There have been several demands and requests from well-meaning Nigerians and younger folks who recognise that the current times deserve the intervention of people like us who have made enormous sacrifices to the current phase of our political epoch at nation building.
Nigeria currently has the best and perhaps the last hope and opportunity to restore “National Values & Ethos which had been totally lost and ignored under the various military dictatorship and their civilian surrogates, sympathisers, loyalists and acolytes. Today also, majority of Nigerian Political elites – military and civilians are doing their worst to oppose and ridicule General Buhari’s government battle against corruption thereby making the nation ungovernable for him.
Members of the old order, the so called political elites that have ran Nigeria down particularly in the last 30years inclusive of the military, politicians, clergy, businessmen, academia, professionals, traditional institutions and others are using various strategies inclusive of ethnic, religion, status to subvert the efforts being waged against corruption. The most blatantly corrosive of these vested interests are:
· The politically exposed persons
· A significant number of the Nigerian Judiciary Personnel
· The few highly unconscionable senior lawyers
Part of the cherished “old national values” for which we were proud as Young Nigerians was that Nigeria’s public institutions, be they the judiciary, the education and the protection of civil liberties had global, commonwealth and continental recognitions. Since the military violently overthrew the civilian regime on January 15, 1966, the substantial erosion of all those values had continued till date. Public institutions that existed to defend and sustain democratic norms and values have remained ineffective since the advent of the military into governance.
Today, anything goes in Nigeria and everything is possible through dubious means and violence. Most 40year old downwards don’t know nor are they interested in “our old fashion” where Nigeria had standard, principle, high moral pedestral and acceptable private and public conduct much more by people who aspire to be in public offices.
NIGERIAN JUDICIARY – THE BENCH AND THE BAR
Generally, the Nigerian Bench and Bar used to have mostly credible, intellectually sound men of highest credentials until the military times through such degree as Suspension and Modification Decree No.1 of 1966 and 1984, Federal Military Government (Supremacy and Enforcement of Powers) Decree 28 of 1970/1984 and the Tribunal( Miscellaneous Offences) Decree N0.7 of Gowon, Murtala, Obasanjo, Buhari, Babangida and Abacha’s decrees which illegally permitted them to appropriate all the powers of the executive, the legislature and even the judiciary to the Military.
There used to be revered late Justice Udo Udoma of the Nigeria Supreme Court who was officially released by Nigeria to become the Chief Justice of Uganda. We had late Justice (Prof.) Taslim Olawale Elias, the late Justice (Dr) Akinola Aguda, Dr. Olu Onagoruwa and others who were former credible leaders of the Nigeria Bench and Bar who were on commonwealth and continental services.
The current despicable activities of many senior lawyers and judges from the Electoral Petition matters to the current war on corruption have reached their intolerable level beyond which those of us who had lost our sweet, blood, liberty, possession and even life in the struggle for restoration of democracy to Nigeria and the silent majority of the citizens who trust us as credible leaders can no more “siddon look” but must rise up immediately to start exposing them and taking Street actions to vigorously campaign against them.
The media had carried incredible exposure of how bribes were solicited, and received into named accounts of judicial officers, yet those who have ceased to be “fit and proper” are the ones exploiting the judiciary to protect their selfish interests and friends who are being criminally prosecuted. For example, the doctrine of “Stare decisis” in Nigeria conclusively stipulates that the Supreme Court Ruling on a particular subject matter is binding on all lower courts except in such as might rarely happen that the highest Court in the land gave its ruling per incuriam (when it was never ceased of certain relevant facts that might have persuaded the Court to rule otherwise) Yet, today, we have so called Senior Lawyers raising up in different High Courts the same set of arguments already ruled upon in the Supreme Court perhaps just to delay the prosecution of the accused and also to enable him to remain for long in the office he has desecrated.
What more evidence do we need to know that there is on-going collaboration between accused persons and some of our Senior Lawyers who boastfully support their Clients refusal to attend further trials in fresh charges brought against them in different courts, their reasons being that because they have been given bails on a different on-going trials in another court? It is sad and unbecoming. These Senior Lawyers have little regards to dozens of lives of Senior Soldiers and the rank and file who have been martyred because money meant to purchase superior weapons to prosecute the boko haram insurgency has been shared among themselves for their personal and political purposes. Those soldiers had been sacrificed forever. Their families can never remain the same. What a way to glibly talk about “the rule of law”. Where on earth can the so called one man’s right be superior to that of the community?
What is the NBA Leadership doing with the widely reported media news as to how some senior lawyers being caught fixing money into the account of judges who will preside over matters where their clients have interests? N2 billion in the account of a sitting judge and he is still in the office? The Nigerian Judicial Council, NJC must perform.
The Leadership of the Nigerian Bar cannot be allowed to be speaking from the two sides of its mouth. You cannot be mouthing your support for the anti-corruption war, yet you are promoting a “fancifully pretentious meaning and application” called “the Rule of Law” over and against public interest.
It only reminds one of a fundamental truth in the stable of the positivists school of jurisprudence which is to the effect that in most given societies, the laws are the coded preferences of the elites. When it suited them, they and their minors will vigorously campaign for the defence and sustenance of such rule but if their interests got in conflict with these coded laws, they have always found a way out to ignore the rule of law.
The Nigerian Judiciary and the Senior Lawyers have collaborated to ensure that except for Mr James Ibori in London prison since 2011 and Lucky Igbinedion who went away with ridiculous slap on the wrist fines, (of three or four million naira) all former governors from 1999 till date have not been really prosecuted before any trial court with the exception of that of Lamido in Jigawa and that of Admiral Nyarko of Adamawa that are on-going. Remember that some of them under criminal prosecutions are still in the Senate. What a Country.
We are already compiling the list of persons involved in these ignoble acts to submit to the National Judicial Council, NJC for appropriate constitutional actions to halt the slide of the noble profession into deeper infamy.
The Charade of their trials were always so choreographed and our judges have even granted unreasonable injunctions preventing the accused brought before them from further arrests, seizure of their travelling documents. It is unbelievable that an arm of government will exploit the judiciary to prevent another government department from doing its legitimate responsibility to the public. Most of those cases have remained in the court archives for over 10 years now. What does that do to our national ethos? That Stealing, Perversion and Corruption, etc. pay? No doubt, over 95% of the current political operators are in office for power, its influence and for money they can corner to themselves. They claimed to be Professional Politicians. They change parties easily without principle. They were active Abacha politicians. They were General Abacha’s agents. After many negotiated adjournments about three to four years, the cases of criminal prosecutions of people like Elumelu and Bankole of the House of Representatives and others were terminated for “want of diligent prosecutions”. Whatever that meant-except by arrangement! They are enjoying their loots. But the effects on our national ethos is negatively huge and far reaching for the young people. That is why it is not strange for private or corporals in the police, DSS, Military and their ranks in the civil service to ride in porch vehicles and their superiors cannot challenge them. They dare not because the junior ranks even as messengers read through the files to discover the many unbelievable secrets of their bosses.
CURRENT BITTING FUEL SCARCITY.
Nigerians have rights to be angry because of the recent sad experience associated with fuel shortage. But let Nigerians know these truths,
1. There have been no Nigerian Ruler in the recent years who had openly asked Nigerians to forgive him for his inability yet to deliver on his promises but has resolved to use the next three years to perform.
2. President Buhari according to the Petroleum Minister had granted more crude allocations to NNPC which hitherto had 450,000 barrels to refine for local consumption. About 250, 000 barrels or so in addition. This is a positive step to increase local production and less importation.
3. Contracts for Modular Refineries being designed so close to the big refineries are reported to be about ready soon to be awarded finally and completely built before the end of 2016 so as to significantly reduce or even eliminate importation of Petroleum for domestic consumption. General Buhari’s government should be commended for these bold initiatives and for not resorting to the usual corruptly configured quick-fix solutions.
Now, let Buhari’s critics, the takers of subsidies, their hack writers, including fake and dubious petroleum importers and party partisans respond to the following?
1. Why is it that in the last 30 years, as the 8th largest Oil Exporter, Nigeria had based its domestic fuel consumption on importation with its many negative consequences on the overall well-being of our people?
2. Why has there been no new construction of refineries since the 1980s?
3. Why was it that the Turn Around Maintenance Contracts awarded with full payments for more than 5times – Babangida, Abacha, Obasanjo, Jonathan times did not perform and yet the Contractors have not been brought to account and or returned Nigerian money?
4. Why was it that the cost of prospecting for one barrel of crude oil is the highest in the world?
5. What is preventing private ventures from establishing refineries after licence allocations?
6. Subsidy has now been exposed as the gradient fraud for 25yrs in Nigeria with the current low price of PPMS globally. Is it not so?
7. What has stopped Nigeria in the last two decades from taking its crude to Sierra Leone, Angola e.g. nearby countries with near idle refineries for refinement and return same home? Oil importers and tout insiders collaborators have vigorously opposed such option.
Let’s tell the public for once that OPEC and other Non-OPEC officers and the NLC during Babangida, Abacha and Obasanjo’s time produced an authoritative template as to the reasonable price for PPMS in Nigeria. But why are Nigerians being forced and punished to pay for meaningless sub-heads, including demurrage and for gross administrative inadequacies and incompetence?
Is it therefore reasonable for anyone to accuse Buhari as Clueless or incapable to govern because of PPMS shortages whose foundation had been awkwardly constructed over time since the mid-Eighties?
Corruption and its regime patrons are robust, wide, and notoriously influencial thereby making their acts unfortunately becoming culturally, assimilated and imbibed by most of our people but more so by the younger folks. It’s all about money and power, ever ready to kill for money. If we all fail to stand up to support the current General Buhari’s government anti-corruption war, we should not be surprised that the war will lose its vibrancy and focus, but much more so, the promoters of corruption who have subverted all public institutions till date and are possibly plotting how to take out Buhari/ eliminate him so that their rhythms and dances may resume afresh in the open will be boosted. Majority of us know that Nigeria cannot survive another war. Many of these perverts have even ran out of Nigeria until they get the green signal. When General Sani Abacha and his surrogates and those of Dr Jonathan are being so exposed to have stolen so much, yet there are no popular street actions to support Buhari except the noise of the partisans uninformed commentators and the illogical strict enforcers of the “rule of Law”, then we should be vigilant.
We should no more be grumbling silently, lets organise ourselves on the street, in group discussions to warn these depraved elements to support and allow Buhari’s unprecedented efforts to tackle corruption. Village by village, street by street, let’s stop further fraternisation with these money frauds who are celebrated by many lazy folks, idlers, easy money pimps and women of easy virtues.
Using the dubious enclaves of religion and ethnicity to detract from the genuine battle for restoration of our lost national ethos is counterproductive. A thief has no other name. That he/she is from one ethnic group or religion cannot exonerate his/her anti-social conduct in the larger interest of the community. In Yoruba land, thieves are isolated. Their offspring usually have difficulty to find spouses within their communities.
Like I said about eight months ago, President Buhari should use respected jurists including Vice President Osinbajo to produce amendments to the law on corruption to immediately create Special Superior Courts to fast-track Corruption trial. In spite of the grave exposure of graft, no one has been successfully prosecuted till date. That is not helpful to the struggle. The new Criminal Act Legislation, 2015 is a good template but need further amendments to prevent the deliberate and needless delay being caused by intervening motions- the good and the ridiculous which they have being using even to the Supreme Court to over prolong the trial of their clients. Who knows whether or not their members are not already perfecting insurrection against the Buhari regime, so that their fellow collaborators can be freed?
The graft agencies themselves need support and increase in personnel as it can be seen that they are virtually overwhelmed with the ever-fresh and expanding discoveries they are making in their continuous interrogations. Thanks to the small offer of assistance from the British investigators in that regard. Other Development Partners like the USA should immediately assist.
Apart from political partisans, and the numerous beneficiaries of the regime of Corruption foisted on us first by General Murtala Regime’s 1975 inability to think through the consequences of dismissing very highly respected Public officials (including the credible Public Service Commission under Alhaji Sule Katagum) perhaps because Katagum refused to sack the highly recognised Engineer Akindele) thereby making officials to fend for themselves while in office since their tenor was no more permanent before Babangida , Abacha, Jonathan came in turn to institutionalised corruption.
ETHNIC NATIONALITY DIALOGUE
Its sheer arrogance for anyone to imagine that the Nigerian matter had been settled during the civil war and because about two million lives were lost. It’s beyond that.
A significant part for meaningful restoration to our national values and ethos is the necessary return to true federalism upon which we secured political independence but which have been substantially eroded and subverted till date by the military so that they can continue to control the entire geographical space called Nigeria. Devolution of powers, fiscal federalism and its implications are a necessity for National Restoration.
There is no doubt that national consensus and political stability will be difficult to be fully attained until a genuinely democratic Conference of Nigerian Ethnic Nationalities (which were the building blocks on which this place called Nigeria was constructed) holds to discuss and agree on the rule of engagement and modus operandi of our national mutual existence in Nigeria. The conclusion of such dialogue will then be the basis for writing an all-inclusive national constitution (ground norm) to which all Nigerians can subscribe.
HERDSMEN AND NATIVE FARMERS
There are few but significant issues of inequities, injustice and unfairness in our land. Let the Nigerian people, (not the majority of these professional politicians in office) sit on equal representation to responsibly iron out our known differences and resolve them. For example, the regularity of the media reports about Fulani herdsmen destroying peoples farms and crops and when the natives complain, it is the natives who are usually killed, punished and or disgraced by the police or the Nigerian Army as reported even very recently in Lagos, Oyo North and Anambra are provocative enough and must be stamped out promptly. It’s better to recall that he, President Buhari in between year 2001-2003 even visited the then Governor of Oyo State to intervene in the same set of crisis.
But, we are now calling on Nigerians to start the process of group and community discussions as to restore our lost national values and ethos. There is always something much more nobler than power and money. The Scripture in Ecclesiastes 6:16 -17
“As he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour which he may carry away in his hand”
“And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind”
CORRUPTION AND THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
The wrongly headed and non-distinguished elected politicians who regularly abandon the Senate duties in dubious solidarity with their criminally accused leader to perhaps intimidate the presiding judges are ridiculing themselves as agents of corruption and they constitute great embarrassment to the unwary younger ones. Nigerians will need a national campaign for our country to return to the path of honour and sanity. That some of these characters were the leader of the General Abacha Party five parastatals called political parties make them despots in civilian garments. That they are shamelessly claiming that Dr Bukola Saraki’s criminal trial is a political witch hunt is totally disgusting. I thought their Solicitors should have told them that “time does not run against the state in criminal prosecution” The accused himself knew what he and James Ibori did with the EFCC, during Musa Yar Adua’s presidency when they became “unelected” Vice Presidents and used Yar Adua to help them disband and replace top leaders of the graft agencies with their own former security aides.
This Clarion Call to speak out now because silence is no more golden is to be inclusive of all Nigerians and governments at all levels. Waiting till harm is done to us individually and collectively is injurious. Lamentation is the pastimes of derelicks who are perpetually complaining but will do nothing to right what they perceive to be wrong.
Individuals, groups, organisations willing, able and ready to partner with us in this very big task can reach us on our email Move4restore@gmail.com.
Our Corporate Telephone No. is 08141842114
Therefore it’s now time to return to the trenchies for the purposes of this new battle, we are now calling on Nigerians to join the Vehicle we have just created for the national campaign. It will be known as MOVEMENT FOR VALUE RESTORATION, MVR.
Thanks for your attention.
AYO OPADOKUN
CONVENER
Adewale