Count Buhari Among The Judges

By Paul Onomuakpokpo  

By unleashing the Department of State Services (DSS) on some judges, President Muhammadu Buhari has succeeded in portraying the nation’s judiciary as reeking of corruption. The clampdown which has rightly provoked so much condemnation is a manifestation of the president’s long-held notion that the corruption of the judges has been an obstacle to the successful prosecution of his anti-corruption campaign. But there is one fact that must be remembered in the raging debate about the appropriateness or otherwise of the action of the DSS since the judges do not have immunity against investigation – the president’s complicity in the alleged misdeeds of the judicial officers. 

*Buhari 

For while it is true that the allegations of corruption against judges and lawyers predate the emergence of Buhari as president, the brazenness of the perversion of justice that riles him is only reflective of the current era of the collapse of the sanctity of the constitution that Buhari and his government have precipitated.

To be sure, we are all outraged at the judiciary’s loss of a moral compass that ought to guide its activities and therefore through every pronouncement reinforce the notion that it is the last bastion of justice for the common man. Rather than deterring corruption, the Bench and the Bar have become ready sources of its perpetuation in the society. Lawyers bribe judges for their clients to win cases. Justice is now for the highest bidder.

Politicians who empty the public treasury are allowed to plea-bargain and go home to enjoy their loot. Those who steal their organisations’ money to buy property all over the world are allowed to recover from phantom ailments in luxury hospitals while the shareholders suffer penury. But the poor person who steals a phone is sentenced to many years in prison without even an option of a fine.

With the return of democracy, corruption in the judiciary has become democratised. The numerous disputes over elections have become opportunities for judges to amass wealth. The late Justice Kayode Esho once alerted us to how some judges had become billionaires by giving judgements that were paid for.

Buhari’s Anti-Graft War: A Sham

By Charles Ogbu

The 8th wonder of the world is how Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, managed to convince sane adults and some foreign countries that his government is waging war against graft. Fact is, there is no war against corruption. The so called anti-graft war is one hell of a lie, a fraud, a sham, a farce. It is a carefully planned and well executed show meant to deceive the hoi polloi of the society and take their minds off very crucial issues while the rogues in power keep preying on them in their characteristic manner.

*Buhari 

First, president Buhari who is supposedly spearheading this anti-graft war is a man I believe to be integrity-challenged. With due respect to his office, I think the president is a dishonest man who is incapable of honouring his own promise: Before the election, Buhari promised to fight corruption by first declaring his assets publicly, to enable Nigerians determine whether or not he had corruptly enriched himself when he would publicly declare his assets again upon leaving office. On September 3, the president's media aide, Garba Shehu, read out a list of some of the president's belonging where he mentioned incoherent stuff like: "yet to be located plot of land in Port Harcourt", "Unspecified number of cars" etc.

Mr. Shehu would later promise that the president would disclose his full assets when the CCB was done with the verification. The CCB has since finished with the verification and almost one year after, the president has refused to honor his own word.

How can I trust a man who is incapable of honoring his own word? How can Nigerians trust such a man to fight corruption without corruptly enriching himself in the process? And if he is corruptly enriching himself, family and cronies in the process, can he be said to be fighting corruption? How can you claim you are fighting corruption when you have not even proven the very garment you wore was not made from the forbidden tree of corruption? 

Dasukigate: Open Letter To Femi Adesina, Presidential Spokesperson

By Yushau A. Shuaib

Dear Mr. Femi Adesina

Since I am a victim of association to one of the most vilified and scandalised Nigerians through media trial, this Open Letter is the best opportunity for me to put some issues in proper perspective following some of your public remarks about your old friend.

*Femi Adesina

As you are aware, I have been actively involved in cementing relationship between the media and security agencies in the recent past. Immediately after my premature retirement from the public service by the Jonathan administration, I was invited by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), under Col. Sambo Dasuki (retired), to help in changing the negative media narrative on Nigeria’s counter-terrorism campaigns. It was at a period when the Boko Haram was having the upper hand in the propaganda campaign of the war against Nigeria with a section of the foreign media castigating Nigerian troops as “cowardly” “undisciplined” and “ill-trained.”

Among other things, I have the responsibility of consulting for the Forum of Spokespersons of Security and Response Agencies (FOSSRA), then Chaired by Major General Chris Olukolade, which has membership from critical public institutions including the military, security, intelligence and response agencies. We also created and sustained web portals for providing accurate and timely information to the public.

I must commend Mr. Femi Adesina for playing greater roles on the success of our campaign because as the President of Nigerian Guild of Editors, you also encouraged Editors to support our activities through occasional self-censorship to manage negative terrorists’ propaganda.

Being one of the closest Editors to former National Security Adviser, you were always sincere and frank when you met and discussed with Dasuki. You never hid your hardened support for the candidacy of General Buhari of All Progressive Congress (APC). I remember your annoyance over security clampdown on the media and when you sought Dasuki’s intervention for compensation for media organisations over their loss rather than engaging in prolonged court cases. I was with you on that occasion in his office.

Dasukigate: The Vindication of Okonjo-Iweala

By Ikeogu Oke

A French proverb – wise as all proverbs are – says, “For desperate ills desperate remedies.” Those who have found fault with Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala “for the transfer of US$300 million and British Pounds £5.5 million of the recovered Abacha funds to an ONSA operation account” (in what amounts to a move in support of the war against the Boko Haram terrorist group) may not be familiar with this proverb and its implication that there are certain problems that arise in the affairs of humans and nations which reasonable people unanimously agree on the rightness of ignoring convention in solving them.

*Okonjo-Iweala

Take, for instance, the tactics adopted by the United States in fighting terror post 9/11. It involved the torture of suspects at the facility in Guantanamo Bay by the procedure known as waterboarding, etc., but ultimately yielded information leading to the discovery of Osama bin Laden in his secret hideout in Pakistan.

We know that torture breaches the convention of respect for the dignity of suspects. We know what happened to Osama bin Laden in his encounter with the US Navy Seals, though the convention is not to punish – let alone liquidate – an accused person without trial. We also know that that final encounter with bin Laden involved an “unconventional” violation of the territorial integrity and airspace of his host nation. But more importantly, there was a general consensus that America faced such a desperate threat from terror that it was understandable that it took such desperate measures in dealing with it, hence such breaches of convention were generally regarded as insignificant – and justified – in light of the overriding need to find a remedy for the desperate ill of a terrorist threat which compares to Boko Haram in today’s Nigeria.

And the grouse of the critics of Okonjo-Iweala, for which they have asked President Buhari to order her arrest and prosecution, is that she – they allege – disbursed the said funds in a manner that violated convention, given that the funds should have been appropriated through Senate approval before their disbursement.