It’s Time To Hold Nigerian Judges Accountable

 By Tonnie Iredia

The National Judicial Council (NJC) is the body set-up by law to among other things discipline erring Nigerian judges. This was probably to prevent different agencies from harassing judges thereby boosting judicial autonomy. One would therefore have expected that the body would be up and doing in ensuring sanity in the Nigerian judiciary thereby giving no room for outsiders to pry into its internal matters.

But this has not been so. Instead, the NJC has for long shown that it is incapable of effectively performing the function. Many judges who have openly misbehaved to the chagrin of other sectors of the Nigerian society, often got off the hook. Some Nigerians actually believe that the NJC has acted more as a tool for covering-up erring judges on the basis of esprit de corps.

Nigeria’s Bow And Lie-Lie Senate

 By Emmanuel Aziken

The recent decision by FIFA to directly pay Nigerian footballers in the ongoing Women’s World Cup tournament their bonuses must be considered a slap on Nigerians and the independence of the country.

*Akpabio

However, for many who consider the FIFA decision as an insult, the brag about sovereignty slips into stupidity after watching the charade officially dubbed the ministerial screening of ministers by the Nigerian Senate.

The Buhari/Aisha Squabble

By Wale Sokunbi

Three important events caught the imagination of many Nigerians in the past fortnight. But, I will dwell on one of them. Nigeria’s First Lady, Aisha Buhari, and her husband, President Muhammadu Buhari, were in the global spotlight for reasons that were less than salutary. Aisha threw potshots at the president at an interview with the Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), saying his government had been hijacked by “strangers” who were not involved in his campaign for the office of president. The president replied with an unfortunate gaffe in the worst place he could have made such a mistake – in front of one of the most powerful women in the world, German leader, Angela Merkel.

President Buhari and wife, Aisha

Buhari, to the shock of the lady and the enlightened world, said his wife’s place was in the kitchen, the sitting room and the now infamous “the other room.”

Aisha’s statement castigating her husband had, last week, won the hearts of many who felt that the president needed to be told the home truth that she told him. The statement was particularly pleasing to those who are happy to hold on to any straw to condemn the president and project his many perceived “failings”. Indeed, one writer, on account of what he regarded as Aisha’s identification with ordinary Nigerians on their disenchantment with the Buhari administration, actually saw in her someone who should run for the office of vice president in 2019.

What is the import of the Buhari/Aisha spat? For me, Aisha’s outburst mirrors her frustration with the president for not making the appointment of persons into his administration a “family and friends affair”, but one of strange bedfellows who were coming in to reap where they did not sow. In that sense, all the anger is not so much about the baking of the nation’s legendary “national cake”, but the sharing of it in a manner that did not reflect the efforts of those who contributed in making the cake available for sharing by Buhari in the first place.