Abuja – Prof. Uche Uwaleke, an experts on Finance and Capital Markets at the Nasarawa State University Keffi, has described the 2020 revised budget signed by President Muhammadu Buhari as a realistic assumption.
Uwaleke stated this when he appeared on Channels news at 10, monitored by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday.
NAN recalls that Buhari on Friday signed the revised N10.8 trillion 2020 budget into law.
He said the president needed to be commended for coming up with a realistic 2020 revised budget.YOU MAY LIKE
The economist said the benchmarks were realistic as well as allocation of resources in the estimate.
He noted that the allocation reflected the government’s priorities, adding that in the breakdown, work and housing, transport, power and agriculture had the largest share.
“The 2020 revised budget is a child of necessity, in the sense by now, we would have been six months into the implementation of the budget.
“Again that brings me to commend the Federal Government’s effort in restoring the budget cycle from January to December but just that COVID-19 is affecting this one.
“That the budget is high or higher than what was initially presented, it is expected, in a period of recession, we wouldn’t be reducing spending, if you want to stimulate the economy and avert a severe recession as being projected, the option is to spend,” he explained.
Uwaleke, however, commended Buhari for giving a marching order to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning to ensure MDAs got at least 50 per cent of their capital allocation before the end of the month.
He said that with this development, a significant implementation would be recorded before the end of the year.
He, therefore, advised the government to revisit recurrent expenditures and make some amendments by reducing budget on contingencies, outsourcing services, international sporting events and defence among others.
It happened some time ago but . I was in an audience listening to a motivational speaker. The speaker got out his wallet & pulled out a 500 Naira note. Holding it up, he asked, “Who wants this 500 naira note?” Lots of hands went up. Including mine. A slow chorus began to build as people began to shout “Me!” “Me!” I began to wonder who the lucky one would be who the speaker would choose. And I also secretly wondered (and I am sure others did too ) why he would simply give away 500 naira. Even as the shouts of “I want it” grew louder, I noticed a young woman running down the aisle. She ran up onto the stage, went up to the speaker, and grabbed the five 500 naira note from his hand. “Well done, young lady,” said the speaker into the microphone. The speaker simply say “Most of us just sit and wait for good things to happen. That’s of no use. You’ve got to make things happen. Make a move” ‘Simply thinking about doing something is of no use and not gud enough’. Our lives are like that. We all see opportunities around us. We all want the good things. But the problem is we don’t take action. We all want the 500 naira notes on offer. But we don’t make the move. We look at it longingly. Get up, and do something about it. Don’t worry about what other people might think. Take action.
later, the speaker got another 500 naira note and held it up for all to see, I thought I knew what’s up. But he just asked a simple question. “How much is this worth?” “Five Hundred naira!” the crowd yelled in unison. “Right,” said the speaker. He then took the note and crumpled it into a ball and asked “How much is it worth now?” “Five Hundred naira!” screamed the audience. He then threw the note on the ground, stamped all over it and picked up the note and asked one more time: “And how much is it worth now?” “Five Hundred naira!” was the response. “I want you to remember this,” said the speaker. “Just because someone crumples it, or stamps on it, the value of the note does not diminish. We should all be like the 500 naira note. In our lives, there will be times when we feel crushed, stamped over, beaten. But never let your self-worth diminish. Just because someone chooses to crush you, that doesn’t change your worth one bit!
Don’t allow your self-worth to diminish because someone says something nasty or does something dirty to you.”
Patrick O. Okigbo III in conversation with Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah
Socio-cultural diversity plays a significant role in the life of Nigerians. Despite efforts by successive governments to create the legal and constitutional framework for a nation, Nigeria still lacks the myths and stories that enable a shared nationality. There are more centrifugal forces that pull the country apart than there are centripetal forces that pull it together. Many of these forces are rooted in ethnicity, religion, classism, and many more. As such, there are hardly Nigerians in Nigeria.
Matthew Hassan Kukah, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Archdiocese, is one of Nigeria’s leading scholars whose books and essays provide fresh insight into some of the most intractable development challenges in the country. He writes extensively on religious militancy, politics, governance, development, and more.
Bishop Kukah will be the guest on the July 2020 “Development Discourse with Patrick Okigbo III”. The discourse will explore a broad range of topics: religious competitiveness and the dynamics of a modern Nigerian state, bigoted politics and its impact on development, impact of religion on a pseudo-secular nation, elites and the poverty of the masses (think of the Almajiri), identity politics, democracy and development, demographic bomb, place of women in Nigeria, ethnic hegemony, the performance of the Buhari administration on nation-building, and many more. The conversation will interrogate how to reverse the centrifugal forces pulling the nation apart.
Our investigation, interviews and other inquiries have revealed that there is more politics in the activation and commissioning of the AKK Gas pipeline project by President Muhammadu Buhari on June 30, 2020 than holistic real economic target.
A point not in dispute is that there is no known and exploitable natural gas along the Ajaokuta-Abuja-Kaduna-Kano axis of the natural gas pipeline Buhari commissioned.
From our investigations, the gas comes from the Niger Delta and Imo and Abia states in the South East.
President Muhammadu Buhari commissions AKK gas pipeline virtually from his office
The foundation project that started in about 2008 ensured that pipeline was laid from Calabar through Akwa Ibom, Abia, Imo, Enugu into Ajaokuta in Kogi State. The gas fields of these regions are the raw material base for the mega project. So it confounds how the activation started from the receiving end instead of carrying the supplier end along for equity, profitability and total development of the sector with high economic potential for the whole country.
AKK gas project best secured, beneficial if South East, South South axes are activated, says Ndukwe
On June 30, President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned the 614km mega Ajaokuta-Abuja-Kaduna-Kano natural gas pipeline to serve as impetus for better economy through the exploitation of natural gas for power generation and industrialization.
We monitored the interview Engr. Sam Ndukwe, former top management staffer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) granted Arise TV, a day after the commissioning
Ndukwe is one of the most informed Nigerians about the nation’s gas pipeline system, having supervised the NNPC’s West Africa gas pipeline project. In his 35 years of service with the NNPC, he was once coordinator of the West Africa Gas Pipeline project. He later served as the General Manager, Gas Pipelines Infrastructure and also Group General Manager, Power and at last, Managing Director, NNPC Gas and Power Investment Ltd. Currently, he is the MD of GVL Nigeria Ltd
With his pedigree, he is just the right person to discuss the gas pipeline project, a brainchild of the NNPC.
Nigeria’s gas endowment
Engr. Sam Ndukwe, former MD, Nigeria Gas and Power, NNPC. He knows where the pipes are buried and where the natural gas is located
Managing and preparing our gas infrastructure has been a big issue over the years. The pipeline project has been on for years and it is gratifying that some of us that worked on the project are here to witness the activation of the AKK project Nigeria is a country richly endowed with natural gas which I would say we happened on. The quantity has always been estimated between 187 and 203 trillion cubic liters, depending on source, including the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR)
So, Nigeria found gas by accident when looking for crude oil. As we produced crude oil, by happenstance, we got natural gas in an amazing quantity.
Since the discovery of natural gas, we have put it into use as liquefied natural gas (LNG) and partly also as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) which we have exported and also converted into local use for power generation in some gas power plants such as in Lagos and Port Harcourt and also in powering industries near Lagos that have access linkage to the national gas pipeline to power the factories in the Agbara Industrial area in Ogun State.
Yet, a little of the gas is flared. We used to flare up to some 20 percent but now, it’s as low as between 10 percent and 7 percent.
Because of the benefits of natural gas in aiding industrialisation, the AKK happening now is a good development and enabler for the economy of Nigeria.
Mega AKK project
This Ajaokuta-Abuja-Kaduna-Kano pipeline project is some 614km stretch and of 40-inch diameter. Forty inches diameter means a little child playing can walk through the interior. It is meant to impact all the states on the corridor for power generation and industrialisation.
Many state governments today discuss and target to develop industrial parks, but that can’t happen or be achievable without natural gas. We need it to activate such industrial processes and dreams. So, AKK is a major impetus to the northern axis where it would operate. However, this project is just part of the larger Trans-Nigerian gas pipeline system, some on going, most completed.
Security of project
The design I managed was intended not for just the AKK. What was commissioned is a subset or a segment. The whole project is from Calabar, through Ikot-Ekpene up to Umuahia, Enugu State and then linking Ajaokuta and north. There should be the phase 2 from Calabar, and the South East. The Obiafu-Obrikom pipeline is even bigger than AKK and ferries natural gas to Oben and later Ajaokuta.
From our experiences, not even the entire Nigerian Army can provide adequate security around the pipeline. The peace of mind in the local communities within the corridor is the only thing and way to secure them. At construction, the locals were engaged to weld and do some other works. Welding pipeline of this size involves high level skill and it impacted in making the local people who did the work professionals, a way of finding livelihood. People are restive when they are not busy. Industries would spring up along the pipeline axis. Moreover, the pipeline is a waste without an off taker.
AKK- A mesh of pipelines for delivering natural gas PHOTO: Google Images
Setting up power plants along the corridors of the project helps create other opportunities instead of taking generated power from Lagos and Niger Delta.
The politics
Yes, I am aware that some interests in the Niger Delta are agitating and that is normal given our past experiences.
The AKK 3.6b cubic feet of gas draws from Asa in Abia, Egbema/Izombe in Imo State and there is no gas economic possibility in the East and Niger Delta yet. The plan was originally for activation in the entire area the pipeline covers. So it would be improper to let crises happen before palliatives. The best is to make sure that the gas pipeline benefits the entire axes of its coverage including the South South and the South East. We need to do the CAP as we did the AKK. If that is not done, there will be agitation and security problems. The gas sources must be attended to or there would be no results.
The reason for the AKK coming on just now is because the project takes time to mature. It is a mega project and if we are to borrow, they are many conditions before maturity. Yes, it has been long, but gas didn’t have so much value and utility from time. Today, all over the world, the use and economic benefits keep expanding. For instance, USA natural gas usage stands at 35 percent while it is 41 percent in the UK.
To get this project done, eventually, we had to borrow from China and the equity supplied by the NNPC as its contribution, and that is what is powering its progress now. The planned 3.6gw power plant is tied to this project and if it is not done, then constructing pipeline is not viable.
I supposed that the borrowing is going to be safe for the project completion. It is my thinking that NNPC will ring fence the project and its financing and make sure it is not just a part of the NNPC costs. That way, the project will run on the West Africa pipeline which I managed and that involves transparency.
Gas is of no use to the individual if not converted to petrochemicals, fertiliser, power plants and its ancillary uses.
So the plan was to target steady power supply and that makes life and economic activity easier. That way smaller players in the economic chain would set up businesses that derive from this project
FURTHER INQUIRY
The superficial facts from the interview nudged us to probe further into why the project activation started with the AKK and not from Calabar and other parts of the South South and South East gas fields where the pipelines are already complete and ready for activation.
Some documents we got from the NNPC website and other sources gave a better picture
AKK flag off at Ajaokuta on June 30, 2020 PHOTO: Google Images
Gas master plan
As part of Nigeria’s resolve to become a major international player in the international gas market as well as to lay a solid framework gas infrastructure expansion within the domestic market, the Nigerian Gas Master Plan was approved on February 13, 2008. “The Master-Plan is a guide for the commercial exploitation and management of Nigeria’s gas sector” an NNPC web source said. It aims at growing the Nigerian economy with gas by pursuing three key strategies:
Stimulate the multiplier effect of gas in the domestic economy
Position Nigeria competitively in high value export markets
Guarantee the long term energy security of Nigeria
Based on this thinking, the NNPC for the Nigerian government mapped out an original holistic natural gas pipeline project that is so detailed not to leave out or leave behind the areas of Nigeria where the natural gas is drawn from. It is also important to know that the gas pipeline infrastructure is already there, reason many don’t understand why the government isolated the AKK axis for activation leaving behind the South East and South South end of the same project
Nigeria’s total completed gas pipeline
Four Backbone Gas Transmission Networks
Over 2000km of pipelines with about 2bcf/d flow capacity
3 World Scale Gas Processing Hubs Scope to extract over 1mtpa of LPG each
To be developed on a Private sector Build, Own and operate basis with initial capacity to process about 250-300mcf/d increasing to 1.5 — 2.5bcf/d
Numerous Gathering and Spur Lines
There is also on ground, 261 km x 20/36 inches pipeline from QIT-Ikot Abasi-Ukanafun-Obigbo-Ob/Ob with:
Artery to connect gas supply to feed the Ajaokuta-Kano line and the ELPS via OB3 pipeline
418km x 36 inches pipeline from Obigbo-Umuahia-Enugu-Ajaokuta; 683 km x 40 inches pipeline from Ajaokuta-Abuja-Kaduna/ Kano
Another trunk is to connect gas supply from SPDC/CNL’s Assa North development via the Eastern axis through AKK. There is also further reinforcing supply to the East and to AKK 174 km x 24 inches pipeline from QIT axis, traversing Calabar-Ikot-Ekpene-Umuahia.
Most of these data are on the NNPC and Nigeria Gas Limited websites and other sources, including www.nnpcgroup.com
2800 hectares Ogidigben Industrial Park
This is the industrial park Vice President Yemi Osinbajo made reference to in 2017 during his visit to the Delta State to quell the renewed restiveness by the local people claiming that the government side-lined them.
* Desirable location by the ocean and the Escravos River, for inland access
* Dedicated gas based industrial park with FTZ & Port Status
* Proximity to existing ELPS gas infrastructure and enables relatively easy gas access with less pipeline infrastructure development cost
* Dedicated Power Plant, CPF, Petrochemical, Fertilizer and Methanol Plants
â–ª Centralized utilities provision, world class Integrated fibre optic network (broadband and telecoms)
Although this document was obtained from the NNPC website, it’s not clear the extent of effort to make it a reality.
AKK gas project is another robbery of the South – Ankio Briggs
I am aware just like most Nigerians are and also witnessed the commissioning by President Buhari. He left me with no doubt about the intention of the north and especially this government to continue with the old robbery of the south, especially the Niger Delta for the benefit of the north.
In the 1970s they started by building a refinery in Kaduna, laid pipes all the way from the Niger Delta to the place and stole our crude oil that was piped to Kaduna for refining. Unfortunately for them, and without assessing how far they have progressed in this cheating, the Kaduna refinery has been down for years. Yet they start another project to steal the natural gas this time.
I don’t care where the pipelines started, but what matters is that the people of Niger Delta and now the South East in addition are to face another round of robbery and exploitation, targeting natural gas and the hazards would be ours while they take the benefits as usual.
It’s most unfortunate that while President Goodluck Jonathan completed the laying of that trans-Nigeria gas pipeline from the Niger Delta and the South East up to Kano, this present government is so heartless that it isolated the activation for only the north, starting from Ajaokuta.
Ankio Briggs, Niger Delta activist…The government and North insist on culture of looting us forever
President Buhari in continuation of the pursuit of his segregative policy he announced from the beginning, carving Nigeria into 97% and 5%, never thought it proper to at least show a little kindness to the people the natural gas that will power the AKK project he commissioned would be tapped from their domain. He doesn’t pretend about his lack of feelings for us, not even once. It is the same region or regions that the trans-Sahara gas pipeline beyond Nigeria is to derive from.
Now the government has borrowed from China to implement this project, my fear is that the Niger Delta would be exploited continuously to offset that loan with its unknown and undisclosed conditions by China, a country its loan conditions remain questionable. We don’t know the duration of repayment and what the interest rate is to estimate the extent of exploitation. Buhari didn’t tell us and he has bypassed us, the owners of the resources, to activate the northern end of the national project.
This is the latest invasion of the Niger Delta and now the South East in addition, and before this, advance militant teams coming in various cover-up names had been drafted over time to our farmlands and bushes. They come and raid and kill and the target is that should there be any resistance from the exploited people, these terrorists all laid ambush in our bushes would be unleashed on our people to kill them off. So they are out to take everything with the highest form of force and brutality. It is a move not meant to favour us in anyway. They care not about our happiness and I can tell you that I am really worried, especially for the fact that our people are no longer speaking out. So I am afraid if they really know the meaning and intention of what is going on.
How else could one describe this gross injustice by this government that previous administrations handled the project to benefit all and right now at the activation, the South South and South East where the natural gas is sourced stand shortchanged and suppressed to make sure the north takes the benefits alone?
So the president and those that advise him on how to handle Nigeria are ok with creating economic opportunities for the north and sidelining the regions and areas the resources derive from.
To worsen the matter, the minister of state in charge of petroleum is Timipre Sylva, a Niger Delta man from Bayelsa. To him this injustice doesn’t count or the people denied also don’t count in the scheme of things in Nigeria because he as an individual is favoured.
Buhari never relented in executing his segregation of the 5% in denials in all facets, economic, social, infrastructure etc, even to the point of robbing them of their resources to feed the north.
Ms. Briggs and Chief Nnia Nwodo, President General , Ohanaeze Nd’Igbo, South East…All shortchanged and neglected by Buhari… at a function in Abuja, March 2020
About three years ago when the Niger Delta renewed its agitation against the unpretentious denial by Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo came to Delta State and promised a gas power plant of about 180,000 cubic litres capacity that was meant to be the backbone of an industrial park in the area to serve as economic impetus to the people who have been over exploited for the benefit of the north and the Nigerian government.
His promise also included the construction of a major road to the denied peoples and places from Omadino to Escravos which would shore up the living standards of the people and open them up to economic possibilities. Till date, nothing has been said or done after that empty promise. Again, the same government is out for another robbery through this AKK gas pipeline.
Sylva as I mentioned earlier, Godswill Akpabio, the Minister for Niger Delta, Chibuike Amaechi, Minister for Transportation and other Niger Delta people serve in this same government and they cannot to tell Buhari that this ruthless denial won’t work, because the people may decide to say no tomorrow and that means the gas to feed the project won’t be there. That will be double loss to us since we would face the exploitation to repay the loan and possible raid and mass killing of our people by the bands of militants they have already stationed around us.
I need to remind our people that they have started playing a very disheartening role against their own people. There should be a point party politics stops and real interests are addressed as the northern politicians do for their region.
The Interim Management of Committee of Niger Delta Development Commission said it had uncovered how the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Niger Delta, Hon. Bunmi Tunji-Ojo, inserted a training cost of N6.4 billion into the 2019 Budget and vowed not to release the signed copy of the budget until 60 per cent (N3.8 billion) of the money was released.
The IMC also revealed how the same lawmakers inflated N750 million road repairs project to N2.9 billion in the 2019 Budget of the Commission.
Speaking on behalf of the Commission before a Senate adhoc Committee on Thursday, the Executive Director of Projects, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, said Senator Peter Nwaboshi also collected 1,000 contracts to share it among lawmakers.
Ojougboh, who indicted all the previous chairmen of committees overseeing the Commission in the National Assembly, said the hands of Senator Nwaboshi are soiled from turning the NDDC into a “cookie jar” for him to be an objective investigator.
He said the Committee chairmen injected new projects into the budget without recourse to the Commission or to the need of intended communities.
He added that budget proposal submitted by the Commission and the budget approved were always at huge variance.
Ojougboh said: “For the budget, there was a training programme at the cost of N6.4 billion inserted in the budget by the House Chairman, Committee on NDDC, who insisted that the signed copy of the budget would not be released unless payment of 60 per cent of the sum was made.
“This is was a programme that has not been executed.”
On the House of Representatives Committee Chairman on the NDDC, Ojougboh said: “This emergency road repairs project was meant to be a single contract valued for Ajowa Akoko at less than N750 million.
“One of the National Assembly Committee on NDDC Chairmen coerced the then management to break it into four lots.
“This pushed the cost of the project to N2,931,655,712.69 (four times the project value)
“The contracts were awarded on 16 April, 2019 to four companies nominated or linked to him.”
In his remarks, the Chairman of the Adhoc Committee, Senator Olubunmi Adetumbi, said the Panel was only saddled with probing the tenure of the IMC since October last year.
Adetumbi said the activities of NDDC before October 2019 was under forensic audit and the Committee will not look into it.
The forensic audit was ordered by President Muhammadu Buhari.
(Meanwhile) The sum of N1.5bn was used as COVID-19 relief fund for staff of the Niger Delta Development Commission, Kemebradikumo Pondei, Acting Managing Director of the commission, said.
Pondei disclosed this at the investigative hearing on the N40bn corruption allegation against the commission.
The Senate had on May 5 set up a seven-man ad-hoc committee to investigate the financial recklessness of the Interim Management Committee of the NDDC.
The MD and other delegates from the commission appeared before the committee on Thursday for the hearing.
The lawmakers raised concerns over the spending at the NDDC, noting that the commission spent N40bn last three months without due process.
However, Pondei when giving account of how money was spent, said staff of the agency had to be catered for, too.
He said, “We used it (N1.5bn) to take care of ourselves. We are NDDC, we need to take care of ourselves too.”
Part of the audit report read out by the Chairman of the committee, Olubunmi Adetunmbi, said N3.1bn was spent as COVID-19 funds between October 2019 and May 2020.
In the report, the lawmaker said, “N10m was paid to one person, N7m to two people, N5m to three people, 148 people took N3m each, 157 people got N1.5m each, 497 people got N1m each and 464 people were paid N600,000 each.”
Another N475m was given to the police to purchase face masks and hand sanitisers, he added.
The forthcoming annual vacation of the Federal High Court has stalled speedy hearing of an application in a N1.26 trillion suit brought by Topwideapeas Limited seeking an order of the court to annul concessioning of a part of the controversial National Theatre edifice.
The plaintiff is praying for an interlocutory injunction restraining the defendants from interfering with the plaintiff’s rights as concessionaire of the fallow land adjoining the National Theatre. The substantive motion was earlier set down for hearing on March 10, 2020 but was aborted by the coronavirus crisis.
Among the defendants that were served by substituted means are Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Minister, Federal Ministry of Tourism, Culture & National Orientation, Attorney-General of the Federation and Central Bank of Nigeria as second to fifth defendants. Other defendants in the suit are National Theatre & The National Troupe of Nigeria Board, Access Bank of Nigeria Plc and its Managing Director, Mr. Herbert Wigwe, as first, sixth and seventh defendants respectively. The case is listed as FHC/L/CS/2392/2019, Topwideapeas Ltd V National Theatre & National Troupe of Nigeria Board & 6 Ors.
Though counsel for the plaintiff, Mr. Matthew Nkap had at the resumed hearing last Wednesday sought an early date to argue the pending application for an interlocutory injunction, Justice Ayokunle Faji stated that his hands were tied by the impending vacation. He adjourned the matter to October 29 to hear all pending applications. Barrister C. Opara represented the 4th Defendant while Mr. Adeniyi Adegbonmire SAN appeared for the 6th and 7th defendants.
The plaintiff had scaled a major hurdle last March when the court ordered that all the court processes should be served on some defendants by substituted means.
After listening to the Lead Counsel for the plaintiff, Mr. Chijioke Okoli SAN argue a motion ex-parte for substituted service on the defendants, the court had ordered the plaintiff to serve the writ of summons and statement of claim on the defendants via DHL courier service and also by publication in a national newspaper.
The court also ordered that hearing notice for an interlocutory injunction to restrain the defendants from interfering with the plaintiff’s rights as concessionaire of the fallow land adjoining the National Theatre should be served on the defendants, while the substantive motion was set down for hearing on March 10, 2020.
The plaintiff is seeking among others a declaration that the plaintiff has a valid and binding contract for the concession of the fallow land surrounding the National Theatre Complex in terms of the updated draft concession agreement between the Federal Republic of Nigeria (represented by the first and third defendants) and the plaintiff, the approval of the Federal Executive Council being a mere formality in the circumstances.
Topwideapeas also seeks a declaration that it is unlawful for the fifth to seventh defendants to purport to truncate and nullify the plaintiff’s right as the concessionaire of the fallow land in and about the National Theatre Complex Iganmu, Lagos, by inducing the breach of the plaintiff’s contract with the first to third defendants or by any other means.
The plaintiff prays the court to declare that it is contrary to public policy and constitutes a misappropriation of scarce public funds for the fifth defendant (CBN) to divert public funds towards any project concerning the National Theatre Complex, Iganmu, Lagos, when the plaintiff and its partners and privies have mobilised local and foreign private investment into developing the complex and surrounding land into a grand mini-city on a scale entirely beyond the legitimate capacity of the fifth defendant.
Leading human rights activists will on Monday dissect the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on Nigeria’s human rights landscape.
Organized by the Human Rights Committee of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Lagos Branch, the virtual conference will especially spotlight human rights violations in the wake of efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic while framing the roadmap for human rights protection in the COVID-19 era. The theme of the conference is “COVID-19, Access to Justice and Human Rights Violations.” Time is 3 pm.
Among the lawyers and jurists who have confirmed their participation as speakers are the Lagos State Chief Judge, Justice Kazeem Alogba; Lagos State Attorney-General & Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Moyosore Onigbanjo SAN; Mr. Femi Falana SAN who will deliver a Keynote Address; Prof. Chidi Odinkalu who will speak on “COVID-19, Access to Justice and Human Rights Violations: The Role of Nigerian Bar Association,” and the Chairman of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Mr. Tony Ojukwu, who will speak on “COVID-19 and Human Rights Violations: Insights from the Field.”
Other confirmed speakers are Mr. Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa SAN who will x-ray the topic, “How Fair is Virtual Hearing in the COVID-19 era?” and Dr. Uju Agomoh, Executive Director, Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA) who will tackle the topic, “Coronavirus, Correctional Centres and Rights of Awaiting Trial Inmates.” Renowned legal aid defence expert, Mr. Chino Obiagwu SAN will discuss “Coronavirus and Challenge of Legal Defence” while Mr. Muhammad Belgore SAN will contend with “Litigating Human Rights Cases in the COVID-19 Era.”
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Hakeem Odumosu is expected to offer useful insights on the task of policing in the COVID-19 era as he discusses “Policing in the COVID -19 Era: Challenges and Prospects.”
The Host for the much anticipated virtual conference is NBA Lagos Branch Chairman, Mr. Yemi Akangbe while the Moderator is the Branch Vice Chairman & Chairman of the Human Rights Committee, Mr. Okey Ilofulunwa.
The Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) movement and 164 women groups have asked the government to rescue all girls and women that have been abducted by Boko Haram and reunite them with their families.
In a statement on Wednesday, the groups condemned the recently reported attack and abduction of women and girls at Malaharam in Biu local government area of Borno, saying such incidents represent the failure of governance on the part of the government.
Noting lack of security as an urgent and ongoing problem in Nigeria, they advised the government to harness the skills and knowledge base of Nigerians at home and abroad “to take back our country from vicious insurgents who have menaced our fellow citizens and brutalized them for far too long”.
It also asked the government to find ways of reducing gender-based violence.
“We denounce the renewed spate of abductions by Boko Haram is in response to the recently reported abductions of women and girls from Malaharam in the Biu Local Government Area of Borno State on Friday, June 26, 2020,” the groups said.
“#BringBackOurGirls emphasizes that this and previous abductions constitute a failure of governance by the Nigerian government, which has the primary responsibility and should take the lead in bringing back our girls and women.
“Besides rescuing all our abducted girls and women, a comprehensive political, economic and social set of strategies must be devised to bring peace and security to the embattled populations in the northeast and other parts of the country and to reduce the alarming increase in gender-based violence.”
The groups, which said security is a right of all citizens, asked the federal government to live up to its responsibility by ensuring the safety of the lives of Nigerians.
“#BringBackOurGirls emphasizes that Article 14 of the Nigerian Constitution (as amended) states that ‘the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government’,” they said.
“The Nigerian government should uphold the constitution and live up to its promise. It must demonstrate that it takes its constitutional responsibilities seriously. It must clearly show that it guarantees the human security of all its citizens.
“We demand that the Nigerian government should ensure all Nigerians and the world at large that human security is a right of all our citizens, and it will guarantee them safe, meaningful, and enduring peace and security, as well as freedom from fear of abduction, all over the country.
“We reiterate this urgent call upon the Federal Government of Nigeria to rescue all our abducted girls and women NOW! God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria!”
The registration for the 60th and first virtual Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA-AGC 2020) has commenced.
The TCCP Chairman, Prof Konyin Ajayi, SAN, made this disclosure to TheNigeriaLawyer (TNL), on Thursday, 9th July, 2020.
The registration portal is now open to all lawyers and non-lawyers alike, without restrictions.
Prof. Konyin in his address said:
“The 60th edition of the conference represents a novel platform for knowledge exchange on the continent as we bring together world leaders, political icons, judges, leading lawyers, thought leaders, policymakers, business icons, and civil society to not just discuss but produce an implementation plan to foster the adoption of policies, standards, and practices leading to socio-political stability, economic growth, sustainable and infrastructural development for accelerated regional and economic integration.”
Recall that the NBA President Paul Usoro, SAN, said that the core objective of the 60th edition of the NBA AGC is to host a world-class international conference, with in-depth discourse stirred by a wealth of unparalleled experience, aimed at proliferating the knowledge, skills, and inspiration bequeathed in past NBA Conferences, to improve our lot in Africa, build legacy law firms, shape subsequent generations of the African Bar, and more importantly, reposition the Bar to play its critical role in economic and socio-political development on national and continental trade frontiers.
The Southern Africa Human Rights Roundup is a weekly column aimed at highlighting important human rights news in southern Africa. It integrates efforts of human rights defenders and facilitates evidence-based engagement with key stakeholders, and institutions on the human rights situation across the region. The roundup is a collaboration between the Southern Africa Human Rights Defenders Network and Maverick Citizen.
On 7 July 2020, the government of Malawi issued a little-noticed announcement, withdrawing its decision on 12 June that the country’s chief justice, Andrew Nyirenda, had to go on compulsory leave pending retirement. In a nod to both the separation of powers and judicial independence, the notice acknowledged that the matter of the chief justice’s leave and how or when it should be taken was a “matter between the Honorable the Chief Justice and [the] Judicial Service Commission”.
It was a fitting bookend to the recent story of one of Africa’s unquestionably more unlikely political models, where the judiciary has emerged with credit in policing the ground rules of democratic politics.
In the 26 days from 12 June to 7 July, Malawi navigated a tumultuous path back to the future. On Sunday 14 June, the High Court of Malawi issued two orders suspending the presidential notice that would have effectively sacked the chief justice.
Two weeks later, on 28 June, Lazarus Chakwera, a Pentecostal pastor, took the oath as independent Malawi’s sixth president, replacing Arthur Peter Mutharika, the law professor whom he defeated in the rerun in June 2020 of a ballot from May 2019, which Malawi’s courts had found to have been characterised by high electoral larceny.
The path to this outcome was both tortured and, in the view of many people outside Malawi at least, improbable.
The Tipp-Ex elections
When Malawi went to the polls to elect a president on 21 May 2019, there were 10 parties on the ballot paper. They included Peter Mutharika of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), first elected in 2014. He was running for a second term.
Mutharika’s vice-president, Saulos Chilima, having fallen out with him, ran on the platform of the United Transformation Movement (UTM). Chakwera was the candidate of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP). Also on the ballot was Atupele Muluzi of the United Democratic Front (UDF).
Malawi’s first-past-the-post electoral system was designed to produce as the winner the candidate with the highest lawful votes. The Malawi Electoral Commission registered 6,859,570 voters to vote in the ballot.
At the end of the contest, the commission announced a turnout of 5,105,983 votes, crediting Mutharika with 38.57% of the votes, Chakwera with 35.41% and Chilima with 20.24%. Muluzi came a distant fourth with 4.67%.
Both Chakwera and Chilima were unhappy with the declared results. The public mood was also fractious, and there were allegations that the electoral commission, led by supreme court justice Jane Ansah, had rigged the polls. Duelling public protests ensued, with vocal civil society advocating that #JaneAnsahMustFall as others claimed that she was the victim of targeted misogyny.
With the support of civil society, Chakwera and Chilima headed to Malawi’s constitutional court to challenge the results. On 3 February 2020, the court nullified the result and ordered a fresh presidential ballot with two stipulations. First, the rerun had to be held not later than six months from the judgment. Second, the winner had to emerge with a clear majority of at least 50% plus one of the votes cast. This was a high threshold for a country where presidential contests had historically been squeaky affairs.
As he was entitled to, Mutharika appealed the judgment to the supreme court. On 8 May, the supreme court affirmed the judgment of the constitutional court, throwing out Mutharika’s appeal. In doing so, the court identified three categories of irregularities that had marred the elections. It found “documents whose contents were altered by either the use of Tipp-Ex, a manual crossing out of the original content or overwriting on the original document. Then there are … completely new documents. In other words, documents that were never, at all, submitted by the polling station. Examples are duplicate, fake, reserve and uncustomised documents. The third category is unsigned documents.”
Under the terms of the court orders, the rerun was set to take place on or before 2 July. There was not a lot of time to get it done. This was only the second time that a court in Africa had nullified a presidential contest.
The first time, in 2017 in Kenya, ended in a fiasco when the irate ruling party decided in response to eviscerate the electoral process to the point where the opposition effectively pulled out of the rerun, paving the way for the incumbent to emerge practically unopposed.
Courts vs. despots
By the time the Malawi supreme court had handed down its judgment, the world was already in the throes of the Covid-19 pandemic. In other parts of Africa, Mutharika’s peers had set about using the pandemic as cover to retain power. In Guinea, President Alpha Condé used it to amend the constitution in order to secure a life presidency. In Burundi, President Pierre Nkurunziza saw in the pandemic an opportunity to install his hand-picked successor.
This was an appealing playbook for Mutharika. On 20 March, he proclaimed an indefinite “state of national disaster” during which he banned “all gatherings including weddings, funerals, church, congregations, rallies and government meetings” of more than 100 people. With this he sought to ban all political rallies during the period preceding the proposed rerun.
Five weeks later, on 28 April, high court judge Kenyatta Nyirenda stopped Mutharika’s government from “suspending or implementing the complete closure of religious gatherings”.
For Mutharika and his coterie, the courts and the church were tag-team against him in a contest in which his biggest opponent was a pastor. It was an odd place to be for somebody who is arguably Malawi’s best known law professor. He should have known that Malawi’s political history was defined by the contest between courts and despots, one in which his own family members have been prime actors.
On Christmas Eve in 1981, the government of Malawi’s founding president, “Ngwazi” Hastings Kamuzu Banda, abducted Malawi’s exiled first attorney-general and justice minister, Orton Chirwa, and his wife, Vera, from Zambia and returned them to the capital city, Lilongwe.
Orton was the founding president of the MCP, which led Malawi to independence in 1964. He was also Malawi’s first lawyer. As minister in the transitional government of 1962, Orton took issue with the presumption of innocence and burden of proof in criminal trials, arguing for their replacement with traditional African norms and institutions. As attorney-general, he pushed for these reforms but was turfed out of cabinet in September 1964 in a power tussle with Banda, before the reforms were promulgated.
A sequence of unsolved murders in the country ended up in the Chilobwe murder trials in 1969, which collapsed when the prosecution could not meet the standard of proof. In response, Banda scrapped criminal trials by regular courts, transferring jurisdiction over crimes to traditional courts, comprising a traditional chief as chair, with three citizen assessors and one lawyer.
Banda, by this time also his own justice minister, appointed the traditional leaders. They also reported to him. In an ironic twist of fate, Orton would be arraigned for treason in 1983 before the kind of traditional courts he had advocated for as attorney-general. His trial was a charade. The court denied him and Vera – herself Malawi’s first female lawyer – legal defence or the right to call witnesses.
He was initially sentenced to death on conviction, but Banda commuted this to life imprisonment. Orton spent the remainder of his life in solitary confinement at the Zomba prison in Malawi, where, in December 1992, he died at the age of 73.
It was the eve of Malawi’s transition from the despotism of the “Ngwazi”. In 1994, under the new multiparty constitution, Banda ran against and lost to Bakili Muluzi of the UDF, who himself had served Banda as minister. In 2003, a term-limited Muluzi sought to amend the constitution to extend his tenure.
Frustrated by the courts and the people, he chose a little-known economist and former deputy governor of Malawi’s central bank, Bingu wa Mutharika, as his successor. Following a royal falling-out between them, Bingu fled Muluzi’s UDF to start up the DPP. In 2009, Muluzi sought to return to presidential politics, but the courts ruled him permanently term-limited.
Seeking to consolidate power, Bingu tapped his own brother, Arthur Peter, as his closest adviser and minister, before installing him formally as his chosen successor as DPP leader. When Bingu died suddenly in 2012, his brother attempted to short-circuit the constitutional line of succession by hiding his demise and then exporting his body to South Africa in the hope that some malefaction could be invented to stop the vice-president from taking over.
He failed and the body of his older brother suffered the indignity of being buried in a state of considerable putrefaction. A man who could do that to the remains of his brother and benefactor should not have been entrusted with power, but in 2014 the people of Malawi did.
Back to the future
In the end, the country got tired of the despotic sleaze and cronyism of Peter Mutharika. Forcing him out, however, produced a drama fit for the script ofBack to the Future. After being thrown out of power in 1994 following the 30 despotic years of the “Ngwazi”, the MCP was reluctantly accepted by Malawians this time as the vehicle for their political progress.
In doing so, however, they forced it to form alliances with nine other parties in the Tonse (together) Alliance, providing the kind of broad platform for what would become a sweeping victory and constraint on abuse of power.
To resist the Tonse Alliance, the Mutharika family made up with the Muluzis, enabling Atupele, Muluzi’s son, to become Mutharika’s running mate on the losing ticket.
The result is a rousing tale of democracy in all its messiness and inspiration. In all this, the people of Malawi found the voice to defend their democracy. When, therefore, Mutharika sought to oust their chief justice and eviscerate their judiciary, they rose as one to defend it.
In an unspoken understanding, Malawi’s judges have earned trust as the representatives of the only institution capable of holding the balance of power against the machinations of these resilient political families. It is an African example that should command attention beyond its own borders. DM/MC
Chidi Odinkalu is a former chair of Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission and works with the Open Society Foundations.
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