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OPINION: Powerful Lagos, Powerless Osun State

Published

6 months ago

November 20, 2023

Editor

By Lasisi Olagunju

If I were a politician, my devotion hours would be to the courts instead of pouring oil on INEC and voters, deities of limited powers. If the gods complain, I would ask them where they were when ugly death was killing sinners and saints. The buck – our electoral buck – stops at the courts. That is our reality.

A list of candidates for elevation to the Supreme Court was released last week by the Federal Judicial Service Commission. Every Nigerian should be interested in every name on that list; they are the electors of our future presidents and governors and lawmakers. They will decide the price of rice and beans tomorrow. Whether salaries and pensions will be paid and drugs will be affordable for the sick are attached to tomorrow’s decisions of the Supreme Court. It is our electoral college. We should ask questions on its proposed justices. How did the nominated get on the list? What qualified them to be there? What disqualified others who are not there? Why is Lagos on the list when it has already filled its quota?

History is replete with cases of people who went to bed free, slept too much and woke up a conquered people. Conquest used to be by the force of arms; now it is mostly through the courts. In Nigeria, the courts are the new military; they take and distribute power to politicians. To live well, escape poverty and captivity, we should take interest in our law courts and in those who sit in judgement there. How are the courts, particularly the Supreme Court, constituted? Ask questions; insist on answers.

The courts are under threats of abduction, immediate past president of the Nigerian Bar Association, Olumide Akpata, warned at the International Bar Association (IBA) conference in France last week. He described the selection process of Nigerian judges as “bizarre”. He said there was “a deliberate attempt” by the Nigerian political class “to capture the judiciary.” He added that they are “achieving results.” He painted the picture of a helpless nation. I agree with him.

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There are 22 jurists on the nomination list released last week, but like in Animal Farm, the chosen are not equally favoured. The big men of power who drew the list put ‘priority’ in front of some; they stamped ‘reserve’ in front of others. What was the criterion (or were the criteria) for giving some priority over the others? Seniority? The seniority list in the Court of Appeal is publicly available on the court’s website; the nominations mock it, particularly for the South-West. Check the nomination list. Crosscheck it with the seniority list of justices of the Court of Appeal. In all the other five zones, seniority appears to have counted in arriving at the recommendations. But, in the South-West, it is a no. So, what was the goal of the appointers? And this is where I am going. I plead that you follow me.

I am from Osun State and I am interested in how it is affected by that list. There are two nominees from the South-West; one was chosen from Lagos and one from Osun State. The one from Lagos has a crown of ‘priority’ placed on it; the gentleman from Osun State is put on the reserve bench. The truth is: Lagos has no slot to fill; it already has Justice Kudirat Kekere Ekun as the number two of the Supreme Court. The slot is ordinarily for Osun State to fill and there is a history to that claim. Justice Emmanuel Ayoola, JSC, was the last candidate from Osun State on the Supreme Court bench. Ayoola retired at age 70 in October 2003. He was 90 last month. In simple arithmetic, for the past 20 years, Osun State has not been represented in the apex court – the result of a deliberate act of misallocation. And I will explain.

Listen. How many justices are supposed to be on the Supreme Court? The court itself answers that question on its website: “The Supreme Court of Nigeria consists of the Chief Justice of Nigeria and such number of Justices of the Supreme Court, not exceeding twenty-one, as may be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly. Presently, the Supreme Court is made up of the Chief Justice and nine (9) other Justices.” A CJN plus 21 justices cannot go round all the 37 states of Nigeria at the same time. When eight masquerades are on the line and there are six bean cakes, the system has a way to get every ancestral costume round the basket of cakes. There is always a way. For the Supreme Court slots to go round, the states are paired or combined in twos and threes and allotted slots which rotate between or among them. Ekiti and Osun states are a pair here.

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Justice Olufunlola Oyelola Adekeye got on the Supreme Court bench representing Ekiti State in March 2009. She retired from the Supreme Court in November 2012. Her exit created a vacancy that should, by right, be filled by Osun State. But smart Lagos, which already had Bode Rhodes Vivour occupying its own slot, got up in July 2013, did a fast one and took what should go to Osun State. It happened and there was no protest from Osun State. You wonder why? It was because Osun State of that era was a colony of Lagos. What happened was a case of olówó gbà’yàwó òle (the rich snatched the fool’s wife). They do that very often. Instead of Osun State’s Justice Jimi Bada of the Court of Appeal moving up to his rightful place at the top, Lagos snatched the slot for its Kudirat Motomori Olatokunbo Kekere-Ekun. The Centre of Excellence then had two slots while Osun State had zero. It is because of ‘Gbajue’ steps like this that the hinterland people like me (àwa ará òkè) always salute Lagos as Eko Ile Ogbon (Eko, home of wisdom).

The wisdom of Lagos here means craftiness and determination. It gets anything it wants because it is Lagos. If you don’t have money, everything you have amounts to nothing – including your wisdom. Lagos is rich both in means and guile – and that combination is lethal. Osun’s strength is more in needless crises and in acquiescence to rape of all kinds.

The retirement of Justice Bode Rhodes Vivour in 2021 should ordinarily reset justice for Osun State at the Supreme Court. But no; it does not appear this will happen. Instead of returning the snatched slot to Osun State after Rhodes-Vivour, Lagos is now positioned to grab it as an addition to Kekere-Ekun. The Federal Judicial Service Commission headed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria last week nominated Hon. Justice Adewale Abiru from Lagos State as South-West’s ‘priority’ nominee to join Kekere-Ekun who is already representing Lagos. Check the seniority list of the Court of Appeal where all the candidates were drawn from, Abiru has seniors in the South-West; two of them from Osun State. One of the two from Osun is, in fact, the number two in that court -Justice Jimi Olukayode Bada; another is number 15, Justice Tunde Awotoye. The favoured Lagos man, Abiru, is number 22 – far behind those two. They ignored numbers 2 and 15 and went for number 22 – because he is from Lagos. Even if, for whatever reasons, those two seniors refuse to move up and the choice of the commission is Osun State’s Justice Olubunmi Oyewole (number 32), should he be made to be a ‘reserve’ candidate as the commission has done given the fact that the slot is for Osun State to fill?

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In all these, we’ve seen how untrue our laws are that Nigerian states are equal. There is no equality of states in Nigeria; there are 22 Supreme Court seats for 37 states, Lagos alone takes two. Why is Lagos investing its men in the courts, particularly the Supreme Court? Lagos may be plain-speaking but it is never plain-dealing; it cheats, and it does it without consequences. I call Lagos the Napoleon of the West; it fights for other Pigs by cheating them. When an elder plays a game of ayò with a younger person, he must win, whatever it takes. Kí ni wón nfi àgbà se? What is the usefulness of age if you cannot deploy it to cheat children? That is the political and moral compass of the political entity called Lagos. If you like, disagree with this and flaunt Osun as the elder because it is the ‘cradle’, the ‘beginning’. But, know this: in Yorubaland, the rich is the elder – Olówó l’àgbà. Anyone with loads of years without money exists to be ignored, cheated and exploited.

I suspect the courts are being eyed by interests because with their gavel, judges confer privileges, advantages and freedoms. They also oppress and subjugate. Check how the original owners of lands in the United States lost their rights over their lands and were converted into tenants. Read Lindsay Robertson’s ‘Conquest by Law’ (2005), how the American Supreme Court awarded “all discovered lands” to European “sovereigns” and gave “occupancy rights” to the original owners. How did it happen? Would it have happened if the judges were not of European origin? The Nigerian people have their feet firmly on that route. Their own conquest by law will be complete and completed soon unless they cap their sleeping hours.

A whole country can be helpless. Nigeria is. My dictionary says ‘helplessness’ means “weak or dependent: a helpless invalid deprived of strength or power; powerless; incapacitated.” A whole people can be helpless, especially if they choose to. The 1823 American case referenced above, Johnson v M’Intosh, gave birth to the Discovery Doctrine which, if applied here, would bequeath River Niger and all its lands to Mungo Park and his descendants. Fortunately, our politicians and the judges have not thought of importing it into our laws complete with affidavits averring that they are heirs to Mungo Park’s estate. They may still do it, once they are through with the construction of the courts in the image of their desires.

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The Supreme Court should be the afflicted’s locus amoenus, a pleasant place of refuge, safety and comfort. But how do we tell the story of a court built of blocks of injustice? That is what I see in those who have enough taking from those who have none right inside the temples of justice. Our ancestors had neither good names nor prayers for warlords who pull straws from their neighbours’ roof so that theirs would stop leaking. The current flood from the rains will wash away the house of justice if the owners look on. It is almost a week since that Supreme Court list was out, I have not heard a whimper of protest from those holding the short end of the stick. Osun’s forbearance is legendary. But is it not stupidity to stay in queue when the other party wants everything? Lagos that has Surulere (patience is profitable) has never believed in waiting for its turn.

“He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want” (Proverbs 22:16). Enablers of iniquity have not read that verse in their Bible. They have also not read Romans 12:19. – “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.” To those who are Muslims and who excuse evil for reasons of class, creed and ethnicity; to them that teach or plead or enforce acquiescence as evil multiplies itself, I commend the words of the Prophet as reported by Abu Sa’id al-Khudri: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Whoever among you sees evil, let him change it with his hand. If he cannot do so, then with his tongue. If he cannot do so, then with his heart, which is the weakest level of faith” (See Sahih Muslim, 49).

Evil will grow and flourish if it is manured with helpless acceptance. And that will be the death of Nigeria, its democracy and our freedoms. Khalil Gibran (1883-1931) was a Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual artist. He warned us never to refuse anything by accepting it; he said we should never nurse half hopes and fight half battles. He wrote many powerful lines, the most engaging are in his book, ‘The Prophet’ with the avant-garde poem ‘Do Not Love Half Lovers’. I reproduce it here: “Do not live half a life/and do not die a half death/ If you choose silence, then be silent/When you speak, do so until you are finished/If you accept, then express it bluntly/Do not mask it./If you refuse, then be clear about it/for an ambiguous refusal is but a weak acceptance./Do not accept half a solution/Do not believe half-truths/Do not dream half a dream/Do not fantasize about half hopes/ Half the way will get you nowhere/You are a whole that exists to live a life/not half a life.”

I pray we listen – and loudly refuse to choose silence.

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OPINION: Taxing Hunger In Iregba

Published

3 hours ago

May 13, 2024

Editor

By Lasisi Olagunju

I do not believe that the president of any country will deliberately wreck everything. Their problem may be arrogance or ignorance – or arrogance in ignorance. Or, they may be worshipping wrong gods or feeding their gods with what they must not eat.

You remember Sir Shina Peters’ song for M.K.O. Abiola on the billionaire’s implacable friends who refused to eat his food?

“You gave smooth pounded yam to your friend,

Your friend refused to eat.

You made soft, mushy amala for your friend,

Your friend refused to eat.

You called your friend,

Your friend refused to answer you.

You do not know what they say you did wrong.”

There are at least two sides to a story such as this. Why would I give my friends food and they refuse to eat? Why would I shout their names and they ignore me? Am I calling the right names? If my offerings are right, shouldn’t I then check if they are really my friends?

The ace musician sang that song years before June 12 happened to Abiola. The musician may not know, but that chant is straight from the lore studio of the priests of life.

The foundation story of the song I tell here:

One ancient Yoruba king called Oniregba Osodi, at the beginning of his reign, asked his priests if his era would be peaceful and prosperous. The king was told to take care of all birds in his kingdom because they were hungry and angry and would hurt his happiness.

“What should I do and where are the birds?” the king should ask that question but he did not ask. He was the smartest and the wisest human being around, so he thought.

Instead of asking for directions, the king announced that he knew the road and blurted out orders. He commanded every man and woman in his kingdom to bring out all their grains and feed their ducks and fowls. The people brought out their corn and guinea corn and fed their ducks and pigeons, chicks and chickens.

The king was happy and satisfied.

But, the real hungry, angry birds were looking and watching.

“This oba is king also in idiocy,” they concluded and resolved to teach the powerful how to be wise.

Then, they struck. Nothing Oniregba did amounted to anything. He moved from market to farm, all was in vain. His efforts were like Abiku’s bangles in Soyinka’s lines. He sent his servants on an errand, they did as Alaafin Aole’s spell ordered them: The messengers did not come back. They even did worse. They created their own message, like Afonja did, and delivered the same to an audience different from their lord’s. Wracked by hunger and want, shouts of “ebi npa wá” rent the town while disease and death and general pestilence reigned.

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In the midst of the commotion, the sad king, in tears, challenged his priests on the failure of their prescription. “False prophets,” he called them.

They replied the king that he did not feed the birds as they counseled him to.

He said he did. They told him he didn’t.

The king gave a detailed account of his specific orders and how they were carried out.

The priests exchanged looks and laughed. They told the king: “Kabiyesi, you offered the wrong sacrifice to the wrong birds in the wrong place.”

The wise ones moved near the king and, in plain language told him who was hungry and angry and needed to be fed. He wondered why the priests did not tell him this the other time; the priests reminded him of his haste, his arrogance, ignorance and lack of decorum. “You didn’t wait and didn’t ask,” they told him. The king’s royal head wisened. He was sober. Now, he did what the priests told him to do. He didn’t have to wait long before his salvation came. His reign was long in peace, happiness and prosperity.

And, so, in Iregba till tomorrow is the song:

We made smooth and soft pounded yam,

We gave the birds of Iregba,

The birds said no, they won’t eat.

We rolled out pots of succulent amala for the birds of Iregba,

The birds said it was not their food,

They refused to eat…

When we gave the right meals to the big birds,

They ate and chirped with joy…

I did not make this story up. If you are a Yoruba and you are like me with a knowledgeable ancestor, consult him. Even if the forebears are like mine, long dead, their undying spirit should whisper to you the truth in the tale. But if you have no father and no mother, and you have no idea where their bones rest, put a call through to Professor Wande Abimbola. He has the knowledge. Or you can go to Chief Yemi Elebuibon in Osogbo. The tale is his to retell. He has a fuller version recorded in one of his books.

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Except he retraces his steps and changes the deity he serves, by the time Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu ends his tenure, he will be remembered for creating greater misery and more poor people than have ever lived in Nigeria. I don’t think that will be an enviable legacy. But he chose it. Every king writes the history of his era.

When a government neglects the road, opts for the bush and pumps efforts into wrong ideas, what it does is the same as starving the birds of life. Its efforts will, till eternity, roll up and down the hill like the boulder of condemned Sisyphus, the devious tyrant of Ephyra who violated “the sacred hospitality tradition” by killing visitors “to show off his power.”

Let us look at it. You moved the price of petrol from less than N200 to almost N1000 and upended every plan in every home. You pushed the naira tumbling down Mount Everest and clapped for yourself as a man of courage. Your Sango’s stone celts struck the market and shocked food prices beyond the reach of the hungry. People who need food, you continue to feed them hope in poisoned cans of tax, more tax and more levies.

Until now, I never knew that the introduction of taxes and levies could be celebrated as achievements by a government. Our government has that epaulette proudly emblazoned on its right and left shoulders. And we are so pinned down in helplessness.

The history of tax is one of intrigue. In ancient times, it was levy to fight wars. In medieval times, it was what Terence Dwyer (2014) calls “a fee derived entirely from surpluses” – the same thing Adam Smith prescribed as the “ability to pay”. In modern times, tax has become “a burden on production.” Why should people pay tax to an absent government? Tax theorists say tax is payment for government services. In ‘The Birth and Death of Taxes’ (1977) economic historians, Edward Ames and Richard Rapp, trace the history of tax as a feature of government’s economic life. They tell us that there is “a public good called protection, the suppliers of which are called governments.” They say a government “has a monopoly over the supply of protection to its subjects and taxes are the price paid to the monopolist.” They take it further, identifying two kinds of protection: one is defence, the other justice. They say when a threat is from foreigners, there is a demand for defence. When the threat is internal, one group of the same population unleashing threats against another, the good on demand is justice. Both goods should normally be exclusively government products. But, you and I know this may not always be so. A government that provides neither defence nor justice but still demands and collects tax is simply extortionate. In that case, what should the subjects do?

A newspaper on Sunday said the president had halted the proposed collection of cyber security levies from the poor and the rich. If it is true, I salute and thank the president. But, should that demand ever have been contemplated at all? What law backed the collection order in the first place? Who should collect and manage taxes under a just, normal law, the Federal Inland Revenue Service or an office created strictly to advise on security?

While we sheepishly surrender and pour libation to Abuja’s god of extortion, we are being offered as cheap ingredients for money ritual. CBN’s demand for cybersecurity tax from everyone, including sellers of pepper and locust beans, was said to be rooted in the Cybersecurity Act 2015 and its 2024 amendment. But that is not correct. The law mentions neither you nor me, nor the sweaty yam seller next street.

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Let us check what the law contains. Section 44 (1) of the Cybersecurity Act 2015 says: “There is established a Fund, which shall be known as the National Cyber Security Fund (in this Act referred to as “The Fund”).” Subsection (2) adds that “There shall be paid and credited into the Fund established under subsection (1) of this section and domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria: (a) A levy of 0.005 of all electronic transactions by the businesses specified in the Second Schedule to this Act.” And what is in that Second Schedule? The Second Schedule is plain; it habours neither the jìbìtì nor the rìkísí which we read in the CBN circular. The Schedule says: “Businesses which section 44 (2)(a) refers to are: (a) GSM Service providers and all telecommunication companies; (b) Internet Service Providers; (c) Banks and other Financial Institutions; (d) Insurance Companies; (e) Nigerian Stock Exchange.” The 2024 Act amended the 2015 Act without touching the Second Schedule. Indeed, the Amendment Act reinforces that schedule by prescribing punishments for non-payment of the levy by the businesses so listed (see Subsection 8 of the Amendment Act). So, where did Tinubu’s Central Bank of Nigeria get its long turenchi demanding that you and I start paying cyber security levies to an office that already has its share of the budget?

Apparently some people needed more money for the next night party, they did the maths and felt what the listed companies would pay them wouldn’t be enough for their frolics. They then converted all of us to ‘businesses’ without bothering to tinker with the law as they did in February. They simply asked the CBN to help them rewrite the law with a wordy circular. They did so knowing that we are a conquered people who won’t bother to check what the law truly says.

Even the businesses listed in that cyber security law will argue that they are being unfairly taxed. You would know and agree with them if you apply the theory of tax as payment for public goods. What does the government sell to them that warrant incessant taxation? How many of those businesses get ‘defence’ or ‘justice’ from the government as we know it?

“Nigerians pay one of the highest implicit tax rates in the world — way higher than developed countries,” African Development Bank’s president, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, cried out in January 2021 at a Federal Inland Revenue Service Tax Dialogue. “Think of it”, he said “they provide electricity for themselves via generators; they repair roads to their neighborhoods, if they can afford to; there are no social security systems; they provide security for their own safety; and they provide boreholes for drinking water with their own monies.” Yet, more taxes and levies are rolled out daily against us like Israeli armoured tanks in Gaza.

We should be afraid. There was a time in France when the people were compelled to purchase salt by the government which also forced them to pay extortionate tax on it. Kings and principalities historically taxed the most important ‘goods’ of life. Salt has always been that important – even the word ‘salary’ is related to salt; you may check the history of its Latin root ‘salarium’. And, so it was heavily taxed. The French called the salt tax la gabelle. Historians Theodore Sands and Chester Higby in 1949 published an article on ‘France and the Salt Tax’. In it, they recall that the history of the gabelle under the Ancien Regime is “largely a story of increasing taxation and flourishing abuses.” They say there was even a king of France who monopolized the sale of salt and made the people pay salt tax without selling salt to them. They add that it was a period when the government was “satisfied to receive the money supplied by the system and forgot the people who paid it.” The repercussion was an insurrection that pillaged the rich and, later, ignited the French Revolution.

Today’s Nigerians are like the birds of ancient Iregba. They are hungry and angry. In his ‘Salt, Politics and the French Revolution’, Toby Jaffe warns that “everyday commodities, including food, have the power to uproot, shatter and recreate societies…The revolutionary events around the salt tax of 18th-century France teach us that something as deceptively simple as salt can be a spark plug for civil unrest and revolution.” Now that Nigeria taxes everything including hunger, may God give us the fortitude to bear what may be coming.

The author, Dr. Lasisi Olagunju is the Saturday Editor of Nigerian Tribune, and a columnist in the same newspaper. This article was first published by the paper (Nigerian Tribune). It is published here with his permission.

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Rivers Crisis: Pro-Fubara Assembly To Screen Commissioner-nominee On Monday

Published

13 hours ago

May 12, 2024

Editor

The Rivers State House of Assembly members loyal to Governor Siminalayi Fubara and led by factional Speaker, Victor Oko-Jumbo, have invited a Commissioner-nominee, Danagogo Iboroma, for screening and confirmation as a member of the state executive.

Iboroma may be pencilled in to replace Zaccaeus Adangor, who recently resigned as the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice.

Adangor’s resignation came after he rejected his deployment to the State Ministry of Special Duties (Governor’s Office) by Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

The nominees’ invitation was contained in a letter signed by the factional Clerk, Dr. G.M. Gillis-West, who asked Iboroma to appear before the House on Monday by 10 am and sent to newsmen.

The factional clerk directed Iboroma, to appear at the Hallowed Chamber, Rivers State House of Assembly, Auditorium, Admin Block, Rivers State Government House, Port Harcourt.

The letter read, “The Rivers State House of Assembly hereby invites the following Commissioner-nominee for screening and confirmation as a member of the Rivers State Executive Council. Danagogo I Iboroma, SAN.

“Date: Monday, 13th May 2024. Time 10 am. Venue: Hallowed Chamber, Rivers State House of Assembly Auditorium, Admin Block, Government House, Port Harcourt.

“The nominee is to come along with 10 sets of his Curriculum Vitae, photocopies of his credentials and the original.”

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Obasanjo To Adeleke: Keep The Dancing Spirit, Deliver On Infrastructure

Published

14 hours ago

May 12, 2024

Editor

Former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has urged Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, to continue his dancing spirit while prioritising the delivery of crucial infrastructure projects in the state.

Obasanjo, who spoke at the inauguration of a VIP lodge, an edifice located within the premises of Osun State Government House in Osogbo, recalled a private conversation he had with Adeleke when he admonished him not to stop dancing, but to work very hard to improve the lives of the residents of the state.

The former president, who declared himself as Adeleke’s dancing partner, also challenged the governor to unite the Peoples Democratic Party in the state, implement good initiatives that would affect people positively and ensure proper documentation of all his achievements as governor.

Speaking in a mixture of Yoruba and English, Obasanjo said, “Some people once despise you, calling you a mere dancer. In reply, I told them that it is only happy people that used to dance. From now on, you are my dancing partner.

“What I have heard and seen since three days that I have been here If anyone is doubting you, bring the person to your state to see for himself or herself. If you remember at one time, I called you on the phone and I said don’t stop dancing but I added that, as you are dancing, ensure you are working.

“If I tell you that I don’t know what happened before you get to the government, I will be telling a lie. But you did something last week Sunday that I appreciated. You called the leaders of your party together. I am happy that you called them and brought them together. Senator Olu Alabi is here, ex-governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola is here and Fatai Akinbade too.

“You should bring everyone on board. That is the best thing to do. I have talked to two out of three of them. It is a good move which is not only good for your party but for the state and the country. You said government is a continuum. You also said that you are working on all abandoned projects, may God crown your efforts.”

He added that he is happy that Adelek is taking project deliveries one after the other taking them.

He urged the governor to be honest with his conscience, with the people and with God.

“You have to be a man of character,” Obasanjo said.

Speaking earlier, Adeleke said his administration has completed some major capital projects, while work was also progressing on many others captured under his infrastructure plan.

According to him, the VIP Lodge would enable his administration to minimise the cost of hosting important personalities visiting the state, adding that with the completion of the project, a major milestone in cost efficiency has been achieved.

Adeleke, nicknamed the dancing governor, took the oath of office as the 6th elected governor of Osun State on Sunday, November 27, 2022, following in the political trajectory of his late elder brother, Senator Isiaka Adeleke, who was the first elected governor of the state.
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