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Akpabio’s ‘sexist remarks’ against Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan: Over 300 women groups demands unreserved apology  

Following Senate President Godswill Akpabio’s Thursday’s statement to Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan during a plenary that “…We’re not in a nightclub”, a coalition of over 300 women leaders and groups under the umbrella of WOMANIFESTO has condemned the derogatory remarks.

Insisting on “an immediate and unequivocal apology from Senate President Goodwill Akpabio”, the group in a statement titled: WOMANIFESTO CONDEMNS SENATOR AKPABIO’S OURBURST AGAINST SENATOR NATASHA AKPOTI, said:

Womanifesto condemns in strong terms, the condescending manner in which the Senate President Godswill Akpabio addresses female senators, especially his demeaning outburst against Senator Natasha Akpoti- Uduaghan during plenary on Thursday 18th July, 2024. It is highly disappointing that Senator Akpabio displayed utter disrespect and disregard with his choice of words and demeanor while addressing Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan. In a Senate that is highly patriarchal and polarized along gender lines, Senator Akpabio has taken his pitch against women a notch too far.

Womanifesto is a coalition of over 300 women rights groups, activists and advocates. We note with dismay the disparaging words used in an attempt to shut down a fellow Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, with the derogatory words – “we are not in a night club”. The best interpretation of this shallow outburst suggests that women deserve to speak only at ‘nightclubs’. It also unintelligently suggests that people who go to night clubs are inferior. We believe that the honorable President of the Senate should understand that both men and women in all walks of life go to nightclubs, and this does not reduce their capability for leadership.

We, therefore, demand an immediate and unequivocal apology from Senate President Goodwill Akpabio. His statement reflects a deeply rooted misogynistic attitude that has no place in our society or our governmental institutions. It is imperative that our leaders exemplify the highest standards of conduct and respect towards all, irrespective of gender.

This incident highlights a persistent trend of gender discrimination and verbal harassment in our political institutions, which should be spaces of respect, equality, and professionalism. Senator Akpabio had in recent times also condescendingly addressed Senator Ireti Kingibe while addressing the dispute between her and Minister of the FCT Mr Nyesom Wike. In the words of the Senate President to Wike “please ignore every distraction (from her)  and be rest assured that no matter what you do, not everyone will praise you. Others will still try to find faults”.

Such language is not only demeaning but also undermines the significant contributions of women in governance and public service.

This affront against Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan is an affront to all women in Nigeria and especially to our girls who have to surmount myriads of challenges and set backs against equality and gender parity. We will not tolerate any attempt to reduce or shut up women within spaces where they not only belong, but deserve to thrive by merit.

As the third-in-command in Nigeria, Senator Godswill Akpabio wields great influence. We expect that he will use his influence positively, not to stifle women and girls who make up about 50% of the Nigerian population. It is not enough to make grand speeches on International Women’s Day or The Day of the Girl Child. We call on the Senate President to walk the talk, and show a good example by retracting his words and apologizing for this grave lapse.

Signed by

9jafeminista

Abiodun Essiet Initiative for Girls

Above Whispers Foundation

Action Aid Nigeria

ACTS Generation GBV

Ade Grange Child Foundation

ADEM Community Human Development Foundation

Adinya Arise Foundation (AAF)

Advocate for Health and Development Initiative

African Women’s Initiative (AWI)

Ajegunle Community Project

Ajoke Ayisat Afolabi Foundation

Alliances for Africa (AfA)

Amazing Grace Inspirations

Aminchi Women Cooperative Society

Amnesty International Nigeria ARDA

Development Communication Inc.

Arise Nigerian Woman Foundation.

ASWHAN

ATATA Development and Empowerment Foundation (ADEF)

Affirmative Action Initiative for Women (NCAA)

Association of Nigeria Women’s Business Network (ANWBN)

Association of Women in Trade and Agriculture (AWITA)

AWEP

ANWIB

AWFAN FEBWE FEDAN

BLECCA Foundation

Bring Back Our Girls

Briskila Emefesi Women Foundation (BEWOF)

Baobab for Women’s Human Rights

Cece Yara Foundation

Cedar Seed Foundation

CEE-HOPE Nigeria

Center for Economic Empowerment and Gender Activities (CEEGA)

Centre for Alternative Development and Self-Enhancement (CEADESE NG)

Centre for Health and Development in Africa (CHEDA)

Centre for Nonviolence and Gender Advocacy in Nigeria (CENGAIN)

Centre for Peace Education and Community Development Centre for Women’s Health and Information (CEWHIN)

Change Managers International Network

Center for Women’s Health and Information

Centre for Media and Development Communications

Civil Resource Development and Documentation Center (CIRDDOC)

Citizenship and Human Development Initiative

Charity Women Spring of Salvation

Chedal Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society Child

Care and Adult Protection Initiative (CCAPI) Choung-Dung Women Association.

Christian Women for Excellence and Empowerment in Nigerian Society (CWEENS)

Christian Women in Nigerian Politics

Citizens Center for Integrated Development and Social Rights (CCIDESOR)

Community and Youth Development

Community Education Advancement of Peace and Development Initiative (CEAPDI)

Community Initiative for Healthy and Peaceful Society

Community Life Project (CLP) Community Rescue Initiative (CRI)

Community Women Initiatives (CWI)

Country Associates Network (CANET)

Courageous People Health and Development Initiative (CPHDL)

Crestville Development Foundation (CDF) CWEMA

Daria Media Foundation (DMF)

Development in Practice Gender and Entrepreneurial Initiative (DIPGEI)

Diaspora Womanifesto2019

Dinidari Foundation (DF)

Dorothy Njemanze Foundation (DNF)

Dream Alive Women and Orphans Support Foundation (DAWOS Foundation)

Dr. Oby Ezekwesili

Echoes of Women in Africa Initiatives

Edo Women’s Development Initiative

Education As A Vaccine (EVA)

EiE Nigeria

Emerge Women (EW)

Empowerment and Action Research Centre (EARC)

Equality Through Education Foundation (ETEF)

Equity Advocates/ The Woman Today Newspaper FACICP

Disability Plus

FAME Foundation

Federation of Informal Workers of Nigeria (FIWON)

Federation of Muslim Women Association in Nigeria (FOMWAN)

Federation of Paralegal Network (FEDPAN)

Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA)

Fembridge Development Initiative (FEDI)

First Future Leadership

FOMWAN

Forward in Action for Education, Poverty and Malnutrition (FACE-PAM)

FRED

FEDAN

Gender Action Awareness Trust

Gender and Constitution Reform Network (GECORN)

Gender and Development Action (GADA)

Gender and Environmental Risk Reduction Initiative (GERI)

Gender Awareness Trust (GAT)

Gender Development Initiative

Gender Equality Center

Gender Equality, Peace and Development Centre

Gender Technical Unit (GTU)

Gender Strategy Advancement International (GSAI)

Girl Child Advocacy and Education Initiatives

Girl Child Africa

Girl Child Education, Care & Rehabilitation Girl Education Rehabilitation and Care (GERAC)

Girls Power Initiative (GPI)

Global Hope for Women and Children Foundation (GLOHWOC)

Green Spring Development Initiative

Gender Awareness Trust (GAT)

Gender and Constitution Reform Network (GECORN)

Habiba Dangana (Hadis) Foundation

Heal Disability Initiative

Health Education and Human Rights Advocacy Initiative

Health Reform Foundation Of Nigeria(HERFON)

HEIR Women Development (HWD)

Help Initiative for Social Justice & Humanitarian Development

Hope for New Life (HNL)

International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) Nigeria

Initiative for Research, Innovation and Advocacy in Development (IRIAD)

Inter Africa Committee (IAC)

Inter Gender Peace Foundation (IGPF)

International Action Network on Small Arms Women Network (IANSA)

International Hairstylists, Barber and Body Therapists (IHSTOBAN)

International Society of Media in Public Health (ISMPH)

International Women Communication Centre (IRIAD)

Iyaniwura Children Care Foundation (ICCF)

Jamatul Nasir Islam, Women Wing

Jana Health Foundation (JHF) Julie Oyegun

Foundation for Justice Development and Peace (FJDP)

Justice Development and Peace Mission (JDPM)

KMashi Gamji Women

Kebetkache Women Development And Resources Centre

Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND)

Kungiyar Tallafin Mata Development Initiative (KTMDI)

League of Queens International Empowerment (LQIE)

League of Women Voters of Nigeria (NILOWV)

LEDAP

Lift Initiative

League of Queens International Empowerment

Legislative Advocacy Coalition on Violence Against Women Initiative (LACVAW)

MBULA Women Association

Media &Teens Network

Media Concern Initiative for Women and Children

Media Concern Initiative (MediaCon) for Women and Children

MODAC

Mothers United and Mobilised (MUMs)

More Women in Politics

My Voice My Future NGO

Nasrul – Lahi-L- Faith Society (NASFAT)

NAWE

NNEW

NAWORG

Nigerian Association of Women Journalist (NAWOJ)

National Centre for Women Development

National Council of Women Societies (NCWS)

NECA’s Network of Entrepreneurial Women

Neighbourhood Care-Well Foundation

Network of Reproductive Health Journalists of Nigeria, NRHJN

Next Initiative for Gender Actions (NIGA)

NEWA

NGAS Women Farmers’ Cooperative Society

Nigeria Association of Women Journalist (NAWOJ)

Nigeria For Women Project

Nigeria Labour Congress, Women Committee

Nigerian Express

Nigerian Women Politics Forum

Nigerian Women Trust Fund (NTWF)

Ogayem Merciful Care and Support Initiatives (OMCSI)

Ogun Women Alive

Okwuzi Women Forum

Olive Community Development Initiatives

Onomese Foundation

Open Arms Initiative for Sustainable Development (OPAISD)

Osi Joe Touching Lives Initiative

Ovie Brume Foundation

Partners West Africa

Peasant Dragnet

Princess Olufemi-Kayode

Proactive Gender Initiative (PGI)

Project Alert on Violence Against Women

Ray of Hope Community Foundation

Relief Development Initiative Kaduna

Responsible Citizenship and Human Development Initiative

Sesor Empowerment Foundation

She Forum Africa

Safe Space Initiative

Save a Child Lend a Hand Foundation

Sheforshe Africa Initiative

She Mentors Initiative

Shout Global Health

Small-scale Women Farmers Organization of Nigeria (SWOFON)

South- South Professional Women Association.

Stand to End Rape (STER)

Stephanie Peace Building Development Foundation

Support For Needy Children and Women Initiative (SUNCHI)

TechHerNG

THR Media

The Inclusion Project (TIP)

The Priceless Jewels Foundation

THR Media – HERFESSIONS INITIATIVE

Tonia Bruised but Not Broken Foundation

Transformation and Development Center (TDC)

Transition Monitoring Group

Tunde & Friends Foundation (TAFF)

UC Women Commission

UTO Foundation

Vision Spring Initiatives (VSI)

Voice of Ogun Women (VOW)

West African Network for Peace WEWENETWORK AFRIQUE WEPDN

Widows Development Organization (WIDO)

Woman-Being Concern Nigeria (WBC)

Women’s Leadership Group (WLG)

Women &Youth Awareness Empowerment Network (WOYAEN)

Women Advocacy, HIV Prevention and Other Diseases (WAHPOD)

Women AT Risk International Foundation(WARIF)

Women Advocates Research and Documentation Center (WARDC)

Women Aid Collective (WACOL)

Women in Mining

Women and Youth Empowerment for Advancement and Health Initiative

Women Youth and Children Upliftment Foundation (WYCUT)

Women Consortium of Nigeria (WOCON)

Women education advocacy and development Initiatives (WEADI)

Women Empowerment and Initiative Development

Women Empowerment and Reproductive Health Centre (WERHC)

Women Empowerment Education and Peace Building Initiative (WEPBI)

Women Environmental

Programme (WEP)

Women Farmers Alliance (WFA)

Women for Peace and Gender Equality Initiative (WOPEGEE)

Women for Women International (W4WI)

Women Foundation Initiative (WFI)

Women Foundation of Nigeria (WFN)

Women in Action for Positive Development and Gender Enhancement Center  (WAPGADEC)

Former Women Action Organization (WAO)

Women in Africa Initiative (WIAI)

Women in Agriculture (WIA)

Women in Mining (WIM)

Women in Politics Forum (WiPF)

Women Information Network (WINET)

Women Initiative for Democracy and Empowerment (WIDE)

Women Law and Development Initiative (WOLDI)

Women Law Development Center of Nigeria (WLDCN)

Women Lead Agric (WLA)

Women League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)

Women of Vision Development Initiative

Women Protection Organization (WOPO)

Women Wing of The Christian Association of Nigeria (WOWICAN)

Women, Infants and Children Care Initiative (WICCI)

Women, Youths and Children Advancement Program

Women Optimum Development Foundation-WODEF

Women Right to Education Programme (WREP)

Women’s Crisis Centre Owerri

Women’s Rights and Health Project

Women’s Rights and Health Project (WRAHP)

Working Moms Africa (WMA)

Women Initiative on Climate change

Women in Politics Forum (WIPF)

Women in Management Buisness and Public Service (WIMBIZ)

WISCAR

Women Democracy Network Africa – Nigeria

WomenPreneurs (AWEBO)

Yiaga Africa

Youth Future Savers Initiative (YFSI)

Zonta International Club of Lagos 1

50MAWSP

100 Women Lobby Group (100WLG)

As Afam Osigwe, SAN becomes NBA President, Otu Oka-Iwu Abuja congratulates her members and new EXCO

  • Calls for extension of tenure of national officers

Press Release

Otu Oka-Iwu Abuja heartily congratulates her members who contested in the just concluded NBA election and won with a landslide victory.

Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, Lolo Bridget Edokwe and Mazi Eric Ibe were declared winners as President, Publicity Secretary and a Member of the General Council respectively.

Bridget Edokwe, National Publicity Secretary

We extend our gratitude to all our members for standing behind our brothers and sister. We have no doubt that the trio will deliver on their campaign promises.

Mazi Eric Ibe, Esq, Member of the General Council

We also congratulate all other contestants who were declared winners in their various positions, including:
1st Vice President, Sabadtine Anya
2nd Vice President, Mrs. Bolatumi Olasunbo Animashaun
3rd Vice President, Mrs. Zainab Aminu Garba
General Secretary, Dr. Mobolaji Idris Ojibara
Assistant Secretary General, Henry Barnabas Ehi
Treasurer, Mrs. Blessing Imo Udofa-Poromon
Welfare Secretary, Mr. Nyada Auta
Assistant Publicity Secretary, Miss Ebiere Emmanuella Ekpese and all the NBA Representatives to the General Council.

We implore the winners not to make their victory a “winner takes it all” affairs. They should carry along every other contestant and, as a matter of fact, all lawyers in their decisions, consulting widely for the cross-pollination of ideas and far-reaching achievements.

We note that elections do not end when positions are won; delivering on the mandate is key. All hands must, therefore, be on deck for more, better, and greater heights. Our support should not wane; let’s continue to lend a hand and ensure that the administration of Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, succeeds beyond expectations. Two years is not much, but a lot can still be achieved, and we are confident that the Mazi Afam-led administration will hit the ground running.

Otu Oka-Iwu Abuja calls for a review of the tenure of NBA officials to three (3) years. This will enable more stability in the affairs of the NBA, as the current two-years tenure does not afford enough quality time for the consolidation of programs. Extending the tenure will solidify achievements and ensure sustained progress.

Congratulations once again to all the winners!

Chief Chidi Udekwe
President
Otu Oka-iwu
Abuja

As Ariwoola takes the judiciary to the top of the grease pole

By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

At the end of July 2017, the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) issued a joint report on the public experience of and response to bribery in Nigeria. Among its findings, the report ranked several institutions with reference to public perceptions or experience of demand for bribes from officials at the point of service delivery. With a score of 46.4%, the report ranked the Nigeria Police Force highest in public perceptions of bribery. The report also noted that “at 33 per cent the prevalence of bribery in relation to prosecutors is the second highest, closely followed by judges and magistrates, at 31.5 per cent.”

It took a little while before the National Judicial Council (NJC) could dignify the report with acknowledgement. When it did, it was not to show institutional contrition for the serious findings contained therein or indicate what it would do to address it. Rather, in a release issued 18 days after the report, the NJC took issue with its content and rankings, complaining that it found the conclusions of the report “not only subjective but speculative”. Tellingly, the Council acknowledged that “there are a few bad eggs in the judiciary, like in every other arm of Government”, but rhetorically asked how many of the 1,059 judges and about 4,000 magistrates had been “caught receiving bribe”. With a touch of institutional insouciance, the NJC thundered: “How many Judges or Magistrates have been arrested and/or prosecuted and convicted of corruption till date?”

To the extent that it telegraphed the dispositions of the NJC on the question of judicial integrity, the contents of this release were staggering in many respects. First, for an institution lacking in direct electoral legitimacy, the NJC did not appear to be particularly bothered about the foundations of the pedestal on which the judicial institution whose authority it is supposed to guarantee, oversights the elected branches or brings to the resolution of disputes. Instead, it appeared to be entirely comfortable to compete with the average politician or bureaucrat in the grubbiness league tables.

Second, the Council put forward an implausible threshold for judicial accountability, confining it only to when a judge is actively caught in the act of bribery. If this were to be the standard of accountability applicable to judges, it would place them well below the average criminal, in terms of credibility. For the record, the applicable standard at common law is not whether or not a judge has been caught in the act of receiving a bribe but that, nothing is “done which creates even a suspicion that there has been an improper interference with the course of justice.”

Third, in querying how many judges and magistrates had been successfully prosecuted for such issues, the Council clearly diminished the role of judges in bringing about success or failure of accountability for the failure of judicial integrity, placing the burden for that outside the realm of judicial responsibility.

The month preceding the UNODC-NBS report that drew its ire, at the beginning of June 2017, the NJC had announced the “recall” of six of the eight judges, whom it had previously suspended from judicial duties. One of them was Hyeladzira Nganjiwa, a judge of the Federal High Court since May 2012. Almost contemporaneously, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) launched a criminal prosecution against Nganjiwa including charges of unlawful enrichment and attempting to pervert the cause of justice. The Commission followed this up with a separate petition in December 2017 containing multiple allegations of unlawful enrichment against Nganjiwa. At its 85th meeting in March 2018, the NJC constituted a three-person committee to investigate the allegations against Nganjiwa, headed by Emmanuel Ayoola, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court. It included the Chief Judge of Oyo State and the Grand Khadi of Kwara State.

In its report in 2019, the NJC committee made many damaging findings against Hyeladzira Nganjiwa. For instance, despite being a judge of the Federal High Court, he was also receiving payments “in respect of Criminal Cases conducted at the Federal High Court by EFCC and NDLEA.” It also found that having “worked as a counsel in the Chambers of Rickey Tarfa & Co and since appointed as a Judge (sic), (Nganjiwa) continued to receive various payments made into his account even after being confirmed a Judge.”

Nearly two years earlier, Nganjiwa and his lawyers successfully forced out the presiding judge in his trial, Adedayo Akintoye, accusing her of bias after she ruled against his objection to her jurisdiction on the ground that as a judge, he could not stand criminal trial except after the NJC had found him guilty of misconduct, which, he argued, was not the case here. In what legal scholar, Osita Nnamani Ogbu, subsequently described as “judicial contrivance of immunity for judges”, the Court of Appeal later reversed the High Court, upholding the Nganjiwa’s objection. The court held that “if a judicial officer commits theft, fraud, murder or manslaughter, arson and the likes, which are crimes committed outside the scope of the performance of his official functions, he may be arrested, interrogated and prosecuted accordingly by the State directly without recourse to the NJC.” It discharged Nganjiwa but did not acquit him. The Supreme Court threw its weight behind the Court of Appeal.

This sequence of complicit jurisprudence effectively killed any fantasies of judicial accountability in Nigeria, all but clothing judges with impunity for acts and crimes that no one would brook if committed by lesser mortals. Despite the clear findings of its own committee of investigation, the NJC allowed Nganjiwa and many of his ilk to return to judicial functions. The consequences of this sequence have not been slow to advertise themselves.

Seven years after their first report of 2017 that roiled the NJC, at the beginning of July 2024, the UNODC and NBS issued the report of their third survey on corruption as experienced by the population of Nigeria. This 170-page report contains 15 references to judges none of which is particularly flattering. Among its many findings, the report deadpans that “among all types of public official for which there was sufficient data, with an average of NGN 31,000, the largest cash bribes were paid to judges and magistrates, followed by customs or immigration service officers (NGN 17,800) and members of the armed forces (NGN 16,600).”

It is a fitting coda to the tenure of outgoing Chief Justice of Nigeria, Olukayode Ariwoola, that the judiciary that he will leave behind has toppled both the Police and Customs services to reach the top of the institutional corruption grease pole in Nigeria. That is not a mean feat. The report finds a close relationship between corruption and nepotism, an enterprise in which Chief Justice Ariwoola excels, noting that “around 60 per cent of public sector applicants in Nigeria were hired as a result of nepotism, bribery or both – about 1.2 times the share found in the 2019 survey.”

When he retired as a Justice of the Supreme Court 20 years ago, Samson Odemwingie Uwaifo feared that the appellate courts “may soon be infested if not already contaminated with” the vice of judicial corruption. Today, his fears appear to have come true to an extent that even he would find frightening. That has been made possible with the baleful benediction National Judicial Council under its current leadership. In 2017, it took the Council 18 days to finish reading the first UNODC-NBS Corruption Experience Report. We will hopefully find out soon enough how long it will take the Council to digest the 170-page-long successor to that report in 2024.

A lawyer and a teacher, Odinkalu can be reached at [email protected]

UniLag, Hilda Baci, Obi show support, as Nigerian medical doctor breaks world record for biggest individual painting

Nigerian doctor and visual artist, Dr. Fola David, has surpassed the existing record for the world’s largest painting by an individual.

On Friday, the fourth day of his attempt, David broke the previous record of 629.98 square metres, held by Ravi Soni from India, and has said that he is determined to attain his ultimate goal of 1000 square metres of art.

In a post on Instagram on Friday, he wrote, “Congratulations to us all. On Day 4 at 9 p.m., we broke the current record of 629.98 square metres, but we are not yet done!

Mohbad’s father appeals for Nigerians’ help in unraveling cause of son’s death

0:06 / 1:01

“The goal is to get over 1000 square metres of canvas covered in drawings; we are currently at 689 square metres. Let’s Go!”

In the course of his attempt, celebrities and dignitaries have visited David at the stadium to offer their support and witness his artistic feat firsthand.

Among them are the renowned Nigerian chef and Guinness World Record holder, Hilda Baci, who reportedly brought not only her well wishes but also food and supplies to fuel Dr David’s artistic marathon on Friday.

Adding to the encouragement, former presidential candidate, Peter Obi, also paid a visit to the stadium, taking time to personally commend Dr. David’s efforts.

Further recognition came from Dr. David’s alma mater, the University of Lagos.

The Dean of Student Affairs, Professor Olufemi Fasanmade, and the Director of Administration, College of Medicine, Dr. Olayinka Martins, visited the scene and presented him with an Award of Honour and Merit.

The recognition was said to be for his outstanding achievement and for being an exemplary ambassador of the institution.

PUNCH Online reports that David’s artwork, titled “Unity in Diversity,” will feature a map of Nigeria highlighting the country’s diverse tribes through their unique attire, languages, art, and essence.

The record-breaking attempt, which commenced on July 16 at the Onikan Stadium in Lagos, is still underway and is scheduled to end on July 21.

See more photos below

Story by  Deborah Sanusi, PUNCH

Inside Stuff With Martins Oloja: ‘Time to grab opportunities in livestock noise’

The age-long challenge of ‘information overload’ is beginning to affect us in this part of the world and our leaders at all levels are exploiting it to prevent people from deepening understanding of the multifarious challenges they daily ignore in the context of their primary responsibility – security and welfare of the people.

Yes, ‘information overload’, that blight, which can be seen as the excess information available to a person aiming to complete a task or make decision. This new challenge to mankind, which now impedes the decision-making process, daily results in poor (or even no) decision being made – on issues of urgent national importance. In Nigeria, we need to be wary of this virus that Alvin Toffler, a futurist warned about since 1970.

If we would like to understand the clog, “information overload” here is the beginning: In the 1970 book, “Future Shock” by author and futurist Alvin Toffler, he said future shock is, “the dizzying disorientation brought on by the premature arrival of the future. It may well be the most important disease of tomorrow”.

BBC’s Matt Novak, a features correspondent, had earlier noted that there is no denying Toffler’s international influence on the way we think about the future. His words: “I have seen Future Shock in virtually every used bookstore I have visited from Portland, Oregon to Cartagena, Colombia. With over six million copies sold, it clearly struck a nerve in 1970 and beyond. Toffler explains in the book that, “just as the body cracks under the strain of environmental overstimulation, the “mind” and its decision processes behave erratically when overloaded.”

In a radio interview shortly after the release of his book, Toffler warned that the exhaustion he saw throughout the world was tied to his new future shock theory. “I think there’s a tremendous undercurrent of dissatisfaction in America; people saying I want out, it’s moving too fast, it’s moving away from me; a sense of panic; a sense that things are slipping out of control and I don’t think that there’s much we can do in our personal lives to counteract that,” he said.
Toffler’s assumption was that the future is something that happens to us, rather than with us. It is something out of our control that will inevitably overwhelm us”.
The same BBC’s Novak had in the same 2012 warned that the ‘information overload’ he was deconstructing was getting “out of control”. He added then that “Whilst some will take comfort in Toffler’s words, some of the notions seem rather quaint forty years later. Just as people today throw around the number of tweets sent per second or the amount of video watched online, in the early 1970s Toffler followers and techno-reactionaries liked to scatter their own figures to show the magnitude of the problem…”

In the same Futurist essay that decried the rise of the number of TV channels, the author Ben Bagdikian went on to overwhelm readers with even more daunting numbers, explaining that computers would sooner than later be able to store information at a rate of 12 million words a minute, whilst printers would be able to pump out 180,000 words a minute; something that would collide violently with humanity’s ability to process information.

It was a warning that we still hear today in many contexts. For example, author Jonathan Franzen, an opponent of electronic books, argues that traditional paper tomes give humanity some much needed stability in a world rocked by change. He fears that this rapid pace is hurting us. His words: “Seriously, the world is changing so quickly that if you had any more than 80 years of change I don’t see how you could stand it psychologically”.

Jonathan Franzen: e-books are damaging society
Jonathan Franzen has launched a passionate defence of the printed book, warning that our desire for the instant …

These men who saw tomorrow then had advised that we should “accept change”.
Yet history seems to suggest we ride these waves of change.
Toffler, Bagdikian and Franzen are not necessarily wrong or even alarmist in their concerns that we should seek to control our own technological destinies. But to Novak, futility should not win the argument. The argument here is that our consumption of media is largely within our control. We have a choice in the matter. We can change the channel, turn off the TV, or close the laptop lid. These are our choices, and it is hard to see how any of them are irrational or happening to us rather than with us.
That seems to be the therapy we can’t apply to manage the change construct we now face in Nigeria.

Which is why I think the information overload is already affecting us and state actors in our milieu are exploiting this mind-boggler to underserve and confuse us with their distracting propaganda, misinformation and disinformation, so regularly. Some of the operatives deployed on various social media platforms by some state actors, dealers, sorry leaders use tragi-comic weapons of mass deceptions. Some other hatchet writers, whose god is their belly, employ some subterfuge approach to overload and feed our spirit with material that can prevent us from seeing available opportunities that Asians and even Middle Easterners are exploring and exploiting in Africa’s most populous nation. We need to deal with this overload that daily blurs our visions and diminishes our performance indices, our efficiency and effectiveness.
Doubtless, we are being daily fed with frivolous pieces of negative pieces of information overload about our place in the world of knowledge development. What we can easily access now is the number of federal, state and private universities. We can’t access data on how these numerous universities have been affecting our knowledge development and indeed our intellectual capacity to solve our current enormous challenges.

At press time, even in the media, we didn’t know who and what to believe about Aliko Dangote’s $20 billion worth of modern Refinery where more than one hundred journalists spent about eleven hours on facility tours last Sunday.

Dangote told the journalists last Sunday that he actually paid a whopping $100 million to the Lagos State Government for the sprawling ‘Dangote’s Planet’ Plots of Land in Ibeju Lekki, Lagos. He confirmed to the aristocracy of the Nigerian media across platforms that from next month, he would have capacity to begin commercial distribution of PMS among others. Before journalists could ask Lagos State Government for confirmation about the use of the $100 million worth of Title Deeds (Certificate of Occupancy) Dangote confirmed the then Governor Babatunde Fashola handed him, another information load had filtered in from the petroleum industry regulators, which suggested that Dangote might not be able to operate the refinery he claimed was ready.

At the weekend, we were told that the Refinery was only 45 % complete and that the licence to commence commercial production hadn’t been given him, even though he had begun partial distribution of diesel. Anyway, let us wait for more fireworks and more information load(ing) from some principalities and powers who had actually begun to spread some “well written” bad verses on the Dangore Refinery to the effect that, “the Dangote Refinery is a scam”, after all.

‘Let’s talk about livestock business’

Anyway, what I actually wanted to write on is the information overload on the Livestock Sub-sector I began to comment upon last week as a companion/commemorative piece on iconic Wole Soyinka @ 80.

Recall this: I had then averred that the President who had just then proclaimed creation of Livestock Ministry from a February 2023 Report and Blueprint inspired by a former Governor of Kano State, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje had stoked another fire of controversy that instantly put the Funani on a line of fire.

Recall also that I had then suggested that the president’s information and re-orientation managers should organise a strategic national re-orientation campaign to deal with the negative perception that the new Livestock Ministry must have triggered.

So today, I would like to begin a serial on the limitless opportunities that the Livestock Subsector offers all of us instead of the challenges that the mere mention of Livestock business offers via information overload.
And here is the thing, we need to deepen our understanding that Livestock subsector is much more than cattle rearing by the Fulani. Behold, one of our leaders and specifically Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State had gone ahead of the President’s creation of the Livestock Ministry to show example through strategic revival of Fashola Farm and Ranch near Iseyin, Oyo State. This isn’t a campaign for Governor Makinde, who just revived a Ranch the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo actually established as Premier of Western Region. It is a verifiable testament to possibilities and opportunities in Agriculture Business of which Livestock is a subsector. It is just a way of drawing our attention to some challenges we harp on, which Indians, Chinese and Lebanese investors see as opportunities in our country. I mean we often feed our spirit with so much negativity through the obnoxious information overload so much that we can hardly recognise that sometimes we need to look at the ‘burning bush’ that isn’t ‘consuming the bush’ yet. The way I see this is that we may not be able to change the way the current President has been running the country. He doesn’t seem to be a leader that would study the implications of the proverbial “burning bush” that isn’t consuming the bush yet. He isn’t likely to change anytime soon no matter the number of open letters we write to him daily on the need to change strategy. But there is some solace in the words of Alan Paton in his classic, “Cry The Beloved Country”: “When the storm threatens, a man is afraid for his house. But when the house is destroyed, there is something to do. About the storm, he can do nothing, but he can rebuild a house…” That is where we are, no thanks to the presidential system that hands four years to any winner of our presidential election. We can look for opportunities in the challenges the governance system creates for us. And one of such challenges is the Livestock Subsector. Even as we discuss why the President should not have created another Ministry out of the Agriculture and Food Security Ministry, let’s look at the seeds of time in the Livestock Subsector and detect the ones that can flourish in the land of our birth. That livestock Sub-sector is too important to be left to the President and Fulani alone. Let’s borrow some brilliance from Governor Makinde and his ‘Animal Farm’ in Fashola, near Iseyin. Let’s look at some architecture in the Livestock ruins.

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***We will continue with the Livestock opportunities properly, if next week comes (by His grace).

Mega blessings as Nigerian couple welcomes third set of twins in four years

In 2020, precisely 17 years after their first child, Kingsley and Chinwe Ogbeide, received their first set of twins, two girls, Emmanuella and Daniella.

The second set of twins, a boy and a girl came in 2021.

Recently, the third set of twins, a boy and a girl, were born making them the Ogbeide’s third set of twins in four years. 

A photographer on Wednesday, July 17, 2024, shared photos from the church dedication of the latest twins. 

Nigerian couple welcomes third set of twins in four years
Nigerian couple welcomes third set of twins in four years
Nigerian couple welcomes third set of twins in four years
Nigerian couple welcomes third set of twins in four years
Nigerian couple welcomes third set of twins in four years
Nigerian couple welcomes third set of twins in four years
Nigerian couple welcomes third set of twins in four years
Nigerian couple welcomes third set of twins in four years
Nigerian couple welcomes third set of twins in four years
Nigerian couple welcomes third set of twins in four years
Nigerian couple welcomes third set of twins in four years
Nigerian couple welcomes third set of twins in four years
Nigerian couple welcomes third set of twins in four years

How grotesque crimes were uncovered in a seemingly normal home

It is a case that has left its mark on the most hardened of cops. The more detectives delved into the goings on at a seemingly normal house in Heaton Chapel, the true horrors committed by their suspect became clear.

Nicholas Moxham was seen going into the Briarfield Road property with a string of women. Many, it would later be revealed, were vulnerable. Concerns were raised by neighbours, and when disturbing accounts of a man called ‘Nick’ in Manchester’s ‘red light’ district emerged, the link was made.

When police busted his door down, they found a ‘pale and malnourished’ woman under a duvet on his living room floor. It would be the beginning of a disturbing investigation into a depraved predator’s life and crimes.

Here, the Manchester Evening News looks back at the case and the full extent of the horrific offences committed by Nicholas Moxham. The 52-year-old was jailed for life on Friday.

READ MORE: Everything the judge told vile ‘narcissistic’ sex predator Nicholas Moxham as he jailed him for life

From a young age, Moxham had shown ‘antipathy’ towards women. In 1992, he was convicted of a serious attack on a woman – who he didn’t know – as she walked past him in the street. He was jailed for four years.

The then 21-year-old told a probation worker he had ‘anger issues’, with women bearing the brunt of his ire. He couldn’t stand the fact many women weren’t interested in him romantically.

In 1997, Moxham received a caution for indecent exposure. He went on to study at university, eventually opening up his own children’s entertainment business. Parents had no idea about his sordid urges.

Nicholas Moxham (Image: GMP)

Only years later would it be revealed Moxham used the business as a mean to abuse children. Police recovered evidence of him committing unthinkable crimes against youngsters, luring some into the woods behind a school with a camera hidden among the leaves as he inappropriately touched himself.

None of the children have been identified. It is not clear whether they were aware of what had happened to them, Manchester Crown Court heard. A couple of years later, Moxham put a spy camera in the toilets of an outbuilding at the school.

His business had been enlisted to provide changing facilities and refreshments for kids. Moxham would later tell the police he concealed the device in a fake air freshener.

The motion-activated camera recorded children using the toilet. Police were unable to access all the images, so the exact number of victims is not known.

Moxham’s desires were becoming increasingly sordid. Fast forward to March 2020 and the country was plunged into lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Moxham had been using the services of sex workers from the age of 17 as a ‘soothing mechanism’ for loneliness. As the nation stayed indoors, he was out on the streets, lurking in dark corners, waiting for a victim.

He was a familiar face to the women who plied their trade after dark. The knew his car. Moxham, struggling to make cash in lockdown, looked for other ways to make ends meet.

A hidden camera

Realising sex workers would not be able to operate as usual, he invited them to work from his home, establishing the property as a brothel.

Using websites that advertised the services of sex workers, he created accounts for women he lured back to his house. He exploited them, giving them more appointments than they agreed to, and setting services they didn’t want to provide.

Moxham would pose as women online, talking to potential clients and enticing them to make appointments. He also flogged vile images and videos online. Realising it was another way of making money, he encouraged women to film sexually explicit videos indoors, before uploading them.

The material fuelled his sick fantasies. Moxham set up a spy camera – disguised as a pen – in his bedroom, recording women without their consent. One woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was homeless when she was offered work at Moxham’s home.

She agreed, left her temporary accommodation and began living with him. Moxham exploited her drug addiction, giving her cash and taking her to her dealer.

In return, she took more bookings with clients than she wanted and carried out acts she earlier said she didn’t want to. In return for money for drugs, she would accept more bookings with clients than she wanted to, and would engage in acts she had indicated she was not willing to provide.

Moxham would take her to outdoor ‘sex sessions’ with numerous men, each of whom paid to have sex with her. “At least once she was restrained in a car to allow this to take place,” Judge John Potter said. “You received money from the men for this.”

Moxham made multiple films of the woman. He raped her on a number of separate occasions, sometimes while she was asleep, filming some of the activity on his mobile phone.

The woman later decided to stop living with Moxham after she discovered some of the footage he had taken. A second woman was exploited in the same way. She had not undertaken sex work before being offered a place to stay at Moxham’s home.

Nicholas Moxham’s living room (Image: Greater Manchester Police)

He made several bookings with clients and would take the money she received. He would film her covertly while she engaged in sexual activity with others. Around the same time, he was exploiting another woman who had agreed to work from his house.

Moxham put a profile up for her up a sex work website and advertised her services without the use of a condom. He made numerous bookings for her whether she agreed or not.

He filmed her while she was naked outdoors, directing her to carry out acts described by the judge as ‘degrading and humiliating’. “In one film you are seen to remove your trousers and have sexual activity with her as she is lying in a gutter at night at the side of the road,” he said.

In 2020, Moxham found two more women to exploit, filming them as they engaged in sexual acts with clients. He arranged bookings for them and gave them drugs. His abuse of one woman came to an end when police first raided his home in July, 2020 following complaints from neighbours.

“She saw clients that you had booked at her home and yours,” Judge Potter told Moxham. “If she saw them at your house you would insist upon having sexual intercourse with her soon after the client had left.”

The woman refused to work for him as his demands became too much. Following Moxham’s arrest, he was interviewed and released pending further investigation – and ordered ‘not to contact or employ the services of any sex worker’.

He immediately breached those condition and was arrested. He used a sex worker as it was near his birthday and he was ‘feeling lonely at the time’, he told the court. Moxham again encouraged a woman to work from his home as a sex worker, advertising her services online and taking the money she earned.

She was taken to outdoor sex sessions with numerous men. On one occasion, she was tied to a pole in the ground. Moxham filmed her without her consent, using covert cameras in his bedroom, selling the videos and keeping them for himself.

Judge Potter told Moxham: “You told her that she had become so indebted to you for money she owed you from loans to buy drugs and for the use of your house, that she had to pay you over £1,000 a month. Financial evidence showed this was how much she then paid to you.”

He went on to rape her as she slept and filmed the vile acts. The judge described the ‘campaign of rape’ as ‘highly exploitative, controlling and grotesque’. The woman was found pale and malnourished in his living room.

She was spoken to by the police and was eventually able to say what had happened to her. As cops searched his house, Moxham tried to throw hard drives out of a window.

Devices including spy hole cameras and USB drives were recovered and analysed. They revealed a disturbing number of images of children as well as extreme pornographic images, including depictions of bestiality.

Moxham was charged. He initially denied all the offences. He later admitted some of his crimes. Moxham was convicted of 32 offences – six counts of rape; one count of attempted rape; three counts of assault by penetration; three counts of sexual activity with a child; three counts of requiring compulsory labour; 16 counts of voyeurism; six counts of controlling prostitution for gain; four counts of making or possessing indecent images of children; one count of possessing extreme pornography; and one count of keeping a brothel.

Describing him as a ‘determined and predatory sexual offender’, Judge Potter sent him down for life. He will now serve 22 years before he will be considered for release by the Parole Board.

This article was originally published by Manchester EveningNews as Behind the door of the seemingly normal home, a monster’s grotesque crimes were uncovered.

Justice Stella Anukam re-elected to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights

Following her re-election as a judge of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights for another term of six years, President Bola Tinubu has sent his felicitations to Justice Stella Anukam.

A press statement signed by Chief Ajuri Ngelale, Special Adviser to the President on Media & Publicity said Anukam was re-elected at the African Union Mid-Year Coordination Meeting Executive Council in Accra, Ghana, on Friday.

Stella Anukam

Stella Anukam obtained her law degree from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (formerly known as University of Ife), Osun State, Nigeria, in 1984, and was called to the Nigerian Bar in August 1985.

She is also a chartered secretary, chartered arbitrator, and seasoned administrator.

Justice Anukam has served as former Director of Special Programmes at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in Abuja, Nigeria, and as former Director of the International and Comparative Law Department of the Federal Ministry of Justice.

President Tinubu commends Justice Anukam for her contributions to the development of human rights jurisprudence on the continent and enjoins her to continue to bring her invaluable knowledge and insights to the African Court.

The President states that his administration will continue to support the candidature of competent and qualified Nigerians for international positions, noting the country’s strategic importance in the global community.

The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights is a continental court established by African states to ensure the protection of human and peoples’ rights in Africa.

It complements the functions of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

The court is composed of eleven judges nominated by member states of the AU and elected by the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government.

Nigeria is a state party to the Protocol establishing the Court, having ratified it in 2004.

Download Supreme Court’s Judgment on Local Government Autonomy

Below are highlights of the Supreme Court’s leading judgment delivered by Hon. Justice Emmanuel A. Agim.

  1. A DECLARATION that the 36 States of Nigeria, or anyone of them,  acting through  their/its  respective State Governors and or State House of Assembly, are/ls  under obligation to ensure  democratic  governance  at  the  third  tier  of government   in  Nigeria,  namely,  at  the  Local Government level.

    2. A  DECLARATION that the 36 States  of Nigeria, acting through  their/its  respective States Governors and or State Houses of Assembly, cannot,  using state power derivable from  Laws enacted by the State Houses of Assembly (any how so called) or Executive Orders/other actions (any how so called)  lawfully  dissolve  democratically-elected  Local Government Councils within the said States/State.

    3.  A   DECLARATION that  the  36  States of Nigeria, acting through  their respective State  Governors  and or  State Houses of Assembly, using state powers derivable from  Laws enacted by the State Houses of Assembly (anyhow so called) or executive  Orders/other  actions (anyhow  so called), have no power to  dissolve any of the democratically-elected  Local . Government Councils  within   the   said  States/State  and replace them/it   with   Caretaker  Committees  (any  how  so. called)

    4.  A   DECLARATION that the  dissolution of democratically elected   Local  Government  Councils  by  the 36 States  of Nigeria,  or  anyone  of  them, using  state  powers derivable from  laws enacted by the State Houses of  Assembly (any how so called) or Executive Orders/other actions (any how so called), is unlawful, unconstitutional, null and void.

    5. A declaration that a State Government or the Governor of a State has no power to constitute, appoint or determine a local government that S.7(1) of the 1999 Constitution  has prescribed can only be by Local government councils democratically elected by  persons in  a  local government area.

    6. A DECLARATION that the amount distributed to and standing. to the credit of Local Government Councils in the Federation Account can be paid by the Federation directly to democratically elected Local Government Councils.

    7. A DECLARATION that the amount distributed to and standing to the  credit  of  a  Local  Government Councils  in  the Federation Account must be paid by the Federation to only democratically elected Local Government Councils and no other body or institution.

    8. A DECLARATION that  any of the elected or other officials of the 36 States of Nigeria, who, through the instrumentality of either a State law or an administrative directive/order, dissolves or causes the  dissolution of any of  the democratically-elected Local Government Councils of their/its States has gravely breached the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended); hence by that token has committed a gross misconduct.

    9. A DECLARATION that, by virtue of S.162 (3) and (5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, the amount standing to the credit of Local Government Councils in the Federation account shall be distributed to them and be paid directly to them.

    10. A DECLARATION that a State either by itself or its Governor or other agencies has no power to keep, control, manage, or disburse in any manner allocations from the Federation Account to Local Government Councils.

    11. A DECLARATION that the current practice of States keeping, controlling, managing and disbursing Local Government allocations from Federation Account is unconstitutional and
    if legal.

    12. A DECLARATION  that    a  Local Government Council is entitled to a   direct  payment  from  the  Federation account  of  the  amount standing to its credit in the said Federation account.

    13.   AN  ORDER of   injunction   restraining  the   Defendants,  by themselves, their privies, agents, officials or howsoever called from further  collecting, receiving, spending or tampering with local government council funds from the Federation Account for the benefit of local government Councils.

    14.  AN ORDER that the Federation or Federal Government of Nigeria through its relevant officials forthwith commence the direct payment to  each Local Government Council   of  the  amount standing to  the  credit  of  each of  them in  the  Federation account.

    15. AN ORDER OF IMMEDIATECOMPLIANCE by the States, through their elected or appointed officials and public officers, with the terms  of  this  judgment  and  orders made in  this  Suit;  and successive compliance by successive State Government officials and public officers.

    Click here to download file.

    Agims-Judgment1

      Fake lawyer apprehended while handling a murder case in Abia 

      A magistrate court sitting in Umuahia, Abia State, has ordered the remand of a suspected fake lawyer identified as Kenneth Nwuke at the Umuahia correctional centre.

      The suspected fake lawyer was arrested by the police following a tip-off while he posed as a lawyer representing a client in a murder case at the Zone 9 Police Headquarters, Umuahia.

      Vanguard gathered that the suspected fake lawyer claimed that he was handed over a power of attorney by the father of the deceased to represent him in the murder case pending at the Zone 9 Police Headquarters. 

      Nwuke was arraigned at Magistrate Court 4, in charge number U/449C/2024, Commissioner of Police vs. Kenneth Nwuke.

      The Magistrate, Jane Mba, granted the application for a remand order by the police, which was adjourned to August 30, 2024, for a report on compliance.

      Police sources told Vanguard that the alleged power of attorney bears the name of a popular law firm in Aba.

      Vanguard further gathered that some members of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, Aba, who were at the police zonal command, had alerted the police to the fake lawyer while he made efforts to negotiate with the parties in the murder case.

      The NBA Aba branch, led by its chairman, Charles Onuchukwu Esq, followed up with the matter in court and commended the police for the arrest of the fake lawyer.

      He said, “Some of our members were at the zonal police command where the man came, posing as a lawyer to represent a client in a murder case. We alerted the police that he was an impostor. He was arrested.

      “Finally today being 17th July 2024, he was arraigned at the Umuahia magistrate Court 4,in charge number U/449C/2024,Commissioner of Police vs Kenneth Nwuke wherein he was remanded at Umuahia correctional centre.”

      Vanguard

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