21112022

More documents

Recommendations

Info

16 — Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2022 Send Opinions & Letters to: opinions1234@yahoo.com What politicians can teach labour leaders INTRIGUING. I mean the topic leaders of the Food, Beverage and Tobacco Senior Staff Association, FOBTOB asked me speak on. ‘Trade Union Leadership: Lessons to be learnt from or Taught to the Political Class.’ I know a lot of lessons politicians can teach labour leaders, but scratch my head what the latter can teach our tribe of political leaders. It is not really that they are two diametrically opposed societies. Parties and unions actually have similarities such as being mass-based organisations with members who are expected to pay dues. Also, both movements are expected to be democratic organisations whose existence are specifically guaranteed by Section 40 of the constitution. Trade unionism and partisan politics in the country belong to the same age grade. The first formal union, the Southern Nigeria Civil Service Union was registered on August 19, 1912, that is two years before Nigeria formally came into existence. The first labour centre, the Federated Trade Unions of Nigeria, FTUN, created on November 23, 1942 came into existence two years before the first pan-Nigeria political party, the National Council of Nigeria and Cameroons, NCNC was born. Also, trade unions established their The fire this time BY NICK DAZANG THE Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, is required by law to register eligible voters, register political parties, oversee political parties, conduct voter education, promote knowledge of sound democratic processes, and conduct elections. To effectively carry out these lofty but challenging activities, INEC requires offices in all 774 local government areas and 8,809 registration area centres across the country, the 36 states of the Federation and the FCT, Zonal Stores, the Electoral Institute, and headquarters for its command, control, and coordination. These offices enable INEC to access its legion of stakeholders, train its personnel (both permanent and ad hoc), and monitor political parties. These offices also serve as logistics hubs and reservoirs of sensitive and non-sensitive materials, which are deployed to polling units on election day and are then retrieved in the aftermath of the election, or what is called in INEC speak or lingo as "reverse logistics." These offices give INEC a huge presence across the country. They also make the commission ubiquitous. Whereas INEC’s ubiquity helps it to carry out its duties, almost seamlessly, it also has its drawback: its presence makes its offices soft targets for criminals, aggrieved Nigerians, and non-state actors who have axes to grind with the state or system or who profess one cause or another. In the past four years alone, not less than forty state and local government area offices of INEC have been razed by criminals and non-state actors. In the lead up to the off season Anambra State governorship election of November 6, 2021, non-state actors went on a bombing binge of INEC’s offices in the South-South and South East. These bombings and other acts of mayhem resulted in loss of lives, loss of not less than eight Toyota Hilux vehicles, hundreds of own political parties to contest elections. These include the 1950 Labour Party led by Michael Imoudu, and the Socialist Workers and Farmers Party of Nigeria, SWFPN, founded in 1964 by the Nigeria Trade Union Congress, NTUC and the Nigeria Youth Congress. Towards the Second Republic, Wahab Omorilewa Goodluck, the 1975 President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, founded the Socialist Workers’ Peoples Party. With the return to civil rule, the NLC in 2002, founded the Party for Social Democracy, PSD, which was renamed the Labour Party. The trade union leaders do not consider partisan politics an alien territory which they had to avoid or procure a visa to enter. They were part and parcel of partisan politics. There were trade union leaders who contested and won parliamentary elections in the First Republic. These included Haroon Popoola Adebola the former President of the United Labour Congress, ULC, and Samuel Udoh Bassey, General Secretary of the Nigeria Trade Union Congress, NTUC. Nduka Eze, General Secretary of both the Mercantile Workers Union and the NLC, was elected into the generating sets, properties and sensitive and non-sensitive election materials. These bombings were only halted when the President, Muhammadu Buhari, ordered security agencies to respond to the perpetrators in "the language they would understand". Though INEC enjoyed a reprieve in the aftermath of the presidential directive, we are witnessing a resurgence of the willful burning of its offices. In the small hours of Thursday, November 10, 2022, INEC’s offices in Abeokuta South in Ògun State and Ede South in Osun State, were attacked by arsonists. While in the case of Abeokuta South the office was completely destroyed and nothing could be salvaged, the Ede South office was saved by the prompt and valiant intervention of the Fire Service. It is heartwarming that the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, quickly convened a meeting of the Interagency Consultative Committee on Election Security, ICCES, in the aftermath of these attacks. It is also apt that Professor Yakubu used the meeting, which was held the next, day, to demand that ICCES should "move swiftly to apprehend perpetrators, prosecute them as required by law, and reinforce security around election officials and electoral infrastructure around the country." If the unvarnished truth is to be told, the impunity with which these dastardly acts are being carried out has a nexus or correlation with the fact that since they began, no one has been apprehended, paraded in the glare of the media, prosecuted and punished to the full extent of the law. This explains why aggrieved persons take advantage of INEC’s vulnerability to vent their pent-up and misplaced anger and frustrations. Once an example is made of these perpetrators, it will serve as a deterrence and send a strong signal to other would-be perpetrators. For us to appreciate the import of these bombings, we need to look at what transpired at the Abeokuta South office. In that attack Lagos Municipal Council on the NCNC platform. In the Second Republic, he was Secretary General of the Great Nigeria Peoples Party, GNPP. Perhaps the most famous Nigerian trade unionist who went into partisan politics was Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo, founder of the Nigeria Produce Traders Association and who was also Secretary of the Nigeria Motor Transport Union (precursor of the current National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW). Awolowo was also an Executive Member of the TUC and Editor of the TUC Workers journal. He was elected Premier of the Western Region in 1954, a position he held until 1959 when he went to the Federal level as leader of opposition. Another famous unionist was Trade union leaders have lessons to teach politicians, but how do you teach a class that does not want lessons from anybody least of all from trade union leaders? Malam Aminu Kano, a teacher and leader of the Northern Nigeria Teachers Association. He was a minister and founder of the Second Republic’s Peoples Redemption Party, PRP. In the Second Republic were Senators Joseph Ansa, Chairman of the Senate Labour Committee and Ayoola Adeleke, former scribe of the Nigeria Nurses Association, and Assistant Secretary-General of the NLC. One of his sons, Senator Isiaka Adeleke later became Governor of Osun State while a second son, Senator Ademola Adeleke is the Governor-Elect of the state. In the House was Hon Yunusa Kaltugo, former President of the ULC. In contemporary times, a number of trade union leaders also became political leaders in the country. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu former Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT in Niger State became a two-term governor. Ibrahim Shekarau, a leader of the NUT, who was also President of the All Nigeria Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools, ANCOPS was Kano State Governor and Education Minister. Adams Aliu Oshiomhole was President of the NLC for eight years, Governor of Edo State for eight years from 2008 and for two years, the National Chairman of the ruling All Peoples Congress, APC, until 2020. Despite this affinity, I think there are specific lessons politicians can teach trade union leaders including tenacity as symbolised by President Muhammadu Buhari. He was twice the presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, then, that of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, and finally, that of the All Peoples Congress, APC, in 2015 when he finally won, after a 12-year pursuit! Adaptability is another lesson. Alhaji Abubakar Atiku was in the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP before decamping to the Action Congress, AC, on whose platform he contested the 2007 elections. He returned to the PDP, then decamped to the APC before returning to the PDP for a third time and has been its presidential candidate for the 2019 and 2023 elections. Also, politicians are incredibly optimistic. President Goodluck Jonathan was defeated by President Buhari in 2015. He was demonised by the APC as the epitome of corruption and cluelessness and the curse that allegedly brought the country to its knees. Seven years later, he aspired to be the presidential candidate, not of PDP, but APC! alone, the prototype office was completely destroyed. In addition, other sensitive and nonsensitive materials were destroyed. They include: 904 ballot boxes, 29 voting cubicles, eight electric power generators, 57 election bags, 30 megaphones, 65,699 uncollected Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, and other assorted items such as stamps and stamp pads, furniture etc. In this one attack, INEC can easily replace these materials without doing violence to its budget. In fact, it immediately relocated to its old office at Oke-Ilewo. But the issue is that even this old office cannot be as expansive as the prototype office that was razed. Given the building and the quantum of equipment destroyed, we must be talking about hundreds of millions of Naira lost in INEC must win the hearts and minds of Nigerians; it must urgently engage with its stakeholders, especially traditional rulers, leaders of faith-based organizations, youths, and women one fell swoop. Assuming such wanton bombings were to continue and to be extended to other offices, where will INEC get the money to promptly replace them at a time when revenue accruing to government is dwindling, and it is finding recourse in precious foreign reserves to shore up a tottering Naira? And since these offices serve as crucial hubs for logistics, training and stores for the conduct of elections, the implication is that if such attacks continue unabated, they will undermine the Commission’s capacity to conduct elections. The larger implication, arising from the aforementioned, therefore, is that these attacks are a threat to the conduct of the 2023 General Elections. And a threat to the elections must be construed as a threat to the democracy project itself. This position is reinforced by what happened during the conduct of the Anambra off cycle governorship Politicians also have clarity. They make all sorts of compromises but keep their eyes on the ball. They stick to their strategic objectives with eyes on outcomes. Unlike labour leaders, politicians deploy all available assets and resources to attain their objectives. Politicians also set goals including short, medium and long term. It is difficult to decipher the motives of politicians; their ultimate objective is to win or gain power while the trade union leader is contented with small, economistic gains like higher minimum wage. They tend to read situations and make tactical moves. This is how Mr. Peter Obi who was never in the Labour Movement, is today the presidential candidate of the Labour Party. He was not even a member of the party! Politicians are always building and rebuilding alliances. Trade unions can do likewise especially with groups outside the movement. They are always conscious of their class. They understand their interests, and, work with those with similar interests. Politicians are ever holding town hall meetings and rallies to hear from their members and supporters and mobilise them. Politicians build multiple streams of income while trade unions tend to rely primarily on check-off deductions. They in the main, assume they know it all. Many trade unions run education and enlightenment programmes for their members and leaders at various levels. In contrast, politicians are not comfortable with having an educated and enlightened followership.Trade union leaders have lessons to teach politicians, but how do you teach a class that does not want lessons from anybody least of all from trade union leaders? I rest my case. election. The incessant attacks by non-state actors, which preceded it, frightened many of the ad hoc staff from performing their electoral duties. Many abandoned their duties at the eleventh hour. This should not be allowed to repeat itself, given its adverse consequences of the process. One is relieved that ICCES, immediately after its meeting, deployed Joint Security and Safety Teams to all INEC offices across the country. It is also savoury and encouraging that the President, who is keen on leaving a legacy of credible elections, views these attacks in the light of the existential threat that they constitute. He is said to have given the security agencies a marching order to deal decisively with any individual or group that attempts to disrupt the peace and the success of the 2023 General Elections. But beyond intensifying surveillance around INEC offices, the security agencies must immediately apprehend the perpetrators of these recent attacks and determine their motives and agendas. Is it a coincidence that these attacks took place on the same day? Is it a coincidence that they used the same modus operandi? Why did the assailants pick the South West? Additionally, INEC must win the hearts and minds of Nigerians. It must urgently engage with its stakeholders, especially traditional rulers, leaders of faith-based organizations, youths, and women. It should use these engagements, at the state and local government levels, to impress on Nigerians that these facilities, which criminals destroy with recklessness, belong to them since they are procured with their tax or resources. They should be persuaded to be obligated to take ownership and to protect them. And they should be encouraged to do so by reporting to the authorities criminals they suspect are a threat to these facilities. Thankfully, this task has been made less daunting for the Commission by virtue of the stellar and transparent elections it has conducted in recent times. *Dazang, a public affairs analyst, wrote via: nickdazang@gmail.com
Detribalised Nigerians do not exist; they never did IN 1989, academics, Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin published to great acclaim their study of the evolution of the diverse dialects of the English language from different empires. Their title was The Empire Writes Back. The book shows how various outposts of the empire took ownership of the language and adapted its grammar and usage. Few outposts of the empire have been as prolific in this enterprise as Nigeria. Conceived as somewhat of an illegitimate offspring in the ménage à trois between Sir George Taubman Goldie; his mistress, Flora Shaw; and his successor in propinquity to her, Frederick Lugard, Nigeria became a colonial experiment in the Tower of Babel. A national anthem composed in 1959, one year before Independence, which occurred in 1960, acknowledged this reality in the third line of its first stanza, reminding the world of the aspiration to create a country even "though tribe and tongue may differ." The anthem itself invited citizens to "hail" the country in the antiquarian, biblical third person, symbolizing a broken relationship with the country. Never mind that the hailing was to be done in the borrowed language of a foreign country. Without compulsory access to basic education, which could have created a shared vocabulary in the imported language, the Nigerian imagination invented its own grammar of mutual intelligibility. This language is called By NDUBUEZE OKOLI FOR the umpteenth time, I am constrained to respond to Odo Ijere’s theatrics solely because facts need to be stated and not tweaked. It is obvious, from his latest outburst, that, aside from the fact that Dr. Uche Ogah has long been their nightmare, he is playing the Devil’s advocate just to justify his pay from a paymaster, widely known for failed political endeavours. 2003 to 2022 is a case in point. The lone issue that characterises his latest write-up is that, APC, as a political party, and not the court, should determine and resolve the Abia gubernatorial candidacy issue, an internal party affair. His diatribe wrongly descended on the judiciary, the same institution that his paymaster ran to, for a failed salvation of his candidacy that never existed in the first place. Notwithstanding that his piece was riddled with envy and disappointment because selfish political calculation has been nutted, credit must be given to Mr. Ijere for at least, acknowledging in his piece that Dr. Uche Ogah "triumphantly entered Abia State dancing with a motley crowd of supporters and talking of starting his campaigns." It was an accurate account of what occurred from the airport to the Umu-Ikah junction to Umuahia. The political atmosphere in Abia State has changed for the better. The legion of supporters and admirers are evident of Dr. Uche Ogah’s acceptance in Abia State. I submit that the very mischief that Section 84(14) of the Electoral Act (2022) seeks to address is this type of vain and offensive argument where a political party would organise primaries, get aspirants to participate therein, and spend their resources, only to turn around and unilaterally decide to foist another person as the winner of the "pidgin English," which does not entirely do it justice. It is characterised by an open-ended grammar in which meaning is always available to reveal itself to anyone interested in exercising imagination. But this is not the only function of Nigerian English. The French colonial policy of assimilation offered their way of life as the height of civilisation, promising natives (as the colonists called Africans everywhere) the opportunity to "evolve" to the highest level of civilisation, which they claimed was French citizenship. No matter how civilised you think you are, as long as you are in the country, Nigeria will happen to you and remind you where you come from without necessarily telling you it is going anywhere Access to Nigerian English is our passport to civilisation for those of us from Nigeria. Over here, we describe those who have attained this level of civilisation as "detribalised." It is arguably the greatest compliment that one Nigerian can pay to another. By contrast, to the owners of the language, to detribalise someone is to render them rootless. When his former minister, Jubril Martins-Kuye, died last year, President Olusegun primaries in which they did not emerge as the winner. For purposes of clarity, Section 84 (14) of the Electoral Act is reproduced hereunder: "Notwithstanding the provisions of this Act or the rules of a political party, an aspirant who complains that any of the provisions of this Act or the guidelines of a political party have not been complied with in the selection or nomination of a candidate of a political party for election, may apply to the Federal High Court for redress." The preceding provision of the Electoral Act's operating phrase is "notwithstanding the provisions of... rules of a political party." It suggests that, in spite of the "internal affairs" rules of a political party, an aspirant can seek the intervention and protection of the court for their candidacy to be determined by the court. Where and how did Dr. Uche Ogah go wrong? Rather, Ikechi Emenike, substantially erred by disregarding clear provisions of the law and embarking on a wild goose chase where he is doomed for political retirement. First, he approached the State High Court (Umunneochi Division) in total disobedience to the clear provisions of the extant statute. Kindly do a re-read of Section 84 (14) and discover his folly. Secondly, he averred that his grouse (in order to deceive the court) was predicated on a non-pre-election matter. Thirdly, he trumpeted that he emerged as the winner of an indirect mode of primary election, whereas the APC communicated its directive for a direct mode of primary election in Abia, Benue, and Osun States, respectively. Fourthly, he lied on oath that his emergence was monitored by INEC. As a result, when his name was submitted to INEC on the basis of such an incorrectly obtained State High Court and Court of Appeal verdict, it was a no-brainer that there could not be a worse violation of Obasanjo described him as "detribalised." Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, says only a "detribalised" Nigerian is fit to rule the country. So, the supporters of the presidential candidate of the People's Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, are quick to claim the mantle, describing him as the only "detribalised" one in the race to succeed Muhammadu Buhari, who is mostly accused of being the opposite. The supporters of the candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, retort that he is "detribalised" too. Not to be outdone, even tribesmen of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the Yoruba Council of Elders, YCE, claim he is detribalised, which begs the question of why they exist in the first place. To demonstrate how meaningless the expression has become, former chairman of Kano State Primary Education Board, SPEB, Malam Yakubu Adamu, even described the late Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, as detribalised. But if the Emir, by definition, is the embodiment of a tribe, how can he be described as "detribalised" at the same time? Tayo Oke, a columnist, complains that the term is "widely embraced as a mark of respect by the political elite... yet so devoid of substance," adding that "people should find it infuriating that someone is pointing them out as a "detribalised" Nigerian; it is an insult to the intelligence." Academically, Jideofor Adibe explains that "when we talk of being ‘detribalised’ in the Nigerian context, there is an assumption that there is a specific Nigerian culture to which those who have either voluntarily abandoned any form of relationship with the cultures and customs of their forefathers are socialised into." Under colonial occupation, the tribe was (as a matter of law) beneath civilisation. Those who were defined by it naturally wanted to be Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2022 —17 Send Opinions & Letters to: opinions1234@yahoo.com unshackled from it. For the native, the tribe was simultaneously a sanctuary from the colonial predations and the prison from which he sought emancipation. So, it was the mission of colonialism, they claimed, to bring such people into civilization. “Built into this were mechanisms to ensure that the tribalization of the natives was resilient. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London determined in 1918, as the First World War ended, that African tribes were "so low in the scale of social organization that their usages and conceptions of rights and duties are not to be reconciled with the institutions or the legal ideas of civilised society." Tribes people, they held, were incapable of legitimate leadership, property, or identity, and were beneath dignity. Tribalisation of the native was central to the methods of colonial administration. Ugandan academic, Mahmood Mamdani, described the tribe as "the unit of indirect rule administration." As a result, the colonists made it such that "each tribe must be considered a distinct unit…. Each tribe must be under a chief." “One year after the Privy Council’s decision, Frederick Lugard could assert in his Amalgamation Report delivered in 1919, that the policy was that these chiefs should govern their people not as independent but as dependent rulers. First, the chiefs who were given powers of life and death in this way (like emirs) had every incentive to sustain them. Second, the tribe was the way by which colonists calibrated the benefits and burdens of government. It thus ensured competition among different populations and peoples for the attention and affections of political power. This meant, thirdly, that the tribe as an identity did not merely depend on the subjective views of those who identified with it; it also defined how those who do not belong to your tribe see you. It is, therefore, Naked market square dance: A response to Ijere's theatrics any known statute as regards the electoral process in Nigeria at the time. Ikechi Emenike has been making futile allusions that the Federal High Court cannot interfere in the internal affairs of the APC in the determination of who, between Dr. Uche Ogah and himself, is the bonafide gubernatorial candidate of the party for the 2023 general election, whereas he approached the Abia State High Court for temporary protection. Is he allowed to reprobate and approbate too? Time will tell. And Ikechi Emenike has been boasting that, he already has a Court of Appeal judgement that affirmed his candidacy (an appeal in which Dr. Uche Ogah was never a party), and he is then INEC's affidavit of fact confirms that Abia APC held direct primary elections, with Dr. Uche Ogah emerging victorious challenged to not appeal against the judgement of the Federal High Court, which affirmed Dr. Uche Ogah as the valid candidate of the APC for gubernatorial election. Emenike’s political history is characterised by impunity, lawlessness, and a penchant for not playing by the rules. He has met more than a match in Dr. Uche Ogah. On this score, therefore, the poisoned chalice in the form of unsolicited "counsel that courts cannot resolve the APC problems and that political settlement should be pursued out of court" is tainted with evil and is characteristically undeserving of attention as well. May I refer them to the case of AGI v. PDP & ORS (2016) LPELR-42578 (Supreme Court)? "The rules of the party must be obeyed by all members of the party, as the no accident that Nigeria’s elite who seek to rule the country would think that their highest form of evolution is to describe themselves as "detribalised". In reality, the expression "detribalized" is worse than a patronizing piece of colonial nonsense. It begins from a conceptual error that "tribal" identity is expendable like a piece of traditional accoutrement. It is not. When they use this expression, Nigeria’s elite create the impression that the tribe is like a pigment that you can cure with ejaculations from a tube of anthropological bleaching cream. Ayodele, Ekaette, Kyari, Nkeiruka, Owoicho, are all markers of both belonging and exclusion. No matter how evolved the bearer may wish to feel they are, these identities are reminders to others as to what boxes they must fit into. Nativisation in this way is the mechanism by which Nigerians prepare to take on one another in the existential warfare over tribalization. It is also the way in which we remind one another that ‘detribalized" is a con-job by the elite on the peasantry. While they claim to be "detribalised," these elite also ensure that their followers are fully tribalized exponents of intertribal warfare. It is the only way in which they can preserve their turf in the battle to carve up the country. The implications are very far-reaching. In Nigeria, at least, it means that you can take the tribe out of the man, but it is impossible to take the man out of the tribe. It is no accident that the first question nearly every Nigerian asks the next is, "Where are you from?" So many decades after the colonists left, this situation has hardly changed. Put differently, no matter how civilised you think you are, as long as you are in the country, Nigeria will happen to you and remind you where you come from without necessarily telling you it is going anywhere. *A lawyer and a teacher, Odinkalu can be reached at chidi.odinkalu@tufts.edu party’s decision over its affairs is final." The court will only interfere where the party has violated its own rules. (underlining is for emphasis). Thus, contrary to Ijere's self-concocted theory that courts cannot resolve a political party's problems, only courts can resolve the logjam in this situation where a political party choses to go against its own rules. It, therefore, follows that, the reason why Emenike approached a state high court (a court without jurisdiction) appears to be the same reason why Dr. Uche Ogah approached a federal high court, properly clothed with jurisdiction in electoral matters in Nigeria. The current electoral regime makes it a safer route for judicial intervention in similar situations as those highlighted above. In the case of Dr. Uche Ogah, the APC chose the direct method of holding primaries and informed both INEC and the party's Abia State chapter on May 25, 2022. INEC received the letter and acted on it by monitoring the direct primaries held in Abia on May 26, 2022. It filed its report therefrom and certified the same. It went ahead to file an affidavit of fact in the Federal High Court, where it deposed that Dr. Uche Ogah emerged as the winner in the direct mode of primaries conducted by the APC in Abia State. I now challenge Mr. Odo Ijere, to produce any certified INEC report for the monitoring of his purported indirect primaries where Ikechi Emenike emerged. Of course, none exists, and so it shall be. Therefore, his self-contrived and puerile allusion that "INEC will shoot itself in the leg upholding such judicial rascality, knowing that upholding such a rogue pronouncement will contradict its well (sic) established earlier position at the Appeal Court as to who’s primary election was in its books" is a non-starter.“ Continues online:www.vanguardngr..com •Okoli, a lawyer and public affairs analyst, wrote from Umuahia, Abia State C M Y K
Page 1 and 2: C M Y K ELECTORAL ACT 2022 (2) How
Page 3 and 4: Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2022
Page 5 and 6: How politicians still threaten cred
Page 9 and 10: C M Y K Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER
Page 15: How strict adherence to rule of law
Page 19 and 20: By Babajide Komolafe, Economy Edito
Page 33 and 34: Vanguard, MONDAY, NOVEMBER, 21, 202
Page 39 and 40: C M Y K Qatar World Cup opens with

21112022

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?