TheNewsGuru

Author: Hope Eghagha

  • Delta State: One hundred days of ‘Sherrified’ governance – By Hope Eghagha

    Delta State: One hundred days of ‘Sherrified’ governance – By Hope Eghagha

    It is now one hundred days since Elder Sheriff Francis Oborevwori took over the reins of power as democratically elected governor in Delta State in a well, if you like, fiercely contested gubernatorial election. Instructively and expectedly, there has been no pussyfooting in policy initiatives and implementation. To be sure, a man who served the state as House Speaker for six years and worked closely with the immediate past governor while in office, recondite administrative experience in state matters has definitely served this humble, calm, friendly, openminded, down-to-earth, and pragmatic man excellently. He therefore deserves our congratulations and encouragement on this milestone. The eight-year sojourn in Government House Asaba has just started.

    Oborevwori has also patiently and palpably established one fact: he is fully in charge of the government of Delta State. To be sure, any chief executive who craves success knows they must carry all stakeholders along in decision making. Broad consultations are crucial. Stakeholders and party leaders need to be brought into the picture. The two former governors of the state who threw their hats into the ring to ensure that he emerged must be routinely consulted. It is commonsense to do so, especially with Dr. Okowa who backed Oborevwori with all the energy and forces he could muster. But the buck stops somewhere: the desk of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori!

    Measurement of success is often hinged on deliverables on appointments, short-term interventions in projects, ability to relate with persons from all strata of society, medium and long terms policy pronouncements, making the people feel the impact of government, and financial prudence. On appointments, the governor has sought out politicians who have contributed to PDP electoral victory in the state. He has also catered to the interest of powerful stakeholders who stood resolutely by him in the tough days of campaigning and when some erstwhile party stalwarts exited the PDP when it seemed that they were most needed. He has also brought in young and new faces into the administration as commissioners. The youths are the fulcrum of any country, especially in the labour force. Bringing them early into administration is a way of sowing seeds for the future. He has added persons from other age brackets to guarantee a well-nuanced mix.

    The process of appointments has been deliberate, measured, and calculated to achieve maximum effect and satisfaction. For example, State Commissioners were appointed only after the federal executive council had been constituted though his list of appointees was ready before then. It is certain that not all politicians will be happy. The positions available are not enough to please everyone in the political class. Not even the federal government has been able to achieve this. But this is where elected and appointed officials should help the administration by carrying all stakeholders in the polity along.

    At the end of one hundred days, Governor Oborevwori commissioned projects in the state. Most of the projects were started by his predecessor in office. Oborevwori explains that government is a continuum, and it therefore makes sense to finish up projects which the administration which he was part had started. For example, multi-billion-naira projects were inaugurated at the Dennis Osadebey University Anwai-Asaba, 29 network of roads with 31.45 line drains around Madonna College road in Asaba and Okpanam areas of Oshimili South and Oshimili North Local Government Council areas of the state. The governor has promised to commission the Ughelli-Asaba dualized road project as soon as possible.

    The civil service is crucial to the success of any administration, being the engine room of government bureaucracy. This class of people need to be kept happy through sound policies and a healthy welfare package. As a listening leader, the governor dived straight into one of the challenges of civil servants by approving palliatives for them. Apart from ten thousand naira added to their monthly salaries to subsidize their transportation, the governor also approved days off and days on duty for civil servants. That way, workers do not come to the office daily. The cost of commuting from one point to the other is enormous to the ordinary worker whose take-home pay is usually not enough to take them home!

    Governor Oborevwori’s latest act of inviting widely known construction giant Julius Berger to tackle infrastructure deficit in Warri has thrilled Deltans who had always expressed dissatisfaction with the state of roads in that ancient city of oil! This is a bold move. Enerhen Junction and indeed PTI junction are begging for attention. A statement of possible new approach to road construction. In one of our post-election chats, Governor-elect had assured all that he would intervene massively in Warri and in any other parts of the state that require government intervention. Indeed, at his inauguration ceremony at the Stephen Keshi Stadium, the rapturous reaction that followed his declaration that he would work massively on Warri is an indication of how the people feel. Although the Abraka-Agbor and Sapele-Benin roads are federal, these roads impact the lives of Deltans. It would be great if the Oborevwori administration could enter a deal with the Minister of Works to enable the state government to stop the nightmare that the roads have become.

    Certainly, there is a lot of work to be done in the state. The menace of Fulani herdsmen is still felt in some parts of the state. The state government is working in consonance with federal security agencies to curb their menace. The scoundrel herdsmen around Jesse and Uwheru must be dealt with decisively. Managing divergent viewpoints and a multiethnic state is not a tea party. In this Oborevwori has done well.

    In commending Oborevwori for ‘sheriffying’ Delta State by promising to do and doing more than what was done in the past, it is apposite to say that it is morning yet on creation day. It is hoped that there will be foreign direct investments, that the youths would be given adequate attention, especially the ones who seem to have made internet fraud and money ritual their career. Education has been given a boost by the establishment of more universities so that any Deltan who is qualified will not be denied space to pursue their dreams. By commissioning the facilities in the university in Anwai, the governor has sent a strong message to the youth in the state and beyond: SCHOOL NO BE SCAM!

  • Judgment and Justice in Nigerian Courts – By Hope Eghagha

    Judgment and Justice in Nigerian Courts – By Hope Eghagha

    OJO: Judgment can be given without justice meeting the demands of justice.

    AKOMA: What is justice? Is it when your candidate gets judgment in his favour?

    OJO: It is not always that verdicts which are given in court meet the bar of justice! It is established across the world!

    OREZI: Profound, very profound!

    BISHAK: What is profound about that?

    OJO: Mallam, you are not likely to understand. This is not ‘malu’ matter!

    BISHAK: I take exception to that stereotypical misrepresentation of facts!

    AKOMA: Tell him the truth jor! Leading ‘malu’ and governance are two different kettles of fish!

    BISHAK: Again, I take exception to your condescending attitude!

    OJO: Suit yourself my dear friend! Suit yourself! Enough of this bulls**t in this country!

    BISHAK: It is preposterous to argue that because verdict was not given in a particular direction then there was no justice!

    OREZI: The mob does not determine justice in the court of law!

    BISHAK: That would be jungle justice!

    OJO: Is Nigeria not a jungle?

    EMEKA: It is a refined jungle, a zoo of sorts! There is a façade of order, of the rule of law, and of commitment to national development. The truth s that to many people in power are committed to their personal development.

    OREZI: Blowing the flute and blowing the nose? Hehehehehehe!

    OJO: Is that not the way of life? As a doctor, you save lives and save your pocket!

    BISHAK: There is a difference. While one promotes the dignity of labour, the other promotes exploitation of the state’s resources!

    OJO: I am sure that you are bellyaching over the PEPT verdict on the February 2023 general elections!

    EMEKA: You may feel so; but I am concerned with elections and the role of the courts in general. You see, the courts have not engendered confidence through acts of omission and commission. How could a court give judgment in favour of someone who was not on the ballot in the first place? How? How could a court skip the second and third candidates and award victory to the fourth candidate? Such acts send a negative message!

    OREZI: Also recall the judge who cried loud in Kano that a Senior Advocate of the Law was trying to induce her to compromise the ends of justice.

    AKOMA: That lady deserves an award. I hope the anti-corruption bodies have invited her to reveal more facts about the matter!

    BISHAK: There is no doubt that unethical things are going on. I can also add to the list the public assertion which a senator made that his wife a judge gave favourable verdicts on his say-so to his political friends.

    OJO: Are these judges not friends and brothers to us? Don’t they socialize with us. Drink with us? Frolic with us sometimes? Worship with us?

    AKOMA: Don’t we come from the same villages and towns? Don’t we attend the same town meetings and wedding ceremonies? Don’t their children attend the same schools? Can they their salaries meet the obligations which society places on them? Aren’t we expecting too much of these men and women?

    EMEKA: That is the point! Most judges have broken the ethical codes of engagement. They live above their means. They attend parties with persons who have matters in their courts. They are members of clubs and associations which expose them unduly. Some are even open sympathizers and supporters of political parties!

    OJO: The truth is that these judges are Nigerians. They cannot be different from us. We have all degenerated into the cesspit of corruption and immorality.

    OREZI: I beg your pardon! Not all of us. You could say some of us. I still believe that the good persons in the country are more than the corrupt ones! The sad thing is that those who still believe in right and wrong do not count in the scheme of things.

    AKOMA: Let us return to how we started this whole matter. Can there be justice in the country?

    EMEKA: Are human beings capable of dispensing justice?

    OREZI: Of course, justice is a divine attribute which God gave man. It inheres in man. But man has the capacity to twist justice. Sometimes, it depends on the circumstances in the country. Often, individuals determine the level of their commitment to justice. In a country where money is everything, justice can be compromised.

    OJO: That is why the system has created an appeals system. At the higher level of the judicial system, there are more guarantees for justice.

    EMEKA: Not in this country. Clients pay more now once a matter goes on appeal. Judges should know that the same people who give them money let it out to members of the public. We are told that there are some retired or serving judges who serve as mediators between judges and their bribe- givers. In other words, a client could give out money to a judge without ever physically or virtually meeting them. A retired female judge in the highest court in the land is notorious for this.

    OREZI: Let us say what we know, please! A judge serving as bagman for other judges? It is beneath the status of our revered judges!

    EMEKA: The hood does not make a monk! Not all who adorn the pastoral garb are real pastors. Too many impostors.

    AKOMA: Justice, real justice can only come from God. A man steals; he is charged to court and through legal technicalities, he is not punished. Is that justice?

    BISHAK: In other words, a man rigs elections and is declared winner by the electoral umpire; but because it cannot be proved in court, he is declared the winner. By inference, it is not justice.

    OREZI: It is justice according to the laws of the land.

    AKOMA: Not according to divine law?

    OJO: Is our country governed by divine laws?

    AKOMA: No!

    OJO: I rest!

  • Where are the Fulani herdsmen? – By Hope Eghagha

    Where are the Fulani herdsmen? – By Hope Eghagha

    The full title of this essay ought to be, “Where are the Fulani herdsmen who terrorized the country between 2015 and 2022? However, because of the ethics governing titling, I have summarized the title in a simple question: where are the Fulani herdsmen? Of course, the title bears innuendoes. It also interrogates a historical and political occurrence in our country.

    So, it has a context. Context, like perception, is everything in presentation of ideas, facts and figures. The question is specific of ‘the Fulani herdsmen; not ‘Fulani herdsmen! There is a difference! When we search for Fulani herdsmen, we may need beef or cowhide. But when we ask after ‘the Fulani herdsmen’, we refer to the murderous gangs who invaded villages in Benue state and in Enugu, in Plateau state and other places! Let me quickly say that if they have disappeared from the public space and national discourse, it is good riddance to bad rubbish! But they have not.

    Between 2015 and 2022, Fulani herdsmen became part of the national discourse, on radio, television, town meetings, and press conferences. ‘A 2020 Statista survey stated that 7400 persons were killed by jihadist Fulani herdsmen’. Their spokesmen developed insulting arrogance and openly threatened ethnic groups over grazing routes in geographical locations outside their areas of domicile. They were gregarious and ascribed their strength to the man in Aso Rock was their father! They also became ubiquitous both metaphorically and physically. They were found and discussed in the most unlikely places. I daresay that they featured in daily security briefs to the president, governors, and foreign embassies. Physically, we found them on streets in cities, towns, and villages, far from Fulani country. I was once part of a delegation that went to a community in Uwheru in Delta state where some nine local persons had been murdered by herdsmen who had invaded their lands with cattle for grazing. We confirmed that farmers were compelled to pay a fee to these invaders to grant them access to their farmlands!

    Sometimes I wonder if my imagination is concocting coincidences where is none. Have the notorious Fulani herdsmen who kidnapped victims with great impudence along Sagamu-Ore Road, in Ogun State, on the Benin bypass, between Patani and Agbarho in Delta State, on the highways in the southeast, between Aba and Port Harcourt, in Benue state, the scoundrels who attacked a sitting governor’s convoy, simply disappeared from the land? Are they still violently active but under-reported or not reported at all? Or, were the scoundrels not from the Fulani ethnic group? Can cessation of the violent activities of the herdsmen in the country be associated with the end of tenure of the last administration?  Was there a collaboration between a cabal and the herdsmen for some nefarious objective? Is there a point man in the current administration whose presence in the ticket was enough to call the criminals to order? What are the implications of this on belief in one Nigeria? What about the rampant killings in Kaduna? Have they ceased, abated, or hidden under the radar? Are there circumstances that could make them return in future? Too many questions begging for answers.

    Sadly, the men and women who are constitutionally charged with the responsibility of asking questions are either compromised or have moved into other spheres to secure the notorious stomach infrastructure! Memory is not one of our strong points. We forgive without meting out justice. Those who are at the receiving end of institutional injustice stay bitter and disenchanted. There are no reparations. We protect impunity. History is weak where consciousness is low. These thoughts took shape in my mind recently when I read Chief E.K. Clark’s comments about the late General Murtala Mohammed in his autobiography. If the man was such a bigot, a plunderer, and an irridentist, why did the six months misadventure as Head of State blindsight us into making him a national hero? Why did we forget Onitsha and the Asaba massacre? Is he a hero to Asaba people? I guess not! Why did we forget his anti-CBN activities in Benin during the civil war? Why did we forget Abagana? Why did we forget how he ruined the federal civil service with his ill-conceived purge of dead woods and corrupt men and women?

    This cavalier attitude to history and historical consciousness is part of our national tragedy. A nation without a memory is a nation without dignity and self-respect. Indeed, it is no nation at all when it is nescient about its cultural, social, and political antecedents. It dethrones its political deities and shields its scoundrels from opprobrium because of the inane belief in undue patronage and hegemonical control of resources. A country that is conscious of its history would return to the menace of the Fulani herdsmen now or in the future. It requires no clairvoyance to observe that the failure of the political class to display respect for history and memory has occasioned a return of coups in Francophone Africa. If the political rulers, pretenders to democratic ideals and practice in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Gabon had broken the yoke of French postcolonial exploitation, coups would have been anathema to the hoi polloi of those countries.

    The Fulani herdsmen are still with us. They are still in control of certain territories in the northern parts of the country. Their activities are under-reported. They have formed alliances with terrorist groups in the Sahel and have continued to unleash violence and terror on hapless citizens. The billions of naira which they have raised through payment of ransom still sit comfortably in their official and unofficial accounts. The blood of the innocent citizens which they have spilled testify against them and their sponsors.  More troubling is the fact that as late as March 2023, The Punch Editorial reported: the spate of killings by Fulani herdsmen AND militias has continued unabated. In a recent outrage, at least 50 persons were slaughtered during a four-day rampage in communities in the Kwande LG area of Benue State’.

    If the scoundrels have somewhat no longer in the public eye, it is a façade. We must continue to deal with their past, their today and their future because as long there is desertification in the country, farmers and herdsmen will always clash. Yet the federal government mut bring to book all perpetrators of violence across the country!

  • Superstition and personal development – By Hope Eghagha

    Superstition and personal development – By Hope Eghagha

    There is a predominance of superstitious beliefs in Nigeria. We find it in all strata of society. Adherents of the major religions are as guilty of this irrational way of comprehending objective reality as animists who attribute supernatural forces to everything that happens to them or their loved ones. Men and women who have been exposed to the theory and practice of rational inquiry ultimately slip into ancestral methods of dealing with daily occurrences.

    Sadly, this arcane narrative is vigorously promoted by our brothers and sisters in the Pentecostal movement! In this understanding of the cosmos, a kick or a misstep is an attack from enemies. It is true that universally, there are stock superstitious beliefs. The thirteenth floor. Touching the crucifix for luck. Waking up from the right side of bed. A first customer for the day must buy goods from the seller. Left foot for bad luck, right foot for good luck, and many more.

    Superstition refers to a ‘widely held but irrational belief in supernatural influences, especially as leading to good or bad luck, or a practice based on such a belief’. It is further defined as ‘a belief or way of behaving that is based on fear of the unknown and faith in magic or luck’. Fear of the unknown drives some people crazy. Yet this world is a region of a billion unknowns! In the past, our ancestors would have slaughtered virgin girls to appease the flood that ravaged certain parts of the country. To sum it up, superstition incorrectly establishes cause and effect and sticks to it without reservation.

    To be sure, there are matters natural and matters spiritual, matters sacred and matters profane. For the well-developed mind, there is a dividing line, a divergence, a difference. The undeveloped mind sees supernatural elements in every experience. Superstition is grounded on fear and poor understanding. Spirituality is based on faith and the power of a Divine force. A society that wants to develop must expressly understand where faith ends and where superstition begins. This penchant for the superstitious has become an impediment to development and growth. A nuclear physicist who spends mote time praying in a church operated by a so-called ‘powerful prophet’ than in the laboratory is a superstitious soul. God will ultimately ask him some hard questions.

    One aspect of our lives where there is insane superstition is when a family member or friend is ill. For some they keep the fact that there is illness secret. The nature of the illness is out of bounds. There seems to be the fear that evil forces would increase the intensity of attack if they knew about the ailment. Of course, most people prefer to nurse their ailment without making it public. There is something about self-preservation that makes non-disclosure a reality. Privacy seems to reduce undue attention. Public officials should not hide their health status. The late President Yar Adua’s example is part of the national memory. Ex-president Buhari epitomized secrecy when he stayed away from the country for months receiving treatment without disclosing the nature of the disease to the public! Sadly, some religious leaders also refuse to disclose their health challenges even when they are flown abroad for treatment.

    A child’s temperature refuses to subside after routine treatment. The parents and sometimes the doctors attribute it to a spiritual attack. The so-called pastor joins the bandwagon and calls for fasting and prayer. A senior doctor steps in and orders a different course of treatment. The temperature drops immediately. The engine of brand-new car self-ignites at a particular hour and the superstitious mind of the owner attributes it a spiritual attack from ‘unfriendly friends. A woman’s pregnancy aborts suddenly in the sixth or seventh month and the witches in the family or the area are believed to be at work. A family loses its male children at forty years of age and the family concludes that there is an ancestral yoke that must be broken. This belief subsists until one of the sons who practices medicine abroad discovers a genetic or hereditary defect as causatory factor. He cuts down his weight, tackles diabetes and lives to be ninety. This is after pastor and after pastors have afflicted the family with bogus claims of spiritual attacks from the pit of hell.

    A Head of State or a Minister or a military general or a Vice Chancellor who buries live cows at junctions at midnight to ward off spiritual attacks from enemies is as inane as the yahoo-yahoo boy who believes that access to a girl’s underpants or her breasts will give him stupendous wealth. Where did this stupid apprehension of the world come from? Why is it so pervasive among the elite? Some run from one so-called pastor to an imam or a babalawo to invoke spirits to enable them to keep their jobs or gain promotion. I remember Chukwuemeka Ike’s The Naked Gods!

    A superstitious person cannot develop their God-given skills and competence. This is because they would rather concentrate on their superstitious perception or dimensions of challenges. Not everything which we do not understand is an attack from the devil or a witch. The killing of twins or albinos by some communities was the result of ignorance and superstition. Superstition also made parents whose kids died before the age of five believe that some evil spirits were taking the babies away. With modern science, we know it was sickle cell anemia.

    Superstitious beliefs must not guide our lives. The Owner of the Universe has revealed enough for mankind to live in courage, hope, and faith. Christ talked about ‘men of little faith’ and ‘hearts of men failing them for fear! Evil forces are not as powerful as some impostors make them to be. They do exist. Yes. But they do not govern our lives, except we sell ourselves to them. The devil is active, active like a roaring lion. But the Master of the universe says we should not be afraid. Some of the so-called pastors who thrive on superstition and fear, who ask gullible people to sow a seed with their funds, are insane charlatans. Some of them use dark powers and so drive the spirit of the dark into the children of men! Of such men and women, we must beware. Such apostates prey on the gullible people of the world. True religion is not synonymous with, does not thrive on magic. It is superstitious to believe that without reading, prayers will make you pass an emanation. The bible encourages us to work out our salvation’, saying that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

    It is this penchant for the magical, the superstitious that make us believe that God will come down from heaven and install good leaders. The free will given to man is not an exercise in futility. That free will to act justly and fairly is imbued. We have no one to blame but ourselves if we revel in ignorance, timidity, and infinite stupidity. A superstitious mind will always miss the core of objective reality. For example, while one region of the world worshipped the moon as a god, another region opted to travel there and explore it.

    Finally, superstition has no place in the 21st century where AI has made that which appears impossible an everyday reality. Whoever thought we could video conferencing on our phones two decades ago from the comfort of our bedrooms? Would a superstitious imagination accommodate telemedicine?

  • The Benin-Sapele-Warri road nightmare – By Hope Eghagha

    The Benin-Sapele-Warri road nightmare – By Hope Eghagha

    Traveling from Lagos through the East-West Road to Warri is a nightmare for commuters. This is because travelers are compelled to waste three to six hours on the two kilometer-road stretch in the small sleepy town of Ologbo because the road has simply failed. Perhaps failed is an understatement. There is no road. There is no road in a place that used to be the envy of other road users, a road that was commissioned in 2007 amidst fanfare.

    There are gullies and craters, filled with rainwater in that section of the expressway. Expressway? I refer to what used to be an expressway! The ground is marshy. But the first shock on that road starts from the by-pass end of Benin City. It was reported weeks ago that the vehicles of Edo state governor got stuck there. What exactly is going on? The Benin bypass and the dualization of the Benin-Sapele-Warri highway was commissioned in 2007 by President Olusegun Obasanjo, and it cost N11.8 billion naira. Generally, the road needs to be worked on. So, it is not only Ologbo that calls for urgent attention. The Delta State government had in the past intervened at the Sapele Warri end as well as the Oghara section of the road. But the elephant in the room is the almighty federal government!

    Over five hundred products-moving tankers are stuck at the Ologbo end at any given time. Most bear petroleum products. If an explosion occurs in that chaotic scene, too many lives and property would be lost. Yet anyone who sits through the ordeal feels the degree of danger in the whole environment. It is a story of the jungle – no order, no control, no authority. We return the base nature of man. The pervasive authority is that of hopelessness, the kind of hopelessness that makes desperation a way of life! Survival of the fittest is the rule. Tempers flare up, sometimes. There are curses rained on the absent federal government. Curses are rained on the Edo and Delta States governments by some too. Travelers argue that the governors of both states ought to synergize and lift the burden off their citizens. The road is federal government owned. Edo State government has put up a sign board which announces to the world that the road is the property of the federal government. Delta State section is not as affected. Yet, the road is a nightmare to any commuter who is returning to the oil-bearing zone of Delta State.

    Sometimes, agberos do what could pass for traffic control. Sometimes a big man shows up and his police orderlies clear the way for him. He then zooms off, leaving the ordinary people in utter bewilderment. An army officer in his official vehicle shows up. His men clear the way, using threats and threats of violence. Smal and medium sized vehicles belonging to the private citizens, or which are used for commercial transportation take a beating. How did this expressway degenerate into a death trap for all travelers to Warri on the East-West Road? Why is the Niger Delta, the goose which lays the golden egg for Nigeria, so neglected, abandoned, and denigrated? Minority agitation will never go away as long as we have acts of injustice!

    Sadly, this is the only route available for travelers going from Lagos to Warri. Some other travelers connect to Port Harcourt and Aba through this route especially if they want to beat the Monday sit-at-home order in the southeast. The strategic importance of this road to the economy of the region cannot be overemphasized. Warri is home to a dormant oil refinery. The road leads to oil wells in the Delta region without which the nation will crumble. Ologbo where the road has failed completely is in Edo State. Last year, the youths of that community vented their frustration on travelers when they blocked the road to catch the attention of the federal government. Nothing has changed.

    The road should be declared an emergency. Senators and other federal legislators from the region should take this upon themselves and act on behalf of the citizenry. President Tinubu will never travel on that road. He may not be aware of the condition of the road. Representatives of Edo and Delta states in Abuja must rise to the occasion. Of course, the Number One person must be the State governors whose duty it is to cajole the federal government into saving the poor commuters on this fundamental artery in the body of the region.

    This kind of failure exists in some other parts of the country. I once traveled by road from Abuja to Minna and was appalled that a town that plays host to two former Heads of State could be that terrible. Fundamental to this conversation is whether the federal government has any business controlling roads within the geographical space of states. What sense does it make to say that the portion of the road in question which is inside Benin belongs to the federal government? What sense does it make to say that the Oshodi-Mile Two Expressway is federal government property? A federal government that is already overwhelmed by the heavy burden of governing amorphous territories with an inefficient bureaucracy cannot deliver on road construction. The FG is too far from the scene of disastrous roads. This is an anachronism from our days of big government which we believed has the resources to do just about everything. The notion, interpretation and practice of federalism should be revisited. This is the time to remind President Tinubu about his promise to tinker with certain aspects of the 1999 Federal Constitution. There should be devolution of power to the constituent parts of the federation. He has been an advocate of this move since his days as a senator and later as governor. With a stroke of the pen as it were, states would no longer be incapacitated in managing their affairs because of an obnoxious provision in the Constitution.

    Sixty odd years after independence, no road in the country should be in such a state of debilitating disrepair. It impacts the economy negatively. It is a risk to lives. It is dangerous to health. It lengthens the time for goods delivery. It also increases the cost of doing business in that axis. It is another indication of failed leadership. It is something we should be ashamed of. If the federal roads concept must be retained, we should restore road camps which will make urgent intervention possible.

    Finally, the Benin-Sapele-Warri Road deserves urgent attention both for the sake of the economy and the lives of the thousands of commuters who are compelled to travel that road daily or weekly. The state governors, elected, and appointed representatives from the region should ensure that this nightmare ends. Whereas they can afford to fly in and out of the towns, the millions of ordinary folks from the area cannot afford that luxury!

  • The military coup in Niger and ECOWAS rascality – By Hope Eghagha

    The military coup in Niger and ECOWAS rascality – By Hope Eghagha

    So it was that the khaki boys of impoverished Niger Republic slipped that miserable country back into the Stone Age practice of violently overthrowing an elected government, following the footsteps of Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Mali, and threatening to kill the deposed president. Though bloodless, in the aftermath of the coup, there are threats of spilling blood, that is, if the rampaging mobs have not killed some unfortunate politicians. The mob! They were angry with the political class and trooped out to say so. Enough of the bloody politicians, they seemed to say!

    In a very dramatic and breezy manner, ECOWAS under the headship of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, virtually declared war on the coup plotters without giving diplomacy a chance. It was an example of reckless bravado from an ECOWAS conglomeration of pseudo-democrats who were more interested in their survival than the plight of the hoi polloi of Niger Republic! Good enough ECOWAS has backtracked somewhat, an illustration of the fact that the leaders of that regional body did not take into cognizance the total factors before the saber-rattling that followed the coup!

    The junta leaders have promised to defend their fatherland. They have gone a step further to declare that if Niger is invaded, they would kill the deposed president first! Blood is smelling. Lined up behind the ‘revolutionary’ soldiers are the ordinary people of Niger who have vowed to defend the new government with their tears, sweat and blood. To complete the picture of potentially explosive anarchy, Russia has nudged itself into the defender of the regime change with the loud innuendoes that the Wagner group will rise to the occasion should there be hostilities. Added to this the level of insurgent activities in the subregion. How could anybody have thought that a regional conflagration would be the panacea to coups in sub-Saharan Africa? Common sense is not common!

    America, France, and Germany have all lined up behind the deposed president, mainly because of their selfish economic interests – uranium and other mineral deposits locked in the belly of one of the poorest countries in the world. Until the coup, I never knew that the western powers had a dangerously close spy centre next door to Nigeria. How could we have known that Niger the Poor was home to thousands of wealthy and strategic Americans, French, and German nationals? The resentment against France was palpable. If Africa came of age under Murtala Mohammed, Niger and much of Francophone Africa were left behind in that journey towards self-discovery. Removing poverty-stricken West African countries from the stranglehold of French imperialism is one of the reasons for coups in French West Africa. In other words, France is the devil that must be destroyed in the Armageddonic battle of liberation!

    As a result, the rhetoric emanating from the lips of the coup plotters is reminiscent of the revolutionary sentiments of the 1970s and 1980s when the evil empire represented by the world capital of capitalism had to be brought down in a people’s revolution. Bob Marley belted out tunes that aided the revolutionary ethos for us struggling undergraduates of that period. The rhetoric of the Niamey Junta was also reminiscent of the anti-democratic spirit which enveloped Africa shortly after independence in the 1960s. Nigerians as well as Ghanaians and some other countries were fed up with the antics of greedy politicians and welcomed the ‘corrective regimes’ of army mis-adventurers in power! Until the IBB and Abacha years, the façade of the military rulers as redeemers of the people held a blindfold over our eyes!

    The real antidote to coups is good and responsible governance. Of course, I stand fully against any overthrow of elected officials. It is however instructive that anybody who massively rigs himself into power is guilty of a coup against the people. It is this grey area that somewhat encourages the messianic spirit in the military. We do not need them in Nigeria or in the world. We must however call out Senate President Godswill Akpabio for his utterances which showed a complete disregard and disrespect for the people. If the poor people had their way, they would recall that man from the senate. How could a former governor, former minister and senator be so insensitive to the horrible economic and social conditions in the country?

    There should be no regional war in West Africa. The leaders of the junta should be persuaded and pressured into giving up their ambition to rule over Niger. The western powers must know that the game is up. They have taken enough for the owner to notice. A fair deal should be negotiated for the country. Such repudiation of colonial agreements must be extended to all the countries in Africa. Except this is done, there will be more coups. As for those who argue that in some countries there can be no coups because of strong anti-coup obstacles forget that soldiers are trained to overcome obstacles!

    President Tinubu should concentrate on Nigeria. He is carrying an elephant on his head, considering the nature of challenges which he has inherited. He should not allow himself to be dragged into a war whose end we cannot predict.  Nigeria and the situation in Niger are deeper and more complicated than any flourish display for the beauty and restoration of democracy. The tensions arising from postcolonial oppression and strangulation are deep in Francophone Africa. It is a lesson in the tyranny of the oppressor, immorality, and insane wickedness and greed of the French government. At the end of this whole crisis, the African Union as a body should stand firmly with the nations that are still tied to the apron strings of France and repudiate the obnoxious agreement – The Pact for the continuation of Colonisation – which was recently thrown into the public domain by Arikana Chihombori-Quao, former African Union Representative to the UN. How could this nonsense continue to stand in the 21st century?

    At press time, the junta leaders had agreed to hold talks with ECOWAS representatives. This followed a toning down of reprisal rhetoric by gung-ho merchants of war and force. Other African countries should look deep in their wells and ensure that there are no angry gunmen in their barracks waiting for an opportunity to strike. Indeed, the only antidote to coups is good and responsible governance. Where the people continue to see a huge disparity between appalling conditions of their lives and the opulence of the privileged few, evil thoughts will begin to enter their minds. We don’t need any crazy adventurers in Nigeria. Nobody should encourage them by design or default.

  • Hunger and anger in the homeland – By Hope Eghagha

    Hunger and anger in the homeland – By Hope Eghagha

    There is hunger in the land. Real hunger. The is food and food everywhere. But majority of our citizens cannot afford to feed three times daily. Inflation is eroding the purchasing power of the naira. Transportation costs have gone up. The costs of medications have gone up. Incomes have not gone up. It is cheap to die; it is also expensive to die. A paradox. A little emergency could take one’s life. Organ failure, expensive to treat, can take one’s life too. People are starving. I do not refer to quality of feeding. I am concerned that there are too many people who are now compelled to go through days without meals. It has led to executive begging. It has created parents who cannot provide meals for their kids. Parents losing moral authority because they lack what it takes to make them the real head of the family. And the cause of this socio-economic tornado is Government, our own equivalent of a natural disaster.

    One of the real worries is that we have a federal government that does not care, that does not connect with the people. We are dealing with a government that is so distant that it proposes to distribute eight thousand naira to the poorest people. Eight thousand naira in present day Nigeria? Eight thousand naira cannot feed a family for two days. Is this what a government is bragging about, thumping its chest in empty vanity?

    We are dealing with state governors who do not really care about the citizens. State governors who are more interested in dishing out political patronage than dealing with the hopelessness that is gradually enveloping the country. We are dealing with Houses of Assembly which are not thinking about necessary legislation to reduce hunger and poverty. We are dealing with a National Assembly that is more interested in approving fat bonuses, salaries, and emoluments for themselves than providing hope for the people. For example, while seventy billion naira was approved for about five hundred legislators, five hundred billion was allocated to over two hundred million hungry Nigerians. Ominously, thirty-five billion was allocated to the National Judicial Council. The optics, to say the least, are horrifyingly scary and despicable.  Indeed, there is palpable contempt for the ordinary citizens in the country.

    There are too many people who can no longer drive their cars. They simple cannot buy fuel in their cars. There are too many people who cannot get to their place of work every day. Their monthly pay cannot take them to where they earn their living. And the government is silent on the plight of the people. Even IBB the military dictator was more conciliatory to the people after he announced harsh economic measures in the SAP days! President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has refused or failed to connect with the people. He is following the ugly footsteps of his immediate predecessor in office. No! we expected more than this from President Tinubu who had been active in the trenches on behalf of the citizenry in the past!

    There is anger too. Anger with the men and women who occupy the government houses across the country. They are angry with the judiciary. Angry with religious leaders. Angry with traditional rulers for hobnobbing with politicians at the expense of the welfare and survival of their subjects.  As we know, hunger gives birth to anger. And anger from hunger is dangerous. Nigerians are angry with the political class. Angry with Senate President Senator Godswill Akpabio who shamelessly mocked the poor people of this country over letting them breathe! The bible says in Proverbs 17 verse 5: “whoever mocks the poor insults their Maker’. Nigerians are angry with the men and women who rigged their way into office, who currently hold them captive, and who are stuffing their pockets with the national patrimony.

    Let no one deceive Abuja that all is well. Let Abuja not deceive itself that all is well. All is not well. There is also fear, worry, and uncertainty. Where will this take us to? No one is assuring the citizens of the country that their lot will be different at the end of the hellish conditions. Taxes and financial obligations are on the increase. Undergraduates are being asked to pay more for half baked services. ASUU has been emasculated by the federal government after muzzling the judiciary. NLC and other unions have been bullied into acquiescence. The civil liberties organisations which tormented the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan have all gone silent.

    President Tinubu must step out. He is currently invisible, almost absent in the spirit of liberal democracy. One of the duties or obligations of leadership is to provide hope for the citizenry. Even in a season of infinite hopelessness, government must provide hope and a compass that will point in a positive direction. The president should connect with the people. But he cannot connect with the people if he does not hear them. If he does not listen to them. Ensconced in the luxury and false luxury of Aso Rock, it is very easy to be bogged down by inanities.  But the truth, the reality of the situation lies out there. I am sure the Nigerien president who was challenged last week by that nation’s army is surprised at the venom being poured on him by ordinary citizens. Power is held in trust on behalf of the people! Army takeover is not a model for the 21st century, but if dubious politicians drive the citizenry crazy and into frustration, they will welcome any form of change. The spate of coups in West Africa is worrisome. There is, there should be no alternative to the ballot box in effecting a change of government!

    Palliative measures should be rolled out immediately. Workers need state assistance. Transportation should be subsidized. Wages should increase by a modest percentage. The ordinary citizens who eke out a living from menial jobs in the private sector deserve assistance. University lecturers should be paid their entitlements. Their salaries which have remained stagnant since 2009 should be reviewed. Food should be subsidized.

    The governments across the country should check this slide into hopelessness. A policy that kills people first before making the economy strong is dangerous. President Tinubu should know that the buck stops at his desk. He should connect with the people as a democrat. Else, the people will start praying for a dramatic change through the judicial system!

  • ASUU, mind your business! – By Hope Eghagha

    ASUU, mind your business! – By Hope Eghagha

    Prof. Temi: It is preposterous, ridiculous, and unbecoming of the Academic Staff Union of Universities to poke its combative nose into matters that do, should not concern it. What is ASUU’s business with students loans which the federal government has signed into law?

    First Daughter: Haba! Tell them, tell them for me Professor!

    Prof Temi: Yes, I’ve told them, I’ve told the hierarchy. I have told them to return home to their original obligations to ASUU members.  At the branch level, the union leaders do not tolerate any dissenting view.  I am now speaking to their leaders at the national level – return home to cater to the welfare of ASUU members.

    Prof. Friday: Why? What is your definition of welfare? Is welfare not dependent on internal, local, regional and international factors? Shouldn’t ASUU seek their welfare in a comprehensive manner, including that of their immediate communities? Sir, I don’t get what you are saying! But for ASUU the university system would have collapsed decades ago!

    Temi: Has it not collapsed already?

    Prof. Friday: It could have been worse! ASUU made it possible for more funding to be available to the universities. Do you remember what the life of the average academic was like before the Jega-ASUU led strike?

    Temi: It is this penchant for poking their nose into the affairs of ‘their immediate communities’ that has stagnated our salaries since 2009. The same people we claim to fight for vilify ASUU for going on strike ‘anyhow! We are tired of making mumu sacrifices all in the name of others. Polytechnic lecturers earn more than university professors. Welfare is welfare – emoluments, take-home pay that can take us home, enough funds to do research, to attend international conferences. Period!

    Friday: An ASUU that does not bother about the welfare of the citizens in its environment has no reason to exist!

    Temi: An ASUU that second-places the welfare of its members has no reason to exist!

    Friday: We are dealing with insensitive governments that don’t care about the people, about education. ASUU is the last vocal body in the country. Even the human rights organizations in Nigeria have all gone to sleep since APC came to power.

    First Daughter: Excuse me Professor! Is ASUU a political party? Why don’t they join Peter Obi’s Labour Party or any other party to fight for the people? If their agenda is to fight government because of the general conditions in the country, then we shall proscribe the union. Haba!

    Friday: Go ahead and do so! We dare you.

    First Daughter: Try us. Go on strike again and see what will happen to your gidigidi union. Every time its strike strike strike! ASUU needs to put on its thinking cap and adopt new methods!

    Friday: it is the government of the day that has been irresponsible, corrupt, inept, greedy, inefficient, nepotic, insensitive, and callous.

    Prof. Lanre: Calm down everyone; let us calm down! It is true that ASUU has defended the university system for decades. But the time has come to focus on the direct welfare and personal emoluments of the persons who produce the manpower in the country. I am a professor. After taxes, all I take home every month is two hundred and sixty thousand naira. 260,000 naira only! How long can we continue like this. No professor in a federal university takes home five hundred thousand naira monthly. Shame! Shame! Shame!

    Dr Jegede: One wonders why ASUU should leave some very urgent issues like our withheld salaries and a call for salary review for some amorphous national issues. It is true that the Union needs to comment on such national issues but it should not be done to the neglect of members’ personal welfare. Sometimes I don’t know where we are in the union!

    Dr. O’Dami: I am a PhD lecturer, a senior lecturer in a federal university. My take home every month is under two hundred and fifty thousand naira!

    First Daughter: That must be a lie. No PhD holder teaching in a university should take home anything less than five hundred thousand naira in this economy!

    Dr. O’Dami: You see! You do not have the correct information. Tell your father that the bottom line is that university academics in Nigeria deserve a better pay structure. Period!

    Friday: That information is correct. The pay structure is bad. But I have been in the university system for over thirty-five years. I was once a Vice Chancellor. I have a broader perspective on issues. The quality of life of ASUU members will only be better when the quality of living of ALL Nigerians improves. We cannot extricate ASUU from the sufferings of the larger society and pretend that we are improving ASUU’s welfare. That cannot be the case!

    O’Dami: ASUU as a union should concentrate on fighting for the welfare of her members. Let the others fight for themselves. ASUU should desist from fighting for people who have no understanding of ASUU’s agitations. We dint vote in our national officers to fight for the poor. It is a union of academics. Not a trade union. What is NLC doing? NANS has now denounced ASUU as a busybody on the students’ loan matter.

    Temi: There should be a paradigm shift. If ASUU doesn’t refocus, most of us will drift into CONUA. The younger academics have no patience with the old tactics and such egalitarian arguments about stabilizations funds. They complain about TETFUND which was suggested by ASUU and how that body has been hijacked by evil servants and entrenched political interests. Let NANS fight for students as they used to do in the 1970s. Let NLC fight for workers and the masses. Let NURTW fight for road transport workers. Let the market unions fight for market traders. Is ASUU fighting for SSANU, for NASU? Do they go on joint strikes!

    Friday: You are being selfish! Just thinking about yourself first.

    Dr. Abam: ASUU cares too much about everything in its environment and stifles the voices of student unions. ASUU should cry to the government differently on is own issues; and students unions should cry to the government about the learning environment. Most student unions in the universities are dead, killed by ASUU members who become Vice Chancellors and administrators!

    Dr. Ejor: Sir, ASUU cannot continue this way. We cannot continue to make sacrifices on an empty stomach. It is those who ae alive that make sacrifices. We must protect our welfare interest first before we talk about others. If the national officers were not listening, they should listen now! God bless you Sirs!

    First Daughter: Some of the things you are saying are strange to me. Very strange!

    Temi: You are just a daughter to the president or the governor. How much do you know about university problems?

    First Daughter: You will be surprised. I can press buttons that you will never access to!

    Dr. Abam: Isn’t that a problem?

    Prof. Lanre: Why, how is it a problem? A man sees a dangerous snake and a woman kills it. The important thing is that the snake is dead!

    Temi: What we have said is that we appreciate all the struggle embarked on by ASUU. But the time has come to concentrate on the salary and welfare package of members. Since 2009, our salary package has not changed. What kind of idealism allows a union to ignore the personal welfare of its members?

    First Daughter: ASUU, mind your business!

  • President Tinubu’s students’ loan policy – By Hope Eghagha

    President Tinubu’s students’ loan policy – By Hope Eghagha

    In partial response to the perennial crises of inadequate funding and ASUU strikes in federal universities, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has signed the Students’ Loan Bill into law. Under this law, indigent Nigerian students will get interest-free loans to see them through their stay in government-owned higher institutions. Beneficiaries are expected to repay the borrowed sum once they start working, that is, two years after the mandatory national service. Potential beneficiaries will be expected to apply to the Chairman of the Bank through the Chief Executives of their respective institutions having a secured a place in the school. The law states that any student whose parents earn more than 500k per annum will not qualify for the loan. Certainly, this aspect of the law would need to be reviewed.

    As is usual with such loan facility, beneficiaries will be expected to provide two guarantors with the requisite qualifications – a civil servant on level 12 and above or a clergy man! Also, a student whose parents had defaulted in loan repayments will not be eligible for the interest-free loan. Furthermore, students who had been convicted of a felony of any offence involving dishonesty or fraud, or who had been convicted of drug offences are ineligible for the loan. Repayment of the loan, as stated earlier, is designed to commence two years after completing the National Youth Service Corps. What is not clear to me is what will happen if after completing a first degree the beneficiary migrates from Nigeria to seek for greener pasture! But that is for the government to worry about!

    No doubt, this is a welcome development. And the President should be commended for hitting the ground running because some background work was done even before he was elected to office. Some of the President’s actions suggest he came prepared for the job after many years of waiting. The model of funding tertiary education which we currently operate has failed woefully. We can see this with half an eye! It does not need a patch work. It needs a total overhaul. There is no where in the world where education is free. Somebody pays for it. If the federal government has decided to give loans to students to enable them to pay for tuition, no sensible person, union, or group should join issues with the government. What we should be bothered about are the conditions and how the process should net be hijacked by a cabal in the traditional Nigerian style.

    Should there be a bank created for this purpose or we should adopt three to five big banks to warehouse and administer the funds on the condition that they donate a percentage to the funds? What will be the implications of creating a fresh bureaucracy to manage students’ loans? What guarantee is there that the students would repay the loans? What happens if a beneficiary is unemployed two or three years after graduation? In case of default, like if a beneficiary relocates abroad, what will the state do? Will beneficiaries be expected to deposit their certificates with the operators before NYSC? These are questions in the mouths of observers and compatriots. My response is that the government must have ready answers because they operate within the Nigerian geographical space and are familiar with our shenanigans.

    The university system needs to be properly overhauled – from teaching methods to curriculum and learning outcomes. The wages of university professors must be reviewed immediately. An Assistant Lecturer, the entry point not academia, goes home with one hundred and ten thousand naira monthly. This salary has been so fixed since 2009. Students live in squalor, a far cry from the relative comfort of the university environment of the 1980s. If the universities charge the appropriate fees added to some grants from the government, academic staff should earn more. Laboratories will have more equipment. The libraries will have more books and journals. The students are more likely to take education seriously. Students will be more comfortable on the campuses. Besides, students will be more interested in their studies because they will be paying for their education.

    President Tinubu is preparing the nation therefore for a new approach to education policy formulation and implementation. Our dear ASUU has been virtually emasculated by the courts after the last battle over payment of salaries after a protracted strike. The federal government used the court to deal a blow on the union and killed morale. Even within the university system, there are doubts whether ASUU still has the strategy to lead academics to the Promised Land. This is why the union must reinvent itself and restore confidence in the followership. In my view, ASUU’s objection to a Students Loan Board amounts to being a busybody! Interestingly, NANS officials paid a solidarity visit to the President to thank him for the initiative and requested that ASUU should be removed from the Board! Are these the students ASUU is fighting for? Let the welfare of academics be the primary and only focus of university unions. ASUU, kindly return to the drawing board while listening to your members!

    President Tinubu should adopt other measures to reinvent tertiary education. For starters, he should direct that the gentleman’s agreement which then Speaker House of Representatives reached with ASUU be respected and implemented. Academics have been on the same salary provisions since 2009, and indeed, the take home pay of academics cannot take them home! The withheld salaries of ASUU members should be paid to show good faith. The funds which accrue from TETFUND should be given to universities as grants without apron strings from Abuja to meet their needs. That way, he would win over most academics to his side. Furthermore, the universities need full autonomy in managing its affairs. In my view, there should be no central body dictating academic programmes to the universities, thereby usurping senate functions.

    The government must remember that school/tuition fees alone will not be sufficient to meet the obligations of the universities. In other words, government must not hand off funding education through grants and other forms of interventions. Education is too important a service to be commercialized.

  • The politicization of justice – By Hope Eghagha

    The politicization of justice – By Hope Eghagha

    If the title of my essay sounds scandalous it is because we live in frightening and scandalous times, with barriers blurred, lifted or abolished. Sadly, this disrespect for sound values permeates all segments of society. Taboos are, have become old hat, old school. Codes of social engagement regulating societal behaviour have been jettisoned. The judiciary has been both a beneficiary and victim of this disappearance of settled norms and conventions. That’s the reason we find some judges doing ‘show body’ on social media!

    My thesis statement is that any society which politicizes its judicial system is on a free-fall into the chasm of perdition and total annihilation. It may take decades. But the consequences of politicizing the judicial system are dire. The full consequence may not be totally felt in our life time, though we are witnessing bits of it. The judiciary should not be a haven for small-minded persons and petty thieves who do not have a global view of their assignments and to whom the notion of the common good does not exist.

    The original intention of justice was that it must be devoid of politics and politicking. For, justice was designed, conceived and expected to uphold the ideals of society, based on sound morals and ethics which would be above private or individual interests. Justice was designed for the common good and the ultimate triumph of good over evil, with the judges standing in place of God to adjudicate on matters between persons and between citizens and the state. The blind lady whose scales remained balanced saw justice from one prism- the law is the law, no matter whose ox is gored. Judges were expected to be above board. The rule of law became synonymous with, became fundamental to building an egalitarian society, which invariably was guaranteed by democratic culture and practice. To ensure the independence of the judiciary, the three arms of government were separated under the law. In the early years, the separation was both in theory and practice. These days, it is merely theoretical. The art of politics and politicking has nibbled deeply into the realms of the judiciary.

    Politics and politicking accommodated negotiations and sometimes outright distortions of the true picture. The saying among politicians that ‘with the proper arrangements, the devil can see God’, underlies, shapes and determines their approach to the ideals and practice of justice. White could become black and 2+2 could be 4 or 5 or 6! A crowd or gang of people with this mindset cannot uphold the principles of fairness, equity, and justice. Justice, ‘the principle or ideal of just dealing or right action, righteousness,’ often conflicted with politics, which is ‘the activities associated with the governance of a country or area, especially on how to acquire power’. It is for the reason of this eternal and perpetual conflict, that a wall was created by the Constitution to guide the people who are entrusted with holding the reins of power in the different realms of governance. But it is important to state that we need men of character to head these institutions else the strong men in the executive arm of government would inevitably twist their way into the power realms of the judiciary. It has come to be that while men of character remained in the judiciary, men with little or no character talked their way into the executive arm of government. Because they were placed in a position to appoint persons into the judicial arm of government, it was only a question of time that the quality and character of men in the judiciary would be compromised.

    Nowhere has this conflict of interest been palpably felt more than in the United States of America. In the broadest sense of politics, all jurisdictions have been influenced willy-nilly by political considerations. Personal views now influence how verdicts are given. The law is no longer the law. At least, that is how we neophytes in the matters of the law see it. A judge who is pro-environment would be expected to knock down any legislation that could affect the weather. A judge who is pro-life will always stand for the rights of women to abortion.

    The last one hundred years have tested the tenacity of the institutions which are constitutionally mandated to protect the ideals of justice. In the free world, the claim had always been that the rules of engagement have been established, settled, defined and accepted. But we are not sure anymore. In the Third World countries, the 20th century which gave African countries independence from colonial overlords, also produced military adventurers who showed little patience with the supposed niceties of democracy. They intervened violently, sacked democratically elected governments, suspended the legislature, abridged the power of the judiciary and proclaimed the absolute power of the executive arm of government. That proclamation and tradition have remained etched in the mindset of most African rulers.

    In Nigeria, the executive branch feels and acts like a senior partner among the three branches. This is because the executive branch is the treasurer of the nation. We also live in a fluid environment where the social vagaries make beggars of persons who are outside the corridors of power. Writing about this challenge in America, Andrew Breiner observed that ‘traditional ideas of law hold that judges and justices make decisions based on a dispassionate application of the law to the facts at hand, with no regard for the political ramifications of that decision’. He adds that while justices may see themselves as being neutral, we now see them ‘as politicians, as political actors who want to shape the world to match an ideology, and who use law as a tool to achieve that goal’.  How does this new definition of justice serve the ends of justice?

    Nigeria offers a deadly interpretation of this new approach to justice – being loyal to the party in power by foul or fair means. It is in the judgments given by judges in election matters that we find this distorted approach to the ends of justice. It seems judges tend to favour the ruling party at the expense of truth, fair play and honesty. This is what I have termed the ‘politicization of justice. To be sure, once justice is politicized, it is no longer justice. It is a travesty. It is the road to placing criminals on the seat of power. The word out there is that some judges accept bribes in order to pervert justice. Perhaps this is not entirely true. But the last missive from the Supreme Court in which the apex court tried to defend itself before the public spoke volumes. These judges must ensure that justice is done, and be seen to be done. Politicians who are buying the judiciary are also digging the grave of the system they are expected to nurture. If in the end the system collapses, there will be no society for both the politician and judicial officers.