By Tony Eluemunor

I read with an interchange of intense pleasure and intense pain, the insightful lecture which the much decorated Lt Gen (Rtd) Abdulrahman B. Dambazau delivered on the 4th of November 2025. That 7th Annual Public Lecture of the “Just Friends Club of Nigeria” (JFCN), with the theme, “Nigeria’s Security Challenges and the Quest for National Cohesion: A New Paradigm for Internal Security Architecture”, should have so engaged the attention of the nation that it should have given rise to a national discourse on Nigeria’s present security tragedy.

This is because Dambazau as a former Chief of Army Staff and Minister of Interior at different times must know the national security terrain expertly. He is also superlatively educated; holds a PhD degree in Criminology and he is also the Pro-Chancellor, Capital City
University, Kano, so he must have been interfacing with Professors. So, it is curious that his most topical lecture didn’t elicit a national discourse.

In a sense, Dambazau didn’t disappoint; he traversed the field expertly, espousing every aspect of it in a way that would make a layman an expert. Hear him:

“Security must be approached from a comprehensive and holistic perspective, as a concept centered on people rather than territories and on investment in human development rather than armaments, a broader construct that extends beyond traditional military concerns to
encompass the protection of individuals’ lives, property, and their overall well-being.

Military security is primarily concerned with protecting a nation’s territorial integrity and sovereignty against external threats, typically using armed forces and defence strategies. Being state-centric, it focuses on safeguarding the state from military aggression, invasion, or armed conflict. In contrast, human security is people-centric and encompasses a broader range of concerns. It emphasizes the protection of individuals’ lives, properties, and
overall well-being.

Human security addresses threats such as poverty, illiteracy, disease, unemployment, corruption, and environmental degradation, issues that cannot be resolved by military force alone but require effective governance and social investment. In the Nigerian context, these threats pose significant human security challenges.

Nigeria is confronted with a range of complex security challenges that demand a robust and adaptive internal security architecture. Foremost among these are threats to the safety of lives and property. This “freedom from fear” has been eroded by the activities of groups such as Boko Haram, bandits, IPOB, Yoruba Nation agitators, militants, urban criminal gangs, and other violent offenders engaged in armed robbery, murder, and ritual killings.

In addition to physical threats, Nigeria faces significant human security challenges that undermine its survival and livelihoods- poverty, unemployment, hunger, disease, and illiteracy have denied many citizens their “freedom from want.” Despite its abundant
resources, Nigeria continues to rank low on the United Nations Human Development Index.

For instance, extreme poverty is expected to rise from 30.9% in 2018 to 46% in 2024, with approximately 90 million Nigerians living below the poverty line. Multidimensional poverty, encompassing deprivation in health, education, and living standards, affects 63% of the
population and is exacerbated by inflation, economic stagnation, insecurity, regional disparities, and inadequate social protection. Population growth further compounds these challenges, with projections indicating that Nigeria’s population will exceed 400 million by 2050, and over 70% of the population is young, including approximately 10
million out-of-school children”.

Freedom from want? This should remind us of the “Four Freedoms of Man” as articulated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941. They are universal principles for a just world: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear, representing essential democratic values that should exist everywhere, and inspiring global Human Rights ideals like those in the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It is actually from here that I began to disagree with Gen. Dambazau. He attributed the problem to: “The proliferation of firearms, driven by porous borders, regional instability, and illicit local production, the widespread availability of unregistered and unmarked weapons has fueled insurgency, banditry, armed robbery, and other violent crimes.
Reports indicate that Nigeria accounts for a significant share of illegal weapons in West Africa, with the Lake Chad region remaining a hotspot for arms trafficking and local manufacture of arms, including components used by groups such as Boko Haram.

2; Root Causes, Triggers, and Drivers of Insecurity: The persistence of Nigeria’s security challenges can be attributed to a complex interplay of root causes, triggers, and drivers. A significant factor is the tendency to oversimplify complex issues, often influenced by
emotions, sentiments, and the denial of reality. Religious and ethnic intolerance frequently clouds objective reasoning, leading to a fragmented national perspective and undermining collective efforts to address insecurity.

Key drivers include poor governance, inadequate welfare for security personnel, insufficient coordination among security agencies and underdeveloped criminal justice institutions. Additional factors, such as limited legislative oversight, corruption, inconsistent enforcement of law and order, an overstretched military, misallocated police resources, underutilized civil defence units, and the absence of a comprehensive strategy for rural security, further exacerbate the situation”.

All the points he mentioned above could have contributed to Nigerian terrorism, but it is curious that Gen. Dambazau could have left off listing killer cattle herders among the terrorist groups just as he left off fundamental Islamic influences among the triggers of that terrorism. He failed to condemn the calls for cattle routes and government-provided cattle settlements or colonies or Rural Grazing Areas (RUGA), a controversial government project for cattle herders. I say this for two strong reasons. One, a militia apparently exists for the sheer purpose of fighting for the interests of the Fulani cattle herders. Such a militia or militias visit mayhem on villages and towns in furtherance of cattle herders’ interests around the Middle Belt area. They appear suddenly, do their deadly deed and disappear
instantly.

Two, if animal husbandry is a personal business, what is wrong with requiring those in that business to sequester their cattle in personal ranches? The government could provide the initial take-off loans. Government-sponsored RUGA is like robbing Peter to pay Paul. No
personal business should be so subsidized. And to talk about Cattle Routes in year 2025 is to escape from modernity and leap into the dark ages. Introduce Cattle Ranches and the so-called farmers and cattle herders’ clashes will disappear as cattle will stop destroying farms and cattle herders will stop moving with A.K 47 assault weapons because they won’t be moving about at all, let alone other economic fruits.

Yes, Northern Muslims have experienced insurgency but the explanation for this is clear; as the terrorists become more and more confident, they exert territorial controls and impose taxes. It requires force to impose such and that explains the troubles the non-Christians in the North-West and North-East face. But to deny that there is an orchestrated attack or even genocide against Christians in Nigeria, as Dambazau did, will fall flat against the evidence.

And what is this evidence? For starters, the religious terrorists are all unpretentious Islamic jihadists going by their names. Second, their roots go far into history, especially the escalating events like the 1980s Maitatsine riots, the introduction of Sharia law in the
North (starting from 1999), and the rise of Boko Haram, have been creating cycles of violence over resources, identity, and governance, impacting stability despite coexistence efforts. Unfortunately, religious crisis didn’t begin with Boko Haram. It just happened that
despite the failures of the earlier attempts, Boko Haram’s attempt has given rise to a full-fledged terrorism. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) reported that, as of 2025, just under 53,000 Muslims and Christians had been killed in targeted political
violence since 2009. Organisations that monitor political violence in Nigeria have reported that the majority of victims of jihadist groups are Muslim. According to ACLED’s 2022 report, although Christians constitute roughly 50% of the population, violence explicitly
targeting Christians on the basis of religion accounted for only 5% of reported civilian-targeting events”.

In the face of such indices, why would anybody, including the American President, Donald Trump claim otherwise? The answer is this: Religious conflict in Nigeria, when it befalls the Christians, religion and not
mindless theft and mayhem is often the issue. From the Wikipedia comes
this: “This was the case of the mayhem in Tafawa Balewa town to 1948.
The 1980s saw an upsurge in violence due to the death of Mohammed
Marwa (“Maitatsine”). In the same decade, the military ruler of
Nigeria, General Ibrahim Babangida, enrolled Nigeria in the
Organisation of the Islamic Conference. This was a move which
aggravated religious tensions in the country, particularly among the
Christian community. In response, some in the Muslim community pointed
out that certain other African member states have smaller proportions
of Muslims, as well as Nigeria’s diplomatic relations with the Holy
See.

Thus, when Boko haram began, it clearly had religion as its aim. And the various groups are affiliated to known Islamic fundamentalist organs from the Middle East. Boko Haram wasn’t fighting against bad governance nor hunger and want per see, it fought because of Islam trying to impose its own version on other people. I must add that although direct conflicts between Christians and Muslims were rare, eruptions often happened as in October 1982 when Muslim zealots in Kano were able to enforce their power in order to keep the Anglican House Church from expanding its size and power base. They saw it as a
threat to the nearby Mosque, even though the Anglican House Church had been there forty years prior to the building of the Mosque.

Two student groups came into contestation; the Fellowship of Christian Students and the Muslim Student Society. In one instance there was an evangelical campaign organised by the FCS and brought into question why one sect should dominate the campus of the Kaduna State College of Education in Kafanchan. This quarrel accelerated to the point where the Muslim students organised protests around the city and burned a Church within the college. The Christian majority at the college retaliated on March 9. Twelve people died, several Mosques were burnt in that war.

Since the restoration of democracy in 1999, the Muslim-dominated Northern states have implemented strict Sharia law. Religious conflict between Muslims and Christians has erupted several times since 2000 for various reasons, often causing riots with several thousands of victims on both sides. Since 2009, the Islamist movement Boko Haram
has fought an armed rebellion against the Nigerian military, sacking villages and towns and taking thousands of lives in battles and massacres against Christians, students and others deemed enemies of Islam; not enemies of bad governance.

So, the religious tension has been rife for decades before Boko Haram emerged. But it emerged because the ground was fertile enough to nurture it. On this, I give the last word to Wikipedia: “Despite Mohammad Marwa’s death, Yan Tatsine riots continued into the early
1980s. In October 1982 riots erupted in Bulumkutu, near Maiduguri, and in Kaduna, to where many Yan Tatsine adherents had moved after 1980. Over 3,000 people died. Some survivors of these altercations moved to Yola, and in early 1984 more violent uprisings occurred in that city. In this round of rioting, Musa Makaniki, a close disciple of Maitatsine, emerged as a leader and Marwa’s successor.

Ultimately, more than 1,000 people died in Yola and roughly half of the city’s 60,000 inhabitants were left homeless. Makaniki fled to his hometown of Gombe, where more Yan Tatsine riots occurred in April 1985. After the deaths of several hundred people Makaniki retreated to Cameroon, where he remained until 2004 when he was arrested in Nigeria. Some analysts view the terrorist group Boko Haram as an extension of the
Maitatsine riots”.

Gen Dambazau did not go this far in his analysis of the Boko Haram problem. Please, remember that in 1991, the German evangelist Reinhard Bonnke was accused of attempting to start a crusade in Kano, a religious riot ensued killing 12 persons. That would not have been the work of miscreants who were simply worried about their poverty and bad governance. Religion was involved. And religion runs through Nigeria’s present insurgency.

The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine

By Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN

The Best Identification of an Accused Person:

The best identification of an accused is by the victim of the crime or a witness to the crime. In the instant case, the appellant has argued that the girl on the motorcycle with the appellant was a different girl from the victim, or was an unknown girl. But PW5 testified that he knew the victim and would recognise her anywhere. The close encounter with the appellant and the victim on the motorcycle identified the appellant at the scene of the crime and it is binding on the appellant.

The appellant did not appeal against the description of the culprit as having a deformed right hand, and that identification and or description of the appellant as the person who was seen with the victim on a motorcycle before she went missing is binding on the appellant. The appellant did not challenge the fact that he had a deformed right hand as at the date the victim was seen with him on a commercial motorcycle operated by PW3 on the fateful day that she went missing. No doubt, PW3 and PW5 knew the appellant and the victim and had fixed the appellant at the scene of the crime as having committed the offence.

Proof of Offence of Kidnapping:

Per Uwa, JSC, at pages 237, paragraphs D–F:

“In respect of the elements required to be proved for the offence of kidnapping, there is no evidence that the victim has been seen till date. The parents of the victim, PW1 and PW2, gave evidence that the victim has not been seen from the date she was taken away by the appellant.

“The victim could not have consented to be taken away, she was only eight years of age at the time. From the investigation by the police, the evidence of PW4, PW3 and PW5 amongst others, it was clear that the appellant kidnapped Mercy as held by the trial court and rightly affirmed by the lower court. There is no reason or talk of lawful purpose or excuse for the appellant to have taken away the victim, Mercy.”

Meaning and Nature of Contradictions in Evidence and Effect of Discrepancies or Contradictions on Prosecution’s Case:

Contradictions occur when evidence adduced by different witnesses are opposites of each other. It is only discrepancies or contradictions on material points in the prosecution’s case that would create doubt which would favour an accused person or appellant.

Read Also: Dada v the state: Police and security of life (1)

In the instant case, learned counsel had erroneously argued that there were contradictions in the case of the prosecution at the trial because while PW3 stated that the incident occurred at about 4.30 pm on the fateful day, PW5 testified that it was at about 5.00 pm that the appellant picked up the victim. This was a minor detail that did not touch on the root of the matter, that is, that the appellant was seen with the victim, to which the appellant confessed that he had kidnapped the victim.

The exact time the witnesses saw the appellant with the victim is immaterial, whether it was 4.30 pm or 5.00 pm. On the other hand, if the witnesses had given the same time as the time the appellant was seen with the victim, the chances are high that the witnesses had been tutored to have ended up with identical evidence. Minor discrepancies as occurred in the present appeal could not be fatal to the prosecution’s case. The exact hour or minute the appellant was seen with the victim was immaterial.

When Identification Parade is Unnecessary:

Where an accused person by his confessional statement has identified himself, there would not be any need for any further identification parade. In the instant case, the appellant by his admission in his confessional statement had identified himself in respect of the commission of the offence.

Further, the evidence of PW3 and PW5 fixed the appellant to the commission of the offence. Therefore, the Supreme Court would not fault the finding by the Court of Appeal that apart from the confessional statement of the appellant, the unchallenged and uncontradicted evidence of the prosecution witnesses, particularly that of PW3 and PW5, fixed the appellant to the commission of the offence.

Contrary to the appellant’s argument that there were no materials upon which the trial court could have convicted the appellant, there was ample evidence adduced by the prosecution witnesses which was unchallenged and uncontradicted that established the charge against the appellant that he kidnapped the victim who had not been seen since.

The Essence of Particulars of Ground of Appeal:

The essence of particulars to a ground of appeal is to explain or substantiate the ground or grounds of appeal. Grounds of appeal are to be differentiated from their particulars. While the grounds of appeal must clearly state what the appellant is complaining about, the essence of the particulars of a ground of appeal is to set out briefly the aspect of substantive law or procedural law that is affected by the error or misdirection identified or complained of in the ground of appeal.

In the instant case, the particulars of ground 5 of the notice of appeal did not challenge the ruling of the trial court where it was held that the manner in which the statement was written did not involve violence, as rightly argued by the respondent in its brief of argument. Ground 5 and its particulars related to the promise made to the appellant by PW4, the Investigating Police Officer, that he would help him get off the hook if he confessed to the crime, which did not make the statement inadmissible.

Therefore, the trial court rightly found that there was no violence in the manner in which the statement was taken from the appellant, and by virtue of the provisions of Sections 29 and 31 of the Evidence Act, 2011, as amended, the promise did not make the statements inadmissible, as also rightly argued by the respondent.

Treatment of Findings of Court Not Appealed Against:

A finding of fact not appealed against binds an appellant and the appellate court. In this case, the appellant did not appeal to the Court of Appeal against the trial court’s finding that the appellant’s confessional statements were voluntarily made.

Thus, the appellant, not having appealed against the findings of fact by the trial court, which were affirmed by the Court of Appeal that the statements were voluntarily made, was bound by the findings.

The appellant also did not appeal against the description of the culprit as having a deformed right hand. That identification and or description of the appellant as the person seen with the victim on a motorcycle before she went missing is binding on the appellant. The appellant did not challenge the fact that he had a deformed right hand as at the date the victim went missing and was seen with her on a commercial motorcycle operated by PW3 on the fateful day that she went missing.

Further, PW3 and PW5 knew the appellant and the victim, and had fixed the appellant at the scene of the crime as having committed the offence.

When Appellate Court Will Not Interfere with Findings of Facts by Trial Court:

Findings on primary facts are matters within the province of a trial court and there is a rebuttable presumption that a trial court’s findings and conclusions on facts are correct. Thus, such findings are accorded due respect at the appellate court.

Therefore, an appellate court will very rarely, if at all, interfere with the findings of facts made by a trial court. This is so because such findings of fact enjoy the privilege of passing through the furnace of acrimonious cross-examination, the tooth-comb scrutiny of the observation of the witnesses’ reactions and assessment of the veracity of their testimony.

Accordingly, such findings are to be accorded due respect in appellate courts, which did not have the advantage of the trial court. In the instant case, the trial court and the Court of Appeal found that the evidence of PW3, the motorcycle rider, and PW5 fixed the appellant as the person that kidnapped the victim.

The trial court and the Court of Appeal believed the evidence of the witnesses at the trial court, which had not been proved or shown to be perverse for the Supreme Court to set it aside.

Conclusion

The entrance of motorcycles into the public transport domain has become a menace, but the masses of our people have no other option. In the absence of an efficient public transport system by way of buses and trains, people will have no other choice than to patronise private unregistered transport providers, at times doing so at great danger to their lives and property.

The two cases of Saheed v The People of Lagos and Dada v State, which have been the subject of review in recent weeks, serve as a wake-up call to the government to take urgent steps to safeguard the people. There are many other unreported cases similar to these, where innocent citizens become ready victims of ritualists, armed robbers and kidnappers who take advantage of the absence of government regulation to perpetrate their criminal agenda.

Fuel subsidy removal has taken cab and hiring services out of the reach of even the middle class, if such still exists, not to talk of the poorest of the poor. I appeal to the governors of the various states to come up with laws that will protect their people and to enforce existing laws regulating transport.

On the 15th of December 2025, the Federal High Court celebrated its new legal year of 2025/2026. As usual, who is who in the legal profession was there. The Bar was represented by its President. The Chief Justice of Nigeria was at that occasion. The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court led the Hon Judges of that court. The Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria BOSAN, was represented by Chief Godwin Kanu Agabi the former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

In short, who is who in the legal profession was there at that occasion. The speeches by each speaker were electrifying, and they all spoke about the need for justice to be served in the most undiluted manner. The need for judicial reforms and judicial boldness were beautifully couched, canvassed and emphasized. The ills of our justice systems were appropriately diagnosed by those who are too familiar with the cancerous illnesses that the legal profession and the judicial system suffer in Nigeria.

When it comes to fine speeches, we are just the best. But we need much more than fine speeches at public gatherings. I think we all know the problems facing us in the legal profession. The major problem for those who have responsibility to put the fine fine speeches into practice is the ability and boldness to walk the talks. The problems of forum shopping and conflicting judgments ably identified at that occasion have been with us for too long now that today we should not be talking about it. We should do away with it and those involved should be shown the way out of the legal profession.

Today, the issue of perceptions of judicial capture by state actors has assumed much more than perceptions. It is gradually becoming the reality of our systems. The judiciary seems to be in a total quagmire of liberating itself from those illnesses going by some decisions that led credence to the beliefs that judicial independence only exists in theory. Today,, some judgments defied both logic and jurisprudential reasoning, undermining good logic rooted in justice and good conscience.

Some judgments create more problems than solving it. Some judgments put roadblocks in the attainment of undiluted justice. Some judgments are rooted in caricature adjudications. Delay justice and abuse of judicial processes are becoming increasingly prevalent in the legal profession in Nigeria. The legal profession has become worse hit in legal abracadabra than in some most morally depraved institutions.

Improprieties of extraordinary abnormalities have become the norms rather than an exception. So for me we have talked enough. There must be practical implementations of our fine fine talks. NJC should as a matter of urgency deal with judicial officers that give conflicting decisions and then show them the way out of the justice system. NBA should publicly go after all its members that engaged in forum shopping and filing of frivolous processes and get them debarred without further delay. Those who are not ready to abide by the code of conduct in the legal profession are not fit to remain in the profession. LPDC should be strenghtened and properly funded to under the task flushing out bad eggs amongst us. There should be no sacred cows.

Admissions to law school must be thoroughly reviewed and people with character deficiencies should not be admitted to the Bar. NBA as a professional association of lawyers must run its affairs transparently. NBA too should look inward in the running of its affairs. Until NBA assumes a full fledged professional association and stop wearing the colour and attributes of conventional partisan political parties, it cannot play the much needed role of a leading light of the society. Over the years NBA and those in charge of it have become more interested in self serving interests than the interests of the vast majority of members.

NBA is almost turning to personal fiefdom and estate of emerging godfathers that representatives in various statutory institutions are chosen not necessarily on the basis of integrity and capacity but on political grounds and or on the basis of you support or you did not support me syndrome. Many who gave their all in all in the services of the association have been pushed to the position of oblivion and irrelevant. NBA faces existential challenges and crisis. Major events of NBA are not being attended by many older lawyers again. The nobility of the NBA is in jeopardy.

Sometimes I wonder why we tolerate so many darknesses in NBA. It is time for us to interrogate the usefulness of NBA to the overall good of Nigerian lawyers. NBA appears to be useful only to those who now parade themselves as the godfathers of NBA. That should not be. NBA there must examine itself for its speeches at all public functions to be taken serious by those it is meant to police.

The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.

By Suyi Ayodele

Whatever Comrade Adams Oshiomhole lacks in height and body volume, he makes up for in mischief. If you are not prepared for the mud, don’t engage the pint-size Edo senator in any combat. 

His greatest weapon is his tongue. This is why he prefers to be called ‘Comrade’ – just an appellation he acquired in his hey days in the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), when the masses thought that he was fighting their battles. His public persona tilts towards that of the man-of-the-people. But on a scrutiny, the man is a man-of-himself.

Comrade’s best strategy in any argumentation is sheer sophistry! His eloquence is top-notch, his argumentative prowess arresting and his rhetoric captivating. He can be sarcastic and can also be deadly acerbic! He speaks and gyrates at the same time. Give him a microphone stand a bit lower than his height; Oshiomhole still leaps forward to emit incomprehensible verbiage. He is a dramatist par excellence. No. He is the drama itself! He combines all the characterisation of a folklore as he quadruples as heroic, non-heroic; anti heroic and A-heroic figure – beating the trinity to a distant second place!

Oshiomhole is a man one cannot afford to hate. He is equally a man too dangerous to love. His basket of mischief remains inexhaustible, his repertoire of goodwill also bottomless! He disappoints when one expects wisdom; and equally excels just when one gives up on him. A master of confusion while he remains unperturbed, Comrade is a summary of the dysfunctionality of the Nigerian political system! He displayed that in good measure last week.

I would have made a huge cash-out last week if the childhood experience I had over gambling had not taken the better part of me. Someone, who was ready to put anything to it that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s ambassadorial nominees like Reno Omokri, Fani-Kayode and Mahmood Yakubu, the former Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would not make it through the senate, had staked a huge amount of money. I held a different opinion. He asked us to bet, not like the small finger-thrust displayed by Governor Monday Okpebholo on national television recently. This was real-time betting.

I was tempted to enter the ring especially when he was willing to double his stake while mine remained static. But I remembered that I must honour the solemn pledge I made to my late father. I assured the old man that I would never gamble again in my life. I had used the two Kobo he gave to me to buy Phensic, a type of analgesic medicine of those days, to play kàlòkàlò. It was an experience I never hoped for again. As the offer came, my father’s voice rang in my head: É s’ómo kèé hì ta tété kì ha jalè (a child who gambles will eventually steal). I declined and I lost what would have been a Christmas bonus! 

Alas, the screening turned out to be a hollow ritual; a drama of the absurd with Oshiomhole playing the lead villainous character! The former governor of Edo State was at his sophistry best at the screening of the 68 rotten tomatoes and sweet potatoes President Tinubu packaged as ambassadorial nominees and sent to the Senate for screening and approval. Many of us were entertained by the charade the National Assembly displayed at the ‘screening’. The only people who were disappointed were those who expected the senators to ‘skin’ the nominees.

As it turned out, all the 68 nominees were cleared. Any moment from now, Reno Omokri will be presenting his letter of credence endorsed by Tinubu, to the president of his ambassadorial post. By then, Tinubu would no longer be a “drug Lord” and certificate forger as Omokri alleged when he ‘was in the world’! It was Omokri’s screening that provoked Comrade Oshiomhole to tackle one of the oldest senators in this political dispensation, Ali Ndume of Borno State. 

For Oshiomhole, who, in one of his numerous campaign frenzies, had once opined that once a politician decamped to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), all his sins are forgiven, one cannot put anything past the Iyamoh-born politician. No cause is too dirty for him to defend, no candidate is too unpopular for him to support, project and vow for. 

A short voyage to the Comrade’s political shenanigans. In 2016, as the out-going governor of Edo State, Oshiomhole, while projecting the chairman of his economic team, Godwin Obaseki, as the governorship candidate of the APC, said that Obaseki was the “compressor” of the air conditioning of the state economic successes under his watch. He told the people to vote for Obaseki because Obaseki was the one who brought all the funds the government used in achieving feats for the people. 

Then he went after the jugular of Obaseki’s opponent and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu. Comrade Oshiomhole said that in his entire life, I quote him: “I have never seen a pastor who lies effortlessly like Ize-Iyamu.” He went further to label Ize-Iyamu as a violent pastor “who carries Bible in the day and gun at night.” The crowd cheered. He added so many other unprintable expletives and Ize-Iyamu lost the election. 

Four years later in 2020, Obaseki and Oshiomhole fell apart. As the National Chairman of the APC, Oshiomhole denied Obaseki a second term ticket. Obaseki, who had earlier got Oshiomhole suspended from the APC, changed to the PDP and picked the party’s gubernatorial ticket. 

On the other side, Ize-Iyamu left the PDP and picked the APC ticket. Edo people waited to see what Oshiomhole, who had been disgraced out of the APC national chairmanship office, would do. Brazenly, Comrade took over the campaign machinery of Ize-Iyamu. Oshiomhole on several occasions knelt to beg the people to vote for Ize-Iyamu! 

Oshiomhole told bewildered audiences from town to town that he was misinformed of Ize-Iyamu’s character! He said so, jumping from one end of the podium to another without any modicum of remorse! According to him, after the practice of dipping Agege bread into a hot beverage, the next best thing that has ever happened to humanity is Ize-Iyamu! Fortunately, the people could see through the Comrade’s hypocrisy! His candidate was beaten blue-black at the count of the ballot. 

That was the Oshiomhole that spoke last week in defense of Omokri’s nomination as an ambassador. In his warped reasoning, now that Omokri had weaned himself of his infantile perennial attacks on the character of President Tinubu, ‘all his sins are forgiven’ and he is worthy to be an ambassador! His argument, if projected further, is that once a man becomes transformed, his past would no longer count! 

That argument did not sit down well with Senator Ndume, and possibly some others who would rather get Omokri to explain how he saw the light and heard the voice on his way to Damascus to persecute Tinubu! Oshiomhole’s response was his sophistry of “when I talk, those who have not been governors should listen”, as if we have not seen governors and former governors as witless as the next-door fatuous Gardner in this dispensation.

The elders of my place said when a song is bad, nobody justifies it as being a palace song. That is exactly what Oshiomhole did in his defence of the irritation that Omokri and his ambassadorial nomination have constituted. Who would ever think that a day would come when a once fascinating character like Comrade would rise to defend a figure like Omokri!

The response by Ndume that he had been senator before Oshiomhole ever dreamed of becoming one took the argument to the highest buffoonery! What has been the impact of the decades Ndume has spent in the senate on his people? How many of his constituents are in captivity? How many of the people he represents are working as slaves on the farms of bandits so that they can live? Beyond the numeric of his years in the senate who Ndume epp? 

Things happen. One of the things that have happened to Nigeria is the current senate – a dump site for former governors. No sane mind will not be scandalised by the conduct of the senate under Godswill Akpabio! The upper chamber has turned into a stinking chamber pot of anything goes. Last week, the chamber took the perfidy of “bow and go” to another annoying level when virtually all the ambassadorial nominees were cleared without any serious questions asked. 

What, for instance, are the wives of former governors nominated as ambassadors bringing to the table? What are their pedigrees? Are they not the same peacocks we saw when their husbands were governors? Beyond rubbing pancakes and spending our patrimony as non-state actors, how else can we assess those ex-first ladies? 

Without sounding pessimistic, except for the career diplomats among them, the rest of Tinubu’s ambassadors are disasters packaged in golden wrappers. The qualities of the figures nominated by the president and endorsed by the senate speak to the quality of those in power today. Sure, no man gives what he does not have. President Tinubu has given us his best men and women as our ambassadors. We wish them diplomatic successes! 

Adibe Emenyonu and Michael Adeleye: It is hard to say goodbye

We lose those dear to us. That is what nature dictates. Every loss is painful. But when it doubles, it becomes very painful. I experienced double losses this last weekend. Two souls, very dear to me, were lowered to their graves. The reality that I would not see or talk to them again hurts! 

I joined a group of other journalists led by Patrick Ochoga of the Leadership Newspapers, who doubles as the Chairman, Edo Correspondents Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Edo State Council, to Obibiezena community in Owerri, Imo State, for the funeral rites for Adibe Augustine Emenyonu. 

Emenyonu, whom I called Adibs, slumped and died on October 18, 2025, at the age of 62. He was – imagine Adibs now being referred to in the past tense – until his death, the Edo State Correspondent of ThisDay Newspapers. Our paths crossed over two decades ago in Benin City where we plied the ‘he-said’ and ‘he-emphasised’ trade of journalism together. Adibs was a fearless and colourful writer. 

Even when I left journalism for the corporate world, we continued to bond. On my return to the pen fraternity after 16 years, Adibs received me warmly, opening his contacts to me like many others did. We became closer, turning friendship to brotherhood! 

I was devastated, when on the morning of Saturday, October 18, 2025, Ochoga called to announce: “Leader, I have bad news for you. We have lost Adibe!” The news was hurtful and seeing Adibs, naked in the morgue when I visited alongside the Edo State NUJ Chairman, Festus Alenkhe, and others, broke me. 

Talk of a man who laboured and did not eat the fruits thereof; talk of Adibs. He was a good father to his four beautiful daughters. Three of them are university graduates today and the last baby of the house is a sophomore. Two of the three graduates attended private universities, and the last girl is also in a private university. But the man who toiled to ensure the girls got good education is no more. This is a tragedy!

Travelling to Obibiezena to pay my last respect to a wonderful friend was an eye opener. I saw Adibs’ modest country home bungalow. I saw his bust, commissioned by Genevieve, his first daughter, with Adibs’ traditional ishiagwu cap. I dared him on several occasions to wear the cap to Igbo land, and I felt sad. I became sadder with the reality that Adibs’ 93-year-old mother was inside a room in the house while the rites of passage were being performed for the son who travelled home every month to attend to her! 

The entire Obibiezena mourned Adibs! The wailing, when his body arrived for the traditional lying-in-state was infectious. The old, walking with the aid of walking sticks turned up. Everyone spoke well of the departed. When I was asked to talk to his Obibiezena Development Union (ODU) executive, I gave a new name to Adibs – Adáraníléadáraníta. It means he who is good both at home and outside. Adibs was. His people testified to his goodness, his kindness, his generosity and his commitment to the community. He was, for many years, the Secretary General of ODU! 

Adibs was a devout Catholic. He never joked with his creator and faith. In his ‘mischief’ whenever we talked about our religious inclinations, he would ask: “Are you sure you are a Pentecostal or a penterascal?” Adibs had a deep voice, and he equally had a deep character. Like all humans, he had his flaws. But his greatest strength was his inability to betray a trust. He was dependable, he was reliable! 

I could not bring myself to go near his grave as Adibs’ remains were lowered. Coincidentally, Adibs was buried under the same avocado tree he used to taunt his friends, anytime he was in the village saying: “I am sitting under the avocado tree.” Now, Adibs sits no more, he rests, permanently, under the avocado tree! Fare thee well, Adibs! 

As we journeyed back to Benin, my mind was in far away Canada, where another friend and brother, Michael Adeleye, simply Mike, was being committed to mother earth.

The news of Mike’s demise was broken to me by another friend, Tunde Laniyan. I met the duo during my voyage to the corporate world. Mike adopted me as his elder brother and all through, he called me “Oga Suyi”. His respect for age and experience remain inimitable. There was no time of the day Mike could not call to ask: ‘Oga Suyi, ki ni kin se’ (Oga Suyi, what should I do?). Mike resigned and left for Canada with his family. I was in the know of the plan to relocate from incubation to fruition. And while over there, we maintained that line of communication.

On October 9, 2025, at about 3.09 pm Nigerian time, I sent a message to him thus: “Hello. How are my people? Can you get this book for me: “For One More Day”, a novel by Mitch Albom.” Six minutes later, Mike responded with a screenshot of the book and asked for confirmation, which I did. “Okay, I will order it now. I should get it latest tomorrow. Then we shall discuss how to send it to you.” He responded and the following day, he had the book.

After the initial plan of sending the book by hand through someone travelling to Benin failed, Mike put the book in the mail on November 1, 2025. At my last tracking shortly before I dropped off this piece, the information on the tracking platform was to the effect that the book is with the Nigeria Customs having been presented to the agency on November 20, 2025, at 11.04 am! The country we live in!

We kept chatting and then the news came. Mike is dead! How? What killed him? Just like that! Mike, gone like vapour! Mid this year, Mike called to announce that he had completed his house in Lagos. “Oga Suyi, it is your project o”, he gleefully announced. I answered by saying that I was looking forward to being hosted to a meal of pounded yam whenever his family visited Nigeria. Now, Mike is gone and gone forever! What is this life!

As I penned this, my mind raced to Mummy Oyin, Mike’s wife. The two were inseparable; they were more than a husband and wife. How is she coping, herself? What about the two beautiful daughters? Why should nature be this cruel! Mike was industrious. He had hopes and aspirations.

They caution us in Christendom not to mourn as unbelievers. I will keep to that doctrine.

Rest on Mike; sleep from all your labour! May the good Lord comfort your wife and children. Good night, Mike, fare thee well!

The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.

Re: “Law Student Ayomiposi Ojajuni Kills Self Over Failure To Write Final Exam”

By Sylvester Udemezue

A news report is currently circulating online concerning a Nigerian Law School student, Mr. Ayomiposi Ojajuni, who sadly passed away after an incident reportedly linked to his being prevented from participating in the Bar Final Examinations at the Yola Campus. I have received several messages and tags simply because the matter concerns the Nigerian Law School. It is well.

One message posted by a lawyer on social media reads: “@Sylvester Udemezue, this is very disturbing. Can we have clarification or explanation to this?”

Below is my personal response:

At this moment, the full and verified facts of the matter have not been officially confirmed. I am not presently at the Yola Campus, and I have not received any authoritative information from those directly involved. Before forming any conclusive personal position, I must hear from people who were physically present and have first-hand knowledge of what transpired.

For this reason, I respectfully urge the public, the media, and all stakeholders to exercise restraint and avoid premature judgments.

I extend my heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, colleagues, and the entire Nigerian Law School community. The loss of any young person is deeply painful. Moments like this call for sobriety, empathy, and collective reflection.

On Media Handling of the Story

The manner in which some media platforms have handled this report raises important professional concerns. At the very least:

1. Journalists are expected to verify sensitive information before publication; and
2. The Nigerian Law School should be contacted and given an opportunity to respond, in line with established ethical standards of fair hearing and balanced reporting.

Failure to take these basic steps gives the impression of a hurried and insufficiently investigated story. Publishing an unverified account (especially on a matter involving an academic institution and a tragic outcome) renders the report unbalanced and professionally questionable. That said, let us assess the published narrative objectively.

Summary of the Published Report

According to Sahara Reporters and other outlets, the student was allegedly prevented from writing the Bar Final Examinations due to disciplinary issues arising from earlier queries. The reports further suggest that he became emotionally distressed after being informed of the decision, drank some harmful substance and was subsequently taken to a hospital, where he passed away the following day.

Questions Arising

To properly evaluate the incident, several questions must be addressed:

1. Were queries actually issued to the student, as alleged?
2. If yes, was he given a fair hearing and an opportunity to respond?
3. What specific conduct warranted the issuance of the queries?
4. Was he indeed barred from writing the examinations that commenced yesterday?
5. If he was barred, was the sanction consistent with the Nigerian Law School’s Code of Conduct (latest edition) issued to students earlier this year?
6. Was the decision communicated clearly, formally, and in a timely manner?
7. Were adequate support measures available or offered to the student during the process or crisis period? Final Observations

While I personally deeply sympathize with the parents, relatives, and friends of the student (and with the entire Nigerian Law School community over this heartbreaking incident) it remains essential that a thorough, independent, and transparent investigation be conducted. Only verified facts should guide public opinion or institutional accountability.

Meanwhile, it’s my submission that every educational institution has an inherent duty and authority to enforce discipline, provided such powers are exercised objectively, fairly and in accordance with established rules and legal procedures. What is most important now is truth, clarity, fairness, and sensitivity.

I once again pray for divine comfort for the family and all those affected. I also urge everyone to remain calm and patient until official and verified information is released.

May the soul of our brother rest in perfect peace. Amen 🙏

Sylvester Udemezue (Udems)
08021365545.
[email protected].
(07 December 2025)

The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.