By Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja
In the year 1990, the late reggae music singer, Lucky Dube sang a song entitled: “BLESSED IS THE HAND THAT GIVETH AND THE HAND THAT TAKETH”!!!
I am adapting that as the title of this write-up.
The summary and moral lesson from the title of the said song and this write-up is that the same hand that creates a skewed, warped system from which benefits are derived, can also be destroyed by the same skewed, warped system that they have created.
Therefore, it is better to uphold the rule of law and adhere to public interests in the discharge of public duty by public officials.
While some of the case studies that I am about to state here are verifiable and in the public domain, others are based on lawyer-client relationships and due to the rule of confidentiality, I am not able to reveal the names and identities.
Journalism is a profession that is supposed to serve the members of the public by providing ACCURATE information.
Unfortunately, some journalists have turned it into a mercantile and transactional venture and a means of publishing defamatory information without giving the other party the opportunity of rebuttal through fair hearing.
It is as if nemesis recently visited a journalist who is now crying that he himself is the victim of similar treatment, of not giving him the opportunity for fair hearing, when it is reported that he was expelled from the Executive Course of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPS). The full story is available here: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/801047-nigerias-policy-institute-nipss-expels-participant-over-published-articles.html
Alabo Dr. Reuben M. Saturday Jaja is the CEO of a consortium of companies (BFIG) that emerged as winner of the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON) in the year 2004. It was the result of an open, competitive bidding process.
However, since the year 2004, despite Supreme Court judgments in his favour, the different Directors-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) have used different underhanded tactics by rigging the system to refuse to transfer ownership of the said ALSCON to Alabo Dr. Reuben M. Saturday Jaja. The irony is that the same system that these DGs have rigged at the BPE is the same system that has been used to terminate the appointment of these DGs, the latest of which was Alex Okoh. His appointment, which was supposed to be for a tenure of five years, was prematurely terminated in January 2025, even after he is alleged to have coughed up huge sums of “Brown envelope” to secure his seat!!! The full story of ALSCON is available online at: https://www.google.com/amp/s/punchng.com/bpe-disobeying-supreme-court-to-hold-on-to-alscon-jaja/%3famp
A lawyer has just informed me that he is now representing a senior retired police officer for the enforcement of the judgment of the High Court of law. The said lawyer informed me (and I verily believe him) that this same police officer, during his years of active service, was an expert in devising all manner of obstacles against lawyers who won judgments against the Nigerian Police. The now-retired police officer used to demand that such lawyers should obtain a prior consent of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) as an obstacle roadblock.
Now this same police officer is trying to use a lawyer to obtain enforcement of judgment against the Nigerian Police, and the efforts of his lawyer are slowed down and even been frustrated by the very same roadblocks that were erected by the very same police officer during his years of active service!!!
Let me conclude with the real-life story of a former Director of Civil Litigation at the government’s Ministry of Justice.
He immediately suffered high blood pressure upon retirement, when the same Ministry of Justice subjected him to the same investigation and litigation that he was previously subjecting many citizens to (although he is presumed innocent)!!
The investigation and possible prosecution against him triggered a trauma that he faced of losing not just his pension, his freedom and most of all his reputation.
As a veteran who had survived the antics of this former incompetent and weed-smoking AGF, I was invited to provide not just legal representation, strategy and most importantly, psychological counselling to lower the high blood pressure of this former Director!!!
This write-up is a pre-cautionary tale for all public sector lawyers and other officials, the system that you skew today for your own personal benefits could return tomorrow to bite you not only in the ass but in some other sensitive places!!!
The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.
