By B.C Obilor Esq.

As we approach this year’s Children’s Day celebration in Nigeria, it’s important to reflect on a crucial aspect of modern childhood: the balance between children’s digital rights and parental control. In an increasingly digital world, children are exposed to a plethora of opportunities and risks online. Understanding how to navigate these waters is essential for both parents and children.

Children’s Digital Rights:

Children’s digital rights encompass the right to access information, the right to privacy, and the right to freedom of expression online. These rights are protected under various international and national laws. For instance, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which Nigeria has ratified, emphasizes the importance of protecting children’s privacy and their right to access appropriate information.

In Nigeria, the Child Rights Act 2003 aligns with these international standards, ensuring that children’s rights are protected in all spheres, including the digital realm. This act underscores the importance of protecting children from exploitation and harmful content while promoting their right to participate in digital spaces safely.

Parental Control: A Necessary Measure;

Parental control is essential for safeguarding children from the potential dangers of the internet. These dangers include exposure to inappropriate content, cyberbullying, and online predators. Parental controls can take various forms, such as monitoring software, setting time limits on internet usage, and educating children about safe online practices.

It must be noted that the importance of recognizing and protecting children in the digital space, cannot be overemphasized. However, the necessity of parental supervision to protect children from online harm cannot be ignored. Thus, it is humbly submitted that while children have rights to access digital information, these rights must be balanced with the need for their protection.

Finding the Balance:

Balancing children’s digital rights with parental control requires a nuanced approach. Here are some steps to help strike this balance:

1. Open Communication: Encourage open and honest discussions about internet use. Children should feel comfortable sharing their online experiences with their parents.
2. Education and Awareness: Both parents and children should be educated about the benefits and risks of the digital world. Schools and communities can play a significant role in this education.
3. Setting Boundaries: Establish clear rules and guidelines for internet use. These rules should be age-appropriate and evolve as children grow older and more responsible.
4. Using Technology Wisely: Utilize parental control tools and software that allow parents to monitor and manage their children’s online activities without being overly intrusive.
5. Respecting Privacy:While monitoring is necessary, it is also important to respect children’s privacy. Trust and mutual respect are crucial in maintaining a healthy relationship.

Legal Framework and Court Decisions:

The Nigerian legal framework provides a robust basis for protecting children’s digital rights while allowing for necessary parental control. The Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) Act 2015 also plays a role in ensuring the safety of all internet users, including children, by criminalizing cyberbullying, online harassment, and exploitation.

Conclusion:

As we celebrate Children’s Day this year, let’s remember that children’s digital rights and parental control are not mutually exclusive but rather complementary. By fostering open communication, educating both parents and children, and using technology wisely, we can ensure that children enjoy the benefits of the digital world safely and responsibly.

This Children’s Day, let’s commit to protecting our children’s digital rights while providing them with the necessary guidance and supervision to navigate the online world.

For further discussions or to collaborate on child rights advocacy, please reach out to me at [email protected] or call 08069395552. Together, we can create a safer digital environment for our children.

Happy Children’s Day!

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By Richard Odusanya

Across the continent of Africa, economic growth and development have gained significant momentum in recent years. But with growth comes a challenge: building and funding the infrastructure to support it. Therefore, it throws-up some pertinent question: the first question which is where will the funding for Africa’s infrastructure come from? 

Secondly, with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) underway, another question that remains largely unanswered pertains to the extent to which Africa has positioned itself to take full advantage and the implications of the 4IR for Africa, given the capacity of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to change and shape the continent of Africa?

Third and most importantly, in all honesty, does Africa appear like investment destination of choice without Infrastructural Revolution? The three questions and perhaps many more are likely to be agitating the minds of our compatriots home and abroad.

Undoubtedly, Africa is in dire need of modern railway infrastructure to propel the continent to rapid development. In addition, transportation costs keep rising due to fluctuating fuel prices. Therefore, for the purpose of maximization in infrastructure, it is clear that there is a need for massive investment in key transportation areas, particularly, the rail sector in Africa. Railways are critical to creating continental value chains and trade corridors. 

As such, failure to achieve the set goal will be considered failure of leadership in Africa. Because railroads provide a means for goods to be transported from one location to another, as well as allowing for the transfer of information and knowledge across different countries in the continent.

Furthermore, efficient rail transportation in Africa, particularly, in these era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Railways has the potential to transform Africa’s economy, increase its productivity and enhance its global trade. In doing so, it would dramatically improve the wellbeing of African citizens. Study shows that the lack of physical infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa is still keeping many investors at bay. Let me share an example: the cost of transportation in Africa is on average 50 – 175% higher than other parts of the world as a result of poor infrastructure. 

Additionally, about 60,000km and 100,000km of new roads are required to provide effective intra-continental connectivity in Africa by 2030. The current pace of infrastructure development in Africa cannot keep up with rising demand from communities and markets, subsequently having an impact on Africa’s competitiveness and participation in global markets. Particularly, in these era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

Consequently, the poor state of infrastructure has led to the reduction of national economic growth by 2% annually in most African countries and as much as 40% reduction in industrial productivity. This means that with proper arrangements, railroads can help create regional integration, which in turn accelerates inclusive economic growth through increased efficiency and lower costs as the continent takes advantage of the 4IR.

Let me at this point reminiscence and flash back to May 29, 2023. In my contribution through an article that was specifically dedicated for the inauguration of the new government then with the title: “Nigeria We Hail Thee’ or ‘Arise O Compatriots” of which was widely published by local and international media organizations, the contribution was targeted at reawakening our consciousness as a people and as a nation. Thankfully, it received the attention of the government and a few days ago was passed to law by the Federal House of Representatives (HoR). 

Also, as a patriot, my prayers for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT), which goes thus: “Today as the destiny of Nigeria is handed over to President Tinubu. I join my faith with millions of our compatriots home and abroad in praying for the wisdom of king Solomon, knowledge and understanding to pilot the affairs of the nation to heal the wounds, embrace all entities for a feel of inclusiveness and to move the nation to a progressive development” in this vein,   it is important to join hands together for the purpose of rebuilding hope and trust in ourselves.

Before I proceed, I need to be clear: Nigeria is currently experiencing its worst economic crisis in a generation, this is based on empirical evidence. One year down the line, Nigerians may still not have experience significant change. But, it is not all doom and gloom for Nigeria. For example, Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 2.98% (year-on-year) in real terms in Q1 2024. This growth rate is higher than the 2.31% recorded in the Q1 2023 and lower than Q4 2023 growth of 3.46%. ~ Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Lest I forget, Nigeria, at some point in history, was a country where foreigners used to come for medical and educational tourism in the 60s and 70s, has now become a shadow of its old self. Long-story-short: the foundation of where we are today, as a nation was recklessly laid by successive administrations through profligacy recklessness and corruption. Obviously, It didn’t start on May ’29, 2023. Yes, we made mistakes, but there’s no point in crying over spilled milk. We’ve got to move on, rebuild our nation from the ruins of the past. This is where the campaign about Mind Restructuring becomes inevitable.

Undoubtedly, Nigerians are going through tough times. However, the situation that we found ourselves, in all honesty are basically self inflicted. Yes! The nation is bleeding and there is hunger in the land. Somehow, there is great advantage for nations that produces good citizens and leaders, but, sadly, becomes a pipe dream for Nigerians. The attributes of good citizens and leaders are a combination that has eluded Nigeria for very long time. Even those who are not yet Presidents want to live in opulence without the commensurate effort at earning what is required for such a life! 

Therefore, it is time, for us to begin to interrogate issues with open minds. Somehow, those who are not Presidents, or governors, when making choices, mostly gravitate towards what they condemn. Those who live on others, as many Nigerians like to do, would live on the State if they get the opportunity. Because majority of our people want to live rich without the resources to do so, and then we complain about so-called leaders, who are nothing but a reflection of the society that raised them. This is the sad realities of our beloved country Nigeria.

In conclusion, and to further drive home the point of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, AFRICA’S INFRASTRUCTURAL REVOLUTION and the Nigerian DEBACLE. Permit me to share with you the profound words of Orji Uzor Kalu, the senator representing Abia North Senatorial District. Speaking on the floor of the Senate chamber, a couple days ago. OUK, eloquently posited: “If we don’t revamp the steel industry in Ajaokuta, Kastina, Alaja, Jos and Aluminum in Akwa Ibom, there’s no way we can talk of industrialization in Nigeria.”

OUK continued: “Aba and Nnewi has the human resources to engage in any form of manufacturing but the steels are not available. There is nothing that can stop Nigeria from dedicating a one year budget to rebuild our steel industries. The job creations we are always talking about lies in the steel industries.The country can be great if we do the right thing”

In my view, one of the right things is to improve upon the content and quality of our human capital especially at the low-income levels because, in the final analysis, they are the ultimate users of this infrastructure and can make or break them

Finally, I like to make specific reference to the speech of Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, president of the Republic of Uganda, who in an address to the ‘AFRICA HEADS OF STATES SUMMIT’ in a 19:06 video clip Museveni succinctly captured the essence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the African context and how best to reason and think developmentally.

Also, on this’d 25 May, ‘Africa day 2024.’ I am privileged and honoured to dedicate this article “Africa’s Infrastructural Revolution..” a day which commemorates the historic event in 1963, when African nations came together to form the Organization of African Unity, the precursor to the African Union (AU). It is a day to celebrate the many successes and progress made throughout the continent while recognizing each nation’s challenges.

Watch the video below.

Richard Odusanya, [email protected]

By Chinedu Agu

(Lecture delivered at the Monthly General Meeting of NBA Owerri Branch on Saturday, 25th May, 2024)

Every profession in the world has an element of mysticism which sets it apart. In that its arcane nature strongly lies the respect, honour and prestige that is accorded that profession. The legal profession is not an exception. This is the reason it has been said in some quarters that the legal profession is a conspiracy against the laity.

In this sense, the legal profession shares a lot in common with the priestly vocation. Both are callings that require a deep commitment and dedication beyond just a job or career. Priests are called by God to serve the Church and humanity, while lawyers have a duty to uphold justice and the rule of law. A priest is a minister in the temple of God. A lawyer is a minister in the temple of justice. So, practitioners in both fields are expected to exhibit the highest standards of ethical conduct.

While the priesthood and legal profession have distinct roles, they share the common threads of upholding the highest ethical and moral standards.

As a young lawyer doing pupillage in Ama Akalonu & Co. my principal, in preaching about the ethics of the Legal profession would always draw this analogy, and would believe that both professions/vocations are, in terms of ethics, very similar.

Just like the priestly Vocation, the legal profession commands huge respect both from other practitioners and lay people. The reason for this huge respect is not only because we are social engineers, but because of the way lawyers have been trained to behave – carrying themselves with remarkable grace, infectious comportmemt, and royal nobility of conduct.

Unfortunately recently, the legal profession has fallen flat from that dizzying height of prestige. The legal practitioners themselves, much like the proverbial Lizard that foiled his own mother’s funeral, is culpable for this decline.

I will resist the temptation of highlighting the culpability of the Nigerian judiciary in this slump. This is a gathering of lawyers, so I shall rather wait for the day of hunting, so I can hunt in the habitat of the Grasscutters.

The relationship of a lawyer with the society/public, his relationship with the court, his relationship with his fellow lawyer, his conduct while he discharges his duties as a lawyer, his comportment, now leave much to be desired, and have contributed to the odium with which the legal profession is now viewed by the members of the public.

Lawyers by themselves have lifted the veil of sanctity of the profession to expose the glory of the profession to members of the public. This is what I refer to as the See-finish-ism: the members of the public have “seen us finish.”

Over familiarity they say, breathes contempt. An Igbo adage also has it that when a man overly familiarises himself with his in-laws, then they begin to roast for him Beetles-infested yam.

How has the Nigerian Lawyer allowed the members of the public to see us finish?

In various ways, lawyers have, in their relationship with members of the public, conducted themselves in ways unbecoming of a lawyer, bringing the legal practice into disrepute and scorn. The following are worthy of note:

1. Dressing/appearance and comportment:

It is a popular saying that the way you dress is the way you will be addressed. Regrettably, many lawyers dress very shabbily.

The dress code for male lawyers is dark suits, white shirts (not wing-collar), white bib, black socks, black shoes.

But often, you find Lawyers dressed in weather-beaten, threadbare suits that are averse to washing. Some dress in very dirty shirts, which you can only identify as white if you had seen them few years ago; shirts that had seen better days.

Some lawyers find it very hard to polish their shoes, iron their trousers and their bib. Some lawyers don bibs that are ragged, stained and creased. Some lawyers’ bibs and white shirts have the capacity to trigger vomit. Such clumsy looks lower the respect members of the public accord lawyers.

In my years of pupillage, Mr. Akalonu taught juniors in his chambers that a Lawyer’s bib must be clean and crisp, standing elegantly on a well-ironed immaculate white shirt, tucked inside another well-ironed, prim trousers, which sits gracefully atop a resplendent, well-polished black shoes, akin to that of J.T.U Nnodum, SAN. In a frank admiration, I have had course to ask learned Silk the equipment that polishes his shoes, as they would always glean like a piece of china in the tropical sun, suggestive they were not polished by human efforts. I am sure I am not the only lawyer in Owerri that has observed that. Not any day have I seen a fleck of dust on any of his shoes, regardless time of the day and location.

It does not take affluence to maintain a clean appearance, it takes rather conscious discipline, vigilance and awareness. A lawyer who must not visit the dry cleaner should have the discipline of washing his white shirts and bib by himself every weekend, starching and ironing them. A white shirt must not be repeated. A bib can, after use for the day, tucked back into its leather. It is not like a piece of handkerchief that can be snapped out from the pocket and doned when needed.

Sadly, it has become fashionable for lawyers – mostly of my generation – to wear shoes without socks. Some prefer half-cut socks, which are meant for jeans and sneakers, meaning that their skin is exposed when they are walking or sitting in court.

When some would wear socks to court, it is a bizarre, garish socks. We can also observe some wearing what looks more like a blanket or towel than socks.

Some lawyers also have made the queer choice of doning trousers that appear to be in rift with their shoes, so that instead of the tip resting gorgeously on their shoes, it stands high above their ankles, cutting a Michael-Jackson-esque image. Others have the audacity to wear chinos or jeans under their gown to appear in the High Court.

Some (both young and very senior) make the inexplicable choice of wearing sandals to court without a doctor’s report, leaving one unsurprised that the young ones learned how to chew chord from the She-goat.

For female lawyers, it is dark jackets, black skirts, black shoes, white colarette and bib. The female lawyers are not insulated from this, either. Some wear Mary-Kay-stained and creased colarette to court.

The comportment of some lawyers both within and without the court, is thuggish, coarse and savage. The comportment of a lawyer in court conduces to the magnitude of respect a litigant will pay to both the judex, his colleagues, and officers of court.

Before Hon. Justice A.C. Onyeukwu a couple of months ago, two very senior lawyers, in the full glare of both junior lawyers and litigants nearly exchanged blows.

In another court few days ago, two lawyers were dragging a file and pouring vituperations and invectives on each other, while litigants watched on shamefacedly. Have they not seen us finish?

When a lawyer is discouteous or disrespectful to the court, or to a coleague in court, you would not expect any better from the litigant.

For some lawyers, being on the other side of a case suggests they are at war with the colleague on the other side, or doing a matter against a colleague automatically makes them their enemies.

While conducting cases, lawyers should be quick to reprimand their client who, in attempt to answer counsel’s questions during cross examinations, insults counsel on the other side. Unfortunately, some lawyers derive pleasure in seeing their clients deride and scorn the counsel on the other side. This is unethical and must not be encouraged. It conduces to see-finish-ism.

Some lawyers also forget that the lawyers’ bib and collar are to be worn only in the court premises. It makes a very ridiculous sight to see a lawyer wearing his collar and bib in a public transport, or while walking from his house to the road to catch a bus. Some also engage in this for showmanship, forgetting that they cut a ridiculous image.

Some walk into supermarkets, banks, eateries, markets and public places with their bib and collar. This is simply nauseating.

Just last Monday, I cringed to watch a very senior member of the Bar lumbering out of a UBA in Mbari in his bib and collar.

Same day, I saw another lawyer in his bib and collar, his court files on his left, his glory on his right, urinating along a busy road, just beside Dreamland Hotels, World Bank, Owerri.

During pupillage, we were taught that you could only wear your bib and collar from the office if only you are driving in your car, or driven by another in a private car.

We were taught that you must not enter an eatery with your collar and bib, or eat or drink in a public place with them on. But you will see a lawyer eating in a sleazy buka with his bib and collar, oily crumbs of vegetables dropping on his creased bibs, making legal submissions raucously, in an attempt to impress the lay people.

Sometimes, you may find a lawyer in bib and collar, tightly packed inside Bus Imo like a sardine, making legal submissions at the top of his voice to impress other passengers. This is a see-finish situation. A lawyer who must take a commercial vehicle must not wear his collar and bib.

2. Another see-finish scenario is the preparation of processes and lawyers’ documents in a public business centre.

Gardenpark is now the office of most lawyers (both young and old). When you walk into the computer section of GardenPark, you would hear one lawyer, sitting beside a typist, bellowing corrections, “Donee, Donee, D-o-n-e-e, not done, wepụ that ‘E’ itinyere there,” while the other lawyer is at the other end shouting, “Ngozi, it is the Claimant, not Clement. Remove ‘E’ and put ‘AI,’ then wepụ that other ‘E’ itinyere after ‘m’ and put ‘A’” This situation is always laughable.

I have heard a computer operator tell a lawyer, “Barri, that woman dropụụrụ gị 10k for that Pawa of Atọni.” Some lawyers have condescended to using some of the staff in GardenPark as their office secretary.

Some lawyers maintain sensitive folders in the systems in public business centres, thus increasing the risk of proliferation of Power of Attorney and some sensitive precedents. There is no worse see-finish situation than this.

Part of the glory of a herbalist is not only the nzu that he smears on his body and his red, long skirt, but in the way he handles his client envelopes his conduct in secrecy and mysticism.

A Herbalist who wants to prepare charms and herbs for his client, enters into his private chambers to do so. He does not do that in the presence of his client, otherwise, he will see him finish.

But it is the opposite for lawyers. Some lawyers sit with their client before the public computers, while the computer operators prepare Power of Attorney. And this is why a client will price a lawyer ten thousand naira, saying, “The Bar, naranụ m 10k. Onwekwerenu ihe nọ na Pawa of Atọni. Ihe a umu aka na aprịpa na Gardenpark.” That’s the level we are now.

Some though they prepare it in the office, but do the franking, stapling, binding and packaging in the presence of the client. Let the client see only the finished product. Let there be some air of esoterism around it – documents you prepare for clients.

3. Engaging in agbata-ekee with police, milling around police vehicles in the Magistrate Court like a dog who trails a toddler that has defecated without cleaning his anus, contributes to the lack of respect which lawyers suffer in the hands of police and other security agencies. This will not stop until our image before the police improves. Police have seen us finish, and that contributes to the reason for the spate of victimisation of lawyers in the hands of security agencies.
4. It was the training during my pupillage that appearance fee is collected a day before hearing date, and must be paid in the chambers. If a client fails to comply, the lawyer will not attend court for that matter. it is not pride. It is part of the dignity one accords to himself and to other colleagues, by extension.

But lawyers now choose to do this the other way round. In the high court premises last month, a fully-robed lawyer grabbed his client by the scruff of his neck because of non-payment of appearance fee. It was a very ridiculous sight, as other litigants watched on.

5. While I was the Secretary of NBA Owerri from 2020 – 2022, I was inundated with petitions against legal practitioners bordering on diversion of clients’ monies.

In those eventful two years, no day passed without the administrative secretary of the Bar not handing me two to three letters on this subject matter. In most cases, the lawyers would challenge the clients to do their worse. This offends Rule 23(2) of the RPC, “Where a lawyer collects money for his client, or is in a position to deliver a property on behalf of his client, he shall promptly report and account for it, and shall not mix such money or property with, or use it as his own.”

For most clients, ndị lawyers wu ndị oshi. It is because of this see-finish.

6. While I was looking for accommodation in 2019, it was a difficult task for me, as many landlords are very reluctant to lease their property to lawyers.

The reason is not far-fetched. In the property we occupy at both homes and offices, many lawyers do not pay their rents, as though Call to Bar Certificate is an exemption certificate from payment of rent. Other than pay their rent, some lawyers institute legal action against their landlords in a bid to frustrate him from ejecting them from their property. Lawyers who do this bring bad name to other law-abiding ones, because when one finger picks up oil, it diffuses to other fingers. This impugns the integrity of lawyers.

7. There is a growing trend of abuse of wig and bib. Wigs now adorn the dashboard of most lawyers’ cars, while bib hangs on the Rear-view mirrors of their cars. This is an abuse of the lawyers’ accoutrements.
8. We have seen cases of lawyers posing as conduit pipes for reticulation of bribes to the Judex, to the knowledge of their clients. Some lawyers would encourage their client to reach out to the judex in charge of their matters for the purpose of influencing its outcome. This does not bode well for the legal profession.

The legal profession is a noble one. It is such that has some flavour of esoterism. That arcane and recondite nature is fast evaporating due to the worrying spate of professional misconduct, and this does not bode well for the integrity of the profession and the professionals. This lecture is a clarion call for legal practitioners to recoil to their shell of inscrutability and integrity.

Thank you for your rapt attention.

Chinedu Agu
[email protected]

By Lasisi Olagunju

Their victims are taking sides. I shake my head for them. May I never be found on either side of siblings feuding over whose turn it is to loot me.

“Emir Sanusi II should be referred to as the 59th Emir of Kano (and) not the 16th – unless the history of Kano started after Dan Fodio’s Jihad and imposition of Emir Sulaimanu in 1807.” With these words, Journalist Jafaar Jafaar on Friday started an online war which is still raging as I write this. So, two wars are being fought simultaneously on and over Kano. The first is the game of thrones between brother and brother over the city’s kingship and its pricey palace. The second war is on social media being fiercely fought between a conquered people and their conquerors over when the history of the city started.

Jafaar, a Hausa, maintained that “from King Bagauda in the 10th century to Muhammadu Alwali in 1805, there were at least 42 Habe/Hausa rulers documented by history that ruled Kano.” He went on to claim that most of the symbols of authority of today’s Emir of Kano predated the Jihad and the ascendancy of Fulani rulership of the city. The charge and the pushback have been enormous online. Whatever is the fate of the Hausa of Kano today was foretold and it is recorded in their history.

Kano’s monarchy has a very well documented history. The best known by historians is ‘The Kano Chronicle’ – a list of rulers of Kano since the establishment of the Bagauda Dynasty in 998 AD. Long before Bagauda and his tribe of adventurers entered Kano, history says the founding ‘chief’ was a man called Barbushe. He was credited with enormous strength and spirituality – a man who could look very far and see tomorrow. The Kano Chronicle describes this strange man’s own ancestor, Dalla, as “a black man of great stature and might; a hunter who slew elephants with his stick and carried them on his head about nine miles…”

One day, spirit-possessed Barbushe told his people that in the coming years they would lose everything they had to a stranger.

“A man shall come to this land with an army and will gain mastery over us,” he told the people of Kano.

If it was today, those people would snap their fingers over their heads and reject the prophecy. Barbushe’s people did not snap any finger, but they voiced their rejection in their own way. They told him: “Why do you say this? It is an evil saying.”

The seer kept his peace; he ignored them. Then continued. He told the people that if their conqueror “comes not in your time, assuredly, he will come in the time of your children, and will conquer all in this country, and forget you and yours and exalt himself and his people for years to come.”

The Kano Chronicle said the people were exceedingly downcast because they knew their leader told the truth of a future of slavery awaiting them. They believed him and asked: “What can we do to avert this great calamity?”

He replied them: “There is no cure but resignation.” Then “they resigned themselves” and have remained in that state of resignation till today.

It is a long story. My source is H.R. Palmer’s ‘The Kano Chronicle’ published in 1908. The prophecy is on page 64. You may read that portion and others and match that history with whatever is happening to these people today.

I remembered Barbushe’s prophecy when I saw the Hausa journalist and his online army asking questions and referring to their own ancestors as the ‘Habe’ rulers of Kano. The 19th century Fulani (and their successors) called any people they conquered ‘Habe’.

The Hausa think the altered, contemporary king list of Kano city is rigged against their ancestors. They think it robs them of their royal and cultural essence. The people who enslaved them reset the calendar and the clock of their history. Their existence started with their defeat. Their fate is classic in how not to surrender to fate. Could the 1804 Jihad of Dan Fodio and its spread to Kano be the fulfillment of that promise of eternal subjugation; a rulership which history predicted would misgovern them “till they become of no account”? The prediction, and everything around it, even its myth and legend, appear to have come with a fatal ring of prescient finality wound around these people. Their resignation is proof that there is no medicine against destiny and no armour against fate.

Students of Kano history would have no problem identifying successive emirs of the city as snacks of power. In some cases, governors munch, chew, and swallow them. Some other times, they try and fail. On January 1, 1954, Premier Ahmadu Bello installed his “close personal friend”, Muhammad Sanusi, as emir of Kano. The man succeeded his father, Abdullahi Bayero. But in August 1963, the friendship was over. Sanusi was dethroned even despite opposition from the federal. On June 8, 2014, Sanusi’s grandson, Lamido, became emir despite opposition from Abuja and its forces. He was there for six years and was dethroned by a governor who was deputy governor when he was enthroned. Last week, Lamido’s destiny brought him back to the throne even in the face of a blitzkrieg from federal forces.

Emirs are riverside reeds, precarious at all times. In 1982, Governor Abubakar Rimi had a big issue with the Emir of Kano and, in an interview, he described the emir as “nothing, nothing, nothing but a public person.” He said the emir was “holding a public office” and was “being paid from public funds” and his “appointment is at the pleasure of the governor of the state.” He said the emir “can be dismissed, removed, interdicted, suspended if he commits an offence.” Rimi said there was “nothing unique about Ado Bayero, the Emir of Kano… believe me, if he commits any offence which will make it necessary for us to remove him, we will remove him and we will sleep soundly.” His listeners shivered. The PRP governor proceeded from there to plot the sack of the emir “for failing to fulfill government orders or to show due respect to the State Governor.” There was opposition from the streets with thousands shouting: “we don’t want the governor; we want the emir.” Ado Bayero survived that coup and soon ate the exit cake of Governor Rimi. The opposite appears to be the case now with Bayero’s son, Aminu.

Perhaps, more importantly, the Kano case has just confirmed to us that the country now has judges without borders; they sit anywhere -in the air and at sea, in their wives’ beds and on their concubines’ laps. They work 24 hours; they operate with the speed of light such that cases can be filed at 11pm and judgment delivered at 12 midnight while the other party is sleeping. Whatever they do is valid. It stands. There is no control again; the steering wheel is rusted and stiff. The state backs its carefully selected judges with everything it has –guns, threats, excuses, lightning and thunder.

The case should strengthen us to double down on our insistence that Nigeria is a federation and must be so governed. A Nigerian Federal High Court sat in the United States of America and plunged a knife into the tendons of Kano chieftaincy. And we are excusing the perfidy with lexis and structure of e-judiciary. You would think under our laws, chieftaincy matters are state and local government matters. That is what our law says but the offshore judge did not think it was necessary to respect that law. Popular comedian, Mr Macaroni, would ask: “Are you normal?” We are not.

Section 251 of our constitution clearly states what areas the Federal High Court has jurisdiction over. The section has three subsections. Subsection 1 gives that court jurisdiction on matters relating to the revenue of the government of the federation and allied matters. It lists those matters. Subsection 2 gives it “jurisdiction and powers in respect of treason, treasonable felony and allied offences.” Subsection 3 gives the court powers to hear cases “in respect of criminal causes and matters in respect of which jurisdiction is conferred by subsection (1) of this section.” Nowhere in that section or anywhere in the constitution is the Federal High Court empowered to sit over chieftaincy matters. Yet, a judge who was not even in the country, assumed jurisdiction under the cover of midnight darkness in the Kano emirship tussle and, aided by candies of impunity, signed an injunction. That judge is, very soon, going to the Court of Appeal on promotion. One day, he will become the Chief Justice of Nigeria.

Power and its allure rob society of order. In William Golding’s ‘Lord of the Flies’, we see how man with power enjoys the anonymity conferred on him by darkness. We see how control is lost and he strays calmly from goodness to savagery. America’s second president, John Adams, in March 1801, stayed up till midnight of the eve of his last night in office creating courts and signing appointment memos of his friends and supporters as judges to fill his freshly minted courts. US history remembers those judges harshly as “midnight judges.” The court ruling at the centre of Kano’s emirship logjam walked in from the United States at midnight on Thursday. The reinstated emir, Muhammadu Sanusi II, jogged into the palace midnight on Friday. The deposed emir, Aminu Ado Bayero, sneaked into the city under the canopy of darkness before dawn on Saturday. The security forces of the federal government soon filed out and took embarrassing positions. The hinge of their involvement was the tokunbo court order from a midnight judge who sat across the seas. Our courts no longer dread darkness and its forbidden fruits; they have become like hired killers, their fingers stained with the blood of justice.

Yet, the judiciary had seen better days – even in the so-called dark days before the white man came with his civilisation. There was a time in Kano when what distinguished judges were learning and piety. Sulyman, emir of Kano from 1807 to 1819, had a very tough mother and an upright alkali (judge). The emir’s mother was found on a particular day ill-treating a private citizen. She was charged for it at the court of Alkali Yusuf al-Hausi. The court found the queen mother guilty and pronounced corporal punishment. Emir Sulyman could neither shield nor save his mother – she served her sentence.

Thirty-six years later, Emir ‘Abd Allah Maje Karofi took over the throne of Kano and was there till 1882. At a point during his reign, the emir bought a horse from a Tuareg and refused to pay despite repeated demands. The Tuareg took his case to court and Alkali Ahmad Rufa’i found the king guilty. The king’s punishment was an order that the emir’s confidant named Kasheka, who represented him in court, be seized and sold into slavery to settle the debt. A shaken Emir Karofi quickly arranged for the money and paid his creditor, the Tuareg. My source for these stories is Professor Tijjani Naniya’s ‘The Dilemma of the Ulama in a Colonial Society’ published in the Journal of Islamic Studies in 1993.

The period of those judgments was a time when kings feared and respected the law. It was an era when judges knew the law and applied it as they should, entertaining neither fear nor favour. Today’s judge would jail the creditor and shout rankadede to the debtor-king. The jungle of our judiciary has matured and the beasts grown in all departments.

In my moments of devotion and meditation, I watch wild animals on TV channels. Right before me is a vulture, hyena and lion sizing one another up over a banquet of skunked meat. What we witnessed between Thursday and Saturday night in Kano was exactly that. Beastly fights over meals are a natural feature of life in the jungle. Bayero was dethroned and Sanusi enthroned. Enthronement and dethronement are not strange with monarchies. It didn’t start today in Kano and elsewhere; it won’t end with this Kano matter. How did Sanusi become emir in June 2014? Was he the favourite of the kingmakers? Aminu Ado Bayero, the dethroned emir, how did he get the throne four years ago? General Ibrahim Babangida once said that the moment you get into power through a coup, you should expect that a coup would be staged against you one day. It is delusional not to accept this. It is like Napoleon thinking his revolution would be the last.

Russian writer, Yevgeny Zamyatin, says exactly this in his novel ‘We’ – described by a reviewer as “a prediction of the natural conclusions of totalitarianism.” It was from ‘We’ that George Orwell pinched the whole idea of his monumental ‘1984’. In “We” is the warning to all who stand but who think their stability is forever: “How can there be a final revolution? There is no final one. The number of revolutions is infinite.” One era will be succeeded by another era just as one preceded it. There is no goodnight in power politics. Sanusi is back; Bayero is out, but may yet come back. There is no end to snatching and running away with power.

Bandits have killed seven persons and kidnapped 200 villagers in Kuchi community, Munya Local Government Area of Niger State. 

It was gathered that the bandits invaded the community on Friday night, May 24, 2024. 

Among those killed were four members of the Joint Security Taskforce stationed in the area and three villagers who attempted to escape into the bush.

It was gathered that the bandits numbering about 300, invaded the community at about 7:00pm and operated under the heavy downpour for over three hours without resistance.

“They went from house to house and selected those they wanted to go away with, including women. They looted all the shops in the community and went away with all the goods and drinks,” a source told journalists.

“They overpowered the security agents; there was no way they could have withstood the bandits because they (bandits) came in about 100 motorcycles, each carrying at least three people. They were all heavily armed.

“Again there was no reinforcement for the security agents on ground until this morning (Saturday) when some security people came, but the havoc had already been done. They operated all through in the rain,” the source added.

The Chairman of Munya local government, Mallam Aminu Najume, who confirmed the attack on Saturday, May 25, said that the gunmen invaded the community at about 7:00pm in groups, numbering about 300, adding that “they move from house to house dispossessing people of their belongings.

“They also abducted about 150 villagers, including women and went away with them inside the rain. Throughout the operation, no assistance came from anywhere.

“Honestly the Council is overwhelmed with the current situation. I am not thinking straight as I speak with you because my people have lost their sleep; they have been forced out of the community.”

He blamed the continuous bandits’ onslaught on communities on what he called the failure of the Kaduna State government to take concrete actions against them, stressing that “if Kaduna State is doing what Niger State is doing, the situation would have been addressed.

“These people usually come from Kaduna State to operate and return back. They move in their hundreds and yet the security agents don’t see them; even when the villagers alert them, no action is taken.

“Look at yesterday’s attack, for over three hours, there was no reinforcement from anywhere. They outnumbered the Joint Security Taskforce and succeeded in killing four of them, including some villagers.

“We cannot ascertain the number of people that were injured because some are still in the bush; they slept there,” he added.