In the last three months, 12 states across five of the six geo-political zones have conducted local council elections. Eight other states have announced plans to hold council polls between next week and February 2025. This rash of local elections is in response to the affirmation by the Supreme Court on July 11th that, as mandated by the constitution, local government areas (LGAs) should be run only by democratically-elected administrators. But there is hardly anything that separates the council elections held before and after July 11^th. The quality of LGA elections remains below par.

Irrespective of the political diversity and the local issues at play, the political parties that the governors belong to (or are affiliated with) always enjoy a clean sweep in the local polls in the states. There are many states in this country where presidential, gubernational, federal and state parliamentary elections are fiercely contested, where presidential and governorship elections are won narrowly and where available seats for Senate, House of Representatives and state assemblies are split between at least two political parties. But those same states become remarkably one-party states once it comes to LGA elections. Clearly, something doesn’t add up here.  

The farce cuts across party lines, as the 12 local elections held after July 11 have confirmed. The All Progressives Party (APC) swept all the available seats in Ebonyi, Kebbi, Kwara, Imo, Sokoto, and Benue states where it is the ruling party; the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) replicated the same feat in its own domains in Bauchi, Enugu, Plateau and Akwa Ibom (where it magnanimously conceded, and in strange fashion, one out of 31 LGAs to APC); the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) ensured that it had a perfect score in Anambra State, the only state it controls; and the Action Peoples Party (APP), a totally unknown party, had a slam dunk in Rivers State (securing 22  out of 23 LGAs) because it is the proxy party of the current governor of the state.

The Labour Party (LP) and the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) are expected to follow the trend by picking all the local seats available when Abia and Kano states hold their LGA elections in the next few weeks.  

To situate how farcical this clean sweep pattern is, let us look at two electorally diverse/competitive states that have conducted local elections after July 11^th: Plateau and Sokoto states. In the 2023 general election, the main parties polled as follows in Plateau State: 42% for LP, 28% for APC and 22% for PDP in the presidential election; 48% for PDP, 44% for APC and 7% for LP in the gubernatorial election; PDP won two senatorial seats while APC got one; PDP secured five seats while APC got three seats in the House of Representatives; and for the state House of Assembly, PDP secured 13 seats, APC got nine and Young Progressives Party (YPP) won two. However, this intense level of political competition and diversity disappeared when it came to LGA elections, as PDP, the ruling party in the state, cleared all the chairmanship slots in the 17 LGAs.

It is a different party but the same pattern in Sokoto State. In the 2023 general election, PDP got 49% to APC’s 48% in the presidential election; APC won the governorship with 52% to PDP’s 47%; APC secured two senatorial seats to PDP’s one; APC got eight seats while PDP secured three seats in the House of Representatives; and in the state House of Assembly, APC won 20 seats to PDP’s 10. However, the diversity completely vanished at the LGA level, as APC produced all 23 chairpersons and all 244 councillors.

Governors across party lines, and for various political and financial reasons, want the local councils in their breast pockets. Their first preference is to run the LGAs with appointees who are beholden and answerable only to them. In clear violation of Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution, governors used to routinely dissolve democratically-elected councils and appoint caretaker committees to run the LGAs. By the time the Supreme Court ruled on this obvious, wilful and flagrant violation of the constitution, caretaker committees were running the show in local councils in 20 of Nigeria’s 36 states.

The governors are now rushing to conduct LGA elections because, with the Supreme Court ruling, they have no cover to continue with their preferred but illegal option. But they have, without great exception, moved on to their second preference: conducting sham LGA elections. And this is easy to do, and is being done by all irrespective of party and religious affiliations, because there is another cover that is still fully in place: the state independent electoral commissions (SIECs), as presently configured, are extensions of state governments. So, the governors have moved, grudgingly, from Option A to Option B while retaining absolute control of those running the councils. Head or tail, they win.

The governors are not deciding the outcome of the LGA elections merely because they have the resources and the structures to determine electoral outcomes at the subnational level (otherwise, they would have been determining 100% the outcomes of all other elections held at the state level). Governors have an oversize influence on local elections simply because the SIECs, which conduct LGA elections, are fully in their pockets. The ‘independent’ in the name of SIECs is a semantic mockery. The SIECs are anything but independent. The governors constitute (and decide when to constitute) the SIECs. The governors fund and decide when to and how well to fund them. As long as this arrangement remains in place, the governors will continue to impose their puppets as LGA chairpersons and councillors. 

My sense is that there is an emerging consensus on the need to break governors’ chokehold over SIECs, and by extension LGA elections. However, opinion is divided on what to do. There are those who believe SIECs can be made truly independent. Some others prefer that all elections should be conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The Senate is working on creating a federal agency just for local council elections. I have my reservations about some of the options and also have my preference, but that is neither here nor there. What is important is that we need to fashion a way to take our LGA elections from the big joke that the governors have turned them into.

Outcomes of LGA elections should reflect the choices and the diversity of the local communities. Put another way, we need to make our local politics/elections truly local again (it used to be). It is when local officials are those truly elected by the local people that the elected will feel an obligation to be answerable to the people and be responsive to their needs and when the people will feel empowered to hold the elected to account. Financial autonomy to LGAs will not mean much if the people do not have a say on who runs their affairs and if those entrusted with power do not think they need the people to get into and stay in office.

Of course, the status quo favoured by the governors would not simply disappear because of Supreme Court’s ruling or merely because of our expectations. The outcome of LGA elections conducted in 12 states after the judgment of the apex court has made that point abundantly clear.  There is some serious work to be done by all of us not only to make LGA elections truly free, fair and credible but, more importantly, to improve the quality of governance and service delivery at the local level across the country. As I have said repeatedly here and elsewhere, Nigeria will be a considerably better place if our LGAs (with the resources and responsibilities assigned to them) are run in a more responsive, accountable, competent, efficient and effective manner. Financial autonomy, which the Supreme Court has granted, is good thing but it can’t be the cure-all. It can only be a starting point.  

MacArthur Foundation’s Momentous Trifecta

Last week, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, an American philanthropic organisation with offices in Nigeria, India and USA, rolled out the drums to mark some momentous milestones. The first, and the highpoint, was the celebration of its three decades of identifying and walking with Nigeria, staying the course, and making significant and catalytic interventions targeted at supporting the Nigerian government, civil society organisations and individuals to tackle some of the key constraints to human development and overall national development in the country.

MacArthur Foundation came into Nigeria in 1994, at a time when the country was embroiled in the political and economic uncertainty that followed the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election and when a ruthless military dictatorship was unfolding. This was a period when many Nigerians and friends of Nigeria were doubtful of what the future held and not sure if the country would even hold together. Other donor organisations operated from a safe distance, either in their home countries or in neighbouring countries. Some closed shop or scaled down.

But it was at this moment of national turmoil and doubt that MacArthur Foundation decided to pitch its lot, in country, with Nigeria. Under the able leadership of Professor Bolanle Awe, eminent historian and gender activist, the foundation started life in Nigeria with a population and reproductive health programme, which contributed to saving lives through improvement in health services and reduction in maternal and infant mortality in the country.

Since that entry in 1994, the foundation has not wavered on Nigeria. It not only stayed but also expanded its portfolio to other equally impactful areas like human rights and justice sector reforms, gender and social inclusion, and capacity development for higher education. In the last 30 years, MacArthur Foundation has awarded close to 1000 grants amounting to about $320 million to 500 organisations and individuals, according to Professor John Palfry, the current president of the foundation who was on hand to witness the celebration with some members of his senior team and a member of the foundation’s board, Professor Funmi Olopade.

The cross-section of Nigerians—from far and wide and across generations and sectors—that turned up in Abuja last week for the 30^th anniversary event is an acknowledgement of and an ode to the MacArthur brand of philanthropy. A proud and grateful Professor Awe, now a nonagenarian but still lucid, was on hand to join the celebration and move to the beats.

The foundation’s second milestone was a couple of activities organised to mark the winding down of the bet it took on Nigeria nine years ago. The Big Bet On Nigeria commenced in 2016 and terminates in a few months. The overall goal of the intervention is to reduce corruption by supporting Nigerian-led efforts that strengthen transparency, accountability and participation.

The On Nigeria programme is indeed a big bet on the country. It accounts for more than half of MacArthur’s grant in its 30 years of operating in the country. Specifically, the foundation has given out more than $150 million in grants to more than 200 grantees and subgrantees in four cohorts: media and journalism; behavioural change; criminal justice reform; and advocacy and accountability. Grantees cut across anti-corruption agencies, academia and think tanks, civil society and media. Beyond providing grants, MacArthur has also invested in building the capacity of its grantees, challenging and helping them to devise strategies for sustaining their important work beyond the life of the programme, and nurturing a coalition of change agents and partners within and outside of government. Beyond the well-documented impact of the big bet on Nigeria, its effects will continue to reverberate in years and decades to come.

The third milestone is understated but equally significant and can be classed as the connecting thread between the other two: the celebration of Dr Kole Shettima’s 25^th year at the foundation. Dr. Shettima joined MacArthur in 1999, took the torch from Professor Awe and has kept it alive and aloft since. One of Nigeria’s leading political scientists, he is the country director of the foundation. Along with Erin Sines, he is the co-director of the On Nigeria Programme.

Unassuming and approachable, Dr Shettima seems incapable of the kind of the hubris common with a breed of grant makers in this clime. His passion, compassion and ethics are unmistakable, even when he doesn’t go around advertising them. He has contributed not only to sculpting the work and image of MacArthur in Nigeria but also to shaping the values and outlook of his colleagues in the Abuja office. An encounter with any of them, from the highest to the lowest, leaves a firm impression of how he has successfully moulded a passionate and professional team. He is a great leader and an all-round great man. He deserves his flowers.

Our people say that the difference between a blind man and one who is not blind is not the absence of an eye socket. It is also not even the absence of an eyeball in many cases. In the latter case, the eye socket would not be lacking in an eyeball. It is just that the eyeball in the socket is without vision, even as it stares at you with the fixation of a presumably seeing eye. Thus, blindness is simply the inability to see, physically or metaphorically.

There is also this other saying of our people, to the effect that a leopard hunter who, during his hunt, takes time off to smoke his pipe while close to the lair of a feared leopard, should please notify his ancestors to expect him at short notice before lighting his pipe. The most sophisticated lady who is being chased by a lion will not remember her catwalk in such a situation.

 When a land is in great thrall, largely because of a collective guilt that everyone is eager to deny responsibility for, the road to healing and solutions is not yet in sight at all.   When problems that had a long gestation, and which therefore took decades to develop and mature due to reinforced errors, neglect of what should be done and deliberate acts of mischief, are treated as if they sprang up only yesterday, then the people are not yet ready to take the path to self-redemption.

With the above thoughts in my head, I found myself in a dream. I was looking down at our fatherland and admiring its beauty.  Several leaders of yore walked past as I looked, apparently heading to some meeting, or gathering. Most of them had such impressive carriage and quiet personal dignity. Such bearing! Such poise! Such character!

“These are the living symbols of the traditions, laws, values and pristine wisdom of the land” I murmured to myself. Standard Bearers of right and wrong for the people and the nation! “This land is blessed”, I murmured again.

Then I turned to look at the women and the maidens. Many of them embodied flawless grace and unimpeachable womanly dignity! Like the elders, the women and the maidens, the young men and children, too, looked very diligent and alert. I smiled in admiration and took in everything with calm scrutiny.

I could then really see why most countries admired and respected our fatherland and its people many decades ago. It is only human beings that can make a community good or bad. No community is good simply because of its natural endowments, no! The people themselves, their ways of doing things and their sense of propriety, not what is in the soil or above the soil, are responsible for the image and reputation of any society. The goodness and badness of a nation is always and only traceable to the people. But back to the dream.

Then, lo and behold, I found myself looking at yet another profile of the same fatherland of ours. I shuddered in dismay and consternation. How could this be? The land had changed so much. All the natural resources were still there, no doubt. The fertile soil had not become any less fertile. Nothing had really taken away the ever-benevolent climate and peaceful nature of the people.

Yet, there was a smell of un-sanctity in the air. It enveloped the land in a strange, stupefying sort of way. It was possible to sense it all, tot smell and almost touch it. Yet, it was impossible to pinpoint what was wrong, or what the matter could possibly be. I was simply impossible to put his finger on it.

Then I felt, or heard, a voice whisper to me that our fatherland’s esteem was at its peak before bad leadership came upon the scene over 50 years ago. Baffled, I looked around, but saw no one.

Then my mind went to the well-known fact that many people in governorship, religious and traditional leadership positions today are actually doing very unusual things. They compete with supply contractors, professional road builders, and even pick pockets. They love conspicuous consumption. They love the looks on famished faces as they flaunt their material possessions. Oh, how they love the display!  And yet, what they are prancing about with, and showing off with, belongs to the people. Leaders indeed!

In the dream, and from my vantage position, I could see the faces of the people. They were watching their governors, their local government chairmen, their councillors and their ward chairmen and, especially, their lawmakers in the state and National Assemblies. Most of the people looked thoroughly perplexed, or generally distraught.

But some of the people seemed quite happy, if in some cases they had a pasted smile that concealed considerable inner personal turmoil. But, for the record, many were actually happy with the ongoing signs of depravity around them.

Looking still more closely in the dream, I noticed that it was mostly the shameless in these places, and especially also a large population of young people who were serving as Special Assistants and Personal Assistants, that were happy.  There were signs of debauchery everywhere. The ignorant among the populace celebrated what they were seeing. But many far-seeing elders, and even some not so elderly ones, were not impressed at all.

And time passed in my dream.

I turned and noticed that some groups of people were discussing in low tones in their little corners. Their concern was the problems in the land. None knew whom to blame. The young ones blamed the elders, saying that they had ruined the nation and their future. The elders blamed changing times and global trends, as well as the elder statesmen. The latter feigned outrage, as they indignantly declared that any insinuations about their complicity in the nation’s problems was baseless.

Untold misery, despondency and a dreary feeling of the spirit soaked the land through and through. And I found myself wondering about it all. Then, as if in response to my thoughts, the strange voice whispered to me again in my dream: “The people who are looking at the Federal Government are all acting as if there are no leaders at State, Local, Council and ward levels”. Agan, I couldn’t see the speaker.

Really? But it is true! No one is interested in asking what happens to the monthly allocations to these tiers of government. They are also not all too keen on doing the right things in their personal and professional lives.  They are not interested in listening to what any sensible person has to say. They have no idea about what is going on around them, because they are totally beholden to their self-replicating acts of folly.  They give themselves no time to see clearly, think clearly, or to find out what anyone thinks, or feels.

Yet they want change, they want a better society. They are willing to live in the best version of their country, and they are waiting impatiently for someone to create it. Just look at how politicians move from one party to the other, doing the very things a responsible leader should not do. Abomination, right? Perhaps not, really. It is now the norm. No wonder, then! Yes, no wonder!

The subsisting smell of sacrilege in the air, has its roots in decades of our nurturing of the wrong paradigms for social cohesion and responsible leadership.  The complaints, as well as the ominous silence, of some of the wise men and women at the state and local government levels today portends ill; and may yet beget the as yet unknown, unnamed and unseen.

I shuddered over and over again in my dream. Then other thoughts assailed me.

I found myself wondering how people in positions of responsibility could be so completely bereft of all native wisdom and good sense. Does a representative of the peoples need to be told that a sharp object, which is used for trimming the fingernails, is not good for cleaning the eyes? Does anyone need to be reminded that a sensible person does not invite the community to inspect every part of his body in the village square, just to prove that he baths with extreme care?

Who would be the beacon when people in leadership positions act as if they are at a drunken revel? What should the people do when what should be hidden from children is put on display in the Village Square and, sometimes, in the marketplace? Who will give the people a sense of the sacred when the officiating priest at a coronation ceremony is not sober?

Many more questions flooded my mind, but they were too many for me to consider at once. Yes, the questions were just too many! Then my mind went to some proverbs. Yes, proverbs again!

There is great wisdom in the saying that the friends and relations of a mad man do not find the latter’s behaviour in public amusing, or entertaining. But what do you say, or do, in a situation where those who should be custodians of the highest values in the land seem to be the mad men in question?

I stared about me in the dream. I thought of the proverb, which said that whoever revealed the identity of the person behind a mask had profaned the mystery of the masquerade cult. But here, today, those who should play the role of protectors of the sacred put their imprimatur on profanity everywhere. What do you do when supposed protectors of the realm now seem to have turned into Patron Saint of mediocrity?

Then the strange voice whispered to me again, saying that many who ought to speak and provide guidance at state and local government levels have had their voices strangulated by the favours they had received, and continued to receive, from various quarters. This latter group does not want to lose the advantages and privileges of the hour. I nodded, thinking of the wisdom of our forefathers.

Fourth seed Coco Gauff came from a set and a break down to beat Paula Badosa to reach her first China Open final.

The 20-year-old American dug deep to come through 4-6 6-4 6-2.

Spaniard Badosa, ranked 19th in the world but a former world number two, had looked in a good position when she served at 4-3 up in the second set.

But Gauff broke and rattled off the next four games to set up a decider, eventually wrapping up victory in two hours and 21 minutes.

She will face either unseeded Czech player Karolina Muchova or home favourite and fifth seed Qinwen Zheng in the final.

Badosa, who was as low as 140th in the world rankings in May, came into the semi-final meeting on a good run of form in Beijing which included victory over second seed and US Open finalist Jessica Pegula in the last 16.

And she took advantage of Gauff’s inconsistencies, particularly on her serve which produced 11 double faults, to win the opening set and break in the first game of the second.

Gauff is working with new coach Matt Daly after ending her partnership with Brad Gilbert last month following her fourth-round exit at the US Open, where she was defending her title.

She saved four break points to avoid going 4-1 down in the second set and from then the momentum was with the American, who regained her composure as Badosa dropped her first set of the week.

Gauff broke three times in the decider to seal the win as she bids to add to her only title of the year so far from Auckland in January.

“I tried to stay focused, it was tough but mentally I just tried to reset,” she said.

 [Leadership]

The Enugu State Government on Sunday explained its decision to impose tax on corpses in mortuaries across the state.

The government said the move was not spurred by a revenue generation drive.

The Executive Chairman of Enugu State Internal Revenue Service (ESIRS), Mr Emmanuel Nnamani, said this while reacting to the Mortuary Tax circular addressed to all the morticians.

According to him, the tax was inline within the state Mortuary Tax Law which had existed for years adding that it was not new to the state.

Nnamani clarified that the mortuary tax was N40 daily only as against N40,000.

“It is an indirect tax paid by mortuary owners, not deceased family and it is just N40, not N40,000. Since its introduction, nobody has been denied burying their dead ones.

“It means that if the corpse stays in the mortuary for 100 days, the mortuary is expected to pay the state a sum of N4,000.

“The tax is not meant to generate revenue but to discourage people from taking their dead ones to the mortuary all the time,” Nnamani stressed.

Daily Trust reports that according to the circular, ESIRS in line with the provisions of section 34 of the Birth, Deaths and Burials Law Cap 15 Revised Laws of Enugu State 2004, approved the implementation of the Mortuary tax.

“The sum of N40.00 only is to be paid by owners of a corpse once it was not buried within twenty-four hours. The amount continues to count daily.

“Kindly ensure that owners of corpses make the payments before collection of the corpses for burial and then remit the same to the ESIRS in any commercial bank under the mortuary tax in Enugu State IGR Account,” part of it reads.

[DailyTrust]

Lagos State Police Command has confirmed that a 50-year-old man, identified as Emmanuel, was crushed to death by a moving train.

The Command’s spokesperson, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday.

Hundeyin said that the incident happened on Tuesday at about 9:00 am at the ARENA Shopping Complex area, in Oshodi.

According to him, a woman, who claimed to be the younger sister of the deceased, reported the case to the Mosafejo Police Division.

The PPRO added that the woman reported that she got a phone call that her elder brother was allegedly crushed by a moving train while walking along the track.

Hundeyin said that based on the report, the scene was visited and photographed by a team of detectives, while the corpse was evacuated to a public morgue for autopsy.

The case has been handed over to the Railway Police Command, Ebute-Metta, for further investigation.

[DailyPost]

• ….NDLEA intercepts N22.7billion worth of opioids at Lekki, Apapa, Onne seaports

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), says it has arrested a Thailand returnee, Oguejiofor Nnaemeka Simonpeter for importing 13.30 kilograms of heroin worth over N3.192billion at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Ikeja Lagos.

Director, Media and Advocacy, NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja, Femi Babafemi, who disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, said it was in a fresh wave of interdiction operations targeting transnational drug cartels.

Babafemi added the operatives at three seaports intercepted large consignments of opioids with a combined monetary value of N22,740,958,000.

According to the statement, Oguejiofor was arrested on Monday 7th October 2024 while attempting to smuggle out of the airport the illicit drug concealed in six backpacks and then packed into two big suitcases.

Babafemi said the 29-year-old graduate of Mechanical Engineering from the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Uli, Anambra state, had left Thailand on 3rd October on Qatar Airways flight and stopped over in Doha where he spent two days before heading to Lagos while his luggage was routed to Accra, Ghana, his original destination.

The Spokesman said after arriving Lagos on the 5th October, the suspect contacted the airline to reroute his luggage to Nigeria so that he can pick them up as rush bags in a bit to beat security checks. 

The statement indicated that, however, NDLEA officers intercepted him at the point of exit. 

Babafemi said a search of his two suitcases revealed three empty backpacks in each box with a large parcel of heroin neatly sewn to all the six backpacks.

The six parcels were subsequently recovered with a gross weight of 13.30kg, Babafemi said.

In his statement, Oguejiofor claimed he was hired for a fee of $7,000 upon successful delivery of the parcels. He said he was to deliver two parcels in Lagos and the other four parcels in Accra, Ghana, the Spokesman said.

The statement read: “Meanwhile, a total of Thirty Two Million Six Hundred and Seven Thousand Nine Hundred (32,607,900) pills of tramadol worth over Twelve Billion Five Hundred and Seventy Seven Million Naira (N12,577,000,000) and One Million Four Hundred and Fifty One Thousand Nine Hundred and Ninety Four (1,451,994) bottles of codeine-based syrup with a street value of Ten Billion One Hundred and Sixty Three Million Nine Hundred and Fifty Eight Thousand Naira (N10,163,958,000) have been intercepted at the Lekki Deep Seaport, Apapa seaport in Lagos and Port Harcourt Port Complex, Onne, Rivers state.

“The combined monetary value of the seized opioids comes to Twenty-Two Billion Seven Hundred and Forty Million Nine Hundred and Fifty-Eight Thousand Naira (N22,740,958,000).

The illicit consignments were seized from containers watch listed by NDLEA based on intelligence and processed for 100 percent joint examination with men of the Nigeria Customs and other security agencies at the three seaports between Monday 7th and Friday 11th October 2024.

“In the same vein, NDLEA operatives in Anambra on Saturday 12th October arrested a suspect, Okelue Chidera, 29, with 50,000 tablets of tramadol 200mg at Upper Iweka, Onitsha. Also, in Edo state, operatives raided a  cannabis transit and loading point at Aviose, Owan West LGA  where 70 bags of the psychoactive substance weighing 1,050kg were recovered, while a suspect Monday Akele, 38, was arrested on Friday 11th October in another raid at Owan Village, Ovia North East L GA where 110kg of same substance was seized.

“With the same vigour, Commands and formations of the Agency across the country continued their War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, sensitization activities to schools, worship centres, work places and communities among others in the past week.

“These include: WADA enlightenment lecture to students and staff of Sacred Heart Girls International Secondary School, Calabar, Cross River; students and teachers of Methodist Girls High School, Utu/Ikpe, Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom;  students and staff of Federal Government Girls Secondary School, Bida, Niger state; students and teachers of Ekunle High School, Iseyin, Oyo state; students and teachers of St. Theresa Secondary School, Abakaliki, Ebonyi; students and teachers of Joy Primary and Secondary School, Idogbo, Benin city, Edo state; students and staff of Model Secondary School, Maitama, Abuja; and WADA advocacy visit to the founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Aare Afe Babalola, among others.

“While commending the officers and men of MMIA, Lekki seaport, Apapa, PHPC, Anambra, and Edo Commands of the Agency for the arrests and seizures, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) stated that their operational successes and those of their compatriots across the country especially their balanced approach to drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts are well appreciated.”

The Peoples Democratic Party in Kano State has elected Yusuf Kibiya as the new chairman of the party in the state.

Kibiya is a former Commissioner for Agriculture under former state governor, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, between 1999 and 2003.

The party’s Election Committee chairman, Halilu Mazagani, disclosed this while announcing the election results on Sunday.

He noted that Kibiya secured a landslide victory, garnering 3,964 votes to defeat his opponent, Nura Nuhu, who scored 244 votes.

Mazagani, who commended the party’s officials in the state “for a job well done,” said the smooth conduct of the congress was an indication that the PDP would soon resolve the lingering differences between some members of the party to make it “a better and stronger opposition that can defeat the ruling party.

“Our party being the largest in Africa, no doubt, faces some internal challenges, but as always, we have learnt to manage our differences.

“I can assure you today that we are working hard to ensure unity and we are mobilising like never before, to ensure our success in the forthcoming 2027 general elections which I can confidently say the people will vote for us.

“So, it is now left for us to present credible candidates to Nigerians like we did before and we wish to improve on that.”

Also speaking at the event, an ex-Kano governor, Senator Ibrahim Shekarau, assured all that the party would produce a winning team in the 2027 general elections, adding that the PDP is poised to challenge any party in any election in the country, including the local government election scheduled to hold on October 26, 2024.

[Punch]

There is nothing new about elections in Nigeria. Except for the annulled June 12 election, we have never had a free, fair and credible process because our politicians know that voters don’t believe in them. It is worse that it is the ruling party which uses all organs of government to ensure the right candidate does not win.

The new system in which voting is open but collation is manipulated dates back to 1999 when former American President Jimmy Carter led the international election monitoring group. Carter told reporters that the number of voters on the voting queue was different from the results that were announced. In other words, the mischief that needs to be cured in Nigerian elections is the collation process. Everything is usually changed during the process to overturn the correct results with the strong telling the weak to go to court. 

Our courts are not allowed to interfere in the election process hence the law that courts should never stop an electoral commission from doing its work. Many young people were probably too young to be aware of this while those who are old enough to know about the law think that the law can be experimented upon. All that one needs to do is to have enough funds to hire big lawyers that can intimidate a judge. But whether we hire a long list of lawyers or not, the basic truth is that no court is allowed to stop an electoral body from doing its work. Although one legislator said the other day that it was for this reason that they put in the law to make it impossible for courts to stop electoral commission, it is good for Nigerians to know that even the military had the same law.  

In 1993, Senator Athur Nzeribe’s Association for Better Nigeria ABN attempted to stop the June 12 presidential election, but the electoral body ignored the court and went ahead with the election. The decision of the then electoral body was informed by Section 19 (1) of the Presidential Election Decree No. 13 of 1993 which barred any court from interfering in its work.  So, there is nothing new with what the courts are doing today; they are following the old order whereby Judges are materially influenced to give wrong judgments. How can a court bar police and other security agencies from securing an electoral process and argue that it didn’t bar the electoral commission from doing its work? If courts are to positively contribute to national development, they must tackle the unending failed elections in the country.

Our judges are very different these days; gone were the days of Justice George Oguntade, then a judge of the court of appeal who dealt with the subject substantively. According to Oguntade, “where a court makes an order in contravention of a statutory provision which forbids it from making such orders, the order so made is null and void and no appeal need be filed against the order.” What this confirms is that we have always had stomach infrastructure judges and lawyers including senior advocates who are always pretending that there is nothing a court cannot do. We say here today that a judge who attempts to stop an election is an unpatriotic citizen who is not bothered about our toga of a country whose elections always fail integrity tests. Oguntade’s ruling remains the latest and only law on the subject. 

Of course, we are not saying that courts are irrelevant in our electoral process.  There is time for courts to work, so they need not work before their time. For example, all the wrongs which the federal high court found with the rivers state electoral commission could be used to nullify the election; they cannot be used to stop the election from holding because that would be against the law. If courts start to break the law, then we are heading towards destruction. Even if the military keeps to its promise of allowing democracy to grow, we should not tempt them to change their mind. Besides, let us not remind politicians that they can revert to the old order where strong candidates were murdered just before voting day because people have lost faith in the judicial process. Our nation needs to listen now.

As far as ‘go to court’ is concerned, it is getting obvious that those who mouth it know the exact courts where the case would eventually be heard. To start with, it is usually the federal high court which on its own has a limited jurisdiction. The court has become so popular that it can alter state matters into federal matters. In Kano for example, although chieftaincy matters are purely state matters, the federal high court in the city successfully created another emir. Could this idea of further compounding every controversy be the nation’s expectation of the judiciary? Chief Justice Kekere-Ekun must in her moments of deep thoughts begin to see how some judges can be stopped from getting involved in ousted matters.

She also needs to take a closer look at the way unlimited state high courts are made to lose their jurisdiction to the federal high court which ordinarily only has limited jurisdiction.  We are not unaware that despite several warnings, court are still intransigent on those rules which were made to keep them in line. Perhaps it is time to resurrect the old law which stopped the judiciary from determining winners of elections. Instead, they should examine an election and see whether the process was followed or not. If it was followed, no problem but if it was not followed the court should nullify the election and give room for a repeat election. That may help to retrieve the integrity of the judiciary which is right now spoiling her image through the determination of elections in which there are more votes than voters.

Another thing that the heads of court can do is to stop forum shopping. Whereas it is true that all federal high courts have the same jurisdiction, it is suspicious that people leave the federal high court in the state where they live and where the case arose to the federal high court in Abuja to file their cases. What is special about the federal high court in Abuja that it is so well patronized? Could it be that judges of the federal high court in that city are secret members of a political party? If the situation is not reversed, the judiciary would someday be like police that always cancels check points only for another Inspector General to assume office only to cancel it again because it was never obeyed. What this means is that whatever takes away food from the corrupt hands of officials will really never stop. Instead, they will design new strategies for continuing with the mischief.  

Except we take such stringent action, we might soon get to a situation in which a common thief can be freed if in his defence, he cites the police. It would then be argued that since the case has police involvement, it has to be moved to the federal high court because states cannot deal with the police. In other words, we have successfully turned the object of a case to its subject. In Kano, it was only a chieftaincy case but as soon as police and other security agencies were added to it for implementation of judgment it became a federal high court case.Obviously, those who are benefiting from the roles the federal high courts are being made to play now are enjoying it but it is only fair that we are all reminded thatsomeday those in government now may not be there again. 

When the APC was the opposition party, it went to court, to stop the involvement of the army in Nigeria’s election. The party won the case and it was decided that the army should be far away from election centres. Today, the APC is in government and probably now sees the “usefulness” of the army in elections. If it saw this earlier it may not have gone to court to secure a victory against what it’s now doing. Nigeria’s elections would be better handled if every organ is allowed to play its assigned role. There is no need to display voting and declaration of result segments while collation of votes is done in secret. Our Federal High Court should please give us some breathing space.

Hadiza El-Rufai, the former First Lady of Kaduna State, has engaged in a public exchange with Senator Shehu Sani on X (formerly Twitter).

The former senator, who represented Kaduna Central in the 8th Assembly, had posted a comment on the platform about President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which caught El-Rufai’s attention.

In his post, Sani humorously suggested that President Tinubu’s international travels have an impact on the economy, particularly taxes and commodity prices.

He wrote, “New law of economics; When the President travels out, Taxes and Prices goes up.”

El-Rufai, well-known for correcting grammar on social media, pointed out the error in Sani’s post.

She noted that the phrase should be “go up” rather than “goes up.”

In response, Shehu Sani, referring to her as “mummy,” urged her to leave him alone.

He pointed out that despite both of them having unfollowed each other, she still continues to linger around him.

He wrote, “I unfollowed you and you unfollowed me.And you still de hang around me.Mummy,leave me alone abeg.”

Her correction sparked reactions from Nigerians in the comment section, with users sharing their views on the exchange between the former First Lady and the senator.

@Balatic wrote, “If you converted this grammatical energy into moral energy and channeled it on your husband, Southern Kaduna population for no reduce significantly during his 8 horrible years in charge.”

@AustinINstate said, “Madam, Uncle senator was right do your research no sentiments please my little understanding :The correct phrase is “price goes up.” Since “price” is a singular noun, it requires the singular verb “goes.”

@Wasser_02 noted: For 8 yrs as governor wife and chief grammar corrector, Kaduna state didnt improve or come first in any external English examination. So ma, this Twitter correction is a waste. You can go ahead to correct mine.

@davidoj_10 said, “If you both advised the government or effected changes in such capacities, we’d be way better than where we are right now but here you’m are correcting grammatical errors.”