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CAC Can Now Takeover Churches, Mosques, Associations And NGOs?

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Daily Law Tips (Tip 634) by Onyekachi Umah, Esq., LL.M, ACIArb(UK)

CAC Can Now Takeover Churches, Mosques, Associations, and NGOs?

With Nigeria ranking low on the ease of doing business, came external pressures to fast track formation and management of business in Nigeria. Some say, the new Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 is the messiah, however, the stakeholders in the not-for-profit sector think otherwise. The President of Nigeria, on 7 August 2020, signed into law a new company law to regulate formation and management of companies and other related issues, including not-for-profit and non-governmental organisations in Nigeria. In this work, “not-for-profit” and “organisations” includes and covers; groups of persons, associations, societies, clubs, religious groups, not-for-profit organizations and non-governmental organizations.

Before the advent of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 (CAMA 2020), there was an earlier but now repealed (dead), Companies and Allied Matters Act made since 1990. By the former federal law, not-for-profit and non-governmental organisations were registered and managed under a federal agency; the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). This role of the CAC has not changed rather more powers have been added to the CAC, including powers that are arguably unjustifiable, undemocratic, anti-business and anti-development. For example, regulation of a part of law practise and bailing out of insolvent companies without setting a fixed standard, among other issues.

Earlier on 4 July 2020, I made a publication (CAC Cannot Deregister an Incorporated Trustee [Association/Group/NGO/NPO] and examined the then powers of CAC to register or deregister not-for-profit organisations under the old law. My finding was that registration of not-for-profits is not mandatory and that CAC lacks the power to deregister a not-for-profit organisation. However, a month later, the new CAMA 2020 came into existence and the powers of CAC have developed enormously overnight on legislative fertilizer.

By the new CAMA 2020, the CAC has powers to accept application from two or more persons representing groups of persons, associations, societies, clubs, religious groups, not-for-profit organizations and non-governmental organizations, for registration to become a corporate body. Also, the CAC can now suspend trustees/management of organizations for corruption and in their place appoint interim trustees/managers. The suspension is designed to last not more than 12 months. Also, the property and accounts of the organisation will be taken over by the interim trustees/managers.

Earlier by the old CAMA 1990, CAC could apply to court to terminate/dissolve organisations. By the old law, the only reasons that a court may allow dissolution of a not-for-profit organisation, include; that the aims and objectives of the organisation has been realized and there is no need to keep the organisation; the aims and objectives have become illegal; the organisation was formed for a specific period and the period has expired or that it is just and equitable to dissolve the organisation. The court will have to hear the petition for dissolution to be filed by CAC and must invite the persons that will be affected by the dissolution.

Now by the new law (CAMA 2020), the CAC can now suspend the trustees of a not-for-profit organisation, where CAC merely believes that there is or has been a misconduct/mismanagement/fraud in the administration/affairs of an organization; it is necessary/desirable to do so in order to protect the property of an organization or that it is in the public interest to do so. Misconduct and mismanagement include over-invoicing/misappropriation and the payment of salary or any remuneration/reward to persons managing the affairs of not-for-profit organisation.

This is really what is expected of every not-for-profit organisation even in the old law, since not-for-profit organisation is charity and its founders/managers are not to get rewards/salaries for their selfless works. However, the old CAMA, failed to empower CAC with pragmatic powers to check the growing excesses of not-for-profit organisations and their founders/managers across Nigeria. With this, whistle blowers and audits will reveal misconduct to CAC and CAC can suspend concerned founders/managers. Note that, instead of forming a not-for-profit organisation as a disguise for business/social ventures (to evade tax and other legal responsibilities), it is better one forms a company/partnership/business name so that he and his cronies can continue making profit, paying remunerations/rewards to themselves and spending their wealth with little or no scrutiny. Charity must be charity!

On how CAC can suspend trustees, there seem to be 2 early schools of thought. The first school argues that CAC can suspend trustees through its own administrative order. While the second school, argues that CAC can suspend a trustee, by seeking and obtaining an order of court. A critical examination of the new law, reveals that CAC cannot suspend trustees and appoint interim trustees without an order of court.

Above all, trustees can now be suspended by CAC (directly/outrightly or through courts, which eve school you belong to) and strangers can be imposed on a not-for-profit organisation as interim trustees/managers. This anti-corruption tool is designed to limit the abuse seen in organisations where property of organisations are plundered by founders, trustees and managers and even employed on matters contrary to the objectives of their organizations. So, any founder/manager that is corrupt is gradually inviting strangers to take over the affairs of his not-for-profit organisation. Thus says the new CAMA 2020, being the law law and it will continue to apply to all persons and not-for-profit organisations.

My authorities are:

1. Sections 823, 838, 839, 868 and 870 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020.

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Avoid Elrufai’s Distraction, Revive Legal Activism, Lawyer Tells NBA

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More lawyers have continued to rally against the invitation of Gov. Nasir Elrufai to the Nigerian Bar Association Annual General Conference 2020, stating that his divisive approach to the unabated killings in Kaduna State, could impact negatively on the gathering.

A Human Rights Lawyer, Mojirayo Ogunlana-Nkanga, in a statement described the invitation as a needless distraction, while cautioning “this is not the time for political endorsements and acceptance.”
The statement read:
I woke up this morning to the news that some lawyers are writing to the leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association that they will boycott the NBA AGC 2020 should Governor Mallam Nasiru El-Rufai be retained as a speaker in the event. This has generated a lot of controversies and there are several arguments for and against his admittance at the conference. Someone on a social media platform stated that the Governor was invited so he can come and explain the crisis.
Governor Mallam Nasiru El-Rufai does not need the platform of the Nigerian Bar Association to come and explain the crisis happening in Southern Kaduna. As the executive Governor of Kaduna State he has ample platforms to explain, describe and bamboozle the public as he wants to. He has the media such as AIT, STV, Leadership Newspaper, Punch, Guardian, BBC, etc to air his views and give all manner of descriptions he wants. But coming to the AGC? The AGC is not a political conference! It’s a conference where Lawyers should gather and think of the future of the critical state of our democracy and the dying rule of law. 
We should come together to discuss how judicial activism will help resuscitate due process and the rule of law. Instead we are yet again committing our legal system to the same bash we did when the President of the Country gallantly spoke to a body of Lawyers that he will strangle the rule of law in the name of national security. And has his administration not been true to his words?

This is not the time for political endorsements and acceptance. We must hold Mallam accountable for the theatre of murder that has persisted in the State. Let’s call him to order not give him a platform that will be misconstrued by the public who have daily questioned the integrity of the bar. Mallam is responsible for the security of the people of Kaduna. If he is not providing that then it is important that a body of lawyers should not give him a platform for any reason. 

If he wants to be heard, let him go to the people whom he is elected to represent. Let’s think about the vulnerable women and children who have found themselves in the middle of the crisis in Kaduna and are crying out for help. This is the time for Nigerian lawyers who want the NBA to progress beyond its present camatose state to rise up and lend their voices for the survival of the legal practice, for good governance, rule of law and the protection of human rights.

Mojirayo Ogunlana-Nkanga

Abuja based Legal Practitioner

M.O.N LEGAL

chychychukwu

Breaking: Rahamaniyya Oil and Gas Boss, Abdulrahman Bashir, Jailed in UK

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It is often said in philosophical parlance that man’s Karma travels with him, like his shadow. Abdulrahman Bashir, the Chief Executive Officer of Rahamaniyya Oil and Gas Limited has been jailed in the United Kingdom for ten months.

Justice Butcher of England and Wales High Court sentenced the Nigerian oil mogul after he was found guilty of breaching multiple orders of the court in a pending suit instituted by Sahara Energy Resources Ltd.

Bashir who was handed a 10 months jail sentence, had been ordered to comply with requests for the release of 6,400.69 metric tonnes gas oil to Sahara Energy Resource Ltd or its agent from Rahamaniyya Oil and Gas Ltd, Jetty 6.436181, Ibafon, Kirikiri Waterfront, of Aero Maritime Street, Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria (“the Terminal”).

This was in line with the deal Ultimate Oil and Gas, the trading arm of Rahamaniyya Oil in the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), entered into a deal with Sahara Energy in 2018. In the signed contract, Ultimate agreed to buy, and Sahara agreed to sell 15,000 metric tonnes in the Vacuum of Gas Oil.

A Collateral Management Agreement (CMA) containing a London arbitration clause was entered into on July 8, 2018 between the two parties and it was further learnt that Rahamaniyya agreed to store the gas oil at its terminal pending payment by Ultimate.

Sahara delivered a total of 14,967.159 metric tonnes of gas oil to Rahamaniyya’s terminal in Nigeria and also issued invoices for the gas oil on October 26, 2018 for USD 10,760,728.77. The payment should have been made by August 29, 2019 but Ultimate defaulted in making necessary payments.

In December 2018, Ultimate and Sahara entered into a settlement agreement in which Ultimate confirmed that the value of gas oil that had been delivered was USD 10,760,728.77, and agreed to make a series of monthly payments for it.

Court records showed that some payments were made, in consequence of which some 8,566.469 metric tonnes of gas oil was released to Ultimate. Ultimate, however reneged in performing the terms of the settlement agreement in full by making all the payments due. After various warnings, on May 10, 2019, Sahara terminated the settlement agreement, notifying Ultimate that its agent, Asharami Synergy Plc would take delivery of part of the remaining gas oil from the terminal.

Various attempts made by Sahara to obtain delivery of the gas oil were futile, leading to the lawsuit which was filed both in Lagos and in the United Kingdom.

Justice Butcher who delivered the third order following a contempt of court judgement;

“The basis of the sentence was that Mr Bashir had committed continuing breaches of the order of Mr Justice Robin Knowles of 1 August 2019 and of the order of Mr Justice Bryan of 6 September 2019.”

There was also a binding indication that the sentence could be reduced to six months if Mr Bashir complies with the relevant order which had previously been breached. He was also fined £500,000 while Adebowale Aderemi, its manager, was fined £10,000.

thecapital

(Opinion) Are killings in Southern Kaduna by Fulani herdsmen truly reprisals?

By Danjuma Bwang

The Federal Government, the Kaduna State Government and the Fulani propaganda groups are all united in claiming that the killings in Southern Kaduna are reprisal killings by the Fulanis to revenge the killings of Fulanis in the post presidential elections of 2011. The Kaduna State Government has also alleged that the Zangon Kataf crisis of 1992 forms the basis of subsequent crises in the area and needs to be revisited. So they have set up a committee to revisit the investigative committees set up to dig out the immediate and remote causes of the crisis. It is in the midst of this that some are already calling for the execution of Gen Zamani Lekwot who was indicted by the investigation!

But are the killings in Southern Kaduna, covering several local government areas, truly reprisal killings? Can the happenings of 1992 and 2011 be justification for the genocide going on in Southern Kaduna? Could there be no other motives driving the carnage?
These issues need to be dispassionately looked into.

The Zangon Kataf crises happened in 1992, 28 years ago! According to the Atyap Community Development Association (ACDA), on whose land the crisis occurred, both the Federal and succeeding Kaduna State governments have acted on the issues raised by both the Justice Rahila Cudjoe Commission of Inquiry on the 1992 Zangon Kataf crisis and the AVM Usman Muazu Reconciliation Committee Reports of 1995. For the Mallam Nasiru Elrufai led-administration to set up a committee to write a white paper in 2020 of a crisis that occurred in 1992 smacks of a hidden agenda, which is not really hidden to any discerning observer of the happenings in the state.

The background leading to the post presidential elections of 2011 shows that it was when some Hausa/Fulani followers of Gen Mohammadu Buhari saw that President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan had defeated their candidate in the 2011 elections that they spontaneously(?) started killing Christians in several places in the North. The situation in Kaduna state was aggravated by the winning of Mr Ibrahim Yakowa, the first Christian to ever win a governorship election in the state. Many Christians were gruesomely murdered in several parts of the state, including Zaria and Kaduna town. It was when corpses of several Southern Kaduna indigenes started arriving home that the people also spontaneously reacted. And in their reaction some Southern Kaduna communities chased away Fulani settlements within their communities and burnt their huts, mostly thatch houses. In the ensuing clashes some casualties were recorded on both sides of the conflict even in Southern Kaduna! For the Federal Government, the State Government and the Fulani propaganda groups to claim that it was an unprovoked and one-sided massacre of the Fulanis is to be typically economical with the truth!

It would be recalled that upon ascending to power as the governor of Kaduna state, Mallam Nasiru Elrufai had set up the Gen Martin Luther Agwai committee to look into the 2011 crises and its aftermaths. The committee recommended that the government should compensate all the parties who incurred losses in the crises. But according to Gov Elrufai, in a widely circulated video interview clip, he said he paid the Fulani killers of Southern Kaduna people based on the committee’s report. But Gen Agwai responded that their committee’s report did not recommend that only Fulanis should be compensated. So why is it that only Fulanis were compensated by the government?

Also, since Gov Elrufai followed the killers to their countries and settled them, it means he knows who the killers are, why hasn’t the DSS invited him to furnish them with more information in order to arrest them? And also, since the killers have been settled why are they still killing people? From Gov Elrufai’s actions and utterances it is clear to even a fool that His Excellency is complicit in the killings. But for what purpose?

Several Fulani and Muslim groups both within and outside Southern Kaduna are claiming that they are the original owners of the land area called Southern Kaduna! This is a revisionist historical approach that is typically and completely devoid of truth and credibility. We have always lived with Fulani pastoralists and Hausa traders in some of our communities for centuries with minimal conflicts. This was because they knew and acknowledged the Chiefs of the communities they were domiciled in! What is happening of late is the matter of land grabbing by the Fulani hegemonists and orchestrated by an ethno-religiously bigotic government!

Obviously, the Federal and Kaduna state governments have bought into this false narrative and have set in motion a machinery to forcefully recover the land area of Southern Kaduna and give it to the Fulanis! Or how else would one explain the forceful acquisition of over 70 hectres of land exclusively for Fulanis in Ikulu land in Zangon Kataf local govt area, which is called Laduga? To date, not a kobo has been paid to the land owners. And the Kaduna state govt has unilaterally transferred Laduga from Zangon Kataf to Kachia Local Govt area! As at today, Laduga seems to be a safe haven for Fulanis, where they plan and execute attacks on the surrounding areas and retire there peacefully, fully protected by security agencies.

So then, the killings in Southern Kaduna enjoys Federal and State governments’ complicity. And they want to forcefully drive away the peoples of Southern Kaduna and takeover their lands. Is this justifiable?

Before I conclude this write up, we must know that the situation in Southern Kaduna is not exclusive or limited to them. The same thing is happening in Plateau, Nasarawa, Benue, Taraba and Adamawa states. It is an assault that we have never seen in recent times. The only time this was attempted was in 1804 when Usmanu Dan Fodi, a Fulani man, held a jihad and took over much of what is known as Northern Nigeria today! Dan Fodio set up a Fulani dynasty in the North, where ALL the Emirs are Fulanis, with few exceptions, with peculiar historical developments that we won’t get into here. But is it also on record that the peoples of the Middle Belt and Bornu Empire successfully resisted this Fulanization putsch! Our ancestors who resisted forceful Fulanization/Islamization were uneducated and practitioners of African Traditional Religion (ATR), they were not even Christians yet! (Christianity came and penetrated much of the area we call Middle Belt today about 100 years after the jihad)!

Should the Southern Kaduna peoples and indeed the Middle Belt region cheaply forfeit their ancestral lands to the Fulani hegemonists?

You decide!

▪︎ Bwang, a public commentator, lives in Jos, and sent this via WhatsApp

NBA Conference: Lawyers Deregister, Query El-rufai’s Inclusion As Key Speaker

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With nine days to the 60th annual Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) Conference, some lawyers on social media have queried the inclusion of Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai as one of the key speakers in the forthcoming virtual conference.

NBA had on May 12, 2020, stated that it will hold its Annual General Conference (AGC) slated for August virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Paul Usoro (SAN) who was then president of the association, the decision became necessary following a meeting with the Technical Committee on Conference Planning (TCCP) led by Professor Konyinsola Ajayi (SAN), where it was decided that the 2020 AGC would be held virtually.

The conference is expected to commence from 26th through 29th August 2020.

Speakers at the event include the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, Speaker, Federal House of Assembly, Rt Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon Justice Tanko Mohammed.

Other key speakers include former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, Former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami, President of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA), Brian Speers and Director of Training at the Judicial Institute for Africa; Hon Dame Linda, Dobbs

Reacting to the inclusion of governor El-Rufai’s name on the list of key speakers, one of the lawyers identified as Itong Washington who deregistered from being part of the virtual conference wrote on Twitter “Dear @NigBarAssoc, I just ran through the list of speakers in the forthcoming virtual conference and Gov. El-Rufai’s name is on the list. I’ll be withdrawing my attendance and cancelling my registration for the conference. Thank you”.

The lawyer, however, did not state the reason behind his action after seeing El-Rufai’s name on the list and NBA was yet to react to the development as at the time of filing this report.

Reacting, @Lugard_Tareotu tweeted: Governor @elrufai has no business addressing lawyers at the @NigBarAssoc conference. As lawyers, it is our duty to uphold the rule of law. Courts have found that El-rufai’s Government has illegally arrested & incarcerated people. I hereby withdraw my attendance from the conference.

The user added: And I call on other well meaning lawyers to also boycott the conference, except El-rufai is withdrawn from speaking at the event. The Kaduna State Government does not have a track record of respect for the rule of law and protecting the rights to life and property.

@itongwashington wrote: Dear @NigBarAssoc, I just ran through the list of speakers in the forthcoming virtual conference and Gov. El-Rufai’s name is on the list. I’ll be withdrawing my attendance and cancelling my registration for the conference.

@SKefason: Dear @NigBarAssoc, I hope you take the outcry against your nomination of Gov Nasir Elrufai as one of the speakers in your upcoming conference serious and remove him from the list. Don’t give me reason to believe that the NBA has lost its essence.

@the_ngozi: I love that Lawyers are boycotting the NBA AGC because Paul Usoro deemed El-Rufai, of all people, fit to actually speak? This joke is not even funny. With El-Rufai’s track record, you want him to speak to lawyers? Boycott it, let only Paul & his Bestie attend.

@Jummiest2: Have you noticed that the numbers of lawyers withdrawing from NBA annual conference because it has El-rufai as one of the speakers, no southern Kaduna lawyer yet as of the time I read, now you said SK people are troublesome.

@friarsomadina: Is it proper for the Paul Usoro-led @NigBarAssoc to allow those associated with disobedience of court orders to address her conference. The NBA should be a symbol of rule of law.

@AsiruAbbas: NBA is becoming more or less a useless organization. El-Rufai that threatened to return foreign election observers in body bags on NTA Tuesday live in 2019 before the general elections, making him one of the speakers is outlandishly preposterous. Is NBA dancing on the grave?

Meanwhile, El-Rufai has stated that Southern Kaduna leaders accusing him of being inactive over the incessant killings want “brown envelope”.

The governor spoke on Channels Television’s programme, Sunday Politics.

“I have no time for nonsense. I will not appease idle people who have nothing to do but to raise a spectre of genocide. They do that to get money into their bank accounts and get donations from abroad instead of standing up,” he said.

Matthew Page, former United States intelligence community’s Nigeria expert, insisted that the communal violence in southern Kaduna is well documented.

“Those affected by it are not angling to be invited to cocktail parties. El-Rufai is either working toward peace and a durable political and socio-economic solution – or he is part of the problem”, he tweeted on Tuesday.

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Defence of freedom in perilous times, By Osmund Agbo

“The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance.” 

– John Philpot Curran 

A colleague of mine once told a story about her husband, John. Actually, let me rephrase that: the tale was more about John’s love for the cycling legend, Lance Armstrong. Lance, the former American professional road racing cyclist was a seven times winner of the prestigious Tour de France. When it came to Lance, John, a celebrated heart surgeon was but a hapless groupie. His obsession became total when the legend rose from fighting a potentially fatal testicular cancer to win one more of his highly competitive race. 

Not long after those quick succession of victories and to his fan’s utter disappointment, cycling’s most decorated champion became the subject of a doping allegation. It all came to a screeching halt on 17 January 2013, when in front of a national audience, Lance Armstrong, considered one of America’s greatest athletes, confessed to have deployed a cocktail of performance enhancing drugs that included growth hormone, erythropoietin and diuretics to cheat his way to victory. Not suprising, John took the story of his hero’s fall so hard and was completely devastated. The sad news served him the kind of gut punch that obtains when the Spider-Man in your life comes crashing. 

Despite his hero’s admission of guilt, John remained in total disbelief and as a matter of fact, decided thenceforth that Lance Armstrong was above reproach. That meant that any report unflattering of him got to be someone else’s fault. My colleague was shocked that her highly regarded and supposedly informed husband deliberately chose not to face the truth. ”He would weave his own story to escape from reality and refused to hold his hero accountable for any of his infractions”, she stated.

Another experience describes a similar concept though differently. Birtherism and the 44th President of the United States. 

Even after Donald Trump, the arrowhead of the conspiracy theory finally acknowledged that Barrack Obama was born in the US, there were still a good chunk of his followers who despite the fact that Mr. Obama showed his birth certificate in both the short and long form, continued to insist that he was born outside of the US. These were the same group that likely would dismiss Trump’s salacious and creepy ”grab ’em by the….” comment as boys being boys. If you can’t blot it out of your consciousness, the second-best option is to water down the seriousness of it all. Boys being boys for sure sounded way better than ascribing the label of a sex predator to Mr. Trump. Of course, without the infamous video clip those followers would have sworn with their lives that the fake news media was out to get their messianic President. 

In those two separate scenarios, believing in anything else meant the individuals involved would face the onerous task of having to deconstruct what was built in the mind over the years. To them, it sure was much easier to live in an alternative universe instead. Such is a not too subtle form of psychological manipulation that gaslights one into a state of cognitive dissonance. This may sound a bit strange but funny enough, most of us are victims of such except when an individual makes a conscious effort to rid oneself of those primordial shackles to become free.

Truth is everyone has a bias. We are either born with it or grew up having some form of it. It doesn’t even matter that one may not acknowledge it. Most times it exists within the subconscious and that’s why we are often in denial. We are first a product of our own genome and later our growth environment. That is something we just can’t help. Well, we actually can to a good extent but it takes a lot of effort and hard work to overcome. 

Make no mistake, humans are more emotional than rational creatures. Have you ever wondered why someone may decide to find every reason to latch tenaciously onto an obvious falsehood despite all the available evidence to the contrary? It may also not be unconnected with the reason why we tend to click and share things that are more likely to support our positions. That means that if you are a fan of Barrack Obama, you are more likely to share whatever positive thing someone might say about him while conveniently ignoring those critical of him. The converse is also true.

One of the ways Putin helped Donald Trump win the 2016 US presidential election was through the use of a sophisticated Russian disinformation campaign that exploited both individual and system bias. The same way you are surprised to see a product you clicked on Amazon show up in your Facebook feed is same way peddlers of conspiracy theories look out for a would-be victim. They utilise a complex algorithm that tracks our predilections and use that to figure out individual bias in order to predict behaviours.

Among the main target of the Russian campaign was the African-American community, a core base of the Democratic Party. Russians knew the impact of bringing up racial issues among this group and wouldn’t stop talking about Bill Clinton’s 1994 crime bill. This was the bill that prosecutors seized upon to send lots of young black men to prison. I don’t believe Clinton consented to that bill specifically to target blacks but it was nonetheless a very effective propaganda tool. They knew exactly what to say to sow the seed of distrust in people’s mind. They took to Facebook, Twitter and attacked from multiple fronts. They were everywhere and you just couldn’t escape their reach. The attack was relentless.

In the end, folks in the black community who already knew enough not to vote for Donald Trump, were also dissuaded from going out to vote for Hilary Clinton. The result was that in many states that Trump ended up winning in the electoral college, black turnout was an all-time low. The black voter’s turnout rate declined for the first-time in 20 years in a presidential election, falling to 59.6% in 2016, after reaching a record high 66.6% in 2012. They stayed home and the rest they say is now history. That was how black America unwittingly handed out victory to the one she loves to hate. That was the pervasive power of disinformation and the art of modern warfare. Truth is, by our actions and inactions we are all unwilling soldiers recruited in this fight. If you have ever shared an article on Facebook, WhatsApp or any other platform, you may have helped magnify a voice for good or evil.

In this age of Russian troll farms, Infowars and fake news, we all have a little choice to make. One such is to educate yourself, do a little digging and maybe step an inch closer to the truth. But that’s only if you care for the truth. The alternative is to conveniently join the army of click and share across social media platforms. With that you can then elect to help sketchy characters propagate whatever conspiracy, bigoted and quite often hateful ideologies they sell every day. Or better still, spread misinformation as long as it reinforces your own personal bias. 

The choice is definitely ours to make. Maybe the next time you are tempted to share a controversial essay or an inciting video, first do your best to verify if the source is even credible. Ask yourself commonsense questions. Make sure it passes those basic tests and resist the urge to believe everything and disseminate quickly. Such restraint may be a small but very consequential role you play in defending our freedom and shaping our world. A better world for us today and that which we one day hope to pass on to our children. So, help us God.

•Dr. Agbo is the president/CEO of African Center for Transparency and writes from USA. Email: [email protected]

El-Rufai: A critic’s desperation for silence

On October 26, 2016, Dr John Dan Fulani, public commentator and lecturer at the Kaduna State University, was arrested and detained for 13 days. His offense: he made a Facebook post criticizing the government of Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna State. A reporter with a local newspaper, for publishing a story claiming the governor had assets worth billions of Naira, was equally detained for 13 days. Luka Binniyat, a Kaduna-based Vanguard journalist, published reports on the recent Southern Kaduna killings. For so doing, he was constantly harassed by agents of the state government, and was even tagged “a threat to the security of the state” by a media aide to the governor. Rights activist Gloria Ballason’s radio programme was shut down and reassigned to another person, never mind she owned the intellectual property rights. The state government had found the programme “troubling and upsetting.”

To be fair, it didn’t start with governor el-Rufai, this persecution of free speech. For posting pictures of Fulani murders in Southern Kaduna in 2013, Reuben Buhari, a former aide to former Kaduna State governor, Patrick Yakowa, was repeatedly questioned and harassed. But el-Rufai’s media repression strikes a brow-raising effect for its element of contradiction. For a man who reached power standing on the pedestal of free speech, if not scandalous anti-government parroting, media gagging is such a tragic irony.

A recent survey by a non-governmental organization, Spaces for Change, assessing freedom of expression within the Kaduna civic space, reports gross abuses. All 13 civil society actors interviewed bemoaned incessant government harassments and especially social media muffling. The social media invites more intimidation for its more democratic nature, its dynamic of spread. While the conventional media can be silent to ensure its survival from government patronage, the social media, like el-Rufai’s Twitter account, is sustained by cheap, powerful clicks. It is depressing that the governor, an otherwise shining example in brilliant and intellectual capital idealized for Nigerian leadership, is the one manning the dark work of blighting expression. Being accused, sometimes plausibly, of Fulani sectionalism, is bad enough.

Sometimes plausibly, like in his handling of the recent Southern Kaduna killings. When they do not smack of appeasement to Fulani sense of entitlement, his utterances inspire little or no confidence in the victims. “The Fulani have lived in Southern Kaduna for over 200 years. How can they be calling them non-indigenes?” the governor was reported to have said on the Hausa edition of Voice of America. The Christian Association of Nigeria, Kaduna State chapter, believes “the posture of the government encourages the killings”. The leadership of the Southern Kaduna People’s and Union, SOKAPU, has no faith in the government. Such loss of confidence does not bother the governor, it appears, who says those preaching self-defence are guilty of hate speech and will be arrested. This, even as certain reports alleged security agents stood as people were hacked to death. There was the case of Pasokari village, where a village head and six others were invited for a “peace meeting” by men in military uniforms. They were brutally killed and nothing happened.

Nor has there been remarkable effort at remediation. “Government has not shown sufficient interest in bringing unprovoked attacks in Southern Kaduna to an end”, said Dr Solomon Musa, SOKAPU leader. Unless recently, only one IDP camp caters to the massive humanitarian crisis in Southern Kaduna. Children are out of school; people are displaced from work; hunger bites. Yet in all these, the state government is more interested in siting a grazing reserve in Southern Kaduna. Why not in Northern Kaduna–why propose to grab the land of the violated to appease the violator? Why does the humanitarian predicament of hunger, death, and displacement not earn priority? Why does prosecuting the murderers not reach the gravitas it deserves?

On sectionalism, the governor may have his defense: that he has been equally repressive to specific Muslim interests and rights. In other words it has been a democratic intolerance. There is the Shiite killings and more to his credit, there is the proscription of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, IMN, even though his detractors might insist he share that credit with the commission of inquiry that recommended that proscription. The locals detest the IMN, whose members allegedly do not allow the police and army into their  neighbourhoods, who are also accused of traffic obstruction and harassment of motorists. But the Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, among some other commentators, accuses the government of anti-Shia bias, of giving a dog a bad name to hang it. The IMN has not been found guilty of any treasonable offense, hence its repression might be political in line with governor el-Rufai’s perceived allergy to tolerance.

One must admit: governance, especially in a volatile state like Kaduna, may sometimes warrant some form of state censorship. Reuben Buhari, for instance, was being harassed for sharing images that “could incite public anger” and cause reprisals. From the regulation of public preaching to the proscription of the IMN, the sentiment of necessary censorship by government seems like apparent motivation. But a government should not be so paranoid of expression as to become desperate for silence–if not for yesmanship.

“The governor does not want to be criticized, even though he enjoys criticizing people”, said Mordecai Ibrahim, Kaduna-based journalist and publisher, a view echoed by Saxone Akahaine and Israel Isue, journalists in the state. Reports say some journalists who published “anti-government stories” were abruptly transferred away from their duty posts. Others maintain a squeamish silence having been cowed by this climate of civic unease. Even civil servants have allegedly not been spared in this calculated raid on dissent.

Meanwhile, the state government denies all these charges. Either there is a conspiracy for false witness against the government by the Kaduna civil society or the denials are misleading.

For several reasons, the NGO’s report is unsettling. “The civic space in Kaduna…oscillates between repression and obstruction”, reads the report. El-Rufai is one of the symbolic faces of the current administration with respect to his closeness to the presidency  and thus, his actions against freedom of speech and minority concerns come at a high cost. The impunity of Fulani violence across the country finds imprimatur in government indulgences such as in Southern Kaduna. Failing to protect a people and yet threatening to punish them for self-defense are blatant acts of oppression. What is more, muzzling and harassing those who express such injustices is plain evil.

How did a popular beneficiary of media freedom and magnanimity reverse to such a crude muffler of speech?  Governor Nasir el-Rufai, yesterday’s critical automation, should reverse himself from desecrating the principle by which he rose to power.  In a polity lacking in constructive thought and erudite political engagement, the intellectual in government has a duty to elevate political conduct above the backwardness of civic muting. An intelligent leader in whom there is much expectation especially among the Nigerian young, the governor should live up to his bidding and review an approach that unites civil society groups in his condemnation.

spacesforchange

Lego hand comes out of boy’s nose after two years

Samir Anwar, from Dunedin on New Zealand’s South Island was playing with the Lego piece in 2018 when he put it up his nostril.

His dad Mudassir shone a torch up Samir’s nose at the time but couldn’t see it.

The GP told the family it would quickly find its way out naturally through his body, but it didn’t.

“Since then we were pretty confident that he didn’t have anything in his nose,” Mudassir tells Newsbeat.

Samir and his dad Mudassir

However Samir wasn’t so certain that the hand from his Lego set had made its way out the other side.

His dad says he was complaining in the days after: “He was saying ‘no, there is something in my nose’.”

But two years on the family had assumed it had passed through his system.

Then this week Samir was out with his family having a muffin with some fairy dust on the top that agitated his nose.

According to his father: “He started getting anxious again and we said to him just go and blow your nose. So he did.”

That’s when he says the black Lego hand came out into the tissue, leaving them all really surprised.

“We were shocked, his eyes were wide open and he was like, I found the Lego, I kept telling you that it was there, but you were saying that it was not.”

Read other health stories from our team of reporters like Greg Rutherford’s story

Samir had the hand in his nose for two years

Today Samir has been to the doctor once more and has been told for the second and hopefully final time, that he has the all-clear.

“I was surprised and a bit scared,” Samir tells Newsbeat, adding he is still a massive Lego fan and that he’s impressed that the piece had stayed intact.

“It [still] looked like a hand,” he says.

There is guidance if something similar ever happens to you. The NHS advises parents to take children to a minor injuries unit, rather than try and take out foreign objects from children’s noses, in case it pushes them further up.

BBC

AT 71, ARTHUR EZE HAS LOST IT -By Joseph Okemmadu, MD

Prince Arthur Eze:  Humiliated by President Buhari

Controversial as Prince Arthur Eze, has become in his desperate bid to become the godfather of Anambra state which has earned him the moniker of “Money Miss Road”, he may not be a fool, after all.

 Aware that his mission of taking a handful of obscure traditional rulers from Anambra state on Wednesday, August 5, to the Presidential Villa with the sole purpose of criticizing Governor Willie Obiano, before President Muhammadu Buhari, on Friday, August 7, was dangerous, he carefully made sure that his half-brother, Dr Robert Eze who is the monarch of Ukpo in Dunukofia Local Government Area, did not make the trip.

 Dr. Eze received the 12 traditional rulers in his palace while they were on their way to the airport, but did not follow them to Abuja.

Humiliated by President Muhammadu Buhari, in Abuja and now suspended by the Anambra state government, the traditional rulers are feeling swindled.

 Arthur Eze’s brother, a medical doctor, did not suffer any humiliation because he committed no offence. Why didn’t he join?
 He probably felt that they are not in the same class. The 12 traditional rulers are pipsqueaks; they are individuals whom most Anambra people have never heard of.

 In a state which boasts of such monarchs as Prof. Laz Ekwueme, winner of Nigeria’s highest honour for intellectual and artistic excellence, just like Prof. Vincent Chukwuemeka Ike, and Agbogidi Nnaemeka Alfred Achebe, an alumnus of Stanford and Columbia universities, who used to be a director of Shell International in London, it is unimaginable that a handful of villagers would arrogate to themselves the prerogative to represent the Anambra state Traditional Rulers Council on the national scene. 

Despite President Buhari’s decision not to grant audience to these fellows because they are insignificant and were on a less than noble mission, they chose to remain in Abuja for another week to see if any state House official would see them even for a minute.
 Taking a cue from his boss who had directed Arthur Eze to make peace with the governor “who is doing a very good job,” Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, turned down the request from Arthur Eze and his putative monarchs to see him. 

Chief Chris Uba: Failed in his bid to be godfather in Anambra state

Interestingly, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha, who had arranged the botched meeting between the President and these traditional rulers led by Arthur Eze on Friday, August 7, declined meeting the chiefs whom Prof. Olatunji Dare once famously described as sociological artifacts. 

The President’s Chief of Staff, Prof. Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, decided, out of pity, to see them on Thursday, August 13, for a few minutes. 

Prof. Gambari, 75, is a diplomat of international repute who not only represented Nigeria at the United Nations, but also served the UN in different capacities.

 He adopted the policy well known to diplomats as “Let us keep the fool happy,” and so met Arthur Eze, together with those now referred to in Anambra state as “ndigwe Arthur”, that is,   Arthur Eze’s monarchs.
 Even so, it was on certain conditions, including that not even one line in their speech would be critical of Gov. Obiano in recognition of his impressive record. In fact, the speech was vetted very well in advance. 

This vetting led the monarchs to claim that they were in Abuja not to abuse Gov. Obiano because they know his good record. but to praise President Buhari, for his work in Anambra state like the reconstruction of failed federal roads in Anambra state; the building of the Second Niger Bridge, and the completion of the Zik Mausoleum.

 It is also worthy of note that only two out of the five traditional rulers were allowed into Prof. Gambari’s office, as the other seven had left Abuja the previous week out of frustration.

 Indeed, one fellow who has been pretending to be the Awka monarch but has never been recognized, Chief Austine Ndigwe, has even denied going to Abuja with the monarchs in spite of various trending videos showing him conspicuously everywhere!
 To add insult to injury, the monarchs were last Thursday kept at the outer Banquet Hall at State House for long. And yet they all endured! What for!

It is a pity Arthur Eze has brought the royal institution to its lowest ebb in Nigeria’s history. Last Friday, for instance, the suspended traditional ruler of Alor in Idemili South Local Government Area, Igwe Mac-Anthony Okonkwo, was on the Anambra state Broadcasting Service apologizing profusely to the Anambra people and the state Traditional Rulers Council for his gross misconduct.  The video, as expected, went viral. 

Still, this degrading video is not as bad as a series of videos showing the monarchs collecting raw cash from Arthur Eze, in both Anambra State and Abuja to do his bidding!

 There is hardly any person from Anambra state, whether at home or abroad, who has not watched the videos. 
Thanks to the ubiquity of modern technology, the videos have been watched far more than the popular Sani Abacha video of the late 1990’s showing top generals in government and elsewhere crying like babies when their coup plot against Abacha was discovered and they were matched to the military ruler, Sani, who pretended to be moved by their cries and so offered someone like Gen. Oladipo Diya, his second in command, a handkerchief to clean his face and running nostrils.  

Why has Arthur Eze brought the revered traditional institution to these depths? Just in a desperate bid to become the godfather of Anambra State! 

Why would anyone aspire to be called Anambra state godfather after the notoriety which the term has acquired in the state, thanks to such inelegant fellows as Chris Uba? 

After the state’s liberation by Dr. Chris Ngige, on July 10, 2003, from the stranglehold of godfathers, it will be a tragic mistake for anyone to seek to be considered a godfather. 

Since the liberation, Anambra State has been witnessing fantastic growth and development up to this day. Therefore, our people can never, never tolerate a situation that will remind them of the dark days of godfatherism, let alone take them back to the days which the locusts consumed.  

Finally, people who know Arthur Eze should counsel him to desist from acting in a way which confirms the worst notions about him. 
Whether in State House in Abuja or in his village of Ukpo, people refer to him as a money bag in a way they do not refer to wealthier Nigerians like Femi Otedola, Mike Adenuga, Tony Elumelu and Aliko Dangote because they consider these younger people thoughtful.

 In fact, they call Arthur Eze in his back a “Money Miss Road”. Quite painfully, he seems to be acting in ways which validate this unflattering reputation.

 Probably with his blessing, his agents posted on the social media last Thursday the story that he has donated a Lexus SUV to each of the 12 traditional rulers who travelled to Abuja with him on Wednesday, August 5.

 Of course, no one has seen any of the monarchs with the fabled vehicles. But must Arthur Eze behave in a way which suggests that his world begins and ends with money, money and money? 

At 71, Arthur Eze has lost it completely.

 Dr Okemmadu is a Lagos-based medical doctor and writer. 

Evacuation Flights To End On August 22 — PTF

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The Nigerian Government has concluded plans to end evacuation flights following the repatriation of thousands of citizens stranded in various parts of the world as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr Boss Mustapha, who is the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, disclosed this to reporters on Monday in Abuja.

“We wish to state that all evacuation flights will end on August 22, 2020, after which airports will be given sufficient time to prepare for reopening,” he said.

Following the outbreak of the disease which brought the world on its knees, thousands of Nigerians trapped abroad had indicated their interest to return home.

While some of those seeking to be evacuated had travelled for holiday, business, and education purposes, others left Nigeria in search of greener pastures but only got to the foreign land to become victims of human traffickers.

In the last few months, the Federal Government had partnered some groups and organisations to evacuate its citizens back home.

Away from the evacuation of stranded persons, Mustapha who is also the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) commended the level of compliance with the COVID-19 protocols in various schools.

This comes as students in Senior Secondary School 3 classes begin the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) administered by the West African Examination Council (WAEC).

“Today, the Senior Secondary School Certificate (SSCE) examinations commenced all over the country, like in other West African States, and the PTF is happy to note the high level of compliance with the protocols for the re-opening of exit classes,” the PTF chairman stated.

He added, “It is in this light that we appreciate the call by the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) for the reopening of tertiary institutions.

“As a listening government, we wish to state that education is topmost on the priority list and the reopening of our institutions remain critical, within set safety parameters.”

Mustapha, however, decried that while a good number of Nigerians were sharing their experiences with the coronavirus and encouraging others to take responsibility, a few others were bent on spreading misleading information.

He stressed that the war against COVID-19 would only be won when the people take responsibility individually and collectively.

The SGF urged Nigerians to continue to comply with the measures, wear their face masks properly, wash their hands regularly, stay away from crowds, maintain social distancing, and join the campaign to curb the virus.

thenigerialawyer