A senior Advocate of Nigeria has blamed noise pollution as reason behind increase in students’poor performance at school.
At the 27th annual Scientific Conference and Annual General Meeting held in Lagos, Chairman of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Dr. Muiz Banire, attributed the surge in mass failure in schools around the country to noise pollution.
Dr. Banire revealed that having noticed the effects of noise pollution in Lagos, one of the things he did when he was a Commissioner for Environment in the state was to ensure that pollution of all kinds were reduced to a manageable level.
The Senior Advocate disclosed that students now have ear problems because of the different kinds of noise pollution they are exposed to right from their early stages in life.
He said that it is the major reason why students perform below standard in WAEC and JAMB examinations in the recent past.
“We found out that most students had a hearing impairment, some could not even hear what their teachers were saying in class.
“We also discovered that when they get home, they sit close to the grinding machines, besides the loudspeakers of music sellers, and at night, vigils won’t let them sleep, and mosques wake them up at 4 am, vehicle hooting, and indiscriminate use of sirens contributed too, thus affecting the health of young persons.
“I said this before, and I want to say it again, if we do not curtail the extent of pollution, it will lead to early death” he added.
Banire stressed that most worrisome is the fact that, there is no law guiding environmental pollution, and that everybody just operates arbitrarily.
“We need to set a template that will guide us in enforcing laws on environmental pollution in Nigeria. And that should be part of the resolution of this conference, to create a parameter for enforcements.
A significant solution to all these is the three R’s, which are to; reduce waste, reuse waste, and recycle waste, we must apply it, if we want to quell the impact of environmental polution” he said.f
Speaking earlier, the Chairman Local Organizing Committee, Dr. Ayo Olude, said that pollution was the major cause of sickness.
He advised government to make laws that will regulate pollution in the country.
Anyone who passed through the Nigerian Law School would tell you it was a baptism of fire. Passing the Bar finals is another matter. Stories upon stories abound. Some mythical. Some true. From the incredulous to the absurd. Sometimes shocking. At other times overwhelming. Bar finals!
Many make it. Several have to try again and again. The quest for the wig and gown!
The 2019 Bar finals result had just been released. Her joy was as ecstatic as it was infectious. “Finally, I’ll be called a barrister!” She must have screamed. Bur fate had other plans for her.
A graduate of Benue State University, Ufuoma Peace Oghenerume needed to visit her former school to collect her LLB certificate. Presentation of the LLB original certificate for screening at the Nigerian Law School is part of the condition precedent for being called to the Nigerian Bar. On account of this, she set off to Makurdi. She was already billed to participate in the Call to Bar ceremonies that would run from 26 to 28 of November. It was a trip that altered the course of her life.
On the 16th of September, she boarded one of the 18 Sitter buses owned by Benue Links Transport Company. A smooth ride it was. The prospective new wig was already imagining herself all dressed up in new robes! Then the crash! It was surreal! It was quick and sudden!
The accident Scene
They had just approached the Nasarawa Eggon hills. It was a horrific collision with a truck that claimed all lives but two! Ufuoma Peace Oghenerume was the second survivor!
The tragedy did not swallow her but the pains were unbearable. Physical pains. Emotional pains. Battling to survive. It was almost an eclipse of a dream.
Several surgeries later at the National Hospital Abuja, Ufuoma pulled through.
The survivour!
Though on a wheel chair, she made it. She was called to the Bar at the same time as her mates. Today, she is a Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria!
The International Conference on Witchcraft on Tuesday kicked off at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka as scheduled, despite opposition to the conference from the Christian bodies.
Our Correspondent reports that the opening prayer for the conference was conducted by a Catholic priest, while the moderator was a cleric.
Music was also provided by the UNN Christ Chapel choir.
The conference, organised by Prof. B.I.C Ijomah Centre for Policy Studies and Research, UNN, met stiff opposition and criticisms, but organisers rebuffed the calls to cancel the conference, and instead changed the initial theme: “Witchcraft, meanings, factors and practices,” to ”Dimensions of human behaviours.”
UNN management had directed the organisers to drop the initial theme of the conference on account of outcries from various Christian bodies.
However, speaking at the opening ceremony of the conference holding at Nsukka main campus of UNN, the Director of the centre, Prof. Egodi Uchendu, regretted how ordinary academic conference was twisted to cause confusion by social media and other media platforms.
“The casualty of this confusion went beyond being asked by UNN management to change title but also the withdrawal of our keynote speaker, Prof. David Ker.
“I am delighted that social media hyper on the conference didn’t deter participants and organisers from attending the conference, which is completely academic,” she said.
Prof. Damian Opata, in his paper titled “The wealthy are no witches: Towards an Epistemology and Ideology of Witchcraft among the Igbo of Nigeria,” explained that the way witchcraft was propagated and believed by some Nigerians had continued to kill the development of knowledge on the issue.
“Some people have killed the initiative for creative indigenous thinking because of mere belief in witchcraft.
“Pastors, prophets, seers in the foreign religions and charismatic priests of variegated persuasions very frequently use perceived attacks by witches and wizards to put fear in the minds and hearts of their various congregations.”
Continuing, he said, “The truth is, for those who believe that witches and wizards exist, it exists for them; and those who believe it does not exist, it doesn’t exist.
“What we are doing today is completely an academic conference; it’s unfortunate that some people tried on social media to give it different interpretations.”
Head of Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the UNN, Prof. Peter-Jazzy Eze, who spoke on what he titled, “Which witch? What Anthropology knows of the Adult Bugbear,” explained that witchcraft did not exist but only existed in the mind of the people who believed in it.
“Science and technology have overtaken the superstitious belief of witchcraft, which has no practical proof.”
Eze said it was time Africa dropped the belief in witchcraft and embraced robust knowledge in science and technology, “the application of which is very practical and verifiable.”
“If Africans can fully embrace science and technology, in the next 50 years, there will be nothing like superstitious belief in witchcraft, ” he said. Punch
A lawyer’s angle
Despite the concerted efforts and prayers of Religious groups and organizations in Nigeria, the University of Nigeria Nsuka on Tuesday the 26th of November 2019 held Nigeria’s first highly controversial and much talked about “Witchcraft Conference”.
Organized by Egodi Uchendu, director of B.I.C. Ijomah Centre for Policy Studies at the university, the conference seeks to feature academics reviewing journals and information gathered over the years on witchcraft. The theme of witchcraft is only a topic for academic engagement.
While the conference has shown that it is not actually a gathering of people dressed in Black with pointy hats and flying on broomsticks, i think it a bit amusing to inform Nigerians about the position of Nigerian law as regards “Witchcraft”.
Section 210 of Nigeria’s Criminal Code Act States:
Any person who-
(a) by his statements or actions represents himself to be a witch or to have the power of witchcraft; or
(b) accuses or threatens to accuse any person with being a witch or with having the power of witchcraft; or
(c) makes or sells or uses, or assists or takes part in making or selling or using, or has in his possession or represents himself to be in possession of any juju, drug or charm which is intended to be used or reported to possess the power to prevent or delay any person from doing an act which such person has a legal right to do, or to compel any person to do an act which such person has a legal right to refrain from doing, or which is alleged or reported to possess the power of causing any natural phenomenon or any disease or epidemic; or
(d) directs or controls or presides at or is present at or takes part in the worship or invocation of any juju which is prohibited by an order of the State Commissioner; or
(e) is in possession of or has control over any human remains which are used or are intended to be used in connection with the worship of invocation of any juju; or
(f) makes or uses or assists in making or using, or has in his possession anything whatsoever the making, use or possession of which has been prohibited by an order as being or believed to be associated with human sacrifice or other unlawful practice;
is guilty of a misdemeanour, and is liable to imprisonment for two years.
From all incantations……sorry i mean indications, the position of Nigeria’s law is unambiguous about this issue although i’d admit in my years as a lawyer with experience in Criminal litigation matters i am yet to come across a case that involves the trial of a witch. Besides if convicted, how does the Nigerian Government intend on imprisoning such a person? I doubt Nigeria’s prisons are equipped for such a magical task. In my honest and somewhat facetious view i think the law against Witchcraft was promulgated in a time where myth and superstitions held sway over most Nigerians and prosecuting it in today’s world would be a tough concoction.
I’m Fredrick Nwanji and I’m a Lawyer.
To get more news and updates, Follow me on Twitter @RickAnji and on the Opera News App @LawAngle
hen the tenure of a chief executive is coming to an end, there’s usually a feverish outbreak of schemes to push him over the edge, for good or bad reasons.
Lobbyists are masters of the game. They keep a diary of appointment and termination dates – including possible renewal where the law permits – and also keep a meticulous dossier of everything that happens in-between to sway public opinion and, possibly, the appointor.
If the chief executive under scrutiny is a tax collector, then he is despised with the venom reserved for Zacchaeus, the biblical tax collector. Zacchaeus was the Israelite hired by the occupying Roman government to collect taxes and levies from his own people.
Even though he appeared to be an honest guy, doing his job as best as he could, the system was so badly tainted that anyone who held that job was viewed with suspicion. Being a rich and short man only made things worse for Zacchaeus.
Many modern-day Zacchaeuses like the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Tunde Fowler, may be taller and therefore have no need to climb a sycamore tree to find salvation, but their professional perils have not changed much.
As Fowler’s first term comes to an end, there has been heightened interest in whether or not he would be retained, with arguments flying on both sides. In a country so spoilt by oil rent that government is only just beginning to take taxation seriously against a wall of resentment by the public that considers paying taxes punishment, tax collectors are still as despised today as they were in the days of Zacchaeus. And their enemies are vocal and influential.
With oil revenues ever more precarious and politicians promising heaven on earth, tax collectors need the skills of Zacchaeus, if not his stature, to survive.
On his appointment as the nation’s chief tax collector in 2015, Fowler was under pressure to live up to the hype following his accomplishments as the chairman of Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS), where he raised the internally generated revenue from N600m in 1999 to N20billion in 2015.
The challenges at FIRS were daunting, yet Fowler was also under pressure to meet the high standards set by his predecessor, Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru. With crude oil prices plunging as low as $30 per barrel at some point in the life of the Buhari administration, Fowler needed something beyond the precarious balancing act of Zacchaeus to raise revenue from taxes. The economic recession compounded his misery.
But he took the plunge. Fowler plugged internal leakages and loopholes instigated by insiders; adopted more efficient tax collection methods; and enticed a large army of tax defaulters through the Voluntary Assets Income Declaration Scheme, which raked in N17billion within the first six months of introduction.
By 2016, FIRS had brought into the tax net 800,000 new corporate taxpayers and by the first half of 2018, tax revenue had increased by 42 per cent. Non-oil tax revenue in the same year was a record N2.852trillion, representing more than 50 per cent of N5.3trillion that year.
By the end of 2018, he had almost doubled the revenue benchmark from N3.2trillion in 2015 to N5.3trillion. Also, the FIRS generated N1.5 trillion revenue in the first quarter of 2019, and revenue from non-oil taxes had increased to 11 percent compared to the previous year.
With more reforms, including but not limited to tackling multiple taxes/duties/levies; improvements in infrastructure; removal of red tape and better regulatory environment; reduction in corporate taxes; and possibly, introduction of flat rate tax, the revenue from the tax pie could grow beyond its present level.
As things are now, the relatively narrow taxable base, comprising mainly distressed formal sector workers and struggling small business owners, is reaching its elastic limits. While going after the big-time dodgers, the government needs to grow the economy more aggressively and nurture small businesses to expand the tax base.
Also, the challenge for countries like Nigeria is how to substantially fund their budgets from incomes not determined by the outside world, which include extractive resources, loans and grants.
Collaboration and involvement, as well as deploying technology have been crucial to the changes at the FIRS in the last four years. The service signed a memorandum of understanding with the state revenue boards to exchange taxpayer information.
It also broadened its VAT collection scope with the adoption of States Accountants General (SAG) collection platform, VAT Auto-Collect, integration of GIFMIS platform with ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and through e-Service payment option. Due to these efforts, FIRS and states have over 19 million taxpayers nationwide by 2018.
Through collaborative efforts, monitoring and compliance tracking have also improved. And because technology has been put to better use, it is easier to file tax obligations.
By aggressively enforcing the Taxpayers Identification Number (TIN) registration exercise, 45 million taxpayers would be captured in the tax net by December 2019. The figure was less than half of that when Fowler took over in 2015.
About 6,772 accounts with balances of between N1billion and N5billion were identified without their owners having TIN and did not file any tax returns. They are reportedly being engaged on what they should henceforth be paying to FIRS yearly at tax.
Some other measures Fowler introduced to grow FIRS tax returns in the last four years include automation and incentives for taxpayers: Integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS); e-registration; e-Filing; e-Payment; e-Receipt; e-TCC (Electronic tax certificate). He is also focusing on big players in the property market who control big portfolios in key cities like Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt and don’t pay tax on them.
Also worthy of note is that within the last four years, FIRS has helped facilitate the payment of N135.8b as outstanding Pay As You Earn (PAYE) tax liabilities owed the states by Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) from 2002 to 2016.
The recent reclassification of Nigeria by the World Bank among the most improved countries with regards to the Ease of Doing Business, attributed substantially to the institutional reforms introduced by Fowler at FIRS, means that the future is not gloomy without oil.
With Nigeria’s 2020 national budget estimated at N10trillion and considered perhaps the most ambitious ever laid down by a Nigerian government, taxation becomes a core source of revenue projections, especially with unstable oil price. It is a reminder of the conveniently reminisced glorious past, particularly pre-Independence Nigeria, when regions funded their budgets from taxation, agriculture and real production, not oil rent.
Will the hawks in government allow Fowler to carry through the reforms required to further strengthen the FIRS or will the lobbyists’ pressure for change prove too hard to resist?
Whichever way the government decides, the peddling of the long knives that started with Zacchaeus in Jericho won’t end with Fowler. But the government’s answer will send an important message about how serious the government is with its reforms.
•Ishiekwene is the Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief of The Interview
A 2018 report accused Nigerian security and law enforcement agencies of pocketing as much as N100 billion in roadside bribery and extortion in the South-eastern part of the country alone over the last three years. In a statement to PREMIUM TIMES, the International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law said findings into the report began in August 2015.The report with pictures that seemed to show officers receiving bribes at checkpoints.
BusinessDay Newspaper captured it thus: “Welcome to Southeast Region: Nigeria’s Headquarters of Official Highway Robbery is the title of a 2018 report by the International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety), a non-governmental organisation. The research for the report was conducted between 2015 and 2016 in the south eastern states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo and some parts of Delta States. It graphically indicted the Nigerian police and other security outfits of collecting about 100 billion naira in bribery and extortion from motorists in the region. This amounts to 12% of the regions’ 2019 budget estimate of 870 billion naira (according to a recent presentation by Ike Chioke of Afrinvest.)
Globally, the World Economic Forum estimates that corruption costs the world economy 5% of its combined gross domestic output. This percentage encompasses the various vintages of corruption as categorized in extant research. Of course, if we sum up total institutional corruption in the SE region of Nigeria alone, it would triple this 12% police-specific bribery and extortion in the region.“
According to Intersociety, “the report is also in response to the proposed military operations in Eastern Nigeria, code named: “Operation Python Dance IV” and “Operation Crocodile Smile IV”, scheduled for 1st Nov to Christmas Eve of Dec 2019 as well as planned flooding of the two regions particularly the Southeast with alleged greater number of “Federal Road Tollgates”.
“This is even as it is found that 70% of all Federal Roads in Eastern Nigeria are a death trap.”
But Tony Onyima, a former managing Director of The Sun newspapers went a bit further. Here is his story.
Concerned by the increasing complaints about the pains of Nigerians plying the Lagos-Onitsha route, I decided to seize an opportunity on Wednesday, November 27, 2019 to find out the real situation. For complete experience, I traveled with one of the transporters at Jibowu. After an excruciating traffic along Redeemed Church corridor, we finally commenced the journey to Onitsha at 10:30am. By the time we arrived the Niger Bridge, I had counted 60 checkpoints. I was painstakingly taking notes and few shots. These checkpoints were manned by either soldiers, police, customs, SARS, FRSC or a combination. Below are the locations of the checkpoints to guide your next trip to Onitsha.
LAGOS TO ORE:
Ilisan – Police checkpoint just in front of Babcock University
Ilisan 2 – Another police check less than 300 meters after Babcock
Ijebu Ode toll gate – Customs
Ijebu Ife – Police
Ijebu Itele – Customs, FRSC and Army
Ijebu Itele 2 – Police and FRSC
Ijebu Itele 3 – Police
Ajebandele – Police
Ajebandele 2 – Police
Ajebandele 3 – Police and FRSC
Ajebandele 4 – Army, Police
Ajebandele 5; less than 100 meters – Police
Ajebandele 6; less than 40 meters – Police
Ajebandele 7 – Police
Ajebandele 8 – Police
Ajebandele 9 – Police
Akinfosile – Police
Omotosho – Army
Omotosho 2 – Police
Obatedo – Police
Orilewo – Police
Orilewo 2 – Customs
Orilewo 3 – Police
Orilewo 4 – Police ORE TO BENIN:
Ore 1 – Police
Ore 2 – Customs and Police
Ofosu – Army
Ofosu 2 – Police
Ofosu 3 – FRSC and Police
Ugbogui Town – Police
Okada – Customs and Police
Okada 2 – Police
Okada 3 – SARS
Okada 4 – Police
Okada 5 – Police
Okada 6 – SARS
Okada 7 – Army
Okada 8 – SARS
Okada 9 – SARS
Okada 10 – Police
Okada 11 – Police
Okada 12 – Police
Iwinosa – SARS
Benin toll gate – Customs, FRSC, SARS
Benin By-Pass – Police
Benin By-Pass 2 – SARS
Benin By-Pass 3 – Army
Ugoneki – Police
Ugoneki 2 – Police
Abudu – Customs
Abudu 2 – Army
Omumu-Agbor – Army, FRSC, Police and Customs
Agbor – Police
Ekwuoma – Police
Issele Uku – SARS
Issele Uku 2 – Police
Akwa Ukwu – Customs and Army
Ogwashi – Customs
Okpanam – Customs and Police
Onitsha Bridge head – Mopol
You can imagine what will happen in the next two weeks when my brothers and sisters begin their Christmas migration.
We at Law & Society conclude with Bongo Adi‘s words in BusinessDay Newspapers.
“There is no gainsaying that the extortion of transporters increases the cost of doing business in the east. Every naira extorted from the taxis and buses is directly passed on to passengers which increases the cost of living.
Beyond cost of living adjustments necessitated by this brazen menace of daylight banditry by the police, it needs to be stated that it is this sort of maltreatment that breeds disillusion with the government of the day and the system of governance and can be found at the root of current political dysfunction and social disunity in this country. One of the reasons Nnamdi Kanu and his IPOB flag as the justification for their protest is this victimization of the SE citizens of Nigeria by the nation’s security apparatus.
While acknowledging the rising spate of insecurity in Nigeria — not just the south east — that has necessitated increasing police presence, we cannot fail to condemn the increasing militarization of the state and the employment of intimidation as a governance tool. The economic consequences far outweigh any political gains — if there were any.”
Haben Girma wears a lot of hats: she is a lawyer, a disability rights advocate, a 2013 White House Champions of Change honoree, a ballroom dancer and now the author of a new memoir. She does this as all as a Deafblind person. Girma is a child of Ethiopian and Eritrean immigrants. She grew up in Oakland California. She was born Deafblind and attended public school, where she learned sign language, spoken English and Braille. She uses a combination of accommodations to communicate with those around her, including a system she devised where a typist inputs spoken conversation into a keyboard that is linked via Bluetooth to a real-time Braille reader so that Girma can participate in the conversation as it happens. She can answer using spoken English.
This kind of accommodation combined with a service dog to help her with mobility allowed Girma to become the first Deafblind person to graduate from Harvard Law School in 2013. Since then she has worked as a disability rights lawyer and argued critical cases to increase access to online materials for the blind. Now she has written a memoir about her life experiences.
Who is Haben Girma? Read on to learn more.
1. Child of immigrants
According to an interview with NPR in 2015, Girma’s mother left Eritrea in 1983, during the war of independence with Ethiopia. Saba Gebreyesus made a two-week trek to Sudan, “walking at night to try to avoid the different military groups fighting in that area.” During the journey, she told her children she once she slept in a tree surrounded by hungry hyenas. She eventually resettled in California and met Haben’s father, another immigrant from Ethiopia. Haben was born in 1988 and attended public schools in Oakland. She told the Harvard Law Bulletin: “My parents tried very hard to make sure I had access to everything, and consequently I grew up thinking I could have access to everything.”
2. Self-advocating at college
When GIrma began college at Lewis & Clark College in Oregon, she faced challenges in the cafeteria: because the food station menus were postedon the wall, she could not access them and, instead, walked to a station and took whatever she was served. Her classmates got to make informed choices about their meals but she never got those choices and felt like she deserved to know what was at all the food stations. She joked to NPR: “What if there was chocolate cake at Station Four?” She asked to have the cafeteria menu made accessible to her electronically so that she could have it translated to Braille but the cafeteria manager wasn’t reliable about doing so and said he was too busy to honor the request. Girma says that at that point “I explained that Title III of the ADA requires businesses to make reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities; if the cafeteria refused to do this, I would sue.” The menu started to arrive in her email inbox regularly after that. Moreover, the following year, a newly enrolled blind student was also able to take advantage of the system Girma had set up.
3. Harvard Law School
By the time she was accepted at Harvard, Girma knew she wanted to work as a legal advocate for people with disabilities. She set up a series of systems to make law school work well for her including getting all assigned readings in a digital form so she could either listen to them on her computer — she has some ability to hear high-pitched sounds — or read them on a Braille display. During class Girma had a voice transliterator in the back of the room who would narrate the discussion for her, transmitting from their microphones into her earphones. Sounds amplification worked for her in quiet environments but for noisier spaces, she developed a two-keyboard system to communicate in groups. People can type into a Bluetooth keyboard, and the words pop up on a Braille for Girma to read. “This system has let me communicate everywhere,” she told the Harvard Law Daily, “from the loudest dance club to HLS receptions.”
4. Champion of Change
Friends and colleagues aren’t the only ones who have taken advantage of the two-keyboard set up to chat with Girma. In 2013, she was invited to the White House to introduce President Obama at an event celebrating the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Acts. She told NBC that Obama entered his side of the conversation into the keyboard but that he was a very slow typist. However, she said the whole interaction was positive, telling NBC: “A lot of people are uncomfortable with something that’s different…they come up with all kinds of excuses that basically say ‘this is weird; I don’t want to get involved.'” But Obama wasn’t. “He graciously switched from speaking to typing so that I could access his words. And we had an awesome conversation.”
President Obama types a message to Haben Girma, who is deaf and blind, before she introduced him at ADA reception
Girma with President Obama
5. Professional disability rights advocate
After law school, Girma went to work for Disability Rights Advocates, a non-profit in Berkeley, CA. According to her official bio on the organization’s website, “Working to increase access to technology for people with disabilities, she helped achieve victory in National Federation of the Blind v. Scribd, one of only two decisions to hold that the ADA applies to virtual businesses.” The case involved arguing that Scribd was required under the law to make materials in their online library accessible to the blind. After settling the case out of court, Scribd agreed to do so in 2017.
6. New memoir out this month
Girma is telling her life story in her new book Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law. She says she hopes her story gives readers a new perspective on disabled persons, telling People magazine, “I hope people can move away from seeing people with disabilities as incompetent. If we remove barriers, we can have great inclusion.” Girma’s new book was released in August and is available at all major book sellers.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. Her work has been seen at Ravishly, Babble, Scary Mommy, The Mid, Redbook online, and The Broad Side. She is the creator of the blog Stay at Home Pundit and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.
Female Gender Mutilation is a crime punishable under VAPP Act. Take the message to those in your villages, churches and mosques who think it’s a choice.
The Law seems to be bias against ladies and in favour of men. A man can impregnate a lady and still go free by merely denying responsibility.
Ladies you see, the Law says, he who asserts must prove. In other words, if you allege that a man is responsible for your pregnancy, you must prove it. Mere assertion is not enough. Lawyers in this situation would refer you to sections 131 and 132 of the Evidence Act, 2011 and to many decided cases. Though the burden of proof may be light if you have several witnesses to give oral testimony in support of your case, but even at that, I just hope they can stand cross examination in matters of this nature.
And if you think after giving birth to the child you will sue your man and ask court to conduct DNA test on him, forget it. The reason is because though in the case of Olayinka Vs Adeparusi & Anor (2011) LPELR 8691 CA it was held that our laws permit DNA test in proof of paternity, the same court recently held in the case of Anozia Vs. Nnani & Anor. (2015) 8 NWLR (pt.1461) 241 that such test can be conducted only with the permission of the man if the man is above the age of 18 (an adult).
Furthermore, it was held in that same Anozia Vs. Nnani that conducting DNA test on a party to a case on the application of the other party would amount to resort to the coercive powers of the court to compel her adversary to supply her with the possible evidence she needs to prove her case. In other words, if the court is to embark on this exercise (of ordering a man to be subjected to a DNA test to prove that he was responsible for the pregnancy that resulted in the birth of a child), the court will be leaving its role of adjudication to play the role of inquisition. The court is a trial court and not an investigative agency or body. It would mean a lady is asking the court to assist her to procure the evidence which she requires to prove her case against a man.
The court added in Anozia’s case that it would amount to breach of an adult’s constitutional right to privacy for him to be subjected to DNA test.
Funny and Ironically enough, it is easier for a man to claim paternity of a child if the paternity is attributed to a different person. In other words, a man can sue a lady to claim a child if the lady mentions a different person’s name as the father of her child. Interestingly, he can apply for DNA test to be conducted on himself and the child for paternity of the child to be determined. The reason why law will agree with the man and conduct the DNA test is because the child he is claiming is not an adult yet.
I find the law very funny and quite illogical. What the courts seem to be suggesting is that a child does not have the right to privacy. This reasoning to my mind goes contrary to section 37 of the constitution which gives every citizen the right to privacy irrespective of his age or maturity. However, the position of the courts may be premised on the need to always protect the best interest of the child. But generally I would have preferred the law to allow men to be subjected to DNA test with or without their consent in that such is also in the best interest of the child. Though some men may disagree with my opinion by saying that ladies can abuse it and subject many guys to unnecessary DNA tests which would lead to embarrassment to innocent men.
Whatever perspective one may look at the whole situation from, the law is always the law irrespective of its harshness. It always stands until it is changed either by the legislature or the judiciary through judicial activism. Since the law doesn’t seem to favour ladies and ladies are always at the receiving end of “unwanted pregnancies”, that is, stigma and frustration among others, they need to shine their eyes.
I know the write up is too long but permit me to make a quick and short remark on the controversial statement of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in the case of Ukeje v. Ukeje (2014) 11 NWLR Part 1418 Page 384 to the effect that where a certificate of birth has been issued, evidencing the father of a person, the content of the certificate is conclusive proof that the person named therein (in the absence of proof that the certificate was not genuine) is the father of such a person. It does not matter who gives the information before it was recorded in the birth certificate. Should ladies then adopt this as a device of attributing paternity of children to stubborn guys? With profound respect to the learned justices this statement is too sweeping. I should not be misunderstood as disagreeing with the learned justices, I am only of the view that the statement is too general. I wouldn’t advise any lady to rely on this Supreme Court decision. This decision was based on its peculiar circumstance, so to my mind, adopting it may only lead to embarrassments to ladies.
O. G. Chukkol is a final year student, Faculty of Law, ABU, Zaria and may be reached via [email protected]or 08032470318
The future of internet banking in Nigeria appears to be under great peril as telecommunication companies threaten to deny banks the use of their platforms for money transfer.
Apprehension in the industry was hightened this week when the companies warned that they might to stop offering the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), while accusing banks and the authorities of insincerity on the issue.
USSD is a Global System for Mobile(GSM) communication technology that is used to send text between a mobile phone and an application program in the network.
Speaking under the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), they expressed dismay at the silence and inaction of key stakeholders, including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) and Body of Bank Chief Executive Officers (CEOs).
They also excoriated the role of Communications and Digital Economy Minister, Dr Ali Pantani, who issued a ‘directive’ to stop them from charging for the services they offer to the financial institutions.
Addressing a world press conference towards the group’s 20th anniversary, Chairman of ALTON, Gbenga Adebayo, challenged the argument that the cost of providing the services was ‘sunk’. He wondred if the cost of building a house could be described as ‘sunk’.
Adebayo said the companies invested huge cash to put the infrastructure in place, adding that they have been spending money to keep the base transceiver stations (BTS) running, in addition to other costs.
Adebayo said the operators will soon apply the relevant sections of the Nigerian Communications Act to stop providing links to the banks.
The operators, especially MTN, had stopped the implementation of the N4 charge per 20 seconds for every USSD access to banking services, following the public outcry and subsequent directive from Dr. Pantami.
The carriers insisted that stakeholders are yet to meet to discuss the way forward, “but the banks have continued to charge as much as N55 per transaction, using the same telecoms operators platform.”
Adebayo, while sharing the success story of the industry in the last 20 years, said the industry will not offer USSD services free of charge.
He stressed that the USSD cost was never a sunk cost as championed by the CBN, it is an infrastructure, which the operators have invested so much in the last one decade.
Adebayo said: “I am saying it again that the USSD links will not be offered free of charge. The records are there. We are tracking how much the banks are charging and making on the USSD. When the time comes, and we agree on way forward, we will show them what they have been charging. For the telcos, it cost them so much to provide the service.
“What should have happened is that when we first raised this issue, we made public statement and expected that a stakeholders meeting should have been called to discuss the matter.
“The CBN governor spoke, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy spoke, the NCC withdrew; and since then, nobody has said anything. We expected that a meeting of minds, where all parties (telcos and the banks) would come and talk on the matter to a find a lasting solution, but nothing of such. I am saying it again; we cannot bury this matter under the table and wish it goes away, it won’t go away. The fact is those links won’t be provided at no cost.
“When the time comes, we shall treat it as interconnect debt. We shall invoke the right of the provider of service under the Act of the NCC. So, if the banks will continue to enjoy the service and they won’t pay, telcos will make a case to the NCC for proper disconnect.”
She was a science student. She had little to do with literature. It was all about the laboratory and all manner of science practicals. But – a picture kept flashing in her mind. It was like a little movie. It just wouldn’t stop playing – Her dad carrying her up as little girl and on her head was a lawyer’s wig.
Daisy and dad as a little girl
Then she took her chance. “I’ll study law,”she told herself. Then….a lecturer almost eclipsed that dream!
Her tweet:
“Went through a lot to get here….MADE ITTTTTTTTT!!!! Ahhhhhh Physics, Chemistry and Biology in secondary school….a lecturer that made my life hell and about 2 years of missing results in university…I still came out on top. I can scream.”
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