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In a world of naked dresses, did one take it too far?

By Leah Dolan and Oscar Holland

It was arguably the biggest red carpet trend of 2024, dominating the Academy Awards, the Met Gala and everything else in between. The naked dress — embraced by celebrities ranging from Elle Fanning to Kim Kardashian, Doja Cat to Charlize Theron — has become an eyebrow-raising red carpet fixture. At last year’s Vanity Fair Oscars after party, we saw how nudity could be both angelic (as demonstrated by Jennifer Lawerence’s sheer, Fall-Winter 1996 Givenchy empire-waist dress hand-embroidered with clovers) and risqué (such as Charli XCX’s gauzy yellow nipple-baring gown, also made by Givenchy.)

But at Sunday’s Grammys, only one naked dress was turning heads. While most guests opted for muted palettes and pared-back styling amid tributes to victims of Los Angeles’ devastating wildfires, Bianca Censori took a different approach.

Censori arrived at the event alongside husband Kanye West — who now goes by Ye. If the Australian model’s long feather coat seemed uncharacteristically demure, given her risqué approach to dressing in public, it was because she didn’t plan on wearing it for long.

Within seconds of stopping for photos, the 30-year-old turned her back to the cameras and dropped her coat to reveal a barely-there sleeveless mini-dress made of transparent mesh that left nothing to the imagination.

Naked dresses come in all shapes, sizes and varying levels of exposure. This genre of frock centers about the power of suggestion — sometimes, the wearer is not revealing anything at all. In the late 1990s, Jean-Paul Gaultier made waves with his trompe-l’oeil patterns, images of the bare human form, which he printed onto blazers and dresses. It’s a print that has since been revived by designers such as Glenn Martens, whose acid-colored, heatmap-style pieces have been worn by Bella Hadid and A$AP Rocky.

Even some of the earliest examples of naked frocks — Mae West in the 1936 film “Go West, Young Man” or Carroll Baker’s Balmain dress worn while promoting “The Carpetbaggers” in 1964 — relied on expertly placed embroidery to give the impression of bare skin while avoiding any actual displays of nudity. Naked dresses, for all the fervent discussion, can be surprisingly modest.

But what is the logical conclusion of a culture that revels in the suggestion of disrobing? To some — particularly those like Censori, who has frequently appeared in public in revealing outfits, whether heading into a music studio almost naked beneath a see-through rain jacket or going to dinner in LA wearing little more than a bra and a pair of sheer tights — the leap from naked dress to plain naked might feel small.

On the Grammys red carpet, West, meanwhile, stood beside Censori in a black T-shirt and pants, expressionless behind a pair of sunglasses. Reports soon swirled that the couple were escorted out of the awards show. However, a source familiar with the sequence of events told CNN that was untrue. “He was not escorted out,” they said. “He’s a nominee. He walked the carpet and got in his car and left.” CNN has reached out to a representative for West for comment.

Soon after the appearance, the couple shared Polaroid photos of Censori modeling the look in posts on their respective social media accounts. In a since-deleted Instagram post, West described his wife’s outfit as “custom couture,” yet there was no artistry or clever draping to be admired, no titillating embroidery techniques like those worn by West and Baker. The blankness of Censori’s nudity begs the question: is it fashion, or just a body?

West has not confirmed whether he personally designed — or was involved in designing — Censori’s outfit, though social media users questioned the rapper’s role in his wife’s wardrobe choices. Others speculated that the model may have fallen afoul of California’s indecent exposure laws, which prohibit people from exposing their “naked body or genitals in front of anyone who could be annoyed or offended by it.”

When asked if Censori had breached California’s indecent exposure laws, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department told CNN via email that it had “not been made aware of any incident at the Grammys.” The Recording Academy and CBS did not immediately respond to CNN’s requests for comment.

While Censori has certainly contributed a notable moment in the history of the naked dress trend, she has transformed what is typically a suggestive whisper into a deafening shout.

Credit: CNN

Let us give the Nigerian Police the benefit of the doubt as they implement the motor vehicle insurance

By Tonye Clinton Jaja

As of May 2024, the Kingdom of Lesotho has no legislation for imposition of mandatory Third Party Insurance Policy.

According to a report: “In Lesotho, the roads have become a battleground for accountability, with drivers exploiting legal loopholes to evade responsibility after accidents. The absence of mandatory third-party motor insurance amplifies this issue, leaving innocent victims stranded with hefty repair bills and little recourse..”

Early January 2025, the driver that normally picks me to and fro my office at the Lesotho Law Reform Commission, came to pick me from work and I noticed that his car’s back bumper was falling. I enquired and he said that he had been involved in an accident. The person that caused the accident had no money immediately to fix it, so they agreed that it will only be by the end of the month when he receives his salary before he can pay for the repairs of the said car.

So Nigeria is doing well, at least better than other African countries wherein there is no mandatory implementation of third party motor vehicle insurance.

For those who may not know below are the details:

“Motor vehicle third-party insurance, also known as third-party liability insurance, protects the policyholder from legal claims if they cause damage or injury to a third party in an accident. It’s a legal requirement for some vehicles.

What it covers

  1. Property damage: Covers damage to other vehicles, property, or shops.
  2. Injury or death: Covers injury or death to other people.
  3. Legal proceedings: Covers related legal proceedings.
  4. Other expenses: Covers other expenses, such as hiring a replacement vehicle. Who it protects
    •Protects the policyholder from legal claims made by third parties
    •Protects the policyholder from financial losses caused by the accident. Who can take out a policy
    •The owner of the vehicle can take out a policy
    •A lawful possessor authorized by the owner can take out a policy”

It is against this background, that we must commend the Nigerian Police for its determination to enforce the mandatory third party motor vehicle insurance policy as from 1st February 2025.

This is the time for us to pour encomiums upon the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) for implementing this initiative!!

Congratulations are in order, this is the time to bestow POSITIVE accolades and sobriquets upon the IGP such as: “motor-loving IGP”; “INSURED IGP”; and “Third Party IGP” just to mention a few (never mind Sowore with his negative sobriquets: “(IL) Legal IGP”.

My only quibble is that majority of the Nigerian Police officers who are to implement this third party insurance policy have not themselves seen what it looks like!!

Shouldn’t there be an orientation for these police officers?

I remember a real life story that shows that the level of literacy amongst police officers is very, very low.

A police officer stopped my car along the way and asked for my vehicle particulars, it was a direct Belgium car, so I had not even gone to get a new number plate for it.

I was using the number plate from my former car on it.

So the number plate on the car and the chassis number on the vehicle particulars are different and any literate police officer could have detected it.

With confidence, I opened the pigeon hole and handed him the documents. After he had METICULOUSLY pored over the documents, one by one, for over five minutes.

The police officer smiled and returned all my vehicle documents to me and said: “OGA find us something make we use wash this your new car now”!!!

Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja,
Executive Director,
Nigerian Law Society (NLS).

A troubling case of organized crime involving inmates and corrupt prison officials

By Israel Joe

A young man was robbed on January 3rd 2025 in Benin by armed men who took valuable items and transferred a significant amount of money to a PalmPay account during the incident(4m)

The victim initially reported the crime to the Edo State Police Command, but no progress was made in identifying the assailants.

On hearing on the progreses made by our super cop CSP ALIYU SHABA in exposing the killers of Paulinus Okon at Otokutu, they decided to bring their case to Ekpan Police station.

The victim had conducted a geo analysis of the PalmPay account which pointed to the Udu axis, leading to further investigation.

The DPO arrested the account holder who confessed that her boyfriend own the account.

“I met him online and we started talking and one thing led to another, he started professing love and I accepted.

He told me he works offshore and have so many staff under him. He called me early January and told me that his phone fell into the River but expecting to receive some money and asked me to help him open a PalmPay account which I obliged. Later, he sent a lady to pick the ATM of the very account from me.

On the 4th of January, I got alert of 4m and told him. Later that day, he sent account numbers to me with instruction to pay some 600k, some 1.5m some 1m etc.

The DPO decided to run advanced analysis on the accounts and traced it to Warri correctional prison.

He immediately stormed the facility with his men and some of the arrested suspects. On arrival, one of the suspect ((girl ) sighted one of the star suspects but the prison officials refused to produce the young man except one who is serving a death sentence that also participated in the robbery.

So what happened is that, inmate left the prison custody and traveled to Benin city to rob and eventually returned.

All the robbers involved in this crime are serving inmates but because we have corrupt officials, they take bribes and allow the criminal inmates to go out for operations and return.

Implementing stricter security protocols in prisons to prevent inmates from leaving custody for criminal activities is crucial.

When the winner takes it all

By IfeanyiChukwu Afuba 

Ordinarily, the Igbo elite don’t believe in Nnamdi Kanu and Simon Ekpa. Who organises a coup against himself? The Igbo business and political elite have vested interests in Nigeria and would argue that Nigerians are better off in one united country. Majority of educated southeasterners, those you could say are struggling with life, are indifferent to the agitation for separation. They are not convinced about the practical prospects of realising  Biafra. The lower social strata of citizens, the hoi polloi, acknowledge the courage of Kanu and Ekpa in confronting Nigeria’s system of injustice.

Many, however, are sober enough not to be part of their foot soldiers. Yet, despite these reservations, the two separatist leaders have not gone into political oblivion. On the contrary, there’s sympathy for their plight; solidarity with  Kanu and continued sentiment for their path of self-determination. Take a critical look at the legal, political and civic support the detained IPOB leader receives each time his case comes up in Abuja. Now, there’s no contradiction here when we reiterate that this does not translate to endorsement of IPOB’s mission. What is playing out is basically a game of engagement.

While not subscribing to the agenda of separation, emergent Igbo outlook nevertheless insists that the region should not be taken for granted. A closer assessment of the political climate shows systematic undermining of southeast regional interests by Nigeria’s ruling elite. What makes the situation gall is the bold, assertive pattern it has taken over succession of decades, so much so that the dismissive treatment of the region has assumed unwritten Nigerian State policy. The discrimination against the zone has the effect of provocation on the people, prompting the unheeded protests that ultimately feed separation ideas. At this juncture, Igbo political thought places the background to regional resentment on the front burner. Igbo society calls out the inequity of Nigeria’s federation as far more destabilising than  engineering alternative statehood. This reappraisal mitigates the controversy of secession. In the event, the stigma of anarchists being invoked on the agitators is rejected.

Do you actually expect us to crucify these young fellows, these victims of circumstance? Who created the condition that gives impetus to IPOB’s agitation? We would be betraying the truth, our duty and the people by condemning this movement. It would be different if the current authorities were taking steps to remedy the grave injustice against a section of the country. But no, the present government is faithfully continuing the discrimination from where the last government stopped.

Now, we take a look at a long tradition of regional demotion, suppression and disregard. Following are sample lists of Nigeria armed forces key establishments and their regional locations.

 ARMY

 1. NA University, Borno State, NE. 2. NA Depot, Zaria, NW. 3. NA College of Logistics & Management, Lagos, SW. 4. NA Armour School, Bauchi, NE. 5. NA School of Infantry, Jaji, NW. 6. NA School of Artillery, Kachia, NW. 7. NA School of Engineering, Makurdi, NC. 8. Nigeria Army Resource Centre, Abuja. 9. NA School of Signals, Lagos, SW.10. NA College of Education, Kwara State, NC. 11. NA Training & Doctrine Command, Minna, NC. 12. NA School of Supply & Transport, Benin, SS. 13. NA Intelligence School, Apapa, SW.

 Ranking

North West     3

South West     3 

North Central  3

North East       2

South South    1

(FCT)                1

South East      0

 NAVY

1. NN School of Armament, Kachia NW. 

2. NN Basic Training School, Onne, SS.

3. NN Centre for Education & Training Technology, Ile Ife, SW.

4. Naval War College, Calabar, SS.

5. Naval Dockyard, Lagos, SW.

6. NN University, Ibusa – Ogwashi Ukwu, SS. 

7. Naval College, Port Harcourt, SS.

8. NN College of Engineering, Apapa, SW.

9. NN School of Health Science, Offa, NC.

10. NN College of Accounts & Finance, Owerrinta, SE.

11. NN Logistics College, Kano, NW.

12. NN Institute of Technology, Sapele, SS.

13. NN Hydrographic School, Borokiri, SS.

14. NN Provost & Regulatory School, Makurdi, NC.

 Ranking

  South South     6

  South West      3

  North West      2

  North Central  2

  South East       1

  North East       0 

 AIR FORCE

1. Aircraft Maintenance Hangar, Bauchi NE.

2. School of Finance & Accounting, Ibadan, SW.

3. Aircraft Maintenance Depot, Ikeja, SW.

4. NAF Mother & Child Hospital, Badagry, SW.

5. NAF Institute of Safety, Ijesha, SW.

6. NAF Regiment Training Centre, Kaduna, NW.

7. NAF Protection Wing, Kainji, NC.

8. NAF Institute of Technology, Kaduna, NW.

9. NAF Research & Development Institute, Osun, SW.

10. NAF College of Aviation Zaria, NW.

11. NAF School of Medical Science & Aviation Medicine, Kaduna, NW.

12. Air Traffic Services Training Centre, Kaduna, NW.

13. NAF Helicopter Flying School, Enugu, SE.

 Ranking

North West      5

South West      5 

North Central   1 

South East        1 

North East        1 

South South     0.

The above chart is not an isolated pattern but represents a trend of Igbo relegation since the end of the civil war. By the laws of this structural marginalisation, the Igbo areas were allocated the least number of states and local governments; ensuring by this organic disadvantage that the zone was sentenced to the lowest receipt from the federation account. It’s the same tale of woes in the siting of projects and distribution of federal appointments. Tokenist, peripheral projects are the lot of the southeast.

Accordingly, Nigeria’s steel complex would not be sited in Onitsha regardless of its choice by the technical partners. For the north-dominated military rulership, the east, an oil-producing area, did not qualify to host a refinery but there were a thousand reasons why a major refinery had to be built in Kaduna, a non-oil-producing State.

In the last forty years have we had substantive Ministers of Defence;  Agriculture;  Industries; Water Resources and FCT of Igbo origin? Let those who reject the indictment of anti-Igbo conspiracy please explain these exclusions to us. And by a wonder of changing standards,  no Igbo has attained the offices of Chief Justice of the federation and President, Court of Appeal.

Former President, Mohammadu Buhari, gave an insight into the apartheid nature of his government. Without flinching from the soreness,  Buhari declared in a video in July 2015 that “constituencies that gave me 97 percent (at the polls) cannot, in all honesty, be treated equally, on some issues, with constituencies that gave me 5 percent. I think these are political realities, while certainly there will be justice for everybody. Everybody will get his constitutional rights, but while the party in constituencies that by their sheer hard work they made sure that they got their people to vote and to ensure their votes count, they must feel that the government has appreciated the effort they put in putting the government in place. I see this as really fair.”

The fairness turned out to be that constitutionally mandatory members of the cabinet from the southeast occupied the back bench Ministries. For other powerful positions without mandatory state representation, the Southeast was ignored. Just as the zone was also ignored in a beneficiary list of a $22.7b infrastructure loan obtained by the administration in 2020. When typically, after much protests at exclusion, the southeast was added to a rail transport programme, the zone was included under light rail system rather than the standard gauge provision for other parts of the country; and for linking up the Niger Republic!

The surprise, however,  is that President Bola Tinubu appears to be towing the same path of denying Southeast her due share. While Buhari’s provincial record as a military ruler and Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund served notice of his mindset, there’s hardly anything about Tinubu to forewarn of such parochialism. Yet, the emerging trend in the government’s appointments is ascendancy of the southwest and continued suppression of the southeast. A distribution of 20 military, paramilitary and other security appointments released by the Presidency in November 2024 showed the northwest clinching 8 slots; followed by the southwest with 5; north central closely following with 4 positions; northeast 3 slots and southeast and south-south rocking the bottom with one bar each.

In the federal executive council, the southeast has five members while the southwest has ten ministerial positions. If the cabinet appointments which have constitutional enforcement of at least one minister from every State, fares lopsidedly, does anyone expect the categories of appointment without set parameters to be better? And there are no apologies for the imbalance, no visible remedies towards a fairer deal. Admittedly, the Buhari era was worse, but in that frame of comparative degree, lies a huge danger – casually accepting  precedence as conferring legitimacy. The fact that Buhari’s presidency was arrogantly provincial does not absolve the Tinubu administration’s deficit in managing our diversity.

In recognition of the danger posed by the winner takes it all tendency, the 1995 Constitutional Conference proposed a variant of proportional representation. Political parties would gain stakes in the next government based on presidential election performance. Vetoed by the Abdulsalami Abubakar military transition council, the Conference decision nevertheless gauges the importance of inclusiveness in Nigerian government and politics. There seems no disputing that we run an imperial presidency. When in a plural society, a powerful presidency is privatised, or captured, to use the latest fashionable expression, it’s bound to engender extremist reactions. IPOB is one such extreme response. The other effect would be to render presidential elections do-or-die confrontations. None is an easy way to travel.

Participatory Interfaith Dialogue and Development: The keys to addressing people’s needs in Morocco

By Yossef Ben-Meir

Morocco’s Multicultural Gateway to Community Development

Morocco’s policy for national multiculturalism and the diversity of its historic identity groups has emphasized the importance of intergroup dialogue and its role as a “bridge” to human development. In recent years, the Moroccan Ministry of Culture began collaborating with UNESCO to establish a framework for cultural preservation. The government has expressed the important role that culture plays in combating poverty through heritage preservation. They believe this will help empower individuals and increase their opportunities for social and economic mobility. Additionally, integrating a cultural dimension into education is considered a significant factor in encouraging development by promoting recognition and enhanced solidarity. Similarly, cultural preservation and awareness can specifically help women to enhance their livelihoods and economic prospects. In relation to sustainable urban development, preservation activities help to balance modernization, tradition, the environment, and public spaces.

Although pathways exist to foster intercultural partnerships to meet Moroccan communities’ needs, it continues to be a complex challenge. For example, interreligious partnerships may often find shared goals of preserving archives, sacred locations, and cultural knowledge. However, translating these goals into concrete initiatives that could lead to improved public health, enhanced livelihoods, and environmental protection requires more innovative and locally-led approaches.

Morocco represents a notable case where a unique Muslim-Jewish cooperation is leading sustainable fruit tree agriculture and human development, especially within clean drinking water, irrigation infrastructure, and financially independent women’s cooperatives, all achieved through building community-managed fruit tree nurseries. These nurseries, built on land lent by the Moroccan Jewish community, illustrate the ability of interfaith partnerships to address critical rural challenges. Morocco’s National Initiative for Human Development has provided a significant proportion of funding to construct four nurseries (two completed and two in the process) to provide trees to farming families who seek to transition from barley and corn to more income-generating organic fruit products. The integration of monitoring the trees planted by farming families for certified and commercialized carbon offset credits further enhances the community impact.

The pilot nursery, established in 2012 in the Tomsloht municipality, Al Haouz province, now produces 70,000 trees annually. This region was severely impacted by the September 2023 earthquake that occurred in the High Atlas Mountains, amplifying the significance of sustainable agriculture projects for post-disaster recovery. The second nursery, built in 2020 in the Ouarzazate province, has produced approximately 40,000 trees, with two additional nurseries in the process of being constructed in the Marrakech and Ouarzazate areas. All four nurseries are situated adjacent to Moroccan Jewish saints’ sacred burial sites, some dating back 1,000 years. With over 600 locations of religious significance in the country, interfaith and intersectoral partnerships effectively play a significant national role in assisting farming communities transition to fruit tree agriculture. They can together build a more resilient, economically enhancing, and healthier option than traditional reliance on growing barley and corn.

Morocco’s path of national solidarity for human development provides widespread benefits and exemplifies that there is a viable recourse from strife and division. The development process begins with local communities determining their development goals from an empowered disposition to help ensure that their decisions reflect their priority interests. From this empowerment workshop experience, leading to intercultural, public, and private partnerships based on dialogue and trust-building, communities assess and determine the most important projects they seek to implement.

Origins and Development of a Moroccan Cultural-Agricultural Program

In 1993, the author of this article volunteered with the Peace Corps living in a village of the High Atlas Mountains called Amsouzerte, where the journey from the village to the nearest city centers took almost 20 hours along unpaved roads and mountain passes. At the foot of a mountainside, fifty kilometers from Amsouzerte, there was an old, white mausoleum, uncharacteristic of the earth-brick homes typical of rural Moroccan landscapes.

Even at this time, it was immediately clear that eroding mountain areas offered large potential for terrace construction surrounding the mausoleum for the Muslim community to build tree nurseries and derive generational benefits. Tree nurseries are valuable for Moroccan farming communities because 70 percent of current agricultural land in the country generates just 10-15 percent of agricultural revenue. Fruit tree cultivation allows farming families to transition from less lucrative barley and corn crops to higher income-generating crops. Morocco has both organic and endemic varieties of almond, Argan, carob, cherry, date, fig, lemon, pomegranate, olive, and walnut trees among others, as well as dozens of species of wild medicinal plants.

Based on dialogue with farming families and communities, this local project was derived directly from their own determination and development perspective. The High Atlas Foundation (HAF)—a Moroccan national civil association founded in 2000 by former Peace Corps Volunteers who initially served in this mountain region–facilitated empowerment and participatory methods that assisted people in identifying their doubts and fears, project priorities, and actions forward to achieve their discovered goals of tree infrastructure and related water infrastructure.

In rural Morocco, where most household income is derived from agriculture, initiatives within this development sector, particularly surrounding water infrastructure, trees and herbs, cooperative-building, terracing, value-added processing, and marketing, are shared priorities across the countryside. The September 2023 earthquake exacerbated the need for these long-held priorities of farming families and brought them to the forefront for investment.

Small landholders often cannot commit the necessary land resources over the two years required for fruit tree seeds to mature, as they must harvest every season from all available land to maintain their livelihoods. The question that arose at the onset of the project and that remains prevalent for rural communities today is where land for nurseries will come from, if farmers cannot afford to convert their existing farmland.

The mausoleum near Amsouzerte is a sacred tomb of a Hebrew saint (tzaddik, or ‘righteous one’) named David-Ou-Moshe, one of over 600 tzaddikim (Muslim, Jewish, and Christian) buried throughout Morocco. The land immediately around these burials had potential for future tree nurseries that could generate tens of millions of saplings annually.

On behalf of the farming families, HAF approached the Moroccan Jewish community to request land leases for building tree nurseries on this land. While they agreed, sufficient funding was still needed for the project to commence. Although the original location remained undone as years passed, a successful pilot nursery launched in 2012 at Akrich in the Al Haouz province near Marrakech at the burial site of another tzaddik named Raphael Hacohen that has since collaborated with and provided benefits for 175 different farming families annually.

Community nurseries jumpstart a new development path toward economic and environmental sustainability. The Akrich tree nursery, for example, led to empowerment workshops and the establishment of the nearby Achbarou women’s carpet-making cooperative, the construction of a paved road between the nursery/cemetery and the cooperative that allows visitors to easily visit both sites, and a clean drinking water system in Achbarou village. It is necessary that agencies partner with communities like Achbarou as land contributors to catalyze human development projects that extend benefits beyond the agricultural sector.

Methods of Scaling Cultural Initiatives and Sustainable Development

Moroccan development policies and the public have recognized the environmental richness and symbol of social solidarity that the country bears. Environmentally, the natural diversity composed of distinct biozones (which exist in the Middle East and North Africa region at large) has created widespread opportunities for food production generated from endemic species.

Socially, the Moroccan national identity includes people of different ethnicities, languages, dialects, and faiths. In general, Morocco represents one case in which people of varying identities live unified under a single sovereignty in relative harmony. Morocco, as apparent in its culture, policies, and constitution, aims to embrace the different aspects that make up its identity. Even in the current regional context of conflict and war, Morocco maintains a commitment through policy and programs to the diversity of faiths for its communities as a pathway towards improving people’s lives. This approach is seen as the most practical way to achieve development and inspire broader peace and acceptance across the world.

However, in order to attain enduring success in this way, interfaith actions require their design to come from the community beneficiaries and directly address their self-described needs. Development implemented through local participatory methods generates the critical trust and goodwill that strengthen social unity, due to its responsiveness to the will of the people. Necessarily, Morocco’s commitment to community-identified and managed initiatives for growth is also embedded in Moroccan policy, strategic plans of ministries, charters, and the Constitution.     

After coordination with the Ouarzazate governor and with the Regional Directors of relevant public agencies, construction of the new nursery began in 2019. In the past four planting seasons, over 46,000 fruit saplings were produced at this nursery that were then planted in the private agricultural lands of 195 small landholder families, marking significant progress for the development trajectories of these communities. Lands for future nurseries are increasingly being set aside by the Moroccan Jewish community to contribute to this interfaith organic fruit tree initiative, titled House of Life by the governor of the Al Haouz Province Younès Al Bathaoui, denoting the traditional title for a Jewish cemetery.

Monitoring the Trees for Verified and Commercialized Carbon Offset Units

Monitoring tree nurseries for evaluating carbon offset credits has also become an integral part of the larger tree-planting initiative. New carbon offset programs and verification standards integrate multiple existing methodologies to launch community initiatives through participatory development and empowerment workshops, particularly with women. This strategy utilizes local, organic, and endemic seed varieties; incorporates renewable energy in the form of solar water pump systems at nurseries; reinvests offset revenue in new community projects within the regions that generated the credits, and concentrates tree planting with small landholder farming families, all while facilitating interfaith collaboration to alleviate rural poverty.

Observing tree growth using GPS, maintaining registries and GIS maps of planted trees, and monitoring voluntary and credited carbon offsets with certifiable systems are critical components of the nursery programs. Monitoring systems include important data such as the farmer’s name, association, or cooperative, the village and region, the tree species and number of trees, photos of the location, planting systems used, and other factors to ensure maximal efficient use of all land.

Using the current carbon credit monitoring system (that of PlanVivo based in Scotland), 80 percent of the value of the carbon offset credit (now valued at 40 euros) returns to the farmers and their development projects. Of the remaining 20 percent of the value of the credit, 10 percent goes to the certifier who helps verify and commercialize the credit, and 10 percent goes to HAF for the costs of ongoing monitoring, organizing community meetings for project identification, securing authorizations with relevant public agencies, overall implementation, and financial and programmatic compliance (including audits).

As stated in Morocco’s General Report of the New Development Model, significantly more investment is necessary in order to achieve the levels of economic growth and poverty alleviation needed, with an emphasis on agriculture, human capital, and digitalization. These components are all integral in the House of Life and carbon credit offset programs. Furthermore, the focus on family farmers helps to ensure that the benefits are directed at the communities and villages that need them most.

The sector that presents the greatest likelihood of return, and which addresses the core of the poverty affliction in the country, is agriculture. The agricultural practices that prevent people from taking full advantage of the sector’s opportunities are the same practices that, if positively transformed, will uplift millions from poverty and secure environmental sustainability and water availability for decades to come. Therefore, targeting investment in the agricultural sector and ensuring that it is delivered to the communities is what will accelerate and multiply the level of financial returns for overall human development.

Although significant barriers exist to securing new financing that reaches farming communities, they can be addressed to create new projects by the people. For example, compliant financial and programmatic management and reporting systems of local civil and cooperative groups are essential but too few in number. In this regard, capacity-building is vital, and having an enhanced self-reliant form of revenue generation is key, especially one derived from an ongoing production activity that already exists like fruit tree agriculture.

Added income from the verification and sale of carbon offset credits enabled by tree planting activities can capitalize on communities’ existing strength and further increase household income and reinvestment in local development. When interfaith partnerships—in this case, through the free provision of land for community nurseries—are a principal part of program implementation and expansion, they will become more prevalent and strengthen social solidarity as income and reinvestment from agricultural yields and carbon credits are generated.

Conclusions: Communities’ Discovery and Empowerment First

Morocco’s policies encourage intercultural dialogue and communication for human development. Different faith communities in Morocco are brought together to share their historical narratives, which can lead to improved livelihoods and health through a participatory development approach by leveraging underutilized capacities. However, these experiences that are necessary to empower and promote sustainable growth are too infrequent to impact social transformation. House of Life cements the continuity of interfaith collaboration, key for achieving scale and social change, by providing needed trees and support for new community projects.

While multicultural memory and consciousness in the country create opportunities, combining these factors has yet to reach the level of self-reliant development and a circular economy that the people urgently need. Through the USAID Dakira program (or “Memory” in English), civil society organizations and public administrations seek to redress the lack of such participatory community dialogues in which people discuss the past and the future together and create a shared vision forward.

Third-party facilitation of dialogue and communication at the community level is vital, especially in the initial phases, as cultural narratives and development opportunities are shared by the group participants, trust and cross-relationships are built, and future growth plans are created. In this way, Moroccan culture has become a (re)discovery gateway for human development, recalling the nation’s journey of diversity, unity, and solidarity, even through difficulty. Community storytelling helps people understand their connectivity and reliance on each other to achieve their individual and collective dreams.

The most significant challenge for participatory planning is the need for more training in community dialogue facilitation to empower all voices and express all priorities. While manifold methods and activities can be used to explore personal and collective identity and create plans for the future, most people have never experienced these approaches and are, therefore, unable to initiate and steward the process.

In recent years, the global community has seen that much of the world does not reflect the same model of faith and cultural solidarity. As can be seen, in the violent incidents at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019, an African Methodist Episcopal church in South Carolina in 2015, and the Or L’Simcha Congregation synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018. In each of these cases, the killers were initially warmly greeted by their communities with “Salaam,” “Welcome,” and “Shalom” before they committed murder. Tree nursery projects, like the Akrich nursery, have the potential to juxtapose these atrocities against the more hopeful reality of interfaith solidarity as is experienced in Morocco.

Interfaith dialogue, as an opportunity to voice our histories, can deepen understanding and provide reconciliation between historically antagonistic groups. When this process is maintained and integrated with supporting projects and defined and managed by the people, it can become a basis for achieving sustainable and prosperous societies. In Morocco, interfaith connections are convivial when they occur but demand total energy and commitment to organize. This Moroccan approach to success across religious differences could inspire other nations of Africa, the Islamic World, and the Middle East to follow the same path.


Reference

Al Kaderi, M. (2014). Compendium Country Profile Cultural Policy in Morocco. Cultural Policy in the Arab Region. https://www.culturalpolicies.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/morocco_full_profile_2014.pdf

Anouar, S. (2022, November). Morocco Vows to Share Heritage Preservation Know-How Within Africa. Morocco World News. https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2022/11/352691/morocco-vows-to-share-heritage-preservation-know-how-within-africa

BBC. (2020, 24 August). Christchurch shooting: Gunman Tarrant wanted to kill ‘as many as possible’. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-53861456

Ben-Meir, Y. (2006). Create an Historic Moroccan-American Partnership. International Journal on World Peace. 23(2), 71-77. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20752735

Ben-Meir, Y. (2019). Empowering Rural Participation and Partnerships in Morocco’s Sustainable Development. Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective. 14(2), 191-214. https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/jgi/vol14/iss2/13

CBS. (2023, 27 October). Commemorating the 11 lives taken five years ago in Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/commemorating-the-11-lives-taken-five-years-ago-in-pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting/

Circular Ecology. (n.d.) Wider Benefits of Carbon Offsetting. https://circularecology.com/wider-benefits-of-carbon-offsetting.html

El Khadiri, S. (2022, March). Participatory Approach with Women of Achbarou Cooperative. High Atlas Foundation. https://highatlasfoundation.org/en/insights/participatory-approach-with-women-of-achbarou-cooperative/

Empowerment Initiative. (2016). IMAGINE. Clinton Global Initiative 2014 Commitment to Actionhttps://imagineprogram.net/

Freeman, T. (n.d.). What is a Tzaddik? Being human all the way. Chabad.org. https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2367724/jewish/Tzaddik.htm

High Atlas Foundation. (n.d.). Balance Your Carbon Footprint: Plant fruit trees with the High Atlas Foundation. High Atlas Foundationhttps://assets.highatlasfoundation.org/uploads/PRINT-EN-HAF-Carbon-Offsets-Brochure-2023-A5-Document.pdf

High Atlas Foundation. (n.d.). Carbon Credits. High Atlas Foundationhttps://highatlasfoundation.org/en/our-work/carbon-credits

High Atlas Foundation. (2023, January).High Atlas Foundation Plants Thousands of Trees with Moroccan Communities for Annual Tree Planting. BusinessGhana. https://www.businessghana.com/site/news/general/278143/High-Atlas-Foundation-Plants-Thousands-of-Trees-with-Moroccan-Communities-for-Annual-Tree-Planting

High Atlas Foundation. (n.d.). House of Life: Intercultural Organic Fruit Tree Nursery Initiative. High Atlas Foundationhttps://assets.highatlasfoundation.org/uploads/EN-House-of-Life-Brochure-2023.pdf 43

Kuwait News Agency. (2008, August). Moroccan King Inaugurates 30th Asilah Cultural Festival. https://www.kuna.net.kw/ArticlePrintPage.aspx?id=1929008&language=en#

New York Times. (2015, 17 June). Nine Killed in Shooting at Black Church in Charleston. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/18/us/church-attacked-in-charleston-south-carolina.html

Plan Vivo. (n.d.). Acorn. Plan Vivo: For nature, climate, and communitieshttps://www.planvivo.org/acorn

Royaume du Maroc. (2021, April). The New Development Model: Releasing energies and regaining trust to accelerate the march of progress and prosperity for all. Royaume du Maroc General Reporthttps://www.csmd.ma/documents/CSMD_Report_EN.pdf

United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. (2022). Fez Declaration on the Ninth Global Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations: Towards an Alliance of Peace: Living Together as One Humanity. 9th Global Forum United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. https://diplomatie.ma/sites/default/files/inline-files/Fez%20Declaration-%20Adopted%20%2822Nov-%20End%20of%20Ministerial%20Meeting%29.pdf

United Nations Development Programme. (2023, April). What is circular economy and why does it matter? UNDP Climate Promisehttps://climatepromise.undp.org/news-and-stories/what-is-circular-economy-and-how-it-helps-fight-climate-change

U.S. Agency for International Development. (n.d.). Dakira. USAID From the American People. https://www.usaid.gov/morocco/fact-sheets/dakira

Walaw. (2024, November). Morocco Strengthens Legal Framework for Cultural Heritage Protection. https://sport.walaw.press/en/articles/morocco_strengthens_legal_framework_for_cultural_heritage_protection/GMXMRFSQLSWQ

Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir is president and co-founder of the High Atlas Foundation, a Moroccan-U.S. non-profit organization founded in 2000 and dedicated to sustainable development. Dr. Ben-Meir is a visiting professor at the University of Virginia’s International Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of New Mexico (2009), an MA in international development from Clark University (1997), and a BA in economics from New York University (1991).

𝗙ree-𝗡𝗕𝗔-𝗦eal “incentive” for payment of annual bar practising fee promotes palliative mentality

NBA Presidents Should Jettison Policies That Do Not Promote Welfare and Economic Empowerment of Lawyers!

By Sylvester Udemezue

  1. In return for the various monies the leaderships of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and their affiliates continually collect from Nigerian lawyers, Nigerian lawyers should DEMAND and INSIST on quality, accountable responsible, responsive, transparent and effective governance from the NBA leaderships Instead of waiting for and being content with FREE-NBA-SEALS as a major incentive to continue to pay the Annual Bar Practising Fee (BPF).
  2. FREE-NBA-SEAL is not a sign of responsible and effective governance but a sort of perpetuation and promotion of palliative mentality which is a major sign of ineffective governance on the part of the NBA and gullible, docile, beggarly, disoriented and fruitless followership on the part of NBA members.
  3. A CORE AIM of the NBA is ”Establishment of schemes for the promotion of the welfare, security, and economic advancement of members of the legal profession”_ (See Section 3(13) of the NBA Constitution, 2015). NBA leaderships should focus on this, instead of promoting the palliative culture that encourages poverty and laziness among lawyers .
  4. NBA leaders usually take collection of the Bar Practicing Fee (BPF) and other dues so seriously that they adopt, in each year, all manner of strategies to get lawyers to pay. By going about to appeal to lawyers to pay the BPF and Branch Dues, and by introducing the FREE-NBA-SEALS scheme as an incentive to encourage payment, NBA leaderships are subtly exposing their vested selfish interest in the monies ultimately collected from the BPF. Ordinarily, NBA leaders should have no business and no reasons “appealing” to anyone to pay BPF and dues. Members ought to pay the BPF WILLINGLY and HAPPILY if members are sure that they stand to benefit and especially considering the consequences of failure or neglect to pay.
  5. Additionally, (a) section 4 of the NBA Constitution provides that if you don’t pay BPF, you’re disqualified from practicing law in all its facets and from doing anything whatsoever that only a lawyer may do, for the rest of that year, until you pay. The same section says non payment of BPF is a form of unprofessional conduct. Why then does anyone need any FREE-NBA-SEALS as an incentive to pay? See also the Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC), 2023, which makes payment of the BPF a condition precedent to engagement in law practice especially advocacy, in each year.
  6. If things were going on well within the NBA, if NBA members were happy with the NBA leaderships, if they were getting VALUE FOR THEIR MONEY by way of good, quality governance, they would happily and promptly pay BPF and any other dues.
  7. Unfortunately, there appears to be a situation of TOTAL FAILURE OF CONSIDERATION, as I have come to realize, meaning that Nigerian lawyers hardly get value for the monies they pay to the NBA. Thus about 90 percent of lawyers who pay BPF do so only because they want to be able to collect Stamp and Seal in that year which itself is required to be affixed to any document prepared by a lawyer for the purpose of authentication. In other words, most NBA members pay the BPF because NBA practically, indirectly COMPELS them to pay. Else, they might not and NBA leaderships know this, because there’s hardly anything lawyers get in return, BY WAY OF VALUE, GOOD GOVERNANCE
  8. I repeat that payment of the BPF should be done by lawyers freely and without any inducement such as the palliative FREE-NBA-SEALS that only gives unsuspecting lawyers a false impression that NBA is doing something (giving FREE-NBA-SEAL) when the FREE-NBA-SEALS scheme in itself is neither a sign of progress for the NBA nor evidence of good governance on the part of NBA leaderships.
  9. The best sign of progress is when every lawyer in Nigeria is able on his own, to apply and pay for the number of NBA seals he needs in each year; such is a sign of economic improvement as well as an improvement in the professional lives of NBA members.
  10. Four major factors should constitute the major reason why Nigerian lawyers should feel obliged to pay the Annual Bar Practising Fee: (1) The payment is statutory and mandatory; (2) Default has serious consequences, as already pointed out above. (3). The payment is the annual law practising licence renewal fee for lawyers and (4).That Nigerian lawyers are getting value for the monies collected from them by the NBA. Unfortunately, number (4) above, as I have explained, is almost absent leading to widespread indifference by lawyers towards prompt payment of the BPF.
  11. However, as a way out and instead of delivering good, effective governance (which should be the major motivation and the real incentive for payment of the BPF), some NBA leaderships recently devised the strategy of promising lawyers who pay their BPF before 31 March in each year, a card or two of NBA seals. The scheme was begun under the Akpata leadership (2020-2022), but it appears the current NBA leadership is not interested in continuing it, in response to which there are pockets of protests by lawyers who argue that the FREE-NBA-SEALS bonus serves as “a major incentive” for payment of the BPF. Unfortunate!
  12. Some others have suggested that the FREE-NBA-SEALS bonus, which was started by the Olumide Akpata leadership, was later stopped under the Yakubu Maikyau leadership, while some others say it was continued by the Maikyau leadership. Anyway, when the strategy started or stopped and whether it has stopped or has not stopped are not the focus of this commentary. The main focus of this commentary is that the FREE-NBA-SEALS in return for payment of the BPF is an ugly strategy that illustrates dilapidation, deterioration and retrogression.
  13. Such a palliative mentality strategy/policy ought to be discontinued forthwith while NBA leaderships should focus their attention on upholding the core essentials of good governance as identified by UNESCAP (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific): (1) Participation; (2)
    Strict adherence to the Rule of law, enthronement of fair legal frameworks that are enforced impartially, and full protection of human rights, particularly those of minorities; (3). Transparency and adherence to due process ; (4). Timely and responsible responsiveness to the challenges of the NBA and its members, so as to engender trust and Consensus oriented: Mature, reasonable, fair balancing and reconciling of the many conflicting interests and needs within the NBA; (6). Equity and inclusiveness to ensure a sense of belonging to the various interests within the the NBA; (7) Effectiveness and efficiency, ensuring a result-oriented leadership where the results are such that meet reasonable expectation.
  14. Efficiency involves sustainable use of available resources while effectiveness entails producing results that meet the needs of members and stakeholders in the NBA; (8). Accountability: NBA leaderships must be accountable to NBA members and to all stakeholders. Observance of the requirements of transparency and rule of law ensures accountability, equity, and inclusiveness.
  15. Delivery of good governance to NBA members (which is the fundamental reason the NBA leadership is installed) should be the best and the most credible motivation, incentive for NBA members’ commitment to prompt and regular payment of the BPF.
    Respectfully,
    Sylvester Udemezue (Udems), Proctor of The Reality Ministry of Truth, Law and Justice (TRM)
    08109024556.
    [email protected].
    (31 January 2025)

Texas orders ban of DeepSeek amid reviews of how it upended US AI market

[Video]

Just days after Fortune Magazine announced “Why DeepSeek is excellent news for the U.S. stock market”, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott issued a ban on Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek for government-issued devices, becoming the first state to restrict the popular chatbot in such a manner. The upstart AI platform has sent shockwaves throughout the AI community after gaining popularity amongst American users in recent weeks.

Fortune reported that: “China’s DeepSeek surprised the technology world this week by releasing an AI model that almost matched the performance of American rivals while requiring far less computing power. The news sparked a sell-off in U.S. stocks as investors fretted that the need for powerful computers to train and operate AI models may be overblown.

“In fact, this is a shortsighted view that misses the significant benefits that DeepSeek represents for the U.S. economy and for businesses worldwide.”

Aside from banning DeepSeek AP reoprts, Texas Gov. Abbott, equally prohibited popular Chinese-owned social media apps Xiaohongshu, or what some are calling RedNote, and Lemon8 from all state-issued devices.

“Texas will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate our state’s critical infrastructure through data-harvesting AI and social media apps,” Abbott said in a statement. “Texas will continue to protect and defend our state from hostile foreign actors.”

The governor’s office declined to comment further for this story.

AI startup DeepSeek has rocked markets upon demonstrating its capacity to compete with industry leader OpenAI.

U.S. also users flocked to Xiaohongshu in the days leading up to TikTok’s short-lived ban. It’s a popular app in China and surrounding countries — such as Malaysia and Taiwan — with roughly 300 million active users that many Americans were using as a replacement doe TikTok, and as a form of protest against the ban.

Lemon8 is also a Chinese company owned by ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok. The social media app also gained traction in the days leading up to the original TikTok ban on Jan. 19.

Texas, along with many other states and the federal government, has banned TikTok on government devices. The app’s future remains in limbo after President Trump issued an executive order to give ByteDance more time to divest TikTok’s U.S. operations.

ByteDance did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

Watch the video of man who predicted ban of DeepSeek in the US.

The meaning and legal effect of next of kin (1)

By Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN

A very dangerous message has been circulating online in respect of the law and practice of administration of estates. Let me repeat it for whatever it is worth.

IS THE CONCEPT OF PAYABLE ON DEATH (POD) LEGAL?

“So ‘Next of Kin’ is useless in the Bank. The real thing needed in the Bank is if you die today, your ”Next of Kin” will not have any access to the money in your account!!!

“So many Nigerians think that their next of kin is the automatic heir to their accounts. But the truth is that if your next of kin is not a signatory to your account, and if you don’t have a written Will to determine that person’s legitimacy, the person will not have access to that money at all. Your bank will have to go through a process called a legal probate. This probate period helps them determine who gets the money in your account. This is a very very lengthy and expensive process. Even after the whole process is done, your family will have to forfeit some very reasonable amount of the money for legal fees. But if you want to avoid this, simply request for your bank to give you something called a POD form. POD stands for “payable on death”. The name of the person you fill in that POD form will determine who will get your money. All the person needs to bring is a death certificate to get that money out. With a POD form, you will save your family the stress of going through all that lengthy legal process and even losing some money to the law.”

Nothing can be more worrisome than seeking to bypass the due process of law or seeking to cut corners to achieve a goal by any means possible. The above message must have resonated with many people who see lawyers and the legal process as cumbersome and unduly technical. Nonetheless, it is a dangerous proposition for any one to canvass for adoption by beneficiaries of the estate of a deceased person. By its designation, the concept of POD is outrightly illegal being in direct contravention of existing laws of the land. There are established ways of distributing the estate of a deceased person and POD is not one of them.

The idea of POD will throw up many legal issues if at all it is available for use by any bank or financial institution. By the express provisions of the Administration of Estates Law of many States, the mode of determining the assets of a deceased person is either through a Will or Letter of Administration. The internal procedure of a bank or an institution cannot override the express provisions of the law. There has to be some basis for adopting a financial formula beyond policy and practice. First is the issue of revenue for the government. The owner of the estate must have been paying tax to the government while he was alive, so those who seek to take benefit of the assets comprised in his estate should not employ any crude method that will enable them to evade paying tax to the government.

The second is equity and justice. The deceased owner of the estate cannot stand alone, if by his actions he has created others to depend on him, such as wives, children, parents or relatives. His choice of what to do with his assets has to comply with existing laws. For instance, a man cannot on his own decide to give all his assets to his son through the amorphous device of POD if at the time of his death he has a surviving wife or other children. There may be other beneficiaries who may have been excluded from the assets but who are genuinely entitled for one reason or the other. The rule of fairness dictates that all the beneficiaries should submit themselves to a transparent process that guarantees justice and equity. Without any doubt, any bank that releases money or assets to anyone without following the due process prescribed by law does so at its own risk and will be held liable by all beneficiaries of the assets who have been so excluded.

The third issue is sustenance of the legal profession. We should not encourage our institutions to short-circuit the law in such a way that may deprive legal practitioners of needed resources. Lawyers are already bearing the brunt of this economy so we should create jobs for young lawyers and not seek to deny legal practitioners of legitimate opportunities to earn their fees. So many of these estates are very large and rich in assets and should be able to afford to pay legal fees.

After all, the bank where the money is kept is charging interest and other fees. It is a different thing altogether if an estate is not sufficiently endowed to pay legal or other fees, which brings in the concept of waiver by the government or pro bono service by the lawyer. To my mind, a person who wants to inherit an asset should be ready to part with revenue to those who deserve it.

MEANING OF NEXT OF KIN

On February 2, 2024, the Supreme Court delivered a landmark judgment in the case of Ironbar v Federal Mortgage Finance Ltd, which is now reported in (2024) 12 NWLR (Pt.1952) 275; (2024) LPELR-62186 (SC).

Per Ogunwumiju JSC:

“It may be important at this point to consider the capacity as “next of kin” in which the Appellant principally sued. The term, next of kin has been described as the nearest blood relative of a person. See JOSEPH v FAJEMILEHIN O.O. & Anor (2012) LPELR-9849(CA). The term can also refer to a person who can be contacted or notified in cases of emergencies or eventualities. For instance, one of the forms that is usually filled while in transit or in hospitals, requires the information of next of kin. This is needed in case of any accident or death. In other words, where there is an accident or death involving that person, his next of kin shall be notified or informed. The BLACK’S LAW DICTIONARY defines the phrase “next of kin” to mean a person or persons most closely related to a deceased person by blood, consanguinity or affinity. In other words one’s next of kin is one’s relative. It also defines the phrase “next of kin” to mean an intestate’s heirs – that is, the person or persons who may be entitled to inherit personal property from a deceased who has not left a will. In other words a “next of kin” is a family member or one’s relative. The phrase gained popularity during the colonial era because the foreign administrators needed to indicate their “next of kin” in the various forms they filled to ensure that if they died in the colonies, the British government could contact the family through their next of kin as indicated in the employee records.

Also, the term is constantly put into use by hospitals. In this case, next of kin means a person who can make medical decisions for a person who is incapacitated or unable to do so, during emergencies. The term is also frequently used in financial documents by banks and other financial institutions. In this instance, next of kin means a person who can ensure that the proper steps are taken towards the recovery of the money held at the bank, at the demise of the owner. In other words, being a next of kin of a person, as regards his money in the bank, does not give a right to inherit such money, either partly or as a whole, it just gives the right to contact the bank and ensure that the money is safe to be properly distributed by the law governing the estate of the deceased.”

The take home from the decision in Ironbar’s case is that being described as a next of kin confers no legal right on the holder of that office beyond formal recognition for the purpose of identifying the assets and to preserve them. If he is otherwise not a beneficiary recognized by law, the title of ‘next of kin’ grants no legal right to him over the estate. And if he is a beneficiary, he still has to go through the procedure prescribed by law for him to step into the estate proper. Human affairs are never predictable, at least in relation to the payment of the compulsory debt that we owe our maker, to leave this world one day, through death. It is an inevitable appointment that everyone must keep, but the issue is always the time of that appointment, which is known to God Himself alone. Because death could come unexpectedly, the law has made provisions for the mode of distribution of the estate of a person who departs unexpectedly without making adequate provisions for the sharing of his or her assets amongst the survivors.

The rancours that normally attend this matter have made it imperative to consider it as a topic for discussion. Ideally, the rational thing is for everyone to make plans for the sharing of his assets in a Will, wherein the mode of distribution of the estate of the deceased is well stated, to avoid unnecessary disputes. Even at that, experience has shown that notwithstanding the best of intentions by a testator, people still find reasons to war within themselves, so long as money is involved. In this regard, the estate of a first republic minister is still in court, decades after his death. And two of the best lawyers that Nigeria has ever produced wrote their Wills in such a way that no one would ever have thought of any controversy thereafter, but there have been contentions between their families upon their demise. So, the question then is what can be done to prevent the kind of disputes that attend the distribution of the estate of a deceased person?

Amaechi, el-Rufai and Alákedun

When I read the common position the former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi and his counterpart from Kaduna, Nasir el-Rufai, pushed in Abuja last week about the government of President Bola Tinubu, the first thing that came to mind was the curse of instability Obàtálá placed on Alákedun. Indeed, there is no stability for the betrayer because it was pronounced: Àti ‘gi dí’gi ni ti Ìjímèrè (From one tree to the other is the lot of Ijimere-monkey)!

Rìkísí is Yoruba word for conspiracy. When two hitherto enemies suddenly find a common ground, my people say of them: Rìkísí pa wón pò wón di òré (united in friendship by conspiracy). Rìkísí has a forerunner. Before two enemies come together to pursue a common goal, both, or either of them must have betrayed a cause. Betrayal comes before conspiracy (Ilè dídà ní sáájú òtè). Again, no betrayer goes unpunished according to Yoruba belief.

Thanks be to those who nurtured us from our cradle with moral teachings. The various moonlight tales that dominated our informal education in the days of yore are not in vain after all. One of such tales is the story of the small brown monkey, Alákedun, otherwise known as Ìjímèrè. Our elders told us the tale to show why monkeys remain ambulant to this day, jumping from one tree to the other.

Alákedun, the fable says, was a close friend to Obàtálá, the Yoruba god of creativity. One of the delicacies Obatala would not miss is palm wine. The deity was said to relish palm wine to the extent of being addicted to it. And being a generous god, Obatala always invited all other deities and his friends to share his palm wine with him.

Of all the friends, the closest to Obàtálá was Alákedun, whom the deity employed to work for him and paid him handsomely. The only secret Obatala probably kept away from Alakedun was the very minute the god of creativity would go into the inner recesses with his wife for due benevolence! They were that close.

One day, the other deities and friends, jealous of Obàtálá’s progress in life, decided to conspire against him. They went to a fake Babalawo, who made a false divination and pronounced that Ifa had banned the consumption of palm wine. Obàtálá knew that the plot was against him, and he devised a means to beat them at their game.

Obàtálá got a new pot and asked his wife to fill it with ògí (pap). When the formation got fermented, he poured the whitish water into another pot and began to drink it. Alákedun noticed that Obàtálá used to drink a whitish substance from the pot. He opened the pot and saw the whitish water inside. Without having a taste of the content, he dashed to his co-conspirators to inform them that Obàtálá had defied the instruction from Ifa as he continued to drink palm wine.

Obàtálá was summoned and the allegation laid before him. The deity did not utter a word. He simply brought out the pot and asked everyone to taste the content. They all did. Yes, the content was whitish, but it did not taste like palm wine, nor did it have the scent of palm wine. Alákedun was ashamed.

As a punishment, Obàtálá disengaged him from his employ and placed a curse on him to wit: Alákedun will not have a stable lifestyle but will hop from one tree to the other. Whenever you see a monkey, know the source of its perpetual ambulant lifestyle. There is no stability for a betrayer!

The duo of Amaechi and el-Rufai spoke at a national conference on strengthening democracy in Nigeria, organised by the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development in Abuja. At the conference, Amaechi for instance, asked the younger generation of Nigerians to be ready to fight very hard and wrest power from the incumbent President Tinubu.

The former Minister of Transportation under the lethargic government of General Muhammadu Buhari, warned that: “The politician is there in Nigeria to steal, maim, and kill to remain in power. If you think Tinubu will give it to you, you are wasting your time.” He added that for Tinubu to be shown the way out of power in the next round of general elections, “The people should be angry. There should be protests. Not even protests against anybody but against the politicians that ‘we won’t vote.” Unless the people demonstrated that they would do the unthinkable to defend their votes, they should perish the thought of chasing the present power wielders out of power.

To be honest, there is nothing the former Rivers State governor said at that event that is not true. Even his account of how the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) intimidated former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) out of power is also correct. The only snag in his submissions is why Rotimi Amaechi is bitter about the Tinubu administration. Why did he, for the terrible eight wasteful years of the Buhari administration, not come out forcefully to encourage Nigerians to ‘rescue’ their country?

The answer to the above posers is also in the tale of the Hyena and the mangoes. Hyena, by nature, is not gifted with the talent of jumping heights. So, the tale has it that one day, the Hyena was hungry. It appeared that all the lesser animals in the jungle that could have served as good lunch were holding a prayer session. The Hyena eventually got to a mango tree with ripe fruits. It decided to have some to keep its belly warm pending when any animal would stray to its path.

Hyena made several unsuccessful attempts to pluck the ripe mangoes. When it dawned on it that it was a mission impossible, it looked up at the mangoes, hissed and intoned: “Why am I even wasting my time over these unripe mangoes” That is exactly the frustration Amaechi is suffering over the Presidency he sought and did several rounds of sprinting at the Port Harcourt Stadium in 2023 to show that he is fit, but failed to accomplish!

Nobody can successfully defend the cluelessness in the Tinubu administration without sounding witless. Be that as it may, it is equally not in the place of Amaechi to criticise this government if he could tolerate the vapid administration of Buhari for eight years without a mewl from him!

The Buhari government under which Amaechi served as a minister and the current docile Tinubu administration are like leprosy and third-degree scabies. Both destroy the skin of the afflicted. It is an insult to our sensibilities if Amaechi is now projecting himself as our moral compass to judge anyone in power. From the time he left the university till he left government in 2023, Amaechi has remained an over-pampered child of government (Akebaje omo Ijoba). If there is any protest in the league of the one he advocated in Abuja, the former governor should be told that he will not escape the wrath of the people. It is better that he knows the fire he intends to kindle with his call to action!

The same applies to el-Rufai and his sanctimonious propensity when he said that: “You cannot afford to have illiterates, semi-literates, and cunning people as your leaders. This is why we end up with the poor leadership we have today.” The question to ask is: who assisted the “illiterates, semi-literates, and cunning people” to get to power in the first instance?

If el-Rufai is so concerned about the quality of leadership Nigeria deserves, was Tinubu the best among the lots that contested the APC presidential primaries? Why, for instance, did he rally all northern elite in the APC, and blackmailed the Presidency then into supporting the Tinubu agenda? At what point did he realise the ‘illiteracy’ and ‘semi-illiteracy’ in this administration? After his failed attempt at becoming a minister?

And talking about the non-existent stance of opposition, or attempt to cripple the opposition by the APC, who will help us to tell el-Rufai that he is the chief architect of the death of opposition in the current dispensation? Why would he not realise that he joined forces with others to decapitate the PDP when he abandoned the party to join the current “illiterates and semi-illiterates” to form the APC all in a bid to wrest power at all costs!

If it is true that “The problems that led to the creation of the APC remain unresolved” and he “…no longer believe the APC is interested in addressing them”, as he claimed, why is it difficult for el-Rufai to understand that APC is a child of conspiracy and that the party only came to wrest power and nothing more?

Is el-Rufai not old enough to know that whatever is established on the quicksand of conspiracy would not last? That conspiracy does not birth any good child? This is why his romance with Amaechi, and other politicians in the PDP, to ally will also not stand. There is nothing altruistic about the whole gang-up!

It is most unfortunate that President Tinubu is not giving one the opportunity to defend him. How I wish that the man who was said to have “built Lagos” was living up to his billing as a ‘builder’! One would have used some unkind words to qualify the el-Rufais and Amaechis of this era!

The only takeaway from the rantings of these two folks is that there is nothing conspiracy cannot, sadly, breed! When Rotimi Amaechi indicated interest to become president in 2023, el-Rufai was at the forefront, leading the foot soldiers of President Tinubu. Today, Amaechi and el-Rufai have found a common ground in the lacklustre performance of Tinubu to sermonise on good governance; the same they could not offer the people of Rivers and Kaduna States, when they held sway as governors. Pity!

If one’s masquerade dances well at the arena, one cannot but be elated. But how does one chant the praise names of this Tinubu’s Egúngún that is missing every step of the choreography at the arena? Why won’t the frogs of Amaechi and el-Rufai urinate on the white costume of Tinubu’s masquerade when the only visible achievement of the 20-month-old administration is the pain it inflicted on the people at its inception?

Unfortunately for the hapless masses, with the way the PDP is standing today, and the back-and-forth locomotion from Peter Obi and his Labour Party, the tendency that Tinubu would refine his 2023 winning ‘strategies’ and foist another term on us all is very high! Sad, and at the same time terrifying, but the Rìkísí from Amaechi and el-Rufai is not strong enough to dislodge Tinubu from Aso Rock Villa. I wonder how many Nigerians would pay attention to the duo with their tendency to jump into any political bed as long as their insatiable personal interests are concerned! It appears that Òjé (lead) has been fixed on the chief priest’s finger. Who will remove it?

Nigerian-US based Woman, Abayomi Whint, sworn-in as judge in New York

A Nigerian woman based in the United States, Abayomi Whint, has been sworn in as a judge for the Kings County New York Civil Court.

The announcement was made through a video posted on her Instagram page on January 23, 2025, titled, “Welcome to the bench, Your Honour!”

Whint was one of eight candidates elected as judges in Brooklyn during the November 2024 elections having been nominated by Brooklyn district leaders.

The swearing-in ceremony took place at Brooklyn Law School, where she took the oath of office in the presence of her family and friends, who celebrated the moment dressed in white and green.

In her oath, she pledged, “…to discharge the duties of the office of judge for the Kings County New York Civil Court, according to the best of my ability. So, help me God.”

With over two decades of experience in the public sector, Whint has built a career as a litigator, certified mediator, and arbitrator specialising in conflict resolution.

Beyond her legal expertise, she has contributed to organisational leadership, promoting inclusivity, team building and restorative justice practices. As a Restorative Circle Keeper, she has been instrumental in fostering fair dispute resolution.

The Nigerian Consul General, Ambassador Abubakar Jidda, and his wife hosted a banquet at the Nigerian Embassy in New York in her honour.

She is an experienced litigator, certified mediator, and arbitrator who specialises in conflict resolution.