Tuesday 8 November 2016
The great Zik of Africa!
*The day Zik didn’t die*
Posted By: Olatunji Dareon: November 08, 2016 THE NATION
Zik-gate, as my inventive Rutam House colleague Emeka Izeze called the widely circulated but false reports of the death of the legendary Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe 27 years ago this week, has got to be the most scandalous episode in Nigerian journalism history. It left mud on the faces of all of us journalists, those who proclaimed categorically that he was dead, and those who merely hinted that he might have departed.
At 85, Nigeria’s former president stood splendidly erect, and in full possession of his faculties. His voice had lost some of its resonance, but his speech was not slurred. His hearing was acute, and he could see much more clearly with the unaided eye than some people half a century younger. By some accounts, he was at the time engrossed in writing four books.
This was the man whom not just one or two newspapers but the entire Nigerian news media proclaimed dead and awaiting burial.
Rumours of Zik’s death started swirling on Wednesday, November 8, 1989, apparently triggered by enquiries from a BBC correspondent about his condition. By Friday, the rumours had gained so much traction that two newspapers published speculations about his death.
If any doubts lingered about Zik’s condition, they were dissolved by the newscast the NTA beamed to its fabled 30 million viewers the following night, almost one-half of it a moving depiction of Zik’s life and times.
The newscast, a marvelous production featuring footage and archival material that captured Zik’s illustrious career, as well as moving tributes by those who knew him well, plunged the country into mourning.
By Saturday, November 11, virtually every newspaper had the story of Zik’s reported death as front-page lead, in type size and headline vocabulary that sought to do justice to the great man’s memory. Even those newspapers that left some room for doubt still felt obliged to refer to Zik in the past tense. The obituaries were adulatory, as indeed they should be.
The Saturday papers that cared at all for sources searched no farther than Zik’s “associates,” many of whom had not seen him for several years. They cited no family sources, nor Zik’s personal physician, nor yet his protective private secretary of more than 40 years, the spectral and pleasantly disobliging figure everyone called “Mr Okolo”.
In one of the Saturday papers, a letter purporting to be Zik’s “last correspondence” bobbed up. In a fit of what can only be called misguided journalism, Sidi Ali Sirajo’s New Nigerian that was forever railing against “misguided heroism” cited not a single source for the reports that covered its entire front page.
“Zik’s death,” it pronounced sententiously, had left Nigerians “benumbed,” but apparently not before they had reached a “spontaneous consensus” that he deserved a full state funeral. The closest the paper came to naming a source for its sweeping assertions was a perfunctory reference to “political pundits.”
The first editions of the Lagos- based Sunday newspapers printed Friday night and trucked to the more distant parts of the country the following morning, carried the same news about Zik, with updates and embellishments. One enterprising Sunday newspaper even carried an editorial befitting the occasion.
At the convocation of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, in Kuru, near Jos, the assembled dignitaries reportedly observed a moment of silence in honour of Zik’s memory.
The whole thing had begun with a “letter of condolence” that Dr Kingsley Mbadiwe had sent with accustomed magniloquence to the Federal Government on the “passing” of Zik. For good measure, he also sent a copy to the NTA. That letter, plus a statement issued on behalf of the “National Committee for the Transition of Dr Azikiwe” by four prominent Nigerians, was all the NTA had relied on for its categorical pronouncement on so weighty a matter.
Out-of-work politicians saw an opening and moved in swiftly. A First Republic legislator and former stalwart of the Zikist Movement, Chief RBK Okafor, panting as if he had sprinted all the way from Nsukka to Rutam House in Lagos, narrated breathlessly how he had cradled his “beloved Zik” in his arms and how, even as his life ebbed, the great nationalist had said to him: “Chief RBK Okafor, my political son, remember that I am a Pan-Africanist and should be given a Pan-African burial,” or words to that effect.
When the tale appeared in cold print, Okafor denied it vehemently. He forgot that Ebube Wadibia, The Guardian’s resourceful and street-smart news editor, had caught him on audiotape word for word. It turned out that Okafor had not seen Zik in several years.
Nor were desperate politicos the only groups with eyes on the main chance. At the airport lounge in Lagos, a person claiming to be a doctor told a Newswatch executive with critical solemnity that he had just come away from performing the autopsy on Zik and signing the death certificate. That disclosure won him instant celebrity.
By lunchtime on Saturday November 11, reports of Zik’s death had fallen apart.
While television network news on Saturday showed Zik alive and well in his living room talking with Colonel Robert Akonobi, the military governor of Anambra State and a team of journalists, in many parts of the country the Sunday newspapers were still proclaiming solemnly and unequivocally that Zik was no more.
Zik, it turned out, had been watching the newscast at his home in Nsukka with his vivacious wife Uche, thinking that it was his birthday tribute until he heard “And may his great soul rest in peace.” Not many octogenarians would have survived this excellent example of the actionable tort that Americans call “wanton and intentional infliction of mental and emotional distress.”
What went wrong?
Dr Azikiwe was of course not the most accessible of eminent Nigerians. Still, how was it that, for more than 36 hours, the entire news media and the government’s information machinery and the security apparatus could not establish his condition?
Zik-gate showed how narrowly the news media cast their net and how vulnerable they were. It was as if they had resolved not to let the facts get in the way of a “good” story.
If they had checked and re-checked, they would have saved themselves a shameful outing that they will never quite live down.
And if a government obsessed with “national security” had swung into action with all the resources at its disposal as the rumours spread, a national embarrassment would have been averted.
Can Zik-gate happen today?
I think not. There are far more news sources, and the media have become more enterprising and sophisticated.
Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe lived on for another seven years. He said he was in no hurry to leave this beautiful planet.
Those who had declared him dead and were organising his burial died well before him.
Monday 7 November 2016
Removal of Oyegun, satanic, Says Coalition
By Ken Edokpayi
The on-going
political scheming by a section of the national leadership of the All
Progressives Congress, APC, to see to the abrupt removal of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun
as the authentic national chairman of the party has been described as “satanic,
undemocratic and potentially capable of causing greater mayhem to the unity and
strength of the ruling party.
Speaking
to newsmen in Benin City, the Edo State capital recently, under the aegis of
the Coalition for Edo Integrity, Elder Nathaniel Egbeobauwaye, who is the
national coordinator of the body, maintained that those who have been toying
with the call to pile pressure on Chief Oyegun to resign as the APC national
chairman were unmindful of the deeper crises into which their ill-conceived
motive would land the party, even as he cautioned such prime movers of the
“satanic moves” to borrow a didactic leaf from the sister-party, the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, which is today battling for its very soul and survival
because of improper, selfish and undemocratic processes engineered by some of
its leaders who wanted to effect leadership changes in the former ruling party.
In
his words, “those who are about town lobbying people to chorus anti-Oyegun
slogans to pressure him to resign as national chairman should read carefully
the party’s constitution on the removal and resignation of a national officer
of that calibre. They should have known by now that the party’s national
chairman cannot be harassed or blackmailed to resign or removed from office,
except by the pronouncement or resolution of the party convention or emergency
National Executive Council meeting of the party. This is an exact replay of what
happened to ex-President Jonathan when some PDP national leaders opted for the
removal of Alhaji Bamaga Tukur as national chairman. So, President Buhari must
deal cautiously with this untoward agitation for Oyegun's removal.
Describing
the agitators as fifth columnists, who were strategizing against the president
ahead of 2019 elections, Egbeobauwaye maintained that as issues stood at the
APC national leadership, there were no major, life-threatening crises ravaging
the party that would have warranted a hurried rethinking or suggestion that the
national chairman should resign. He, therefore, cautioned the chief
campaigners of the anti-Oyegun moves to save the party from degenerating into
avoidable legal mess, like the intractable one threatening the unity and
cohesion of the PDP at the moment.
The
national coordinator condemned in strong terms the excesses of the APC deputy
National Publicity Secretary, Timi Frank, for allegedly being used and prompted
by some national leaders of the party to haul insults on Chief Oyegun, treating
him with disrespect and insubordination, insisting that such ugly developments,
instigated for ulterior motives, were capable of destabilizing the party beyond
the dubious imaginations of perpetrators.
On the wild rumour that the out-going Edo State governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, was being touted as a replacement for Chief Oyegun as national chairman of the APC, Elder Egbeobauwaye opined that if the national leaders of the party were looking for ways of settling Oshiomhole or engaging him in the government at the federal level, “they should not divest our own Edo south senatorial district, of its rightful, legally-earned position for someone who is just quitting an 8-year plum job and is strongly in dire need of a vacation.”
On the wild rumour that the out-going Edo State governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, was being touted as a replacement for Chief Oyegun as national chairman of the APC, Elder Egbeobauwaye opined that if the national leaders of the party were looking for ways of settling Oshiomhole or engaging him in the government at the federal level, “they should not divest our own Edo south senatorial district, of its rightful, legally-earned position for someone who is just quitting an 8-year plum job and is strongly in dire need of a vacation.”
He
pointed out that considering Oshiomhole for any position should not be by
gate-crashing him into anywhere, “especially,” he said, “as Edo north
senatorial district where he is from, already has a plethora of representatives
at the national level in terms of the party administration, especially in the
National Assembly, where the district has a Senator and two legislators who are
all principal officers propped up by the party. As it stands with
the arrangement, Edo south senatorial district
has just two positions: national chairman and a minister of
state. And that number should not be depleted.”
The
national coordinator, Coalition for Edo Integrity, emphasized that those who
make negative bones about the position held by Edo south senatorial district
indigenes in the scheme of party affairs should not forget in a hurry the
population and voting strength of the district, a district that, he maintained,
holds over 57 percent of the total population of the state, “which should
reflect in the degree of patronage it should still receive from the party in
terms of appointments.”
Elder
Egbeobauwaye, therefore, cautioned against the plot by a section of the
national leadership of the party “to embarrass or blackmail our son, our father
and our leader out of the position of the national chairman of the APC,”
insisting that the Edo South senatorial district, and in fact the people of Edo
State, were solidly behind Chief Odigie-Oyegun.
It would be acknowledged that Chief
John Odigie-Oyegun has been a first all his life. A brilliant and principled
public servant; A man who at the tender age of 36 rose to the position of
permanent secretary at the federal level, taking charge of key federal
ministries. He challenged money bags in the then Edo state and their
collaborators in Abuja to emerge the first
executive governor of Edo state.
This
is a man who could have, quite easily, clinched key ministerial position in the
General Sanni Abacha's government, but instead opted to become NADECO’s
Secretary in exile. On his return from exile, he joined the Alliance
for Democracy (AD) party and financed Edo AD
even though he knew it was not a mainstream party, again a move he made on
point of principle. For sixteen (16) years that the PDP was in power,
Chief Odigie-Oyegun was wooed and cajoled to join “the biggest party in Africa” but he refused to bulge and abandon his
progressive position in partisan politics.
It
is, therefore, ludicrous and laughable, for anyone to think that at this point
in his life Chief Odigie-Oyegun would depart from his hard-earned, established
ways of principled life to settle for inducement crumbs, as peddled by his
faceless detractors.
The
Navigator Newspaper
Friday 14 October 2016
The spiritual side of Aso Villa
Reuben-Abati
People tend to be alarmed when the Nigerian Presidency takes certain decisions. They don’t think the decision makes sense. Sometimes, they wonder if something has not gone wrong with the thinking process at that highest level of the country. I have heard people insist that there is some form of witchcraft at work in the country’s seat of government. I am ordinarily not a superstitious person, but working in the Villa, I eventually became convinced that there must be something supernatural about power and closeness to it. I’ll start with a personal testimony. I was given an apartment to live in inside the Villa. It was furnished and equipped. But when my son, Michael arrived, one of my brothers came with a pastor who was supposed to stay in the apartment. But the man refused claiming that the Villa was full of evil spirits and that there would soon be a fire accident in the apartment. He complained about too much human sacrifice around the Villa and advised that my family must never sleep overnight inside the Villa.
I thought the man was talking nonsense and he wanted the luxury of a hotel accommodation. But he turned out to be right. The day I hosted family friends in that apartment and they slept overnight, there was indeed a fire accident. The guests escaped and they were so thankful. Not long after, the President’s physician living two compounds away had a fire accident in his home. He and his children could have died. He escaped with bruises. Around the Villa while I was there, someone always died or their relations died. I can confirm that every principal officer suffered one tragedy or the other; it was as if you needed to sacrifice something to remain on duty inside that environment. Even some of the women became merchants of dildo because they had suffered a special kind of death in their homes (I am sorry to reveal this) and many of the men complained about something that had died below their waists too. The ones who did not have such misfortune had one ailment or the other that they had to nurse. From cancer to brain and prostate surgery and whatever, the Villa was a hospital full of agonizing patients.
I recall the example of one particular man, an asset to the Jonathan Presidency who practically ran away from the Villa. He said he needed to save his life. He was quite certain that if he continued to hang around, he would die. I can’t talk about colleagues who lost daughters and sons, brothers and uncles, mothers and fathers, and the many obituaries that we issued. Even the President was multiply bereaved. His wife, Mama Peace was in and out of hospital at a point, undergoing many surgeries. You may have forgotten but after her husband lost the election and he conceded victory, all her ailments vanished, all scheduled surgeries were found to be no longer necessary and since then she has been hale and hearty. By the same token, all those our colleagues who used to come to work to complain about a certain death beneath their waists and who relied on videos and other instruments to entertain wives (take it easy boys, I don’t mean nay harm, I am writing!), have all experienced a re-awakening.
Everyone who went under the blade has received miraculous healing, and we are happy to be out of that place. But others were not so lucky. They died. There were days when convoys ran into ditches and lives were lost. In Norway, our helicopter almost crashed into a mountain. That was the first time I saw the President panicking. The weather was all so hazy and he just kept saying it would not be nice for the President of a country to die in a helicopter crash due to pilot miscalculations. The President went into a prayer mode. We survived. In Kenya once, we had a bird strike. The plane had to be recalled and we were already airborne with the plane acting like it would crash. During the 2015 election campaigns, our aircraft refused to start on more than one occasion. The aircraft just went dead. On some other occasions, we were stoned and directly targeted for evil. I really don’t envy the people who work in Aso Villa, the seat of Nigeria’s Presidency. For about six months, I couldn’t even breathe properly. For another two months, I was on crutches. But I considered myself far luckier than the others who were either nursing a terminal disease or who could not get it up.
When Presidents make mistakes, they are probably victims of a force higher than what we can imagine. Every student of Aso Villa politics would readily admit that when people get in there, they actually become something else. They act like they are under a spell. When you issue a well- crafted statement, the public accepts it wrongly. When the President makes a speech and he truly means well, the speech is interpreted wrongly by the public. When a policy is introduced, somehow, something just goes wrong. In our days, a lot of people used to complain that the APC people were fighting us spiritually and that there was a witchcraft dimension to the governance process in Nigeria. But the APC folks now in power are dealing with the same demons. Since Buhari government assumed office, it has been one mistake after another. Those mistakes don’t look normal, the same way they didn’t look normal under President Jonathan. I am therefore convinced that there is an evil spell enveloping this country. We need to rescue Nigeria from the forces of darkness. Aso Villa should be converted into a spiritual museum, and abandoned.
Should I become President of Nigeria tomorrow, I will build a new Presidential Villa: a Villa that will be dedicated to the all-conquering Almighty, and where powers and principalities cannot hold sway. But it is not about buildings and space, not so? It is about the people who go to the highest levels in Nigeria. I really don’t quite believe in superstitions, but I am tempted to suggest that this is indeed a country in need of prayers. We should pray before people pack their things into Aso Villa. We should ask God to guide us before we appoint ministers. We should, to put it in technocratic language, advise that the people should be very vigilant. We have all failed so far, that crucial test of vigilance. We should have a Presidential Villa where a President can afford to be human and free. In the White House, in the United States, Presidents live like normal human beings. In Aso Villa, that is impossible. They’d have to surround themselves with cooks from their villages, bodyguards from their mother’s clans and friends they can trust. It should be possible to be President of Nigeria without having to look behind one’s shoulders. But we are not yet there. So, how do we run a Presidency where the man in the saddle can only drink water served by his kinsman? No. How can we possibly run a Presidency where every President proclaims faith in Nigeria but they are better off in the company of relatives and kinsmen. No. We need as Presidents men and women who are willing to be Nigerians. No Nigerian President should be in spiritual bondage because he belongs to all of us and to nobody.
Now let me go back to the spiritual dimension. A colleague once told me that I was the most naïve person around the place. I thought I was a bright, smart, professional doing my bit and enjoying the President’s confidence. I spelled it out. But what I got in response was that I was coming to the villa using Lux soap, but that most people around the place always bathed in the morning with blood. Goat blood. Ram blood. Whatever animal blood. I argued. He said there were persons in the Villa walking upside down, head to the ground. I screamed. Everybody looked normal to me. But I soon began to suspect that I was in a strange environment indeed. Every position change was an opportunity for warfare. Civil servants are very nice people; they obey orders, but they are not very nice when they fight over personal interests.
The President is most affected by the atmosphere around him. He can make wrong decisions based on the cloud of evil around him. Even when he means well and he has taken time to address all possible outcomes, he could get on the wrong side of the public. A colleague called me one day and told me a story about how a decision had been taken in the spiritual realm about the Nigerian government. He talked about the spirit of error, and how every step taken by the administration would appear to the public like an error. He didn’t resign on that basis but his words proved prophetic. I see the same story being re-enacted. Aso Villa is in urgent need of redemption. I never slept in the apartment they gave me in that Villa for an hour.
Tuesday 11 October 2016
COMING GENERATION SCARES ME...REAL HARD!
While we have been busy talking about Nigeria of today, I wonder if we have spared a thought about how this country will be in the next TWENTY-FIVE years. On October 1, 1979, when Alhaji Shehu Usman Aliyu Shagari was sworn-in as president, Goodluck Jonathan was just a 22 year-old undergrad of University of Port-Harcourt. Shagari was 54 years old. Ayo Fayose was 19 years old. Bukola Saraki was 17. Yemi Osibajo was 22. The generation of the likes of Shagari, Richard Akinjide, Adisa Akinloye, Sabo Barkin Zuwo, Ifeanyi Nwobodo, Ume Ezeoke, Akin Omoboriowo, Olusola Saraki, Sunday Awoniyi, Garba Nadama, Awal Ibrahim and so on has gone for good! Some of us in our 40s, 50s and 60s when in school, either in the university or secondary school, had lofty dreams, both personal and societal. We were always motivated by nationalists and inventors who had impacted positively on the cause of humanity. We were voracious readers of novels and other books. Nelkon for our Ordinary Level Physics, Lambert for Chemistry, B.O ADELEKE and Goh Cheng Leong for our Geography, Phebean Ogundipe for Practical English, Achebe and Soyinka for Literature and others like that. We were always flaunting our knowledge of current affairs. Inter-school quiz, Literary and Debating competition were the in-thing. Nowadays, students can hardly string a sentence together in English without errors.
Fast forward 35 years on and you are shocked and disturbed. Have you ever spoken to or engaged a 20 year-old boy? Ask him what motivates him and he is likely to mention music, hip hop to be precise. He has hundreds of downloaded songs on his phone. He can sing all of them off hand. He knows all the singles of Nice, Neato C, Timaya, Davido, Whiz Kid off hand. The babes among them take pride in enticing men old enough to be their father on social media with buxomly physique. But s/he does not know anything about history of nationalism in the country. Ideas about good society, responsible family and good conduct do not motivate him. He just wants to make money because his friend who does yahoo is rich and rides a good car, her friend who has numerous ‘aristos’ drives a SUV! The things that interest him/her are things that do not add value. He/She has google but never uses it for advancement of knowledge but to download porn and other inanities. Yet, in TWENTY years time, they are the ones that will be contesting to become governors, senators, Reps members and even president. They belong to a generation that does not care about morality. They belong to a generation that is motivated only by money and its acquisition. By 2035 to 2040, they will be our senators, Reps, governors and so on. I wonder if we have ever spared a thought for how this country will look like under them. I told a man recently and these are my words: IF A GUY WHO IS IN LAGOS COULD USE FALSE PRETENCE TO
OBTAIN $20,000 FROM SOMEONE IN UNITED STATES, WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL HAPPEN IF SUCH A GUY BECOMES A STATE GOVERNOR AND IS IN CHARGE OF AN ALLOCATION HE DOES NOT EVEN HAVE TO OBTAIN UNDER FALSE PRETENCE? WHICH HIS STATE IS STATUTORILY ENTITLED TO. How did we get into this mess? How can we get out of this predicament? I am worried, deeply worried. Are you?
Note: I don't know the Author of this write up, it was forwarded to me and it's worth sharing.
Monday 10 October 2016
ARREST OF JUDGES: NBA MUST DEFINE ITS GRIEVANCE AND GROUNDS OF DISPUTE
PREAMBLE
This is a COMMINIQUE Issued by LAWYERS FOR BETTER NIGERIA (LBN) at the close of its emergency meeting held at Nicon Luxury Hotel, Garki, Abuja on Sunday 9th of October, 2016 at 1100hours. LBN is a Non-Governmental Organisation of lawyers, (mainly young lawyers) who have come together to demand good governance from government and in particular fight against corruption in the Justice Delivery Sector (JDS).
Corruption in Nigeria cuts across sectors, and it is a major source of concern to every well meaning citizen of this great country, especially those of us in the Justice Delivery Sector. In our nation's Justice Delivery Sector, corruption has nearly eroded our system to the point where some lawyers would nearly always add to their service fees the cost of bribing a judge for favorable judgement; where litigants engage and retain lawyers not on the bases of what they have to offer legally but on the bases of their relationship with Judges; where judgements and orders are no longer granted on the bases of judicial precedents, but on the bases of payment (highest bidder wins it); where Judges no longer exercise discretion in or care about their partisan relationship with politicians or the public perception of their outside-the-courtroom relationship with litigants that appear before them.
As junior lawyers, who either have no competing powers or have resolved not to join the bandwagon, we are the most affected. We lose our clients daily, we lose our chances of growth, while the same persons use their proceeds of corruption to perpetuate their hold on the profession, planting their children, wives and cronies either as Judges or Senior Advocates of Nigeria even when their said children and wives have no real knowledge or values to add to the development of the Justice Delivery Sector.
It is on these notes that we have resolved to support the fight against corruption in the Justice Delivery Sector and and Nigeria in general in order to return Justice to the people. The Court used to be the last hope of the common man, but they have taken that away from the common man. WE THE PEOPLE MUST TAKE IT BACK.
THE ISSUES
Our attention, as LAWYERS FOR BETTER NIGERIA, is drawn to the trending issue concerning the arrest of some Judges, including Judges of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in what the Directorate of State Services (DSS) announced as a "move to rid the Judiciary of Corruption". As Lawyers in practice, we feel the corruption in the Judiciary, and beyond what we feel, we are aware that even the Head of the Judiciary in Nigeria in the person of the CHIEF JUSTICE OF NIGERIA (CJN), who is also the HEAD OF THE SUPREME COURT OF NIGERIA (SCN) AND THE CHAIRMAN OF NATIONAL JUDICIAL COUNCIL (NJC) has come out publicly to confirm that just as in the other arms of Government, there is corruption also in the Judiciary.
The CJN did also confirm that the NJC is investigating some allegations and taking appropriate disciplinary actions against judges that are found culpable. Only recently, the NJC pursuant to this resolution and drive dismissed and retired some Judge as the case may be on account of corrupt practices and recommend them for prosecution by the appropriate Law Enforcement Agency
In the same vain, we are aware that it is the Policy of the Leadership of the present Executive Arm of Government to fight corruption at all levels, and it has done so commencing with the probe of government activities by Executive Arm, to the Legislature and now the Judiciary.
We want to unequivocally submit that as LAWYERS FOR BETTER NIGERIA, we support in totality the FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION initiated by the present EXECUTIVE ARM of GOVERNMENT and would therefore urge every well meaning Nigeria to commit to this uncommon resolve and will power.
It has also come to our attention that the NIGERIAN BAR ASSOCIATION, our parent Association as Lawyers, has come out to question the arrest of these judges and demanded for their immediate release. We understand that the NBA is also planning a boycott of the Courts if these Judges are not release by today (Sunday 9th October 2016).
Much as were concede that the NBA has a professional duty to protect the Judiciary and the Justice Delivery Sector, we wish to remind the NBA that it has even a greater obligation which is to protect the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is on this note that we call on the leadership of the NIGERIAN BAR ASSOCIATION (NBA) to clearly define and clarify its area of disagreement and concern in the arrests of these Judges. This is in order to avoid internal frictions within the NBA that would create room for independent Associations such as ours to begin to make public statements as body (Association) of Lawyer for or against the official position of the NBA. We do not think that this would be in the best interest of the Bar.
Accordingly, we make our observations on the issue of the arrest of the Judges by the DSS as follow:
1. LBN appreciates that Nigeria operates a democracy that runs under the principle of Separation of Powers, which guarantees the independence of the various arms. By this principle, in simple terms, the Legislature makes the Laws, the Judiciary interprets the Laws and the Executive (executes) enforces the Laws, using statutorily established Law Enforcement Agencies such as the Police and the DSS, etc.
2. Each arm of Government is authorized to hire, discipline and fire it's employee. Just as the Executive relies on Civil Service Commission to do this, the Judiciary relies on the Judicial Service Commission or the National Judicial Council, as the case may be, to do the same.
3. Whereas, the various Arms of Government (Executive, Legislature, Judiciary) relies on its independent and appropriate Commission/Council to discipline its employees; NIGERIA AS A NATION RELIES ON HER CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM TO DISCIPLINE HER ERRING CITIZENS. The Nigerian Criminal Justice System is a process that includes Law Enforcement Agencies, the Judiciary, the Prisons, etc.
4. We emphasis that the responsibility to sanction or discipline or correct any citizen of Nigeria who is "suspected" to have violated any Law within Nigeria, who himself/herself may be a lawyer, Judge at any level, Doctor, Engineer, Banker, Capenter, Farmer, Trader or unemployed is that of the Criminal Justice System and NOT that of his Employer (such as NJC, FCSC, Hospital Management, Bank Council, Farmers Union, etc). It is clear that whereas NJC's sanction against an erring judge is limited to suspension or dismissal as the case maybe of that judge, but that of the Criminal Justice System extends to PROSECUTION in a competent court of law, FINE and/or IMPRISONMENT of that judge.
5. We note that the Nigerian Criminal Justice System is a process and this process admits and permits ARREST as one of the procedures of the process. These Judges have just been arrested, preparatory to prosecution.
6. LBN is not oblivious that the Criminal Justice System is also laced with corruption, which has resulted in Law Enforcement Agents arresting "suspected offenders" without the proper rules of engagement or procedure of arrest. LBN condemns the arrest of any Nigerian citizen that does not follow the law and will always do so.
7. In the present arrest of these Judges, apart from the fact that the search warrant was executed and the arrest made between 2300hours of Friday to 0330hours on Saturday morning, LBN could not fine any other breach in this particular procedure of the Criminal Justice System. Another grouse seems to stem from the contention that it is not part of the responsibilities of the DSS to investigate corruption and so have no right to carry out the arrest. We wish to state unequivocally that based on the Administration of the Criminal Justice Act 2015, Law of the Federation of Nigeria, the DSS and indeed every law enforcement agent has the right and a duty to do so; and even a far higher duty derived from the Oath of Allegiance to protect the Constitution of Federal Republic Nigeria to make such arrest.
8. We need not remind Nigerians and indeed the NBA that every single Nigerian is equal before the law. This no doubt operates to subject a Judge, Senator, Minister, Lawyer, Artist, Terrorist, Militant, etc who is accused or suspected of any act that has been defined as crime to the same legal standard. We do not operate two legal systems in Nigeria: one for the rich and influential and the other for the poor and lowly.
1. Albeit, we recognize that the Nigerian legal system provides a robust grievance remedial process. We advise that should the Judges, as very respected citizens of Nigeria, feel very strongly that their human rights or integrity has been violated or bruised by the arrest made by the DSS, they should feel free to use any of the grievance remedial options. In the main, they should answer to the law and vindicate themselves.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, we urge the NBA to allow those who have been cited for violation of the Nigerian Laws to answer to the Laws. Large sums of money were recovered from some of them; let them come before the law, perhaps they will be able to explain away the sources of the funds. These Judges must desire, more than anything else, to clear themselves of the allegations and until they do so they no longer have the moral standing to preside over any citizen accuse of crime. Therefore, NBA should not be seen as a vehicle for self protection against prosecution; for shielding these judges from prosecution. None of these Judges is arrested for delivering judgement against the Executive, but for indulging in corrupt practices. NBA has a lot to fight against, the unfriendly policies of government, the unfulfilled promises of the Executive, the insecurity in the country and the economic hardship.
Finally, LBN has resolved that its members will not boycott the courts but will rather JOIN OTHER NON-LAWYER BASED NGOs (bearing T-Shirt and placard) to call for the dismissal and prosecution of these Judges. This is for the NOTICE and ATTENTION of the NBA and the GENERAL PUBLIC.
Signed
Abdullahi Abubakar
National Coordinator
Barr. Stanley Ibeawuchi Nwosu
National Secre
Barr. Adamu Ibrahim
Coordinator, Zone 1
Barr. Olujide Olorunnimbe
Coordinator, Zone 2
Barr. Igbokwe Alphonus
Coordinator, Zone 3
Barr. Micheal Diriya
Coordinator Zone 4
Barr. Aliyu Yahaya
Coordinator Zone 5
Barr. Timi Lake[truncated by WhatsApp]
Reuben Abati: The Road To 2019
One
of the most frustrating things about Nigeria’s political history is how
it keeps repeating itself and nothing ever seems to change. The present
administration has not yet spent up to two years in office and already
the language of politics is dominated by the phrase: “the battle for
2019.” Nobody is talking about the next general election of 2019, but
“the battle!” As is crystally evident, the 2019 general elections are
likely to end up as one big nationwide war, and this won’t be a war of
ideas, but a war of egos, of ambitions, and utter desperation for power.
Perhaps what makes this prospect even
more believable is the narrative already being peddled that the
incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari may decide to be a one-term
President, and therefore step down from office in 2019. He would be 77
then, and should he decide to retire from politics, that would leave the
field open to a fresh selection of a Presidential candidate.
The only matter that seems settled in
this regard, however, is that the successor must come from the Fulani
North. You get the sense that this seems given and should President
Buhari decide not to run, that may well give the North, the advantage of
holding Presidential power for another eight years making a total of 12
years depending of course on the performance of whoever succeeds the
incumbent. We are still a long way, therefore, from that future when
political contests can be determined solely on the basis of the
candidate’s merit; the complexity of our ethnic politics has ensured an
unwritten rule where power is rotated at all levels among ethnic groups
and geographical zones, creating a turn-by-turn sharing of power and
office, both in terms of moment and duration. The Ijaws would most
certainly someday in the future insist that they deserve another shot at
power at the centre.
We may however be dealing with political
naivete on the part of those who are basing their 2019 permutations on
the likelihood of a one-term Buhari Presidency. There is certainly
nothing in the Nigerian Constitution that disqualifies a septuagenarian
from being President or seeking a second term. This is why the jostling
for Presidency in 2019 by self-appointed crown princes in the All
Progressives Congress (APC), and non-APC Northern politicians may
ultimately be a case of giving away the game too early in the day.
In 2002, that was how some ambitious
elements began a campaign that then President Olusegun Obasanjo should
embrace the Mandela option, that is, spend only one term in office. It
was their idea, not the incumbent’s. They wanted Baba to retire so they
could take over. But the same President Obasanjo not only completed a
second term, he was so strong by the end of his second term, some
lobbyists even began to campaign for a third term – that failed of
course – but since leaving office in 2007, President Obasanjo has
remained extraordinarily busy and energetic.
The way it works, a powerful lobby would
soon emerge to persuade President Buhari to seek a second term, not
just because he is entitled, but because, that is how they usually
phrase it: he needs to complete the rescue job that he has started.
Already, half of the first term has been overtaken by economic
recession, rising uncertainty and an overwhelmed and alienated
citizenry. The President would be told that he needs more time to change
the tide and leave a stronger legacy. I have seen these open and hidden
persuaders at work at very close quarters. They are legacy
constructionists who can persuade any political office holder to remain
in office forever.
Where age is the issue, they would
insist that it is not. Where there are health matters involved, they
would invoke the name of God. Where neither age nor health is an issue,
they will invent reasons to justify why nobody in power should give it
up when he still has a second chance. For example, if at any time in
2014/15, President Goodluck Jonathan had wanted to change his mind about
running for a second term, the strong forces driving the second term
project would not have allowed him. They were so overpowering even the
ethnic card was thrown up when he was reminded that he was not
representing himself in Aso Rock but the entire South South and the Ijaw
nation and that the zone is entitled like any other geopolitical zone
to a second term. Delegations after delegations stormed the Villa and
the media to make their case. President Buhari would most certainly face
the same challenge.
A second theory is that the APC may not
survive till 2019 due to the division of the party into many factions,
each faction led by an ambitious political figure, looking forward to
2019. There are indications that once the party implodes, that may leave
the incumbent President without critical support centres, particularly
the South West, whose main political leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu seems
not to be getting the best deal out of the APC coalition that drove the
Jonathan administration out of power. It is again extremely naïve to
make political calculations on the basis of an imaginary accident in the
opponent’s camp. This is one of the mistakes the PDP made in 2015.
Certain influential figures within the party failed to act early and
plan effectively because they kept hoping that the APC will fail. But
rather than fail, the party built on a strong foundation of conspiracy
and a single-minded determination to get the PDP government out of power
merely got stronger. The PDP, now in disarray is working on the same
assumption. Rather than get its house in order, the party is hoping that
the APC will collapse and that will automatically make the PDP the
people’s choice in 2019. That is too simplistic an expectation.
Those who also want to displace
President Buhari are further assuming that once he is deserted by key
figures that made his victory in 2015 possible, it would be difficult
for him to seek a second term or win an election with his own political
base, the North, which is now also radically divided over the
performance of his government. It is wrong and too early to make such
calls. Those who want President Buhari to embrace the Mandela option and
are carelessly making their ambitions known should remember what
President Obasanjo did to such people in 2003. He outsmarted them and
subsequently made them irrelevant.
Those in the PDP and other places who
assume that they can emerge in 2019, by sheer accident of circumstances
such as economic recession and the growing criticisms of the
administration should go back and learn how to build an effective
opposition. The opposition in Nigeria today is too docile. It is too
silent. The people may have issues with the government of the day, but
nobody is offering any challenge or alternative vision in the same kind
of robust even if hypertensive manner the APC did throughout the
Jonathan administration. Last minute moves in politics are often
counter-productive. The swiftest challenger often wins the race.
What is not very clear to many in
leadership positions is that there is a difference between politics and
governance. They mix both, and mix them up badly, and when they do, they
get disappointed in the long run. Besides, politics in Nigeria is still
about the sharing of spoils of victory. When the sharing formula fails,
or causes disaffection, the political space is muddled up. Nigerian
politicians are also selfish: they do not know how to serve a leader.
They want to use the leader to serve their own ends, if the leader is
weak, they undermine him, if he is strong, they sabotage him. This is
why in the end, all the battle cries about 2019 amount to nothing other
than cries of selfish desperation. Where are the ideas? Civilized
political discourse is driven by ideas, not the exchange of vitriol or
abuse over positions and privileges.
Those who are crying like babies over
2019 would serve us better if they engage the general public with ideas.
They should tell us why they think change will again be necessary in
2019. They should explain what change or difference they are proposing. I
assume that Nigerians are much wiser now: and they are not likely to
hand over power to someone who wants it just on the basis of
expectations induced by saccharine campaign promises. The “battle of
2019” crowd should also show interest in the present. How do they think
economic recession can be dealt with? What ideas do they have about
Nigeria’s future and political circumstances? What do they think the
government of the day should be doing that it is not doing? What is the
value of their own citizenship? What is the value of their stake in the
Nigerian project? Who are they? Oftentimes, we don’t really know the
people we vote for. We vote for fine posters, what the propagandists
tell us, and titillating campaign materials. By the time we get to know
the people we voted for, their politics would already be in the way of
the governance we wanted, messing it all up.
To move Nigeria forward, we must move
beyond the melodrama of politicians, to which there seems to be
practically no end, other than own interests. We need a new tribe of
leaders: men and women with hot fire in their bellies that can burn all
the tents of shameful covenants that have held Nigeria down since
independence. As the political warriors begin to talk about “the battle
of 2019,” we the people, must insist not on battle or war, but such
leadership recruitment that serves the nation, and leads to progress and
development, and such politics that produces the best result, new or
incumbent. But before 2019, the people must survive and remain assured
that indeed the duty of government is to look out for their welfare and
make them happy. That is the greater task at hand.
Dr.
Reuben Abati was spokesman and special adviser, media and publicity to
President Goodluck Jonathan (2011 – 2015). He tweets from @abati1990.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer.
Sunday 9 October 2016
PRESS STATEMENT BY THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE SERVICES
The Department of State Services (DSS) in the past few days, has embarked on series of special sting operations involving some Judges of the Supreme, Appeal and High Courts.
These operations were based on allegations of corruptions and other acts of professional misconduct by a few of the suspected Judges.
The Service action is in line with its core mandate, as we have been monitoring the expensive and luxurious lifestyle of some of the Judges as well as complaints from the concerned public over judgment obtained fraudulently and on the basis amounts of money paid.
The judges involved were invited, upon which due diligence was exhibited and their premises searched. The searches have uncovered huge raw cash of various denominations, local and foreign currencies, with real estate worth several millions of Naira and documents affirming unholy acts by these Judges. Meanwhile, some of them have made useful statements while a few have declined even with the glaring evidences that were found against them in terms of material cash, documents and property recovered pointing to their compromise.
In one of the States where the Service operations were conducted, credible intelligence revealed that the Judge had Two Million United States Dollars ($2,000,000 USD) stashed in his house. When he was approached for due search to be conducted, he in concert with the State Governor, mobilized thugs against the Service team.
The team restrained itself in the face of unbridled provocative activities by those brought in by the Governor. Unfortunately, the Judge and Governor also engaged the tacit support of a sister security agency.
The Service surveillance team noticed that upon frustrating the operation, the Judge with the active support of the Governor craftily moved the money to an unknown location which the Service is currently making effort to unravel.
Meanwhile, large amount including foreign/local currencies have been recovered. Summaries of these include:
SUMMARY OF RECOVERED MONEY
1. NAIRA - N93,558,000.00
2. DOLLARS - $530,087
3. POUNDS - £25,970
4. EURO - €5,680
Other foreign currencies were also recovered. This were recovered from just three (3) of the judges.
These in addition to other banking documents, including real estate documents have been recovered. Meanwhile preparations are ongoing to arraign them in a competent court of jurisdiction in line with the laws of the nation.
The Service would want to clearly state that it has never invited Justice Walter NKANU ONNOGHEN for investigation, neither is he being investigated by this Service.
In addition the Service would like to put it on record, that it has tremendous respect for the Judiciary and would not do anything to undermine it or its activities. The Service will also join hands with this noble institution in its fight to rid it of few corrupt Judges whose actions is undermining not only the Judiciary but the common bond of our national life.
Ladies and gentlemen, this current operation will be sustained and followed till sanity and sanctity is restored to the esteemed third arm of government and public confidence is regained.
Members of the public are also encouraged to avail the Service of any information which could assist in this drive to rid our nation of corrupt practices and tendencies.
THANK YOU.
Abdullahi GARBA,
Department of State Services,
Abuja.
8th October, 2016.
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