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Alabo Enai, a 29-year-old boat driver from Kemme town in Twon-Brass area of Brass Local Government Council, has committed suicide over alleged deterioration of his relationship with his lover.

The deceased was reported to have hanged himself with a strong fishing rope in his compound at about 1am on Easter Sunday. He was discovered by his lover.

His lover, identified as Blessing, an indigene of Ologbobiri in Southern Ijaw Area of the State, came back from an Easter party in Twon Brass and met the deceased hanging from the rope.

"Blessing started knocking from door to door with alarm that she did not know what his lover was doing with rope round his neck," a community source told SaharaReporters.

"People rushed out and met him dead. But there was no suicide note. We later gathered from her that they had been having issues over her decision to relocate to her community in Southern Ijaw.

"After he complained about her decision, she reportedly changed her mind and decided to stay. On the fateful day, she said she asked him to come along with her for the Easter show. He declined and told her to have fun."

The saddened lover, a salesgirl within the community, reported the incident at the police station in Twin Brass.

Samuel James, the Youth Leader of Kemme-town, also confirmed the development, saying although the deceased has been buried after necessary traditional rites, the incident remains a sad and mysterious one.

He said the family performed the traditional rite of hanging a white goat till it gave up the ghost as a sign of cleansing the land before the deceased was buried along with the dead goat.

"It is believed that if the deceased boat driver is brought down and buried without the cleaning rite, other members of his family would die mysteriously," he said.

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Man Nabbed While Trying To Sell His Male Child For N200,000, Female For N150,000

Edet Essien Inyang, a 30-year old, has been nabed by the police in Calabar for attempting to sell two of his children to escape poverty.

Edet reportedly took his two children, one male and one female, to Murray Street where he sought buyers to enable him raise money.

An eyewitness identified simply as Ekem recounted his experience with Edet shortly before he was nabbed: “He came here with the children and asked after one rich man on this street and when he did not see the man we asked him what he was looking for the man for and he said was looking for someone to buy his two children. He said the male child is N200, 000 sand the female N150,000."

Shocked at Edet's disclosure, Edem said in order to stop him from taking the children somewhere to sell they had to “delay him while making efforts to contact the Police at Atakpa Police Station which is close by, and immediately sent a team to arrest him".

“He said he is from Akwa Ibom State but resides in Using Inyang in Odukpani Local Government Area of Cross River State," Edem added.

At the Atakpa Police Station, the Divisional Police Officer confirmed the arrest of the man, saying the matter had been transferred to the State Criminal Division at the Police Command headquarters for further investigations.

DSP Irene Ugbo, spokesman of the Police Cross River, said she was yet to be briefed on the matter.

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Donald Trump meets Twitter's Jack Dorsey at White House

Pregnant Widow, Five Others Arrested With N7m Worth Of Adulterated Petroleum Products

Authorities of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) have arrested and paraded a pregnant widow and five others over alleged illegal bunkering and sale of adulterated fuel, kerosene, and diesel in some parts of Bayelsa State.

The suspects, identified as Mrs Udumudeno Omenuwome, a pregnant woman, and Messrs Yaya Anerohm, Lateefa Hamza, Ahmed Zibiri and Mr.Kelvin Owere, were arrested at Trofani in Sagbama and Okaki junction in Yenagoa, the Baylesa capital.

They were arrested with illegal products stacked in sacks estimated to be 33,000 litres in volume with a market value of over N7million.

The arrested widow claimed she resorted to the sale of the adulterated product as a means of livelihood.

While Oriade Clement claimed ignorance of the implications of their act on the unsuspecting Nigerians, the other suspects pleaded for leniency with a promise to turn a new leaf by engaging in a meaningful venture henceforth.

While parading the suspectsIdeba Pedro, the Bayelsa State Commandant of NSCDC, reaffirmed the command's readiness to flush out illegal bunkering activities in the state.

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Spoken Word: The Change We Need In Nigeria By Hannatu Musawa

It’s amazing to think that four years ago, Nigerians were deep in the fray of politics and the opposition was chanting the change mantra. Since then, a lot has happened. Now that the APC ruling party has been in office for a full term, Nigerians are beating down the doors of government asking to see where the change is. As I, myself, reflect on where exactly that change is, I want to tell you a short story…

“…Some time ago, back when there was rabid fuel scarcity, I did something that I am not too proud of.

Driving with a low tank of fuel, I was forced to head to a fuel station. Arriving at the fuel station, I met an incredibly long queue, of which I joined. With the queue not moving and having been there for a while, I concluded that queuing at the station indefinitely was not an option I was willing to embrace. So, I decided to leave the queue and drive up to the station. As I approached the station, lots of young men offering black-market fuel approached me. I thought about obliging the black-market trade fleetingly, but eventually decided against it. I settled on cutting my losses, going home and sending a driver to join the queue instead. But then, a well-dressed middle-aged man approached my vehicle and asked if I wanted fuel from the station.

“Yes,” I replied without hesitation…“But the queue is too long. I will just go home and send a driver to join,” I said.

“I work at the station and I can let your car in to fill your tank now, now Ma… for a small amount,” Offered the man.

I understood perfectly what he was offering and, I must admit, it didn’t take me long to decide whether I was going to accept his offer or not. Yes, I was going to get the tank filled now!

I had justified the trade in my mind; you see… It had been a long, tiring day and I had fasted. And paying extra to jump the fuel queue may have been a form of injudiciousness, but it was one I felt I deserved at the time.

So, it was! I followed the man with my car and he led me into the fuel station through a separate entrance. After some motor acrobatics, I aligned my car with the fuel pump and within a few minutes, I had a full tank of fuel in my car. The whole operation took less than ten minutes.

Satisfied and smug, I drove out of the station. Feeling a little guilty and sorry for those I had bypassed on the fuel queue, I turned to look at them. That was when I made contact with a woman in the queue sat in the driver seat. She had three young children in the back seat. The kids looked like they were all under ten years old. The one that looked like the youngest was crying non-stop and the two elder kids seemed to be fighting. Between trying to console the younger child and trying to mediate the fight with the older children, she turned and looked at me. She had the most desperate, forlorn and tired look on her face. She was sweating and looked overwhelmed. That was when a large surge of disappointment followed by utter guilt hit me.

Thinking that I had dishonestly paid a bribe, jumped the queue and shortchanged law-abiding Nigerians, while a woman in her situation had done the right thing by following the queue, despite her circumstance, made me feel so bad, guilty and disgusted with myself. It was then that I had an “A-Ha moment’ about what the change, that so many Nigerians fought to have was. What it symbolized!”

…By God’s Grace, as I sit here and watch my fellow countrymen and women ask where exactly the change is, I am reminded of my misadventure that day in the fuel queue.  The question shouldn’t be ‘where’ the change is; it should be ‘what’ the change is.

So what is the change? Perhaps it is for every single one of us in this nation to commit ourselves to make a change for the better. As Mahatma Gandhi once advised, every single one of us has a responsibility to be the change we wish to see in our respective communities.

So, when we speak of Nigeria’s urgency to see ‘change,’ whom do we expect that change to come from? The expectation for change has been fixated on the government. A long to-do list has been placed at the foot of the President. But in reality, the wind of change that ushered in a new government in the last election wasn’t so much about voting one man into office. It was about the need of a people to see a change in the very fabric and marrow of their country. And if that is what it was, then it includes every single one of us that considers ourselves a member of the collective known as Nigeria.

We live in a time when people speak about requests in terms of needs, needs in terms of rights, and rights in terms of entitlements. Government, and government alone, is thought compelled to provide the expected change. And while such an expectation may be valid, to a large extent, we have to refer to the very concept of responsibility and accountability when we speak of the mantra of change that Nigerians yearn for.

To be responsible is to be answerable for one’s action. When one acknowledges a legitimate call to do something, one has a duty to react. Accountability rests not only on a genuine call for action, but also in the ability to heed the call. Just as the President, all those elected into office and the respective governments have a responsibility to us and to the nation, we each also have a responsibility to every other Nigerian and to the nation at large. Once both the government and Nigerians accept the call for action, which we did when we voted for change, then we all have that responsibility to heed its call. What happened in the elections of 2015 was Nigeria’s call. What we did in voting for change was to heed that call. Now we have a responsibility to follow it through.

Indeed, our democracy has seen a nation’s call for change. Nigerians heeded and opted for that change. But our responsibility doesn’t stop after the inaugurations.

Responsibility doesn’t usually come from one single establishment or one union. Individuals in a family or a community bear the responsibility to care for its members, in the same way that the friends, neighbors, leaders and governments do.

Although we should all have expectations for the government to implement policies, which will make our existence as Nigerians more comfortable, we should be aware that we each have a role to play in that journey to change. Every single Nigerian has a role to play in actualizing change.

While government has a great responsibility to attain the parameters needed for us to grow and flourish, one must be realistic and keep in mind that government isn’t solely liable for taking care of every single one of us in our communities, neighborhoods and families. That obligation is the responsibility of every single one of us as participants in a variety of relationships and overlapping communities. One will intrinsically be indebted to fellow members by a shared principle, which unites their community and, as members of a shared community, we must rely on each other to attain common objectives. That would entail making claims upon each other as we collectively strive to satisfy the ideals our society struggles to actualize.

A government safety-net is there to make available, liberty, service and social justice, but it cannot give personal attention, on-the-ground instincts, or the flexibility sometimes required in an emergency situation. Governments’ responsibility and accountability has to be met by each of our communities and each one of us individually.

The fact that we are aware of government policies being put in place to effect the much-needed change may work to our disadvantage if we don’t value the social contract we have with each other and our communities. Because it may lead us each to relax our own social responsibility in the misleading belief that someone else is holding the forte.

As a nation, we are persons existing in a community, not self-standing individuals. People are not islands and we deny an important feature of our humanity once we approach it as such. Each of us shares some manner of link to one another; every one of us exists in a human society. Our actions have a domino effect on Nigeria and, thus, each have central moral obligations towards our collective.

Part of the government's role is to employ public judgment when it comes to justice. The connection between government and its citizens is one of equal standing and protection under the law. We have got to understand that the government's responsibility is not to be the sole harbinger of change. We each have that responsibility also.

Let us say that the government is able to achieve some of its main objectives in its change manifesto and I, as a part of this huge collective, continues to jump the fuel queue, as does the next person and the next person, then the expectation of change is incapacitated and untenable; purely because we didn’t play our part. It is like a big jigsaw puzzle and we each represent a piece of it. Any of the expectations we have towards government, as far as change goes, has got to start with us… each one of us.

If every single one of us, in our capacity as Nigerians, can make a change that will make Nigeria better, then we will see the change we so yearn for. If not, then it doesn’t matter what policies the government puts in place; there will never be change.

I don’t believe that change only comes in the form of a rescue package by government nicely wrapped in a bow. It no longer only means a list of executives with the exquisite cerebral capacity to make decisions to transform the economy. It is no longer who makes or doesn’t make the Ministerial, Ambassadorial or Executive lists. It is about each and every single one of us doing the right thing by making a change in an area that we know disadvantages the nation.

As long as we are talking about government responsibility to deliver change, we must also examine our own personal irresponsibility, which has an effect on that change. Besides government, we also have a collective responsibility to provide a better example so that those who come after us aren’t propelled toward bad choices or precedents.

While I am waiting to see the government finish putting into effect its policies of change, I’m determined never to jump a fuel queue or any other queue again, by the Will of The Almighty.

When it is clear that Nigeria will never change if we sever our desire for change at the threshold of government alone; when we know that our self-destructive behavior batters the mantra of change that Nigerians chanted for one year ago, is it not time we end our own personal unprogressive conduct?

The change that Nigeria desperately needs starts when I, Hannatu Musawa, don’t pay a bribe to jump the fuel queue. The change starts with every single one of us… and it must start now!

Spoken Word Article Written by
Hannatu Musawa

I invite you to:
Follow me on Twitter- @hanneymusawa
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Send me an e-mail- hannatumusawaspokenword@gmail.com

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Shari'a Court In Kaduna Jails Two Ladies For Two Months For Wearing Skimpy Dresses

Two ladies, Farida Taofiq and Raihana Abbas, have bagged two months in prison each for wearing skimpy dresses.

The sentences were handed down to the 20-year-olds by a Shari’a Court II sitting at Magajin Gari, Kaduna State.

Before learning of their fate, the two convicts had pleaded for leniency, saying they won’t repeat the crime.

The ladies, who are residents of Argungu road in Kaduna, were convicted after they pleaded guilty to “constituting public nuisance and indecent dressing".

The judge, Mallam Musa Sa’ad-Goma, however, gave the convicts an option to pay N3,000 fine each.

Sa’ad-Goma also ordered them to return to their parents’ homes.

Earlier, the prosecution counsel, Aliyu Ibrahim, said that Taofiq and Abbas were arrested on April 16, at a black spot along Sabon-Gari Road roaming the streets in skimpy dresses.

“When they were asked where they were going, they said they were going to the house of a friend who had just put to bed,” the prosecution said.

Ibrahim said the offence contravened the provisions of Section 346 of the Sharia Penal Code of Kaduna State.

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Stella Oyedepo, Managing Director Of National Theatre, Dies In Auto Crash

Dr. Stella Oyedepo, Managing Director of the National Theatre in Lagos, has died.

Until her death, she served was MD and the Chief executive Officer of the National Theatre.

She died on Easter Monday while returning to Lagos from an official trip. Her car was said to have rammed into an articulated vehicle in Sagamu along the Benin- Ijebu-Ode Expressway.

Abiodun Abe, the Director in charge of Business Development at the NT, confirmed the development to the media on Tuesday.

He said he and the Public Relations Officer of the NT, Steve Ogundele, and other management staff were taking the corpse of the deceased to Ilorin, her hometown.

Abe added that funeral arrangements will be released soon.

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New Minimum Wage; New Work Ethics By Emmanuel Onwubiko

The man who is now presiding over kaduna state amidst inter-ethnic and inter-religious turmoils, was once the beloved minister of federal capital territory.

Although as the Abuja minister who gained notoriety as an Anti-poor bureaucrat, he was also praised in official circles for embarking on some policy implementation that at least on paper, made people to become conscious of not patronizing the many land speculators that flooded the Federal capital territory.

Nasir El Ruffai who has so far proven to be a terrible choice of a governor in the complex state of kaduna, he was however the public office holder who made the shocking discovery that over 40% of the choice houses in Abuja belong to civil servants in the federal capital.

Ironically, soon after he left office, the national Assembly indicted him of a range of misconducts connected with land redistribution just as he was alleged to have coverted several landed property in Abuja to his cronies and family members.

The senate also banned him from holding public office for ten years.

Nasir El Ruffai fought this indictments in court. It would seem that he got a judicial reprieve.

The kernel of making reference to the Nasir El Ruffai persona is to bring out the larger issue of poor work ethics and corruption amongst the top echelons of the civil and public service cadres who work in the diverse governmental agencies in Abuja. These sets of workers used to earn a national minimum wage ofN18,000 per month which isn't even enough to pay their transportation costs to their work places. But from this sane segment, you find a greater percentage of them in the directorate cadres owning virtually all the top notch housing assets in the Federal capital territory which are obviously proceeds of frauds.

It was because of deep-seated corruption and the culture of bribery within the hierarchical structure of the civil service that has totally undermined the economic advancement of Nigeria. Nigeria is obviously a crippled clay giant.

The diminished work ethics seen in the civil and public service of Nigeria is to be blamed fundamentally for why Nigeria does not work. However, the civil service ought to be the heartbeat of any nation and it is so in many foreign jurisdictions.

In Britain, civil servants are some of the most respected citizens.

During my recent visit to the United Kingdom, I picked up a book tittled “Dictatorland:The men who stole Africa", written by Paul Kenyon, a distinguished British Broadcasting corporation’s correspondent and BAFTA award winning journalist who had travelled all over Africa.

The chapter five of this beautiful book is devoted to the issues of underdevelopment of Nigeria even as he began the chapter five which he subtitled Nigeria with a rich demography of Nigeria, by recollecting the words of Ken Saro Wiwa who stated thus:” I am unfortunate to be a Nigerian. I would rather not be, but I am doing my level best to be one and a good one at that”.

Recall that Mr. Saro Wiwa was killed by Sani Abacha, the military dictator at one time who had him and a few of his other environmental campaigners killed for opposing the devastation of their oil rich region of the Niger Delta by shell and a plethora of other multinational oil drillers. Due largely to corruption in the civil abd public service the remediation processes that would have addressed the environmental abuses suffered by the Niger Delta region couldn't be addressed and redressed till date.

In this chapter five also, the author narrated how the bureaucracy of Abuja works and swims in corruption.

Those experiences he narrated are very much alive as i write and have even escalated making life in Nigeria to become miserable, brutish, short and uninteresting.

He wrote thus: "In the 1990s, OPL245 was much coveted throughout the oil world, with shell and the Italian supermajor Eni emerging as the two frontrunners. The person who would decide the allocation was the Nigerian oil minister."

He also stated that: "In a country where people joke that their leaders are ‘professional fraudsters playing at being politicians’, the oil job was open to abuse like no other. The ministry of Environment, or transport, was happy to skim off the conventional ten cent, but the oil ministry had the potential to catapult its boss into the realms of the fabulously rich. Fees to middlemen alone could amount to tens of millions of dollars, and to the minister himself, hundreds of millions."

To be very specific, the author stated further that: "Dan Etete was a boisterous cannonball of a man, who ricocheted around social gatherings, glasses of champagne in one hand, silver-tipped cane in the other, recounting tall stories about his shipping business or his connection in government, promising something to everyone and everything to someone. His tailor? Yes, he’d put you in touch. The wine? Always French, he had some properties there. The silk cravat? He knew a little shop in Abuja."

He wrote that Etete was a social whirling, an honorary chief always looking for a deal, and precisely the kind of man who, in Nigeria, is destined to enter the political arena. \

Revealing that Etete took a seat in the senate, representing an area right in the heart of the oil producing delta, and soon began to attract the attention of the military chiefs who ran Nigeria, not just for his giant white checked suits, but for his eagerness to take part in illicit schemes, and to keep his nose out of other people’s.

"When the big job finally came his way in 1991, it was the gift of military dictator General Sani. Dan Etete was to become oil minister.

The author narrated that an application for OPL245 landed on Etete’s desk at the oil ministry in Abuja sometime in April 1998, from a small start -up company no one had ever heard of. It was called Malabu, incorporated just days before specifically for the purpose. Malabu had no employees, no capital, no offices, just the names of three company directors on a sheet of paper. Its bid for what promised to be Nigeria’s richest oilfield was just $20 million. It was like trying to buy a Rolls Royce for the price of a hubcap".

Dan Etete he recalled had numerous options, and might have wished to discount Malabu and its three aspirant directors without so much as an interview. But Etete knew something about the company no one else did. Within a matter of days, he had chosen Malabu for ownership of OPL245.

As can be attested to, the above celebrated or is it notorious story is still trending as i write. The matter has escalated to a level that the international police has been asked to pick up some of the suspects connected with the Malabu deal. The matter which started due to bureaucratic corruption in Abuja has seen many companies quized and litigated against in UK; France and Italy.

The bureaucratic corruption and bribery mentioned above are very much in widespread practice but amongst those supporting All Progressives Congress.

It used to be Peoples Democratic party for the last 19 years until 2015 when Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress came on board after winning the incumbent Goodluck Jonathan who handed over without any fight.

Corruption and bribery in Nigeria is turn by turn.

As yours faithfully was picking up this book from the bookshelf somewhere in central London last week, the news from Nigeria emerged that the Federal government has Okayed the new minimum wage for all workers.

Relatively speaking, this is good news, but at the same time, it would seem that not much will change if the decadent work ethics of the public and civil servant do not change.

Nothing may change with the enforcement of the new minimum wage if widespread corruption, bribery and bottlenecks slowing down governance in Nigeria are not defeated.

Nothing may change if the retinue of challatans recruited as special assistants by political office holders and these office holders who consume over 70% of annual budgets on salaries and allowances are not made subject to the application of the new national minimum wage.

As I go through this book aforementioned, and reflects deeply about the numerous cash gulping political office holders in Nigeria, my mind raced through the essence of Nigeria enthroning a new work ethics by all civil and public servants.

I say the above because, if you go through the gamut of the debates around the issues of the necessity or otherwise of a new national minimum wage, not one person has argued for a new work ethics.

All that we have heard is contestation for cash and preservation of status quo.

The governors who opposed the new minimum wage are mostly indicted of extensive theft of public fund. For them it is about having the biggest bite of the national cake and not about public good.

The Unions demanding wage increase aren't worried about productivity but to preserve the privileges of their tiny working class that aren't more than five percent of the population but not about how to robustly improve the work ethics so the governmental policies and projects impacts the living conditions of the citizens most of whom are poor and unemployed or underemployed.

For instance, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) had condemned the opposition of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the existence of improved minimum wage across the world. ITUC alleged that International Monetary Fund (IMF) has continue to promote the unfounded claim that higher minimum wages prompt job cuts and hurt workers, putting at risk economic growth.

An article published in the IMF’s F&D magazine and shared on the IMF’s Facebook page claims, “an overly generous wage may prompt employers to cut jobs”.

But the General Secretary of ITUC, Sharan Burrow thinks otherwise.

She submitted: “It is disheartening to see that the IMF continues to ignore a large body of evidence on the benefits of minimum wages, for working people and the economy as a whole. If the IMF is serious about addressing inequality, it should abandon policy advice and loan conditions that have failed to generate economic growth.

The economic evidence they claim is simply not there. Also absent is an acknowledgement that IMF interventions including attacks on minimum wages have deepened economic and social crises not alleviated them.”

ITUC insisted that the article “Does a Minimum Wage Help Workers?” billed by the IMF as a ‘Back to Basics explainer’, is based on selective evidence that highlights the bias of the authors.

ITUC maintained that the article recognizes that most empirical studies find a positive or at most a very small negative relationship between minimum wages and employment levels.

“Despite that admission, the IMF economists base their recommendations on the assumption that higher minimum wages reduce employment levels.

This ignores the larger body of evidence, which shows the positive effects of minimum wages on productivity, employment, reduced informality and overall economic growth.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on its own seems to have sounded positive when it said the proposed increase in minimum wage for Nigerian workers would stimulate output growth in the economy.

Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, made this known in a communiqué published at the end of the 264th meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria in Abuja.

The communiqué read: “The MPC welcomed the moderation in inflation in October, reflecting declining food prices. The Committee believes that given the negative output gap, the proposed increase in the national minimum wage would stimulate output growth due to prolonged weak aggregate demand arising from salary arrears and contractor debt.

“Consequently, its impact on the aggregate price level would be largely muted, given that the monetary aggregates have largely underperformed in fiscal 2018. In addition, the prevailing stability in the foreign exchange market would continue to moderate pressures on the domestic price level.

It would seem that there is not yet a national debate on two key issues related to the soon to be implemented National minimum wage namely the necessity for a new work ethics and the urgency of the now to cut down significantly on the costs of governance.

It doesn't make sense that Nigeria spends over 70 % paying salaries and spend very little on infrastructure and human capital development. The nation will not make any progress if we continue to upgrade salaries but fails to upgrade the general standards of living of the nearly 98 % of non public sectorised workforce. The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation commission needs to be inaugurated to watch over these abuses of privileges by the political class who pay themselves huge unbudgeted wages.

Emmanuel Onwubiko is head of Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) and blogs @http://bit.ly/2UzCqKP.

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Revisiting The Security Card In The Nation’s Politics Under Buhari By Peter Claver Oparah

One area the opposition in Nigeria played their ill-fated but desperate politics en route the 2019 general election was security. They played the security card to the hilt in their desperate search for a comeback. Together with their allies in retired army generals, religious leaders, tribal groups, corrupt displaced share reapers, the opposition tried to create a hopeless security situation so as to turn the table against President Buhari in the just concluded presidential election. They said that Nigeria had never faced a direr security situation, even when evidence point to the contrary. They said that Nigerians are being killed in their millions, that life had been cheapened, that Armageddon had been let loose on Nigeria. They did everything within their power to recreate a state of hell in Nigeria and these were to discredit the Buhari government and shred its re-election chances. They dramatized and celebrated every mundane case of crisis as hell let loose and ensured that the headlines ripple with their noisome celebration of what they termed the breakdown of security under the Buhari government.

But, let us ponder a bit and do a little check. Is the security situation under Buhari worse than it was when he came? Are Nigerians being killed in millions under Buhari as the desperate opposition sought to impress on us, than before he came? Is Buhari’s era witnessing greater security challenges than when he came? There is no way one can answer these questions in the positive without deliberately indicting truth, fact and reality. The crux of what the opposition tagged serious security challenges under Buhari was the notorious herdsmen versus farmers clash that was celebrated far beyond its realm and effects by the opposition in cahoots with their conniving religious leaders, ethnic and tribal leaders, retired and corrupt military leaders, the displaced corrupt chieftains who were ruing their loss of exploitative power with Buuhari’s coming and of course the manipulated bigots who were frantically seduced to chorus such syndicated mantra to improve the political fortunes of their desperate masters.

What was certain in this antic however was an attempt to slay the truth, obfuscate fact and mangle reality to benefit those that in reality, ran Nigeria to what was an intractable security miasma before Buhari came. This was a deliberate effort to swindle the entire country just for the illicit gain of the displaced political mandarins, their religious and ethnic collaborators who remained in utter pain for the loss of power with which they impoverished and subdued a well-endowed nation since independence especially in the sixteen-year period from 1999 to 2015. In the noxious herdsmen politics, attempts were made to desperate pin what had been an age-old problem to Buhari and his government and this obtains I what was actually a well-orchestrated plot to re-enact constant clashes between itinerant herdsmen and farmers so as to sustain a dubious campaign against the government.

But then, herdsmen crisis predates the Buhari government and recorded its worst cases before Buhari came. However, these array of corrupt forces listed above managed to make it seem as if it started when Buhari came and tagged a “Fulani’ label on it to make it stick with Buhari who is a Fulani. Every case of criminality and insecurity in every part of Nigeria became a Fulani herdsmen attack and in this deliberate perforation of truth, the opposition basked and reveled as it lasted. Extensive public burials and shows were organized by a combination of these forces where high pitched sermons that incite rather than tame passions were delivered and ethnic warlords who have been angered by the stoppage of their sources of corrupt freebies by Buhari, would follow by issuing a fatwa on the government and its supporters. The press that has been feeling with bad with the capping of corrupt patronage by corrupt politicians keyed in and blew these slanted efforts out of proportion. Corrupt retired soldiers who couldn’t come to terms with the fact that Buhari ended the fonts through which they siphoned our national patrimony would follow up with moratorium on the government and incitement on the supposed victims of these clashes.

What curiously played out in the entire scandal was that as soon as Abubakar Atiku, a fellow Fulani emerged the presidential candidate of the PDP, under whose platform these nefarious forces played their deadly game, the issue of Fulani herdsman attack, suddenly screeched to a curious end and politics around it squelched. The Fulani no longer gets painted in the damned colour of a blood-thirsty vagabond that shed blood at the drop of a hat. What more, arrests made of the ‘Fulanis’ that carried out most of the purported herdsmen attack in Benue that became the hotbed of this absurd phenomena pointed to a collaboration between the state government and the attacks, even as the same state government made the most illicit capital from it. These shocking realities would have forced a curious nation to weigh in and establish the sure link between this orchestrated security crisis with the politics of 2019 but because most of the zealous instigators and perpetrators of this crisis know what they were doing, they now waited to latch unto any of the other ageless communal crises that are as old as the nation to charge Buhari with not doing anything to tame insecurity.

But then, even in the height of its mischievous usage by the damned corrupt tendencies in Nigeria, the total casualties of the syndicated herdsmen attacks under Buhari were not as much as the 5,000 people that were killed in a three-day blitzkrieg by Boko Haram in Baga, Bornu State during the era these locusts were running their ruinous affairs here and which they are seeking to re-enact. What is most troubling is that the dubious religious leaders who have fixated their evil sermon on how Buhari had killed more Nigerians have forgotten how churches worshipped with full security compliments in even the remotest parts of Nigeria during their avowed ‘peaceful’ period they are desperately trying to re-enact. Yes, it was all too easy to lie, obfuscate and slay the truth because of base selfish interests. It was so easy to conveniently forget how a chunk of Nigerian territory (an area The Economist Magazine reported was more than the size of Belgium) was firmly put under the control of Boko Haram while the satanic movement was almost taking control of Abuja, Kaduna, Bauchi, Gombe, Taraba, Niger, Kano, Kogi, and even audaciously pushing frantically down south before Buhari came. It is all too easy to forget the thousands that were killed in a Christmas day bombing on St. Theresa’s Catholic Church Madala, Abuja, the Abuja motor park, the Nigerian Police Headquarters, the United Nations Building, etc; all in the country’s capital Abuja in the period these rodents want us to go back to. Yes, it is all too easy to forget these because Boko Haram has been degraded and we can afford to play mischievous politics around the security issue.

It is just too easy to forget the thousands of churches and mosques razed by Boko Haram before Buhari came. It was too easy to forget the hundreds of thousands that were massacred by Boko Haram, the thousands that were kidnapped, among which were the Chibok School girls and that Boko Haram constituted real threats to far flung villages in the South before Buhari came. It is so easy to forget that millions were made desolate in their states and had to flee to live as internally displaced people in other states, even in the southern parts of Nigeria. It was easy to forget the multi-billion Naira ruins of Boko Haram and rant of how security had worsened under Buhari. Why won’t dubious religious leaders who no longer partake in the filthy feast from stolen wealth of the nation dubiously rant about Buhari worsening the security situation in Nigeria since they no longer worship under heavy security cover because Boko Haram now seems a forlorn and distant story? Why won’t corrupt retired military generals who no longer have a free dip into our treasury complain that Buhari has worsened the country’s security? Why won’t ethnic irredentists who had been denied of illicit flow of funds since Buhari came not seek to incite Armageddon so as to remove Buhari?

However, in the face of the heightened antic and conspiracy of these dark forces, Nigerians especially the common masses, are not deceived on the realities of issues, especially as it pertains to what the security situation was and is and this was why they rebuffed all these antics by the rotten corrupt interests to return President Buhari with a wider margin than in 2015. Nigerians know quite well that Boko Haram that was one of the five most dangerous terrorist groups in the world before Buhari came had been reduced to cowardly fire-fighters that relish in carrying out irregular attacks on soft targets as they retreat into oblivion. Nigerians know that Buhari is doing his possible best to tame age-old cases of friction and insecurity, which were worse before he came and he certainly will win the battle. Nigerians know that insecurity in Nigeria, as in any other country, is a component part of statehood and the best approach remains to keep it in check as much as possible otherwise, they wouldn’t have existed and flowered more before Buhari came. One may ask why successive regimes in the United States have not been able to stop mass shooting in the country. Most importantly, the North East where Atiku hails from and where most of the most asinine cases of insecurity played out, know what Buhari had been able to do to the issue and which was why they massively returned votes for Buhari as against the total rejection of Atiku who is the mascot of the rotten desperate forces playing the security card in the nation’s politics.

All said, Buhari who made security one of the cardinal thrusts of his election campaign in 2015, has done so well in this regard and within a space of four years, the nation has been totally recovered from terrorist’s grips and the fearful visage of a nation totally under attack from terrorists had been tamed. Whatever the dubious mischief of a corrupt displaced opposition, their collaborating soiled religious leaders, the angry corrupt retired army generals, the hurting ethnic champions and all other forces of vice, Nigeria is far more secured than it was before Buhari came and this was affirmed in his re-election in the just concluded election. The remnant of security issues that gnaw at the soul of Nigeria are ageless and are quite in tandem with our riotous group living and is normal with any country that has the kind of chequered history Nigeria has. Buhari is doing enough to tackle and reduce these and will surely do a greater job in this regard in the next four years.

Ikeja, Lagos.
E-mail: peterclaver2000@yahoo.com

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'We'll Change Our Style Soon', Shi'ites Warn Nigerian Govt As They Mark El-Zakzaky's Birthday With Protest

Members of Islamic Movement Of Nigeria (IMN) on Tuesday in Abuja warned the Nigerian Government not to push them to the wall in their demand for the release of their spiritual leader, Sheik Ibraheem El-Zakzaky.

The group disclosed this during a procession to mark the 68th birthday of El-Zakyzaky and 1,224 days of his detention.

According to Shaikh Sidi Munnir from Sokoto State, a member of the movement who spoke to journalists, the movement would change its style and move to another step if the government fails to release their leader.

When asked what will be the next line of action of the movement if the government continues to keep him in detention, he said: "I am sure we will not be doing this kind of procession to call for the release of our leader; we will move to another step.

"If they push us to the wall, that means if they hold on to our leader and refuse to release him, the style will change. We will not only be protesting to call for the release of our leader. The story will change."

He expressed optimism that President Muhammadu Buhari, with his next level slogan, will rescind his decision and release him from the detention.

He also called on well-meaning Nigerians and International community to intervene as a matter of urgency and necessity.

He added that the movement embarked on the rally to commemorate the 68th birthday anniversary of their leader even though he is in detention.

Also speaking, Abdullahi Isa Mohammad, Secretary of the Academic Forum of the movement, said the refusal of the government to release El-Zakyzaky has further increased the popularity of the leader and the movement.

He noted that the movement has achieved a lot with the protest by exposing the injustice being perpetrated by the government and creating awareness on the extrajudicial killings of their members by the security operatives.

He added that the continuous violation of rule law by the President has launched the movement to reckoning within and outside the country. He said that the movement will not give up on its demand.

"He has violated all the laws of the land, including an order by the court of competent law which is the Federal High Court that ordered for the freedom of our leader," Muhammad said.

"They are keeping El-Zakzaky in their custody but El-Zakzaky movement is at the doorstep of the villa and is on the streets of Abuja and everywhere in the whole world. They have done nothing but increase the momentum of the movement to the other level.

"We have exposed the secrets of the government and told the masses what happened with this peaceful protest. So we don't care if it continues for another four years, but all we know is that Sheik Zakzaky is in their custody and is our leader and we are ready to die for this cause."

El-Zakzaky was born on 15 Sha'aban, 1372 (which corresponds to May 5, 1953) in Zaria. The word 'Zakzaky' means 'Man from Zazzau', and Zazzau or Zaria is an ancient City in Nigeria.

He attended prestigious Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, studying Economics and graduating with a First Class in 1979.

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Bindow Makes U-Turn, Files Petition At Election Tribunal After Congratulating Fintiri

Jibrilla Bindow, the incumbent Governor of Adamawa State, has at last approached the Adamawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in a move to overturn results of the governorship election in the state.

Bindow rescinded his earlier congratulatory message to Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, the Governor-Elect, and instituted a legal action challenging the latter's victory at the polls.

In a statewide broadcast on March 29, Bindow had congratulated Fintiri on his election as Governor-Elect after Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said he polled 336,386 votes compared to Fintiri's 376,552.

However, the latest twist is that Bindow is asking for an order of the tribunal to either declare him the winner of the governorship election or order a fresh conduct of the polls in the state. He premised his argument on the claim that results from seven Local Government Areas were marred with various electoral irregularities.

Umar Duhu, former All Progressives Congress (APC) National Vice chairman (Northeast), who is an ally of the Governor, announced Bindow's position in Yola on Tuesday.

"Yes, the Governor congratulated the PDP candidate, but new facts at our disposal signal otherwise about our purported loss," he said.

"There was over-voting in almost all the seven local governments, according to facts obtained from (INEC) records. We strongly believe that there were massive irregularities in those local governments, and I can assert that by the time the issues are properly determined we'll reclaim our mandate."

He attributed some of the party's ordeal to some members of President Muhammadu Buhari's immediate family, alleging thus: "Some members of Mr. President's family are romancing with the opposition here in the state.

"I can tell you that the so-called town hall meeting by the wife the President was all about conferring legitimacy on the so-called victory of the PDP Governorship Candidate."

Duhu further berated the Buhari Campaign Organisation (BCO) for "undermining the unity of the APC as revealed in the proposed list of prospective appointees forwarded to the President for consideration into the new federal cabinet".

"From what we have learnt, all the 20 names presented to the President for consideration as ministers or other aides are people drawn from the defunct CPC bloc; and I think it is dangerous," he said.

"I therefore make bold to assert again that if Mr. President allows the trend, it will destroy the APC. We all labored to wrest power, therefore we should all be carried along."

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Pay Us Our Benefits Before You Leave, Radio Lagos, Television Retirees Beg Ambode

Akinwunmi Ambode, Governor of Lagos State, has been implored to pay some retired workers of the Radio Lagos and Lagos television their benefits before leaving office on May 29.

The passionate appeal was made by Biodun Akinbusuyi, spokesman of the the group, on Tuesday while fielding questions from newsmen in Lagos.

Akinbusuyi said that they were transferred from two parastatal-agencies to main service in 2016.

He added that the Lagos State Pension Commission returned the retirees’ files to the two parastatal-agencies and said their terminal benefits should be paid by the organisations.

“We are appealing to Ambode to assist the parastatals-agencies by approving the terminal benefits, which is not up to N100 million, before the administration winds down," he said. “We are not more than 20 retirees affected by this development."

At the last congress of the Lagos State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Kehinde Bamigbetan, the Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, had promised the retirees that their terminal benefits would be paid.

He said the ministry would assist in ensuring that issues causing the delay in treating the files of the affected retirees would be sorted out.

He said though Radio Lagos/Lagos television are financially insolvent to pay the retirees’ terminal benefits, the Governor would do his utmost before handing over.

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NCAA To Demolish Globacom Masts, Others' After 30-Day Ultimatum

The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has issued Globacom Limited and other Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) operators 30 days ultimatum to remove their over 7, 000 masts or risk seeing them demolished.

According to NCAA, the masts, erected at different locations within the country close to the nation’s airports, are obstructing flight safety and can cause accidents if not removed.

A statement by Sam Adurogboye, the General Manager, Public Affairs, NCAA, stated that the regulatory body had written to the different GSM operators, including Globacom, to remove the masts, but they blatantly refused to do so.

Adurogboye also said the companies failed to obtain the statutory Aviation Height Clearance (AHC) from NCAA, stressing that without AHC, all the masts and towers constitute danger to safety of air navigation.

He insisted that under the Civil Aviation Act, 2006, Section 30(3) (1), NCAA is empowered to prohibit and regulate the installation of any structure, which by virtue of its height or position is considered to endanger the safety of air navigation.

He added: “Furthermore, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations (Nig.CARs) Part 12.1.7.1.3.1 stipulates that no person or organisation shall put up a structure (permanent or temporary) within the navigable airspace of Nigeria unless such a person or organisation is a holder of Aviation Height Clearance Certificate granted under this regulation.

“Consequent upon this provision, the regulatory authority requires an Aviation Height Clearance (AHC) approval for every tower installation irrespective of the height and location.

“Contrary to the above regulations, the promoters of GLO telecommunication and these other defaulters have failed to obtain the mandatory Aviation Height Clearance (AHC) from NCAA, which is considered as a violation of safety regulations.”

He declared that several letters and entreaties from NCAA to Globacom Limited and other GSM providers were not responded to, despite that they were duly received by the relevant executives and duly acknowledged.

He insisted that Letters of Investigation (LOI) were written and delivered to all the concerned organisations, but no response recorded till date.

The statement recalled that in a meeting with the Director-General, NCAA, Capt. Muhtar Usman, early this year, the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) members were candidly advised to ensure they obtain Aviation Height Clearance.

Adurogboye said that this was to reiterate the need for all masts and towers erected in the country to adhere to safety regulation and ensure safety of air navigation.

“At the meeting, Globacom representatives were present and were asked questions concerning GLO’s refusal to obtain Aviation Height Clearance Certificate. In response the delegates demanded to be furnished with the location of the masts. A booklet containing the coordinates and locations of the masts has since been made available to the organisation," he continued.

“As a result of the meeting, other telecommunications providers have implicitly demonstrated considerable compliance by duly obtaining the requisite height clearance from the authority except for these few defaulters."

Adurogboye expressed that there are over 40,000 masts and towers in Nigeria, stressing that statutorily, all telecommunications operators should obtain AHC and renew their annual validity, but the owners of over 7,000 masts have refused to comply.

“What this means is that Globacom and these other defaulting GSM providers have been running their networks and providing interconnectivity to millions of subscribers without Aviation Height Clearance Certificate thereby jeopardising safety of air navigation.

“In Part 12.1.7.1.6. the authority shall use all legal means of ensuring the removal of any structure which are erected or constructed without compliance with the provisions of these regulations. A 30-day ultimatum has therefore been given to Globacom Limited and these other defaulters in Nigeria to regularise their operations with NCAA forthwith."

The statement hinted that if there was no response within the stipulated period, NCAA would immediately embark on mass decommissioning and demolition of all the masts and towers in Nigeria.

He assured that NCAA would continue to provide a level playing field for aviation and related services to thrive in Nigeria, without jeopardizing safety, which he described as critical

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Man Who Couldn't Feed Sets Himself Ablaze in Ebonyi

The Police in Ebonyi are investigating the self-immolation of 37-year-old Chinedu Nweze over his inability to feed.

Nweze was rushed to the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki for treatment after he allegedly set himself ablaze beside a classroom block after tying his own legs at St. Patrick’s Primary School, Kpirikpiri, Abakaliki.

Lovett Odah, spokesman of the Police in Ebonyi, said the Command was investigating the incident to ascertain whether it was a suicide attempt or not.

Nweze, who hails from Umuogharu, Ezza North Local Government Area of the state, had complained to his neighbours of frustration and inability to feed himself a day before the incident.

“The Command dispatched an ambulance to the scene of the incident and took the man to hospital after it received a distress call from a member of the public," Odah said.

“Police are currently carrying out investigation into the incident; but for now, we have very sketchy information about the incident and cannot confirm if the act was a suicide attempt or not."

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Seven Roads To Be Affected By Traffic Control As Buhari Visits Lagos On Wednesday

President Muhammadu Buhari will visit Lagos on Wednesday to inaugurate projects.

The one-day working visit was announced in a statement issued by the Lagos State Ministry of Information and Strategy on Tuesday.

According to the statement, the itinerary of the President will include declaring open the "rehabilitated 10-lane Oshodi/Murtala Muhammed International Airport Road, and the 170-Bed Ayinke House (Maternity Hospital) at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital in Ikeja.

Other projects to be unveiled include the Lagos State Theatre at Oregun in Ikeja, the new 820 Mass Transit buses and the multi-level Oshodi Transport Interchange on the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway.

"The presidential visit would hold between 9am and 3m on Wednesday, during which traffic on some routes will be diverted in order to ensure a free flow of traffic," read the statement. said.

“The presidential visit would hold between 9am and 3pm on Wednesday, during which traffic on some routes will be diverted in order to ensure a free flow of traffic," it said.

According to the statement, the routes to be affected by traffic control include the Mobolaji Bank-Anthony Way (coming from the presidential wing of Murtala Muhammed Airport to LASUTH under bridge); Kodesoh Road; Obafemi Awolowo Way; Kudirat Abiola Way and Ikorodu Road (between the Ojota Intersection and Anthony Interchange).

Other routes are the Oworonshoki-Apapa Expressway (between Anthony and Oshodi Transport Interchange) and the International Airport road through the Local Wing of the airport to Mobolaji Bank-Anthony Way and back to the Obafemi Awolowo Way.

“Roads highlighted above shall only be cordoned-off when necessary, Obafemi Awolowo Way and portions of Mobolaji Bank-Anthony shall be closed to traffic on three occasions within the specified period, as they are central to the President’s itinerary," it said.

The statement, therefore, advised motorists to avoid the above-listed roads where necessary and make use of alternative routes of their choice.

It advised that where motorists find it unavoidable plying the afore-mentioned roads, patience and cooperation with traffic managers should be their watchword.

It solicited the support of motorists and commuters for all inconveniences as a result of the diversions, saying that traffic managers, enforcement and security agents will be positioned at all strategic intersections to allow orderly vehicular movements.

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On The Making Of A People's Constitution By Femi Falana

(Being a Review of the Minority Report & Draft Constitution for the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1976, by Olusegun Osoba and Yusufu Bala Usmanat the Public Presentation in Lagos on April 23, 2019)

The historical context of this occasion of the public presentation of the Minority Report & Draft Constitution for the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1976 is bound to generate hope with an admixture of regrets.

As part of the initial steps towards the transition to civil rule in 1975, the regime of General Murtala Mohammed gave a committee of 49 eminent Nigerians the job of producing a draft constitution for the Second Republic, which was scheduled to begin on October 1, 1979. Two members of the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) fundamentally disagreed on ideological grounds with the report supported by the majority of 47 others.

On the question of human progress, the philosophical divergence between the minority and the majority within the CDC was too wide to expect a compromise. Hence, the minority came up with the document under review today.

By the time the report was ready, Murtala had been killed in an abortive coup and his second-in-command, General Olusegun Obasanjo, was now in charge. Regrettably, the Obasanjo regime rejected, in a most hostile manner, the Minority Report, as it is now known in Nigeria’s political history. The report of the majority was decreed into the 1979 Constitution, the basic content of which has formed the nucleus of the subsequent constitutions including the Decree 24 of 1999 otherwise called the 1999 Constitution.

Let us quickly dispense with the regrets, as the actual spirit of this occasion is to engender hope about the future of Nigeria. A critical reading of the publication being presented today would bring to the fore the radical diagnosis and the extraordinary prescience in the prescriptions for the Nigerian condition made by the authors. This is despite the fact that the authors, Dr. Olusegun Osoba and Dr. Yusufu Bala Usman, both radical historians, wrote 43 years ago that they never pretended to put forward “a perfect document.” In the true tradition of self-criticism that is the hallmark leftist thinkers, they readily admitted “faults and inadequacies” in the document.

Besides, the dynamics of Nigeria’s political economy would compel an update of a few of their propositions as Dr. Abubakar Siddique Mohammed, director of CEDDERT, rightly puts the matter in the highly instructive forward to the publication. Yet, Nigeria could possibly have avoided the current obstacles to genuine democracy and sustainable human development if some of the questions posed and the answers provided by Osoba and Usman, two leading lights of the Nigerian Left, in their unambiguously progressive Report and Draft of 1976 had been considered.

Take a sample!

Unknown to the Not Too Young to Runcampaigners (who sometimes make a fetish of age in politics), Osoba and Usman had recommended in Section 145 of their own Draft Constitution way back in 1976 the minimum age of 30 as part of the qualifications to contest for the office president or governor. Forty three years later, the same provision is being celebrated by youths who now see the man that treated the Minority Draft then as “non-existent,” Obasanjo, as a pathfinder of their future!

Similarly, it is significant that the constitutional immunity for the president and governors and their respective deputies was hotly contested by Osoba and Usman during the making of the 1979 Constitution. According to them the immunity provisions “ contradict violently the fundamental principle of the equality of all citizens before the law and is an unwarranted attempt to shield these high officials of the state from the full rigours of the law as would apply to the other citizens of Nigeria in similar situations of misconduct or improper conduct.” If you ask the anti-corruption agencies the main roadblock in their work today, they would readily tell you that it’s the constitutional immunity for this category of public officers.

Other similarly remarkable provisions encapsulated in the Draft, but were regrettably rejected by the Obasanjo regime, include those on accountability by those in power; the purpose and management of political parties as well as the appointment of a prime minister by the elected president for the purpose of diffusing power. Now, talking about the atmosphere of hope that should be created at this period of our history, the leading spirits of the Centre for Democratic Development Research and Training (CEDDERT) should be saluted for their keen sense of historical purpose in resurrecting at this time a document that was once “killed” by a military dictator. The basis of hope is that those desirous of fundamentally confronting the deteriorating Nigerian condition would be equipped by the contents of this publication.

In the fresh introduction to the publication entitled “The 1979 Constitution and its Legacy of Catastrophic Succession of Governments, 1979-12018,” Osoba posits that given the enormity of the “crisis of governance” in the land the constitutional reforms intended in the 1976 proposition might prove inadequate in the circumstance.

In fact, given the progressive ferments of the 1970s, these two progressive constitution writers could not have imagined the current crisis of the economy, society and politics. Osoba has, therefore, proposed a “minimum agenda for change” based on the “root and branch” strategy. The proposition ought to stimulate honest discussions among those sincerely working for a progressive transformation of Nigeria.

Yet a few areas should be isolated in the 1976 efforts of Osoba and Usman that could provide clues on how to tackle the contemporary problems of poverty, inequality, social injustice, insecurity and the dangerous clogs in the wheel of national integration. As far as the making of a people’s constitution goes, compared with the 1979 Constitution the draft put together by Osoba and Usman is indubitably richer in content (from the viewpoint of the genuine interests of the people). And the style of the draft is admirably accessible. Many great constitutions are, in fact, slim in volumes!

As Osoba and Usman rightly put it, the 1979 Constitution is a deliberate effort at mystification for the selfish interests of the bourgeoisie. The constitution is verbose. It is laden with technical loopholes. It is unwieldy with some contradictory provisions. As a matter fact, the pull for the Chapter II of the 1979 Constitution, which is also incorporated in the 1999 Constitution, was actually the Minority Report of Osoba and Usman that we are celebrating today. Although the undeniably progressive provisions of the Chapter II have been cynically made non-justiciable, the whole chapter itself was a backhanded response to the ideological and political pressures generated by Osoba and Usman’s report and draft in their own categorically radical draft. It was a concession the majority members of the CDC were forced to make to Osoba and Usman.

So, the majority members of the CDC gave the people socio-economic rights in Chapter II of the 1979 Constitution with one hand and took away the rights with the other hand by the non-justiciable Clause. Since then the struggle has been shifted to the courts and the push for enactment of laws to back up policies tailored securing socio-economic rights for the people. Hence we have had the emergence of legislations backing funding of basic education and primary healthcare and policies on social housing, social insurance and financial inclusion. It must be admitted that all these are at best palliatives and they are never a substitute to the constitutionally enshrined provisions for social- economic rights.

The principle underlying the divergence of the progressive document from the 1979 is well articulated by the authors in Part 1 of the publication. Osoba and Usman embark on a sharp critique of the Majority Draft for making “elaborate provisions to protect the ‘Right to Property’ contained in Section 36 and 37” while declaring the socio-economic rights of the people to be “non-justiciable.” Here we are talking of the people’s rights to education, healthcare, social housing, mass transit, social protection, water supply, sanitation etc.

In contradistinction, Osoba and Usman spell out the “Fundamental Economic and Social Objectives” in Chapter IV of their draft without the pernicious provision of non-justiciability. Now, if Nigeria had been constitutionally and philosophically run on the basis of the Minority Report with socio-economic rights of the people reigning supreme, the scourge of poverty would not have been ravaging the land so ferociously as it is doing today. In Section 36 of the Minority Draft, Osoba and Usman propose as follows: “The Federal Republic of Nigeria is committed to a rapid, even, balanced and self-reliant economic development and the state shall direct and plan the national economy. Appropriate planning authorities shall be created at village, district area, state and national levels to ensure closely integrated planning based on the genuine needs and interests of the people and their full and active participation.”

In retrospect, if the running of the Nigerian political economy had been informed by such a constitutional provision in the last 40 years, the scandalous social inequality plaguing the Nigerian society could not have arisen. Instead, Nigeria could have at least evolved into a social democracy without a bloody revolution. The Scandinavian countries that are always rated higher in human development than the richer capitalist countries actually apply these social democratic principles in running their economies.

Besides, the devolution of powers embodied in the Section 36 of the Draft cited in the foregoing is the type for which the people should struggle and not the devolution of powers to governors who are emperors and looters, as the ethnic and regional champions of “restructuring” are unwittingly framing the question.

The Nigerian federalism should be made to work for the people and not only for the factions of the ruling class located in the various regions and ethnic groups. It is remarkable that Osoba and Usman rigorously make this genuinely federalist argument in the 43 –year old report. Indeed, if the provisions of the Chapter II of the 1999 Constitution (an inherited item from the 1979 Constitution) had been made justiciable, governments in Nigeria would be taken more seriously in tackling poverty and inequality.

In the same vein, the profundity of the argument of Osoba and Usman in their debate with the authors of the Majority Draft on national integration should command the attention of those approaching the National Question from a progressive perspective.

The Minority Report argues against “state citizenship” which contradicts the “national citizenship.” If the formula provided by Osoba and Usman in 1976 had been assimilated in the economy, polity and society the bloodletting arising from the episodic wars of the “indigenes” versus the “settlers” could probably have been avoided. Today, the advocates of ethnic and geographical restructuring dominate waves.

In fact, restructuring is presented as the panacea to all Nigerian problems. National unity is becoming an anathema in some quarters dominated by ethnic and regional champions. The voices of the separatists are getting more strident. This is a clear degeneration from the 1976 situation when Osoba and Usman were even criticising the authors of the Majority Draft for advancing the cause of the unity of the elites only as against unity of the whole people. This is how they put the matter: “This is not unity or consensus based on a minimum agreement by all concerning the need to protect and promote the real interests and well-being of the masses of Nigerian people of whatever origin. It is our view that no genuine political unity or consensus is possible in the Nigerian context without such an honest and firm commitment among the various sections of the national leadership to the genuine interests of all our people…”

Chapter II of the Minority Draft defines Nigerian citizenship. According to the draft, a person could become a Nigerian citizen by birth, registration, and naturalisation. Significantly, dual citizenship is prohibited while spouses of Nigerian citizens not wishing to be Nigeria are to be given a special immigrant status at the discretion of the president, who should also have powers to deprive a disloyal person citizenship. The ambiguity on the citizenship by birth which is a subject of the APC response to Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s petition at the tribunal might have been unwarranted if the 1999 constitution had made the provision as simple as the Minority Draft.

It is always intriguing when members of the ruling class rationalise the manipulation of religion by saying that the word secularity is not in the constitution. They insist that the intent of the constitution is to say that Nigeria is a multi-religious country and that the government should promote tolerance among adherents of the two main religions of Christianity and Islam especially. If only Obasanjo had listened to Osoba and Usman 43 years ago, the seeming ambiguity would not have been in the public sphere as the Minority Draft states clearly and simply in Section39 as follows: ‘The Federal Republic of Nigeria is a secular republic and the state not be associated with any religion but shall actively protect the fundamental right of all citizens to hold and practice the religious beliefs of their choice.”

So it is clear that with this publication CEDDERT is illuminating the discussions about the future of Nigeria from a most credible vantage. And the intervention is quite timely. After all, the light that could arise from the enormous heat generated so far in the restructuring debate is the possibility of the proposals being distilled into the process of making a people’s constitution.

This publication should be a useful material in the hands of those interested in writing a people’s constitution. Since the completion of the work of the CDC in 1976 in which Osoba and Usman valiantly defended the people’s interests from the viewpoint of the Left, some other genuinely progressive interventions have been made in national debates. The interventions might not have been politically decisive, but they have been ideologically significant. It is hoped that this important publication would reawaken the tradition of putting at the centre of national debates credible alternatives for building a humane and just society. It is even more crucial that such perspectives should inform the organisations working towards the building of such a society.

Opinion AddThis : Original Author : Femi Falana (SAN) Disable advertisements :
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EXCLUSIVE: Osinbajo’s Man Gbadebo-Smith 'Running Down NISER... Sells Off N30m Generators For N700,000'

Dr. Folarin Gbadebo-Smith, Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), has been accused of incompetence, fraud and running down the research body.

NISER, which has been in existence since 1906, was established as an autonomous institute under the presidency by the NISER Act No. 70 of 1977 (now Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2006 CAP 115) to serve as a Think Tank in the field of social and economic development for the country.

But a source within the institute told SaharaReporters that since Gbadebo-Smith, a former Chairman of Eti-Osa Local Government in Lagos, took over in 2017, the institute has become a shadow of itself.

The source said Gbadebo-Smith (pictured above with the microphone) has been running the institute with recklessness because he was hand-picked by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, who once served as his lawyer in a corruption allegation case.

“He has abandoned the primary purpose of NISER, which is to research and proffer solutions but what he does is that he says we should engage in people research, that we do not need to go to the field," said the source, who has seen many DGs at NISER.

"The research we used to go on and they used to give us N500,000 for, and we would go to the field and distribute questionnaires, he now gives us N50,000 for and says all we need is to do desk research. But desk research cannot be reliable or a substitute for field research.

“If members go for conferences, in the past NISER funded them. Now, he doesn’t fund anything; you have to pay for participation in conferences and publication of your papers so everybody is discouraged.”

The NISER website explicitly states: “One of the statutory functions of NISER is to organise seminars and conferences on problems of economic and social development in the country, whether on its account or on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and sub-national levels of government or their agencies. For this reason, the Policy Engagement Division is charged with coordinating and managing conferences and other such engagements with relevant stakeholders."

No power, no work…

Gbadebo-Smith is said to have auctioned three of the institute's big generators to “his people”, leaving the agency in darkness for long spells every day.

“The three big generators we have that service NISER, he sold all, claiming that he wants to invest in renewable energy for the agency; but if you want to go into renewables, you must first provide a substitute. The generators that were bought for N25million to 30million, they sold to their people for N700,000 each. If there is no light, nobody works at NISER. There is just one small generator that is used for the conference room and the office of the DG. As for the library and offices, if there is no light by PHCN, we all sit down idly, making small talk."

Internal Rancour

“Many members of staff now come to work only once, it is not inspiring," the source added. Last month, a member of the management resigned because he claimed at management meetings, the DG takes all the time to talk without allowing the contributions of professors who know about the place and about research.The whole place is just upside down. Please help us expose this to the media before NISER is run aground” the source added.

When SaharaReporters contacted the DG on the phone for his reaction, his personal assistant said he was unavailable and asked our correspondent to call back in two hours. When the call was made two hours later, she asked for a letter of enquiry to be sent to to the Institute for official response.

Corruption CRIME Scandal Exclusive News AddThis : Featured Image :

Original Author : SaharaReporters, New York Disable advertisements :
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