Election Petitions: Nigeria’s Judiciary Must Redeem Itself

 By Olu Fasan

In Nigeria, elections almost always end up in court. To stem this tide, the Electoral Act of 2022 introduced the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, a technology that would drastically reduce electoral malpractices. If that happened, election results would be more credible and less prone to legal challenge, although election matters remain justiciable, that is, subject to trial in a court of law.

Indeed, BVAS reduced the number of petitions arising from this year’s general elections, compared to the six previous elections since 1999. However, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, wilfully refused to use BVAS in the presidential election and in some governorship elections. Consequently, several results announced by INEC raised issues of process values and substantive justice that are now subject to trial in the election tribunals and the courts, ending up, inevitably, in the Supreme Court.

Open Letter To Wole Soyinka

 By Promise Adiele 

I greet you, sir. I crouch and genuflect before your domineering presence – the irrepressible man of letters, the first black man to win a Nobel Laureate. Despite your recent paradoxical posturing which suggests a striking alignment with corrosive forces in Nigeria, you remain a global totem of literary ingenuity.

*Soyinka 

You are a legend in the literary fraternity, a position you share with your late friends and compatriots Chinua Achebe and J.P Clark. No genuine engagement of African literature is complete without a mention of your names. Besides your creative impute to the literary family, you are a critic, autobiographer, activist, translator, and a radical opposer to all forms of misrule. In appropriating Ogun, the Yoruba god of iron and subterranean agent of self-examination as your patron god, you challenge humanity to self-purify and reject all forms of subjugation. You are a great man, and there is no controversy about it.

Does Nigeria Have A Living Conscience?

 By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

Nigerians are very good at crowning false heroes. Just open a Nigerian newspaper you can find near you and see how many people that are recklessly described on its pages as “credible” politicians, “honest and selfless” Nigerians, or worse, the “conscience of the nation.” You would be shocked to see the number of people that carelessly allow themselves to be associated with such superb, ennobling qualities even when they are fully aware that by their personal conducts, it might even appear as a generous compliment to dress them up in the very opposites of those terms. 

*Chinua Achebe 

Over the years, these words and phrases have been so callously and horribly subjected to the worst kinds of abuses in Nigeria with hardly anyone making any attempt to intervene and seek their redemption. I won’t in the least, therefore, be surprised to wake up tomorrow and hear that decent people in this country have begun to protest and resist any attempt to associate them with such grossly debased terms.

Goodbye To The Culture Of Impunity

 By Ayo Oyoze Baje

One of the most significant factors that define and drive the engine of democratic processes is respect for the rule of law. That explains why constitutions are drafted and approved, with the aims and objectives to protect human rights and freedom of association and expression. In its full essence, the Constitution prevents the government and its officials from abusing power.

It also specifies the functions of the arms of government, be it the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. As for the 1999 constitution of Nigeria (as amended) it is predicated on promoting the principles, norms and ethos of democracy.

With it, Nigerians are supposed to be separated far from “The law of the jungle” which as an expression has come to describe a scenario where “anything goes”. In fact, the Oxford English Dictionary defines the Law of the Jungle as “the code of survival in jungle life, now usually with reference to the superiority of brute force or self-interest in the struggle for survival”.

Nigeria: Dousing Political Tension In The Land

 By Jideofor Adibe

Elections everywhere tend to be divisive. This is because mobilisation of support hinges on a successful creation of a simplistic binary of ‘we-versus-them’ dichotomy, which is then nourished by all manner of scaremongering. This is why political campaigns are often likened to wars without weapons.

In Africa, it is even more so where politicians seem to have taken literally the exultations by Kwame Nkrumah, a pioneering pan-Africanist and Ghana’s independence leader (1957-1966), to seek first the political kingdom and everything else would be added unto them. In Africa, the allure of political office is exceedingly high. Apart from being perhaps the quickest means to personal material accumulation, there is a pervasive fear that the group that captures state power could use it to privilege its in-group and disadvantage others.

Nigeria: Our Disappearing Progressives

 By Sunny Ikhioya

Judging from its trajectory, the 2023 election was expected to be different from previous ones, and it did go that way. What we never imagined was the betrayal of the so-called Progressives, who claim to be the conscience of the nation, and are more patriotic than the rest; the lodestar of the nation’s compass. Before the 2015 elections they were everywhere: in the academia, labour, civil societies, NGOs, media and others. 

They were preaching freedom, equity, fundamental human rights, free and fair elections, infrastructure and welfare to uplift the common man and many more. It has been eight long years. Many things have happened in the country within this period: the citizens have been battered black and blue; those who couldn’t stand it have taken the Japa route.

Lai Mohammed’s Hysteria Over IPOB Misplaced

 By Charles Okoh

Last week, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, criticised several Western nations for endorsing the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), which he said has been categorised as a terrorist group. He issued the warning in Washington, D.C. during official meetings with a number of foreign media outlets and policy organisations.

According to NAN, the minister said IPOB remains a terrorist group as declared by the Nigerian government and should be treated as such by Western countries.

He claimed that the group had been using funds raised in foreign countries to “destabilise” Nigeria.

Mohammed argued that it is hypocritical for the West to assert that it is battling terrorism while secretly aiding a terrorist group.

How My UNN Sojourn Changed My Perception Of Igbos

 

Let me start by making a confession. But for the entry requirements of the University of Lagos, I’m not sure that I would ever have ended up leaving the city where I had spent my formative years to head roughly 610 kilometres east to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN). I had always wanted to read Mass Communication because after watching so many movies when I was growing up, I wanted to end up being a top-notch film director in the mould of Stephen Spielberg, the man behind some of the biggest films ever produced, including such classics as Jaws, Jurassic Park, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Shrek and Schindler’s List among others. However, the Almighty had other ideas for me. My failure to get a credit in mathematics barred me from Unplug, which classified it as a Social Science and awarded a B.Sc.

Remembering Deborah Samuel

 By Julius Oweh

The toxic mixture of religion and politics is the distinguishing trademark that has beggared Nigeria's development and progress and until our leaders get the priority right, poverty and instability shall remain the signature tune of the country for a long time to come. I may be wearing the garb of a doomsday prophet but the realities are so stark and revealing. 

*Deborah Samuel

The butchering of Deborah Samuel in Sokoto State by fellow students is a tip of the iceberg. It is not going to be the last time religious zealots nurtured by poverty and insane religious ideology shall continue to make a mockery of the secular nature of the country and a bad reason for Nigeria to attract international media attention. 

The Scars Of Slavery And Racism

 By Adeze Ojukwu  

The horrific Atlantic slave trade officially ended about 200 years ago. However, the scars are still epitomized by the systemic racial discriminations against people of colour in Western nations and their institutions. 

Stories of bitter memories of the humongous cruelty displayed by the white merchants against their human commodities were rehashed recently, at this year’s International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The commemoration, as in previous editions, centered around the brutal abduction of thousands of young men and women from West Africa to Europe and the Americas. The account of this vicious debasement of West Africans was vividly chronicled by a publication by Ricenpeas.org. 

Peter Obi And Treason

 By Obi Nwakanma

Political developments of last week have left many a Nigerian askance, wondering about what might be the endgame for this regime. The current party in government, the APC, is pushing its current agenda of “state capture” with the kind of brazenness and open defiance of public will, never recorded before in Nigeria; not even during military dictatorship. 

*Peter Obi

It would seem to most history-minded people that this generation of Nigerian politicians and political actors learnt nothing, therefore, from the past; specifically from the crisis that led to the 1966 coups and the devastating civil war from which Nigeria is actually yet to recover, 53 years after the shooting phase of the war ended.

Nigeria: A Nation That Lost Its Way

 By Owei Lakemfa

As an aspirant in 2022, the President of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau, made a pilgrimage to Keffi, Nasarawa State. He needed the blessings of one of the most consummate and influential law professors the country has ever produced: Onje Gye-Wado. The latter from 1999, was for four years, Deputy Governor of Nasarawa State. He was also former Law Dean of the Nasarawa State University, and Dean, Faculty of Law, Birmingham University.

He agreed to support Maikyau provided he agrees to use his NBA Presidency to fight for a better country because he believes that lawyers should be the engine of change in society. This was no mere rhetoric because Gye-Wado not only passionately believes it, but lives it. He was one of the enthusiasts of the legendary former NBA President, Alao Aka-Bashorun who built the pro-people foundations of the association and made the NBA a body even military dictators had to contend with.

Four Biggest Losers Of 2023 General Elections

 By Michael Owhoko

Real losers of the 2023 Nigerian general elections are not the electorate who were deprived of their rights to freely choose candidates of their choice nor the first-timer youth who were disappointed by the Nigerian state nor the candidates who lost or won as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

*Yakubu and Buhari 

The biggest losers are President Muhammadu Buhari; INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu; President-elect, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu; and Nigeria as a political entity. Except for Bola Tinubu who carries the burden of legitimacy arising from what is perceived as a flawed process and total miniature votes garnered, the others will live with the scar and collective guilt slammed on the country by ethical deficit in the delivery process of the elections.

Muhammad Buhari’s Years Of The Locust

 By Bob MajiriOghene Etemiku

In less than 60 days, what has become one of the greatest mistakes that Nigerians made in the election of Muhammadu Buhari as president will come to an end – hopefully. To say that Nigerians have endured the most mortifying and exhausting a time as the epoch of this lean-framed individual is to say the least.

*Buhari 

When I remember and cast my mind back to 2014 during the debate as to whether or not to elect this individual, two things come to mind. One is the insults and name-calling that his supporters, especially one individual known as Dayo and his ilk heaped on me after I warned them that Buhari was coming with suffering, leanness and scarcity.

The Agony Of A Father Who Lost A Precious Son!

 By Emeka Ogbonna

My son, Prince Pharm. Obinna Emeka, registered pharmacist and writer was knocked down by a vehicle on April 1, 2023 at about 7.10pm at Kubwa. He was taken to Kubwa general hospital immediately and there was no medical doctor to attend to him for close to 3 hours before one doctor came and referred him to National Hospital. 

*Obinna Emeka

At National Hospital, the doctors insisted that he would not be attended to until they had his full body scan and x-ray. The body scan and x-rays Machines in the National Hospital were not working and have not been working for close to two years. 

Breaking Gender Bias Circle In Africa

 By Olufemi Oyedele

Women are seen in many African countries as second class citizens, even in their fatherland. They are only allowed to play the second fiddle. In the new millennium, what distinctly stands out African nations from western world are the numerous biases against women. Gender inequality is one of the greatest threats to Africa’s future. A study on gender inequality conducted in February 2022 by an online platform on market and consumer data, Statista, showed that the respondents agreed that there is gender inequality in Africa.

Twenty-two per cent of the African respondents considered employment opportunities as the main challenge faced by women on the continent. Females were, on the average, some 32 per cent less likely to have the same opportunities as males in sub-Saharan Africa. The second-leading issue was gender-based violence, as reported by 19 per cent of the respondents. In some parts of the East, women have no right to property inheritance and can only lay claims to property belonging to their husbands.

2023 Presidential Election: Chimamanda Adichie Writes President Biden

"The smoldering disillusionment felt by many Nigerians is not so much because their candidate did not win as because the election they had dared to trust was, in the end, so unacceptably and unforgivably flawed. Congratulating its outcome, President Biden, tarnishes America’s self-proclaimed commitment to democracy. Please do not give the sheen of legitimacy to an illegitimate process. The United States should be what it says it is."

--------

Dear President Biden,

Something remarkable happened on the morning of February 25, the day of the Nigerian presidential election. Many Nigerians went out to vote holding in their hearts a new sense of trust. Cautious trust, but still trust. Since the end of military rule in 1999, Nigerians have had little confidence in elections. To vote in a presidential election was to brace yourself for the inevitable aftermath: fraud.

*Chimamanda Adichie 

Elections would be rigged because elections were always rigged; the question was how badly. Sometimes voting felt like an inconsequential gesture as predetermined “winners” were announced.

A law passed last year, the 2022 Electoral Act, changed everything. It gave legal backing to the electronic accreditation of voters and the electronic transmission of results, in a process determined by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The chair of the commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, assured Nigerians that votes would be counted in the presence of voters and recorded in a result sheet, and that a photo of the signed sheet would immediately be uploaded to a secure server. When rumors circulated about the commission not keeping its word, Yakubu firmly rebutted them.

Is Nigeria A True Democracy? Far From It!

 By Olu Fasan

President Muhammadu Buhari recently said this year’s general elections showed that “Nigeria’s democracy has truly matured.” But speaking on Arise TV, Barry Andrews, Chief Observer of the European Union Election Observation Mission to Nigeria, said: “It’s difficult to point to progress being made in terms of the democratic story of Nigeria.” Basically, he’s saying Nigeria’s “democracy” is too rudimentary to be called a true democracy. Or, as the Financial Times said, “Nigeria remains a democracy, but only just.” Put simply, Nigeria is a Democracy in Name Only, DINO!

But why does Buhari think differently? Well, a former dictator turned “democrat”, he sees democracy through the narrow prism of “voting” in “elections”, with little interest in what happens before, during and after the process. For him, provided there’s “voting”, it doesn’t matter if elections are not free, fair, transparent, and credible; if the will of the people is obstructed through vote-buying and voter-intimidation; and if people’s votes actually don’t count due to ballot-snatching and manipulation of results. 

Lai Mohammed And His Treason Allegation

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

On Tuesday, April 4, Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, did in the U.S. what he knows how best to do – fib. Mohammed, in Washington DC on official engagements with some international media organisations, including the Washington Post, Voice of America, Associated Press and Foreign Policy Magazine, accused the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and his running-mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, of inciting people to violence over the February 25 presidential election.

The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, quoted the minister as saying: “Obi and his Vice, Datti Ahmed, cannot be threatening Nigerians that if the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, of the All Progressives Congress, APC, is sworn in on May 29, it will be the end of democracy in Nigeria. This is treason… Obi’s statement is that of a desperate person, he is not the democrat that he claimed to be. A democrat should not believe in democracy only when he wins the election.”

Obasanjo Writes UK Court, Pleads For Ekweremadu

 The Old Bailey Court in London on March 23, 2023, convicted former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, and his wife, Beatrice, of organ trafficking...Below is the full text of former president Olusegun Obasanjo's letter to the Chief Clerk seeking some reprieve for the couple...  

My dear Chief Clerk, may I seize this opportunity to commend your utmost dedication and resourcefulness which you have demonstrated with rare qualities of commitment and courage, while also upholding the cherished traditions of the Public Service.