AS ABIA FIGHTS ITSELF By Emmanuel Onwubiko

I am a witness to the groundswell of alleged irregularities that characterized the April 2011 governorship election in Abia State and therefore I decided to watch proceedings at the election petitions’ Tribunal to see what will come out of the spate of petitions filed by politicians who alleged electoral malpractices against the current holder of the office of the Governor of Abia State. But my attention at the election petition Tribunal has suffered spectacular distraction because of the series of dramatic and self inflicted political battles ignited by the political administration in Abia State.

I must confess that my heart, mind/Soul is in Abia because Aba City in Abia State is a spiritual home of all the Igbo speaking people all over the world because of the undeniable fact that all Igbo families are represented in the diverse entrepreneurial activities going on in that gravely neglected commercial town. I weep on daily basis for Aba, a city seen by even we ‘non-indigenes’ as our spiritual home.

Even the old Boys of the National High School Aba, Abia State in the Guardian of October 28^th, 2011 described the bad situation of things currently in Aba thus; “Aba is currently held hostage by poverty, unemployment, kidnapping and crime-very low levels for a town once seen as Nigeria’s hope to join the league of industrial nations”.

Even while we bemoan the unfortunate situation of gross underdevelopment in Abia State, the government of the day is busy churning out illegal and laughable policies. One of the most atrocious discriminatory policies ever experimented by any political entity in Nigeria is the current policy by Governor Orji of Abia to compulsorily disengage the state civil servants who are not from Abia State originally.

What this bad policy implies is that even former products of the National Youth Service Scheme (NYSC) who secured automatic employment previously by the virtue of their excellent performance while serving Abia state have now been shown red cards to quit the Abia state civil service.

What this policy of disengagement of non-indigenes from Abia state civil service imply is that even male workers who are originally not from Abia state but are happily married to Abia state daughters have now lost their civil service positions going by the new draconian and apartheid policy of the state government.

Another dangerous implication of this primitive unconstitutional policy is that non-indigenes who have been in the state civil service for over two decades or as long as the state has been, will now be flush out even if they have few years to retire happily and secure their legal entitlements and benefits. Mr. Tu face Idibia the irrepressible entertainer and musician recently released a wonderful album he aptly titled ‘implication’. The apartheid policy in Abia indeed has several implications.

Keen observers of development in Abia would have noticed that several newspaper advertisements costing the tax payers’ several millions of naira have been placed in strategic national newspapers all in an attempt to wage media war of attrition against right thinking Nigerians who have raised their rational voices against this unusual policy.

Although some of these aides of governor Orji that I know have privately expressed their well considered opinion particularly against this anti-Igbo, anti-people and anti-progress policy, but the greater majority of the assistants of the governor have now found a way of justifying their huge salaries by dishing out illogical publications to justify some of the bad policies of their boss.

I have tried without success to locate genuine reason for Abia state government to implement this policy of targeted annihilation of non-indigenes from Abia civil service and I find it extremely difficult to believe that the current National minimum wage Act which specifies payment of at least N18,000 to civil servants as possible logical background.

Why is the Abia state government so adept at generating needless controversies?

A friend told me in Umuahia that probably the state government has decided to use one of the 48 laws of power which is ‘consistent attack’ of your opponents as a weapon of mass destruction to cover up their track since no meaningful governance and infrastructural development is going on in Abia state.

The Catholic Church has spoken out against this bad policy in the same way that several legal scholars have indeed sounded notes of warning that the policy of disengagement of non-indigenes from Abia state civil service is unconstitutional.

The Catholic Bishop of Umuahia Diocese, Lucius Ugorji, says the disengagement of non-indigenes from the Abia civil service is ill-conceived and unconstitutional.  

In a statement he issued recently the cleric described the action as “discriminatory and a serious contravention of section 42(1), (2), and (3) of the 1999 Constitution of the country.”

The state government had on August 25th; issued a circular signed by Godswill Adiele, head of service, transferring non-indigenes to their states of origin with effect from October 1^st 2011.

A professional colleague called to inform me that he suspects that the Abia state governor may be playing the scripts of those who never wish that any Nigerian from the South East should emerge as president come 2015 when President Goodluck has announced as his Presidential terminal date.

But I ask, what will it profit Governor Orji, of Abia state if he actively undermines the aspiration of his ethnic nationality to produce the civilian president of Nigeria in 2015 for the first time in the political annals of Nigeria?

Does Governor Orji not know that a kingdom that fights against itself can not and will not stand as the Holy Bible teaches us?

Another dimension of the political absurdities in Abia state is the decision of the state government to use the instrumentality of coercion, threats and physical violence unleashed by the Nigeria police force, Abia state command against ordinary women who have tried to protest the prolonged institutional silence to bring to justice the five male students that gang raped a teenage female student of the Abia state university. 

·              Emmanuel Onwubiko heads HUMAN Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria and can be reached on doziebiko@yahoo.com;  www.huriwa.com; www.huriwa.blogspot.com     

31/10/2011

‘NEGOTIATE’ WITH GHOST WORKERS PLEASE By Emmanuel Onwubiko

Magaji Folorunsho Akuabata (not real names) is barely thirty but is immensely endowed with massive material wealth. He is generous to a fault.

Magaji Folorunsho Akuabata is not known to have any visible means of livelihood yet he never seemed to lack all the luxurious items and services that money can buy even as his house is one of the most aesthetically decorated piece of real estate in the bustling area of the city where he stays with his small but beautiful family of two wives and two babies in their early years.

One thing led to another during the course of a community development event in which yours faithfully was invited to deliver a lecture and behold I was sitting next to this man of immense but invisible or suspicious means and he beamed broadly with smiles as if to say he has just been visited by a long expected messenger of fortune.

We spoke for more than fifteen minutes before the master of ceremony invited me to give my lecture. At the end of over thirty minutes of explosive lectures on the topic of “the essence of reward and punishment as the bed rock of a better society”, Mr. Magaji Folorunsho Akuabata was so impressed that he demanded for my complimentary card and promised to send his personal assistant with a package for me.

The sixth sense in me inspired me to launch an investigation to unravel or uncover the real identity of this man who most people in the community fall on themselves to invite as chief launcher in most fund raise events. At the end of my probe I came up with a ground breaking finding that the man in question is one of the most notorious ghost workers of our era in the federal civil service.  

In his latest scholarly book titled; “WITNESS TO JUSTICE” Mathew Hassan Kukah, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese stated that in Nigeria, ‘institutional chaos has produced selfishness and greed. The result is that we are a nation of the walking wounded’.

This institutional chaos I do believe has also produced a class of people who hold top civil service jobs but who manipulate the system to pay themselves huge salary package in the guise of paying salaries to legitimate workers when in the real sense, no such staff can be validly identified. This is called the ghost workers’ syndrome.    

The phenomenon of ghost workers is as old as the civil service establishment in Nigeria and the trend has occupied the minds of policy planners at all levels of civil governance so much so that several tons of millions of tax payers’ fund are spent by government hunting for these ghost workers who are growing in number and notoriety.

Daily, Nigerians are inundated with the unverifiable story of effort that the federal or state government is making to flush out ghost workers but this same scenario has consistently repeated itself since the emergence of civil democracy in 1999 but those ghost workers are waxing much stronger.

The emergence of the then Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’adua’s (of blessed memory) federal administration in 2007 led to a new kind of practice whereby those considered as out laws and who have rightly or wrongly embarked on armed struggles against the state were invited for ‘dialogue’ and ‘settled’. Absurdity has thus been elevated to statecraft in Nigeria.

The armed militants in the oil rich but heavily impoverished Niger Delta region were the first official beneficiaries of an elaborate amnesty program which included very juicy financial inducement schemes.

Yar’adua who kick- started the amnesty program has transited to the great beyond but his then loyal vice President now democratically elected and inaugurated President Dr. Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan has continued the implementation of the amnesty program which, to be fair, has significantly led to the reduction in youth restiveness and violence in the oil producing areas thus creating better atmosphere for the crude oil business- as-usual to continue.

But another challenge has emerged from another armed splinter group in the North East Nigeria whose members have successfully unleashed devastating violence and campaign of detonation of bombs which have so far attracted the attention of the international community with the successful bombing of the Nigerian Police Headquarters and the United Nations House, both in the Nigeria’s federal capital.

Members of the political elite who have come under intense threats of violence from this armed religious group in the North East Nigeria have even called on the Federal government to negotiate with members of the armed religious extremists blamed for the spate of violence in Northern Nigeria and Abuja.

The latest call for government to negotiate with the armed religious group came from the immediate past deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State Mr. Patrick Ekpotu who was quoted in the media to have made the call for negotiation with the violent armed extremist religious group.

But since Nigeria has been converted into a huge drama stage by political actors who no longer pay attention to the time- tested fact that no nation ever survives that does not operate on the basis of the respect to the principle and practice of rule of law and constitutionalism, a friend just told me that it may as well be nice to advise the federal government to please enter into ‘negotiation’ with ghost workers in the civil service so that the scarce funds usually used to hunt them would be used to bring democracy dividends to the greatest number of our people who will soon be greatly impoverished if the ill-advised anti-poor policy of withdrawal of subsidy on petroleum products is implemented in 2012.

Government, please ‘negotiate’ with ghost workers since government business now thrives on negotiations with diverse groups of out- laws, professional law breakers and armed hoodlums. For sure, these ghost workers will accept handsome final settlement of cash bonus and quit the public space unlike the armed militants who will hand over their weapons for cash and immediately buy a replacement for the surrendered weapon from the small arms market that have sprang up in all corners of the country.

If you think it does not make sense for government to ‘negotiate’ with ghost workers, then read the revelation by Finance minister Professor Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala that ghost workers usually graduate to become ghost pensioners.

On October 22 2011, the media reported Professor Okonjo-Iweala as outlining strategies by the Federal government to flush out ghost workers.

The Minister said that several ghost workers had even graduated to ghost pensioners in government's payroll and that the biometric data capturing exercise, which the government embarked upon was designed to identify these ghost workers and ghost pensioners in the country.

But Nigerians have heard these same stories all over again since 1999 with no meaningful result.

The rate at which politics and government business in Nigeria is rapidly becoming one huge racket and organized scam, will any one be surprise if tomorrow we wake up to find out that government is indeed ‘negotiating’ with ghost workers? Wonders they say, shall never end in Nigeria.

It is my conviction that if ordinary Nigerians who are at the receiving end of these harsh, oppressive, and dubious policies of government, remain docile, then our burden as a people will expand in leaps and bounds. So let’s take ownership of Nigeria and enthrone just, fair and an egalitarian society where social evils are punished using the instrumentality of the Rule of law or we should be prepared to get many more absurd policies from these weird actors that dominate the public space as public office holders today.

·              Emmanuel Onwubiko heads HUMAN Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria and can be reached on doziebiko@yahoo.com; www.huriwa.com www.huriwa.blogspot.com;

26/10/2011

HURIWA CHARGES FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ON INCESSANT RAPE;

As Nigerian Woman Emerges Chairperson of AU Rights Panel;

A development focused non-governmental organization- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA [HURIWA] has charged the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Justice and the Office of the Federal Attorney General to take comprehensive, effective and immediate action to check the proliferation of sexual molestation and rape of women by ensuring that the necessary laws against sexual violations of women are strengthened and that culprits are made to face the full wrath of the law.

In a media statement to congratulate the Federal Government on the recent election of the Nigerian representative to the African Human Rights Commission Mrs. Dupe Atoki as the Chairperson of the African Union Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Rights group said the historic achievement by Nigeria at the African Union would be meaningless and irrelevant if the current unprecedented rate of human rights violations including sexual violations of women, extra-legal execution of suspects by men of the Nigeria Police Force and the general insecurity in the Country are not tackled effectively by the Nigerian Government.

                                                          

Specifically, during the 50^th Ordinary Session of African Union Commission on Human and Peoples Rights currently ongoing in Banjul the Gambia, Mrs Dupe Atoki was elected the chairperson of the Commission thus becoming the first Nigerian Woman to head an organ of the African Union.

She has wide and varied expertise and experience on issues of Human Rights and served Nigeria in various capacities in that wise including being a member of the Nigerian Human Rights Commission; member of the Federal Government’s presidential committee on the review of laws discriminatory of Women and was a member of the Committee on the reform of investment law.

Mrs. Atoki has also served the African Union in diverse capacities as a legal consultant in drafting; member of election monitoring/observer team to several African countries: Commissioner of the African Union Commission on Human and Peoples Rights where she was before her election the special rapportuer on prison and places of detention in Africa as well as the chairperson of the Committee for the prevention of torture in Africa.

HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA in the statement made available to Journalists and endorsed jointly by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the National Media Officer Miss. Zainab Yusuf stated that the election of Mrs. Atoki is a challenge on the current Federal administration to rapidly rise to the occasion by working vigorously to enforce all laws and statutes that seek to promote and protect the vulnerable members of the Nigerian community including Women, Children and the aged who are at the receiving end of the astronomic rise in human rights violations especially by members of the nation’s law enforcement community and armed splinter groups.

HURIWA said that the Nigerian Government is paying lip service to the agitation by ordinary citizens for the security and law enforcement operatives to effectively and efficiently enforce laws that relate to punishing rapists and other notorious human rights violators just as it warned Government to put a halt to the ongoing institutionalization of impunity and anarchy in Nigeria because of the activities of armed splinter groups.

The group specifically criticized the Federal Government’s insensitive and irresponsible attitude towards the recent grave allegation of gang rape of a teenage girl by five adult males at the Abia State University and also the inability of the Nigerian Government to bring to justice the suspected rapist and murderer of Miss. Grace Ushang, the Cross River State born youth corper [NYSC] who was two years ago raped and gruesomely murdered by a suspected lone rapist in Maiduguri, Borno state.

25/10/2011

ADOKE, AMADI AND A NEW ORDER By Emmanuel Onwubiko

When in April 2011 President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was declared by the Professor Attahiru Jega-led Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winner of the hotly contested Presidential election, he (Jonathan) made a solemn pledge to the electorate.

Smiling broadly, accompanied by his lovely wife Mrs. Patience Jonathan and other close Presidential aides including Mr. Oronto Douglas, President Jonathan made a solemn pledge to Nigerians to introduce a new order and a transformational agenda targeted at building a better, prosperous and transparent society for all Nigerians.

Embedded inherently in the President Jonathan’s transformational agenda is the resolve to appoint some of the best professionals into government at the highest level.

As one of his critics, I do agree that the current federal administration has a long way to go to achieve zero-tolerance to corruption and wipe out poverty among the largest population of Nigerians, but one thing even some of us will agree is that President Jonathan has tried as much as possible to actualize an aspect of his solemn pledge which is the appointment of brave, courageous, credible and trusted statesmen and patriots into key federal positions.

Some of these persons of integrity in the current administration included Professor Barth Nnaji, the power ministry minister; Professor Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the minister of Finance; Dr. Sam Amadi, the Harvard, United States-trained human rights advocate appointed to head the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

In the federal ministry of Justice, the President retained the services of Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria as the Federal Attorney General. Mr. Adoke in his first coming in the immediate aftermath of the demise of the immediate past President [Umaru Yar’adua] and the assumption of office by Jonathan as President attracted some kind of controversy because of certain decisions he took including the circumstances surrounding the lack of prosecution of some persons and institutions connected with the Haliburton Bribery Scandal. Such giant multinational firms like Julius Berger were not prosecuted.

In his second coming, Mr.Adoke in spite of continuous criticism by some online bloggers like sahahareporters and other die hard critics including yours faithfully, has indeed implemented measures to transform the ministry of Justice and is doing so much in the area of speedy and quality dispensation of Justice and prison decongestion.

Adoke facilitated the review of the 1961 standing orders of the Nigerian prisons service by the introduction of a new prison standing order which will guarantee the protection of the rights of any one in lawful custody in any detention facility in Nigeria.

Permanent Secretary of Federal Ministry of Justice and Chairman of the Federal Justice Sector Reform Committee, FJSRCC, Mr. Abdullahi Yola, stated that the Revised Standing Order which is at the final stage of adoption by all relevant stakeholders, is a major step in making the Nigeria Justice Delivery System respond to changing trends and above all increase Access to Justice. He added that “the new Standing Order, which will replace that, made in 1961 and currently in force, is compliant with International Conventions on Human Rights and the United Nations Minimum Standard Rules. The Revised Standing Order was put together by a select team of persons from relevant Justice Sector Institutions, The Nigeria Prisons and Civil society organizations.

Another agency of government where better things are happening and looking good is the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission where Dr. Sam Amadi is showing extremely good leadership qualities in public service.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) recently waded into the ill-advised decision of the Power Holden Company of Nigeria (PHCN) to effect load shedding of Power electricity supply without following the due process of the law. The decision of NERC to issue queries to five Power Holden Company of Nigeria is the first of its kind and is symbolic of the new order of public service by the current federal administration.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) warned its licensees that massive load shedding of their customers without approval from it violates the Electric Power Sector Reform (EPSR) Act 2005 and that appropriate sanctions will henceforth be meted on erring organization.

This warning came on the heels of load shedding of 1,400mega watts that started recently involving five power plants. The load shedding that will last seven days is said to be without the Commission’s approval.

A letter dispatched to Chief Executive Officer of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), The Executive Director, System Operator (SO), Transmission Company of Nigerian and chief executive officers of Geregu, Sapele, Ughelli, Olorunsogo, and Omotosho Power Plants warned of the grave consequences of their actions.

The Commission told the affected officers to explain why they are operating in contempt of the Act, the Grid Codes that governs the national grid and the Market Rules that guides Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI). The Rules stipulate that massive load shedding require the Commission’s permission.

Chairman of NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi, in the letter says, “While we are not opposed to the maintenance work on gas facilities or PHCN generating and transmitting stations, the Commission will not allow the flagrant violation of due process and procedures especially as it relates to disruption of power supply to Nigerians. 

“You are to note that henceforth appropriate disciplinary action will be taken against all licensees and their management for any violation of the Grid Code and Market Rules particularly the need for submission of outage and maintenance plans.

“For avoidance of doubt, in the event of a planned outage in the future you must get approval from NERC, the only regulator of the sector,” the Commission warned.

The Commission‘s tough stance on the management of the affected power plants and PHCN was as a result of their failure to secure statutory approval for the plant shut down occasioned by the decision of the gas suppliers- the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) to carry out repairs on its systems.

The affected power plants and management of PHCN had earlier announced they will shut down their plants for seven days beginning from Tuesday, October 11, 2011.

Besides, Dr. Sam Amadi is showing good example to other agencies on the necessity of paying their taxes promptly even as his management has provided evidence to show that it is current with auditing standards and compliance.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on October 19^th 2011 disclosed that it has remitted N360 million to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as value added and withholding taxes collected on behalf of the Service between 2006 and 2010.

Amadi gave a breakdown of the amount remitted during the period under review as N206.7 million as withholding tax and N153.6 million as value added tax. He said that the Commission was aware of the need to guard its integrity jealously as the most valuable asset of any regulator. A regulator should comply with reporting obligations especially as they relate to the integrity of public finance.

Tax remittance is a key component of public finance audit.

He said that the Commission was up-to-date in its statutory reporting obligations, including quarterly reports to the National Assembly and the Presidency. “We are guided by higher commitment to public integrity,” Amadi said. 

Nigeria will be good if good people implement good policies while in government.

*          Emmanuel Onwubiko heads Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria and can be reached on doziebiko@yahoo.com; www.huriwa.com; www.huriwa.blogspot.com.

24/10/2011

HURIWA'S PARTNERS.

LOCAL PARTNERS

1)    NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION (NHRC); NIGERIA;

2)    BUREAU FOR PUBLIC PROCUREMENT (BPP); PRESIDENCY, ABUJA.

3)    OFFICIALS OF THE GROUP WERE IN 2010 trained on observation of Public    Procurement by the World Bank, Nigerian office.

INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS:

1) UNITED NATIONS OFFICE ON DRUGS AND CRIME;

2)  ALL FOREIGN EMBASSIES AND MISSIONS IN NIGERIA RECEIVE OUR

     PERIODIC JOURNALS - "ICONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS".

A WORD ON OUR SPONSORS

HURIWA is appreciative of the funding assistance for this website awarded to us by the COMMUNITY DEFENSE LAW FOUNDATION (CDLF). The funding support for this site as provided by this group which is for a year, does not however mean that they are in agreement with the contents of our Website. HURIWA is completely responsible for the materials posted.

We hereby appeal to rich Nigerians to make it a point of duty to extend funding assistance to us because we are one hundred percent not-for-profit and our advocacy activities are full time, meaning that we seriously need financial assistance in order to work for the benefit of the Nigerians.

The job of enlightenment of the majority of Nigerians on their fundamental human rights is enormous and financially demanding and the association simply does not have the financial muscles to undertake these noble assignments without funding assistance from right thinking Nigerians and even persons holding public offices.

Our experiences in the last five years show that most financially endowed Nigerians don’t have the habit of donating to human rights oriented organizations. We as a people must help credible organizations to serve the public good/interest of the majority of the people so that the greatest happiness of the greatest number of our citizens is achieved without mass action or violent revolution as is the case with the Arab springs whereby the masses took their destinies in their own hands and used all lawful and even violent means to change the oppressive status quo in their respective homelands. We hope and pray that Nigerians may not be compelled to stage violent revolution in the coming years.

For your donations please do your drafts and Bank cheques in the name of HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA and call us to pick it up from wherever you are in Nigeria or you may oblige us by sending it to our corporate office in Abuja.

Call -07040303030 from the working hours of 9am - 5pm on working days to donate. We give you our word to put your donation to good/qualitative use.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES.

NTA, TERRORISM AND MEDIA COVERAGE By Emmanuel Onwubiko

August 26th 2011 will for a long time to come remain the darkest day in Nigeria’s international history because of the fact that it was on this day that a suspected lone suicide bomber carried out a successful terrorist attack on the premises of the United Nations in Abuja.

Even as most Nigerians and international observers have expressed sadness over this unfortunate event that portrayed Nigeria in very bad light, some few media observers have passed judgment on what they considered as less than professional coverage of the dastardly incident by the publicly funded Nigerian Television Authority. Simon Kolawole of Thisday and another in-house opinion writer in The Guardian were among the frontline media observers that expressed consternation over the nature of ‘restrictive’ coverage of the terrorism attack of August 26th 2011 in Abuja by the Nigerian Television Authority.

The above cited writers are some of the respected authorities in the field of Opinion writing and are therefore seen by so many media patrons or rather consumers of media product in the country as authoritative. I, too view them as some of the best but again their Opinion on how the Nigerian Television Authority covered the terrorist attack as aforementioned were fraught with factual inaccuracies.

I will return to debunk their claims that the Nigerian Television Authority did not professionally covered that dastardly crime of terrorism which left several dozens of innocent persons dead and destroyed several choice property.

First, let me remind readers that the United Nations has been working to tackle the widening threats of international terrorism just as successive administrations in Nigeria have also participated in several international conferences organized by the United Nations on terrorism.

In 2005, Nigeria participated in the eleventh congress of the United Nations Congress on crime prevention and criminal justice which took place in Bangkok, Thailand and a salient theme that resonated at that high profile event was how the world could unite to tackle terrorism.

Nigeria attended with a high powered delegation headed then by the Justice Minister and Federal Attorney General Chief Akin Olujimi, a senior Advocate of Nigeria, even as yours faithfully was a member of that delegation. Nigeria told the world that it was ready to battle the scourge of terrorism.

It is therefore surprising that several years after until very recently, Nigeria did not set up Institutional and legal framework to combat terrorism. Nigeria has only recently passed a national law against terrorism but the security community was caught napping for lack of competence in intelligence gathering mechanism when these armed religious insurgents embarked on the August 26th 2011 deadly suicide attack on the United Nations building in Abuja. 

Germany at that 2005 United Nations Congress on crime prevention and criminal justice presented a well researched 104 page report in which the World was told that Institutional and legal framework for fighting the menace of terrorism have been established by this European nation. Other developed nations presented similar impressive scorecards.

In the foreword to the report, the then Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries asserted thus; “The eleventh United Nations Congress on crime prevention and criminal justice demonstrate once again with its agenda that crime, in its various manifestations, is becoming increasingly international in nature. Organized crime, terrorism, diverse forms of corruption, computer and white - collar crime are areas which demand heightened international cooperation over and above our national effort in order to combat them”.

At the 2005 United Nations meeting, the World was reminded that since 1963, the United Nations have so far adopted twelve conventions referring to the prosecution of specific acts of terrorism. They include among others; the Convention on Offences and Certain Other Acts Committed on Board Aircraft of 14 September 1963; the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft of 16 December 1970; and the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation of 23 September 1971. Unfortunately, no strong treaty on terrorism was in place as at then.

The question that writers in our newspapers should be asking is why Nigeria did not do anything pragmatic to put functional institutional and legal frameworks to prevent and combat terrorism since 2005 that the federal government appeared on the World stage to lay claim to its readiness to do so. Is any one in doubt that for the fact that over twenty five thousand Nigerians have been killed since 1999 in religious/ethnic related conflicts is not strong enough evidence for the nation to institutionalize effective legal regime against terrorism?

To return to the claims that the Nigerian Television Authority never covered the terrorist attack of August 26th 2011 at the Abuja United Nations House, I will emphatically affirm that this claim is pedestrian, false and uncharitable because even the foreign television stations like the Aljazeera borrowed the recording of that dastardly terrorist incident from the Nigerian Television Authority because the logo of the NTA could be seen conspicuously on the screen except and unless the person watching it chooses not to see it.

As a human rights and development practitioner, when my attention was drawn to the allegation that the Nigerian Television Authority did not broadcast the terrorist attack in Nigeria I undertook comprehensive research and discovered that it was a smear campaign targeted at rubbishing the formidable professional Image that the current management is building for that publicly sponsored television station.

In addition to my independent findings to the contrary, an authoritative source conversant with the broadcasting industry in the country informed me that the news directorate of the Nigerian Television Authority broke the news of that August 26th 2011 terrorist attack on the United Nations House and the television station kept their viewers updated as events continued to unfold.

The reliable source told me that he is in the know that the NTA news directorate deployed their best hands in the news crew which headed to the bombed United Nations office and that the first ever telecast of the event was shown by 12pm news of the Nigerian Television Authority.

On the allegation that NTA edited out some sensitive scenes of persons killed by the bomb blast, I was informed that it was a deliberate decision not to show images that are emotionally offensive but the catastrophe was shown to the audience of the NTA without fundamentally tinkering with the substance of that unfortunate event by way of over editing.

Writers who are quick to pass judgment on how the NTA covered the bomb attack never spared some thoughts and time to reflect on the extant legal framework regulating media contents of broadcasting stations as stipulated by the National Broadcasting Commission.

Specifically, article 3.10 of the Nigerian broadcasting Code talks about coverage of violence, cruelty, pain and horror. Article 3.10.1 Stated thus; “broadcasting is highly susceptible to imitation especially by children. Therefore, the portrayal of violence, cruelty, pain and horror that has the potential of causing moral or psychological harm shall not be broadcast before the watershed time-belt of 9.00pm. The bomb attack occurred around 10 am on August 26th 2011 and NTA is obliged by law not to glamorize violence but to report the event nevertheless which it did in the best professional manner.

Besides, article 3.10.2 of the code provides thus; “A programme portraying excessive pain, physical violence or horror shall not be broadcast, unless relevant to character development or to the advancement of the theme or plot; even so, graphic and gory details shall be avoided”.

The NTA management in the coverage of terrorism related crime cases has so far complied substantially with extant laws.                                

*          Emmanuel Onwubiko heads HUMAN Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria and can be reached on doziebiko@yahoo.com; www.huriwa.blogspot.com.     


14/10/2011

IN DANGOTE, INDUSTRY MEETS PHILANTHROPY By Emmanuel Onwubiko

There are little doubts in the minds of observers around the World that absolute poverty afflicts a greater percentage of the population of Nigeria out of the official population figure of 160 million people.

President Goodluck Jonathan at the fifty first Independence anniversary public lectures in Abuja confirmed the above stark reality of the abject poverty’s affliction of the greatest number of our citizenry when he lamented that the country was still backward in terms of growth because its economy has been mismanaged by weak and ineffective institutions of the government.

President Jonathan’s factual affirmation came barely few months after the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) published its 2011 World Fact book in which it disclosed that 70% of Nigerians are living below the extreme poverty benchmark. The widely regarded historical book also affirmed that “oil rich Nigeria has been hobbled by political instability, corruption, inadequate infrastructures and poor microeconomic management….”

The obvious fall out of these tremendous negative economic indices is that most Nigerian families are barely surviving from hands to mouths even as majority of this segment of the society can only survive with the assistance of rich institutions and individuals who have the disposition, charisma and the rare vocation to provide humanitarian and philanthropic lifeline.

These genuine philanthropists are as rare in Nigeria as the white eagle.

However, in the recent Nigerian history one name that is easily recognizable as a leading Philanthropist is Alhaji Aliko Dangote, the Industrialist who is known more for his giant strides in the business community as the President of Dangote group.

Miss Catherine is a 32 year old unemployed Abuja resident who I ran into while researching materials for this piece and who even confided in me that her life ambition is to have the uncommon luck of benefiting from the benevolence of Aliko Dangote.

Catherine looked at me straight into my eyes and inquired why of all the people around I chose to engage her in series of interrogations. My reply was simple and I told her that I spent close to thirty minutes from a vantage position and successfully decoded that she showed some obvious outward emotional signs of a disturbed mind and a person who truly needs someone to share her problems and proffer pragmatic panacea.

It took her less than an hour to reel out the catalogue of her encounters as a young university graduate of Political Science who came into Abuja for her youth service eight yeas ago with the high hope that she could land herself a decent job that pays living wage soon after the one year compulsory national service which she did at the federal ministry of labour and productivity.

She said not only that her place of primary assignment did not retain her but that her relentless effort to secure employment over the years has indeed not yielded the desired result. The quality time I spent in conversation with this obviously distressed Miss Catherine produced the psychological trigger for this piece.

She thundered out in a voice laden with emotion and traumatic pain that she had had to offer sexual gratification on demand by some amorous highly placed civil servants with the promises of job placement but that her generous offer of sexual gratification has yielded nothing but deception, deceit and deprivation of her human dignity.

Her saddest experience of all was that only about few hours before I reached her, the notorious environmental task force from the Federal Capital Territory Administration Confiscated her umbrella and recharge cards worth over two hundred thousand naira in the guise of enforcing the so-called law against street trading.

Asked whether she has or will approach her place of religious worship for assistance especially with the loss of her only source of livelihood, she retorted that in the last couple of years that she searched for employment, her visits to several places of worship did not yield positive result but that these ‘men of God’ have even further fleeced her of her scarce fund under the guise of doing intensive intercessory prayers for her.  As I made to depart after wishing her best of luck, Catherine shouted thus; “Mr. Journalist, can you link me up to Alhaji Dangote for me to obtain little financial safety net?”

There are hundreds of thousands of our younger people who are unemployed, poor, hopeless and homeless that are all over the place desperately looking for ways that they can approach reputable philanthropists like Aliko Dangote in the society for a life line to become self reliant and to liberate themselves from the slavery of poverty, misery and want that have become the lots of most young unemployed graduates in Nigeria.

If truth be told, Alhaji Aliko Dangote has built an image for himself as one among the few genuine and credible rich persons who have successfully synergized industry with philanthropy.

Vanguard newspaper of September 27^th 2011 ran a story to show that Alhaji Dangote’s total donation to social crisis reached an all time high of N524.7 million which he gave out directly to persons and institutions affected by natural and man-made disasters like floods in Lagos and Oyo States and the recent bloody post-election violence in parts of Northern Nigeria. Dangote also displayed his benevolent angle not too long ago in Sokoto when he assisted hundreds of villagers displaced by flood with tons of cash and relief materials worth several hundreds of millions of his hard earned money.

Dangote’s benevolence wears no ethnic or religious garb. Such virtues are scarce in an oasis of self centered rich persons as is the case in our clime.

Pausing a while to reflect on the severe dearth of genuine, credible and humane philanthropists in Nigeria, it struck me that the commitments to charity made by this Kano-born business executive, who has spent his productive years in South West Nigeria, were usually made directly to very poor persons who are in no position to increase the profit margin of the chain of Investments of Alhaji Dangote who has written his name in gold as the Richest black African of our contemporary period.

Responding to the interrogation “what is the true meaning of philanthropy?” Kent Holden in April 2007 stated the obvious that a real philanthropist gives without expecting pay back from the beneficiaries.

His words; “How do we envision and peruse our philanthropic calling? Do we think primarily in terms of cash flow in, and tithing out? Do we measure our success in terms of revenue, and therefore our contribution based on the ruling of the calculator? If so, we have fallen into a deep trap, one that can make our lives devoid of heart and energy. That is the trap of pursuing what we think is good for us, instead of what we know is great for all of us. Being a true philanthropist, then, begins with acknowledging the spark of creativity and potential that is our gift to declare and share. Radiate outward from that point! Then when you choose to give materially, you will be giving only a small expression of infinite love within”.

It beats my imagination that rich persons in Nigeria will rather embark on elaborate and very expensive birth day ceremonies that are mere banal and mundane, rather than emulate the shining examples of Alhaji Dangote in whom industry and philanthropy means the same.

It is in the self enlightened interest of rich Nigerians to become genuine, credible and transparent givers like Aliko Dangote because their investments are not safe if the greater population of the citizenry is left to wander endlessly in the wilderness of absolute poverty, hunger and unemployment. It is not a fluke when people say that if the poor cannot sleep because he is hungry, then the rich will also not sleep because the poor people are awake. A stitch in time saves nine.

*       Emmanuel Onwubiko heads HUMAN Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria and writes from doziebiko@yahoo.com; www.huriwa.blogspot.com.    


4/10/2011     

FIRST GROUP, CITIZEN ONWUGHAI AND HOUSING RIGHTS By Emmanuel Onwubiko

Yesterday, one of the nation’s respected national dailies commenced a workshop on housing not necessarily because it was looking for exciting academic enterprise to embark upon.

Like most observers in Nigeria, yours truly accepts the fact that Daily Trust embarked on this epochal talk shop on the housing challenge confronting Nigerians because of the irrefutable fact that successive Federal and State administrations in this country have failed to professionally implement policies and measures that will empower the Nigerian people to become house owners.

In the early 1980’s, the truncated civilian regime of Alhaji Shehu Shagari commenced a revolutionary mass housing project across the country to deliver thousands of low cost and affordable houses to the Nigerian people in all segments of the society.

But the military intervention by coupists of 1982(December 31st) aborted this noble mass housing project and from then till now, successive administrations have only paid lip service to the critical issue of housing rights so much so that most Nigerians are now homeless in their own country.

Over the last ten years since Nigeria returned to civil rule, the issues of housing rights have not received good and sincere attention from all segments of the governance structures beginning from the federal to the local government level that has virtually collapsed.

The neglect by government of the housing rights of Nigerians is in gross breach of section 16(1) (d) of the Constitution as amended which stipulates that “the state shall, within the context of the ideals and objectives for which provisions are made in this constitution ensure that suitable and adequate shelter, suitable and adequate food, reasonable national minimum living wages, old age care and pensions, and unemployment, sick benefits and welfare of the disable are provided for all citizens”.

It is a notorious fact so well known by even the key operators in the nation’s housing sector that all the institutions set up to cater for the housing rights of Nigerians have all but failed to carry out their statutory duties.

To compound the ugly situation of homelessness afflicting a good majority of Nigerians, the federal Mortgage Bank and other financial institutions are criminally unwilling to provide the much needed credit facilities to willing Nigerians to enable them acquire their own property and free themselves from the inevitable servitude of servicing the many shylock landlords who keep increasing their rents in leaps and bounds.

Two things that happened in recent times to demonstrate and signpost the critical nature and essence of housing to Nigerians are the recent legislation passed and signed into law by the Lagos State House of Assembly and the Lagos State government which seeks to protect tenants from the arbitrariness of the Lagos landlords. The second case took place before the National Assembly whereby the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic which doubles as the State House of Assembly for Abuja, the nation’s capital, shamelessly failed to protect tenants in Abuja when they dismissed a proposed bill to regulate the rent regime in the Federal Capital Territory which to all intents and purposes, is ranked as the highest ever paid by human beings for their habitat in any part of the world.

It is this and many other manifest failures of government to provide affordable housing and liberalize the process of acquiring ownership of titles to land in Nigeria that have exposed many Nigerians to several unfriendly marketing policies of foreign investors who have invaded the housing sector in Nigeria to lure prospective buyers to acquire properties in foreign Countries including Dubai.

An Abuja-based business executive Mr. Timothy Onwughai and his wife in their genuine effort to get befitting property, entered into a contract with one of the many property marketers from abroad who are in Nigeria to maximize profit given the fact that even the federal and state administrations in Nigeria have failed to deliver affordable houses to Nigerians.

But a big legal challenge is brewing because this concerned Nigerian citizen Mr. Onwughai decided that he was no longer keen on buying the property because of alleged discrepancy between what he was told orally and the contents of the agreement he was served after some payments were made. But this foreign dominated estate marketer refused to refund some payments he already committed in the ill-fated housing deal. This concerned Nigerian decided to take two pronged approach to recover his investment which also include the possibility of testing the legal waters.

An Abuja based law firm has already written the Dubai-based estate dealers to return the investment made by this concerned Nigerian because he was no longer willing to consummate the contract which he considered unfavourable and also because he has made up his mind to look inwards towards getting a befitting house in Nigeria.

Konin Solicitors representing the aggrieved Nigerian citizen has written the FIRST GROUP in Dubai demanding refund but the foreign business establishment appear unwilling to oblige this legal request and for about the first time in the legal history of Nigeria, a foreign entity may be dragged to court for alleged failure to deliver on a housing contract.

Document obtained showed that the lawyers to this concerned Nigerian told this foreign entity thus; “Our clients seek to terminate the said Purchase Agreement on the grounds that the terms of an earlier oral agreement which they had entered into with your representatives in Nigeria were varied in the written contract which was later presented to them for signing. After a thorough scrutiny of the said Agreement and the entire process, our clients have concluded that they cannot proceed with the payment schedule anymore coupled with the fact that they believe their rights as purchasers were not adequately protected in the Purchase Agreement”.          

In a response showing that this Dubai-based estate developer was spoiling for a legal showdown with this concerned Nigerian, their lawyers Jackson, Etti and Edu legal firm replied that it was indeed the concerned Nigerian that was in breach of a subsisting agreement and that refund of his earlier payments is conditional.

The First group said the agreement stated thus: “In the event that the purchaser fails to fulfill any of the terms and conditions of this agreement within thirty (30) days of receipt of written notice by the seller of the purchaser’s default; or Fails to execute the Lease Management Agreement within the time specified in this agreement; or is adjudged bankrupt or insolvent or is the subject of a winding up or administration order, then the seller shall be entitled to the following remedies, without further notice and without prejudice to any other rights available in law: to terminate this agreement; to re-sell the unit; and upon any resale of the unit for market value the seller shall account to the purchaser for the price received by the seller, less the balance of the price and any other monies due under this agreement remaining unpaid”. 

The experiences of citizen Timothy Onwughai who committed some hard earned fund running into over three million naira, is that the federal government need not delay the transformation of the moribund housing sector, amend the legal provisions that inhibit smooth acquisition of land rights by Nigerians and liberalize the process of obtaining credit facilities from financial institutions and resuscitate the moribund federal mortgage bank and the Federal Housing Authority to make these public institutions to deliver durable and affordable houses to Nigerians and reduce the risks Nigerians go through in the hands of property speculators from foreign entities.

*          Emmanuel Onwubiko heads Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria and writes from doziebiko@yahoo.com.                

     
3/10/2011

NIGERIA POLICE AND NOTORIETY FOR MEDIA REPRESSION

THE OBSCENE SPEED THAT ARMED OPERATIVES FROM THE NOTORIOUSLY INCOMPETENT NIGERIA POLICE FORCE ADOPTED IN INVADING THE PREMISES OF THE NATION NEWSPAPERS ON 10TH OCTOBER 2011 TO ABDUCT FOUR SENIOR EDITORS OF THE VIBRANT NEWSPAPER ON THE GROUND OF A SO CALLED PETITION BY FORMER PRESIDENT OLUSEGUN OBASANJO OVER ALLEGED FORGERY OF A LETTER HE PURPORTEDLY SENT TO THE CURRENT PRESIDENT IS A TOTAL ABUSE OF OFFICE BY THE INSPECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE MR. HAFIX RINGIM. IT IS EVEN MORE SHAMEFUL THAT THE SAME OPERATIVES OF THE NIGERIA POLICE THAT FAILED SPECTACULARLY TO ARREST SUSPECTS FROM AN ARMED ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALIST SECT THAT BOMBED THE FORCE HEADQUARTERS OVER TWO MONTHS NOW BUT ARE QUICK TO HARASS, PHYSICALLY ASSAULT AND KIDNAP UNARMED AND INNOCENT NIGERIAN JOURNALISTS. WHEN WILL THIS NOTORIOUSLY AND COMPREHENSIVELY SHAMELESS OPERATIVES AND HIERARCHY OF THE NIGERIA POLICE FORCE STOP SHAMING OUR NATION IN THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY THROUGH THEIR SHAMEFUL HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES OF THE CITIZENRY? IT IS TIME THAT POLICE OFFICERS INVOLVED IN THIS REPREHENSIBLE AND ATROCIOUS HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS OF ENGAGING IN HOSTAGE TAKING AND ABDUCTION OF INNOCENT PERSONS ARE CHARGED TO COURT FOR KIDNAPPING.

THIS FUEL SUBSIDY REMOVAL

NIGERIANS HAVE RECENTLY BEEN SERVED A NOTORIOUS NOTICE BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT  OF AN IMPENDING AND DANGEROUS WITHDRAWAL OF THE SUBSIDY ON PETROLEUM PRODUCTS WHICH IMPLY THAT FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE 2012 FISCAL YEAR THE PUMP PRICE OF FUEL WILL SKYROCKET BEYOND THE AFFORDABILITY OF A GREATER PERCENTAGE OF NIGERIANS. GOVERNMENT ALLEGED THAT THE SUBSIDY IT HAS BEEN PAYING USUALLY ENDS UP IN THE HANDS OF MEMBERS OF A POWERFUL CARTEL AND THAT IT NOW WANTS TO WITHDRAW THE SUBSIDY AND REDIRECT IT TO THE BUILDING OF SOME BASIC INFRASTRUCTURES FOR THE BENEFITS OF NIGERIANS. THE QUESTIONS THAT BEG FOR IMMEDIATE RESPONSE FROM GOVERNMENT ARE; [1] ASSUMING WITHOUT CONCEDING THAT GOVERNMENT'S CLAIM IS RIGHT, HOW COME THAT GOVERNMENT WAS FUNNELING PUBLIC FUNDS TO SOME ALLEGED CRIME SYNDICATE WHO IT HAS IDENTIFIED AS A CARTEL IN THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY? [2] IF IT IS TRUE THEN THAT GOVERNMENT HAS ALWAYS PAID THE FUEL SUBSIDY TO THESE CRIMINALS AS ALLEGED WHICH MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE POOR NIGERIANS TO EVER ENJOY THE SUBSIDY, IT THEREFORE FOLLOWS THAT SOME PERSONS IN GOVERNMENT OUGHT TO BE INVESTIGATED, ARRESTED AND PROSECUTED FOR ALLEGEDLY FUNNELING THESE MONSTROUS AMOUNT OF PUBLIC FUNDS RUNNING INTO BILLIONS OF NAIRA INTO THE HANDS OF THE CARTEL, THIS PERSONS MUST BE MADE TO COUGH OUT THE MONEY ALREADY PAID AND GOVERNMENT WOULD HAVE ADMITTED FAILURE IF IT FAILS TO ENFORCE LAW AND ORDER BY ARRESTING MEMBERS OF THIS CARTEL THAT HAVE CORNERED THE FUEL SUBSIDY OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS. [3] WHY HAS GOVERNMENT FAILED TO CARRY OUT EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT TURN AROUND MAINTENANCE OF THE FOUR NEAR-MORIBUND CRUDE OIL REFINERIES IN NIGERIA AND WHERE ARE THE BILLIONS OF NAIRA RELEASED OVER THE LAST DECADE FOR THE T.A.M.? THIS REMOVAL OF FUEL SUBSIDY IS PROBLEMATIC AND WILL CRIPPLE THE ECONOMY OF MOST POOR NIGERIANS IF CARE IS NOT TAKEN.