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Court of Appeal Reaffirms Locus Standi: A landmark victory for Nigeria’s electoral democracy

By Monday O. Ubani, SAN

Yesterday the Court of Appeal Abuja set aside the judgment of the Federal High Court which purportedly deregistered the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Accord Party and three other political parties in what is considered in the legal circle as a significant reaffirmation of the constitutional limits of judicial intervention in electoral matters.

By holding that the plaintiffs lacked locus standi, the Court reinforced the principle that only persons who can demonstrate a sufficient legal interest or injury have the competence to invoke the jurisdiction of the courts in matters relating to the existence or registration of political parties.

The judgment is important for several reasons.
First, it preserves the constitutional and statutory autonomy of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in regulating political parties under the relevant provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022, as amended, and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended). The registration or deregistration of political parties is not a matter for speculative litigation by persons without a legally recognisable interest. Allowing such actions would expose the political process to unnecessary judicial interference and create uncertainty within the electoral system.

Secondly, the decision strengthens the doctrine of locus standi in Nigerian public law. Although Nigerian courts have, over the years, adopted varying approaches to the principles of standing, the prevailing jurisprudence remains the restrictive approach enunciated by the Supreme Court in Senator Abraham Adesanya v. President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Court of Appeal has now reaffirmed that position by making it clear that there is no room for busybodies or meddlesome interlopers to challenge matters in which they have no direct legal interest.
Electoral disputes, because of their constitutional sensitivity, require strict compliance with jurisdictional requirements.

For the 2027 general elections, the judgment has far-reaching implications. It provides much-needed certainty for political parties and the electorate by preventing attempts to destabilise the political landscape through collateral litigation aimed at excluding political parties from participating in elections. Political parties can now prepare for the electoral process with greater confidence that their legal existence cannot be threatened by actions instituted by persons lacking the requisite standing.

The judgment also serves as a reminder that the courts will not permit the judicial process to become an instrument for achieving political objectives that should properly be pursued through constitutional and statutory mechanisms. It reinforces the principle that electoral democracy is best protected through adherence to due process, the rule of law, and respect for the constitutional powers vested in INEC.

Overall, the Court of Appeal’s decision promotes stability in Nigeria’s electoral jurisprudence by emphasising jurisdictional discipline, safeguarding the integrity of the political party system, and ensuring that the democratic space remains open to all duly registered political parties ahead of the 2027 general elections.

It is a timely affirmation that procedural safeguards, particularly the requirement of locus standi remains indispensable to the orderly administration of electoral justice and the protection of Nigeria’s constitutional democracy.

Kudos to the appellate jurisdictions(Court of Appeal and Supreme court) for always coming to the rescue!

Monday O. Ubani, SAN, PhD
Legal Practitioner/ Public Interest Lawyer.

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The king who crowned himself, By Funke Egbemode

Come closer, my village friends and family. Let me tell you the story of Mojoye, the man who became king without a kingdom’s blessing. It is an old tale… or perhaps it is not so old after all.

There was once a prosperous kingdom called Iraye, where every child was taught two sacred laws:

‘A king is not made by desire. A king is made by truth.’

And:

‘Nobody wakes up one morning and declares himself king.

Every Alaaye Iraye emerged after the Oracle had spoken, after the kingmakers had agreed, after the custodians of the royal beads had performed the ancient rites, and above all, after Obanla, the Supreme Head of the Empire, blessed the choice.

That was how it had been for over six hundred years.

Until Mojoye arrived. Not with an army.

Not because the people loved and went to beg him. He did not arrive with love in his heart .

He arrived with an ambition so huge it had swallowed shame.

Mojoye was not without one or two attributes. He was handsome, eloquent and frighteningly clever.

He could convince a fish that water was poison. He also was a master of the art of smiling while plotting evil.

He loved power more than food and whenever kings rode past in the village and people admired the crowns, Mojoye ad-mired only the throne.

“I will become king,” he often whispered to his friends who always laughed in his face.

‘You are not from the royal household.’

‘I don’t need royal blood.’

‘The Oracle will never choose you.’

‘Then I will find another oracle that will speak differently.”

His friends laughed even louder.

They did not know Mojoye had already begun buying darkness.

He travelled into forests where even hunters refused to sleep.

There he met witches whose laughter sounded like broken calabashes.

He met wizards who drank from old skulls.

He met herbalists who promised impossible miracles.

He met diviners who could manufacture visions and prophecies for the highest bidder.

Night after night he held secret meetings with his newfound support partners

Goats disappeared. Sheep were slaughtered. Mojoye drank warm blood of ducks. He carried huge sacrifices, the kind that overwhelmed even sacred birds. Ebo kanka tii k’agun laya. Owls became messengers.

The forests glowed with strange fires.

Then one morning, the Oracle (yes, Mojoye’s Oracle) suddenly announced:

“The next king shall be Mojoye.”

The village gasped.

Old women looked at one another.

Even the masquerades seemed confused.

The prophecy sounded strange, too convenient and too rehearsed.

But fear is often louder than wisdom. So they wisely kept quiet.

Yet one problem remained.

There was no throne.

The royal throne belonged only to legitimate kings.

Where will he sit?

Will he reign from his father’s compound?

Who will install him?

Mojoye had everything all figured out.

He simply commissioned another.

Secret carpenters worked throughout the night. Master sculptors copied every sacred carving. Goldsmiths duplicated ancient symbols. From a distance, nobody could tell the difference.

Everything looked royal even if it carried no blessing.

Then another problem emerged. Kingship was expensive. Royal ceremonies required enormous wealth.

Mojoye was not a rich man.

Then he met Arikuyeri, the dreaded kingpin whose gang terrorised travelling merchants.

Shortly after, the road became dangerous. Every market day traders vanished.

Caravans were attacked.

Ivory disappeared.

Gold disappeared.

Cowries disappeared.

Alaari and Sanyan disappeared. All reappeared in Mojoye’s hidden chambers.

The villagers blamed spirits.

Nobody suspected a future self-made king.

Every piece of the puzzle was being forced in place for the coronation. The last piece was the crown, not an ordinary crown. A beaded crown that must look sacred.

Mojoye summoned Asinde, the greatest bead maker in the empire.

“I need one crown.”

Asinde measured, threaded, wove and beaded, painstakingly.

Then another request came.

Then another.

Soon Asinde had produced six magnificent beaded crowns.

Each looked worthy of ancient kings.

Each glittered like the morning sun.

Nobody asked why one man needed six crowns. Money has always had a way of silencing questions.

The installation was spectacular.

Drums shook the earth.

Praise singers exhausted their voices.

Palm wine flowed like rivers.

Cows were slaughtered.

Dancers performed till dawn.

People shouted,

“Kabiyesi!”

Long live the king!

Mojoye smiled.

His dream had come true.

He sat upon a throne that did not belong to him, wore a crown that carried no ancestral blessing.

He accepted homage never given by heaven Power steadily intoxicated him.

Soon he stopped pretending.

He seized farms.

He confiscated land.

He imposed impossible taxes.

He collected tributes every market day.

He took the fattest goats, the finest yams and the best harvests.

He even claimed first choice of every bride.

Young husbands slept with fear.

Beautiful wives avoided the palace road.

Those who protested disappeared.

The prison filled.

The palace expanded.

Mojoye became richer.

The people became poorer.

Then, his head became swollen, bigger than his reach and influence and pride destroyed caution. He insulted those who had manufactured his miracle. The witches started demanding more sacrifices.

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He refused.

The herbalists wanted extra rewards.

He delayed.

When the pumped-up diviners requested land, he mocked them.

Even Arikuyeri the robber wanted greater influence, public recognition.

Mojoye laughed.

‘I am king now, the one that cannot be questioned. You work for me.’

Dark alliances rarely survive success.

Soon everyone who built the lie wanted a larger share.

Meanwhile, another story was travelling faster than the harmattan wind.

Merchants arriving from the capital frowned.

‘What king?’

‘The new king.’

‘Who crowned him?’

‘Our Oracle.’

“Was Obanla here to crown him? Did his crown come from Obanla’s sacred chambers?

Silence. The villagers’ heads were bowed. They looked at one another and shook their heads.

‘What do you mean? The Supreme Head of the Empire did not announce this new king?’

Confusion spread. Clouds gathered in the sky. The elders predicted that Mojoye’s rain of shame was imminent.

The custodians of royal history became alarmed.

The recognised kingmakers quickly denied involvement. The keepers of the sacred beads denied releasing any crown.

Priests of the ancient shrine denied conducting any installation.

The royal messengers denied carrying any proclamation.

Questions multiplied. Denials rented the air.

The whispers became conversations.

The conversations became arguments.

The arguments became investigations.

Investigations became scandal.

Then scandal exploded like thunder.

The entire empire froze.

How?

How could a kingdom produce a king nobody authorised?

How could a throne appear from nowhere?

How could sacred crowns be manufactured like market baskets?

How did travelling merchants lose fortunes while one unknown man suddenly became wealthy?

How did the Oracle speak words it never spoke?

How did kingmakers remain silent?

How did wise men become fools?

How did everyone sleep while one ambitious young man quietly crowned himself?

The empire had no answers, only embarrassment.

Even Obanla lowered his head, not because he approved but because such a deception had slipped through the cracks of an ancient system built on trust.

Messengers rode in every direction.

Witnesses emerged.

The carpenters confessed.

The bead maker trembled.

“I only made what I was paid to make.’

The goldsmith wept.

‘The designs were copied.’

Former robbers began naming names.

The false prophets contradicted one another.

The witches magically disappeared with ‘egbe”nto forests.

The herbalists fled.

The fake diviners denied ever meeting Mojoye.

Everyone who helped build the fraud suddenly developed hazy memories.

Then came the reckoning.

Mojoye stood before the true council of the empire.

Gone was the expensive robe.

Gone was the beaded splendour.

Gone was the thunder in his voice.

Only fear remained.

He insisted the Oracle chose him.

The Oracle denied him.

He claimed destiny.

Destiny rejected him.

He blamed enemies.

Evidence blamed him.

He blamed jealous elders.

The stolen treasures blamed him.

He blamed conspiracies.

The counterfeit throne blamed him.

He blamed fate.

The six beaded crowns blamed him.

Truth, unlike lies, never forgets.

Sentence was swift.

The counterfeit throne was burnt.

The fake crowns were destroyed.

The palace was dismantled stone by stone.

The stolen wealth was recovered where possible and returned to its owners.

The false prophets were disgraced.

The robbers were imprisoned.

The conspirators scattered across distant lands.

As for Mojoye…

He was led away in chains.

Not to another palace.

Not to exile.

To the deepest dungeon beneath the empire.

There, where sunlight visited only as a rumour, the man who had crowned himself sat alone.

No praise singers.

No drummers.

No palace guards.

No cheering crowds.

Only silence, the brand of silence that follows ambition without legitimacy.

Till today, Iraye grandmothers still gather children beneath moonlight to tell the story of the fall of a king who built his own throne in the night.

Not because it was entertaining.

But because every generation must learn that deception, however brilliantly staged, eventually stumbles over the truth. No matter how far or fast lies travel, it takes only one day for truth to overtake it.

The elders still point towards the ruins where Mojoye’s counterfeit palace once stood and say:

‘Never confuse costume with authority. A borrowed crown cannot hide a stolen head.

A throne built on fraud always has termites beneath it. And remember this above all.

No matter how clever a man may be, he cannot permanently outsmart an entire kingdom built on truth.’

For a lie may wear a beaded crown.

It may even sit on a magnificent throne.

It may fool a village for a season.

But sooner or later, the rightful custodians of truth will ask the one question every impostor fears:

‘Who made you king?’

And when that question can no longer be avoided, even the loudest pretender discovers that a self-made king is only a pris-oner waiting for his dungeon.

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Echoes of Trauma: When the journey begins again

Sometimes the hardest battle is not surviving the first storm. It is finding the strength to begin again after believing it had finally passed.

By Lillian Okenwa

The finish line is one of life’s most convincing illusions. We spend years moving towards it, believing that once we arrive, life will become lighter. The last chemotherapy session. Graduation day. The court’s judgment. The interview that finally changes everything. The debt finally cleared. We picture ourselves stepping into a gentler season, never imagining that another starting line may be waiting just beyond the one we have fought so hard to reach.

For days now, I have been unable to shake the story of a young woman whose life should still be measured in beginnings rather than endings. She is in her twenties, newly married, with dreams that should still be unfolding one after another. She had already surrendered both breasts to cancer before enduring months of chemotherapy that drained her strength and claimed her hair. Then came the day everyone had longed for. The treatment ended. Her hair began to grow back. Her body began the slow work of healing, and for the first time in a long while, tomorrow no longer seemed frightening.

Then another scan changed everything.

The cancer had returned.

Another round of chemotherapy lay ahead. Another season of watching her hair fall away. Another cycle of hospital visits, medications, uncertainty and fear. Just when life appeared ready to move forward, it asked her to begin again.

Read Also: Echoes of Trauma: Beneath the scars

Read Also: Echoes of Trauma: The stories pain tells us

That story has stayed with me, not only because it is heartbreaking, but because it captures an experience that reaches far beyond hospital walls.

Many people know what it means to believe they have finally reached the end of a difficult chapter, only to discover that life has quietly—no, unexpectedly—placed them back where they thought they would never stand again. An undergraduate spends years working harder than anyone realises, battling learning or memory challenges that few people can see, only to graduate with a result that others dismiss as laziness or lack of effort. A family believes years of litigation are almost over until another adjournment stretches justice even farther away. Someone rebuilds a business after devastating losses, begins to breathe again and then watches another economic crisis undo years of sacrifice. Parents who thought the worst was behind them hear another difficult diagnosis. Couples who dared to celebrate after one painful season suddenly find themselves navigating another.

The setback hurts. Discovering that the journey is beginning all over again hurts differently.

Repeated disappointment leaves marks that are difficult to explain. It changes the way hope enters the room. Good news is welcomed carefully. Plans are spoken about with restraint. Joy no longer rushes in with the abandon it once did. It pauses at the door, remembering other moments when celebration arrived too early.

From the outside, this hesitation is often misunderstood. People see caution and mistake it for pessimism. They see weariness and mistake it for a lack of faith in the future. What they do not see are all the roads already travelled, the strength already spent, the courage already summoned more times than anyone should reasonably be asked to summon it.

Perhaps this is one of the least recognised forms of trauma. We know how to rally around the first diagnosis, the first court case, the first business failure or the first devastating loss. We send messages. We pray. We visit. We encourage. Yet when the same battle returns months or years later, life has usually moved on. The phone rings less often. Fewer people ask how things are going. The struggle has become familiar to everyone except the person still living through it.

Even so, something remarkable continues to happen every day. People begin again.

They return for another round of treatment. They submit another application after another rejection. They sit another examination after another disappointing result. They reopen businesses that once collapsed. They rebuild relationships after betrayal. They stand up after life has knocked them down so many times that even they have lost count.

We admire resilience so easily that we sometimes forget what it costs. Behind every resilient person is a private history of disappointment that most of the world never witnessed. Behind every person described as “strong” are moments when giving up seemed entirely reasonable, yet somehow they found enough strength for one more step.

Perhaps we would become gentler with one another if we remembered that not everyone standing before us is fighting a new battle. Some are carrying an old one that refused to end. Some are smiling while wondering whether the ground beneath them will hold this time. Some have become experts at beginning again, not because they wanted to, but because life gave them no alternative.

Life does not always reward us with neat endings. Sometimes it hands us another beginning disguised as a setback. Those moments test something deeper than endurance. They ask whether hope can survive memory, whether the heart can keep believing after it has been broken in the same place more than once.

That may be one of the bravest things a human being ever does.

Somewhere today, someone who has every reason to stop is taking another step, making another appointment, filling out another form, sending another application, starting another treatment, choosing—once again—to believe that this road is still worth walking.

There may be no applause.

There may be no finish line in sight.

But there is extraordinary courage in beginning again.

A lawyer and equity advocate, Lillian can be reached at [email protected].  X: @OkenwaLillian.

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Video: From Historic Victory to Aso Rock: NBA President-Elect Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya meets President Tinubu

Barely weeks after making history as the first woman to be directly elected President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mrs. Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, FCIArb, on Tuesday took one of her first official steps as President-Elect, leading a delegation of distinguished women lawyers on a courtesy visit to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the State House, Abuja.

The visit brought together prominent figures from Nigeria’s legal profession and academia, reflecting the growing influence of women in the administration of justice and legal leadership.

Accompanying the NBA President-Elect were the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Caleb University, Professor Foluke Dada-Lawanson; Global President of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA International), Mrs. Ezinwa Okoroafor; Federal Capital Territory Lead of the NBA Women Forum, Princess Hadiza Afegbua; Coordinator of the African Women Lawyers Association ( AWLA Nigeria), Abuja Branch, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Aladegbami; and Mrs. Ramlat Ridhwan, Publicity Lead of the BBold Campaign Team.

Although details of the discussions were not made public, the meeting comes at a significant moment for the legal profession as the incoming NBA leadership prepares to assume office amid continuing national conversations on judicial independence, constitutional governance, justice sector reforms and the rule of law.

Badejo-Okusanya’s election marked a defining moment in the Association’s 92-year history. While Chief Mrs. Priscilla Kuye became the NBA’s first female president after succeeding to the office in 1991 following the appointment of her predecessor as Attorney-General of the Federation, Badejo-Okusanya is the first woman to secure the Association’s highest office through a direct vote of its members.

Her emergence has been widely celebrated by legal practitioners, civil society organisations and women’s groups as an important milestone for gender inclusion within the legal profession and a demonstration of the growing acceptance of women in positions of institutional leadership.

Tuesday’s audience with President Tinubu also highlighted the increasing prominence of women at the highest levels of Nigeria’s legal community. The delegation represented leading organisations committed to advancing legal education, promoting women’s participation in the profession and strengthening access to justice both within Nigeria and internationally.

The meeting comes as expectations continue to build ahead of Badejo-Okusanya’s inauguration as the 33rd President of the Nigerian Bar Association, with many lawyers looking to the incoming administration to address issues relating to electoral reforms within the Association, the independence of the judiciary, legal education, welfare of lawyers and broader justice sector reforms.

For many observers, the visit symbolised more than a routine courtesy call. It reflected the beginning of official engagement between the incoming leadership of Nigeria’s foremost professional legal body and the Presidency, at a time when the role of the Bar in defending constitutional democracy and the rule of law remains central to national discourse.

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THE NELAN FIVE: Nearly five years after five engineers vanished on a public project, Nigeria still has no answers

On the morning of November 3, 2021, five consulting engineers left Enugu in an official project vehicle for what should have been another routine assignment on the African Development Bank-funded Abakaliki Ring Road project in Ebonyi State. They never returned.

Nearly five years later, the disappearance of the five professionals—now widely referred to as the NELAN Five—remains one of Nigeria’s most troubling unresolved cases, raising persistent questions about public accountability, the integrity of criminal investigations and the ability of the justice system to provide answers to grieving families.

Their disappearance has generated criminal prosecutions, conflicting narratives, disputed forensic evidence, repeated protests, petitions to federal institutions and growing calls by civil society organisations for an independent review of the investigation. Yet the central question that has haunted the case since 2021 remains unanswered: What happened to the five engineers?

The engineers—Engr. Nelson Onyemeh, the Managing Director of NELAN Consulting Limited, Engr. Ernest Edeani, Engr. Ikechukwu Ejiofor, Engr. Samuel Aneke and Engr. Stanley Nwazulum—were part of the consultancy firm engaged through an international competitive bidding process to supervise the multi-billion-naira road project financed by the African Development Bank. Their role, according to project records, was to independently monitor construction, ensure compliance with contractual specifications and certify work in accordance with the Bank’s procurement and quality assurance requirements.

According to the families, disagreements developed during the execution of the project over issues relating to supervision, certification of completed works and adherence to African Development Bank procedures. They have consistently maintained that the engineers resisted attempts to depart from contractual standards and have questioned whether those disagreements may have been connected to the disappearance. Senator David Umahi, who was Governor of Ebonyi State at the time and is now Minister of Works, has consistently denied any involvement in the disappearance, while the state government maintained that the engineers were victims of criminal violence linked to the security situation in parts of the state.

The official account initially described the incident as an abduction by unknown gunmen allegedly connected to the Effium/Ezza-Effium communal conflict. Weeks later, however, the then governor publicly stated that the engineers had been killed and buried in the bush by suspected attackers, even as investigations by the police and the Department of State Services were still in progress. That pronouncement shocked the families, who questioned how such a conclusion could be reached before investigations had been completed and without the recovery and identification of the bodies.

Security agencies subsequently arrested suspects who were arraigned before the Ebonyi State High Court in Charge No. HKW/7C/2022 on allegations relating to the disappearance. Yet the criminal proceedings have done little to resolve the mystery. Court records indicate repeated adjournments, the absence of some defendants and, at one stage, judicial concern over delays in the prosecution. In May 2025, three defendants were reportedly admitted to bail after the prosecution informed the court that they had benefited from an amnesty programme of the Ebonyi State Government.

For the families, however, the most troubling development remains the unresolved forensic evidence.

Skeletal remains presented as those of the missing engineers were subjected to independent DNA analysis commissioned by the families. According to their legal representatives, the results did not match the missing men, with one set of remains reportedly identified as belonging to a female. Those findings reinforced the families’ insistence that the fate of the engineers has never been conclusively established.

Over the years, the widows of the five engineers have refused to allow the matter to fade from public memory. They have petitioned President Bola Tinubu, the National Human Rights Commission, the National Judicial Council, the Nigerian Bar Association, security agencies and other public institutions, urging a fresh and independent federal investigation. In March 2026, they staged a protest in Abuja, demanding that the authorities establish what happened to their husbands and, if they are dead, recover and identify their remains.

Their campaign has attracted the support of civil society organisations, including the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), which has argued that the case raises broader concerns about accountability, transparency and the obligation of the State to conduct credible investigations into enforced disappearances and other serious crimes. Human rights advocates have similarly maintained that unresolved disappearances erode public confidence in the justice system and undermine the rule of law.

The families have also questioned aspects of the investigation, including reports that a key investigator was removed during the inquiry, the handling of forensic evidence and the pace of the criminal proceedings. They have alleged a wider cover-up and urged federal authorities to revisit every aspect of the case. Those allegations have been rejected by officials associated with the matter, and no court has made findings establishing the claims.

Nearly five years after the engineers disappeared, the case continues to present difficult questions that extend beyond one road project or one state. It touches on the safety of professionals working on public infrastructure, the independence of consultants engaged to oversee publicly funded projects, the confidence of development partners in procurement processes and, above all, the ability of the criminal justice system to establish the truth when serious crimes occur.

For the wives and children of the five engineers, however, the matter is painfully simple. They are still waiting for answers.

Until those answers emerge through an investigation that commands public confidence, the story of the NELAN Five will remain more than an unresolved disappearance. It will stand as a continuing test of Nigeria’s commitment to accountability, transparency and the rule of law.

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From ‘Black Panther’ to Bitter Family Battle: Chadwick Boseman’s legacy heads to court

Parents who raised him, widow who shared his final years—and the painful inheritance disputes dividing families across the world

Death often reveals relationships that life managed to keep together.

Nearly five years after the death of Hollywood actor Chadwick Boseman, the family of the Black Panther star has found itself at the centre of a legal battle that reaches far beyond money. It is a dispute over trust, legacy and a question that has divided families for generations: who should control the life and legacy of a loved one after death?

Court documents filed in Los Angeles show that Boseman’s brothers, Derrick and Kevin Boseman, acting on behalf of their parents, have asked a court to remove the actor’s widow, Taylor Simone Ledward, as administrator of his estate. They accuse her of failing to distribute estate assets, withholding financial information and excluding Boseman’s elderly parents from decisions affecting their late son’s multimillion-dollar legacy.

Ledward has not publicly responded to the latest allegations, and no court has determined that she acted improperly. The petition merely sets out the family’s claims, which she will have the opportunity to contest.

The dispute centres on an estate valued at approximately $3.8 million. Boseman died in August 2020 without leaving a will after a private four-year battle with colon cancer. Under California succession law, a court awarded half of the estate to his widow, with the remaining half divided equally between his parents. Ledward was appointed administrator of the estate.

According to the new filing, Boseman’s parents remain without the distributions they were awarded, while his widow allegedly continues to exercise exclusive control over the estate and the company established to manage his image, intellectual property and commercial rights.

For many observers, the case is another reminder that inheritance disputes are rarely driven by legal questions alone.

Behind almost every contested estate lies a complicated history that no courtroom can fully measure.

Parents often remember decades of sacrifice—raising a child, paying school fees, making personal sacrifices, encouraging dreams long before success arrived and standing beside them through years of uncertainty. Siblings frequently share those same memories, recalling years of struggle before fame, wealth or professional achievement transformed the family’s circumstances.

A spouse, on the other hand, may have shared only the final chapter of that journey but is recognised by law as the closest legal partner in marriage. The law protects that relationship because marriage creates legal rights and obligations that survive death. Emotional expectations within families, however, rarely follow the same legal boundaries.

It is within that gap that many inheritance disputes emerge.

Lawyers who handle probate matters often describe estate litigation as one of the most emotionally charged areas of legal practice. Arguments over money frequently conceal deeper grievances—feelings of exclusion, perceived ingratitude, unresolved family conflicts and competing beliefs about what the deceased would have wanted.

The Boseman case reflects that tension.

His brothers argue that their parents have been denied not only financial benefits but also meaningful involvement in preserving their son’s legacy. Their court filing describes ongoing emotional distress and speaks of the pain of watching Chadwick Boseman’s image continue to generate commercial value while they allegedly remain excluded from decisions concerning his estate.

Whether those allegations are ultimately upheld remains for the court to determine.

The dispute nevertheless highlights an uncomfortable reality that extends far beyond Hollywood.

Across Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia, families have been torn apart after the death of successful parents, entrepreneurs, entertainers, politicians and business owners. In many cases, relationships built over decades collapse within months of a funeral. Brothers stop speaking. Parents become estranged from daughters-in-law or sons-in-law. Long-standing affection gives way to litigation.

Human nature often surfaces most sharply when grief intersects with wealth.

That is precisely why estate planning has become increasingly important. Lawyers consistently advise clients—particularly those with significant assets or public profiles—to prepare valid wills, establish trusts where appropriate and communicate their intentions clearly while they are alive. Such steps cannot eliminate every disagreement, but they often reduce the uncertainty that allows suspicion and conflict to flourish.

For Chadwick Boseman’s admirers, the court proceedings present a poignant contrast.

The actor who inspired millions through his portrayal of a king determined to unite his people has become the subject of a family dispute over the stewardship of his own legacy.

The courts will determine the legal issues.

The emotional questions may take far longer to resolve.

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Stars and fans celebrate ‘new Black Panther’ David Jonsson

The British actor is known for roles in Industry, The Long Walk and Rye Lane

British actor David Jonsson has been praised by fellow actors and fans after he was named as the new Black Panther.

Director Ryan Coogler unveiled the new star on-stage at Comic-Con and revealed the third entry in the superhero blockbuster series was due to be released in December 2028.

Jonsson, a Bafta Rising Star winner who’s appeared in Industry, The Long Walk and Rye Lane, will play the son of T’Challa, king of Wakanda, the fictional African nation where the films are set.

US actor Chadwick Boseman, who died aged 43 in 2020, four years after a colon cancer diagnosis, played the character in the original Black Panther movie, two Avengers films and Captain America: Civil War.

Coogler told fans Jonsson’s character “grows up [and] he comes of age” – suggesting he will portray T’Challa II, the original king’s secret son seen during sequel Wakanda Forever.

British actress Letitia Wright, who will return to play Shuri, T’Challa II’s aunt, wrote “let’s go nephew” on the announcement post on Instagram.

Anne Boleyn actress Jodie Turner-Smith described Jonsson as the “loveliest human” and said she was “seated” for his performance.

Jonsson said taking on the mantle was a “privilege” and “honour” in his own Instagram post.

Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa, Brooklyn Nine-Nine actor Terry Crews and The Bear actress Ayo Edebiri were also among those who congratulated Jonsson.

Source: BBC

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Getty Images Letitia Wright, Ryan Coogler, David Jonsson and Winston Duke at the Marvel Studios Panel at Comic Con.
Director Ryan Coogler (middle left) announced the news on stage at Comic Con

Content creator Gerry Otim, who reviews films and TV shows on TikTok, told BBC Newsbeat Jonsson is a “really exciting young actor” who he sees as “one of the best” out there.

“When he performs, you can see there’s an emotional intelligence and subtlety to what he’s bringing to screen,” he said.

“Every performance feels deeply human, even though he might be playing different roles.

“From The Long Walk, where he’s such a sort of charming and charismatic character, to Rye Lane, where there’s a sort of emotional vulnerability to the character.

“He’s supremely talented.”

Some fans believed British actor Damson Idris, who starred alongside Brad Pitt in the F1 movie, would be selected for the Black Panther role.

Otim says he thinks Jonsson is a “more exciting” pick as he was more unexpected.

There had been hesitancy from Marvel and fans to replace Black Panther, but Otim feels the new character is a “great way of honouring, not just the memory of Chadwick, but also the character of T’Challa”.

“It’s a character that meant so much to so many people,” he added.

“It’s really cool just to see an African character who is so cool to watch on-screen.

“So I think this a great way of making sure that we don’t disrespect T’Challa’s legacy.”

Getty Images The Disney El Capitan cinema in Los Angeles displays a tribute to Chadwick Boseman on its colourful marquee studded with fluorescent lights. A portrait of the actor in his Black Panther against a cloudy sky is displayed next to the text "Chadwick Boseman, 1976 - 2020, you will always be our king".
Chadwick Boseman’s death in 2020 shocked fans and colleagues

Jonsson, who made history as the first black actor to lead an Agatha Christie screen adaptation, comes from a working-class background in east London.

Speaking to BBC Newsbeat last year, he said movies from black American film-makers, such as Love and Basketball, Friday and Mahogany inspired him “to dream a bit” and fuelled his own love of movies.

He said his family supported his career choice, even though he confessed it felt “impossible” at times to see a path for himself into the industry.

“My dad loved movies and he was a huge advocate for us watching and appreciating art,” he said.

“I’m eternally grateful for them taking a chance and saying ‘do what you want’.”

Marvel goes big on Comic-Con reveals

The news came amongst a slate of other announcements made at San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend.

US actor Ryan Gosling surprised fans by revealing he will join the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) as the title character in a new Ghost Rider film, due to be released in 2028.

An exclusive trailer of the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday film, which is lined-up for a 18 December release date, was also shown to attendees.

Johnny Depp also made a special appearance in costume as Ebenezer Scrooge ahead of the festive dark fantasy Ebenezer being released in November.

Osoba’s short spoon dinner with Obasanjo, By Suyi Ayodele

Two Yoruba ‘living ancestors’ are at each other’s throats at the moment.

The two personages have made great and indelible marks in life. They are giants in their own ways, and both are supposed to be close relatives like the proverbial ìyekan Alábahun (close-knitted relatives of Tortoise). They hail from the same town and are both answerable to the same Oba.

The underpinning axiom that established their common domain says: Ègbá méjì kìí ja ara won níyàn: bí ìkan bá ní bai sí, ìkejì á ní báa wà (two Egba men don’t argue on any matter; if one asks ‘is it not so?’; the other will respond: ‘it is so’).

So, what is the matter with the former governor of Ogun State, Aremo Olusegun Osoba, and his kinsman, the former military Head of State and two-term civilian President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo?

Let me confess my filthiness here so that the elders of the land will find clean apparel for me. I am too young in all ramifications of life to teach the two old combatants the rudiments of Yoruba philosophy. Whatever I do here, therefore, is purely out of curiosity. May Èsù Elégbára not allow curiosity to kill my cat. Àse!

Aremo Osoba wrote a memoir, “BATTLELINES: Adventures in Journalism and Politics”, in 2019. The book did not generate any heat seven years ago, when it was first published. Suddenly, an excerpt from the book, sub-titled: “How Obasanjo Deceived Us In 2003” (pp.280-294), surfaced a week ago. Heaven itself knows that the earth is witnessing yet another battle among the children of Oòduà.

I love Èsù.

He is my muse. If those pushing for my excommunication succeeded, you would likely find me pouring libations at the shrine of Ògiri-Òkò, Èsù Láàlú!

Of course, I would serve Him alongside the Father of Wisdom, Òrúnmìlà, the very one who teaches man wisdom like one’s sibling (Akóni l’óràn bíi ìyekan eni).

When the Gospel, in James 1:5-6, says whoever lacks wisdom should ask God, the writer of those verses, most probably, must have had Láaróyè (Èsù) and Àgbonìrègún (Ifá) in mind. Both are the end of wisdom. Heresy? We shall know shortly.

Geoffrey Chaucer (c1343-25 October 1400), the English poet, as far back as 1386, wrote glowingly about Èsù in his The Canterbury Tales.  That was four and half decades before Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther (1809-1891), translated the English Bible to Yoruba Language and ‘demonised’ the Yoruba trickster deity, Èsù, as the Jewish devil that is full of all evils.

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Chaucer, in The Squire’s Tale, says this of Èsù: Therfore bihoveth hire a ful long spoon / That shal ete with a feend (see “The Canterbury Tales”, pgs. 405-424). Interpreted to the Modern-Day English Language, Chaucer’s poetic line reads: ‘Therefore beloved, hire a full long spoon if you must eat with a trickster fellow.’ 

The Chaucerian admonition is repeated by Williams Shakespeare in The Comedy of Errors (Act 4, scene 3) and in The Tempest (Act 2, Scene 2). The three instances above are mere confirmation of the age-old Yoruba saying: Eni máa bá Èsù jeun, síbí è á gùn (he who will dine with Èsù must have a long spoon).

For an average old Yoruba man or woman who spent quality time in the countryside, the moral lesson that one must be circumspect when dealing with a dangerous, or cunning or sometimes, a wicked fellow, cannot be lost.

Èsù falls into the category of the Oral Literature characterization of an A-heroic personage, who, though, has the capacity to do evil and good at the same time, pitches his tent more with the underdog in any contest.

Èsù also remains so dynamic that none can predict Him. That character trait of the noble deity is the reason one is warned to look for a long spoon whenever one intends to have a dealing with the one who answers the name: Abániw’óràn bá’ò rí dá (one who procures trouble for the person who lacks one). Èsù does that pro bono, and with great enthusiasm!

Again, I repeat here: I love Èsù. I have taken time to research on why the deity is most feared among the Yoruba pantheon of Irúnmolè. His unpredictability stands Him out. Good-natured, affable and unassuming, Èsù strikes when one least expects. And once He elects to strike, Èsù takes no prisoner; He gives the opponent no chance for survival. Èsù can be mean, wicked and at the same time meek, vulnerable and very compassionate.

I have read the excerpt from Osoba’s memoir a couple of times. On each occasion, my mind raced to Èsù. I also tried to recall the 2003 governorship election that swept off Osoba (Ogun), Chief Bisi Akande (Osun), Chief Adebayo Adefarati (Ondo), Alhaji Lam Adesina (Oyo) and Otunba Niyi Adebayo (Ekiti).

I tried to review the television images of Chief Adefarati as he attempted some stunts to show that he was not as old as he was said to be, and how Chief Osoba ascribed the tag of arrogance pinned on him to his ‘well-starched’ agbada and the journalism profession. I wanted to laugh but I remembered Èsù. On whose side is the deity in these not-too-good public outings by the two prominent Ègbá chiefs?

I do not doubt everything Chief Osoba said in the excerpt. Every single letter speaks to the personality of Chief Obasanjo. But I have my reservations about certain elements therein. Chiefly among them is the fact that many of the people Chief Osoba mentioned as his witnesses to the ‘agreement’ with Obasanjo are dead. That fact puts an end to any attempt to verify or dispute whatever claim the former Ogun State governor made.

But more curiously for me is how Chief Osoba and his fellow governors of the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) fell for the ‘tricks’ of Obasanjo. Of them all (Osoba, Adefarati, Akande, Adesina and Adebayo), only the former Ekiti State governor, Adebayo, could be said to be ‘politically naïve’ not to have known that whoever would go into any negotiation or agreement with Obasanjo, would need more than a long spoon.

Chief Osoba, I believe, can write a whole book on Obasanjo. Chief Bisi Akande, ‘to the best of my ignorance’ as Tony Afejuku would say, has more than enough experience with Obasanjo; ditto the late Chief Adefarati. Even Niyi Adebayo must have heard so many tales about Obasanjo from his (Adebayo’s) late father, General Robert Adeyinka Adebayo. So, how did they all fall for the Owu man’s ‘tricks’?

I am not saying this because I believe that Chief Obasanjo ‘betrayed’ the AD governors in 2003. But when a man answers the appellations: Fox, Ebora Owu and the rest, somebody in Chief Osoba’s class should have known better. My little understanding, given my age bracket, tells me that what Obasanjo saw in 2003 was nothing but another war! What are the characteristics of a man of war in the class of Obasanjo? Who was his muse while at the negotiation table if not Èsù Elégbára?

Chief Osoba wrote about how Obasanjo came to his house, ate and repeated the visit. Did the Akínrógun of Ègbá take those visits for courtesy? Did Obasanjo not visit the late Audu Ogbe at home, where he ate the Idoma man’s pounded yam and ended up forcing the man to resign as the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)? Did Osoba not read that 2005 account before writing his memoir?

What about the late Dr. Chuba Wilberforce Okadigbo? Did Obasanjo not eat, drink and engage in spousal dance exchanges with the former Senate President? What happened the next day on the floor of the Senate? Were the same Obasanjo’s boys, who were present at the all-night party, not the ones that shoved Okadigbo aside, and got him replaced as Senate President? Where were Chief Osoba and his fellow ‘negotiators’ when that Okadigbo incident happened?

Truth be told: there were many factors responsible for the political calamity that befell the AD governors of the South-West in 2003. Those issues were far beyond Obasanjo and his perceived ‘cunning’ ways. However, the greatest of them all is how Chief Osoba and his fellow governors and ‘negotiators’ came to the dining table with Obasanjo without bringing long spoons.

The current President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was also an AD governor of Lagos State alongside Osoba and the other four, realised that he needed more than a long spoon. Rather than bringing a long spoon to the negotiation dining table with Obasanjo, Tinubu came with the blacksmith forge itself. Little wonder the Lagos Boy was the only one who survived the political annihilation!

I don’t want to be Obasanjo’s devil’s advocate here. But, from whichever angle one looks at it, Obasanjo’s training as a General in the Army and a warlord would have been suspect if he did not do what he did to the AD governors in 2003! You will understand this if you remember that Èsù takes no prisoners.

Ebora Owu was fighting the battle of his life in 2003. He knew that he could not afford to have the thunder strike him a second time and on the same spot. He lost the South-West in the 1999 election. The simple implication is that he had no home support.

He alluded to that as one of the factors that emboldened his Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, to challenge him. Going for a re-election without the home support was suicidal. Unfortunately, Obasanjo is not someone, even now, who wants to die anytime soon. He acted, and in doing that, he ruined other people’s cocoyam for his kolanut plantation to thrive! Vintage Èsù Òdàrà.

An old fox like Obasanjo would not sit back and allow the rug to be pulled off his feet. He did not learn the art and act of war for nothing! He is also a traditional man. Obasanjo must have read more about Èsù, his ways and tactics. There are various instances where Èsù played the fool to win a contest. The former President knew that, and he played the dumb for Osoba and his men to enter the trap!

Too bad; too painful that Chief Osoba and his friends did not read much about Èsù. They did not realise that the deity wears the veneer of vulnerability when he is, in fact, most vindictive and dangerous. This is why Èsù is called: Kò je, kò jé kí eni tó je gbé mì; as’òtún s’òsì láì ní ìtìjú (he who refuses to eat but will also not allow the one who eats to swallow what he eats; the one who supports both parties without remorse).

That is the character of the man, whom Chief Osoba said: “Obasanjo jumped at that opportunity to make a solemn promise that he will do everything possible to make sure that the elections were conducted well, to the satisfaction of all parties. It was on this note that the meeting ended.” As how? Pardon my resort to street lingo here!

How Chief Osoba, a well-read man, did not apply John Lyly’s Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1578), where it is implied that in a matter like the 2003 election, ‘the rules of fair play do not apply in love and war’ in his various ‘negotiations’ with Obasanjo beats my imagination.

How the Aremo and his fellow governors failed to realise that the only principle that guided (then), and guides, (even now), Obasanjo’s dealings with friends and foes alike, is the Frank Smedley’s submission in his 1850 novel, Frank Fairleigh, where the English novelist posits: “All is fair in love and war.”

This is why, Obasanjo, curiously, in his response to Osoba’s claims, found it convenient to drag Atiku Abubakar to the messy controversy. But for a man who shares the same character portrait with Èsù Láàlú, the former President could have replied to Chief Osoba without bringing in his ex-vice-president.

But because Èsù takes no prisoners in His battles, Chief Obasanjo must remind Nigerians that Atiku Abubakar, “From the first day as Vice-President, he raised campaigners for his presidency.  On the Friday, he invited Na’Abba; he gave him 5 million naira to begin his impeachment work.” That insertion is for a purpose, which is known only to Obasanjo!

The unending waterboarding of Atiku by Obasanjo is typical of Èsù, whose pastime is war of attrition against His enemy. The political implication of the reference to Atiku should not be lost here. The man has an election against the incumbent President Tinubu in January 2027. Portraying him as a serial betrayer is a message that is pregnant with meaning.

And since we cannot pin Èsù to any particular party in a crisis, Him being an as’òtún s’òsì láì ní ìtìjú (the one who supports both parties without remorse), we cannot say precisely who the Obasanjo jab is intended to favour as the race for the 2027 presidential elections heats up! The one who does evil is the one who knows to what effect (oníkùn lò mo ìkà), is a popular saying among the elders of my place. May God not allow us to see Èsù in His element (kí Olórun má jê kí á rí’jà Èsù). Àmín!

But beyond the above, I think Yorubaland deserves some semblance of peace at this critical moment. The entire landscape is facing an existential problem caused by the invasion of our forests by some felons who kidnap, behead and commit all manner of crimes against our people. This is the time we need all our elders to come together to find a lasting solution to the problem.

Only Èsù himself knows why a book written seven years ago is now generating heat in Yorubaland today. Only Láaróyè knows why those who exhumed the buried corpse did what they did. My appeal here is another praise name of Èsù, and I do this on behalf of all peace-loving children of Oòduà:  Èsù má se wá n’ílè Yòrùbá, omo elòmíràn ni o se!

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

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Where We Truly Stand: A final reply to Professor Ajovi Scott-Emuakpor on State Police

By Eyimofe Atake, SAN

Dear Professor, you promised us that your last message would be your final word, and I am delighted that you broke your promise. A conversation this good deserved a longer life. Let me also say plainly what your generosity makes easy to miss: across this exchange you have conceded the failure of the present system, withdrawn the regional proposal with a grace rare in public argument, and sharpened every safeguard in the bill by testing it. What remains between us is now a single proposition, and I want to name it honestly, because naming it is half of answering it. Your argument is no longer about law, and no longer truly about design. It is about people. You believe that no structure, however careful, can restrain the Nigerian political class. That is a proposition about our national character, and I will meet it squarely at the end. But first, your points in turn.

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ON THE LEGISLATORS WHO DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE BILL

You suspect that few of the lawmakers advancing this bill could defend it with rigour. You may be right, and it would not matter. No law anywhere has ever been validated by the depth of each legislator’s understanding; if that were the test, no parliament in history has ever validly legislated. Legislation is the product of an institution, not an examination of its members: committees, hearings, drafts, experts and debate, so that the process knows more than any person in it. And this bill’s process has been unusually long and unusually open: decades of advocacy, public hearings across all six geopolitical zones in July 2025, and passage by margins too broad for caprice, 84 of 109 senators and 289 votes to 4 in the House. That is not a fashionable stampede. It is a national consensus finally finding legislative form. As for the shallow understanding you fear, its cure is exactly what you and I are doing now: public argument that legislators, journalists and citizens can read. Your critique is not evidence that deliberation is absent. It is the deliberation.

THE CHAIN AND THE NET

You describe my safeguards as a chain whose links may be weaker than we hope. Professor, your metaphor has conceded my case. A chain fails at its weakest link, because a chain is a series arrangement: break one link and the whole fails. That is a perfect description of the system we have now, which hangs on a single link, the centre. But the bill is not a chain. It is a net. The checks do not hang one from another; they operate side by side, independently, so that abuse succeeds only when every strand snaps at once. And here is what I must correct most firmly: you read my argument as optimism. It is the opposite. I never assumed the governor would behave, or the Assembly would resist, or the Council would scrutinise, or the centre would act. I assumed that every single one of them is unreliable, and that is precisely why the design multiplies them. One unreliable guard is a scandal waiting to happen. Nine unreliable guards, watching from different towers, answering to different masters, are a fortress, because their simultaneous failure is a far taller order than the failure of any one. This is not my invention. It is the oldest wisdom in constitutional design. James Madison, writing in Federalist No. 51 in 1788, put it in words that have never been bettered: “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” And his solution to a government of non angels was exactly this architecture: “Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.” The American constitution was written by pessimists, for scoundrels, and it has processed nearly two and a half centuries of them. Structures built for flawed men are the only structures ever built. There is no other kind of man to build for. So the true comparison is not between my net and perfection. It is between a net of nine imperfect strands and a chain of one imperfect link. You have told me the strands are weak. You have not told me, because you cannot, that the single link fails less often. Its failure is the one thing we agreed on before we began.

THE BALLOT BOX YOU LAUGH AT

Your account of voting in Nigeria moved me, and I will not pretend the instrument is undamaged. But three things follow, and none of them is the conclusion you draw. First, every broken election you describe was conducted under the centralised police monopoly. The thugs who menaced your polling station, the intimidation that kept honest citizens at home, the insecurity that turned civic duty into personal risk: all of it happened on the watch of the single federal force, because for fifty years there has been no other watch to be on. Your indictment of our elections is an indictment of policing under centralisation. You have entered evidence, Professor, but on my side of the ledger. Second, the damaged instrument has nonetheless drawn blood at the highest level our politics has. In 2015, a sitting President of Nigeria was defeated at the ballot box, telephoned his opponent, and conceded before the final results were announced, saying that nobody’s ambition is worth the blood of any Nigerian. It was the first time in our history, and a weapon that has felled a sitting president is not a toy. Ruling parties have lost States before and since. The ballot in Nigeria is a wounded soldier, not a dead one. Third, and most important, I never offered the voter as the sole protector. The ballot box was the outermost ring of nine. Strike it from the count entirely if you wish: the net still holds eight strands against the status quo’s one. And notice a final irony. Today the vote cannot discipline security failure at all, however free the election, because no elected official in Nigeria commands a police force. The reform gives the wounded instrument something to aim at. Instruments heal with use.

THE OSUN CASE: THE OPPONENTS’ NIGHTMARE, ALREADY HERE, WITHOUT STATE POLICE

Professor, as we exchange these letters, a living experiment is running in Osun State, and it belongs in this debate because it is the opponents’ exact nightmare, performed under the very system they defend. A governorship election is fixed for 15 August 2026. The police in Osun remain, of course, fully centralised: one Commissioner, posted from Abuja, answerable through one Inspector General to the Federal Government. And what do we see? The elected Governor of the State has publicly told the Inspector General’s own delegation that the Commissioner of Police has shown a lack of willingness and capacity to act fairly and without partisan bias, has demanded his redeployment, and has complained of three political murders in a matter of weeks without a single arrest.

Residents have marched to demand the Commissioner’s transfer. Civil society groups have petitioned for it. The Governor’s campaign has gone further still and alleged open collusion between the police command and the campaign of the party that holds the Federal Government. That party, for its part, praises the Commissioner’s professionalism and urges the Inspector General to refuse the transfer. I take no side on who is telling the truth, and my argument does not need me to. Look instead at the structure. Everything the opponents of State Police warn about, a police command allegedly serving one party against its rivals on the eve of an election, is being alleged today, under total centralisation, with not a single State force in existence. Centralisation, offered for fifty years as the cure for partisan policing, has not cured the disease. It has merely fixed its direction, so that the alleged abuse now flows from whoever holds Abuja. And observe the remedy available to the aggrieved. The elected Governor, the man our arrangements mock with the title of Chief Security Officer, can do precisely nothing but write letters and hold press conferences, petitioning for the transfer of one officer to the very centre alleged to benefit from that officer’s conduct. The voters of Osun can do nothing at all, for the Commissioner answers to nobody they elect. Both camps now besiege the Inspector General’s office, because the only lever over Osun’s policing sits in Abuja, in the hands of an appointee of a President whose party is a contestant in the very election at stake. Even if every allegation on every side is false, a structure that concentrates that discretion in a contestant’s appointee is indefensible, and its indefensibility does not depend on the truth of any allegation. The mere plausibility is the indictment. Under the reform, the ordinary policing of Osun would answer to the government and Assembly that the people of Osun elected, under national standards binding on all. And if a governor then abused his own force, the abuse would meet remedies defined in law: the prohibition on political deployment, the certification that can be withdrawn, the federal trigger, ratification by the National Assembly, and the courts. Today, the only remedy on offer is a lobbying contest over one posting. Defined and justiciable remedies, against discretionary postings by an interested centre: that, Professor, is the whole choice, and Osun has placed it on our television screens three weeks before the poll.

VARIANCE, NOT VIRTUE

You ask what evidence suggests the State political class is more competent than the federal one. None, and my argument never needed it. The case for 36 forces does not presuppose 36 competent governments. It requires only that some States are better governed than others, which no observer of Nigeria, yourself included, would deny. Under one national system, every Nigerian is chained to the average; the best State cannot rise above the centre’s mediocrity, and the worst hides inside it. Under 36, the best are freed to show what is possible and the worst are shamed by the comparison next door. You say our history shows States do not copy each other’s successes, and you cite education and health. But look at the one sector we are actually discussing. When the South West States created Amotekun, other States and regions followed with their own security outfits within a season. Security innovation is the one policy Nigerians have demonstrably copied across State lines, and the reason is the one you taught me: incentives. Education reform pays off in a generation; security pays off before the next election. Where the reward is immediate and visible, our politicians imitate with remarkable speed. As for your local government reduction: it is less absurd than you think, since the United States runs municipal police and elected county sheriffs among its 18,000 agencies without dissolving. But the bill’s own answer is simpler. The line is drawn by capacity, not theory: a force exists where a government can sustain one under national standards and certification, and a State not yet ready contracts the Federal Police on the Canadian model. Nobody is licensing a force for every village. We are licensing forces for the federating units the Constitution itself names, as and when they qualify.

LOCAL TYRANNY IS STILL TYRANNY

Here you are at your most humane, and I concede the moral point without reservation. For the citizen under the boot, it is no comfort that the boot is local. But complete the comparison, Professor, because the choice was never between tyranny and its absence. It is between tyranny with a rescuer and tyranny without one. Under the reform, the citizen of a rogue State has an outside to appeal to: a federal trigger built for exactly that abuse, a certification that can be withdrawn, courts beyond the governor’s reach, 35 neighbouring States, a national press, and a federal government whose political interest lies in humbling a rival governor. Under the present system, if the single force turns oppressor, there is no outside. No second force, no external certifier, no rescuer on the map. Localisation does not excuse tyranny. It creates the exit, and it creates the cavalry. Monopoly abolishes both. And remember the commonest victim of the present arrangement: the community sacked at dawn with no police of any kind within a hundred kilometres. She is not protected by the status quo. She is abandoned by it, and abandonment is also tyranny, of the quietest and most lethal kind.

STRUCTURES AND MEN

Now to your deepest point, that institutions are only as strong as the people who operate them, and that character, not design, is the decisive variable. Half of that is true, and the half you omit decides the question. Structure and character are not rivals; structure is how character is farmed. Our political culture is not weather that must clear before we may build. It is, in large part, the harvest of what we built before: fifty years of unaccountable, centralised, consequence free power have taught our politicians exactly the lessons they have learned. Traffic lights do not wait for drivers to become careful; they manufacture careful drivers. Accountability teaches responsibility, and impunity teaches its opposite. You ask why State politicians should be better men than federal ones. They need not be better men. They need only be nearer to consequence, and moving power nearer to consequence is the entire design of this reform. If we must wait for a virtuous political class before we build restraining structures, we wait forever, because virtue without structure has no ladder to climb. And forgive me for observing that your philosophy devours your own prescriptions before it ever reaches mine: better recruitment, professional command, judicial oversight, all the reforms you favour are also structures, operated by the same imperfect Nigerians. If design cannot restrain our people, your remedies fall with my bill. If design can, then the argument between us is over which design, and that argument I have made across four letters, clause by clause.

WHERE WE TRULY STAND

So let me gather the threads. You began with regional police; you have withdrawn it, with a candour that honours you. You pressed the history; it stands as a warning absorbed into the design, not a sentence upon the nation. You raised the electoral commissions; the bill is built as their structural opposite, and by your own logic of incentives, policing is the better bet. You offered alternatives; each faces your own implementation objection with equal force, and each fits inside the reform rather than in place of it. What remains is the last redoubt: that Nigerians cannot be restrained by design at all. If that were true, it would condemn far more than this bill. It would condemn the Constitution, the courts, the ballot, democracy itself, and every reform you have ever favoured. It is not caution. It is surrender, wearing caution’s gown. And the record says it is false: Madison’s scoundrels have been processed by structure for two centuries; a sitting Nigerian president picked up the telephone in 2015 because the structure left him no better option; Amotekun leapt State lines in months because the incentives were aligned; and this very exchange, two citizens reasoning in public and moving each other’s positions, is the political culture you say we lack, functioning before your eyes. Skepticism has done its work, Professor, and its work is done. Every seat at the table was given to doubt, and every seat has been answered.

ON YOUR FAR TOO GENEROUS SUGGESTION

As for the Senate, the House, or a Government House: you made me laugh, and you moved me, in one paragraph. But the Bar took my vows long ago, and I hold that every profession guards the republic from its own post. You have guarded it from the bedside for sixty years; I guard it from the courtroom and, lately, from this group. The advocate’s chamber is also a constituency, and the pen sometimes outlasts the seat. What I will accept from you is an appointment of my own devising: I hereby name you, without salary and without term limit, Auditor General of my optimism. Hold our feet to the fire through every clause, every standard, every protocol of this reform, exactly as you have done here. Because you were right from the beginning about the one thing that matters most: eighty percent of any idea is implementation. The remaining twenty percent is the courage to begin. The patient is on the table, Professor. We operate, and then we keep watch together, and the watch is stronger now that it has a second doctor.
Warm regards,
Eyimofe Atake, SAN, PhD (Cantab)

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From a Saudi Prince to Nigerian Streets: Why addiction is consuming rich and poor alike

By Lillian Okenwa

When the body of 29-year-old Saudi Prince Abdullah bin Fahad bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Jalawi Al Saud was discovered in a London hotel room last November, investigators found no evidence of violence or foul play. The inquest later concluded that he had died after consuming a combination of alcohol, Xanax, cannabis and gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), a powerful central nervous system depressant. The verdict was misadventure.

It was an unexpected end for a man born into one of the world’s wealthiest and most influential royal families. Yet the circumstances of his death have become increasingly familiar to addiction specialists across the world.

The assumption that substance dependence belongs primarily to the poor has been overtaken by events. Addiction now cuts across economic status, education, profession and nationality with remarkable consistency. It is found in deprived communities and affluent neighbourhoods, among unemployed youths and successful professionals, in public schools and elite universities, in correctional facilities and luxury rehabilitation centres.

Nigeria reflects the same pattern.

Drug dependence is no longer confined to communities defined by poverty or social exclusion. Physicians, psychiatrists and rehabilitation practitioners increasingly encounter patients from homes where financial hardship has never been part of family life. University students, entrepreneurs, bankers, entertainers, public officials and children of prominent families now appear alongside commercial drivers, artisans and unemployed young people in treatment programmes.

Their backgrounds are different. Their dependence often looks remarkably similar.

That reality challenges one of the most persistent misconceptions surrounding addiction. Economic hardship certainly increases vulnerability. Communities burdened by unemployment, insecurity and limited opportunities often experience higher rates of substance misuse as individuals search for temporary relief from persistent stress, trauma and uncertainty.

The same explanation, however, does not account for the growing number of affluent young Nigerians developing dependence on tramadol, cannabis, cocaine, methamphetamine, prescription sedatives and other psychoactive substances.

Mental health professionals describe addiction as the product of multiple forces acting together rather than a single cause. Trauma, depression, anxiety disorders, unresolved childhood experiences, family breakdown, loneliness, untreated psychiatric conditions, peer influence, social media culture and the increasing availability of synthetic drugs all contribute to vulnerability. Financial status may shape how addiction begins, but it rarely determines who becomes addicted.

Among wealthier families, the risks often present themselves differently. Greater purchasing power can make expensive drugs easier to obtain, while demanding careers, emotional distance within families, social expectations and inadequate supervision sometimes create conditions in which dependency develops unnoticed until it becomes severe.

Across every social class, one feature appears repeatedly.

People rarely begin using drugs with the intention of becoming addicted.

Some are introduced through curiosity. Others through friends. Some first encounter opioids after legitimate medical treatment. Others turn to stimulants while trying to remain productive, sedatives while struggling to sleep, or alcohol while attempting to manage emotional distress. What begins as experimentation, recreation or self-medication can gradually alter the brain’s reward system until choice gives way to dependence.

Scientific understanding of addiction has changed significantly over the past three decades. It is now recognised internationally as a chronic brain disorder influenced by biological, psychological, environmental and social factors. That understanding has reshaped treatment strategies in many countries, moving away from punishment alone and towards integrated recovery built around medicine, psychology, family support and long-term rehabilitation.

Nigeria’s public response has not evolved at the same pace.

Public discussion still focuses overwhelmingly on arrests, seizures and criminal prosecution. Those measures remain important in reducing drug supply, but they address only one side of the crisis. Every seizure raises another question that receives far less public attention: what becomes of the people whose lives have already been overtaken by addiction?

That question is becoming increasingly urgent. Reports from treatment providers, psychiatrists and public health experts suggest that demand for recovery services is growing faster than the country’s capacity to provide them. Specialist facilities remain limited, trained professionals are in short supply and many families continue to navigate addiction with little understanding of where effective help can be found.

The death of a Saudi prince thousands of kilometres away and the struggles unfolding daily across Nigerian communities point to the same conclusion. Addiction is no longer a problem that can be explained by poverty, geography or social class. It has become a public health challenge whose reach extends into every layer of society.

The question facing Nigeria is no longer whether the crisis exists. It is whether the country has built a recovery system capable of responding to it.

Next: Inside Nigeria’s Recovery Gap: Why treatment remains beyond the reach of millions.

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