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Tag: Sonnie Ekwowusi

  • The President we all need (1) – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    The President we all need (1) – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    We can no longer leave the fate of our country and our lives in the hands of political misfits who don’t have the foggiest idea that political leadership basically entails improving the welfare of the people. Almost everyone you meet these days in Nigeria says it, and, I dare join today in saying it: now is our chance to recover our stolen common wealth from the thieving imbeciles. To this effect, many Nigerian voters across the different divides (the Nigerian young inclusive) have, unlike in the past, irrevocably resolved to vote for a presidential candidate of their choice who will build a new Nigeria, all things being equal, on February 25 2023.

    The current Buhari government is a waterless a cloud, carried along by the winds; a fruitless tree in late autumn, depraved, dead and uprooted; a wild wave of the sea casting up the form of its suffocating smell; a wandering and wicked crescent for whom the nether gloom of darkness has been reserved for ever. For nearly 8 years the Buhari government has brought an unspeakable monumental ruin to Nigeria and Nigerian families. For instance, the incapacity of President Buhari to defend and maintain Nigeria’s territorial sovereignty as well as secure the borders of Nigeria from internal and external violation in consonant with sections 1 (2) and 2(1) of the 1999 Constitution. Mohammadu Buhari, no doubt, has gone down the anal of Nigerian political history, if not the Guinness Book of Record) as the worst political leader in Nigeria. His inability, pursuant to section 14 (2) (b) of the 1999 Constitution, to protect lives and property of the citizenry and to suppress internal insurrection, banditry, secession threats, murder, anarchy, tension, fear, suspicion and disorderliness has enthroned the reign of anarchy. Nobody seems to be in charge of Nigeria at the moment. The Hobbesian bellum omnium contra omnes (war of all against all) characterized by barbaric bloodletting, communal bloody feuds, kidnaps, banditries, gun-running and so forth now reigns supreme in different parts of Nigeria. Uncertainty, confusion, fear and apprehension rule the lives of many in Nigeria. We now live in a free-for-all country where nobody seems to be in charge of anything or anybody. We go to bed and wake up itching to hear the sad news of another bloodletting abduction or kidnapping. In 2017, Nigeria was ranked as the third most-terrorized country in the world. In the same 2017 Nigeria Police was ranked as the worst Police in the world. In the same 2017 Nigeria was ranked by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a country with the 3rd highest infant mortality rate in the world. In the same 2017 Northern Nigeria was ranked as the worst region in the world with the highest number of illiterates.

    On July 25 2018 the BBC reported that “Nigeria has the largest number of out-of-school children, totaling 13 million, in the world.” In the 2018 Global Rankings of “Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index” of the OXFAM and Development Finance International (DFI), Nigeria was ranked 157 out of 157 countries. In the same 2018, Nigeria overtook India as the country with the highest number of under-5 deaths in the world. In the same 2018 Nigeria was ranked as one of the most dangerous places in the world to give birth to and the 4th country in the world with the worst maternal mortality death rate. In the same 2018 Nigeria was ranked among the worst malaria hit countries in the world. In the same year, 2018, Nigeria was ranked by the World Bank among the seven worst countries on the World Bank Human Capital Index. In the 2018 Global Hunger Index (GHI), Nigeria was ranked as the 103rd hungriest country in the world out of 119 qualifying countries. In the same 2018, Nigeria was ranked among the worst malaria hit countries in the world. In the same 2018 Nigerian was ranked by the World Bank among the seven worst countries on the World Bank Human Capital Index.

    In 2018, the African Development Bank (AfDB) revealed that the World Poverty Clock named Nigeria as the poverty capital of the world. According to Mr. Constant Tchona, a representative of OXFAM in Nigeria: “The number of people that live below extreme poverty as at April 2018 was 91,501,377 thus reaffirming that Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world. As if that was not bad enough, six months later, the number jumped to 94, 470, 533 people meaning that 2,969, 158 Nigerians have been added into Nigeria’s extreme poverty rate. The latest is that the National Bureau Statistics (NBS) has revealed that no fewer than 133 Nigerians, representing 63 per cent of the Nigerian population, are currently living in multi-dimensional abject poverty. At the moment the Naira currency is having its worst free fall. For the first time in our political history we have now become a suicidal country. In 2018 Nigeria was ranked as a suicide-prone country. Today Nigeria is ranked the fifth in the world among countries whose citizens are most prone to commit suicide. A bag of rice now sells for N36,000, the salary of many Nigerians.

    What is most nauseating is that, amid these calamities, President Buhari keeps gallivanting from pillar to post beating his chest in the euphoria of triumph and telling those who care to listen to him: “I am not a failure. I am a good man. I will not leave office a failure”. Is this not laughable?. A President who had already failed is giving himself a pass mark and saying that he is not a failure. Anyway, two things, in my view, are deductible from Buhari’s gloating. First: Buhari forgets the time-test aphorism credited to Sheikh Uthman Dan Fodio that conscience is an open wound and only truth can heal it. Pricked by the pangs of his conscience, Buhari has been placating his conscience and telling all who care to listen that he is not a failure. He forgets that only truth and justice can heal his wound: Second: Mr. President is not in touch with reality otherwise he cannot be giving himself a pass mark when in actual fact he is a failure. Enslaved by his gratified lusts and sheer fatuity President Buhari has refused to read the mene, mene, tekel, upharsin emblazoned on the walls of Aso Villa Presidential Building, Abuja. He can’t understand that his 8-year stewardship has come to a pathetic and ruinous end. He seems not to understand that about 99% of Nigerians had already judged him a failure and that there is nothing he can do to reverse their judgment against him.

    Consequently, the February 25 presidential election is a golden opportunity to break away from our iniquitous past. To those regretting and sorrowing for committing a mortal sin in 2015 or 2019 by voting for Buhari, I say, February 25 2023 is the day of salvation. It is the acceptable time. Therefore, they should make amends and atone for the sin which they committed in 2015 or 2019 by voting for candour, content, charism, competence and character in 2023. From the outset I knew that Buhari would make a disaster President. So, I did not vote for him in 2015. Neither did I vote for him in 2019. Anyway, old things have passed away. Let us make amendments today that grace may abound. We are the children of the light, not of darkness. Light has nothing in common with darkness. There is no doubt that Buhari has endorsed a stooge to succeed him in 2023 so that the stooge would protect the Fulani oligarchical structures which he (Buhari) had laboured to build in the last seven and half years. Therefore let us resolve to make a complete break with Buharism. Good riddance to Buharism. So, do not vote for a Buhari stooge on February 25 2023. We should be aiming to breathe fresh air in 2023. Don’t tell me it is impossible to break away from our iniquitous past. All things are possible to those who believe. We can break away from the ruinous status quo. The Kenyans did it this year by electing William Ruto, 55, who ran for President for the first time. In fact Ruto fell out with political godfather Uhuru Kenyatta. As a result, Kenyatta backed Mr. Raila Amolo Odinga to succeed him in office. But Ruto came from behind and won the election.

  • The case against sex education – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    The case against sex education – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Last week, a group of pro-choice NGOs staged a protest against the Hon. Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu for directing the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) to expunge the current immoral sex education taught in Nigerian schools from the school curriculum. Worried about the immoral content of sex education curriculum in Nigeria and the wrong method deployed in using it to corrupt impressionable secondary school and primary school pupils most of whom are in the age bracket of 5-14 years, the Hon. Minister had directed last week that the immoral sex education should be removed from the school curriculum and that the teaching of sex education should be left in the hands of parents who are the primary educators of their children and religious institutions which are the custodians of morals of young people. Rather than sexualize and damaging the character of our school pupils with a pernicious sex education, the Hon. Minister prefers that parents and religious institutions should teach sex education in order to safeguard the morals of our school pupils.

    But the Hon. Minister’s directive has not gone down well with some pro-choice NGOs. Last week they issued a statement stating, among other things, that the Minister’s directive is a hindrance to progress in providing school pupils and teenagers with factual information and skills on teen safe-sex and reproductive health (otherwise known as abortion) that are necessary for young people to make rational decisions about their bodies. Also faulting the Hon. Minister on the said directive, a wife of a former State Governor, who over the years has gained notoriety as child safe-sex radical activist, has written a letter to the Hon. Minister stating, inter alia, that the Nigerian government should embrace the Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) of the notorious pro-abortion foreign NGO called the United Nations Population Funds (UNFPA).

    The government should just ignore the protesting pro-choice NGOs and the wife of the former State Governor. Under the so-called CSE which the wife of the ex-State Governor is prescribing to the government (I have a copy of it right in front me as I scribble this), school pupils in open classrooms are required to touch each other’s genital saying: “I like you”. The pupils are also expected to touch each other’s private parts and find out the differences in their respective private parts. For years now I have been following the corruption and sexualization of the Nigerian kids by the UNFPA. Under the youth peer sexuality education Training Guide/Toolkit, funded by the UNFPA and used in many public secondary schools in Nigeria, (which I also have in front of me at the moment), the students are told to share with other students with whom they feel more comfortable things like: “Your sexual fantasies (fantasies), “Your feelings about oral sex (oral)”, “Whether you enjoy erotic material (X), “Whether you have fantasized about a homosexual relationship (gay-fan),” “Whether you have had a homosexual relationship (gay-exp)”. On page 75 of the Guide, there is a condom relay race activity involving boys and girls. It instructs the peer leader to “Ask two volunteers (participants or co-facilitators) to hold the two penis models” and then to invite two teams to race to put the condoms on the models.

    I remember that in 2014 the same UNFPA organized what it dubbed the third Family Planning Pre-Conference which was held at the Reiz Continental Hotel, Abuja. At that Conference, the UNFPA launched a condom-safe-sex campaign entitled, “No Hoodie No Honey”. This campaign was widely reported in the Nigerian media. The campaign was also posted on Twitter, Facebook and on other social media. The campaign was targeted at young Nigerian girls in the age bracket of 14-18. The campaign was aimed at supplying condoms and contraceptives to these young Nigerian girls and convincing them that “safe-sex” is their right and therefore they shouldn’t be ashamed to practice “safe sex” even if the different Nigerian cultures and religions teach otherwise. For example, one of the inscriptions on the No Hoodie No Honey roll-up stand posted on Twitter read: “Lets push for easy access to the female condom and that a woman may buy condoms without being shamed” First: the campaign was tainted by fraud and deception. While scientific evidence consistently shows that the condoms, which contain naturally-occurring holes, do not protect its user against infections and against HIV and rarely protect against unwanted pregnancy, the UNFPA fraudulently masquerades about the cities of Nigeria and giving the Nigerian youths the false hope that condoms protect from any misdeed.

    It beats the imagination that the UNFPA and others are corrupting Nigerian children with immoral CSE under the watch of the government. The American College of Pediatricians has said that CSE is one of the greatest assaults on the health and innocence of children because, unlike traditional sexuality education, CSE highly and explicitly promotes sexual promiscuity and high-risk sexual behaviors among children and teenagers. CSE programs have an almost obsessive focus on teaching children how to obtain sexual pleasure in various ways. (Please visit this site https://youtu.be/6yTvdCHgEHQ) and view the 11 minute video to see evidence of the harmful elements of CSE . The video provides just 15 harmful elements typically found in CSE curricula. Since each of these 15 harmful elements has the potential of causing long-term negative effects on the health and well-being of children, having even one of these elements should be reason enough to disqualify a CSE program from being taught to children in our schools. CSE harms children in the following ways and therefore should be banned in our schools. Sexualizes children; teaches children to consent to sex; normalizes anal and oral sex: promotes homosexual/bisexual behavior; promotes sexual pleasure; promotes solo and/or mutual masturbation; promotes condom use in inappropriate ways; promotes early sexual autonomy; fails to establish abstinence as the expected standard; promotes transgender ideology; promotes contraception and abortion to children; promotes peer-to-peer sex education or sexual rights advocacy; undermines traditional values and beliefs; undermines parents or parental rights; refers children to harmful resources. These are not invented by me. Please visit: www.waronchildren.org and www.investigateippf.org)

    Aside from the CSE, many textbooks used in Nigerian schools have been corrupted too with lewd matters. You may be well aware that in the last twenty years or so, classical English literature books and novels such as Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Weep Not Child, Things Fall Apart, Zambia Shall be Free, The Man Died, African Child, Akin the Drummer Boy, Mine Boy, The gods are not to blame and so forth have been removed from our school curricula and replaced with sex-related local English literature books containing lewd subject-matters to give the unsuspecting young school pupils the wrong impression that self-control is unnecessary and that casual sex makes them feel good; that they should engage in casual sex before marriage; that ‘safe sex’ is what to aim for in life provided that they don’t get pregnant. And if they do get pregnant they should procure abortion as soon as possible. It is unfortunate that we now live in a highly-sexualized society. And one of the negative consequences of this is the sexualisation of primary and secondary school pupils. At every turn — TV, music, movies, sex education in schools — pre-teen, teens, school pupils and teenagers are daily bombarded with the tragically misguided message borrowed from abroad that safe-sex in all deviant forms, LGBT1+, gay marriage, transgenderism, and bestiality are good for them and that the resultant outcome holds no dangers for them.

    About 16 years ago, an NGO called the Concerned Mothers Association, Lagos, ace broadcaster Adesuwa Onyenokwe and others brought a law suit against the Lagos State government at the Federal High Court, Lagos over the sexualization of the Integrated Science curriculum to include the techniques of kissing, masturbation, breast enlargement, how to do abortion, how girls can sterilize themselves and be having sex without becoming pregnant and so forth I was one of the counsel for the plaintiffs in that suit. The lead counsel in the suit was Mrs. Sylvia Sinaba SAN (of blessed memory). I remember that when the matter was called in court, the judge, who happened to be a female, was completely stunned by the sexualized issues pleaded by the plaintiffs in their Statement of Claim. In her shock, she first took up the Statement of Claim, held it up momentarily in her right hand and queried, “What is this?”. “My Lord, these are what they are now teaching them in schools”, responded Mrs. Sylvia Sinaba SAN. Silence enveloped the courtroom. The judge was dumbfounded. Anyway, to cut the long story short, the matter was amicably resolved out of court. In the spirit of amicable settlement, the Lagos State government at that time yanked off the offensive portion of the Integrated Science curriculum although I suspect that by now it has been brought back into the curriculum.

    Between from March 27 to 29 2017, I attended a Conference which took place at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Victoria Island, Lagos,. One of the Speakers at that Conference was Ahmed Akanbi, a Muslim parent and a Lagos-based legal practitioner. Midway in his presentation, Ahmed did something which shocked most of the Conference attendees. He carefully dipped his hands into his handbag and brought out two English literature books containing some lewd subject-matters and showed them to the audience. He told us that the two books were recommended books for primary six pupils in the primary school attended by his daughter. The title of the first book authored by Oyekunle Oyedeji is: Tears of a bride, while the second book written by Queen O. Okweshine bears the title: Precious Child. According to Ahmed, his 9-year old daughter in Primary 6 came back home from school one day and engaged him in a conversation that bothered on some sex experiences. At first, Ahmed was utterly stunned that his 9 year old daughter was conversant with sex matters. But after he had regained his composure he asked his daughter where she learned about those sex experiences. It was then that his daughter opened her mouth and narrated to him how their school teacher has been using the aforesaid two books to teach them how to practice “safe sex” and how to gain sexual pleasure. Ahmed read to the hearing of the participants some sexy portions of the two books. The participants rose to their feet in utter shock.

    Seven years ago, some Lagos-based NGOs also filed a law suit at the Federal High Court, Lagos against the Federal Ministry of Education and others over the smearing of the following textbooks used in many secondary schools in Nigeria- New School Chemistry for Senior Secondary Schools By: Osei Yaw Ababio; Revised by: L. E.S Akpanisi Herbert Igwe ; Modern Biology for Senior Secondary School By: Sarojini T. Ramalingam, revised by Lucy I Akunwa and J.BC Obidiwe and the New School Physics for Senior Secondary By: M. W Anyakoha PhD-with the following watermark inscriptions: “I know that My Mother is a harlot and that my Father is a Kidnapper”, “I am a son/daughter of a Harlot and kidnapper”, “I confess that my Family is bad, Evil, and a Disgrace to the Nation”, “My Parents Taught me how to love and smoke Indian Hemp, to kill and practice illegal things”. I was the leading counsel for the plaintiffs in the suit. Guess what happened thereafter? The publishers of the lewd textbooks came all the way from Onitsha to our law firm in Lagos to beg for amicable settlement of the matter out of court.

    Even many English, Mathematics and Social Science textbooks used in many Nigerian secondary schools have been corrupted to include lewd matters in order to sexualize the young students. For instance, in Mathematics, a typical Maths question for primary school pupils is: “20 condoms + 5 condoms-2 condoms equals…”. At the moment in my little office, I have the latest lewd-textbooks or sexualized textbooks used in corrupting our secondary school pupils in Nigeria. They include: Basic science Junior Secondary School Razat Publishers, 2018 edition, (for JSS3). Open pages 78 – 83 to see the harmful contents of the book- lesson on teenage pregnancy, types of abortions students can do, myths & facts about pregnancy, indoctrination of the pupils on terminology of unsafe & safe abortion, six ways to prevent pregnancy with contraceptives, how to enjoy ‘safe sex’ without pregnancy: false information on four types of abstinence of which none is the actual definition of abstinence to be promoted among adolescents. Active Basic Science, 2014 edition By Tola Anjorin, Okechukwu Okolo, Philias Yara, Bamidele Mutiu, Fatima Koki, Lydia Gbagu: See Pages 31- 34. Cry for Justice By Ademola Adefila; See Pages 60-61, 64-65, read the description of having sex and sexual experience. Stigma By Samson O Shobayo, See the pages. The book encourages sexual relationship with HIV patients; kissing. Basic Science & Technology for Junior Secondary School 1, 2 and 3: By W.K Hamzat, S. Bakare: See Pages 29- 47 Page 48-52 Page 64 Pages 67- 73 and Pages 86 of the three books which promote abortion, LGTB, masturbation and safe-sex with condoms. New Concept English for Senior Secondary Schools for SSS2, Revised edition (2018 edition) By J Eyisi, A Adekunle, T Adepolu, F Ademola Adeoye, Q Adams and, J Eto, See Pages 103- 104 that contain obscene and vulgar expressions such as : “small men always thinking small and acting small ”and these vulgar words:. “He swore by the grey hairs of his head and his penis…even by the cunt of his own mother”.

    It is high time Nigerian parents woke up to their parental responsibilities. Parents are the primary educators of their children. They cannot shirk this responsibility under the excuse that they are working hard to eke out a living. Most social vices in Nigeria today are caused by failed parenting. We are in trouble in Nigeria. Failed parenting engenders failed political leadership. This is regrettable. The family institution, unarguably, is indeed the fundamental unit of society. The family is the natural context in which children imbibe those cherished values which form the superstructures for the building of our national ethos. Therefore parents should rediscover themselves and reinvigorate their respective families to enable them to parent their own children to be responsible citizens. Our civilization is imperiled when families are imperiled.

  • Tribute: Prof. C. O. Okonkwo, SAN (1934-2022) – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Tribute: Prof. C. O. Okonkwo, SAN (1934-2022) – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    The towering figure saunters toward the law lecture room. Always impeccably dressed in his somewhat dark-bluish suit with black shoes and multi-coloured neck tie to match. The expressions on his face, his loud voice, the fires sparkling from his eyes, lucidity of his thought, fecundity of his mind and his stoic steady steps are evocative of his great learning and his brilliance in expounding and expanding Criminal law and Company Law for decades. Among his numerous achievements, he is the first and oldest law teacher in Nigeria teaching law in the oldest law faculty in Nigeria. As he enters the lecture room, he stands momentarily at the door like a fine firmament ostensibly trying to recollect and reassure himself that he is the teachers’ teacher. Then almost instinctively, everybody in the class turns and looks at him in awe. Then silence descends and envelopes the room. No noise. No murmuring. No whispers. No shuffling of feet. Stepping forward and clearing his throat, he opens his mouth and delivers his lecture ex-tempore without occasionally glancing at any law book or law handout. All could hear him. He is the embodiment of the law, the law drops behind his fingers. He is a moving encyclopedia, a repository of Criminal Law and Company Law.

    The foregoing could fit into the reflections, reminiscences, imaginations or tributes of thousands and upon thousands of lawyers, judges, political leaders, politicians and different people from different walks of life who were former students of Emeritus Professor Cyprian Okechukwu Okonkwo, law teacher extra-ordinnaire, law author, legal icon, doyen of legal education in Nigeria and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria who quietly slipped away on 8th October 2022 aged 88. Prof. Okonkwo’s death is profoundly a sad one for the faculty of law, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus (UNEC). Prof. Okonkwo unarguably was one of the finest first pillars of law teachers of UNEC. The faculty will mourn Prof. Okonkwo by recalling his works over so many years at UNEC, first as a diligent law teacher, a Dean of the faculty of law and a mentor to his brother lecturers. Already a beautiful bust has been strategically erected in the Rotunda of the Law Faculty main building, UNEC. When the sad news of the demise of Prof. Okonkwo first broke. I remember sharing the news with a former Dean of the faculty of law, UNEC, Prof. Joy Ngozi Ezeilo OON, SAN. On receiving my WhatsAPP message, she wasted no time in sending to me a historical photograph of herself together with Prof. Benjamin Chukwuma Ozumba, former UNN Deputy Vice-Chancellor and one other posing beside the bust. He was very celebral. He was brilliance personified. He knew how to deconstruct any complex legal problem and how to effectively impart it to his students. He was the greatest teacher of all times”, she wrote in her WhatsAPP message.

    I was a student of the faculty of Law, UNEC at the time Prof. Okonkwo together with taciturn Prof. Gaius Ezejiofor (SAN), Prof. E. I. Nwogwugwu, Prof. D. I. O. Ewelukwa (SAN), Prof. B. O. Okere, Prof C.U. Ilegbune SAN, Prof (Justice) Okay Achike, Prof. G. O. S. Amadi, Prof. M.C Okany, Retired Court of Appeal Justice Chinwe Iyizoba, Sampson Owusu and others ruled the law faculty. That era could be dubbed the golden age of the Faculty of Law, UNEC. That was when students were really students, and lecturers were lecturers. “Study or perish.” was our unofficial motto. Prof Okonkwo taught us Criminal Law and Company Law. He prided himself as having been taught by Professor Laurence Cecil Bartlett Gower MBE, the renowned UK Company law expert. Prof Okonkwo was a simple man. He was approachable albeit he was very strict and demanding on students. He was in love with section 24 of the Criminal Code. Hardly would he utter two phrases in his Criminal Law class without mentioning section 24. At that time I thought Criminal law was section 24 and section 24 was Criminal law. Woe to you if Prof. Okonkwo’s roving eyes descended on you in his class. First, he would ask you a seemingly simple law question. And if you fail to answer it correctly, he would pause momentarily, take a contemptuous studied look at you, and thereafter query: “So, what have you been doing in this University?” ostensibly to remind you that you were not measuring up to the motto of the University of Nigeria (UNN): “To restore the dignity of man”.

    Prof (Justice) Okay Achike was the professors’ professor. Listening to his 30-minute Contract law or Commercial Law lecture was tantamount to listening to a Princeton University Law Professor for three hours. He was erudite. He was cerebral. He stood out for his exceptional intellectual versatility. Small wonder he rose from the classroom to the Bench. He later became a Justice of the Court of Appeal from whence he was elevated to the Supreme Court. Prof. G. O. S. Amadi taught Industrial Law. Justice Chinwe Iyizoba taught Evidence. Prof. Ewelukwa taught Constitutional law. Prof. Nwogwugwu taught International Law and Family law. Prof Okany taught Commercial law, and, if I am not mistaken, law of property. Prof Ezejiofor taught Land Law. Prof. Ilegbune taught Contract law and introduction to legal system. He was an amiable man. He was kind. He was patient with students. He dressed impeccably in his black suit and black neck tie to match. Prof. B. O. Okere taught Jurisprudence. He was a tall, elegant-looking man. He wore a disheveled grey hair ostensibly as a sign of his legal wisdom and legal scholarship. He was a grammarian. You could attend a Prof. Okere’s one-hour-Jurisprudence lecture without assimilating anything at all because his deliveries were woven with high-flown admixture of English and Latin grammar that was difficult to untangle.

    Owusu, the Ghanaian, taught Equity. He was diminutive in size. He was always flying his shirt as if he were a protesting student. A very unassuming man, he dressed scantily. He walked like someone who would never hurt a fly. He religiously wore slippers or flapping sandals. But law students dreaded him. He was notorious for his frugality in scoring students high marks in Equity. His students hardly scored an “A” in Equity. Once upon a time a student demystified him and scored an “A” in Equity. In his reaction, Owusu almost wept in an open class room before his students because it was a feat no student had achieved for decades. I don’t know why all sorts of apocryphal stories were woven around Owusu at that time. One of such apocryphal stories was how Owusu stopped the wife of a UNEC lecturer from graduating from the law faculty and eventually attending the Law School. This lady was a final year law student at UNEC. She had passed all of her law courses except Equity. She needed to score just a pass in Equity to enable her to graduate from the faculty of law and proceed to the Law School. But unfortunately she scored only 49% in Equity, that is, I% short of the pass mark of 50%. All entreaties and pleadings to sway the mind of Owusu to score this lady the 50% pass mark in Equity so that she could join her colleagues and graduate from the law faculty and head for the Law School were unsuccessful. Owusu simply refused to score the lady 50% notwithstanding that the lady’s husband was also a lecturer at UNEC at that time. In his defence, Owusu stated that he had retrieved the lady’s answer script and after re-marking and re-marking it he was unable get the additional 1% which could have given the lady the requisite 50% pass mark. To cut the long story short, I think the lady eventually re-sited the Equity exam, and, of course, lost the chance of going to the Law School that session. Another apocryphal story was how Pastor Chris Okotie encountered Owusu in the Equity exam. Pastor Okotie was not our class mate but he our contemporary at the law faculty. He was graduating in law when we were barely being admitted into the law faculty. At that time he owed a sportish-looking red car. He was a rich student. He dressed well. Above all, he was a talented musician. He sang and sang. I can’t remember now, but I think it was in his days at UNEC that he released the number: “Carolina in mind” or “I need someone” or “Fine Mama”. But he failed Owusu’s Equity exam. Ostensibly trying to make Owusu happy, he approached one day and I offered to buy him a pair of shoes ex gratis so that he could start wearing shoes to class instead of his worn-out slippers or sandals. Infuriated by Okogie’s imprudent offer, Owusu swore that Okotie would never pass his Equity exam again.

    Anyway, back to Prof. Okonkwo. As strict as he was, he inculcated in us a sense of hard work and mission in life. I last met Prof Okonkwo in 2012 or so at a Conference at Sheraton Hotels, Abuja. He was still his old self. No sooner had I introduced myself as his former student than he immediately extended out his right hand to give me a warm handshake. I noticed that even though he was still the same stern man, his sternness was commingled with charity. Our memories of Prof. Okonkwo will never fade. His death has indeed robbed the Nigerian legal system and even the world legal systems the edifice of legal wisdom. In his death we have lost a fine gentleman, a passionate law teacher, a legal icon and a friend. Supreme Court Justice Chukwudifu Oputa (of the blessed memory) was of the view that a proper university education transcends mere academic education and instead entails the education of the whole man. To Justice Oputa, a proper university education is such that informs characters, inspires good behavior, balanced judgment and trains the body, the mind, the intellect and the will.

    This, arguably, was the quality of education that we received under the tutelage of Prof. Okonkwo. Within the faculty of law precinct we were granted a vision of the ends of life that surpassed our expectations. I stand in awe at the designs of providence which gave Prof. C. O Okonkwo to our generation.

    On Friday, 25th November 2022 when the casket containing the remains of Prof Okonkwo is being be wheeled out for committal to mother earth, tears of joy and sorrow shall roll down the cheeks of many upon remembering that he was a diligent and consumate law teacher. But let those tears not roll down in vain, rather let the tears give rise to a resolution to live the ideals which Prof. Okonkwo lived for and died for.

  • Why attack Peter Obi’s supporters? – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Why attack Peter Obi’s supporters? – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Unable to match Peter Obi’s’ eloquence, credible competence, rising political stature and wisdom, his main competitors in the Presidential race are now resorting to recruiting political thugs and street urchins and using them to attack the supporters of Peter Obi ostensibly to dampen Obi’s spirit and morale. While some of the hired thugs are directly inflicting severe injuries on some Obi’s supporters, others are content with just harassing and intimidating the supporters in order to make them back out of their commitment and support for Obi. What is the “offence” of Obi’s supporters? The hope and dream they have found in the person of Peter Obi.

    I find it loathsome that a politician in our 21st Century democracy could throw decency overboard and resort to recruiting political thugs to brutally attack and intimidate his political opponent simply because his opponent is gathering more momentum and gaining more political support than him. The chilling video clips and recorded interviews in front of me as I scribble are the evidence in support of the sponsored brutal attacks, violence and thuggery and intimidation against Obi’s supporters lately. For example, John Solam is a young man who happened to be a cripple. He hails from Adamawa State. He is a supporter of Peter Obi. He lives in Lagos. Prior to relocating to his current squalor at Egbeda, Lagos he was a beggar living under Ikeja, Lagos. One day some hired political thugs mercilessly beat him up and destroyed his wheelchair. Why? Because he publicly supports Peter Obi. Hear him:” I was attacked at the first under bridge, adjacent to the General Hospital, Ikeja. I was coming from the G.R.A side and heading to the Computer Village where I would normally stay to campaign for Peter Obi. I had his banner in front of my truck. Some men numbering up to 5 alighted from a bus and approached me. They asked me why I was moving with Peter Obi’s banner in Tinubu’s land. Before I could respond, they landed a huge blow on my face and started beating me. They broke my wheelchair. They beat me for some minutes before passers-by could come to my rescue. They warned I should never put up Peter Obi’s banner or preach his message again and left me with bruises”

    Mr. Olaiyitan OLayiwola is Yoruba of the South-West extraction. Sometime in May this year he made a video clip wherein he compared Peter Obi with Bola Ahmed Tinubu and thereafter urged his audience to vote for Peter Obi in the 2023 Presidential election. That was his only “crime”. What did the hired thugs do to him? First, they threatened him to desist from supporting Peter Obi failure for which he would regret coming to Lagos. Initially, he thought it was an empty threat and continued his support for Obi. But one faithful morning, he was walking down his street when suddenly a hit-and-run driver in full speed came from behind and rammed his vehicle onto him breaking his right leg back. Thank God he did not die. Since then life has become a nightmare for Olaitan. He hardly walks the street unaccompanied by someone let alone for fear that he would be a victim of another brutal attack. John Eze and Agbene David are two die-hard supporters of Peter Obi. The duo eagerly look forward to when Peter Obi would win the 2023 Presidential election and restore economic prosperity to the wasteland. They exude confidence that the Peter Obi Presidency would make a new Nigeria of our dream. But one day they were brutally attacked and seriously injured by hired political thugs as they walked the street brandishing the Labour Party flag.

    Two days before the Lagos 4 Million-Obedient March in Lagos, one of the key organizers of the March called Joseph Onuorah was arrested and harassed on his arrival from Paris for the March. Also, prior the March, a social media crusader, Obi Flag Boy, was brutally attacked in Oshodi Lagos while other Obi supporters were arrested. The tricycle (keke) riders and market women in support of Peter Obi were not left out in the brutal attack and intimidation. You may be aware that the tricycle commercial riders in Lagos are not only being forced to pay N500 for the purchase of the Tinubu/Shettima car sticker but they are equally forced to gum the sticker at the rear of their tricycles. In fact the political thugs of Tinubu/Shettima have warned them that if they dare gum or place the campaign posters or stickers of Peter Obi or any other presidential candidate on any part of their tricycles they would be chased out of Lagos. I have just finished watching the video showing one of the tricycle riders narrating his ordeal in the hands of the Tinubu/Shettima thugs. You will recall that prior to the Pro-Tinubu/Shettima Rally in Lagos, some Lagos market women were forced not only to contribute N500 in support of the Rally but to ensure that they were physically present at the Rally failure for which they would lose their shops in Lagos. So, the APC hired thugs are shutting down the political campaigns of other political parties in Lagos. This probably explains why there are no Peter Obi stickers or campaign billboards or stickers and billboards of other presidential candidates in Lagos

    Apart from Lagos, the supporters of Peter Obi are also being threatened and attacked in other parts of the country. For example, a yet-to-be identified gunmen numbering about four recently attacked some members of the Labour Party who were holding a meeting in Awgu Community of Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State. In Nasarawa State, the supporters of Peter Obi were severely attacked. The attack led to a serious bodily harm on Joshua Alamu, one of Peter Obi’s supporters. Another Peter Obi supporter called Jamilu Sufi had posted a photo of a seriously injured Joshua, as he was receiving treatment and wrote: “Dear @PoliceNG, Our attention has been drawn on the attack to Mr. Joshua Alamu, at Nasarawa State during @NgLabour sensitization yesterday, we call on you to protect the life of our citizen and bring perpetrators to book.”

    What does the foregoing illustrate? Betrayal of democracy. Barbaric desperation for presidential power. Fraud. Jealousy. Bitterness. Frustration. This is Sad. I would advise Peter Obi supporters not to succumb to their attacks, violence, intimidation and blackmail. Instead they should continue to boldly and fearlessly campaign for Obi without any fear. They should petition the police to arrest and prosecute their attackers and molesters. The 1999 Constitution guarantees the freedom of expression of every citizen, including freedom to hold, receive or to impart a Peter Obi political ideology or information without interference. Ours is not a one-party system. We operate a multiparty system guaranteeing popular participation in the electoral process. Popular political participation is the elixir of presidential democracy. Electoral violence is a gateway to electoral anarchy. Electoral violence is a great offense punishable by terms of imprisonment under our Electoral Act. In fact, section 97 of the 2022 Electoral Act prohibits the stoking of ethno-religious violence in the presidential campaigns. You don’t have to be a Peter Obi supporter to come to terms with this. Even the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, who is a die-hard Peter Obi critic, has condemned in strongest terms, the attacks on supporters of Peter Obi.

    Therefore the intolerant presidential candidates dispatching their political thugs to attack Peter Obi supporters should desist from doing so. Though tongue and tribe may differ we are all members of the same human family. Why send your thugs to attack the members of your family who happen to be supporters of other presidential candidates? In an age in which we are experiencing the triumph of multipartisansim and multiculturalism the Nigerian politicians should learn to eschew bitterness, rancour and violence in the political process. What is really happening to us in Nigeria? Look at the United Kingdom producing a Pakistani as a Prime Minister. Can such a feat be allowed to be achieved in Nigeria? I do not think so. Unfortunately here in Nigeria most people including the so-called educated Nigerians are not governed by their head or heart but by their tribal instincts.

    As many political philosophers continue to argue, we in Nigeria need a national character that defines democracy and establishes the parameters and moral high ground in which democracy should operate in order to promote the wellbeing of the people. The separation of culture and character from politics or from public life in Nigeria has led to a palpable moral bankruptcy that has been hindering progress over the years.

  • European Union should let Africa be – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    European Union should let Africa be – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    This week is crucial for the socio-economic and political development of Africa and her advancement of her strategic interests in the comity of nations. The African parliamentarians, Ambassadors, diplomats and Ministers of government (inclusive of Nigerian parliamentarians, Ambassadors, diplomats and Ministers) are meeting this week with their European counterparts in Maputo, Mozambique, to, inter alia, deliberate on how to get the 48 African Countries (Nigeria inclusive), 16 Caribbean, and 15 Pacific Countries to sign the controversial and devious agreement between the European Union and Africa-Caribbean and Pacific countries (EU-ACP Agreement, for short). The EU-ACP Agreement is intended to replace the controversial Cotonou Agreement of 2000. Therefore any African country that signs the EU-ACP Agreement has signed its death warrant. Why? Because the country has consented to legalization of lesbianism, homosexualism, transgenderism, queer behaviorism LGTBQ1+ socialization, gay marriage, population and human capital reduction on its soil. Sadly enough, the EU-ACP Agreement specifically targets African children for corruption and destruction. Therefore any African country that signs this Agreement is indirectly consenting that its children should be taught how to practice “safe”-sex, “safe”-abortion; how to do masturbation, kissing, hugging, penis touching, vagina touching and how to avoid getting pregnant through sterilization and so forth, all in the name of sex education or Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE).

    Aside transgenderism and LGBT1+, the revised EU-ACP Agreement, which in actual fact is in form of a treaty, includes new obligations on abortion rights and teen safe-sexual rights. The Agreement is deceptively aimed at advancing the European Union’s abortion, sex education and LGBT agenda for Africa. Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of the Agreement is that it overrides the Constitutions and sovereignties of African countries. For example, in contrast to Monroe doctrine, Nigeria operates the Dualist doctrine. By virtue of section 12 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution a signed treaty does not have the force of law in Nigeria without ratification and domestication by the National Assembly. But the EU-ACP treaty trade Agreement has been craftily worded in such a way that it purportedly automatically binds a country which has signed it. Therefore the EU-ACP Agreement threatens to undermine national sovereignty of countries that are parties to the Agreement. It is targeted at overriding the domestic laws and constitutions of African countries. To that effect, there is a major decision-making body created by the EU-ACP treaty which is empowered to ensure that the Agreement is binding on the African countries that had signed it. The Agreement is deceptively designed to increase the EU’s power to impact the laws and policies of African countries.

    The transgender movement is the effort to distort the basic anthropological assumptions about the human person. Transgenderism denies the biological basis of manhood and womanhood. Transgenderism is anti-God as much as it is anti-nature. It is anti-human. Transgenderism originated in the radical feminist work which started after World War II. The founding mother of radical feminism is French thinker called Simone de Beauvoir. She is the author of the book entitled: The Second Sex. The book was published in 1953. This strange woman started her book with this query: ‘What is a woman?’ Her answer to this query led to the formulation of the contemporary feminist thought. For example, she scribbled in her book that it is society, not God, that determines who is a man or a woman. In other words, gender is purely a social construct not a biological construct. That is, despite one’s biological sex, the society has a final say in defining who is a man or who is a woman. Gender is in constant flux. You can decide to be a man today and tomorrow decide to be a woman. Scientifically speaking, the concept of changing one’s biological sex through transgenderism is arrant nonsense. One’s sex is determined by inalterable chromosomes. So whereas an individual cam change his hormone levels and undergo surgery to a better physical imitation of the opposite sex, the individual cannot change his male or female chromosomes. A person born a male remains a male from the day of his conception till the moment of death. Conversely, a person born a female will remain a female from her conception till the moment of death. So, persons suffering from gender dysphonia or intersex disorders are sick. Besides having pity on them, we should take them to the psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, psychotherapists and psychologists for treatment.

    Therefore the African Parliamentarians, Ambassadors and Ministers (and their Nigerian counterparts) attending the Maputo Assembly this week are respectfully urged to reject in toto the devious and deceptively-crafted EU-ACP Agreement. International law binds upon consensus of nations. The so-called teen “sexual rights”, transgender rights, abortion rights and LGBT1+ provisions in the EU-ACP treaty Agreement which the EU is trying to force down the throats of the 48 African countries (Nigeria inclusive) in Maputo has never been agreed upon by nations in any international human rights instrument or other consensus document. In other words, there is no consensus among nations accepting it as a binding international law. More importantly, the EU-ACP Agreement has no regard for the cultural, religious and philosophical convictions of the African people.

    The consensus reached at the various United Nations Conferences, is that the law passed in every developing county including Nigeria must reflect the diverse social, economic and environmental conditions of that country, with full respect for their religious, cultural backgrounds and philosophical convictions. LGTBQ1+ contained in the Agreement is illegal in Nigeria. In fact, the very notion of same-sex cohabitation or “marriage” is abhorrent to Nigerian sensibilities. Above all, it is a complete break with African civilization. We must stick to our own values and traditions. It is suicidal to import practices and lifestyles which are alien to Nigeria and seek to impose them as laws all in the name of observing international obligations. It is obvious that the EU has no respect for the religious and philosophical convictions of the African people and Nigerian people. Therefore it lacks the locus standi to seek to impose on African countries aberrations that are alien to the lifestyle of the African people. Laws are made in consonance with the values of a people. Every country is interested in protecting what it holds dear or its cherished values. LGTB1+ is not our value. Transgenderism is not our tradition.

    The EU should let Africa be Africa again. Down with cultural imperialism!. A time has come for African leaders to assert their independence. A time has come for them to call bluff all these unnecessary neo-colonialist external interferences in Africa’s domestic affairs. Independent African States have a right to govern themselves. Nigeria has a right to govern herself as an independent sovereign State. She is not bound to accept the interpretation of international law adopted by other States especially when it doesn’t accord with her aspirations and objectives. In behaving like this, Nigeria is not violating her international obligation; instead, she is merely exercising her right as an independent sovereign: it is the right of the people of every country to make laws for themselves in accordance with their respective Constitutions. In fact, many countries no longer treat international law as a rigid and imperative code of conduct. The binding nature of international law is a matter of consent of sovereign States. In other words, international law only binds upon consent of sovereign nations, not upon pressure or intimidation from the EU.

    What we are witnessing today is the collapse of western civilization. It is true that despite gaining political independence or what some dub flag independence, some independent African States are still helplessly living under the strong economic, political and cultural influence of their former colonial masters. But that shouldn’t give room for any Afro-pessimism. Despite the seemingly irreversible cataclysm that trails Africa it will rise again to occupy its rightful position in the world. Eurocentrism shall give way to Afrocentrism.

  • Can INEC conduct a free presidential election? – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Can INEC conduct a free presidential election? – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Last week the INEC Chairman Prof Mammod Yakubu publicly promised that notwithstanding the gargantuan challenges facing the commission it would conduct free and fair elections or would deliver electoral justice in 2023. “Only the votes cast by Nigerians will determine who wins and this is our commitment to the nation,” said Prof Yakubu.

    Beyond mere verbal undertaking, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu led-INEC must truly and really conduct an impartial, free, fair and credible 2023 elections especially the Presidential election. Of all the elections the Presidential election is the crucial election which outcome will make or mar Nigeria. In fact guaranteeing peace, unity and stability in Nigeria in 2023 depends so much on the outcome of the 2023 Presidential election. The truth of the matter is that the people want a breakaway from the pre-existing ruinous legal order. They want total breakaway from the two political parties-APC and PDP-which are hanging on the same leprous hand. There is a time for everything under the sun. This is the time for breakaway or severance from the yolk of slavery and oppression. That is why the teeming population of young people that constitutes the bulk of the population of Nigeria has trodden the streets and alley ways across Nigeria, in reminiscent of the storming of the Bastille, to demand for a new political order where commutative justice, equity, character, competence shall flourish. Armed with their respective Permanent Voting Cards (PVCs) most young people across the geo-political zones of the country are poised to cast their votes for the Presidential candidate of their choice in the forth-coming Presidential election.

    In the past, the country’s youths had displayed a somewhat nonchalant attitude towards elections and electoral processes. But today this attitude has changed for good. In fact, as we speak, the Nigerian youths are out in the streets, expressways and alleyways dancing, singing and demanding for electoral justice in the 2023 Presidential election. Apart from the Nigerian youths, other Nigerian voters from variegated bloodstream of Nigerian society are casting so much hope in the 2023 Presidential election. They perceive the election as the election which will bring positive change in Nigeria. Therefore INEC has no option but to conduct a free and fair Presidential election in February 2023. INEC must ensure that the will of the Nigerian people is reflected in the 2023 Presidential election. A very credible American election monitoring team which is based in Washington D.C that came to Nigeria in 2019 to monitor the 2019 Presidential election in Nigeria stated that candidate Atiku Abubarkar clearly won that election not candidate Muhammadu Buhari. Therefore INEC must not rig the forth-coming Presidential election in favour of the APC. The other day an APC chieftain was boasting that the APC would rule Nigeria for the next three decades. And President Buhari has said that he is eagerly looking forward to handing over power to another APC man in 2023.

    If President Buhari was/is the nominator and appointer/re-appointer of INEC chair Prof. Yakubu coupled to the fact Prof.Yakubu is not financially independent of the Presidency, it is not illogical to believe that Prof Yakubu would dance to Buhari’s tune. He who pays the piper calls the tune. Isn’t it ? Think carefully about what I am saying. Mind you, this is the first time the chair of our electoral body is coming from the same ethnic group as the President of Nigeria. For example, in 1979 Chief Michael Ani who was the chair of the then Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) did not come from the same ethnic group as the late President Shehu Shagari. Other successive electoral body bosses such as Prof. Eme Awa, Prof. Humphrey Nwosu, Abel Guobadia, Maurice Iwu, Attahiru Jega did not come from the same ethnic group as the heads of government who appointed them. But today we have the chairman of INEC who does not only come from the same ethnic enclave as President Buhari but who was singularly handpicked and appointed the INEC Chairman by the same President Buhari. This is why the people are entertaining the fear that Prof Yakubu might manipulate the results of the Presidential election in favour of the APC. I tell people that Presidential Buhari would not want to commit a political suicide: he would not want to hand over power to a Peter Obi who, wittingly or unwittingly, would dismantle the Fulani oligarchical structures and corruption structures which he (Buhari) has been labouring to put in place in the last seven and half years.

    Granted that by virtue of the Electoral Act 2022, votes cast by voters can now be electronically transmitted. The new Electoral Act has given legal backing to INEC to deploy technology to enhance the credibility of the electoral process. This has given birth to the deployment of INEC Voter Enrollment Device (IVED), Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal. But the aforesaid are not bulwark against election gerrymandering or manipulation. A technology operated by a fraudster can become a fraudster. So, notwithstanding the deployment of technology in the electoral process, INEC staffers can still rig the election in favour of any political party if they want.

    Of all the INEC officials, the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) are the most powerful and influential. The RECs are the representatives of INEC at the State level. The role of RECs is critical for the success of any election. The duties of the RECs include monitoring the activities of all INEC ad-hoc staff/RECs as well as providing for proper verification of election results. In fact, the INEC relies heavily on RECs verifications in authenticating the election results on the presupposition that RECs are people of unquestionable integrity.

    The pertinent question is: what are the names of the current RECs officiating in the 2023 elections? The coalition of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) complain that some of the 19 RECs newly appointed for INEC by President Muhammadu Buhari are either card-carrying members of the ruling party or people who have been previously indicted for corruption. On their own part, the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) also complain that the current national voters’ register has been adulterated with fake and foreign names. In response to the allegation, INEC says it is presently conducting a comprehensive Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) clean-up of the registration data by scrutinizing every record after which it would, in line with section 19(1) of the Electoral Act 2022, appoint a period of seven days during which the register will be published for scrutiny by the public for objections and complaints”. While awaiting the publication of the register, INEC should also publish the names and designations of all the INEC’s RECs, INEC returning officers and staffers officiating in the 2023 elections to enable the public ascertain their background and antecedents. The allegation that some INEC’s RECs officiating in the 2023 elections are card-carrying members of the ruling party is a serious allegation which INEC should not just dismiss with a wave of the hand. Rather than dismiss the allegation, the onus is on INEC to rebut or counter the allegation with credible evidence, if any. INEC could even vouch for the character of the current RECs.

    It is not enough for INEC to say that it is capable of organizing free, fair and credible elections in 2023”: INEC must be seen from the outside by fair-minded and informed members by the public to be manifestly organizing, through its actions, utterances and behaviour, free, fair and credible elections. The rule against bias or likelihood of bias is predicated on the perception of the fair-minded and informed members of the public. The basis for the rule is to maintain public confidence in a public institution such as INEC. Therefore INEC cannot claim to be conducting a free and fair 2023 general election if the members of the public have lost confidence in INEC or are going about beating their chests and regretting that INEC is not impartial or “independent” as its name suggests.

  • Threatening Labour Party with violence – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Threatening Labour Party with violence – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Last Wednesday some hired political thugs, hoodlums and hooligans threatened the Labour party in Lagos to stop conducting a rally tagged: #Obidattti23 Forward Ever Rally” scheduled to hold in Lagos on October 1 2022. Also last Saturday another set of hired thugs, hooligans, hoodlums and policemen were sent to disrupt the peaceful one-million-march movement organized in Ebonyi State by the Labour Party supporters in Ebonyi State. All these travesties of democracy are happening at the threshold of the commencement of political campaigns that would usher in the 2023 elections, and, also around the time that the test polls conducted by Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s NOI Polls Limited and Tedo N. A Peterside Foundation reveal that the Presidential candidate of Labour party Peter Obi towers above the duo of Alhaji Atiku Abubarkar and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    Without holding brief for the Labour party or its Presidential candidate Peter Obi, the aforesaid threat, aggression, hooliganism and violence meted out against the Labour in both Lagos and Ebonyi States, is, to say the least, a big set-back for Nigerian democracy. Why should a political party descend to the barbaric low level of threatening another political party to refrain from carrying out their political campaign? Democracy is a learning process but I seriously doubt whether our Nigerian politicians are really and truly learning the lessons of democracy. I had thought that the Nigerian democracy had outgrown the weaponization of threats, intimidations and violence in cowing down political opponents or in disrupting their political activities. It is obvious that I was mistaken. Impelled by an inordinate thirst for power, pomp, property, quick money, some dirty politicians are still using threats, intimidations and violence in their bid to grab political power. Machiavellianism still reigns supreme in our national politics, otherwise why should a political party issue a threat to stop another political party from holding its political rally? If the man with a cheap appetite is so desperate to become the next President of Nigeria he should roll out his manifesto and engage the electorate in a robust political discourse instead of hiring political thugs, hooligans and never-do-wells to threaten the Labour Party to stop its political activities in Lagos.

    Labour must not succumb to their threat, violence, aggression and hooliganism. Rather it should simply ignore them and work harder to coast to victory in the 2023 general elections. I have perused the scrap contained in the writ issued against Labour in Lagos State by the hoodlums, and, I would advise the party to ignore the scrap. First, the makers of that scrap are hired young hoodlums and never-do-wells. Besides, the court does not act in vain. No court makes an order that cannot be obeyed. No judge makes a court order to take away the inalienable rights of an innocent citizen or to prevent the citizen from exercising his or her constitutional right to freedom of expression, freedom of movement, freedom of association and freedom of thought, conscience and religion as enshrined in our 1999 Constitution. No judge can make an order contrary to the current Election Act to empower hooligans to continue to indulge in their illegality, hooliganism, and violence in our national politics. Therefore the threat issued against Labour in Lagos is a violation of the Electoral Act. It is illegal and unconstitutional. Ditto for the disruption of the political rally organized by Labour in Ebonyi State. Look, you cannot stop anybody from exercising his or her God-given freedom. You cannot force a voter to vote for you in 2023. I am disappointed with the dirty politicians hiring thugs to intimidate and harass their political opponents. Instead of concentrating on winning the confidence of the electorate to vote for them in 2023 despite their monumental failure in the last seven and half years they are busy issuing threats and unleashing violence against Labour because they are afraid that Labour might win the Presidential election next year.

    As I earlier said, I am not a member of the Labour party neither am I a card-carrying member of any political party for that matter. But I must call evil by its name. I cannot say that evil is good. The violence unleashed on Labour in Lagos and Ebonyi States is illegal and antithetical to the tenets of democracy and by extension human civilization. Note that this is not the first time political thugs have been hired to issue threats and unleashed violence against perceived political opponents in Lagos State. I remember that during the last general elections in Lagos State hired political thugs were seen gallivanting about intimidating potential voters to refrain from voting for candidates of their choice or else they would be driven out of Lagos. One man even went to the ridiculous extent of threatening to throw some people into the Lagos Lagoon. Apart from threat and intimidation, they have formed the habit of sending their political things to remove, or yank off or destroy the hoisted campaign banners or billboards of other political parties. There is one thing I cannot still fathom: the gullibility of the governed. Aside from the leadership crisis, the next crisis undoing Nigeria is the followership crisis. When will Lagosians and the people of the South-West understand that the politician with a cheap appetite is merely exploiting them for his own benefit?. When will they understand that the man does not put food for them on their respective tables? At times I wonder whether this man has cast a kind of spell on the people which blinds them to follow him. What does it profit a man or woman to vote for the politician with a cheap appetite only for him or her to thereafter continue walking the streets battered and hungry?.

    This is sad. I tell friends that violence has never been used to solve the problems of mankind. If violence is useful in the settlement of human disputes Russia would have won the Russia-Ukraine war a long time ago. Violence begets violence in the same way injustice begets injustice. Violence is a recipe for anarchy. Ours is a multi-party and multi-religious system. Therefore it makes no sense for one political party to choose to become a nuisance to other political parties or disrupt their political activities. Life is live and let live. No man is a single verse. Nobody can live alone in this passing world. Man is a social animal. We are members of the same human family. We need one another in our socialization and even political processes even though our tribe, tongue and religion may differ. By using threats and violence to disrupt the political activities of Labour the politicians sponsoring these hooligans are conveying the impression that they are incapable of winning an election except through violence, rigging, gerrymandering and election manipulation.

    The current Electoral Act punishes electoral threat and electoral violence. For instance, sections 116 and 128 of the Act stipulate that anybody or group persons disrupting a political meeting or gathering or anybody directly or indirectly, by his or herself or by another person on his or her behalf, makes use of or threatens to make use of any force, violence against any political candidates or political party commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine or imprisonment or both. Therefore Labour is advised to lodge a petition with the law enforcement agents to arrest the Lagos hoodlums and their sponsors threatening to stop the rally of the Labour Party on October 1 2022. The party is also advised to petition the law enforcement agents to arrest the hooligans who disrupted the Labour activity in Ebonyi State last Saturday. Certainly the arrest and prosecution of these hoodlums and their sponsors would serve as a deterrent to other hoodlums and party stalwarts planning to commit the same crime.

    Legitimate competition to win power is not synonymous with deployment of thugs to intimidate and harass political opponents. If political competitiveness is allowed to degenerate into violence the negative fallout of it might spell doom for our country. This is why the Federal government must warn all political parties to desist from wielding violence against their political opponents. INEC, federal government and the police must ensure that the Lagos hooligans and thugs do not make good their threat against Labour. Nobody has the monopoly of violence. If the Lagos hooligans proceed to disrupt Labour rally on October 1 2022 and Labour tries to repel the attack in self-defence, a breakdown in public peace might occur resulting in the killing and injury of many people. This is why the law enforcement agents must intervene now to arrest the hired Lagos hooligans and thugs threatening to stop the Labour rally on October 1 2022.

    As fragmented and pluralistic as our political culture is it justifies our faith in a common creed-belief in human freedom even though some politicians have shown an inclination to think otherwise despite what freedom means for modern society. We still hold this truth bequeathed to us by our nationalists and freedom fighters: freedom is our greatest achievement, and our greatest bequest to posterity. Therefore all hands must be on deck to denounce hooliganism and violence that violate freedom in our national politics. In his book, Spirit of Liberty, Learned Hand, writes, inter alia, “Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women: when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it.

  • Hope amid desolation – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Hope amid desolation – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Unmistakably the battle line for 2023 Presidential election has been drawn among three competing groups-the Obi-dients, BAT and Atikulation- even though it appears Atikulation, which is still battling to survive the phenomenal internal squabble threatening its very soul, is yet to throw down the gage. The Obi-dients affirm again and again that theirs is not a political party: theirs is a mass movement comprising the country’s vibrant young people that constitute the bulk of the Nigerian population. Theirs is a mass movement of the oppressed, University students left to rot at home, ASUU, the hungry, the sick, the dying, the suffering, pensioners, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), men and women who have not been eking out a simple living in the last seven years. The aforesaid categories of Nigerians come from a variegated bloodstream of Nigerian society. They are united in their unalterable resolution and demand for a breakaway from the ruinous pre-existing legal order. They are demanding for a creation of a new Nigerian order where work culture and serviceable public ethics would guarantee hard work, honesty, diligence, meritocracy and human flourishing.

    Unfortunately we live in a time in which brainlessness and stupidity are being assumed into politics. Most Nigerians have lost faith in the Nigerian project. Walk into a beer parlour, for instance, and say you feel optimistic about the future, and you may be asked to vamoose on account of your reveling in an uncommon utopia. That is how bad things have become in Nigeria. With its separation from reason and noble ideals, the banal politics we play in Nigeria finds itself unable to distinguish the good from the ugly. Certainly a political culture that creates perennial loopholes for flourishing incompetence, parasitism, official corruption, graft and conversion of the people’s commonwealth into personal fiefdom calls for an immediate change. Merely casting hope in an empty democracy run by brainless men to provide the much-needed instant miracle to improve the living condition in Nigeria is to live in a fool’s paradise.

    The truth is bitter. But the bitterness ingrained in the truth does not alter the truth. The truth remains the truth even if it is hotly contested. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. We should reflect on the fact that BAT has publicly vowed to continue the perfidious legacies- official corruption, nepotism, insecurity of lives and property, islamization of Nigeria, incestuous narcissism, stone-headedness, cluelessness-of President Buhari. Ask BAT about national rebirth they would mumble something to the effect that it is their turn to rule Nigeria or they will throw their overflowing colourful agbada attire here and there in a way that suggests that insanity has taken a permanent residence in the land. It beats the imagination that amid the grounding, ambushing, conquest and occupation of Nigeria by the Jihadists, and, of course, amid the endless killing and persecutions of Nigerian Christians, BAT is remorselessly fielding a Muslim-Muslim team in the Presidential race. This is evidence that BAT has no respect for the teeming population of Nigerian Christians. Another evidence is that BAT has never condemned the escalating ethno-religious killings in the country. For instance, BAT finds nothing wrong in the recent massacre of innocent church worshippers at St. Francis Catholic in Owo, Ondo State by terrorists. After Deborah Samuel was murdered by fanatical Muslim students and the whole country was thrown into mourning, BAT did not condemn the murder. When a member of the Vigilante Group was stoned to death and set ablaze by Muslim extremists for allegedly insulting Prophet Mohammed or an Imam, BAT also kept mum. BAT did not publicly condemn the Abuja-Kaduna-train bombing and abduction which occurred on March 28 2022. Amid complete collapse of State security architecture, the terrorists have laid monumental siege not only in Kaduna State but in Niger, Bornu and Nasarawa States murdering, maiming, raping, intimidating, and terrorizing their victims unabated. Yet BAT has not uttered a word in condemnation. Instead BAT is busy saying that it is their turn to be crowned the President of Nigeria. The politics of BAT is not the politics imbue with ideas but the politics of entitlement.

    This is BAT for you. It is obvious that BAT lacks a sense of justice. It is clear that if elected President BAT would make a disaster President. Electing BAT as President of Nigeria would trigger off more Islamic terrorist attacks in different parts of Nigeria. By his action and inaction, BAT has shown that they are in sympathy with the Islamic terrorists. Can you believe what I am about to say now?. Can you believe how debased the political culture of BAT is?. How broken is their politics? How intimidating and barbaric their political campaigns are?. Ostensibly unable to match the Obi-dients’ wisdom; Obi-dients’ sustained mass mobilization of the people; Obi-dients’ call to a return to the fundamental values that once made this country a great country, BAT has recently resolved to, among other things, threaten the lives of key Obi-dient figures on social media. They also intend to threaten the family members of the Obi-dients so that they would be compelled to abandon the Obi-dient movement. Keyamo is already issuing some violent and intimidating statements against political opponents. Also the DSS and security agents are likely to be recruited to go after key members of the Obi-dient movement. They will likely link some Obi-dients with IPOB and thereafter bring trumped up charges against them in order to arrest them and charge them to court, if possible. Many Obi-dients are likely to be arrested and falsely accused of financing IPOB. The businesses of some Obi-dients and the businesses of their respective family members are likely to be threatened as well. They may recruit the EFCC to intimate the donors to and fund- raisers of the Obi-dient movement. It is not unlikely that they are also planning to use prominent members of BAT to intensify their false accusations against the Obi-dients through the electronic, print media and on social media too. They are not unlikely to use the Igbo language to link Peter Obi to IPOB in order to call for his arrest. Already Malami is threatening that Peter Obi might be prosecuted for allegedly receiving financial sponsorship from abroad. At the moment they are compiling a list of key Obi-dients who must be stopped before they use the Obi-dient movement to stop BAT. Already instruction has come from the top that public advert spaces should be denied the Obi-dients in Lagos so that they would not use them to advertise the Obi-dient political campaigns when the political campaigns kick off on September 28.

    With BAT in power, there would never be a separate place for Christianity in the public order except on the terms defined and dictated by BAT. Truth would become a matter of indifference. And peace would disintegrate when truth becomes a matter of indifference or a purely interior sentiment. Thus peace would not be that “tranquility of order” that St. Augustine had postulated wherein the individual persons saw and understood the truth of things and agreed to live accordingly. Peace would be built on the supposition that no truth existed or could exist.

    This is why you and I must fight now for the future of our country. The Nigerian nationalist taught us many lessons. They taught us that freedom is a cause worth fighting for. “Give me liberty or give me death,” said Patrick Henry. So many brave country men and women of ours have died in the pursuit of freedom. As we see threats to freedom and those ideals which our nationalists lived for and died for, we need to fight to reclaim our freedom. Even though Nigerians have lost faith in President Buhari and the APC they have not lost faith in themselves. We will defend Nigerian values, rights, and freedoms. We will not let President Buhari ruin this great country. We can retake our Nigeria from Buhari in February 2023. But before that can happen, BAT is advised to eschew bitterness, violence and intimidation. Violence has never been used to solve the problems of mankind. Violence is a recipe for anarchy. We don’t want anarchy that could stall the elections next year. BAT should play the politics of ideas not the politics of violence and intimidation of political opponents. INEC must jealously guard its independence and its impartiality.

    INEC must conduct a free and fair Presidential election to prevent the Nigerian young, majority of whom would be monitoring the election, to attempt to set Nigeria ablaze. President Buhari has publicly said that he is looking forward to handing over power to his fellow BAT member. This is probably why some of the 19 newly-nominated Resident Election Commissioners (RECs) Are members of the APC. SERAP and others are calling for inclusion and transparency in the nomination of RECs. He who pays the piper dictates the tune. If the Presidency is the sole nominator and financier of INEC’s RECs it means that the RECs are under control and bidding of the President. This is why SERAP and others are saying that the power of nominating the RECs should be taken away from the Presidency and given to an impartial and independent body comprising Nigerians from different cultural, religious and political spectrum. Therefore the National Assembly, political parties and Nigerian stakeholders should reject 19 newly-appointed (RECs) so that the 2023 election results will not be compromised.

    Finally, it is true that the day is dying but we must be hopeful. We must be optimistic. The rock rejected by them would soon become the corner rock. A rock that will make them stumble, a solid rock on which foundation a flourishing Nigeria will be built. So, be ready to vote wisely in February 2023. This is the only way you can account for the hope that is in you. And say to those whose hearts are frightened: be strong, fear not. Do not return evil for evil, reviling for reviling; but on the contrary, bless those who oppress you, for the eyes of the Almighty are upon the just, the face of the Lord is against those who concoct evil and his ears are not open to their prayer. With the sun rising from the East and setting in the West, North and South, streams of living water will flow out in abundance for all; the lame will leap like a stag; streams will burst forth in the desert, and rivers in the steppe. The burning stand will become pools and the thirst ground springs of drinkable water.

  • Is the judiciary beyond redemption? – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Is the judiciary beyond redemption? – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    To affirm that the judiciary is corrupt is an understatement. The judiciary is not just corrupt; the men and women entrusted with the affairs of the judiciary are suffering from a huge character-deficit. It is painful that our judiciary has been constituted into an object of derision by the very people who should labour to maintain its prestige. The level of official corruption and moral degeneracy at both the Bar and the Bench is alarming. It seems as if the judiciary is beyond redemption.

    What does one see when one takes a puzzling look inside a typical courtroom? One sees a stoic super-mortal figure wearing microscopic eye-glasses resting at the tip of his nose and sitting majestically on a dignified chair waiting to strike the table at the tilt of the scale of justice. Taking further enigmatic loot at the portrait, one notices that the eyes of the super-mortal radiate a certain fearsome charisma which enkindles the whole super-mortal with an enchanting aura of respect and honour. Unfortunately all these are mere appearances. They are not justice. They may not lead to justice. At best they are symbols of justice. And beneath these symbols of justice is the wobbling feet of clay of the super-mortal incapable of supporting the super mortal.

    While the Bench sickens for lack of moral renaissance, the Bar fairs no better. Regrettably many members of the Bar lack the lowest common denominator of acceptable character. As regards the judiciary workers often loosely referred to as the judicial personnel-court bailiffs, Chief Registrars, Assistant Chief Registrars (ACR), court clerks, court messengers, court cashiers, court stenographers and so forth- their lives are ruled and governed by the civil service bureaucratic extortion.

    Oftentimes whenever corruption of the judiciary is mentioned, our thoughts first go to the magistrates and judges, forgetting that the judicial personnel who play an essential role in the administration of justice are damned too corrupt. A corrupt court staff can ruin your care before it even gets to the Judge. He can, for instance, hide away your case file for refusing to accede to his extortionist bid. So, the judicial personnel who perform administrative tasks in the judiciary play an indispensable role in the dispensation of justice. I am sure you have watched the video clip circulating on social media. It is a video clip exposing the day-to-day extortion and shady practices perpetuated by the judicial personnel in our courts. Judicial personnel extort money from lawyers and litigants before rendering them services which they rightly deserve.

    For example, at the time of filling his case in court a litigant usually pays for the service of his court processes on the other party. But the court bailiffs would not serve the court processes on that party until the litigant pays them an extortion ranging from N4,000 to N7,000. This explains why Busola Aro, a creative investigative journalist by profession, volunteered to go to the Federal High Court, Ikoyi Lagos, Agege Magistrate Court and the Ikeja High Court, Ikeja, Lagos with her hidden camera in order to expose the layers of corruption in our judiciary.

    Busola recounts how she got to Ikeja Magistrate Court and applied for a certified true copy (CTC) of a particular court judgment. Thereafter Alhaja Khaijat first directed her to see the Assistant Chief Registrar. Upon her return, she (Khaijat) said to her: “If you want to get the CTC today, you would have to mobilize people to help you look for it…You ought to know what to do. Those people won’t work for free unless you are ready to come back in two weeks”.

    Anyway, the journalist ended up giving Khaijat the sum of N2,000 extortion fee. Of course, her hidden camera captured Khaijat collecting the money from her and counting it in the open. Busola also narrated how she applied for a CTC of a court judgment at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, and, how the court official on duty at the material time looked at her and said to her: “You came from a newspaper company. You people are rich. Pay N20,000 or no judgment”.

    She also narrated how she went to the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, a second time, and how one Olubodun, a staff of the court, extorted the sum of N4,000 from her. She also narrated how she got to the Ikeja High Court and was commanded by the staff of the court on duty to pay the sum of N200 for photocopies. She promptly did and thought the extortion transaction was over. But she was wrong. No sooner had she quit the court premises than the court registrar called her and told her that she should pay the sum of N5,000 to him for “hospitality”. She promptly did and made sure that her hidden camera captured it.

    Sad. Isn’t?. Do we even need a Busola to tell us what we already know about our judiciary?. I don’t think so. The high-level corruption and shady practices in the judiciary are notorious facts requiring no proof by Busola. Not infrequently, some court bailiffs refuse to serve court processes simply because they were unable to extort money from the litigant or his counsel.

    Many litigants and their counsel get to court only to discover to their chagrin that their case files had either been misplaced or are completely lost. These are administrative injustices which beget legal injustice or even social injustice. It is sad that under the watch of the Bar and the Bench, court registrars, court clerks, court bailiffs, court messengers etc, who play a vital role in the administration of justice in Nigeria continue to set up layers and layers of corruption structures in order to extortion money from litigants and lawyers.

    For instance, to obtain a certified true copy of a court judgment or a court ruling a court registrar would extort not less than N5, 000 from you. To secure a hearing date at the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court, the court officials at those courts will extort about N15, 000 from you otherwise they would inform you there are no more available hearing dates in the year. To get the court bailiff to serve your court process on the other party, you must give him not less than N5, 000 otherwise he will never serve your process and even if he grudgingly does so he will not put the affidavit of service in the court file until you pay him the extortion fee.

    The most tragic is the inability of judgment creditors to reap the fruit of their court judgment. After a judgment creditor had spent a grueling 6 to 10 years in court litigation he gets a favourable court judgment. But he cannot even levy execution against the judgment debtor because the extortion fee for levying execution, at least in Lagos State judiciary, ranges from N2.5 million to N4.5 million

    As has been repeatedly re-echoed, corruptio optimi pessima (The corruption of the best is worst). The judiciary is not just any arm of government: it is arguably the toast or lifeblood of other arms of government. The corruption of the judiciary is the worst tragedy that can befall a nation. So, it is high time the Bar and the Bench resolved to rid the judiciary of corruption. It is not rocket science. It is doable.

    To begin with, the court personnel who extorted money from Busola should not only be relieved of their jobs but prosecuted as well in the law court. Salus populi supema est lex. The welfare of the people is the supremacy of the law. Like Caesar’s wife, judges and Magistrates should learn to live above board and not smear their hands with corruption and dirty dealings. Judgeship should be reserved for the best and the brightest, not for never-do-wells or for those who find it difficult to eke out a living in private legal life.

    The current process of appointment and removal of judges in Nigeria is overdue for a review. First, the process should be transparent. It should not be shrouded in secrecy. Whenever a vacancy for the appointment of a judge exists in any Judicial Division, it should be widely advertised to the public so that interested lawyers should apply for consideration. As done in some countries, candidates applying to be appointed judges should be made to sit for a compulsory rigorous Bench examination. The yearly continuing education program for Judges and Magistrates should include such courses like basic logical reasoning processes, basic psychology, legal ethics, basic writing skills and basic philosophy.

    Lawyers should represent their clients ethically and professionally as officers in the temple of justice. Corrupt judiciary personnel such as court bailiff, court clerks, court messengers etc should be punished or disciplined regularly to serve as a deterrent to others. Each NBA Branch should regularly compile the names of corrupt judicial personnel for punishment. It makes no sense shielding them because they portray the judiciary in a bad light. Only an incorruptible and irreproachable judiciary will steer us out of the muddy water presently reaching our knees and threatening to drown us.

  • The Balogun Market imbroglio – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    The Balogun Market imbroglio – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    To assert that we are presently witnessing the summit of the steady and progressive deterioration of all that we hold dear in Nigeria is an understatement. Never in the past had our country been so challenged on practically all fronts-politically, socially, culturally, rule of law, governance, intellectually and morally than now. While terrorists and bandits and continuously and progressively laying siege to different parts of Abuja and the country killing and maiming the citizens and pillaging the country in order to capture it, there is a complete collapse of state the machinery for protection of lives and property. Perhaps the best way to put it is that anarchy is loose upon Nigeria at the moment.

    Barbaric abductions, bloodletting, kidnaps, banditries, gun running and so forth now reigns supreme in different parts of Nigeria including, for the first time, the hitherto peaceful Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. Amid the reign of mayhem in different parts of Nigeria, frustrated and fearful ordinary citizens on social media, in the pulpit, lecturer rooms, market places, stadia and other fora are soberly asking the pertinent question: What does the future hold for us and our children? As far as they are concerned, the future is bleak. As far as they are concerned, there is a betrayal of hope and optimism by those who ought to labour to promote peace and peaceful-co-existence in Nigeria.

    The most pathetic aspect is that the judiciary which is supposed to be the last hope of the common man is presently engulfed in a serious crisis of loss of integrity. The National Judicial Commission (NJC), the disciplinary body, which ought to discipline corrupt judges, is seriously ailing and needs urgent redemption. Life Bencher and Chairman Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) Mr. Emmanuel C. Ukala resigned over what he conceived as lack of discipline and undue interference by the Body of Benchers in the activities of the LPDC.

    Meanwhile, flippant abuses of court orders continue unabated in Nigeria. For example, anybody who has been following the multiple law suits between the Balogun Business Association, Lagos (BBA) and some members over the last few years could readily attest to the serial abuses of court orders and disobedience to court orders by these disgruntled members of the BBA. The story started two years ago when the incorporated trustees of the BBA brought a lawsuit against these members as well as the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) Abuja.

    Despite being served with the necessary court processes relating to the suits, the CAC cancelled the certificate of the BBA as well as imposed some new officers on the Association. Impelled by the action, the BBA approached the Federal High Court and obtained a court order stopping the implementation of the CAC’s cancellation of the certificate until the determination of the suit. The BBA also filed a stay of execution against the said order after going on appeal. The court processes relating to the Appeal and the stay of execution were duly served on these members.

    Unfortunately, in disobedience to the aforesaid court order and in utter disregard for the court processes relating to the stay of execution and the Appeal, which in fact had been entered for by the Court of Appeal, duly served on them, these members mobilized more than 300 policemen from Lagos State and Ogun State and proceeded to Balogun Market and attempted to take over the Market and install themselves as the new management of the BBA. But the attempt failed.

    It is trite law that any party who is aware of a court decision against him is obliged to uphold, comply with it or obey it until it is said aside by a court of a court of competent jurisdiction. It is incomprehensible that a group of people can ignore a court order obtained against them and court processes served on them to resort to self-help and over-reaching both the High Court and the Court of Appeal and other litigating parties in the suits. Once a party submits himself to the jurisdiction of a court for the purpose of adjudication of a suit, whatever actual or perceived rights he has or may think he has are subsumed under the jurisdiction of the court and the parties must maintain the status quo until the court pronounces on their rights. The party must not dispose of or tamper or attempt to tamper in anyway with the res or the subject matter of the dispute through self-help or otherwise, so as to render the courts decisions’ on the suit nugatory.

    Specifically in the case of Ezegbu v First African Trust Bank Limited (1992) 1 NWLR (PT. 220) page 699 at 724 the court held: “It is trite law that where a matter is before a court of law, none of the parties can legally or wrongfully take any unilateral action that will prejudice or tend to prejudice the hearing or adjudication of the matter by the court. Parties who have submitted to the jurisdiction of the court are under a legal duty not to do anything to frustrate or make nonsense a possible court order. They must, whether they like it or not, wait for the court order. They must, whether they like it or not, wait for the court to take a decision one way or the other…the parties cannot jump the gun and do their own thing in their own way. That will be tantamount to undermining the integrity of the court”

    Rather than resort to self-help and forceful illegal activity of the Balogun Market, one would have expected the aggrieved traders to seek remedy in a court of law as stipulated in the 1999 Constitution. Resorting to self-help or force in the settlement of disputes is a recipe for anarchy. Consequently, the police hierarchy is humbly advised not to allow the police to be used in settling civil disputes which are already before the courts. The Balogun Market, arguably, is an economic behemoth of the nation. Therefore anything hampering the Market will hamper the economy.

    These disgruntled members of the BBA should allow peace to reign at the Balogun Market. They should approach the court to seek remedy, if any. Nothing is gained by resorting to violence. The function of the judiciary as a dispenser of justice, sustainer of good governance and economic growth is endangered by the undermining of the integrity of the court and disobedience to court orders. Our democratic experiment will be aborted by undermining the integrity of the court and resorting to self-help in settling disputes.