Nigeria, this morning

In the news this Monday morning are two important items: OBJ and GEJ met at Aso Villa Chapel and CAN Ibadan urged politicians to deliver on promises. As part of our nation-building efforts as a people, these news items are important and views and comments are welcome.

In the first place, why will and should anybody feel concerned about OBJ and GEJ? Are they not from the same party? However, a deeper analysis of recent developments in Nigeria suggests that we take a closer look at these two issues. OBJ berated GEJ recently over the spate of violence and insecurity in Nigeria. OBJ faulted GEJ's handling of Boko Haram and criticized the carrot and stick approach the government has adopted over the past years. GEJ's team loudly replied over the weekend that perhaps OBJ has lost touch with reality and, permit me to add, that his sojourn these few years in his Ota farm, has dulled his reasoning. Prior to now, OBJ reminiscenced on his days in power and how he ordered a few places, including Odi and Jesse towns, to be levelled by soldiers. He touted this as the right approach to the Boko Haram's terrorist group.

As an expert in the field, i know that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the problem and that leaders owe their subjects, including Boko Haram, responsibility for protection. As such, OBJ's view to solving the Boko Haram's problem is not necessarily right and may not even yield any result. He may have deployed maximum force in Odi and Jesse, but Boko Haram is not limited to a particular social space. If we take OBJ's approach, then we will deploy soldiers to all Northern states in Nigeria and kill innocent people! That will be madness!

That said, OBJ cannot be totally dismissed. No body facies GEJ's approach to the problem so far! We seem to know what he would say next. He has given us, Boko Haram inclusive, reasons to believe that he and his handlers are clueless on the matter. At every turn, Boko Haram was winning until US/UK intervention. How long were we to cope with leaders who, at every opportunity, turn to the West for solutions?

This leads me to the second news item - CAN Ibadan asked political leaders to deliver on promise. It is heart warming to hear that CAN, after the debacle of Catholic Church pulling out, to inject itself into the national space and asking its members in government to deliver the goods for which we voted for them. CAN should do more. In the Baptist Mission, we yearly call on members to swear that we are not cultists. CAN should take a leave from that. It should mandate its members to take the political class to task by asking them to publickly declare their rape of the country; to stand up to their constituents and account for their stewardship. Islam shoul do like wise. It is only in this way that Nigerians can localize accountability.

How do we solve the Boko Haram problem? Carrot? Stick? or Carrot and Stick? Your views are of great importance. Thank you.
Oyeniyi

Baba Suwe, Oil subsidy, Nigeria

The arrest and detention without trial of Mr. Omidina, popularly known as Baba Suwe by Nigeria's NDLEA early in October 2011 is to say the least mind-boggling. Baba Suwe was suspected to have ingested substance believed to be HARD DRUG and was consequently detained at the Muritala Muhammed Airport, Lagos pending when he would excrete the supposed hard drug. Baba Suwe has insisted that he did not ingest hard drug and has gone to court to seek, first, his freedom, then justice against his fundamental rights. In the midst of this, NDLEA went to court to obtain permission to detain him for another 15 days.
Local and International Media, most especially BBC and CNN carried the news of Baba Suwe's arrest as breaking news, which puts the matter on the international spotlights. Up till the time of writing this piece, it is not clear if Baba Suwe has excreted any substance, which casts so much doubt on NDLEA's claim and puts the country up for recrimination.
How are we sure that NDLEA's scanning machine, which i have had the unpleasant pleasure of been on, really functioning? If functioning and it actually and correctly discovered Baba Suwe's stomach to be harboring substance believed to be drug; then why has he not excreted it, even after medical intervention to get him to do so? A number of people have also raised the absurd point of a possible Drug Baron 'remote-controlling' of Baba Suwe's stomach from somewhere and preventing him from excreting the stuff. No matter how stupid this may sound, we live in a country where Yar' Adua, a serving president, enlisted the services of witch-doctors to cure kidney diseases. Remember also that late Abacha did similar thing before he passed on. In the same garb, OBJ suggested the use of 'juju' in fighting apartheid!
Alternative argeument could be that peradventure a Baron had paid someone to help Baba Suwe out and that the NDLEA is no chasing shadows. Almost all these issues are possible, especially in a society as corruption ridden as Nigeria.
Whatever may have happened, I think Baba Suwe's arrest and detention is a big call on Nigeria's judicial system. How long will Baba Suwe stay behind bars on suspicion of drug trafficking? What does the law say? The common thing people from my side of the law knows is that suspects can only be detained for 24 hours. From the look of things, this may have been a lawman view of the laws, as the court granted NDLEA 15 more days to keep Baba Suwe. What if, after 15 days, Baba Suwe still would not excrete drug? How would have the NDLEA cope with the scandal? What would become of NDLEA?
A number of questions could be asked on this matter, especially why NDLEA is still holding on to Baba Suwe. Did NDLEA receive any tip that Baba Suwe was traveling with drug? As it appears that his arrest was premeditated.

Thief na Thief.

Not too long ago, a Police Pension thief who has been standing trial for sometimes now was ruled guilty and his punishment was a 750, 000 naira fine for stealing 27 billion naira. Earlier on, the same judiciary jailed a young man who stole a blackberry phone of about 25,000 naira for three years.

From these two cases, i believe it is safe to say that Nigeria judicial system, like the political system, is a joke - awada kerikeri.

A number of Nigerians have expressed displeasure at the judgment. I however had a different view. In the first instance, i think we need to know what the law books say. What minimum and maximum punishment is prescribed? If the law books prescribed such a 'no-punishment' for the big thief and such a 'sledge-hammer' punishment for the small thief, i think we need not to revamp the books, but burn them.

If the law books were clear on a longer and stiffer terms, we need to know what prevented the judge from acting in line with the books. We need to know if the judge has also exhausted his quota of punishments on the judgment day. Afterall, when Bishop Akinola was raining curses on those that were saddled with the responsibilities of building Nigeria and the President could not say 'Amen', his media man, Dr. Reuben Abati was quick to say that he had exhausted his quota of Amen for the day. Could it be there is a protocol in the law books that imposes such a limitation on the judge too?

We need also to know if the plea bargaining with the EFCC was to the effect that such a punishment was mutually agreed before it became public. 

If nothing of these nature are in the law books, are we save to think that the judge may have been corrupted or compromised to give such a ridiculous judgment? If the EFCC agreed to the plea bargaining and buckled when Nigerians reacted, then how true is the organization in its fight against corruption?


What lessons are here? Is this the way top fight corruption? 
Your views are welcome.