The trials of Justice Ariwoola

Casmir Igbokwe

Brother Jero is a self-acclaimed prophet who preaches on the Bar Beach in Lagos. He is also a manipulator and a religious hypocrite. In The Trials of Brother Jero, a play by Professor Wole Soyinka, Brother Jero is able to retain the subservience of his gullible followers by convincing them that they will soon fulfill their desires to acquire money, power and social status.

Unfortunately, many Nigerians now see the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, and the arm of government he heads, through the manipulative prism of Brother Jero. This explains why people now manufacture negative stories against the CJN and some of his brother justices without qualms. Recently, the news went round that Justice Ariwoola had a telephone conversation with President Bola Tinubu and the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS) on the ongoing presidential election petition case. The Supreme Court of Nigeria has since denied this story.

The apex court also debunked the story that flew around last March that Ariwoola flew to London, disguised in a wheelchair, to see Tinubu on the pretext of going for medical treatment. The Director of Press and Information of the court, Akande Festus, noted in a recent statement that if the current trend of falsehood and mudslinging was sustained, “our nation may not make the desired progress.” He assured the public that justice would be done to all matters pending in the various courts across the country, irrespective of who was involved.

Good. But, a lot of Nigerians are not impressed with this assurance. Last week, fake news merchants publicized the ‘resignation’ of a member of the Presidential Election Petitions Court (PEPC), Justice Boloukuoromo Ugo. The false story indicated that some unnamed people were piling pressure on Justice Ugo to cripple the independence of the judiciary by ruling in favour of a particular candidate in the ongoing case. Tired of this pressure and unwilling to go against his conscience, Ugo purportedly resigned. Like the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal also debunked this story.

We are still waiting for the Supreme Court to deny the other negative news that the government of the United States of America slammed a visa ban on the CJN himself and six other members of the Supreme Court, including Musa Dattijo Mohammed, Centus Nweze, and Kudirat Kekere Ekun. The purported ban was over their alleged delivery of controversial and inciting judgements.

For instance, the Supreme Court upturned the judgements of the High and Appeal Courts to declare the current Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and his predecessor, Ahmad Lawan, the senatorial candidates of their zones in the 2023 general election. The two candidates were presidential aspirants of the All Progressives Congress (APC). But when they lost to Bola Tinubu in the presidential primaries, they came back to snatch the senatorial positions in connivance with their party. Akpabio displaced Udom Ekpoudom who had won the Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial primary election. Lawan displaced Bashir Machina, who won Yobe North senatorial district primary election. This is in contravention of Section 115(d) of the Electoral Act which forbids anyone from signing a nomination paper or result form as a candidate in more than one constituency at the same election. Today, Lawan and Akpabio are back in the Senate courtesy of the Supreme Court.

People still remember how the Supreme Court, in January 2020, catapulted Mr. Hope Uzodimma of the APC from fourth position to first in the Imo State governorship election petition of 2019. He displaced Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP from the governorship seat.

Most times, our judges resort to technicalities whenever they want to rule in favour of their preferred candidate. This is despite warnings against this by the Supreme Court. The Chairman of the five-man Presidential Election Petition Court, Justice Haruna Tsammani, warned at inception of the panel, that they would not tolerate delay tactics or technicalities that might derail the cause of justice. The justices pledged to be fair to all parties and to look at the 2023 election petitions dispassionately.

Many Nigerians hope the justices fulfill their promise. They pray that the scenario, which former Senator Adamu Bulkachuwa enacted during the valedictory session of the ninth Senate, does not recur. Bulkachuwa said he had helped some of his colleagues in their cases when his wife, retired Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, was the President of the Court of Appeal. His revelation didn’t go down well with a lot of Nigerians.

The rot in the judiciary had angered the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (BoSAN). Sometime last year, BoSAN lamented that some of the justices of the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court were not competent because they were made judges on quota system basis without much consideration for merit. This probably explains the concern of some Nigerians about the appointment of Ariwoola’s son, Olukayode Ariwoola jnr., as a Federal High Court judge. Many people see it as a wrong decision, being that Ariwoola is head of the National Judicial Council (NJC) that made the recommendation for the appointment. For me, if the son is qualified to be a judge, why not. He should not be denied that privilege because he is the CJN’s son. It is only bad if he is not qualified, or if he was given undue advantage over others because of his privileged position as the CJN’s son.

The point is, many Nigerians have a jaundiced view of our current judicial system. People want a change. They desire a system where the rule of law prevails. They wish for a true democracy where bad leaders can be voted out through the ballot.

A corrupt judiciary is the bane of achieving this true democracy. It is not for nothing that that arm of government is seen as the last hope of the common man. But, in Nigeria, it appears to be the major hope of the oppressor. That is why the joke in town today is, “go to court”. This is mimicry of the statements of some of our political leaders who benefit from the injustice emanating from our courts today.

We need to redeem the image of our judiciary. The first step is to grant it financial autonomy. A situation where the judicial arm goes cap in hand to ask for funds from the executive is abnormal. It has to stop because it gives room for politicians to manipulate the judiciary for their selfish interests.

Besides, the NJC should sanction judges found to have compromised their position one way or the other. It has done it before when it sanctioned Justice Stanley Nnaji (now late) and Wilson Egbo-Egbo for professional misconduct.

Nevertheless, he who goes to equity must go with clean hands. The CJN and other top judicial officers must be clean so as to have the moral authority to sanction others. If judges refuse to be lured by the filthy lucre; if they dispense justice without fear or favour; if they put the survival of Nigeria first before any other thing, then people may begin to have confidence again in their judgements. A lot of Nigerians are traumatized by the conduct of the last general election. Their only hope now lies in the judiciary. Justice Ariwoola should sanitize that institution or, like Brother Jero, go down the road of infamy with opprobrium.

Re: Tinubu’s voodoo palliatives

Casmir, APC government is a killer poison. The Buhari administration spent #500bn annually in the name of schoolchildren feeding. No verifiable means to account for that policy. Now Tinubu’s economic plans are to follow that part. APC should stop all these palliative scams. The palliative budget can be used via banks to give non-interest loans to millions of Nigerians to better their businesses. Government agency can be appointed to oversee the distribution of loans to different people through their registered co-operatives. When a great number of people are financially liquid, greater homes will have received the palliatives and government will indirectly reap more money through payment of different types of taxes by these people that have been helped to build their sources of income.

-Pharmacist Okwuchukwu Njike, +234 803 885 4922

Dear Casy, the APC-led government has reduced and subdued a majority of Nigerians to sub-human level since 2015. Pray, what can #8000 do for a single individual let alone a family of four or five persons? My hunch tells me that President Bola Tinubu may have removed the premium motor spirit subsidy from day one of his presidency in order to recover the humongous amount of money he spent for the presidential election since the Buhari’s government apparently didn’t give him that needed financial support. Moreover, his permutation may be to recoup more money in the event that the Presidential Election Petition Court sends him packing or orders for a re-run. Most Nigerians didn’t vote for Tinubu but we expect him to be far better than Buhari in all ramifications.

-Ifeanyi, Owerri, +234 806 156 2735

Casmir, it is interesting that, while considerate and compassionate state governments like Bayelsa are rolling out visible, comprehensive non-monetary palliatives of 106 vehicles to the masses to cushion the adverse effects of the removal of subsidy on fuel, Tinubu, who unilaterally engineered the removal was sent back to the drawing boards to do a review on his peanuts ‘poorlatives/povertilatives’. Tinubu acts on impulse and the economy is the worse for it. In the last two months, it has been weeping and gnashing of teeth! Tinubu’s ‘agberonomics’ ideas are not working. He floated a weak naira against a scarce, stronger dollar. Now, the naira has come out worse for it. His ‘voodoo palliatives’ for ’12m households’ are akin to treating kwashiorkor by applying Mentholathum/rob. Let God arise and ‘judge’ George Akume, his ilk and the ‘tax/taskmaster’ of our time, Tinubu, now! A friend of mine, said, “Tinubu is making me to miss Buhari”! Tinubu should not wait for the courts to remove him. He should resign now!

-Mike, Mushin, Lagos, +234 816 111 4572                                                 

Dear Casy, from the biblical corridor came the aphorism that when the righteous is on the throne, the people rejoice but when the wicked is on the throne, the people cry or, even, wail. The APC Government came on board with a mission that is in phases.  The first phase, pretentiously buried in ‘change to next level’, goaded Nigerians into believing that they meant to improve our living conditions, was, in reality, governance via SNIPER. The damage inflicted on the nation in that regime was incalculable and the people wailed! The second phase is now headed by the apostle of Emilokan which is governance via OTAPIAPIA which zoomed off by acting before thinking! People are now moving from wailing to digging their graves and writing their wills! This could be deciphered from the mad rush for ‘removal’ of fuel subsidy, even while still reading inaugural address. As part of the ripple effects, prices of goods and services are now very close to the sky! Our currency, the Naira, has become mere tissue paper as it lacks strength to buy anything meaningful now. The so-called palliatives, the way it is going, amounts to shutting the door of one sleaze and opening the door of another! If Government sincerely means to deregulate fuel price, she should (1) throw it open so that people with cash muscle would import fuel and flood the markets with different prices. (2) Small refineries should be built by individuals or State Governments to augment fuel importation. (3) Sincerity should be brought into rehabilitation of our old refineries instead of hide and seek that has existed around their rehabilitation!

-Steve Okoye, Awka, 08036630731.

•Also published in the Daily Sun of Monday, July 24, 2023

Tinubu’s voodoo palliatives

Casmir Igbokwe

Apparently, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu expects Nigerians to clap for him for some of his voodoo economic policies. I thought he has serious economic agenda for the country. But from what he has pushed out so far, it is becoming clear that we are in for a long haul as far as poverty and hunger are concerned.

On the day of his inauguration as President, Tinubu announced the removal of fuel subsidy. Many Nigerians criticized him for not following up with palliative measures. Now, the palliatives are here. To implement them, he first got approval of the National Assembly (NASS) to collect $800 million loan from the World Bank. He also has in his kitty, N819 billion supplementary budget. In a move that tends to pander more to populism than reality, he has earmarked N500 billion for palliatives to cushion the effect of subsidy removal on poor Nigerians. He also earmarked N70 billion to support the working conditions of the new members of NASS. The National Judicial Council (NJC) is to smile home with N35 billion.

A critical look at Tinubu’s magic wand shows that he may be playing to the gallery. Pray, what will N8,000 a month do for each of the 12 million poor families that will benefit from the N500 billion? How will these poor families be selected? As has been observed by the Special Assistant to Atiku Abubakar on Public Communications, Phrank Shaibu, this money amounts to N53 a day or N1,600 per month for each individual in a household. What and what can N53 buy in today’s Nigeria?

The immediate past administration of Muhammadu Buhari did a similar thing. It called it conditional cash transfer (CCT). It was part of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) of that government, established in 2016 to tackle hunger and poverty in Nigeria. The programmes under the NSIP are N-Power programme, the CCT programme, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) and the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP). Earlier this year, the erstwhile Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouk, said her ministry invested over N1.358 trillion in various programmes under this NSIP between 2016 and 2022. She claimed over 15 million lives were impacted. Even if this is true, what is 15 million compared to over 133 million Nigerians living in multidimensional poverty?

What they did under the CCT programme was to give N5,000 cash to some selected people in the lowest poverty bracket. I don’t know the criteria used for this selection. What I know is that the action was a drop in the ocean. And contrary to the claims by Ms Farouk that the number of Nigerians below the poverty line dropped under Buhari, many more Nigerians fell deeper into the pit of penury.

Former First Lady, Mrs Aisha Buhari, did not mince words when she described the NSIP as a failed project in most parts of northern Nigeria. In May 2019, she alleged that the National Social Investment Office reportedly spent $16 million in buying mosquito nets which did not get to her village in Adamawa. The National Assembly was more unsparing. It described the programme as a scam as it queried the N12 billion the government claimed to be spending monthly on the scheme.

This same scenario may happen again with Tinubu’s palliatives. The real poor people who need this money may not get it. The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) may use it to curry favour with certain Nigerians. Nobody is sure where the pendulum will swing with regard to petitions at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT). If the court orders for a rerun, the cash transfer may translate into cash for votes. I wish I’m proved wrong here. To clear doubts in the minds of people, government should publish details about the programme and how it is run. Let it not be like the shoddy sharing of COVID-19 palliatives in 2020. Millions of poor households that should have benefitted from the exercise were left out.

The current palliative measures could be an attempt to consolidate the hold of this government on the mandate it has been accused of stealing. Or, how do you explain the N35 billion to the judiciary and the N70 billion to the legislature? These are two major arms of government. The other arm, the executive, is already in the pockets of the ruling cabal. The game plan could be to consolidate the occupation of Aso Rock with the full capturing of the judiciary and the legislature.

It is insulting to the sensibilities of sane Nigerians to allocate extra N70 billion to the already overfed lawmakers when critical sectors like education and health are yet to breathe good air of government funding. These same lawmakers are even demanding an upward review of their salaries and allowances to offset the impact of the removal of fuel subsidy. Imagine! Currently, many universities have jacked up their fees by over 200 per cent. With the removal of fuel subsidy, many secondary schools will likely jack up their fees as well. Truth be told, many parents like me are in for a rough ride. Is it this N8,000 a month that will help these poor families to survive this?

With these so-called palliatives, a window has been opened for fat cats in government to siphon more money. There is no guarantee for a fraud-proof process. Nothing stops those implementing the programme from listing their relatives and cronies who will help them divert the money. The programme stops after six months. What happens afterwards? Will the poor families come out of poverty and stand on their own? There are more questions than answers in this questionable policy.

The current APC government should know that it has serious legitimacy issues hanging on its neck. Over the years, unfulfilled promises and insincere actions of the people in power have propelled Nigerians to lose trust in their government. It will be in the best interest of this administration to come clean and tell Nigerians its real intentions.

If I may suggest, Nigerians need to be taught more of how to catch fish than receiving fish too miserly to quench their appetite for sea food. They need efficient transport system that will not take much of their meagre resources. They need constant electricity that will boost their business and minimize their purchase of fuel for generators. They need subsidized health and education sectors so that they won’t spend fortunes to acquire basic education or treat small sickness. Above all, over 80 per cent of Nigerian families need this palliative. And any empowerment programme that will exclude the substantial number of these poor Nigerians is dead on arrival.

Re: JAMB lessons for INEC

Your objective analysis of the ongoing Jamb/Mmesoma saga has struck a chord in me. You have remained unsparing, and have not hidden your displeasure against the ominous signals exhibited by Mmesoma and the ultimate opprobrium that she has brought to her state and the country generally. Your submission is on the same plank with Sam Omatseye’s ”Fraud one nine” as well as ”A crown of nails” by Kayode Robert Idowu. But The Nation’s Lawal Ogienagbon’s ”If a finger brings oil” exhibited a jaundiced mind which wandered too much into revving up tribal prejudices and other unwarranted matters, even at the background of weightier issues of his backyard. Thank God, the same Lawal had ‘mistakenly’ allowed us to know that the real JAMB highest scorer or best candidate – Kamsiyochukwu Nkechinyere Umeh – still hails from Anambra state, the very state that also owns Mmesoma who attempted to gain ascendancy by default.

-Edet Essien Esq. Cal. South, +234 810 809 5633

Casmir, the progress of every society is very much dependent on the quality of leadership.  A society that trusts its leadership to dubious leaders will definitely reap the fruit of such leadership. A society that honours criminals, kidnappers, election riggers, ritualists, corruption, nepotism, mediocrity, religious victimization will be left in tatters. BVAS malfunctioned when presidential election results were to be determined while it functioned when national election was announced because of corruption. A healthy leadership begets a healthy and vibrant society.

-Pharmacist Okwuchukwu Njike, +234 803 885 4922

I appreciate your column: Jamb lessons for INEC. Truly, we need to sanitize our institutions if we must get it right as a nation.

-Chinemerem, Abuja, +234 708 781 4684

Dear Casy, I do not think that the JAMB registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, will do much better than the current INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, if he superintends the electoral commission as its chairman. As the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, I am quite sure that Prof. Oloyede must have served as a returning officer in past presidential elections. How did he perform? There should be no comparison at all between the humongous duties of INEC and the examination task of JAMB. Prof. Oloyede may have performed commendably well since he took over JAMB but I am very wary of recommending him as the next INEC chairman. Can he be unbiased, just, fair and transparent in any presidential or gubernatorial election that involves candidates practising other faiths judging by his scholarship in Islamic studies? If Nigerians want credible elections, former Akwa Ibom’s REC, Mike Igini, fits the bill.

-Ifeanyi, Owerri, +234 806 156 2735

Dear Casy, in the days of yore, Professors were looked upon as greatest repository and disseminators of knowledge acquired via western education and, as such, were treated with highest respect. But today, we, unfortunately, have some species of Profs whose social values are on the wane, with great velocity, to wit: (1) Profs of sex for marks. Profs in this mould hang out with their female students, some of whom are of the age, if not much lower than their own daughters, who donate their bodies in return for higher marks in exams. (2) Profs of ‘money for hand, back for ground’. Profs in this mould become easy prey for cash! Even when they transit beyond the four walls of university into the wider world on national or international assignments, this light-fingered habit remains on their trail! However, we have: (3) Profs of integrity. Profs in this mould do not get enticed by sexual or monetary inducements. What matters to them is their integrity! Casy, may we, therefore, stand up with loud ovation for the likes of Profs Ishaq Oloyede of JAMB, Nnenna Oti, the 2023 Governorship Returning Officer for Abia State, and the late Dora Akunyili. Give them INEC and Nigeria shall have peace.

-Steve Okoye, Awka, 08036630731.

Casmir, that was another masterpiece from your desk! Let me add the course code and course title. Course code: JMB 101. Course title: the honourable vessel vs the dishonourable vessel; integrity as a lasting virtue. The story of JAMB & INEC – two highly important public institutions – is a paradox of a sort! While the JAMB episode ended in a manner that was contrary to naysayers/cynics expectations, that of INEC was an anticlimax! INEC, whom much was expected, covered itself in shame rather than in glory! Building strong institutions entails having men of integrity and ‘mighty men of valour’ at the helm of affairs. Integrity is their byword. Men of valour like Prof. Oloyede don’t get nominated for the post of INEC chairman because politicians know he won’t ‘play ball’.

–Mike, Mushin, Lagos, +234 816 111 4572

•Also published in the Daily Sun of Monday, July 17, 2023

JAMB lessons for INEC

Casmir Igbokwe

In February 2018, a mystery snake was reported to have swallowed about N36 million cash kept in the accounts office of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in Makurdi, the Benue state capital. The money was proceeds from the scratch cards which JAMB sold to candidates between 2014 and 2016. The cards were to enable candidates to gain access to JAMB website either for registration or to check their admission status. The board had abolished this scratch card system to curb corruption. But it discovered the missing N36 million when it sent a team of auditors to its different state offices to take inventory of the sale of the scratch cards. On interrogation, a sales clerk who is the major suspect, Philomena Chieshe, said her housemaid and another JAMB employee, ‘spiritually’ stole the money (through snake) from the vault in the accounts office in Makurdi. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in May 2019, arraigned Chieshe alongside five others.

Last week, JAMB was again in the news for some negative reasons. One of the candidates, who wrote the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), Miss Mmesoma Joy Ejikeme, was the subject matter. Mmesoma had claimed she scored 362 out of 400 to emerge the highest scorer in this year’s examination. Her school, Anglican Girls Secondary School, Nnewi, in Anambra State, and indeed, many Nigerians celebrated her. The management of Innoson Automobile Company capped it with a N3 million scholarship. Things seemed to be falling in pleasant places for Mmesoma.

Unfortunately, JAMB suddenly upset the apple cart. It proclaimed that the result the young lady was parading was forged and that her actual score was 249. The real highest scorer, JAMB noted, was Anambra State born Miss Kamsiyochukwu Nkechinyere Umeh, a student of Deeper Life High School, Mowe, in Ogun State. Umeh scored 360 to attain this feat. Initially, Mmesoma cried foul. She insisted she scored 362 and that she printed the result from the JAMB portal. But when JAMB provided unassailable evidence, including the fact that it stopped issuing the result notification slip format Mmesoma relied upon since 2021, the girl owned up to her error. “After all said and done, I now saw that I got 249,” she finally admitted.

It is surprising how this young lady sent many Nigerians on a wild goose chase. Sentiments had beclouded many people’s sense of reasoning. The Department of State Services (DSS) was invited to investigate. Anambra State Government set up an eight-member Committee of Inquiry made up of five professors to probe the matter. The House of Representatives also set up a panel to unravel the mystery behind the saga. The House particularly appealed to JAMB to lift the three-year ban it imposed on the culprit from participating in its exams pending the outcome of its investigation.

Well, the Anambra panel was swift in turning in its report. It discovered truly that Mmesoma forged her result unaided. It asked her to immediately apologise to JAMB, her school and Anambra State Government.  It also recommended that she should undergo a psychological counselling and therapy.

This report put paid to all speculations about this incident. From the snake-swallowing-money scandal to Mmesoma mess, JAMB under its current Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, has shown that, though corruption festers in many agencies of government, it could be tamed when upright people are at the helm. Oloyede’s JAMB has consistently shown the way for others to follow. When many other ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) siphon money, JAMB has been remitting billions of naira to government coffers every year since Oloyede took over in 2016. In the last seven years, the body has remitted over N50 billion to the federal government. This is in sharp contrast to about N52 million which had been the cumulative return of the board in the previous 40 years. In a sane country, Oloyede should have been appointed to a higher position in government.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) comes to mind here. Over the years, the commission has been messing up our electoral system. Most times, those who are announced as winners in our elections are not the actual winners. Sometimes, it is in human nature to cheat. But the question is, how does our society punish those who cheat? The difference between our country and some advanced countries is that we tend to cheat with impunity; but in those advanced societies, such cheating comes with adequate punishment.

Let’s take our last general election, for instance. There were a lot of irregularities. Even with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and amended electoral law, riggers were still able to manipulate results. INEC told us there was a glitch in the uploading of the presidential election result. The commission has not been able to tell Nigerians the nature of that glitch. The European Union Election Observation Mission (EUEOM) did not mince words in saying the process was greatly flawed. It made a number of recommendations. Rather than take the recommendations in good faith, some hirelings and supporters of President Bola Tinubu protested against the report last week at the EU secretariat in Abuja. I’m sure some of the protesters did not even understand what they were protesting against. There is hunger in the land. So, some hungry citizens are ready to do anything as long as they can get some akara (bean cake) and bread money.

It is unfortunate that many of our elected political office-holders today assumed their positions with fake results. Some of them may even be among those throwing stones at Mmesoma. The difference between them and that young lady is that she has owned up to her mistake. Those ruling us with fake results should also own up and surrender the mandates they have stolen.

The leadership of JAMB deserves commendation. It has shown that it is upright. It has discovered and sanctioned a number of candidates who falsified their results to gain undue advantage over others in their UTME. The leadership of INEC and every other corrupt government agency should do same. My focus is more on INEC because that body supervises the election of leaders. And the major problem of Nigeria is leadership deficit. Until we get that element right, we will not know peace and development.

If I am to recommend, I will wish that Professor Oloyede be made the new Chairman of INEC. He has proven to be a man of character, principles and integrity. It is just a wish because I know that with the characters parading the corridors of power in Nigeria today, having Oloyede in INEC amounts to a camel passing through the eye of a needle. We watch as events unfold in the election petitions tribunals. May God deliver Nigeria!

Re: INEC chairman must go

As a child in primary school, the mere mention of the name ‘professor’ was synonymous with scholarship, integrity, frugality and honour. The sale of books and handouts for marks was also an anathema and a rarity. Things have since changed for the worse! Professors – the paragon of knowledge have now partaken in illegalities, and have also constituted themselves into a part of the shameful and enduring culture of examination malpractices in our universities. Lately, our electoral system has also taken its share of the ugly side of our latter-day professors. There are more questions than answers for the learned Professor Mahmood Yakubu. One recurring question is, why is it that it’s only the Presidential Election – the most important of all the elections – that suffered the stress of the purported technical glitches while the rest of the elections witnessed a seamless live uploading of the results?

-Edet Essien Esq. Cal South, +234 810 809 5633

Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has set the ignoble record as the chairman of INEC who conducted the worst presidential election in the history of Nigeria. Ironically, he’s the only INEC chairman who conducted two general elections: 2019 and 2023 apart from other off-cycle elections under his watch. Unlike the CBN governor and the EFCC chairman, both suspended, Tinubu will never suspend or sack the INEC chairman because Yakubu did the most odious hatchet job for the APC-led federal government. In any case, his second non-renewable term terminates by 2025, so he can never conduct any presidential election again. However, my fear is about how he will conduct the future off-cycle elections before the expiration of his tenure. If the PEPC upholds the election of Tinubu, democracy is doomed in Nigeria. If Yakubu could clandestinely announce him as the winner of the presidential election by 4:00am, then imagine what the chairman that Tinubu will personally appoint will do for him.

-Ifeanyi, Owerri, +234 806 156 2735

Dear Casmir, the synopsis of our fortune lies in genuine franchise and this has been denied since independence. Leadership is value delivery; so Mahmood must go for failing on this task.

-Cletus Frenchman, Enugu, +2349095385215.

Prof Mahmood’s post presidential election behaviour of being, somewhat, out of visibility is a function of the moral battle between his CONSCIENCE and himself.  The electoral malfeasance which is an albatross around his neck represents the proverb which says that when a chicken farts against the land of her abode, the land reacts by pursuing her. The INEC man Friday, Prof Mahmood, farted against Nigeria, his fatherland and the land, in turn, is on his hot pursuit. Hence, his, somewhat, being out of circulation and keeping mum! Your recommendation for his sacking is, rather, belated. Reason? His conscience has sacked him by hounding him. As for Festus Okoye’s shabby, pedestrian and insipid defence about the so-called glitch on Channels TV, one can only pity him for sweating to protect his stomach infrastructure. May he and his principal be reminded that a proverb has it that Truth that begins her journey today shall overtake falsehood that began her own journey 24 years ago and, finally, turn the purveyor of the falsehood into a pariah.

-Steve Okoye, Awka, 08036630731.

Casmir, in the court of public opinion, the INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, is guilty as charged and should go, for providing the ‘leeway’ that aided Tinubu’s ‘purported victory’. Tinubu applied the ‘smash and grab’ approach, but Yakubu worked in cahoots with him! Tinubu intimidated, manipulated, cajoled, exploited and eventually bulldozed his way into Aso Rock Abuja. He has exploited the void in our electoral laws which allow him to form a government despite the contestation of his ‘purported victory’ at the election tribunal! Should the judiciary, which is the final arbiter on electoral matters, find Yakubu complicit or incompetent vis-a-vis the Feb 25th election, then, we will move from “he should go” to “he must go”! Ideally, he ought to have resigned by now.

-Mike, Mushin, +234 816 111 4572

Casmir, I am really worried about the future of Nigeria because of impunity and lawlessness. I am worried because gangsters have taken over the management of Nigeria shamelessly. I am worried because even a Professor can be used to thwart the people’s choice in an election in Nigeria. I am worried because despite all known flaws in the election, a President emerged. I am worried because Nigerian electoral umpire has made us to believe that a Constitution can be interpreted in any way it suits them in order to rob the people of the right choice. Prof. Yakubu and his officials should bury their faces in shame and resign.

-Pharmacist Okwuchukwu Njike, +234 803 885 4922

INEC chairman must go. It is long overdue. Truth counts for nothing; vice is a virtue; impunity is a celebrity in Nigeria. If this man is still the INEC chairman in the next election, I will not vote.

-Emma, Wuse 2 Abuja, +234 803 558 5109

INEC chairman should resign over poor election he conducted, especially presidential election. Let’s see whether our judiciary will do the needful at the end.

-Gordon Chika Nnorom, Umukabia, +234 807 316 5732

• Also published in the Daily Sun of Monday, July 10, 2023

INEC Chairman must go

Casmir Igbokwe

As the saying goes, when a man on top of a palm tree pollutes the air, the flies get confused. No doubt, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) polluted the air of our 2023 general election. Now that many confused Nigerians are wondering what happened, the Chairman of the electoral umpire, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has remained taciturn. Ordinarily, Yakubu expresses his views frequently. But since he surreptitiously announced the result of the infamous February 25 presidential election in the ungodly hours of March 1, 2023, he has left the arena for some other stakeholders and observers.

I watched INEC’s Spokesman, Mr. Festus Okoye, trying labouriously to explain the so-called ‘technical glitches’ in the last presidential election in a recent interview on Channels Television. He acknowledged that the results of the National Assembly elections were uploaded seamlessly to the INEC portal. There was also no glitch in uploading results during the March 18 governorship election and during the last Osun and Ekiti state elections. But, this demon of a glitch possessed the uploading of only the presidential election results. When pressed further to explain what happened, Mr. Okoye feigned ignorance, saying he was only a lawyer and not a technical person.

Who is fooling whom? Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a major beneficiary of this electoral heist. While the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal is busy hearing the submissions of the various parties to the electoral dispute, Tinubu continues to pontificate over the outcome of the poll. Last Thursday, at the palace of the Awujale of Ijebu land in Ogun State, Oba Sikiru Adetona, he reportedly said he was sure of winning the election despite the naira swap policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

He gloated, “Our monies were confiscated. The cashless policy didn’t work. It was terrible then, I realized that. And I came to Ogun state to invoke the spirit of freedom which we are noted for. I invoked that spirit twice. The spirit of Baba ‘Emi lo kan’. That’s Baba, being blunt, being decisive, that’s him, he will tell you. The second spirit is that money or no money (we will do the election and we will win.)” The election petition tribunal will soon determine if it’s the spirit of freedom or that of rigging.

The European Union Election Observation Mission (EUEOM) was on point when it released its final report on the election last week. According to the EUEOM, the election was greatly flawed. True, the election recorded the lowest turnout of voters since 1999 when the military handed over to civilians. But, it’s not that voters didn’t turn out to exercise their franchise. They did. The snag was that in some places, many people were either attacked or scared away from voting. Also, INEC indirectly disenfranchised many voters by either coming late or not coming at all in some polling units. Even Tinubu who was announced the winner got a mere 37 per cent of the votes cast. His two main rivals, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party are challenging the result in court.

The worst experience was the ‘technical glitches’ that purportedly marred the transmission of results to the INEC portal real time. This result transmission went well in the National Assembly election, but got stalled during the transmission of the presidential results. It’s left for the court to decide on this issue. But, as far as the EUEOM is concerned, INEC should fine-tune the process in future elections.

The poor conduct of the 2023 elections has cost INEC the trust of the people. The report, which was presented by the Chief Observer of the mission, Barry Andrews, in Abuja last Tuesday, noted that shortcomings in law and electoral administration hindered the conduct of well-run and inclusive elections and damaged trust in INEC. “A lack of transparency and operational failures reduced trust in the process and challenged the right to vote,” it stressed. The EU mission made 25 recommendations and advised INEC to improve in six priority areas to restore the confidence in our electoral system. Some of them include removing ambiguities in electoral law, clamping down on electoral offences and ensuring the real-time publication of and access to election results. Others are establishing a publicly accountable selection process for INEC members; providing greater protection for media practitioners; and addressing discrimination against women in political life.

Did INEC Chairman read the EUEOM report? In any case, what is he still doing in office? Those who presumably underperformed have been shown the exit door. The number one person is the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwill Emefiele. Not only did Emefiele initiate the naira redesign policy that affected the campaigns of the cabal, he showed interest in contesting for the position of the president. He didn’t get his way but he has ended up in the belly of the tiger.

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, was another victim of circumstance. He apparently played into the hands of certain politicians by dabbling in the naira swap policy, among other ‘sins’. He has proceeded on suspension like his predecessors in office. It will be a miracle if he comes back.

In all these, what has happened to Yakubu? Where is he? Why has he lost his voice? Before the elections, he was loquacious, always addressing press conferences and assuring Nigerians of a free, fair and credible election. How far, Prof?

We must always interrogate our institutions and those entrusted to man them. As some of us have always said, there is need for electoral reforms in Nigeria. The first step is to amend our laws to conform to civilized ideals. It is not proper, for instance, that a president or governor is sworn in before the conclusion of election petition filed against him. Today, Tinubu is already sworn in as president. He has taken full charge of affairs and appointed his loyalists in strategic positions in the country. Meanwhile, his contentious election is still before the tribunal. The matter may get to the Supreme Court. By the time it is over, the occupant of the seat may have spent over one year in office.

INEC has messed up our electoral system. The man on top of that rotten tree of an institution, Mahmood Yakubu, must go. We must restore confidence in that institution. Else, only INEC staff and supporters of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) may be the ones participating in future elections.

Re: Public waste and insensitive RMAFC

Dear Casy, it’s the height of insensitivity on the part of Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to have made such a proposal for the increment of the salaries of public office-holders. Except for the Judiciary, especially those on the bench, no increment in the salaries of public office-holders should be contemplated. Most people contesting for political positions know that they are not going there to depend on statutory salaries. Even ordinary ward councillors get more enriched than the Judex on the bench. By the way, did politicians complain to the RMAFC about salary increment? What’s actually the statutory role of the RMAFC since it’s not a revenue-generating commission? Was the commission created just for periodic increment of the salaries of public office-holders? How can a responsible commission be making a proposal for %114 salary increment for those already enjoying while the majority of Nigerians wallow in multi-dimensional poverty? I think that it’s high time the RMAFC is scrapped.

-Ifeanyi, Owerri, +234 806 156 2735

Dear Casy, in sane climes, democracy functions with its true meaning as government of the people, by the people, for the people. Unfortunately, in Nigeria, democracy functions with inverted meaning as government of looters, by looters, at the expense of the downtrodden masses. That underscores the rat-race and desperation for occupancy of political office in Nigeria. Once you are ‘fortunate’ to be ‘elected’ or ‘appointed’, you could travel in a night bus to Abuja to resume office, with bony cheeks, but few months thereafter, you would be brimming with chummy cheeks! Meanwhile, the poor masses would be told to engage in belt-tightening which they would helplessly and sheepishly be doing until belt-tightening makes nonsense of their lives by placing them on life-support. Behind the chummy cheeks are well-oiled sleazes from corruption. Membership of the ‘right’ political party turns into a solid insurance cover against any untoward searchlight to you. EFCCs and ICPCs of this world become mere nomenclatures. It is only when you foul the provisions and the spirit of the ‘eleventh’ commandment which says; ‘thou shall not chop alone’, that you have yourself to blame!

-Steve Okoye, Awka, 08036630731.

Casmir, I am happy you have said it all. How can a country like Nigeria whose past political leaders totally failed, still continue with this present public waste and insensitivity, unfriendly, inhuman, intimidating, callous and highly provocative policies capable of negatively affecting the daily lives of poor citizens? Muhammadu Buhari’s 8 years of governance is a big injury that may refuse to heal forever. I expect President Bola Tinubu to introduce antidote policies to heal the already spiritual, mentally & physically injured over 180 million Nigerians.

-Jimoh Rahaman, Kogi, +234 802 355 2194

An annoying life of opulence has always been the in-thing for Nigerian politicians since 1999 till date. All the mouth-watering entitlements are appropriated by the politicians for themselves and their families while the common Nigerians suffer. In serious-minded countries, all these unreasonable benefits and wastages would invoke an instant revolution. But here docility prevails! Fuel subsidy is about the only gain common Nigerians hang on for their survival, yet that is the very avenue that the Nigerian government sacrifices for the so-called development. The matter of fuel subsidy has always been a huge fraud foisted on the ordinary Nigerians by successive Nigerian government.

-Edet Essien Esq. Cal South, +234 810 809 5633

Casmir, Tinubu will soon see the ‘red eyes’ of the multi-dimensionally poor Nigerians, sequel to the galloping inflation in the country! The unconscionable, thoughtless and uncompassionate policies of a single-minded Tinubu are, simply put, ‘killing’! Mathematically, the riches/wealth of Tinubu and other greedy politicians are inversely proportional to the poverty situation of Nigerians! RMAFC is simply testing the waters on behalf of these selected maximum rulers. It’s an irritant body that is playing on our emotions. It lacks wisdom and tact! The body is playing the ‘eye service’ game via this proposal. It is early days, right. But this government is already showing signs of ‘profligates in power’. It is a government of the wasteful, by the wasteful (RMAFC), for the wasteful (the eternally corrupt poli ‘trick’cians). I hope the verdict of the judiciary assisting referee, won’t be in Tinubu’s favour. A good leader doesn’t start by adding to the yoke of the people and thereafter ask us for more sacrifice. Tinubu is ‘choking’ us to death.

-Mike, Mushin Lagos, +234 816 111 4572

Casmir, Nigeria is a country that God has blessed with good natural and human resources. Proper harnessing of all these godly endowments should place her atop among the comity of nations. Unfortunately, ethnic, religious and parochial considerations have denied her the much expected position. These factors are fuelled by corruption added impunity, self-righteousness, rascality, class distinction, special salary scales, praise singers and cabals. Due to poor leadership, most of these public office-holders see their positions as opportunity to enrich themselves and many of their cronies. The recent plan to increase the political office-holders’ remunerations by the RMAFC while millions of Nigerians are suffocated by poverty is abuse of power.

-Pharmacist Okwuchukwu Njike, +234 803 885 4922

• Also published in the Daily Sun of Monday, July 3, 2023