputas, the Aniagolus, the Eshos, the Akanbis and a host of others. For example, it was a female judge, Dolapo Akinsanya, who sacked the Shonekan interim nonsense on the grounds that it had no basis or foundation in the grundnorm. The clearest indication that the Nigerian state does not derive its strength or authority from the rational branch of the judiciary was Shonekan’s warning from Port Harcourt that the judiciary should steer clear of matters above and beyond it. If the political apprentice from UAC was looking over to Abacha for support, the goggled one was already rehearsing his take-over speech. The point to be made is that every class consists of its dominant faction and dominated fraction. The judiciary is no exception. The dominant faction of the judiciary has been in bed with the dominant state and social order from the amalgamation, thwarting the legitimate aspirations of the Nigerian people in the process and destroying the career of progressive and forward-looking judges within its own profession. As a result of growing disenchantment, significant sections of the Nigerian populace often resort to self-help after they have been victims of electoral robbery. As it is today, the Nigerian state is neither a modern or modernizing state, nor the nation it forcibly superintends a modern nation or a genuine federation. For the past twenty years, the Nigerian multitude has fought a desperate battle to revalidate their citizenship and to reclaim the stolen sovereignty of the Nigerian electorate. This is where the real war for the transformation of Nigeria is fought and anybody with any genuine transformative agenda for Nigeria ought to know where to pitch their tent. By underwriting the dubious claims of judicial despots, Jonathan has failed the elementary test of any political transformation. The tragic consequences of this failure will outweigh any immediate political relief accruing from the ouster of Justice Salami. Whatever they claim to be his failings and mortal sins, Salami’s enemies have helped to invest him with the halo of judicial martyrdom by the shabby manner of his dismissal. Whether he goes under or is dramatically rescued, Salami has already joined the judicial Hall of Fame and for a long time to come his implacable gaze of sublime contempt will haunt the gallery of electoral miscreants in this land. As for Goodluck Jonathan, the honeymoon is all but over. The gale of protests that has greeted his political deviancy may or may not crystallize into a critical mass of national tempest this time around, but it is just a question of time. An idea seems to be taking firm roots among the educated classes of this country that things cannot continue like this. It is either Nigeria transforms voluntarily or it faces an involuntary resolution of its crippling contradictions. If Jonathan cares to take a closer look at the crowd of protesters this past week, he would have discovered the same forces that had supported his ascendancy against a feudal cabal bent on subverting constitutional rule in the country now inveighing against his own capitulation to judicial feudalism. A presidency which began on a groundswell of national affection and fondness may yet end up in bitterness and bile. |
Monday, 5 December 2011
| No matter how hard the presidency and aides of President Goodluck Jonathan deny the fact, they are guilty of subterfuge and partisanship in the controversy between the National Judicial Council (NJC) and Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) on one side and the lonely and victimised Justice Ayo Salami, suspended President of the Court of Appeal (PCA), on the other side. In my last piece on this sad and irritating matter I had feared that the NJC would ignore common sense and reasonableness to achieve its predetermined and unlawful goals. I even wondered whether the president, knowing the weight of responsibility on his shoulders, and appreciating the graveness of the office he occupies, would ignore posterity and go ahead to side with the powerful and desperate clique in the NJC. If he went on to do the unthinkable, I concluded, Jonathan would have succeeded in taking a step that would define his presidency for all time and leave a permanent scar on his tenure. When I penned those words, and in spite of my suspicion that Jonathan had weak knees when it came to his party and its interests, I had held out hope that he would somehow fumble into the right choice, not enthusiastically out of conviction, for that was not in his character, but at least reluctantly out of instinct. My suspicion, it turned out, was entirely misplaced. By announcing an acting president for the Court of Appeal, in line with the recommendation of the NJC acting under the iron fist of Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu, the president wittingly gave in to the argument and mischief of the judicial body. And by carefully wording the appointment notice to appear as if he sidestepped both the suspension and retirement of Salami as canvassed by the NJC, the president gave us an unwholesome view of how lightly he esteems his office and with what levity he takes momentous decisions. Salami had gone to court fearing the rashness of the NJC would hurt his reputation, but the case was yet to be assigned or heard. If the president had waited for a week or two, knowing full well that the case was in court, would justice to the complainant and the defendant be undermined? There was no chance of that happening. But if the president had waited for a week or two until the case was assigned, would the predetermined objectives of the CJN and the covert wish of the presidency and the ruling party be injured? Absolutely. The decision to take a peremptory action on the controversial suspension of the PCA must, therefore, be understood in those contexts. Forget the subterfuge by the NJC sitting without a quorum, and the presidency acting without a sense of history. Forget also the indignation of the president’s spokesman, Dr Reuben Abati, as he rails against public reaction, a reaction he snorts is partisan. Forget also the sickening fact that a judicial officer junior to Salami sat with seven other jurists from a 24-member body to take a decision over their senior. What is most surprising is that the NJC under Katsina-Alu and his proxies cannot fathom the degree of injury it has done itself and the judiciary as a whole. Since the outgoing CJN took over, and particularly since he caused the Sokoto governorship petition judgement to be arrested, it was clear he had neither the interest of leaving a good legacy nor of being a patriot. It was sufficient for him to rise to the rank of CJN, a position thrust on him solely by his long stay in the Supreme Court and by his seniority. Had he other qualifications known to the judicious and the deep, those credentials would have recommended him to us as a judicial officer destined for greatness and whom we could not but esteem very highly. As it is, Katsina-Alu preferred to leave office on good commons than on good merit. The president’s seemingly disingenuous intervention in the Salami/NJC case is still baffling. He argued he was neither suspending nor retiring the PCA, but that he was only acting to fill a lacuna created by the suspension of Salami by the NJC. According to the presidency, Jonathan was satisfied that the Third Schedule of the 1999 constitution gave the NJC the power to exercise disciplinary control over judicial officers of the rank of the PCA. Once the NJC communicated to him that it had sanctioned the PCA, the president considered that he had the obligation to ensure there was no vacuum in the Court of Appeal, even if he theoretically disagreed with the judicial body. He was not fussy about whether the NJC followed due process. The NJC used to be an awe-inspiring body around whose perfumed corridors lesser judicial officers tiptoed reverentially. Katsina-Alu has virtually demystified and destroyed that awe overnight. The CJN’s detrimental instinct is obviously both a product of his person and his insufficient appreciation of the law beyond its letter. But by far the greater censure goes to the president whose aides and hirelings are now quizzically trying to paint him as neutral in the case. He is most definitely not neutral. The buck stops at his desk; though he has tried unsuccessfully to pass it to both the NJC and Nigerians whom he said were partisan, and to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) members whom his aides and party said were instigating the protests over the Salami case. This is unexampled rascality. The ACN is alleged to be supporting and defending Salami, an observation mischievously celebrated by the ruling party’s supporters and their bought media. But it would have been stupid and cowardly of the ACN not to defend the PCA, for the ruling party flagrantly gave everybody the impression it was persecuting Salami over the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections petitions. And is the cause not just? Or is everyone defending Salami ACN? It is in fact Jonathan and the NJC that are politicising the Salami case by sentimentally seeking to drag the ACN into the fray, while completely avoiding or misinterpreting the provisions of the constitution relevant to the case. It is important for the public to understand that by appointing an acting PCA the president simply surrendered to the wish of the NJC. There is no other way to look at his action other than to say he endorsed the suspension of Salami without saying so openly, and that except the PCA gets a reprieve from the courts, he will stay suspended for a long time in accordance with the desire of the NJC and the covert interest of the presidency and the PDP. It is also important for the public to understand that the Third Schedule of the constitution, which the NJC and the president’s supporters are vigorously celebrating and relying on, cannot be read in isolation of Section 292 of the constitution that spells out how top judicial officers can be removed. Apart from the fact that it is dishonest of the NJC to purport to suspend Salami after all investigations had been carried out, rather than to suspend him before he was investigated, it is egregious subversion of the constitution to misinterpret the constitution at the level of the NJC. As a legal luminary put it, “It is settled that in construing the provisions or section of a statute or indeed the constitution, such provisions or section should not be read in isolation of the other parts of the statute or constitution. In other words, the statute or constitution should be read as a whole in order to determine the intendment of the makers of the statute or constitution. In this context, it is safe to say that the oft-quoted provisions of Paragraph 21(b) of the Third Schedule cannot be read in total disregard to the provisions of Section 292 of the constitution.” The Third Schedule of the 1999 constitution gives the NJC power to take action on erring judicial officers. It did not spell out how. The how is contained in Section 292. Importantly, notwithstanding the agitations of blackmailers, we must not forget that the NJC said it was suspending Salami for misconduct. But it began the persecution of the PCA by first accusing him of lying on oath. When it discovered it would need court pronouncement to establish perjury against him, the offence became refusal to apologise to the CJN. When that also became sticky, the offence metamorphosed into misconduct, which they defined as resorting to media publicity. It is these shifty excuses and unprincipled actions that Jonathan lent his imprimatur. The CJN is retiring today. He is leaving after desecrating a judicial body handed over to him in good standing and in one piece. He is leaving after exposing the weak underbelly of the Supreme Court in very unflattering ways. Of course he has nothing to lose personally, for he has accreted little by way of fame and reputation in his years on the bench, and will go back to the anonymity from whence he came. But Jonathan is still in office, and will be for about four years. As he demonstrated in the Ogun State House of Assembly controversy, when he sided with lawless lawmakers to our initial dismay, he seems to have the instinct of siding with lawbreakers when it suits his political goals. Though many of us supported him during the closing years of Umaru Yar’Adua presidency and in the last presidential election, we feared he would lack principles. He has not disappointed us; he has only shown why we must look beyond him for the greatness of our country – as we looked beyond his predecessors who thought leadership was all about the provision of roads and infrastructure. |
| Former Head of State and Presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change at the 2011 election, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, has condemned Friday bomb attacks at the United Nations House in Abuja in which many lives were lost and several people were wounded. In a statement signed by his spokesman, Yinka Odumakin, General Buhari described the horrendous attack as a heart-rending devastation and a great challenge to the emotion, and sent his condolences to the United Nations, the mourning people of Nigeria and the grief-stricken families. "It is my prayer that the Almighty will comfort all the bereaved and bring speedy recovery to all the wounded" he said. Gen Buhari also frowned at the lazy official response that has accompanied serial challenges to security in the country. "There has yet to be any coordinated response by the security forces in the country,” he said. “It is unprofessional and incompetent for our security agencies to surrender to this omnibus Boko Haram as the only clue to every security challenge." He warned that such a situation portends a serious danger to the country: "What that means is that even foreign interests can enter Nigeria today and wreak havoc and issue a statement in the name of Boko Haram and we will bury our dead and life continues," he said. The General called on those in charge of the country to seriously address all the social problems confronting Nigeria and show the focused leadership which is lacking at the moment. |
| “Gentlemen, welcome to this emergency meeting. Today is a sad day for our country, as you all know. Apart from the lives we lost, the bombing of the UN building is a source of great embarrassment for Nigeria. I have summoned you all so we can quickly agree on the president’s immediate response.” “Thank you, Oronto. As the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, I swung into action immediately. I have already drafted a press statement. In fact, I was on my way to secure presidential clearance to release the statement when I got your summon.” “Em… Ken, what do you think?” “Thanks, Oronto. Well, it’s a good thing that Reuben has acted so quickly. His reflexes are good. But the country has just suffered a major terrorist attack. We are talking the UN here. This is huge international stuff. Should Nigerians and the international community be comforted by a presidential messenger?” “Ken, take time. Seriously, take your time. Who is a messenger? Look, Oronto did not summon us here to insult each other o” “Sorry, Reuben, it came out wrongly. Reno, what do you think? What would Trippi advice that we do?” “Em, cool temper gentlemen. I think Ken has a point. Once a country is hit by a major international tragedy, the management of that tragedy becomes the yardstick for measuring the quality of its leadership. Look at the recent Norway bombings. Within minutes of the tragedy, the Norwegian Prime Minister was all over the world’s airwaves - from CNN to BBC via Aljazeera – comforting his citizens and reassuring the international community. Spectacle and perception are crucial in this business. Nothing beats the image of a hands-on leader getting to the trenches to comfort his people and the world.” “Exactly! My sentiments, Reno! We also saw the British Prime Minister in action during the recent London riots. He cut short his vacation and returned home to lead. He was constantly in the street, addressing his country and the world.” “Yes o, Ken, it was reassuring seeing the British Prime Minister. Not to mention what an American President would do in these circumstances: rousing and reassuring speeches to Americans and the world atop the rubble within minutes of an attack. Reuben, do you understand what we are talking about now? “Ok, Reno, you and Ken have a point. So what do we do, Oronto?” “Well, if I understand you guys, you seem to be suggesting that instead of Reuben’s press statement, we should throw the President out there so he can address Nigerians and the world in front of cameras?” “Not only that, Oronto, he should also rush to the scene of the tragedy with little or no siren. He should be dressed in jeans or khaki and should go there to lead rescue workers for five minutes and reassure a traumatized nation. BBC, CNN, Aljazeera, and Reuters are all there. Even NTA is there. Let him stop in front of their microphones to take questions and comfort the Nigerian people.” “Are you guys serious?” “Oronto, do we look like we are joking?” “Either you are joking or you have forgotten the problem” “The problem?” “Yes, the problem. I will jolt your memories. Ken, do you remember your recent interview with that Canadian newspaper, the Globe and Mail?” “Ah, yes, I remember.” “Good, what did you tell them about the President’s stage presence?” “Ah, yes, I said that’s the only area he needs to work on. Em… I mean, I praised him so much it was looking ridiculous so I had to throw in something that at least looks like a weakness to make him human. So I said that he needs to improve his stage presence” “Don’t worry, Ken, we are not blaming you. You guys are here talking about young, charismatic, and energetic world leaders who are masters of oratory. People who can give unscripted, impromptu speeches and electrify their audience. And you want us to throw oga out there and make him perform like those people? Are we miracle workers? Reuben, are you a miracle worker?” “Well guys, you know I am new here and Reno told me last week that I am not paid to think the things I used to think when I was outside. It’s not that I haven’t thought of that little problem” “Little problem? Reuben, you call that little problem? Look, we are all talking strictly off the record here. Nothing said will ever leave this room. Not a word will leak. This is a we-we situation and we can talk frankly and freely. Ken, tell Reuben.” “I should tell him?” “Yes, tell him” “Well, Reuben, the truth is that it takes us 1000 hours of coaching and practicing to prepare Oga to read a five-minute speech on TV. And you know what Nigerians and the world still think of his performance with all that effort. Whenever Oga is going abroad, we do nearly 3000 hours of coaching. That CNN interview with Christian Amanpour, you have no idea how many hours we sweated to prepare Oga. And you know the result. So, truth is, Oga just doesn’t have it. He will never electrify an audience. He will never not look sleepy, lost, and uninspiring in public. There is just no way to improve Oga’s stage presence. That’s the truth we all whisper to ourselves around here but our job is to protect him from that glaring weakness. ” “That’s the truth gentlemen. If after thousands of hours of coaching, we only manage to get Oga to perform below average in scripted interviews and public speeches, imagine the disaster of throwing him in front of the world’s cameras unscripted today of all days. It will worsen the tragedy we have on our hands. We lost eighteen lives today. This is no time to add to Nigerians’ anguish by reminding them of words like clueless and lost when they see their president on TV.” “Ok, Oronto, I guess we need to take a vote on how to proceed. The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs has already spoken on BBC. Ban Ki-Moon has already spoken. And the world still hasn’t heard from the President. There is no time to waste.” “Ok, all in favour of Reuben acting in loco parentis for the president say ‘aye’ Reno: Aye! Ken: Aye! Oronto: Aye! Reuben: Aye! “Gentlemen, we have a decision. Reuben, go and release the statement. I’ll go and brief the President.” Presidential Press Statement President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria utterly condemn the barbaric, senseless and cowardly attack on the United Nation’s Building in Abuja this morning. The President believes that the attack is a most despicable assault on the United Nations’ objectives of global peace and security, and the sanctity of human life to which Nigeria wholly subscribes. He extends his sincere condolences to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon and all members of the United Nations family who have lost loved ones in the heinous attack. President Jonathan reaffirms the Federal Government’s total commitment to vigorously combat the incursion of all forms of terrorism into Nigeria, and wishes to reassure all Nigerians and the international community that his Administration will spare no effort to bring the perpetrators to justice. The President has also directed all relevant government agencies to assist in the search and rescue effort at the UN Building, and ordered heightened security across the Federal Capital Territory. He urges all Nigerians to cooperate fully with the government in its efforts to expose the desperate elements who promote violence, terrorism and division in the country. While noting that by today’s attack, we are once again reminded of the international character of terrorism and its indiscriminate targeting of innocent civilians, President Jonathan affirms Nigeria’s determination to continue to play its part in the global effort to eradicate the scourge of terrorism in all its ramifications. He urges all Nigerians and foreigners resident in the country to go about their normal affairs with the full assurance that the Federal Government and its law enforcement agencies will continue working diligently to ensure the full protection of lives and property in the country. Signed: Reuben Abati, Ph.D Special Adviser to the President (Media & Publicity) August 26, 2011 |
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Comrade Godwin Erhahon is a veteran journalist, a former chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Edo State council. He is presently the state chairman of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). In this interview he speaks on a variety of issues concerning the performance of his party in the recently concluded April 2011 general elections, the administration of Governor Adams Oshiomhole in the state, the Boko Haram onslaught in Nigeria and several other burning issues. CAJETAN MMUTA met with him.
The opposition parties in Edo State have been very silent since after the April 2011 general elections and there is this belief that their voices have been overwhelmed by the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the state. What actually is the situation?
So far I wouldn’t agree that the opposition has not been speaking. My fear was that most of our correspondents refuse to really carry the news of the opposition because of perhaps their relationship with the governor of the state and I have told them that as far I am concerned
I am their elder. In this state now if you talk about the former NUJ I think I am the eldest that is still living in Benin. I have two or three others who are outside this state and outside this country and they also know that I was the chairman of the Correspondents chapel. And so when you talk about criticism of government and personalities and all of that, nobody would claim to have done it much better than I did in my time and so when I issue statements or grant interviews, people try to water it down because they believe that the ruling Comrade is close to their editors and their publishers.
So they are not serious; the only way to help the Comrade is to tell him the truth and the only way you can market your paper is to be objective. And so I tell you that we have always spoken, the problem has been on the side of the media. We also cannot compete financially with the ruling parties.
Your party the CPC lost dismally during the April general elections in the state. What in your own view are the reasons for that?
Well you call it dismally, you were in the state and you saw what happened. A situation where the ACN conspired with the PDP against us and there was the fact that the governor Comrade Adams Oshiomhole who has been a major beneficiary of the North went to Edo North and assembled all the traditional rulers in the area in his house two days to the presidential elections and told them to vote for Jonathan because Jonathan is our own and that the North should not be allowed to come in and he said a lot of funny things about the North and one of the traditional rulers who was also close to General Buhari was quick to tell him, say look we cannot be part of this.
He said a lot of things about the North and when I heard it I was disappointed, because, first, I know when Oshiomhole arrived Kaduna as a young man who just left secondary school in 1973, he was homeless. He told me when we were very close how he suffered and how he was able to find his feet in Kaduna. If the Northerners were as bad as he portrayed them he wouldn’t have been able to survive and become who he was before he became governor now. And I also know that Nuhu Ribadu who was the presidential candidate of his party, ACN, whom he now betrayed along with Buhari, was very magnanimous to him even as the chairman of EFCC. As we speak all the allegations against him when he was the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, the petitions against him never saw the light of the day and I was also with him in 2006 when we started this race and we were broke, Ribadu came in and offered financial assistance to him and for such person to have betrayed Ribadu, betrayed Buhari and tried to run down the North it didn’t make sense and so those were some of the reasons that worked against us.
But at the end of the day if you look at the score we came third in the state and our former party, ANPP, from which we moved to CPC, they were far below us and that was the party that had the former governor of this state as the presidential running mate.
So I won’t say we lost abysmally, we did our best, coupled with the fact that the immigration department were also very, very unfair to us. After the elections people tried to pressurise me not to bother, but to forgive them; I had wanted to make a case out of it. A situation where they mounted most of the polling booths in the urban city of Benin driving away Hausa people to say they are not Nigeria, it was too much and we weren’t happy about it. When they did it during the National Assembly election I sent a delegation there, they met them but they said yes; one of them after they had interrogated him he confessed that he was not actually a Nigerian that his grandfather came from Niger and so his father was born in Nigeria in Kebbi State before his father gave birth to him. I said what kind of stupid statement is that? What do you talk about citizenship law and citizenship rights?
How do you define a citizen of a country if somebody whose father was born in this country and then the father also had him here then that one is not a Nigerian, who is a Nigerian? Is there any tribe in this country that originated from Nigeria and they did not come from somewhere? It is not possible. God didn’t come here and create any tribe and said you are Nigeria. One way or the other we migrated from somewhere. And so the citizenship law anywhere in the country affects any child that is born in the country as an indigene first and foremost. And so those were some of the things that worked against us, but at the end of the day I think we are proud. A party that came in, we are here for less than a year and yet we were able to come third, that was good enough.
The year 2012 is another election year, particularly in the state because the governorship election will be coming around and it is expected that the existing registered political parties will participate in that election and Oshiomhole has indicated his interest to go for second term with his posters all over the state. How much rating would you give to his administration within the past two years and eight months?
Well, I will tell you that surely if you want me to score him actually he has done above 40 percent. That’s my rating which is not a failure and is not an excellent pass as people would want to say and all that because if you look at some of the projects he has been handling and he is still handling you get marveled. For example, look at the airport road. As we speak now who knows the contractor, but if I tell you the contractor and you publish it, Benin people will revolt.
They said ooh he is carrying one Captain as a front, but the person who ruined this state for eight years is the actual contractor.
Very soon we will come out with details to really confront him. So you have him two or three times say he was going to revoke the contract. Could he dare it? He couldn’t because his godfather is the one handling the project and as we speak that contract has been reviewed several times. The whole of that road is less than nine kilometers and so if you have spent over eight billion naira on less than nine kilometers that is not a new road; expansion of an existing road you will agree that that road even with two billion a good government ought to have been able to handle it properly and then finish it on time. I can tell you that they have spent more than eight billion on that road.
But the government says it believes in the rule of law and transparency, going by what you have seen so far how much can you rate the state government on that basis?
Where is the rule of law when he unilaterally and arbitrarily and illegally dissolved elected local government councils two or three months to the end of their tenure and then he has continued to replace one caretaker committee with another in local government councils, whereas section 7 of the constitution is very clear, it has a declaration that the system of local government by democratically elected local government councils is under this constitution guaranteed and so he believes in rule of law where did he find his power to begin to establish caretaker committees and then all the contracts that have been awarded how many of them have you seen published as advert for bidding.
How many of these projects can Edo people say they know the contractors? So to say that the government is shrouded in secrecy is to be polite. It is not only shrouded in secrecy it is also bedeviled with fraud and intrigues. And then the level of hypocrisy in the system is very, very painful. You have been here and you should be able to assess some of these things.
Look at what the governor said last year and what he is saying now on so many issues and then you look at last year when doctors have to go on strike agitating for their right. He tried to show power with them, you know he is so egoistic even when you knew they were right. That one cost the lives of hundreds if not thousands of patients which caused commotion in the state before he finally bowed to their demands. If he knew that their demand was right, why were you being egoistic, why were you struggling with them? Some of these things are terrible and I just wish that our people are not too carried away with rhetoric and so on, because if you were in this state for the one and half years Professor Osunbor ruled this state; you look at the achievements of Osunbor compared to what is happening now, it is enough to say the regime was illegal and all of that. Yes I agree that that regime was faulted, it has been rubbished by the tribunal, but that does not in any way remove from the achievements that were made.
Go to Akpakpava Road and see all the adjoining streets to Akpakpava, they were tarred by Osunbor, go to Igun, Saint Saviour in Upper Sakponba it was deserted by people, but Osunbor opened up the whole of the areas and several other places without making too much noise about it. And like Akpakpava it took him less than six months to do it, why is it that airport road is taking over two years and is going to the third year even. As far as I am concerned he is making too much talk and raking, not just raking, but ranting.
Politics is about the rules of the game but you portrayed the state governor as having appropriated the state to himself in your recent advertorial. What actually is the matter you have against the government?
That was our second advertorial on the government. At least even without legal education it should be clear to anybody that the government or a governor ought not to inscribe the campaign slogan of his own party “vote ACN” on the bus that is purchased with public fund, that is unfair and then behind the bus you now put the picture of himself, the Comrade Governor over the whole comrade bus. It is not personal. Governor Oyegun in his time in 1992 bought several buses, I think he released over 30 at the first instance and those buses were inter and intra city buses, but people were calling it Oyegun buses because Oyegun brought them but it was not that Oyegun wrote his name there. Oyegun was not that egoistic as to be writing his name, putting his photograph and writing his party, it is unfair. And so he is taking other parties for a ride and he is also taking the tax payers of this state for granted.
The post election violence and emergence of a sect called the Boko Haram has been a source of concern to many, what is your position on the issue with respect to the level of lives and properties that have been lost since the onslaught?
No sane human being will support bloodletting, the kind of reckless killings the Boko Haram is carrying out in the North, but you see Nigerians are not able to stem all these wave of violence because of funny emotions and misdirection of self. I said this because in some areas they said CPC was responsible, they are killing people, and it is Buhari and all of that which is unfair. Book Haram crisis started during Yar’Adua’s regime in 2009. They are trying policemen who killed their leaders. When did policemen kill their leaders, was it not in 2009. That is a long time ago and how many of them were arrested before those leaders were killed. They were many I have some of the pictures in the newspapers. They were very many. They have not rested.
| By Tonnie Iredia The appointment of Joshua- my childhood friend and classmate-to the position of high court judge several years ago presented an interesting experience that has refused to elude me. On the day the appointment was made, we — all his friends— trooped to his residence in celebration to congratulate him. He was, in fact, the first to be so honoured among us. But, then, although everyone of us looked happy over the development, the environment was rather too serene for a supposedly joyous occasion. As we took turns to shake hands with the man of the moment, his demeanour and the disposition of his immediate family portrayed an uneasy calm. At the end of the visit, we were able to gather that because of his new appointment, Joshua may no longer find it easy to interact with us. He would no longer be part of our ‘Table Tennis Recreation Group’ in the neighbourhood. In fact, he would no longer attend any social function and would indeed, no longer eat, drink or laugh outside the confines of his residence. The only person among us who everyone envisaged might still be able to flow with him in his new position was Felix who had become a Roman Catholic Priest. It was clear to us all that Joshua was into a new but rather strange life. On my part, I inwardly thanked God for not getting into such a job that was capable of translating me into a spirit. Yes, judges in those days were like ghosts; they related with no one, let alone to be quoted as having said anything. But why should that be so? One of us, Ajayi- then a law student in the adult education scheme tried to explain it all. According to him, it is to ensure the neutrality of the judiciary for all times that judges are admonished to avoid local pressures by not interacting with the larger society. They were not to deal with cases involving their families, relations and friends or any matter in which they themselves could have any interest whatsoever. In addition, even if there was no proof that a judge could be influenced in a particular case, parties in the case were not to be allowed to even imagine the likelihood of his being biased. Why would a professional group allow such supernatural traits to be the criteria for assessing its members? For me, I knew it would not last long at least in a country like Nigeria where most people in authority speak from both sides of the mouth. Thanks to Justices Katsina-Alu, Salami and their colleagues in the National Judicial Council,NJC, we now know that Nigerian judges are not ghosts — they live among us; they oppress themselves; they pay lip-service to the rule of law and its due process; they do not abide by the simple principles of natural justice; they do not just tell lies — they do so on oath; they over-interact with the larger society- eating, drinking and laughing at social functions which they often chair and of recent, they are not only seen but loudly heard making it obvious that they are neither better nor worse than the rest of us. For example, if the story that only eight of the 23 members of NJC made the decision on Salami, then there is no difference between them and the touts in our legislatures. It will be recalled that only nine legislators of Ogun State House of Assembly met under the watchful eyes of no less than 10 policemen, to remove their speaker and suspend 15 other members. In Plateau State, only eight of 24 legislators forcibly impeached Governor Joshua Dariye. In Oyo State, only 18 of the 32 legislators impeached Governor Rssheed Ladoja. Comparatively, therefore, Salami was not suspended; he was impeached-quorum or no quorum. If so, what is special about judges- are they above board? This is a question that many people are not likely to answer in the affirmative, especially in election matters. Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Attahiru Jega, is likely to be one such persons going by his reaction to the over 150 pre-election cases filed nationwide by aggrieved politicians just before the last set of elections. Many of the cases were ex-parte orders restraining INEC from accepting and recognising some candidates nominated for elections by their political parties. Jega, at the time, wrote to the Chief Justice to draw attention to what he called an “emerging trend in the political process where ex-parte orders are granted at the top of a hat by judges.” For the Transition Monitoring Group,TMG, “ NJC suspension in the first instance is very ridiculous, a clear coup d’état against the rule of law, coming at a time that the integrity ratings of the judiciary is going below credible level.” Honestly, from the recent activities of NJC, there ought to be a limit to how much we admire judges. To start with, we cannot blame anyone who becomes confused over the term ’judicial precedent’ bearing in mind the inability of NJC to follow the established rule that once a case is before a court, none of the parties involved should take further steps on it. The hierarchy of courts is another area of concern because it was junior judges that were consecutively constituted to review the decisions of their seniors. Can an administrative panel penalise crime? It appears so in view of the conclusion of NJC that Salami committed perjury. As it is now, perjury has a new punishment — apology. Accordingly, any false affidavit expert should not get a greater punishment than that except, of course, he, like Salami refuses to apologise. In that case, he exposes himself to being punished twice as in Salami’s case where the suspended President of the Court of Appeal, was sanctioned twice, first-suspension for refusing to apologise to the Chief Justice and the other- a recommendation for his retirement may be for not apologising to NJC. We also imagine that many people must be skeptical now about their clamour for an independent body to appoint INEC Chairman. From what NJC has just taken the nation through, it is hard to suggest that we can find a Nigerian body that can be independent. As for Justices Katsina- Alu and Salami, we cannot prove that they are card-carrying members of any of the political parties but it is easy to know which political party supports who and why. On the one hand, are those who see nothing wrong with the pace of approval of NJC’s recommendation of Salami’s suspension while on the other hand are those to whom ‘peaceful’ demonstrators are busy handing over their letters of protests for onward delivery to the Federal Government. The pain in all of this is that we, the commoners, can see that we have lost our hitherto acclaimed saviour-the judiciary – a body that is now seen as more partisan than the executive committees of political parties. |
| By Mohammed Adamu It all began with a ‘dutiful’, uncharacteristically impatient Goodluck Ebele Jonathan; then only a harmless Vice-President of necessity; his terminally-ill principal, President Umaru Yar’Adua, bedded in far-away Saudi Arabia, a subject of needless ethno-regional controversy; and himself Ebele ‘luck-dependent’ as ever, and now virtually at the apogee of his most valuable political ‘manna’ yet from heaven, was –quite pardonably you might say- ‘covetously’ beside himself: enthusiasm-filled and waiting to grab the chisel to hew the very hedgy polity that he was, by the way, constitutionally heir to and about which Yar’Adua was raring to depart intestate! And, yes, almost chisel in hand, about to hew Nigeria! And, virtually every pro-Jonathan visionary or every anti-zoning agitant suddenly saw the urgent need to ‘move Nigeria Forward’; presupposing, by the way, that Nigeria was stagnant, or maybe even regressing! And, so even when we knew Jonathan needed no ‘Crown’ at all to play the ‘king, we still insisted that the VP must be coroneted to act the ‘King’; because suddenly it had become necessary to add the lexical adjunct ‘acting’ to a political adjutant before the power of his anointing would be unleashed, to ‘move Nigeria forward’. And even spiritual men of God like Pastor Bakare and many other genuinely apolitical progressives had beaten the streets of Lagos and Abuja to get the temporal ‘crown’ of ‘Acting Vice-President’ added to the spiritual ‘hallow’ of divine anointing that already adorned Jonathan’s un-giddy ‘lucky’ head of providence that many forewarned had received one too many ‘manna’ from heaven but had remained of divine-action weak-willed and of the power of performance lacking in true sprit! But they argued that “God’s Providence” is not only “on the side of clear heads” like Henry Beecher argued! It can also be on the side of ‘cloudy’, ‘lucky’ ones. Like Jonathan’s. Nor would they accept that like Edward Gibbon wrote, that “The winds and the waves are on the side of the ablest navigator”! In Jonathan, many Nigerians were ready to elevate ‘faith’ above ‘knowledge’! The Shagaris and the Gowons were scurried to NASS by a torrent of media-induced public display of hyper-patriotism to beg lawmakers to agree to device any legislative device –even in circumvention of the letter and spirit of an explicit Constitution in order to give a co-pilot full command to rudder the ship in the absence of his chief pilot! Mohammed, what have you got against aeronautical due process? Nothing! Nor do I have anything even against administrative ‘divine due diligence’. We had said it before and we had said it even after the Civil War, that ‘to move Nigeria forward is a task that must be done!’ And now even in less rambunctious –although ethno-regionally frostier- political war of the familiar ethnic belligerents of North and South, we are no less apt in repeating the lie of old, namely: ‘moving Nigeria forward’! And which has always provided us good reasons to persist in our wrong ways! And so like I wrote in a previous piece predating the fragile convalescence of Yar’Adua and his controversial return from Saudi Arabia, we had made the case for Jonathan’s ‘acting capacity’ ‘as though that was the long-awaited socio-economic and political elixir for the many sickness of our nation. And to make matters worse, ‘Jonathan himself was heralded (by us the media) in the fable of a Daniel coming to judgment. He was cast so much in the glowing epic of an avenging angel cruising on a chariot of fire, brandishing the proverbial Sword of Damocles and poised to right the many wrongs of Nigeria.’ In fact, many of us moved by motives of different kinds, naively pontificated about Nigeria’s rare, divine good luck in having for the first time, a rustic and innocent Ebele Jonathan, who seemed alone of all those whoever made it this far politically, not only to know the drudgery of a shoeless childhood and the insipid taste of kindergarten poverty, but to now have the enviable fortune to ‘move this great country forward’ -or at least beyond its present ‘shoeless existence’! Many of my colleagues threw caution to the wind and without blush celebrated the advent of what I once lightly cockatoo-ed as the ‘the renaissance of Jonathan ideas’, or the sudden apparition unto the Nigeria’s barren fields, of a stallion-Jonathan filled with the regenerative oomph of life and more than ready to fecundate the land, to make it grow forth, and bear fruit once again!. Nor was anyone listening when some of us noted what I once described as ‘the apparent off-key-note in the personality of Jonathan that seemed to naturally jar the hymn of all vaunted praise..! that Jonathan was nothing more than a political somnambulist that appeared to remain trapped in the amazement and amusement of the chain of political ‘good lucks’ his rustic legs-of-destiny have been fated to stumble upon and that… he did not appear to the rational eye to be capable of playing ‘the avenging angel, or like the biblical Moses, to re-enact the parting of the Red Sea! None-the-less, now that we have ‘moved forward’, Or have we…? |
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