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Dealing with the SARS Menace By Olusegun Adeniyi

By Olusegun Adeniyi

“Anyone who has followed testimonies (backed mostly by video evidence) from victims of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) knows it would take more than feeble press statements to change the orientation of those who have been conditioned to believe they are above the law. For years, members of this notorious police unit have operated solely by their own code. So I see no reason why they would give any regard to the current directive by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu to desist from carrying out stop and search duties and setting up roadblocks. Indeed, available reports indicate that these operatives are still very much in business across the country.”

This is not a new challenge. Several of my columns, including ‘Beyond the Brutalities of Police SARS’ (December 2017), ‘The Assassins in Police Uniform’ (April 2019) and ‘Let Me Talk to My Father before I Die’ (August 2019) recount how our policemen routinely violate the rights of citizens they are paid to protect. And while I have extraordinary sympathy for the men and women in uniform whose welfare we too often neglect, the matter may finally be reaching a denouement. With celebrities and government officials joining the campaign against the excesses of SARS, something must give.

In a 2018 piece, I highlighted the growing allegations that SARS operatives are neck deep in criminal activities and prefaced that intervention with the fact that such defiant behaviour is not peculiar to Nigeria. I particularly referenced the report in the United States of a study released in June 2016 which revealed that on an annual basis, as many as 1,100 police officers are charged with committing crimes. In the course of the study, said to be the first in US history, researchers compiled 6,724 cases involving 674 officers who were arrested more than once. According to the lead researcher, Philip M. Stinson, “Police crimes are not uncommon…Our data directly contradicts some of the prevailing assumptions and the proposition that only a small group of rotten apples perpetrate the vast majority of police crime.”

The essence of spotlighting the US report was not to excuse criminal behaviour by SARS but rather to provide a background that rogue police officers are not peculiar to Nigeria. What is peculiar to our country is the lack of accountability that has encouraged those who should protect citizens to abuse their powers without consequences. That was the point underscored in a chilling Amnesty International report released on 26th June 2020 (just about four months ago) titled, ‘Time to end impunity: Torture and other human rights violations by Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS)’. In the report, Amnesty International documented cases of extrajudicial executions, sexual violence, torture, extortion and other forms of brutality that reveal “a pattern of abuse of power by SARS officers and the consistent failure by the Nigerian authorities to bring perpetrators to justice.”

According to Amnesty International, “financial gain – rather than curbing armed robbery and other forms of criminal activity – appears to be one of the motivating factors of the SARS, as they constantly raid public places frequented by young people, in order to extort money from them. Evidence collected indicates that SARS officers regularly demand bribes, steal and extort money from criminal suspects and their families. Additionally, SARS officers act outside of their legal ambit by investigating civil matters and in some cases torturing detainees involved in contractual, business and even non-criminal disputes.” The damning report which critical stakeholders in the justice sector should read added: “Most victims of ill-treatment by the SARS are usually poor. Many are arrested by the SARS officers during large dragnet operations involving mass arrests, including raids on bars and television viewing centres, and ordered to pay a bribe to be released. Those who are unable to pay are often tortured, either as punishment or to coerce them to find the money. The alternative is to risk being labelled as an armed robber. In most cases, this occurs with the full knowledge and acquiescence of superior police officers.”

As weighty as that allegation may be, most of those who have encountered SARS believe it to be true. Besides, so emboldened are these criminal elements within the unit that they, sometimes at gunpoint, order their hapless victims to transfer money from their mobile handsets. Yet, despite those easy-to-trace trails and the many social media posts about their atrocities, none have been brought to justice. That’s why many believe that all the current ‘directives’ are merely to buy time. In any case, we have been down this road before. Following a similar public outcry two years ago, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on 14th August 2018 ordered an immediate reform of SARS which led to the cynical addition of letter F (for Federal) to the name by former IGP Ibrahim Kpotun Idris. At the time, Osinbajo also directed the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to set up a judicial panel to investigate their activities. Nothing has been heard about that report.

For years, ill-clad (F)SARS operatives would stop citizens on street corners and subject them to ‘stop and search’ which is usually extended to telephones, laptops and iPads without any court order as required by the Cybercrimes Act. These supposed officers of the law—who dress like armed robbers, according to former IGP Mike Okiro—violate the dignity and liberty of citizens, as well as the privacy of their homes and correspondence. If you wear dreadlocks or sport tattoos on your body, you are automatically a prime target for shakedown. To secure your freedom, you or your family members must pay ransom.

Unfortunately, at a time we most need a solution to this problem, the disposition of some presidency officials is unhelpful. And because the challenge preceded the Buhari administration, there is no reason for anybody to be defensive. Besides, they fail to see the bigger picture: When, for whatever reasons, we choose to look the other way when the rights of citizens are grossly violated, the net result is a collective descent into a Hobbesian jungle where life is nasty, brutish and short. That precisely was the point Segun Sega Awosanya was making regarding the #EndSARS #ReformPoliceNG movement when the madness started years ago. And if the authorities had paid attention and done the right thing, we would probably not be where we are today.

A 2010 report by the Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN), in collaboration with New York-based Open Society Justice Initiative, concluded that many men and officers of Nigeria Police are more likely to commit crimes than prevent them. Titled, ‘Criminal Force: Torture, Abuse and Extrajudicial Killings by the Nigeria police force’, the report I previously cited on this page was based on a two-year investigation at more than 400 police stations in 14 states across the country. “Sex workers report being rounded up by NPF personnel for the express purpose of rape. Acknowledging the routine nature of rape by police, one police officer referred to it simply as a ‘fringe benefit’ of certain patrols,” the report claimed.

However, as prevalent as the barbarism by SARS may be, there is a method to their madness. Most of their victims, as Amnesty International has clearly stated, are poor people. There is also a global ring to this. A report by the International Justice Mission (IJM), an NGO focused on human rights and law enforcement, documented how “millions of the poorest people in the developing world are abused by corrupt police who extort bribes and brutalize innocent citizens” and for that reason, “poor people regard the police as agents of oppression, not protection.”

The list of atrocities committed by these rogue elements in the Nigeria Police is long but what rankles is the impunity with which they act because they are certain they would never be held to account. For instance, on 7th June 2005, six young Nigerians (a woman and five men) were extra-judicially executed in the Apo area of Abuja. Both the police probe panel, chaired by former IGP Okiro (then a DIG) and the federal government judicial panel of inquiry, chaired by Justice Olasumbo Goodluck, found all six policemen cul¬pable for the pre-meditated murder. Not only was the principal actor acquitted, he is now an Assistant Inspector General of Police!

Meanwhile, despite the negative reports about SARS that assail us every day in the social media, the majority of our policemen are honest professionals. And I have encountered many of them. Police as an institution also has its own peculiar challenges. Nothing exemplifies this more than the bitter power struggle that has pitched the IGP against the Police Service Commission (PSC) on the 2019 recruitment of 10,000 constables. The battle for supremacy which is now at the Supreme Court is already affecting the careers of no fewer than 112 senior police officers. It is a crying shame that for more than one year, the PSC and IGP have engaged in a public brawl over who has the power to recruit and discipline police personnel. Yet President Muhammadu Buhari as chairman of the Police Council has not deemed it fit to intervene in the interest of our national security. To worsen matters, in-fighting in almost all the critical security institutions continues.

In dealing with the issue of SARS, the police authorities must understand what is at stake. When on 6th August last year three officers from the police intelligence response unit were brutally assassinated by soldiers while ferrying Wadume (suspected kidnap kingpin) to Jalingo, Taraba State, the police waged a social media war to seek justice for their slain officers. But most of the comments that followed their posts were unsympathetic. Those who responded countered that the murdered officers only received a dose of what many Nigerians have had to suffer at the hands of SARS operatives. As much as I admire IGP Adamu, who I believe always wants to do right, regaining public trust under the prevailing environment will require more than issuing press statements.

All said, whatever may be our misgivings about SARS, the job that policemen do is a dangerous (and thankless) one, especially in a society like ours. Remuneration is also very poor. Since there is a strategic relationship between the well-being of police and the security of citizens, the total neglect of the rank and file may have resulted in a situation in which they practically have to fend for themselves and their families with guns in their hands. The temptation to go rogue is so huge that some of their personnel may have fallen into it. That is a growing challenge the authorities will have to deal with. What we therefore need is a root and branch reform of the police. And there is no better time for that than now!

Akeredolu and Public Accountability

With the Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu and his deputy, Agboola Ajayi, slugging it out in the media and on the campaign field ahead of Saturday’s gubernatorial poll, we are hearing a lot of tales. Apparently riled by the political harlotry of Ajayi who first moved to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) where he failed at the primaries before jumping to pick the ticket of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), Akeredolu said last week: “No deputy governor has collected what he was collecting in the history of the state. I gave him N13million monthly. His predecessors did not collect as much as that. No deputy governor collects as much as that in Nigeria. I gave him enough room to operate, yet he betrayed me.” He added: “Ajayi is just a greedy man that lacks contentment. I gave him a free hand to perform as a deputy governor. I gave him two ministries to run. He constructed roads. He built a number of schools. His wife also built a number of schools.”

Before we examine that statement, it is important to note that the deputy governor has responded that what he receives monthly is not N13 million but N12 million. He also counter-attacked that “Akeredolu and members of his family skim off the purse of our state with reckless abandon.” Ajayi, in a statement by his media adviser, Allen Sowore, gave a breakdown: “The governor gets a security vote of N750 million every month. He, Akeredolu, also gets an imprest of about N150 million. His wife, though occupies no constitutionally recognised position, takes an imprest of N15 million per month. Apart from this, she collects an additional sum of N11 million from the Ministry of Women Affairs, which she runs like a potentate. Babajide, Akeredolu’s son, is also not left out in the pillage that Akeredolu and his family is visiting on Ondo State. He too takes a whopping N5 million monthly and rips off the state by taking unbelievable commissions as a consultant to the State on almost every imaginable area. All these are apart from millions and millions they get from inflated contracts awarded to family members and lackeys.”

While the game of allegations and counter-allegations continues in Ondo State, let us examine three key admissions in Akeredolu’s statement. One, his deputy and wife are also official contractors who were paid to build schools and construct roads and the governor sees nothing wrong with that. Two, ‘I gave him N13 million monthly’. Here, the governor is talking about public funds. Aside exercising the powers of the purse which ordinarily belongs to the Ondo State House of Assembly, there is an obvious lack of accountability in that statement which he failed to see. And then this: “I gave him enough room to operate, yet he betrayed me.”

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Akeredolu makes no pretense that everything in Ondo State revolves around his person. But what exactly does ‘enough room to operate’ mean?

On the whole, both the allegations of financial impropriety in Ondo State and the nagging criminality of SARS operatives can be located in the lack of accountability that defines public conduct in our country today. When you run a system where officials permit themselves the indulgence of giving others ‘enough room to operate’, it goes without saying that there can be no accountability. Under that situation, it is also easy for public officers to become outlaws. That is a challenge we need to collectively deal with.

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Sex-toy-shop: Abbo appeals N50m Judgment, Insists offence ‘simple assault’

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ADAMAWA North lawmaker, Senator Elisha Abbo, has appealed the judgment delivered by a Federal Capital Territory High Court, Maitama, ordering him to pay N50m as compensation to Osimibibra Warmate.

Abbo was caught on video assaulting Warmate at a sex toy shop in Wuse 2, Abuja in 2019.

Although the senator won the criminal case instituted against him by the police before a Chief Magistrate Court in Zuba, Justice Samira Bature of the FCT High Court ruled against him in a separate civil suit instituted by Warmate and ordered him to pay N50m and publish an apology to the applicant.

However, the lawmaker has filed a notice of appeal, insisting that the facts of the case disclosed an “alleged tort of simple assault” and not torture or inhuman treatment, hence the fundamental rights procure was an inappropriate means of seeking redress.

In a report by the Punch , the notice of appeal reads in part, “That the appellant being dissatisfied with the decision of the High Court of the FCT as contained in its ruling and orders in Suit No CV/2393/2019 delivered on the 28th day of September, 2020 by Hon. Justice S.U Bature, do hereby appeal to the Court of Appeal, Abuja.”

Abbo, who is the youngest senator in the country, anchored his appeal on three premises.

The senator said the judge erred in law when he dismissed his preliminary objection to the effect that the suit was not recognisable under Section 34 of the 1999 Constitution and the fundamental rights enforcement procedure.

He said the facts of the case were contentious and could not be determined via affidavit evidence.

The lawmaker stated that the trial judge erred when he held that the applicant had proved her case as required by law whereas the evidence was not in her favour.

He further stated that the court granting N50m compensation to the applicant was “excessive.”

Abbo also filed a motion for stay of execution requesting “an order of this honourable court staying the execution of the judgment/decision of this honourable court delivered on September 28, 2020 in Suit CV/2393/2019 pending the hearing and determination of the appeal against same.”

Poland honours Nigerian man, August Agboola Browne, who fought with country to resist Hitler

Among the hundreds of thousands of patriots that Poland celebrates for serving in the resistance movement in World War Two there is one black, Nigeria-born man.

Jazz musician August Agboola Browne was in his forties, and had been in Poland for 17 years, when he joined the struggle against Nazi occupation in 1939 – thought to be the only black person in the country to do so.

Under the code name “Ali”, he fought for his adopted country during the Siege of Warsaw when Germany invaded, and later in the Warsaw Uprising, which ended 76 years ago this month.

Astoundingly, he survived the war in which 94% of the residents of Poland’s capital were either killed or displaced, and continued living in the ravaged city until 1956 when he emigrated with his second wife to Britain.

A small stone monument in Warsaw now commemorates Browne’s life. But the scant details that there are may never have been known were it not for an application he made to join a veterans’ association in 1949.

The document was filed away for six decades, until 2009, when Zbigniew Osinski from the Warsaw Rising Museum came across it.

This form, filled out in beautiful cursive handwriting and with a passport-style photo attached to one corner, is his Rosetta Stone – the documentary fragment that led researchers to interpret isolated facts about his life and locate living descendants.

In the picture, Browne, dressed in a jacket and a snugly fitting jumper, looks lively and youthful with a hint of a smile on his face. All who met Browne described him as a handsome man and a sharp dresser.

By this time he was in his fifties, as the form reveals that he was born on 22 July 1895 to Wallace and Jozefina in Lagos – then part of the British Empire.

He arrived in England aboard a British merchant ship with his longshoreman father. From there, he joined a theatre troupe touring Europe and ended up in Poland via Germany.

‘Sheltered ghetto refugees’

Frustratingly, the form does not say what inspired him to leave Nigeria, or make Poland his destination, so an adventurous spirit seems the likeliest explanation. But by the 1930s, he became a celebrated jazz percussionist playing in Warsaw’s restaurants.

What Browne did write was that in the resistance he distributed underground newspapers, traded electronic equipment and “sheltered refugees from the ghetto”. This was a sealed-off area of the city in which Jews were forced by the Nazis to live and where 91,000 died from starvation, disease and murder. Some 300,000 were transported to their deaths in Nazi concentration camps.

Warsaw Uprising

August-October 1944

The Polish underground, known as the Home Army, attacked the German occupying forces on 1 August

They swiftly gained control of much of the city

Germany sent reinforcements and the nearby Soviet army did not help

The Poles surrendered on 2 October after 63 days

200,000 civilians and 16,000 Polish fighters died

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica and Warsaw Rising Museum

It appears that for Browne, staying in Poland after the war was a choice – as a citizen of the British Empire, he had the opportunity to leave.

When he arrived in Poland, he first settled in Krakow where he married his first wife, Zofia Pykowna, with whom he had two sons, Ryszard and Aleksander.

The marriage failed but at the outbreak of the war, Browne arranged for his children and their mother to seek refuge in England. But – perhaps committed to the Polish struggle – Browne did not go with them.

The incomplete jigsaw of information gives rise to many questions about his life.

‘A quiet, private man’

Tatiana Browne, his daughter from his second, much longer, marriage to Olga Miechowicz, was born and brought up in London and is his only surviving child in Britain. She says he never talked about what had happened to him.

She is now 62 – her father died in 1976 when she was 17. She remembers him as “very quiet, very private, and quite distant” and that he never discussed his background in Poland or his early years in Lagos.

Tatiana is not certain why neither of her parents told her much about their past. She suspects it was to bury the trauma they endured and atrocities they witnessed.

Thinking back, she recalls watching a documentary about the war with her parents and her mother saying: “I remember seeing people being hanged in the streets; I know that’s true because I saw it with my own eyes.”

But there was no discussion and now she wishes they had told her more.

Browne, though, never turned his back on the Polish culture that he had lived in for almost 35 years, and Tatiana says that Polish was the only language spoken in their London home.

He was remembered by an acquaintance in Poland for speaking “the purest Polish language, even with a Warsaw accent”. He was fluent in several languages.

“Dad taught me how to read and write in English,” Tatiana says.

‘Quick wit and real charm’

How the musician, who as a black person would have been so conspicuous, was able to survive in Nazi-occupied Poland remains a mystery.

Two other African men, Jozef Diak from Senegal, and Sam Sandi, whose exact place of origin on the continent is unclear, had served in the Polish army during the Polish-Bolshevik War (1919-1921) and remained in Warsaw afterwards, but both died before World War Two began.

Discounting them and Browne, experts say there may have been two other black Warsaw residents in the interwar years, professional entertainers whose traces disappear during the occupation.

Being black in Nazi Germany

But Tatiana’s recollection of her father’s charismatic personality may give a clue to his own endurance.

“Dad had a real quick wit and a real charm about him,” Tatiana says.

“When we used to go to church on a Sunday, I used to see him interact with other people. He had real warmth that drew you in so you automatically liked him.

“When he was in company with other people, there was just this [energy]. People were drawn to him.”

Browne’s story emerged in 2009 at a time of heightened patriotism and xenophobia in Poland.

It drew immediate interest from across the political spectrum and there were calls to memorialise him as a national hero.

At that time, then-President Lech Kaczynski, co-founder of the conservative Law and Justice party, wanted to “honour him on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising”, said Krzysztof Karpinski, a jazz historian who served as vice-president of the Polish Jazz Association, which was contacted by Kaczynski’s office for more information about Browne.

But Kaczynski died in a plane crash in 2010 and the plan apparently went with him.

It was not until last year that a small monument to the Nigerian-Polish resistance fighter was finally unveiled. That was funded by a non-profit organisation, the Freedom and Peace Movement Foundation. His war service is honoured by conservatives and progressives alike to symbolise the Poland of today.

Browne led a modest existence in England for the last two decades of his life. He continued working as a musician, at first doing session work. When he got older, “we had a piano at home so he used to give piano lessons”, Tatiana says.

They were a “lovely family”, Dr Michael Modell, who treated Browne for cancer, remembers.

He died at the age of 81 in 1976 and is buried under a plain headstone in a north London cemetery.

There is no sign of the traumatic and tumultuous events that he had been part of, which reflects the way he apparently lived his life in London.

“To me, it was just me growing up at home with a mum and dad. Whatever our life was, it was my normal,” Tatiana says.

Yahoo.com

How China adapted tech expertise from others and built world’s best, largest railway system

*Today,66% of world’s High Speed Rail is domiciled in China. That is the ingenuity of China that powers her growth

When an intercity high-speed train pulled out of Beijing South station in 2008, China’s rail network had ushered in a new fast-moving era.

Over the past decade, the country has added over 35,000 kilometers to its high-speed rail (HSR) network, with the total length that far exceeds the rest of the world combined. Train speeds have increased from a maximum of 200 km per hour to 350km per hour – the fastest in the world.

The HSR offers shorter travel times, comfort, convenience, safety and punctuality and is by far the largest passenger-dedicated network of its type in the world, a report shows.

The World Bank report also said that China was the first country with a gross domestic product (GDP) per capita below $7,000 to invest in developing an HSR network.

The road from planning to operation

Looking back, a key milestone for China’s HSR development was the approval of the Medium- and Long-Term Railway Plan (MLTRP) in 2004 when freight volume was growing rapidly and the low speed of the existing railway limited competitiveness in passenger transport.

The plan envisaged that, by 2020, the national railway infrastructure would grow to 100,000 km, of which 12,000 km would be high speed, and four horizontal and four vertical corridors would be established to link all major cities.

After detailed plans had been approved, the next step was to ensure a solid technological base for both infrastructure components and rolling stock.

In the early stage, construction was pushed forward under technology transfer agreements with some European countries like Germany and France, as well as Japanese suppliers, but China quickly adapted and improved the designs for local use.

Based on accumulated experience in this field, China has also worked with the International Railway Union to develop international standards for HSR equipment.

The implementation was carried out through a series of Five-Year Railway Development Plans (FYPs), setting out the projects to be undertaken in each five-year cycle to 2020.

A further revision took place in 2016. The network structure has expanded from the original “four vertical and four horizontal” corridors to “eight vertical and eight horizontal” corridors, designed to be supplemented with more regional and intercity rail links.

According to China’s Ministry of Transport, the plan is based on a detailed analytical process involving basic investigations, data collection, project research, as well as extensive external consultation and review by an expert advisory committee.

The 2020 target is a railway network covering 150,000 km, including over 35,000 km of HSR reaching over 80 percent of large and medium-sized cities.

The HSR network will then connect almost all large and medium-sized cities. It will create travel times of one to four hours between the large and medium-sized cities and half an hour to two hours for regional centers, report shows.

The original intention for the project was to enlarge the capacity of the country’s overloaded network and enhance passenger services. But thanks to the spillover benefits, it has improved regional and provincial connectivity, serving as a strong catalyst to support economic development and urbanization.

SOURCE:cgtn.com

Qinghai-Tibet Railway: China’s tech wonder that sets 8 world records

  • Longest rail track of 550km on ice
  • Highest train tunnel built on permafrost
  • 85% of 2000km on over 4000ft altitude
  • 33 passageways along track to preserve wildlife
  • Builders carried on their backs oxygen cylinder to work at high altitude

When construction was first announced decades ago, it was a project that many engineers thought could never finish. Spanning over 2,000 kilometers, the railway has made eight world records. Construction began in 1958 and was completed decades later in 2006, using innovative engineering concepts.

Known as one of China’s greatest engineering projects of the 21st century, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway sets the record for having the longest track running through frozen areas. More than 550 kilometers of the railway was built on permafrost, a mixture of soil and ice that remains frozen for at least two years. Since water expands in winter and contracts in summer, it threatens roadbed stability – the foundation for railroad tracks.

By graveling embankments and installing vent-pipes underneath the roadbed to provide thermal stability for the permafrost, Chinese engineers successfully solved the problem. On a few stretch, the high-speed trains run on elevated rails. Tracks were laid on a bridge, with piers placed underground. It avoids direct contact between tracks and the permafrost.

At an altitude of nearly 5,000 meters, Fenghuoshan Tunnel is the world’s highest tunnel built on permafrost. It was the most challenging part of the project during the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.

Roughly 85 percent of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is over 4,000 meters above sea level. The lack of oxygen posed another challenge. Workers carried oxygen tanks weighing 10 kilograms while completing the construction. Over 110 medical facilities were constructed along the railway with more than 600 medical staff to take care of the workers.

Protecting the fragile ecosystem was also a key concern for the engineers. The railway runs through Hoh Xil National Nature Reserve and several other nature reserves, where many rare plants and animals live, including the endangered Tibetan antelope. A total of 33 passageways were built along the railway for wildlife to safely cross.

The Qinghai-Tibet Railway has boosted the economic and social development of Qinghai Province and the Tibet Autonomous Region and made traveling more convenient across the nation. Its construction showcases China’s perseverance. 

SOURCE:cgtn.com

Explosion hits another gas station in Lagos

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LAGOS – Explosion has hit another gas station in Lagos with the number of casualties presently unknown, NewsBreakNG can report
According to reports, the explosion occurred around 5.44am at Best Roof Gas Station located at Unity bus stop, Fatade area of Baruwa in Alimoso Local Government Area of the State.
“The explosions started around 5.44am and people were shouting, running helter-skelter. A thick smoke engulfed the whole area,” a resident said.
As at the time of this report, fire is still raging in the area while officials of the Lagos State Emergency Maintenance Agency (LASEMA) have been contacted. (NewsBreakNG)

NBA-SPIDEL REJIGS MEMBERSHIP

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The Nigerian Bar Association Section on Public Interest Law (NBA-SPIDEL) is set to reinvent its membership database.

In an announcement made available to CITY LAWYER, the leading NBA organ for the promotion of public interest causes urged members to take advantage of the exercise to ensure that their information is captured in the section’s database.

Below is the full text of the announcement.

Good morning Sirs/Mesdames,

I trust that you are doing great.

This is to inform you that SPIDEL Secretariat is updating its members database and in view of this we kindly request members on this platform to click on the link below to provide the required information.

We look forward to cooperation.

Thank you

Edidiong Peter, Esq.
SPIDEL LIAISON OFFICER

CITY LAWYER

JICAM RULES: ‘P & ID CONTRACT WAS FRAUDULENT, POORLY DRAFTED,’ SAYS SAN

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A senior advocate of Nigeria and chartered arbitrator, Prof. Paul Idornigie SAN at the weekend took a hard look at the controversial P & ID Case and concluded that the contract was fraudulent and poorly drafted.

Idornigie was speaking at the weekend in Abuja during the launch of the Janada International Centre for Arbitration & Mediation (JICAM) Rules 2020.

The foremost arbitrator whose paper was titled “Institutional Arbitration in Africa Post-COVID-19” stated that “the (P & ID) contract was fraudulent ab initio,” adding that “the contract was not properly drafted.”

According to Idornigie, the courts are not equipped to cure defective contracts, even as he urged arbitrators to “Africanize” arbitration by choosing Africa as the seat of arbitration in line with the “Africa Promise.”

On why Nigeria is not a leading arbitral centre and seat of arbitration, Idornigie who is also a member of the JICAM Governing Council said: “From my personal knowledge, most hearings in Nigeria are either held in hotels or law offices of the Legal Practitioners.  Such hearings whether domestic or international are not documented.  This probably accounts for the poor performance of Nigeria in this survey report.  This is without prejudice to the fact that issues of security, facilities, infrastructure and integrity of the Nigerian courts may also be factors responsible for the poor ranking of Nigeria in the continent.”

“The above lends credence to the establishment of JICAM.  JICAM is not only an arbitral centre but will perform arbitral services as it has its own Rules of Arbitration and Mediation.  These Rules are modern and comparable to other Rules like that of ICC and LCIA.  Indeed they are a blend of both.”

He stated that Nigeria’s legal framework would not adversely impact arbitral proceedings due to the advent of virtual hearings, saying: “Arbitration in Nigeria does not suffer the effect of the Evidence Act (s256(1)(a), the Constitution (s36(3) & (4) and the judicial pronouncements on hearing in public.  Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, I have used Skype, audio and video-conferencing at JICAM and ICAMA, Abuja and LCA, Lagos.”

Continuing, he said: “However, quite unlike physical hearing, we must prepare adequately for virtual hearing.  This is the challenge post-COVID.  For African arbitration institutions to survive, they must have facilities for virtual hearing side by side  the existing facilities for physical hearing.  There are enough Protocols, Guidelines, Guidance Notes, etc on this as highlighted above.  Thus several issues will arise before, during and after the arbitral proceedings that must be carefully addressed.”

He warned that “The arbitral institutions that will survive are those with modern rules and facilities for both physical and virtual hearings.  The arbitrators that will be in business are those who are innovative, creative and digitally knowledgeable.”

In his remarks, former Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Hon. Justice Ibrahim Auta said that he was “proud at the strides JICAM has recorded since its formal establishment in 2015. In keeping with its aim to promote a forum for the resolution of disputes, we have supported disputing parties in active reconciliation and resolution of their disputes.”

A fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK), Justice Auta, who is also the Chairman of the JICAM Governing Council, stated that online dispute resolution (ODR) has witnessed a resurgence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying: “We have witnessed online giants utilize this mechanism in the resolution of buyer to customer disputes but we have failed to expand its use to the resolution of the common disputes. Perhaps this is an appropriate time to discuss the Rules we aim to launch, today.”

Noting that “parties with bad cases could easily frustrate such an attempt by withholding the consent to conduct such proceedings virtually,” Justice Auta, who was represented by Mrs. Diane Okoko, added that “we have equipped our center with state of the art facilities including high speed internet for this very purpose. In similar fashion, the Rules take care of numerous other issues which have been unclear in the arbitration space which I do not intend on boring you with today.”

On his part, the President of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Justice Benedict Kanyip who was the Special Guest of Honour stated that the Arbitration and Conciliation Act “does not apply in trade disputes,” adding that such disagreements are sui generis.

In his welcome address, former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) presidential candidate, Chief Joe-Kyari Gadzama SAN said: “Indeed, while I consider it a huge privilege to have some of the best minds in the Alternative Dispute Resolution sector present at this event, I strongly believe that the launch of the JICAM Arbitration & Mediation Rules 2020 will usher in a new era in the realms of our Alternative Dispute Resolution engagements, which in the long run, will contribute significantly to the development of ADR both locally and internationally.”

According to Gadzama who is also a chartered arbitrator and fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK), JICAM “was established in 2015 and commissioned by the then President of the Court of Appeal, Hon Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, OFR, CON, as a dispute resolution center designed to promote a suitable forum for the resolution of domestic and international disputes,” adding that “JICAM is fully equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, with its rules and guidelines accommodating both ad hoc and institutional arbitration.”

Concluding, the leading litigator said: “I strongly believe that this comprehensive document will facilitate speedier, more effective and efficient arbitration cum mediation proceedings, which in the long run will promote the advancement and viability of Alternative Dispute Resolution in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa.”

In his goodwill message, the President of Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators (ICMC), Chief Emeka Obegolu, commended JICAM for unveiling the new Rules.

Noting that there are over 10 prominent Arbitration and Mediation institutions in Nigeria, the former NBA General Secretary said: “I believe the general hope is for these institutions to leave their mark in the dispute resolution landscape, and contribute to the effective resolution of disputes. However, to achieve this, there must be synergy of some sort between these institutions. We must see ourselves not as competitors, but as partners in this dynamic field of ADR.”

In a similar goodwill message, the Chairman of the Abuja Chapter of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK), Mr. Chinwendu Madumere noted that the institute maintains a robust relationship with JICAM, adding that the emergence of the centre would “bridge the gap of having a world class arbitration centre with appropriate facilities and Rules.”

The event was moderated by the JICAM Acting General Manager, Chimdindu Onyedim-Etuwewe while Bar. Lama Joe-Kyari Gadzama gave the vote of thanks.

Retreat: Buhari, Lawan, Gbajabiamila Seek More Powers For APC

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By Mathew Dadiya, Abuja

The two-day Executive/Legislative retreat presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari has called on the ruling – All Progressives Congress (APC) to exercise more control on its members to enable it resolve crises that may arise. 

The advice came as Vice President Yemi Osinbajo noted that given the poor economic conditions of Nigerians and the poor state of infrastructure, it would be callous and irresponsible for the arms of government not to work together. 

In its 10-point recommendation read by Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mohammed Bello, at the end of the programme held on Tuesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the parley also advocated respect for party leadership by its members. 

According to the recommendations, “the ruling political party should be encouraged to take ownership of its members to be able to reconcile them whenever conflict arises and members in both arms of government should show regard for the party and its leadership.https://galleria.com.ng/pushgalleriaads?q=201&i=56&ho=dailyasset.ng”

It called for a concrete understanding and working knowledge between both the Executive and Legislature just as it noted that an effective confidence building measure should be put in place in the governance process to ensure mutual respect and cordial relationship between the Executive and Legislature.

The parley further recommended the creation of an effective conflict management and resolution mechanism in resolving areas of disagreement between the Executive and Legislature in the overall national interest.

Other recommendations were that there should be modalities for better access, interfacing and engagement between the leadership of both arms of government, the NASS Committees and MDAs should be worked out by the SGF and NASS-Executive Liaison. 

“There should be regular pre-budget consultations between the Executive and Legislature particularly between the MDAs and NASS Committees, Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and the appropriate Committee in NASS. 

“There is need for an effective communication and collaborative engagement to enhance and strengthen the relationship between the arms of government for the benefit of Nigerians. 

“The relationship should not be adversarial but complementary, thus, more interpersonal and informal relationship between heads of MDAs and NASS members should be encouraged.

“Operators in the arms of government should act with moderation and limit their sense of entitlement by placing public interest over and above personal and parochial interest.

“The Presidency should strengthen the capacity of the Executive Liaison Offices in the National Assembly.

“There is need for an organic budget law which will optimize the budgetary process so as to deliver effective and efficient service to the citizens.”

The summation from the retreat highlighted what it referred to as weak mechanism for conflict management and dispute resolution between both arms of government and limited consultation between them on critical governance issues such as policy initiation, programme implementation, planning, and legislative processes.

Other issues that arose from the parley include lack of clarity in communication and poor feedback mechanism leading to different and subjective interpretation of intent and purpose of the message. 

The retreat also pointed at limited understanding of the workings and internal processes of each arm of government by government operatives; lack of mutual respect between the Executive and the Legislature in the conduct of governmental business; and lack of and/or absence of pre-budget consultations and briefings between the Executive and Legislative branches of government making the budgetary process acrimonious. 

Others observed issues according to Bello are “the pursuit of personal interest as against national interest; ill-equipped and poorly resourced offices of Presidential Liaison Offices in the National Assembly;

poorly defined channels of communication between the executive and legislative arms and weak utilisation of the Offices of the SSA-Ps to the President in managing communication between Committees of the National Assembly and MDAs. 

“Limited participation of MDAs at public hearings organised by the National Assembly on critical bills to influence the process but choose to raise objections when the bill is transmitted for Presidential assent.

“The current operational budgetary process is sub-optimal; and political parties have not really played the fatherly role that is expected of it in managing the relationship between the Executive and the Legislature.”

In his closing remarks at the retreat, Osinbajo noted that the context within which the arms of government operate was important, noting that given the situation in the country, it would be callous and irresponsible if the different arms of government to work together to resolve the problems. 

 “The fact that we have all been here for two working days demonstrates our common commitment to collaboration. 

“Frankly, we have no choice if we are not to fail the Nigerian people who have given us this incredible  opportunity amongst millions of our compatriots to serve at this high leadership levels we occupy today”he said.

While noting that “this is all about Nigeria and Nigerians,” he added: “This is the context for our operations. Let me say that every generation of leadership must understand  context. Law itself  must be interpreted and implemented in context. What is the reality of the context that we operate in today? We all know, our nation has millions of extremely poor people, the COVID – 19 pandemic has worsened employment and poverty. 

“We have huge deficits in infrastructure, many children are out of school. If that is our context we will be callous and irresponsible if we don’t come together, work together to sort out these grave life threatening problems our people have to confront everyday.

“The dogmatic emphasis on procedural niceties is a luxury we cannot afford.  In any event, there is no pure practice of the doctrine of separation of powers. The Anglo American traditions that we hold on to in support of the separation of powers are not pure…so for example the US Vice President serves as the president of the Senate and presides over the Senate’s daily proceedings.”

Participants at the two-day event include President Buhari, Vice President Osinbajo, President of the Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Deputy President of the Senate, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Chairmen of Committees in the Senate and House of Representatives. 

Others were Members of the Federal Executive Council, Heads of Agencies and Senior Government officials including the management of the National Assembly. 

NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER

Sonnie Ekwowusi urges all to soldier on, in spite of the contradictions and difficulties

I don’t have a job anymore since this COVID thing started. And I am ashamed to beg. My wife is the one supporting me now. But you know women; she now treats me with utter contempt. She talks to me anyhow. The most regrettable aspect is that my children will soon be going back to school and I don’t have any money to give to them. My house rent will be due in January. On top of these calamities, they sent me a message yesterday that my mother in the village is seriously sick. They said I should come home next week to take her to the hospital. I am the first son of my parents. I don’t want my mother to die. She is a diabetic patient. Three months ago she suffered a second stroke. Even nowadays to feed is a big problem for me, unless through the efforts of my wife. My life is miserable.

I understand. Weep no more. Wipe away the tears from your eyes. Don’t give up. You can still make it. Hold your head high, stick out your chest. I understand. You no longer have a good name. People look down on you. All who see you shake their head in derision. They sneer at you.

They laugh at you and say, “This is the man who started to build but could not finish”. Don’t mind them. Don’t surrender to melancholy. It is untrue that the world is about to collapse on top of you. Take another look around you. Look up. Those birds you see flying and chirping do not store. Yet divine Providence provides for all their food and needs. I agree, it gets dark sometimes, but the morning does not delay in coming. Besides, nothing here below lasts forever. Yesterday has passed. Tomorrow will soon come and pass. After the rain comes sunshine. Suffering breeds endurance. Endurance breeds hope. And hope does not disappoint. Don’t surrender.

My friend, don’t surrender to drugs. We cannot lose you to drugs. Don’t surrender to violence, cynicism, and pessimism. Deploy hope and imagination as weapons of survival and progress.

Dream dreams. Remember the name which your parents gave you as an infant. Remember the land of your birth. Remember your home. I am often told, “Some of us take drugs as anesthesia to quench our pain and suffering. We take drugs to escape the burdens of the day which oftentimes seem unbearable”. I have heard you. I know it is tough sometimes but you are wrong. If you go on living like this you will be enslaved by drugs. You could even commit suicide. And if you commit suicide, your children and your grand-children will rain curses on you for having been a big failure in life. Don’t lose focus. You might have mastered the air, conquered the sea, annihilated distance but you have not mastered the vicissitudes of life. You have to live on this earth with your share of difficulties. Try to excel within your own little space. And let’s come together to the public space to build together for the common good. Ask yourself the following questions: Why is there something rather than nothing? What is the purpose of human existence? What is reason? What is faith? If faith and reason are the two wings with which to fly to the truth, why fly only on the wing of reason or only on the wing of faith? Fly on both wings.

We stand today at a crossroads. We stand at the end of a long night of uncertainty. The good of our country is at stake. Instead of making giant strides on the path to progress our country is drifting backwards towards its precipice. At independence in 1960 there was only one national flag in Nigeria – the green-white-green flag. But how many Nigerian adults (not to talk of children) can still tell the colour of the national flag let alone recite the national anthem or the pledge? Very few. Why? Because there are many flags of different colours being hoisted and flown across Nigeria- there is the Biafra flag, Niger Delta flag, Oduduwa Republic flag, Mid-West flag, Arewa flag, Middle Belt flag and so forth. Instead of listening to President Buhari’s independence anniversary speech, most Nigerians prefer to listen to yesteryears’ speeches of Tafawa Balewa, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, H.O. Davies, Anthony Enahoro, K.O. Mbadiwe, Mbonu Ojike (Boycott the boycottables) and other heroes and heroines of Nigerian independence. Governance? What is that? Forget it. Governance is virtually non-existent. Insecurity (of lives and property) is our first name. Bloodbath is our middle name.

Death is our surname. So, our full name is Mr. Insecurity Bloodbath Death (IBD for acronym).More in Home

The names of the visitors who regularly visit us to kill us or torment us are terrorists, kidnappers, bandits, night marauders, murderous cattle breeders and murderous Fulani herdsmen and land grabbers. What haven’t they done to us? A person who has consumed the stomach of a dog has gone half way into eating human faeces. Everywhere you go you will discover that their hands are stained with the blood of the innocent; blood which no water on this earth can wash away. On top of all these woes, the blame game goes on unabated. We blame the constitution for our woes. We blame the government. We blame corruption. We blame the judiciary. We blame APC. We blame PDP. We blame ourselves. We blame the day we were born. We blame our children. We blame our neighbours. We even blame God for creating us and making us citizens of Nigeria.

I understand. But don’t surrender to hopelessness. Look, don’t remain in the same place. You can still go forward. Nothing is gained by constantly sitting down and complaining about those things that do not work. Get up and move. Stop brooding over failed democracy. In case you don’t know, democracy alone cannot save us. One of the wrong assumptions about democracy is that the political office holders possess enough wisdom and virtue to pursue the end of democracy-promotion of the welfare of the people. But viewed against the backdrop of history, political leaders do not have enough wisdom and virtue to pursue the end of democracy. Besides, democracy is challenged from within by sheer ignorance and pursuit of personal interests at the expense of the common good and welfare of the people. We must begin to move away from the mentality that once we establish democratic institutions, bureaucracies and enact laws all our human problems will be solved. In principle, functional bureaucracies, democratic institutions and laws are good, but not every obligation that augurs well for proper ordering of society can be democratized, bureaucratized let alone legislated upon or codified in positive law.

Most important, democracy is not the first thing: the first thing is culture and at the heart of culture are those communally-binding ideals which make society tick. In fact, for society to function effectively there ought to be a fine convergence between public life, culture and authentic religion.