That our votes may count

 by Alade Fawole.

THERE is a sense in which the July 14 governorship election in Edo State gives us a ray of hope that our fledgling democracy may yet thrive and deepen. I have been quite skeptical for long, but in the Edo case, the will of the people, rather than the might of the federal government and its rigging machine, actually prevailed. That is what popular choice is all about. I’m not sure though that the success of the election and the triumph of the will of the electorate can or should be attributed to President Jonathan’s faithfulness to the promise he made while campaigning in Benin for the PDP candidate, retired General Charles Airhiavbere, that he would ensure a free and fair election in Edo State. I will rather attribute it to the electorate themselves. If anything, the Edo electorate have taught Nigerians two invaluable lessons in democracy, that is, that eternal vigilance is the price that all lovers of democracy and freedom must pay to secure and defend their votes, and that the integrity of elections in our country depends not so much on the impartiality of electoral umpires or security agents alone but on the readiness of the people themselves as the owners of the mandate.
Let me enter a caveat here. I make the above assertions not to undermine or underestimate President Jonathan’s faithfulness, but that even in spite of him, the famous election riggers did try but could not prevail due to the people’s remarkable tenacity to defend their mandate this time around. Neither do I intend to diminish the rigorous preparation and integrity of INEC. It must be stressed that since 1999, the PDP and its members across the nation have been the greatest election-riggers in Nigeria, and the serial reversals of their electoral heists are more than enough to prove my point. Let us remember that the 1999 presidential election that ushered in the Fourth Republic was so fatally rigged that former President Jimmy Carter who headed an election observation team angrily left the country than endorse the results.  Arising from this impressive rigging record, many had expected that the party would, once again, roll out its formidable rigging machine, as it had done back in 2007, when it openly robbed Comrade Adams Oshiomhole of his mandate. It turned out to be an anticlimax, as even the legendary Mr. Fix-it of Edo State couldn’t fix anything, even in his own ward! Because the people wouldn’t let him!
Importantly, of course, the successful conduct of the Edo election and the ultimate triumph of popular will testify pungently to an important fact: that we can actually make our votes count! Permit me to explain. Many people assume, erroneously in my view, that making our votes count simply means that when votes are tallied the results would reflect the actual winners and that they would not be doctored or tinkered with by riggers who do not wish that people’s will prevail. That is only a part of the story. And an important one, I might add. I would address that shortly. For most of our lives, especially since the British deliberately rigged the 1959 elections that ushered us into independence in favour of their preferred parties and candidates, there is hardly any election at the national level that has not attracted widespread opprobrium and condemnation because of deliberate and inexcusable electoral malfeasances. Electoral robbery is so comprehensive and integral to our national political psyche that hardly anyone seriously expects a fair and free poll that would reflect popular choice. That explains why the June 12, 1993 election which M. K. O. Abiola won so overwhelmingly remains exemplary and unique in terms of its integrity and fairness. It is still a reference point as far as free and fair elections go. Since the return of democracy in 1999, the criminal practice under PDP’s supervision has been simply this: rig the election in favour of its candidates first, and let the opponents lick their wounds or go to the courts to seek justice, if they can get it.
The philosophy behind electoral wrongdoing is this: those who vote don’t count, but those who count the votes! What the clever riggers do so remarkably well therefore is to capture the entire electoral process, the electoral umpire and the security forces well ahead of the actual voting day. These range from the compilation of fraudulent voters registers, to printing fake voters cards, under-age and or multiple registration, ballot-box snatching and stuffing prior to the election, suborning electoral officials and police officers before and during the exercise, to brazen alteration of actual results and announcing fake ones, and to sundry other criminal practices that rob the electorate of their right to choose their own leaders. Even when those so brazenly robbed of electoral victory approach the tribunals to seek justice, they are further denied victory by some ingeniously contrived judicial legerdemain. General Muhammadu Buhari, three-time presidential contender, can testify to this. If he had thought that the 2003 presidential election was the worst in Nigeria’s history, he had greater surprises waiting for him in 2007. The electoral heist of that year was so gross that even Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, the ultimate beneficiary of that electoral theft, openly acknowledged that the election that brought him to power was less than perfect. Notwithstanding that honest presidential confession, the courts still ruled in his favour. End of story! The courts having failed him, retired General Buhari had no choice but to stoically lick his wounds. At least, so it was until another election cycle in 2011 when all hell was let lose after he reportedly lost, again. Well, you know the rest of the story.
Now back to the lessons of the recent Edo election and making our votes count. Making our votes count means vastly more than having successful elections, necessary as that may be. It is only just the beginning. Since democracy is all about the people governing themselves through their elected representatives, making our votes count requires that we make our leaders to be accountable to us in the performance of their job of governing us. Governments exist primarily to do the will of the people, and it is the people themselves that must exercise the requisite vigilance to ensure that governments do not violate the sacred mandate to see to the welfare and wellbeing of the people. It is our duty to hold all elected governments to the time honoured maxim: salus populi suprema lex esto (translation: let the welfare of the people be the supreme law). It profits us nothing to go to sleep once elections are over. Governments behave responsibly only when they know that people are vigilant and would hold them to account.
Democracy may not be the only best form of government but it at least offers the most suitable platform for people to be involved in shaping their own destiny. In doing so, they are not likely to opt for anything that would put their welfare and wellbeing in abeyance, and thus would not permit governments to behave unjustly or against their interests. Our democracy must function to deliver the expected benefits for which reasons we had struggled valiantly to get rid of our domestic conquistadors. Let us not forget Reinhold Neibuhr assertion that “man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.” The people of Edo State had voted in 2007 for a governor but were robbed of victory. That governor, having been declared winner much later by the court, went on to perform reasonably to their satisfaction in improving their welfare and wellbeing and thus they decided to renew his mandate for a second term that the constitution allows. Not only did they massively vote to re-elect him but they also resolutely defended their votes from being stolen. Now is the time for them to hold that government to account for its electoral promises in order to make their votes count in governance.
The rest of Nigeria now must take a cue from Edo people and begin to compel all our elected governments to perform so that we can troop out at the next election cycle to rid ourselves of governments that fail us. If we resolve and do this effectively, we will no doubt deal a devastating blow to all the anti-democratic elements currently running our affairs and begin the process of consolidating our democracy to make it work for us. Done well, we would be able to agree with Abraham Lincoln on the importance of “a government of the people, by the people and for the people.” I salute the Edo electorate and their governor who cherished the mandate he received from the people and went on to fulfill his sacred promises to improve their welfare.

As PDP Fails Nigeria, What Chances Are There For ACN-CPC Alliance?

Abdullahi Bako.

To spell out the limits of any proposition is not to give a dog a bad name, but a way of expanding the future outcome of an enterprise. PDP emerged after the elections of 1999 with a huge, seemingly undeflatable balloon of national goodwill. Meanwhile, no sooner had Nigerians settled down in the post-election years with the aim of savouring the PDP’s much-talked-about democracy dividends than the party started deflating the big balloon, the beautiful banquet presented to it by the electorate, until it is left with no content.
The party’s moral platform in government has been the anti-corruption crusade, yet it is where the failure is most disastrous. In this culture of graft that has been taken to an unprecedented level, no institution or organ of government is spared. Siphoning or tinkering with the commonwealth is now in trillions, with PDP chieftains leading the leagues followed by the Police Force, PHCN and Education striving to outstage them. These have dire consequences for our democratic process, internal security, infrastructural basis of the transformation agenda and, of course, the future of generations yet unborn.
True, there is no more bombing of minority groups as it happened in Odi during the Obasanjo era. The state’s penchant for watching killings in Jos to get to the sky before declaring a state of emergency has ceased to be. The guns are silent in Ife-Modakeke, Aguleri-Umuleri, and the Niger Delta amnesty has worked, at least, up till date. All these seem to be more of security threatschanging colour than any dependable progress.
PDP’s addition of the least imaginable chapter to this chequered history —  paying trillions of naira to perpetrators of insecurity  — is absolutely a wrong signal to other splinter groups: the genuinely disenchanted or loafers. The chief state actor’s unacceptable thesis is that armed uprising is an easy route to the state’s largesse under the auspices of PDP mis-governance. Years on, the eloquent absence of a clearly articulated security policy on Boko Haram has become a singular cause of loss of hope as regards the PDP government’s commitment to security of life and property in Nigeria. Who knows how much of these is a part of the largest party in Africa’s grand strategy for 2015!
If the party’s first inaugural speech in 1999 is anything to go by, one would be convinced that the party knows what to do. Back then, even in Obasanjo’s subsequent references, the nation was convinced that the party had been aware that mainstreaming of intelligence gathering was internal security strategic constant, yet, till date, this party of salad has refused to act accordingly.
The infrastructure under the PDP-led governments are prostrate and an expression of record mismanagement of resources and opportunities. PHCN is the third most corrupt institution in the country. The fact is that electricity is not supplied to households, the cost of running small-scale businesses gets prohibitive, and the planned prospecting for other sources of energy in the last 12 years has failed.Take the Independent Power Projects (IPPs),for instance. FERMA is making some contributions but an estimated N80 billion loss is recorded annually due to neglect of national road networks; additional N35 billion operational cost is a criminal denial of resources to national development enterprise.
In the area of Education, performances at all the levels are dismal. When corruption in terms of all manner of bribery and examination malpractice is added to it, the picture becomes scary. A CBN report shows that Nigerians’ loss of confidence in the Education sector enriches the Ghanaian economy with a whopping N155 billion annually. This accrues from school fees paid by young Nigerians schooling there.
What keeps this coat of many colours, the PDP, as an apparel is the belief of politicians desperate for power that, unless you belong, you cannot win. Its instruments are rigging, perpetrating election-related violence and disobeying court orders, among a few other antics, in the name of political tactics. Other rude ways of PDP abuse of the psyche of Nigerians include candidates’ substitution regardless of the stage of the election process.
Abuse of the constitution is flagrantly done by the party. An instance that remains the most amusing was the way INEC ignored the election petition of recall concerning Senator Ibrahim Nasir Mantu in December 2005. This petition was signed by 208,408 registered voters out of 388,833. The PDP did not see anything wrong with this, hence its desperate bid in the 2007 election to rig him back to the National Assembly.
What signal the end of the road for this uncivilized tradition are many: the most telling are lessons from global best practices brought to individual groups and families by international election monitors/observers, conventional and social media etc. The seeming absence of an alternative party that can take the PDP head-on and wrestle power from it is a sad commentary on the struggles that culminated into the birth of the Fourth Republic. Therefore, it has become imperative for all patriots to facilitate the coming to life of this phase of alliance (called merger) between the ACN and CPC.
In the light of the foregoing, the chances are bright for the alliance. In addition to discrediting itself is the fact that increasing numbers of the children of chieftains of the ruling party are rejecting them not as parents but as perpetrators of unacceptable values. The governors of ACN-CPC are re-inventing the electorate’s beliefs in feasibility of good governance. Meanwhile, the threats cannot also be dismissed with a light shake of the shoulder. Any sign of ACN-CPC mismanaging the process will spell unpalatable consequences.
Alliance,  coalition or merger has saved nations from self-inflicted doom or suffocation of alternative voice. In the same vein, there were alliance attempts in history that raised the hopes of citizens and subsequently smashed beautiful opportunities. Limited was our expectation in the Buhari-Atiku attempt in 2007; that of over-hyped 2011 Buhari-Tinubu initiative generated interest; the clincher is the current one. We must invest new energy and sacrifices for the common good.Let’s not scuttle it.

NUC’s Alarm Over Foreign Universities

LEADERSHIP EDITORIAL

The deteriorating quality of our education is gradually drawing the attention of policymakers, as can be seen in the efforts being made by the federal and state governments to sponsor brilliant candidates to acquire postgraduate studies in foreign countries. It is reasoned that those sponsored for such programmes will help to steer the ship of state in their chosen careers in the future. Such scholarship now comes in different names.
However, Prof Julius Okojie, executive secretary of the National Universities Commission, NUC, recently stated that the foreign universities which some state governments have chosen to train their scholarship beneficiaries are substandard. His statement has thrown the whole process into confusion and wild controversy. Okojie specifically mentioned Ukraine as the host of such low-quality education. Interestingly, Kano and Osun, the states at the centre of this controversy, have fired back at the NUC boss, insisting that his declaration was meant to tarnish their efforts genuinely aimed at uplifting the quality of education in their respective states. Kano has gone further to take newspaper spaces to counter the NUC helmsman’s statement, averring that its ministry of higher education had done a thorough check and “is ready to make further improvements in making this laudable and unstoppable programme a high success”. The state noted that since it was sending candidates to study in Jordan, Cyprus, Egypt, Turkey, Ukraine, Malaysia, India, China, Poland, the United Arab Emirates, the United States of America and the United Kingdom, it is not possible for 70 per cent of the beneficiaries to go to Ukraine, the country the NUC boss gave a thumbs-down in his pronouncement.
We are concerned about this argument at this time. Nigeria is already battling with low-quality education in our low-quality environment with some of our universities rated as glorified secondary schools at the international arena. Perhaps, this is what has prompted Prof Okojie to raise the alarm. However, his claim must be substantiated in order to be seen as valid, if he would like to be taken seriously.
He should do his homework. If he has his facts, he should choose the appropriate venue such as the Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities. The NUC, the organisation which he manages, should send the list of licensed or accredited foreign institutions to states and other agencies that may be desirous of sponsoring candidates abroad. That is when his position on such important issue will be acknowledged. 

Why Nigerian Police Will Continue To Sleep On Duty

IYOBOSA UWUGIAREN.

Inspector-general of police Mohammed Abubakar appears not to be telling himself the truth. In an attempt to explain the deadly Lagos armed robbery incident that claimed some lives on Sunday, he had blamed his men, saying they were “sleeping on duty”. Abubakar, who was said to be particularly disappointed that the incident occurred when he was in Lagos, reportedly warned:  “The story of Sunday robbery should not repeat itself. I could not sleep throughout because some of you were sleeping. I`ve directed the assistant inspector-general for Zone II and the commissioner of police in the state to sit down, re-strategise and improve on the security of Lagos.”
Governor Babatunde Fashola also expressed surprise about the incident: “We need to be bold, audacious and show we understand what the people feel. Innovation, perseverance and industry will lead us.”
Even though many people believe that Abubakar and Fashola are doing great jobs to fight increasing crimes in the state, they appear to have scratched the challenges facing the police force on the surface while trying to explain what led to the Sunday robbery. From the emotional reasoning of the police boss, one could say he lacks the current mindset of his men, the poor knowledge of the society where the police operate, the poor understanding of their responsibility to the society and the low morale of his men. Does Abubakar pretend not to know that many of his men today believe that our great nation is not worth dying for? And that his men need to do extra jobs in order to sustain their families?
If he is still in doubt, the IGP should ask the Delta State commissioner of police about his experience with his men sometime ago. The Delta State police boss had to pay an official visit to the state complex housing some state high courts. In their usual manner, the state police boss’ guards were shooting sporadically in the air, apparently to scare deadly criminals off their boss. But some mobile police orderlies attached to some state judges were said to have abandoned their guns and the judges they were supposed to be protecting and entered the nearby bush, when they heard the powerful sound of their colleagues’ guns, thinking that armed robbers were about to invade the premises. According to the report, many of the affected policemen, who later found out that no armed robber was after them, never returned to their duty posts till date. For them, the judges were not worth dying for; their lives mattered most.
Just as a few people are still wondering whether this story narrated by a Delta State high court judge to newsmen is true or not, let me also share the experience of one of my colleagues, an Abuja-based journalist. He was travelling from Kaduna to Abuja, and before he got to Suleja town – about 28 kilometres before Abuja - he was flagged down by a policeman at one of the many checkpoints that used to characterise the Kaduna/Abuja expressway.
First, the policeman, with the rank of a sergeant asked the journalist to produce his vehicle documents, which he quickly did. Thereafter, the journalist was requested to identify himself and he immediately brought out his identification card, telling the policeman that he was a journalist. The policeman looked at the identification card and the journalist with shock and immediately alerted his colleagues with him at the checkpoint by shouting in his local language what was later translated to mean “Come and see a fake journalist. He says he is a journalist but he has no NTA identification card.”
For that policeman, only those working with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) are journalists. But for the intervention of his colleagues who laughed at him over his huge ignorance, he wanted to arrest this journalist for impersonation.
The police sergeant is just one of the many products of the Nigeria Police Force that are today charged with the enormous responsibility of intelligence gathering, policing, arresting, detaining suspects, and detecting and preventing crime in the country. They are the people whom Abubakar wants to use to fight the deadly and well equipped criminals in the country, especially in Lagos.
I do not want to believe that the IGP is not aware of “the political unsteadiness, prolonged military rule, widespread insecurity, ethnic and religious conflicts and corruption” that have negatively influenced the police force and its everyday job of policing the nation. And this could be attributed to the inability of our police to effectively maintain law and order – as evidenced by the glaring cases of armed robbery and the Sunday incident in Lagos. I do not also think many Nigerians doubt that the police force today are ill-equipped to perform their functions well and in compliance with the rule of law. Even the “big men” they are visibly mobilised in large numbers during ceremonial occasions to protect and assigned to guard their homes and offices, are no longer safe in their hands.
Let’s get serious: these policemen and women of today cannot effectively fight crimes in a complex nation like Nigeria, where scientific methods of committing crimes are being invented on a daily basis. And experts have identified many factors responsible for it. They include inadequate manpower, in terms of quantity but most especially quality; inadequate funding; poor crime and operational information management, including inaccurate recording and collation, poor storage and retrieval; inadequate analysis and infrequent publication of criminal statistics; poor remuneration and general conditions of service.
Our policemen will continue to sleep on duty until indiscipline and involvement in crime or collusion with criminals and a lack of integrity among other things are tackled by the police authorities and the federal government. Our policemen and women will continue to run away from armed robbers for fear of being killed until they are better equipped and paid living wages. They will continue to fight over N20 note at various checkpoints until corruption is tackled squarely within the system. Their morale will continue to be low until they are rest assured that their families would be taken care of if they died while carrying out their official assignments.
The police are humans; they buy things from the same markets with us; their children need all the good things of life like so many of us. If they have their way, they will also want their children to attend some of the best primary, secondary and higher institutions in the world like many Nigerians.

Still on Ethiopia
Last week on this page, I narrated how a young woman tried to frustrate me in my several attempts to get an Ethiopian visa to travel to Addis Ababa to attend a pan-media international conference kicking off tomorrow, after presenting all the necessary requirements. She asked me on Monday, to come for it this morning, against the 24 hours that are required to get the visa. I hope she will not deny me the visa, in spite of the assurance by a very friendly Ethiopian ambassador to Nigeria on Monday that I would get the visa.
However, in an attempt to narrate my experience in the hand of the visa lady last week and her poor treatment of visa applicants, I later realised that I went too far by allowing my emotion and the perceived sin of an Ethiopian to run a not-too-tasteful general commentary about “a great country like Ethiopia”. I had received over 50 responses both on the LEADERSHIP website and my e-mail address with over 96 per cent of them protesting my judgement. I admit I went too far and consequently tender an unreserved apology to my readers and the good people of Ethiopia.

Military Caused Rot In Civil Service – Ekwueme, Asiodu

AHURAKA ISAH and OMOTOLA OLORUNTOBI

The former vice president Alex Ekwueme and former super permanent secretary, Chief Philip Asiodu yesterday attributed the pervasive rot in the nation’s civil service to the military rule in Nigeria.
Ekwueme and Asiodu, who were chairman and guest lecturer at the Mohammed Lawal Uwais public service award organised by the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS), both recalled that before the advent of military rule, Nigeria had public service leaders that were a pride to the nation anywhere in the world, because they were not wealthy but comfortable due to reasonable job security, good remuneration and low level of corruption.
According to Ekwueme, ‘’two events led to poor quality of public service which included the creation of 12 states in 1966 that gave rise to proliferation of permanent secretaries and directors. This led to the promotion of some civil servants to position beyond their capacity to contend with.
‘’Secondly, the purge in the civil service by General Murtala Mohammed in 1975 that led to the sacking of over 10,000 public servants brought in the feeling of insecurity of job amongst the civil servants in Nigeria. The civil servants were no longer sure when they could be sacked and therefore had to look for alternatives to save for the rainy days. This was what introduced corruption into the civil service that is now set to destroy the country in entirety.”
On his part, Asiodu said that unlike the creation of the 12 states in 1967 which was a strategic imperative to contain the Biafran secession attempt, the 1975 division of the country into 19 states was just meant to satisfy the desire of some people for sharing the national cake rather than baking it.
‘’The new administration abandoned the implementation of the 1975-1980 development plan which had great promise of creating the basis for economic diversification and industrialization,” he said. “Some very significant new projects were embarked upon while some properly-planned projects were aborted or not started. More destructively, the discipline of planning was abandoned’’
Asiodu also seized the opportunity to advise President Goodluck Jonathan to give effective and sustained publicity to his transformation agenda.
‘’I am sorry to observe that the vast majority of Nigerians are not aware of the transformation agenda, its contents and what it means for them now and in future.
‘’I am also not sure how well the civil servants and the public service in general and even the legislators know the details of the transformation agenda . It is very necessary for the government to give effective and sustained publicity to elicit the ‘buy-in’ of the general citizenry,’’ he said.
Asiodu  further called on Jonathan to take cue from the late Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa by leading the nation to adopt and live with more realistic national remuneration scales for all those paid from the public purse.
‘’We must recall the example of Balewa, the regional premiers and all the ministers who in 1962 at the launching of the 1962-68 national plan took 10% cut in their salaries to signal the need for national savings to help finance the plan. That measure brought the salary of a federal minister below that of a federal permanent secretary,” he remarked.
The renowned technocrat deplored the state of the national economy which he blamed on poor governance and greed of the political class, saying it was criminal for a national lawmaker in Nigeria to be going home with as much as N200million  per year in the prevailing poverty situation confronting the nation.
To bring the economy back on the right track, he canvassed that the cost of governance must be drastically reduced at all levels in the interest of the poverty stricken generality of Nigerians.

Jonathan dumps 7-year single tenure proposal

By Yusuf Alli, Abuja.

president Jonathan

-Two new states likely -INEC ‘lacks power to seek amendment’

The Presidency bowing to public pressure, may have dropped the idea of a seven-year single tenure, The Nation learnt yesterday.
But the government is determined to create one or two states “to ensure some balance and equity”, a source said, pleading not to be named.
One of the new states may come from the Southeast, which is the only geopolitical zone with five states.
Also, the government has foreclosed state police in the proposed amendments to the Constitution. It will not be on the list it plans to  send to the National Assembly.
There might, however, be significant  proposals on local government and justice sector reforms.
 A government committee on the proposed amendments has almost concluded its work.
 The popular thinking in government circles is that the single term tenure is not popular among Nigerians, hence the decision to dump it.
  The source, who spoke last night, said: “In deference to public opinion, the Presidency will no longer push ahead with the seven-year single-term tenure because the proposal has been beclouded with political sentiments and unnecessary speculations.
“The intention of President Goodluck Jonathan is to stabilise the system and reduce political frictions and post-election crises to the barest minimum but most people erroneously assumed that he is trying to perpetuate himself in power.
“Whether we like it or not, posterity will certainly vindicate Jonathan on this single tenure system.
“So, as things stand, the Presidency will retain the present provision of a renewable four-year tenure system - in line with Section 135 of the 1999 Constitution.”
On state creation, the source said: “President Jonathan believes in equity and fairness. I think his administration is favourably disposed to the creation of one or two states to address obvious imbalance.
“One of the states might be from the Southeast, which is the only geopolitical zone  with five states. The other five zones have six states, with the exception of the Northwest with seven states.”
On other likely areas of amendment, the source said: “We want to ensure autonomy for local governments, especially on the need for the abolition of Joint Accounts. Most of the 774 local government areas in the country have become appendages of the state governors.
“The administration of President Jonathan is disturbed that there is no democracy at the local government level, let alone good governance. This is a vital tier of government.
“Also, Nigerians should expect fundamental reforms in the justice sector, especially access to justice, quick dispensation of justice  and criminal justice reforms.”
The source admitted that the government is considering the proposals of Justice Alfa Belgore Committee, the report of the Steering Committee on the Implementation of the Justice Sector Reforms in Nigeria and other similar reports to draw up its proposed amendments.
While submitting the report of its committee to the President in July, Justice Belgore harped on the need to save the local government system and reform administration of justice.
He said: “We have viewed many parts of the Constitution. In particular, we put new visions into creating an optimally independent, incorruptible and stabilising local government system that shall always be administered by democratically elected officials that must be accountable, responsive to local needs, directed, controlled and sanctioned by appropriate laws.
“In our view, this is necessary in order to deepen principles of democracy and sound resource management at the grassroots where it really matters for this country.
“Of special significance is that we also looked at the judiciary vis-à-vis the Bar, which is just one. That means there is only one Bar.
“The procedures we inherited from the colonial times, which were originally meant for jury,  has not helped the speedy dispensation of justice. There is no reason earthly why judgments and hearing in cases must take more than one year.
“The British have done away with these procedures in some of their Acts while we still insist on their being  sacrosanct, which is unfortunate.”
It was gathered that plans by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to initiate independent amendments to the Constitution and the Electoral Act 2011 may not work.
By law, the electoral commission cannot approach the National Assembly directly, but through the Federal Government.
A top government official said: “INEC cannot go ahead to seek amendments to the Constitution without doing so through the Federal Government.
“By virtue of Section 153 of the 1999 Constitution, the electoral commission is one of the Federal Executive Bodies. So, anything INEC wants to do must be through the government and not as an independent body.
“What INEC should do is to submit its proposed amendments to the government for harmonisation and the government in return will look at it on merit and forward these proposals to the National Assembly.”
INEC is proposing an amendment to its Act to stop a sitting President from appointing Resident Electoral Commissioners. The commission is seeking powers to appoint RECS in order to enhance its independence and be able to conduct a free and fair poll.

CYNTHIA: Growing apprehension over social media freedom

Following the recent gruesome murder of Cynthia Osokogu by people she met on a social media platform,  many Nigerians have canvassed  the need to regulate the unlimited freedom people have to social networking media. CHARLES KUMOLU reports
THE emergence of social media like Facebook, Twitter, Blackberry Messenger and YouTube have changed the face of media practice by making information sharing easier, faster and quicker. But this is not without its demerits. Social media has become a threat to the ethics of media practice and good governance because of its accessibility and absolute freedom.
Every freedom carries a responsibility. Even in advanced democracies where we all believe good governance is practised, there is no absolute freedom. I, therefore, believe that there must be a measure to check the negative tendencies of the social media in our country.’’

Cynthia…lured through Facebook and murdered and murdered and Facebook founder: Mark Zukerberg

It was on this note that the Senate President, Senator David Mark kicked off  a two-day retreat for Senate Press Corps in Umuahia, Abia State two months ago.
The Senate President said the check became necessary because people now use social media to demean their leaders. He added that there was no opportunity for retraction of information in such media.
The position of the Senate President, however, attracted criticisms from various quarters, especially from those, who noted that social media platforms are a mechanism for ordinary citizens to assess the performance of their leaders.
On the heels of the condemnations, were several posts on Facebook, which  called for an Occupy David Mark movement, as a way of checkmating the suggestion.
For instance, a particular post on Saharareporters read thus: “ATTENTION: Occupy David Mark. The Senate President must be stopped from his moves to restrict the use of social media in Nigeria, as it has been done in militarised countries of the world. He has been quoted as saying the social media is being used to insult leaders. We are not in North Korea, this is a democracy. Occupy his telephone line and help save our only freedom of expression”.
Another social media platform, Nairaland also had a post which read: “We now have citizen journalists. To me that’s a big improvement for the masses. The revolution in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya would have been impossible to organise without the social media. If someone commits what could pass for a crime, by all means get the person and sue him. They do it all the time in US and UK. Nothing is wrong with that. There is a difference between slander and personal opinion. I can say Mr President is silly based on my personal observation of his conduct but I should be ready to prove it if I say that he embezzled 10 billion naira. Now, let me ask, why are they so concerned.
“Are we doing them any real damage? Are they not still stealing our monies despite our Nairaland and other nonsense web where we helplessly vent our anger? Do your torturers have the right to tell you not to scream and cry?’’
Barely two months after the call by the Senate President, the nation was faced with the bizarre murder of Cynthia Osokogu, made possible by a social media platform, Facebook.
For those, who had attacked and even supported the Senate President’s position, the Cynthia saga was a reminder of earlier calls, by Mark and others, for a law to regulate the social media.
The late Cynthia, it would be recalled, was the last and only daughter of Major General Frank Osokogu and his wife Joy. A business woman and student, the 24- year-old was declared missing on July 22, a few weeks to her 25th birthday.
She came into Lagos to purchase goods for her boutique and also keep a date with a few Facebook friends who had allegedly paid her air fares. She was allegedly lured to a hotel in FESTAC where she was killed.
Her alleged killers were said to be her Facebook friends who were part of a syndicate which lures young women to Lagos,  robs them of their possessions and murders them. Cynthia was their sixth victim. She was allegedly drugged, robbed and strangled. All forms of identification were taken off her at the time of her death. She was  even reported to be a call-girl who died in the ‘line of duty’.
Police the social  media platforms
With the trial of Cynthia’s alleged killers still on-going, Vanguard Features investigations reveal a growing concern over the use of social media networks and the need to regulate the use of social media in the country.
Only recently, the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, lamented the mischievous use of the social media by some Nigerians. He spoke at  the 20th anniversary of the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC in Abuja,
He decried the unwholesome information and pictures of teenagers posted on Facebook, which are sometimes used to tarnish the image of some innocent Nigerians.
Also corroborating Maku’s call for a regulatory framework, Chief Emeke Ndige, told VF that it is regrettable that the merits of social media are being consumed by its disadvantages. He called on the regulatory bodies to check the trend, adding that concerned agencies should come up with laws regulating the freedom in social media usage.
“It is a sad development, and we should all rise to do everything within the ambit of the law to checkmate this trend. It was unfortunate that the young lady ended in  such  manner. But it has come with a purpose because the law would now become so responsive to the need to police the social media platforms. They have to be policed in order to create order in its usage, because there is so much freedom there, ‘’ he stated.
Continuing, Ndige said: ‘’I am not against any form of liberty; as a lawyer we support people’s inalienable rights, but that right should not infringe on other people’s life. So NCC and other concerned agencies should come in. But that is not all, the law enforcement agencies and the judiciary should ensure that any social media suspect is prosecuted to a logical  conclusion to serve as a deterrent to others. In other countries, cyber criminals are prosecuted by the law’’.
Also speaking on the need for cyber security in the country, the Managing Partner of Okoro&Okoror Chambers, Chief Eidonogie Isiwele, told VF, that there was nothing wrong with the unlimited freedom in social media. He explained that what is needed is to create a secured future for the youths.
‘’I am not holding brief for anyone, but you will agree that most cyber related crimes in Nigeria are driven by poverty and state of hopelessness. A lot of people have no future in this country because of the collapse of the social system, hence surviving in Nigeria, to them, becomes survival of the fittest. The situation made the people to embrace internet crimes, but that notwithstanding, the law should be preventive on social media crime,” he said
As far as Isiwele is concerned: ‘’Relevant laws should be put in place, but the people’s right to social media should not be stopped like what obtains in few countries where their laws are draconian as regards to social media.
“I know that the Federal Government made attempts to curb the excesses of social media and its growing influence early this year; it is in order because it would reduce the soaring rate of cyber crimes in the country,’’ he posited
According to him: ‘’Cyber criminals are already exploiting vulnerabilities and loopholes in national and regional legislation, there is evidence that they are shifting their diverse operations to countries where appropriate and enforcement laws are not yet in place’’.
A 2008 report by the President of Global Network for Cyber Solutions, Dr. Chris Uwaje, stressed the need for government to seek the advice of experts in the field of information technology. ‘’If Nigeria knows IP and cyber security issues, they should domicile them at the footstep of the professionals in the CPN, the NCS and ATCON. These are people who have been trained in the area of informatics and information technology development; they should be the experts advising government,’’ the report said
Continuing, Uwagie declared : ‘’ How can we have a nation that does not have an IT adviser to the President? And you want to safeguard your country from digital attack. There must be a Special Assistant to the Office of Mr. President, who would be a senior adviser on information technology. These are the things that need to be put in place in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which is very strategically imperative that we need to do as fast as we can’’.
According to him:  ‘’ There is no reason why we should not have an Institute of Cybercrime Monitoring; there is no reason why we cannot have Cyber Engineering in our institutions; there is no reason why we should not inculcate the cybersecurity curriculum from primary school upwards. Just the same way we used to have the civic lessons of old, cybersecurity and cybercrime can be introduced at the primary and secondary schools levels’’.
Vanguard Features  recalls a recent report on Aljazzeera titled: “Dutch boy sentenced in Facebook murder case”.
According to the report, the  15-year-old Dutch boy was  sentenced to a year in juvenile detention after he confessed to killing a schoolgirl over a row that appears to have begun on Facebook, the social-networking site. Jinhua K was 14 when he fatally stabbed Joyce “Winsie” Hau at her home. Jinhua was further convicted by the court for  attempting to kill his victim’s father.
‘’The case, known in the Netherlands as the Facebook murder, caused widespread debate about the role of social media in violent crimes. The court said the boy did not know the victim and had murdered her “at the request or instructions of others”.
Dutch media reported that the 15-year-old victim had argued for weeks with two friends on the social-networking site before they allegedly asked the defendant, who was 14 at the time, to kill her. He was offered a 1,000-euro payment, the media reported.