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  • The Sorry State Of Nigeria’s Judiciary Among Others Makes The Battle Cry For A Revolution Inevitable By Francis Adewale

    The Sorry State Of Nigeria’s Judiciary Among Others Makes The Battle Cry For A Revolution Inevitable By Francis Adewale

    Lawyers
    Lawyers

    “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
                                                   – President John F. Kennedy (1962)

    This week may be one of the worst weeks for Nigerian judiciary and they might have made the much vaunted Sowore’s revolution inevitable. The first salvo was the list of judges released by the National Judicial Council replete with the names of their sons and daughters as well as hangers on. Second is the farcical decision in EFCC vs Kalu where the Supreme Court “suo motu” created a new section to the constitution of Nigeria by vacating a conviction duly given under an extant law. The strange rationale by the Supreme Court is that the presiding judge, now elevated to the Court of Appeal should not have pronounced the sentence. The Court conveniently ignored the fact that the accused counsel had invited the judge to come back and continue the hearing by a formal letter!

    Gone are the days when Nigerian judiciary is famously celebrated as the last bastion of defense for the common man. The days of Kayode Esho, Chukwudifu Oputa, Muhammed Uwais is long gone. Our judiciary is no more like Caesar’s wife, above board. The problem however is not necessarily down to the hydra headed monster of corruption alone but a more sinister evil called, nepotism. It is my humble opinion that an opaque process for selection of judges led us to where we found ourselves this week. And the problem did not start with the current chief justice. The dysfunction and bastardization have been long in coming, and as we will find out in this piece, the cancer has eaten deep into the fabric of this nation. The revolution is inevitable. 

    The Sorry State Of Nigeria’s Judiciary Among Others Makes The Battle Cry For A Revolution Inevitable By Francis Adewale 1Lawyers

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    What precipitate this write up is a social media post by a good friend of mine and I obtained his permission to repost his comment with my personal edits:
    “It took Orji Kalu only 4 months including Covid lockdown challenge to move from the High Court to Supreme Court to get his so called sound judgment from Supreme Court while it took ten years to get his case completed at the High Court level. Ten good years! And we are told justice in Nigeria is not cash and carry? The Supreme Court is preparing the ground for a revolution and very soon something extraordinary will take place. The same Supreme Court that will give 2021 and 2022 court date for poor defendants, sat and summarily decide a case within 4 months while cases of those facing a life sentence languish in the labyrinth of jungle justice!”

    My first response to the post, is to retort that the problem did not start with judiciary, but they seem to have led the “nunc dimitis” for the internment of democracy in Nigeria. The judiciary may have pushed us to the praecipe but they were not the only one. We all recalled the impunity days of PDP rule and how they ride roughshod on people’s right, celebrating acquisition of jets obtained from corrupt practices while hordes of masses suffer the indignity of scrapping for foods from the gutter. Towards the end of that era, we all thought, if we can just get a man of integrity into Aso Rock, someone who will brook no atom of corruption, we will change the country. The election of 2015 seems to have lulled Nigerians into thinking that all we need is someone or a duo with integrity, so we elect Buhari and Osinbajo, a puritan and a pastor and went home satiated. What we were not prepared for or more appositely choose to ignore is the fact that the vehicle that brought them into governance is none other than the decrepit system that PDP used to feather their nest. In the first 4 years, we were told that the problem is with the National Assembly where the legistlooters shifted their control of the vortex of power in Abuja, opposing every anti-corruption moves of the executives. Then come the last election where the ruling party now controls the executive and legislative arm, but corruption runs through the gamut of the judiciary and Aso Rock looks the other way while nepotism festers in its rank.

    It is as if the cancer has completely swallowed up the entire fabric of the nation. Cases involving the poor dragged on for years while those who can afford senior advocate can get quick justice. Many warned that this will sound the death knell of democracy in Nigeria. Every attempt to even build on free and fair election has been truncated by the judiciary. What with the recent confounding judgment from Imo and Bayelsa. Our two gargantuan political parties now owned our judiciary lock, stock and barrel. They sit in smoke filled rooms to determine who will be governors, legislators and judges, and those who will play ball are readily appointed as pawns in the chest board of the Nigerian ruling class, wives, nephews, cousins, sons and daughters are made judges and senior advocates overnight without recourse to any modicum of meritocracy. A friend of mine recently quipped that the problem of nepotism is not just that it defeats meritocracy and breeds mediocrity but that it infects the entire body politics and renders it comatose. Corruption can be traced, and ill-gotten wealth recovered but nepotism is more sinister. Those who obtain position of power and authority through nepotism hold fealty only to their masters who appointed them. Such appointee will readily twist the constitution, made up section that does not exist all at the behest of their “godfather”. It is insidious and evil.

    I graduated from Nigerian Law School 30 years ago, after an excellent stint at Great Ife. My class at Ife, drawn from the north, east, west middle belt and south-south has in its rank some of the best legal minds any country will be proud of. We graduated with high hopes to take on the world and change the land. Few of us found ourselves abroad on scholarship where we flourish and excel. Those in legal practice in Nigeria, either at the federal or state ministry of justice or private practice are the ones my heart bleeds for, especially those without access to members of the National Judicial Council. I have had the privilege to advance my career abroad as an attorney and public defender. I frequently sit on panels that recommend colleagues for appointment as judges in a fair, open and transparent process; something my colleagues in Nigeria could only dream of.

    When I look at the state of Nigerian legal practice my heart bleeds. The career growth of colleagues in the legal profession in Nigeria is stunted not for lack of excellence but influence in the right place. Influence peddling is an art form in Nigeria and politicians used to have the exclusive preserve of selling it to the highest bidder, but our Judicial Council seems to have mastered the art. The problem will not be this pronounced if the sons and daughters they are foisting on Nigerian judiciary are steeped in the Nigerian experience or have a modicum of merit. As many of my colleagues are apt to complain, majority of the recent appointees hardly spend few years in Nigeria. They all went to schools abroad. Totally devoid of the Nigerian experience, and constantly removed from the everyday life Nigerians suffers under. Majority of them lives in the gilded mansions of their forbears in Abuja and other state capitals, where they are rarely touched by the “better angels of our nature” to use the phrase coined by Abraham Lincoln. It is therefore no surprise that they care only for what their “godfather” demand.

    Let me however warns that the biggest mistake we could make is to think that the rot is only in the heart of our judiciary. Think again. Nepotism is next door, next street, next town and everywhere in Nigeria. It rampages through the land, be it North, East or West. Just look at our churches and mosques, who do you see minister or lead the prayers when the founder/visioner is not around? You guess right,  if you say their sons and daughters. Gone are the days when Pa Fadayomi push to have a meritorious doctor of aerodynamics succeed him. Gone are the days when the leader of the faithful in Nigeria is selected by their aptitude in the knowledge of the Quaran. Nowadays, the exit of the leader is the beginning of the reign of the progeny. It has infected our colleges and universities, scholarship and opportunities that used to be available on merit are now exclusive preserve of the vice chancelor’s children and family members. Woe betide the school senate members that dare ask questions. Advertisement for jobs that has already been reserved for the children of the privileged are means to extort money in the form of application fees a la Abba Moro immigration recruitment scheme. A recent recruitment without advertisement at our apex bank reported by Sahara Reporters shows that successful applicants names were picked out of the rolodex of the governor. Commercial Banks staff are not an exemption, they are either recruited based on sex appeal or influential ministers/senators’ “recommendation” which doesn’t come easy for the educated but less privileged applicants.

    A friend concluded an animated discussion on social media on this issue with a distinctively Nigerian resignation: “It is clear that those who do not want things to work properly in Nigeria are more powerful than those who are working towards finding solutions to our problems.” Again, my response is what do we have to lose if we embrace Omoyele Sowore’s revolution, even with its youthful disdain for experience? Especially when our current experienced leadership seems to treat the Nigerian masses with contempt. Look at it this way: They do not need our votes to win election, as they could procure midnight judgment in Abuja a la Bayelsa and Imo. They do not need to legislate to fill any lacunae in our constitutional experience as the Supreme Court proved in Kalu’s case. In fact, as long as oil flows and they have the means to fill their Cayman Island bank accounts, we may as well not exist. Greed and avarice have become the directive principle of Nigerian ruling class. To rescue ourselves from their vice grip, we need revolution now!

    Francis Adewale
    Tioluwanimi@gmail.com

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    The Sorry State Of Nigeria’s Judiciary Among Others Makes The Battle Cry For A Revolution Inevitable By Francis Adewale
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  • What the CARES Act means for you

    What the CARES Act means for you

    Understand what rules exist to offer investors flexible relief options from their retirement savings accounts as a result of COVID-19.
    What the CARES Act means for you
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  • COVID-19 And Nigeria’s Pathetic Leadership Deficit By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

    COVID-19 And Nigeria’s Pathetic Leadership Deficit By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

    COVID-19 And Nigeria’s Pathetic Leadership Deficit By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye 2

    COVID-19 And Nigeria’s Pathetic Leadership Deficit By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye 3


    There is no better warning about the growing confusion that seems to be gradually beclouding the federal government’s response to the coronavirus challenge than the belief it betrayed last week that, perhaps, all it needs to calm the fears and apprehensions of Nigerians about its ability to halt the spread of the virus is to reel out a catalogue of activities President Buhari was said to have undertaken so far concerning the pestilence, whether the people felt their impact or not. 

    Now, if your family is starving badly, do you solve the rumbling signs of biting hunger in their stomach with some wild tales of the efforts deployed by you so far to feed them, or just keep quiet, give them food, and they will see and feel for themselves that you have played your role responsively and effectively?  Or if you must talk, tell them something you have done whose benefits they can readily verify and identify with. 

    Indeed, some Nigerians are beginning to achieve the conviction that there must be something about being in government in this country that seems to diminish the reasoning ability of people once they get in there and deprives them of the capacity to realize when they have stopped making sense or even become downright annoying. This is very pathetic. 

    And so, last week, presidential spokesperson, Mr. Femi Adesina, issued a document entitled: “COVID-19: What President Buhari Has Done And Is Doing.” And, I suppose that with the release of that handout, the virus immediately received a deadly blow and vanished from the country! Aren’t we so blessed? Why then are Nigerians not on the streets celebrating the unprecedented feat? 

    A prominent item on Mr. Adesina’s list is the president’s March 29 broadcast. And what exactly did the broadcast achieve? The two things I can readily remember now is that Gen Buhari had announced the continuation of the school feeding programme for pupils who are all at home now due to the closure of schools as part of the efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Probably, nobody remembered to inform him and his speech writers that school children were on compulsory holidays, or are they going to send the food to them in their homes? Or, perhaps, somebody is trying to find a justification for the billions of naira we will be informed later was spent on the exercise?  

    Also, the president proclaimed the lockdown of Lagos and Ogun states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).  And when he was through, he returned to his hideout – where only a few privileged eyes and ears see and hear from him, and then come out to tell us what they think he has said or done.

    Now, what exactly was the lockdown meant to achieve?  Okay, as social interactions are reduced, the chances of spreading the virus decrease.  Yes, but what else?  Has anyone seen any evidence that there were any plans to use the stay-at-home period to access the people and step up medical tests to determine how many people have become infected with the virus and how they could be attended to? 

    The government that was boasting that it was “adequately prepared” to tackle the virus was later to prove when the virus eventually arrived that it was only making empty claims as usual.  A country of 200 million people has yet to demonstrate any capacity to test even a reasonable fraction of one percent of her population. And somebody is publishing a document to tell us what the president was supposed to have done or is doing. As if such boring tales will remove the cloud of gloom hovering over Nigeria? 

    Again, in a country where electric power is just an unaffordable luxury for many, how can a leader just lock down some states and return to his hideout to continue his “vacation” that was rudely interrupted by the loud, persistent and widespread demands that he should address his country even though some other presidents were doing daily briefings and leading the war against the virus from the front?  As the markets closed and movements became restricted, how are those who could afford to buy and stock food items at home preserve them without electric power?  

    What of the greater population which depend on daily earnings for their survival?  What is the government’s plan for them? Okay, we are hearing of palliatives that have been extended to this category of people and the billions of naira that have already been transferred to their accounts?  Now, who has encountered the happy recipients of the twenty thousand naira (N20, 000) said to have been given to each of them?  Are there really existing data showing the social and economic status of every Nigerian which is in the possession of the authorities?  So, all the “poor and vulnerable” Nigerians now have bank accounts whose details are known to the government?  So, why then are too many Nigerians very suspicious of these claims as shown in their social media comments? And why is such a rare display of kindness by this government not being celebrated? Or have the funds (if indeed any were shared) ended up in the hands of the same people who have more than enough to need them while those who are genuinely deprived remain terribly famished? 

    Already, the biting hunger out there is forcing a growing number of people to defy the no-movement decree and soon, the whole effort might be defeated, and the country will return to square one.  Information Minister, Mr. Lai Mohammed, is threatening that the lockdown may be extended if Nigerians fail to behave themselves. But what he should rather have done is to hasten to school himself to realize that there is always a price to pay when leaders leave the country they claim to be governing in great disarray only to suddenly wake up when there is an emergency to grope for fix-quick solutions. 

    A few days after the president’s broadcast (that is, Tuesday, March 31), Daily Independent carried a front page lead story about 26 Americans who came into the country through the Murtala Mohammed International Airport and headed to Calabar without being screened.  Now, who cleared their trip to the country and why were there no health officials available to screen them and ensure they were quarantined for 14 days before being allowed to fly to Calabar?  Is it because they are Americans or clients of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) or both?  Does that automatically exempt any of them from being a carrier of the virus which is presently ravaging their own country?  What kind of government claims to be fighting a virus with one hand and using the other hand to be undermining the efforts being deployed to contain it? 

    Okay, the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, has just announced that an 18-man Chinese team of medical “experts” will soon arrive the country to “assist” Nigeria in the fight against the coronavirus.  Now, is it the federal government that asked China for help or was it China that volunteered their assistance?  Indeed many Nigerians are vehemently opposed to this gesture at this time.  Our own local medical experts have not shown any signs of being overburdened by the work, so what difference are these 18 Chinese doctors and nurses going to make?  Will they, like the 26 privileged Americans, also be given express entry into the country or will they be isolated for 14 days as should be the case, before they would be allowed to start rendering their “assistance”?  

    Do we really need this Chinese gift now or is it that the government lacks the liver to politely decline their offer of help, despite the widespread apprehension among the citizenry about their involvement (since many Nigerians, habour strong fears that the gesture might turn out a Greek gift)? Even the umbrella body of Nigerian doctors, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), has come out to strongly oppose the coming of the Chinese medical team.  Is it that our government is too intimidated to say NO to China’s offer probably because it has yoked itself so much with crushing debts due to its excessive borrowings from them – debts, whose positive effects on Nigerian lives many are yet to see? 

    I raise these points because, although, Nigeria has recorded one of the lowest deaths from coronavirus, it was the stubborn refusal of the government to close our borders when it became very necessary and urgent (and despite calls from well-meaning Nigerians) that led to the explosion in the number of confirmed cases that the country has recorded today.  In saner climes, the government should have profusely apologized for that terrible miscalculation that is costing the nation so much now. 

    But it now has another opportunity now to gratify the yearning of Nigerians and reject the Chinese offer even if it is well-meaning and the fears about it are misplaced. 

    Now, what lessons is the government taking away from the scourge of coronavirus? Will they see the need to equip our hospitals this time and upgrade at least few of them to world standard now that they have realized the folly of always waiting to use public funds to send themselves and their families abroad to treat even minor ailments?  For the first time in Nigeria, the naïve and largely misguided Nigerian leaders have found out that it is not always safe to seek solutions for health challenges outside the country and that there is afterall no place like home. This is hoping that the lesson will endure and be redemptive. 

    *Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye, is a Nigerian journalist and writer. (scruples2006@yahoo.com) 

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    COVID-19 And Nigeria’s Pathetic Leadership Deficit By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
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  • Social Media Mistakes to Avoid

    Social media marketing has grown in popularity as Facebook and Twitter users devote more time to their accounts.

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  • BSH recipients need not make new application for BPN

    BSH recipients need not make new application for BPN

    BSH recipients need not make new application for BPN 6

    PUTRAJAYA: Households and single individuals who have been listed as the Cost of Living Aid (BSH) recipients do not need to make a new application for the Bantuan Prihatin Nasional (BPN) cash handouts.

    The Ministry of Finance (MOF) in a statement today said the BPN payments would be made directly to them through their bank accounts registered under BSH.

    “Households earning RM4,000 or less will get BPN of RM1,600 while singles earning RM2,000 or less will receive BPN of RM800.

    For households earning between RM4,001 and RM8,000 and singles earning between RM2,001 and RM4,000 who are registered taxpayers under the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN), MOF said they also do not need to make a new application for BPN.

    BPN payments of RM1,000 for households and RM500 for eligible individuals under the category will be made directly to them through their bank accounts registered with LHDN, it added.

    For those who have not yet registered, new applications can be made starting April 1 via LHDN’s website at www.hasil.gov.my, it said.

    “The ministry wishes to remind the public to be wary of scammers who have become emboldened by the opportunity to commit fraud against those who need such assistance.

    “Recipients are advised to refer to official sources and not to disclose any personal information to any third party,” it said.

    For more information, the public can contact the MOF at 03-8882 9089/ 03-8882 9087/ 03-8882 9191/ 03-8882 4565/ 03-8882 4566 from 9am to 5pm (Sunday to Friday), through email at bsh@treasury.gov.my/ pre2020@treasury.gov.my or Telegram application PRE Prihatin or the MOF official Facebook page.

    Enquiries can also be forwarded to LHDN via calls from 9am to 5pm (Sunday to Friday) at 1-800 882 747 or 03-8911 1000. – Bernama

    BSH recipients need not make new application for BPN
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  • Should You Be Analyzing Your Social Media Marketing Effectiveness?

    Social media is probably one of the most essential tools in today?s business. It may be difficult for businesses to survive without LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook accounts as they help to increase customer base and generate leads. While Facebook has over 800 million users, Twitter has about 200 million users. In addition, a blog with regular comments goes a long way in enhancing business effectiveness…

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  • Covid-19 test: No charges for foreigners at public clinics, hospitals

    Covid-19 test: No charges for foreigners at public clinics, hospitals

    Covid-19 test: No charges for foreigners at public clinics, hospitals 8

    PUTRAJAYA: Foreigners who appear for Covid-19 tests at clinics and public hospitals will not be charged, according to Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

    He said the decision was in line with the circular issued by the Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH) on Jan 29.

    “If the foreigners come to the MOH clinic or hospital for non-Covid-19 diseases, they will be charged the set fee.

    “(However) for Covid-19 related illnesses, as per the circular dated Jan 29, fees will not be charged, regardless of whether one is poor or rich,“ he said during a press conference on Covid-19, here today.

    The government had previously urged foreigners in the country to come forward and conduct Covid-19 screening tests to determine their health status following the rise in the number of positive cases reported.

    Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said all the participants of the tabligh programme which took place at the Sri Petaling Mosque recently have been urged to undergo Covid-19 tests even though they showed no symptoms.

    He said this was due to the spike in the number of positive cases reported from the cluster.

    “If according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), only those with symptoms should be tested, but that was in the past. We have now agreed that even those members who show no symptoms will undergo Covid-19 tests,“ he said.

    He was commenting on allegations that there were members of the tabligh group who had been to health facilities several times but had not been tested for Covid-19.

    Dr Noor Hisham said of the 6,700 participants who had undergone the test, 940 were found positive for Covid-19, which accounts for about 62% of the 1,518 positive cases in the country so far.

    On whether the MOH would propose to the government to extend the Movement Control Order period which is set to expire on March 31, or impose a ‘total lockdown’ following the rise in the number of deaths due to the disease, he said the ministry’s main focus currently was to enhance capacity and expertise, especially in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

    He said if the death rate were to be taken as a yardstick, the current rate used worldwide was 4.5% of the total number of cases, and in Malaysia, there were 1,518 cases so far.

    This could mean there was a possibility of about 60 cases resulting in death, however, he said the current death toll in Malaysia stood at only 14.

    The MCO was implemented by the government from March 18 to 31 to curb the spread of Covid-19. – Bernama

    Covid-19 test: No charges for foreigners at public clinics, hospitals
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