AIDS: OUR COURTS AND AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS

INTRODUCTION

The world is still being ravaged by the AIDS epidemic. Tears are constantly flowing for those we have lost and those living with HIV/AIDS. Hopefully someday the Red Ribbon and AIDS will be just a memory but until then we must remember and raise awareness about the myths and facts of the epidemic and the year 2008 World Aids Day is a perfect opportunity to do so.

As the World AIDS day 2008 approaches with the main theme “Leadership” for 2007 and 2008 with the slogan “Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise” for World AIDS day observances through 2010, I am using this opportunity to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS by highlighting the history and other salient issues that affect the fight against HIV/AIDS especially in Africa and in Nigeria in particular factoring in the role of the judiciary in the process as one of the things I can do to support the World AIDS day as prescribed by the World AIDS Campaign which took over the responsibility from the UNAIDS in 2005.

The tagline Leadership encourages leaders at all levels to stop AIDS. Building on the 2006 theme of Accountability, leadership highlights the discrepancy between the commitments that have been made to halt the spread of AIDS, and actions taken to follow them through. Leadership empowers everyone – individuals, organisations, governments – to lead in the response to AIDS.

HISTORY

The pandemic known as HIV/AIDS has decimated whole African villages especially in East and Central Africa since it came to the limelight in the early 1980s even though there are shards of evidence that tend to show that diagnoses or deaths from HIV/AIDS may have been recorded in 1959 in the Congo and in 1969 when a young American died in St. Louis and again in 1976 when a Norwegian sailor died of the same ailment. Not much of this disease was known in the 1970’s which has appropriately been dubbed the decade of silence, nothing was done and the disease spread as many more people got infected. Some scientists even believe that HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) probably transferred to human’s in Africa around 1930 and that HIV probably entered the American subcontinent through Haiti around 1966 when some infected immigrant from the Congolese war emigrated to Haiti.

HIV may have entered the US through Haiti around 1970, when African doctors began to see in opportunistic infections and wasting whilst western scientists and doctors remain ignorant of the growing epidemic. By 1981 AIDS was detected in California and New York and the first cases were among gaymen and then injecting drug users. In 1981 AIDS was reported among haemophiliacs and Haitians in the USA and in several European countries. The name “AIDS” – Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome – is created and community organisations in the USA and the UK began to promote safer sex among gay men who were infected in large numbers at this time.

The year 1983 was a turning point and alarm bells began to ring as AIDS is reported among non - drug using women and children. As a result, experts became more confident that the cause of AIDS is infectious. Three thousand AIDS cases had been reported in the USA and one thousand had died.

In 1984, scientists identified HIV (initially called HTLV – III or LAV) as the cause of AIDS and Western scientists became aware that AIDS was widespread in parts of Africa. In 1985, an HIV test is licensed for screening blood supplies even as AIDS was found in China, and has therefore been seen in all parts of the world.

By 1986 AIDS had become a global phenomenon and the seriousness of the pandemic began to dawn even on the pessimistic as more than 38, 000 cases of AIDS was reported from more than 85 countries. Uganda, one African country where the disease was rife began promoting sexual behaviour change in response to the AIDS pandemic. A year later, AZT became the first drug approved for the treatment of the disease and the UK and other countries increasingly acted to raise awareness of AIDS. In 1988, the American government conducted a national AIDS education campaign. Health ministers from around the world met to discuss and establish a world AIDS day.

Despite these initiatives, the infection rate grew scandalously such that by 1990, an estimated 8 million people were living with HIV worldwide, an astronomical increase from 38, 000 reported worldwide just four years earlier in 1986.

However in 1993, an unpalatable dimension was introduced into the AIDS saga when the approved AZT by the west is shown to be of no benefit to those in the early stages of HIV infection, infact some have contended and even litigated the issue that AZT accelerated the onset of AIDS in HIV patients. It is equally worthy of note that in 1994 AZT was shown to reduce the risk of mother – to – child transmission of HIV in another study and infant HIV infections began to fall in developed countries, due to the use of AZT, it was claimed.

In 1995, it came to be realized that anything short of a concerted global effort will not save mankind from the scourge of this dreaded disease. The UN and other regional bodies began to take note and this led to the birth of the joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) in 1995.

Between 1996 and the year 2000, supposed progress was made as a combination of antiretroviral treatment is shown to be highly effective against HIV. In developed countries, many people began taking the new treatment. AIDS deaths began to decline in developed countries, due to the new drugs. Brazil became the first developing country to begin providing free combination treatment. In other developing countries, only a tiny minority could access treatment for HIV. Annual global spending on AIDS in low – and middle – income countries was $ 300, 000,000.00 (Three Hundred Million Dollars).

Notwithstanding these concerted efforts, it is a sad commentary on the state of affairs and the race to rein in HIV/AIDS that at the turn of the century, in the year 2000, an estimated 30 million people were living with HIV worldwide.

The efforts has however continued and in 2001 at a UN special session, world leaders set long-term targets on HIV/AIDS and in 2002, the Global Fund was established to boost the response to AIDS, TB and Malaria and at about the same time Botswana began Africa’s first national AIDS treatment programme. By the year 2003 AIDS drugs became more affordable for developing countries as the “3 by 5” campaign is launched to widen access to AIDS treatment but the first AIDS vaccine to undergo a major trial is found to be ineffective.

In 2004, the US launched a major initiative called PEPFAR to combat AIDS worldwide. The statistics continued to be grim and the reality alarming. By 2005, an estimated 40 million people were living with HIV, 10 million more from five years earlier, including 25 million Africans and more that 21 million people had died of the dreaded disease since 1981. Today 28% of people in developing countries who need treatment for HIV are receiving it. Annual global spending on AIDS in low – and middle – income countries has risen to $ 1.8 billion dollars. It is estimated that $ 14.9 billion dollars would be needed for a truly effective response.

AIDS AND AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS

I have recounted the history of the pandemic since it became widely known but the interesting thing is that whilst the earliest known cases were recorded in the west, the reality today is that the poor continent of Africa is the one which has become mostly affected. Of the estimated 40 million people living with HIV worldwide, 25 million of them live in Africa. In Africa, the disease kills by the hundreds everyday, Children are made orphans, parents lose loved ones, the youth who is the driver of any economy and a beacon of hope for the future is being cut down in his prime by the disease. By the sheer force of nature, he is most sexually active and sex remains the principal avenue by which the disease may be contracted and in the same vein, he is the one likely to inject drugs to spice up his system.

In all this, what is our government doing to check this disease and buck the trend. African governments say they do not have the resources to fight the disease effectively, there are no funds to spend on research, there is no vaccine in sight and the prospects of getting one soon is bleak, most of Africa’s poor cannot afford antiretroviral drugs and Thabo Mbeki added a curious dimension to the debate when he questioned the utility of antiretroviral drugs and the legal battle that ensued between the Government of South Africa and the big multinational pharmaceuticals which will not make the drugs cheap and freely available did the cause no good. Apart from these and ill coordinated awareness campaigns and some workshops/seminars with discussions thrown into the mix for good measure at bilateral, multilateral and regional levels, there is no clear cut initiative and strategy on the part of African governments to fight the disease.

African governments may well not have the resources, but if the sleaze, waste and corruption that permeates most of its countries national life is halved by two and the resources thereby released dedicated to fighting the scourge of HIV/AIDS and other killer diseases such as malaria and TB on the continent, the day may not be far off when the continent will need no aid donor to fight disease. Even with the lean resources, Africa does not spend a fraction of what it expends on arms on the fight against disease. From Abuja to Pretoria, Abidjan to Kinshasa, Dafur to Kampala, Rabat to Mogadishu, the entire continent is mired in crisis. Infact, it has being stumbling from one war to the other and the wars are increasing in intensity. Witness the unspeakable human tragedy unfolding in Dafur today, Mogadishu has remained ungovernable since 1992 and other flashpoints are emerging by the day, the Niger delta region of Nigeria for example, the decades long resistance in Uganda is gathering momentum, hitherto stable Cote d Voire is teetering on the edge of collapse. Too much innocent blood has been shed all over the continent since 1960. There is hardly any African country that has not witnessed war of one kind or the other. Any wonder then the continent is a rife dumping ground of caches of small arms? That Dafur is happening before our very eyes, a mere decade after Rwanda is proof that the specie of human beings that inhabit this part of the world will never learn. Whatever happened to the “NEVER AGAIN” resolve after Rwanda?

If our governments will not fight the disease, how on earth are they going to confront and handle the social, economic and political issues that are a consequential fall out of contracting the disease? In other words, what has our governments done about the human rights of persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA)? PLWHA have had to face difficult challenges in the course of their everyday life, they face discrimination, and they are stigmatized thereby aggravating the impact of the disease on them and on the society in several ways.

CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS INSTRUMENTS

Good a thing, it has become accepted that for the epidemic to be curbed, the human rights of PLWHA must be respected and protected in the society. PLWHA are human beings and as such they are entitled to the basic rights which every person is entitled to. All the rights guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria are as a matter of course guaranteed to PLWHA.

There are some international and regional human right instruments which are important in protecting the right of PLWHA. Some of these instruments are:

(i) International Guideline on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights.

(ii) The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

(iii) The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

(iv) The convention on Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination.

(v) The Convention on Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

(vi) The Convention on the Rights of the Child.

(vii) The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

(viii) The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR).

(ix) Various International Labour Organisations Conventions and Recommendations.

As laudable as the Constitutional provisions and the international and regional human rights instruments are, they are observed more in the breach in many countries. Nigeria for example has ratified most of the international instruments and copiously provides for the protection of fundamental human rights in Chapter IV of the Constitution but the reality is that in Nigeria PLWHA are openly discriminated against and stigmatised in the work place, place of education, in employment, in prison, in healthcare and even in the home that should otherwise be a shield and a fortress for PLWHA. It has been reported that a High Court Judge in Nigeria once ruled that a plaintiff, who had tested positive to HIV could only be allowed into the court room to give evidence if a medical expert satisfied the court that her presence will not endanger the lives of other people in the court room. What an unbelievable ignorance on the part of an elite judge. Recently, it took the intervention of the Ministry of Education to stop a private University in Nigeria which insisted on an HIV test as a prerequisite for enrolling in the University.

THE GREAT GOOD OUR COURTS CAN DO

In a country like Nigeria, where discrimination is widespread as a result of socio – cultural factors and unfounded prejudices, it is imperative that the law courts should brace up and be in the vanguard of the protection of the human rights of PLWHA as has been done in other jurisdictions. A few examples of the proactive role the courts have played in other jurisdictions may suffice here.

On May 10, 2000 in N v. Minister of Defence (Case No. 1LC 24/98), a Namibian court ruled that the Namibian Defence Force (NDF) was guilty of unfair discrimination for refusing to enlist a man solely on the basis of his HIV status. In Hammel/Malaxos (25 November 1993, No. 73032000370929), a Canadian court found that the defendant (a Dentist) in refusing to treat the plaintiff because he was seropositive, had committed a discriminatory act contrary to the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedom, and awarded the plaintiff $ 1,000.00 in damages.

In Pacific Western Airlines Ltd. v. Canadian Airline Flight Attendants Association (1987) 28 L.A.C (3d) 291 (Can. Arb. Bd.), the court found that the employers conduct was wrongfully discriminatory: dismissing an employee from his job solely on the basis of his HIV status is unjustified. A case that coincidentally and interestingly answers the Nigerian judge is the Florida case of Peacock (In the matter of), 59 B.R 568 (Banker S.D. Fla. 1986) where the issue arose whether the fact that a person is HIV positive will require special precautions against contagion to be taken in the court room. The court emphatically answered no stating that no special precautions need be taken reasoning that HIV is not spread by casual contact, so there is no need for precautions to be taken in the court room.

The Arbitrator in Centre d’ Accueil Sainte – Domitille v. Union des employes de Service, local 298 (F.T.Q.) (1989) T.A. 439 (Tribunal d’ Arbitrage) held that an employer does not have the right to require a medical examination where the purpose is merely to obtain evidence that the employee is HIV seropositive.

On 1, August, 2000, a Venezuelan court ordered the Universidad Pedagogica Experimental Libertadore (UPEL), a powerful, sprawling Government subsidized University with eight main campuses and twenty other units throughout the country, to stop requiring an HIV test for admission. A timely wake up call for the private university that recently attempted same in Nigeria.

In Davis v. Walker, U.S.D.C. N.D. Alabama, AIDS Litigation Reporter 12/28/87 (opinion) the issue was considered whether a Sheriff’s failure to test all in - coming inmates for HIV violated the plaintiffs civil rights. The court held that the failure to test did not violate the plaintiff’s civil rights. The court also determined that the sheriff’s decision was reasonable based on the manner in which the infection is spread. Given that the known routes to transmission required participating in conduct prohibited within the prison system, the court found that the sheriff could properly eschew screening and testing each inmate in favour of stringent enforcement of rules against homosexuality and intravenous drug use in the jail.

In Ter Neuzen v. Korn (1992) 3 W.W.R. 469 (BC Supreme Court), The plaintiff patient alleged that she had been infected with HIV during an artificial insemination procedure in January 1985 and that the infection was due to negligence on the part of the defendant gynecologist who performed the procedure. On 20 November 1991, a BC Supreme Court jury found the gynecologist liable and assessed damages of almost $900,000.00 (Nine Hundred Thousand Dollars) though the case went on appeal.

Again in Pittman v The Canadian Red Cross Society (1994) O.J. No. 463, the Ontario court of justice awarded the estate of a man who died of complications from AIDS as a result of “tainted blood”, his widow and four children the sum of $515,075 in compensation for the tainted blood received by the deceased in 1984.

In R v Wentzell, File No. C.R. 10888 (December 8, 1999, N.S. Co. Ct.), Wentzell pleaded guilty to criminal negligence causing bodily harm. He knew of his infection and had been advised not to have unprotected sex. The court invoked the principle of deterrence and Wentzell was sentenced to three years imprisonment with a recommendation that he receive all necessary treatment and counseling. In Venter v Nel 1997 4 SA 1014 (D), the court granted the plaintiff damages in the amount of R 344,399,06 on the ground that the defendant had infected her with HIV during sexual intercourse. Damages were granted for future medical expenses as well as for the possibility of a reduction in life expectancy, psychological stress, pain and suffering.

In Applicant v Administrator, Transvaal and Others, 1993 (4) SA 733, the court ordered that the “Applicant” receive the medication (Gancyclovir) that was initially promised to him by a provincial hospital which had prescribed the drug along with preparing the patient for its administration upon its reneging because of the cost of the drugs. Similarly in Biljon and Others v Minister of Correctional Services and Others, CPD, 1997. Unreported 117778/96, the court awarded Applicants (2 of 4) access to anti – retroviral therapy (ARV) after the court dismissed the prison authorities’ argument of budgetary constraints as a reason for not providing ARV.

CONCLUSION

These examples show the good the court can do in the cause of the eradication of HIV/AIDS and in the protection of PLWHA and the health and larger interests of society. Our courts have not yet been faced with these issues, we hope that when the time comes as it definitely will the court can learn a few things from these examples from abroad.

As for African governments, we noted earlier, the statistics and the consequences for Africa are grim; our governments must as a matter of priority start doing the right things if the Millennium development goals and ambitious economic targets (such as Nigeria’s Vision 2020) across the continent must be met. What can be more important than securing the future of our Children? If our governments see no reason to act fast, I will supply one and it is simple “the last child to be cured or protected against HIV/AIDS will probably be an African child”.

STEPHEN O. OBAJAJA is a partner in the Lagos law firm of Fountain Court Partners.

STEPHEN O. OBAJAJA

Fountain Court Partners

Block 36B, LSPDC Estate

Ogudu Road

Ojota – Lagos.

08052066172

08098066172

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN NIGERIA: HOW THE LAW CAN HELP

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN NIGERIA: HOW THE LAW CAN HELP

Introduction:

I read with deep concern your feature article “Domestic Violence: When the Law Fails to Protect” in the Thisday Lawyer of Tuesday, September 20, 2011. It was indeed a sad, brutal and pathetic story for want of worse words. At times I wondered how all the things the woman in your story endured could even happen. The woman went through hell and I wept for all victims of domestic violence but we cannot afford to fold our arms and watch this evil fester. The law is not of much help in this part of the World because it is more of a cultural and social problem. Here it is still a man’s world where many think they have earned the right to chastise their wives. But this is by no means implying that domestic violence is a one way traffic. There have also been reported cases of wives abusing their husbands. Apart from assault; nagging, vulgar abuse and neglect of general marital duties by the wife to a certain degree may amount to domestic violence and abuse against the man.

Cultural, Social and Economic Issues:

It is crucial that the law takes into consideration our peculiar circumstances in dealing with this issue. There are too many closet abusers and domestic violence perpetrators than you think. Studies have shown that otherwise very successful men and even members of the clergy are involved. So as they say ‘things are not always as they seem’. For cultural reasons though, our women would rather put forward a bold face, flash cosmetic smiles and disguise the bruises with a generous dose of cosmetics with a veneer of ‘happily married’ and all is well to boot.

Like the experiences of the woman in your story, it is for these cultural reasons that victims suffer most. The family, friends and now most annoyingly the church are always likely to counsel patience, endurance and remind the victim of how love is long suffering and marriage is meant to last forever even at the expense of her health and life.

The very important Economic and Social factors cannot also be discountenanced. Here men are likely to have better jobs and earn more. Many women do not even work. In a situation like that it becomes so difficult to walk away from domestic violence and abuse especially in a country and an economy where Children are the ones who support their parents and siblings are also likely to be unemployed and in School even. Where your cousins, siblings and friends seem to be enjoying their marriages even where they might be getting as much abuse and enduring domestic violence as you are doing; who wants to be the one who is divorced? They will even say you walked out of your marriage. These are the serious dilemmas women who suffer domestic violence and abuse in our society face and is the reason why domestic violence and abuse festers and is perpetuated without fear of purnishment.

What is Domestic Violence:

Domestic violence may not lend itself to a particular or one encompassing definition because of the change in concept overtime and the shifting quicksand’s on which assumptions stand these days. What is domestic, family or intimate relationships used to be quite simple but not anymore so we will attempt to work with a few definitions which capture and suits our present purpose.

A study wrote “Domestic violence has traditionally been defined as violence in the home, or between family members. As society's definition of family has changed, so has the law's definition of family violence. While some states cling to the traditional view of domestic violence as between spouses or former spouses, increasingly legislatures are expanding the scope of the law to include children, relatives, unmarried persons living together, persons with a child in common, and even those in an "intimate relationship."

According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, “Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence (IPV), has been broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, friends or cohabitation. Domestic violence, so defined, has many forms, including physical aggression (hitting, kicking, biting, shoving, restraining, slapping, throwing objects), or threats thereof; sexual abuse; emotional abuse; controlling or domineering; intimidation; stalking; passive/covert abuse (e.g., neglect); and economic deprivation. Alcohol consumption and mental illness can be co-morbid with abuse, and present additional challenges when present alongside patterns of abuse.”

How the Law Can Help:

Domestic violence is no longer a family secret, it is now a public health problem and we must acknowledge it as such in Nigeria if we must draw the necessary focus to it and ensure the passage of relevant legislation to curb same. Apart from the general criminal laws on assault, sexual crimes and to a limited extent a few gender specific laws and the ones against Child abuse there has been no concerted effort and comprehensive legislation against domestic violence and abuse in Nigeria.

But in expanding the frontiers of the law for the prevention and protection of victims of domestic violence, Nigeria can learn a few things from abroad. For example one of the most potent weapons for addressing domestic violence is the Protective Order that excludes the abuser from the home. We shall come back to this very important order with drastic implications for the abuser and his victim shortly.

The cultural, social and economic impediments that victims face are indeed enormous and will not be dismantled any time soon but the law, our Government and relevant authorities will need to shed its indifference, take affirmative action and if indeed it is necessary enact gender sensitive/specific legislation to help bridge the gap and set us on the way to addressing domestic violence and create the necessary awareness and avenues to end domestic violence and abuse.

All Schools, Churches, Mosques, Employers, Medical Centres, the Law Enforcement Agencies and other social places of contact should be legally mandated and encouraged to have proper counseling and support units and to take more than a passing interest in those with whom they come in contact. The priority should be geared towards early detection of domestic violence and adequately address same and determine where continuous monitoring and evaluation may be necessary.

The Protective Order:

The protective order is an important legal tool which bans a person from the home on pain of arrest and enables the treatment of presence at home as a prelude to committing the crime of domestic violence as the protective order has transformed from being a mere Civil remedy to a Criminal weapon.

The standard method of redress for domestic violence victims in many United States jurisdictions is obtaining a protective order. These may be short-term, emergency protective orders, or longer term orders issued after a hearing. An emergency protective order in most cases is only issued where the applicant can show that there is a danger of immediate harm unless an order is issued. Such an order ordinarily is valid for only a few days, until a contested hearing can be held. After a hearing, the court may issue a longer term protective order.

A protective order may provide such relief as prohibition of further abuse; prohibiting contact with the victim; excluding the offender from the home, excluding the offender from the victim’s place of work or school; payment by the offender of spousal support, child support, monetary compensation or payment for alternative housing for the victim and other forms of relief.

The protective order once conceived as a civil remedy to be sought by victims themselves in court and enforced through contempt proceedings has become firmly a component of criminal law. The state itself now initiates, seeks and obtains criminal protection orders pursuant to criminal prosecution and violation of a civil or criminal protection order is now prosecuted as a crime, usually a misdemeanor and sometimes even as a felony.

Of all the reliefs provided by a protective order, the most far reaching and with far reaching consequences still for the parties is that which excludes the abuser from the home with drastic implications for property law and the old common law of home invasion, burglary. It is no defence that the person excluded from the home co-owns or even solely owns the property and any violation of the order may be and is often treated and prosecuted as burglary. To convict for burglary in the classic common law sense will require the offender to break into another’s dwelling with intent to commit felony therein. But here presence at home will suffice thus criminalizing mere presence at home. Any form of contact is usually prohibited. The person excluded will still have violated the order even if he was contacted by the victim and the order cannot be lifted at the instance of the victim. If we consider that the order which may initially be for three months can be repeatedly extended for up to three years in some jurisdictions then parties may well be staring de facto divorce in the face. For if there is no form of communication for that long period of time, what will be left of any relationship?

If we explore and use protective orders here in Nigeria, many grasping its full implications may not thread the path of domestic violence and/or abuse. Exclusion from the home aims particularly to reverse the power relations as the abuser is almost always likely to be in a superior power position. It seeks to protect the homestead, install peace and a measure of tranquility free from intimidation which will otherwise not be possible if the abuser were to remain at home. Off course this also brings about the unpleasant consequences of enforced separation which the parties could do nothing about even if they desire to resume intimate relations whilst the protective order lasts. In our circumstances however, we may seek ways to temper or ameliorate the consequences but I think a proper appreciation of these dire consequences will deter many an abuser and help end domestic violence.

Conclusion:

Domestic Violence is such a serious matter in Nigeria now and as the rest of the civilized world has done, we must find ways to combat and ultimately end domestic violence. Our circumstances may differ but there is no way we cannot adopt and adapt measures that have worked elsewhere to suit our local circumstances. One of those important measures we must adopt in the fight against domestic violence and abuse is the protective order.

The protective order is a drastic measure but what choice have we got in a world where domestic violence and abuse has become so common place. In an ideal world, the home is a fortress, a tranquil and a place of shelter from the vicissitudes of the outside world for afterall where else should a man (read woman) be safe if not in his own home? But we do not live in an ideal world. Until we get that Adamic world back where man is at peace with man and beast we must explore the use of the protective order to either curb or end domestic violence.

Stephen O. Obajaja Esq. is a Partner at the Lagos Law Firm of Fountain Court Partners.

STEPHEN O. OBAJAJA

Fountain Court Partners

Block 36B, LSPDC Estate

Ogudu Road

Ojota – Lagos.

08052066172.

PORTHARCOURT: A CITY WITHOUT A GARDEN

PORTHARCOURT: A CITY WITHOUT A GARDEN

On Friday, the 19th day of August in the year of our Lord 2011, I left my Edo North country home, Igarra, after the hugely successful Aba cultural festival which has been rated the 6th most indigenous cultural festival in the whole of West Africa to keep a date with ten thousand learned colleagues of mine at the Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association which is today factually the largest gathering of lawyers any where in the world at the historic city of Porthacourt affectionately called the garden city.

I had been warned of the bad state of the Warri – Portharcourt expressway, so I drove through much of Edo State, to Agbor, Onitsha, Owerri and then to Portharcourt and I entered the city through the Elele town – Omagwa end of the city. The route was not too bad. The roads still fairly ok and I expected much of Portharcourt especially considering what we hear in the media of the Rt. Honourable Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi doing great things in the governance of Rivers State. Man was I disappointed. Big time.

The judgement of some of our media houses and the integrity of the bogus and dubious awards they shell out everyday at the drop of a hat has never really impressed or fooled me. This Governor was somebody’s governor of the year not too long ago and yet there is nothing I saw in Portharcourt to suggest he comes close to being one of the top Governors in Nigeria how much more the best of the lot for any particular year. Whatever his spin doctors will have us believe, you do not go looking for evidence of development with a lantern in the dark. It stares you in the face. You see it every where you go and you feel it too. That is what you now see and feel in Lagos State. I saw and felt nothing in Portharcourt. Save for the model State Primary Schools which for me were excellent, I challenge any of the Governors sympathizers to show me anything of note he has done in Portharcourt and he is a second term Governor.

Perhaps to bamboozle the people, he has just embarked on rehabilitating several roads all at the same time without due consideration for the negative effect for traffic flow and the waste of man hours it will engender. Now the rains are here and furious. The result is that Portharcourt is one huge conundrum of traffic jams and chaos all day long. If you live in Lagos as I do and you think the Lagos traffic is bad, try the Portharcourt ‘hold up’ for size. It is very infuriating and frustrating because Portharcourt is not such a big city compared to Lagos. Pray why is the Governor rehabilitating so many roads at the same time when common sense dictates that you take things one at a time – Ada George around Ikwerre Road, Okporo Road at 1st Artillery on Aba Road, East West Road, Eliozu, the new overhead bridge at School bus stop on Ikwerre road, the mono rail which is perpetually under construction – and many others which have seriously hampered vehicular flow and nothing suggests that these roads will be completed anytime soon.

The Portharcourt city I saw is no where near beautiful. The city remains but the garden is definitely gone now. The Governor will do well to face the task of development for which he was elected and leave the issue of resource control alone. He wants more oil money but I have not seen what he has done with the Billions of Naira he collects from the Federation Account every month. He wants oil subsidy removed but he has not shown that with that he will bring back the lost glory of the one time storied garden city or that he will even put the city on a solid march towards reclaiming the lost garden.

The governor obviously does not reckon much with the judiciary too. See what he made of a wonderful speech by the NBA President, J.B Daudu, SAN after the learned Senior Advocate of Nigeria delivered his welcome address touching on issues that ails the polity and proffering solutions while at the same time urging Nigeria to make the responsible choice and save the nation and the judiciary from anomie. Rotimi Amaechi strutted to the stage, denigrated all the NBA President had said and trivialized issues of national importance simply because he could not see that the Arab spring is possible here, that what is happening in Libya can happen in Nigeria. He said the judiciary did nothing to save the polity and right wrongs at critical junctures in Nigeria’s political history whilst off course we know that the reverse is often the case. The judiciary sure has its own troubles. What institution in Nigeria does not? But to accuse the judiciary of wholesale indolence and doing nothing to make Nigeria as Rotimi Amaechi had done is downright irresponsible and ought to be condemned because were it not for the judiciary, this present republic of which he is a major beneficiary would long have torpedoed.

Take the Governors case as a classic example. Was is not the judiciary that won him the Governorship of Rivers State when the Peoples (Un) Democratic Party he now adores sought to deny him the primary election ticket he already won? Were it not for the dogged efforts and brilliance of his lawyers, the courage of the judiciary, he would not have been Governor of Rivers State. And he made the ironic and indicting point by quoting the anecdote that ‘when an Ikwerre man, says move on, I am behind you, you have to look back and be sure that the shuffling footsteps are not moving away from you’. May be the Governor is that kind of Ikwerre man, though he did not say.

If the Governor will not see that Nigeria is in dire straits and that the poor and deprived of Nigeria cannot wait need I remind him then that kidnap for ransom which is a staple in his Niger Delta today was alien stuff we only read in James Hardley Chase and other thriller writers and perhaps Hollywood movies. In 1995 when Ken Saro Wiwa and the Ogoni Nine were executed, no one could envisage that the Federal Government with all its might will be brought to its knees by militants in the same Niger Delta. When the Federal Government will not listen to voices of reason in the Niger Delta believing in the use and show of force, it eventually bit the bullet. How about the clear and present danger of Boko Haram? A few years ago, we thought we were immune to bomb attacks and suicide bombings; afterall we were not the state of Israel or the Palestine Liberation Organization and its twin variant, Hamas. See what has happened to us today. Bombs everywhere and anywhere.

I have severally read the President’s speech and there is nothing there to draw the Governors ire, however much I try, I cannot fathom a reason for denigrating lawyers he is hosting in that manner for members of this same august body made him afterall. I suppose the Governor will be more circumspect the next time he has the opportunity to address any gathering for I have now been told that he likes to speak in that way and manner- sarcastic. The erudite Professor and Noble laureate Wole Soyinka said as much at the beginning of his key note address at the occasion.

Well as they say áll is well that ends well’, the Conference has come and gone, it was hugely successful baring glitches here and there, we members of the bar and bench told ourselves the truth, salient issues have been raised for further extrapolation, old classmates, friends and foes from across the country met again, acquaintances renewed and new relationships spun – ample evidence of this was on show at the friendship centre - the ordinary people of Rivers State I met at both the Conference venue and on the streets were very friendly, kind and willing to help and finally, I grudgingly thank the Governor for his superb welcome cocktail and the grand party that signaled the end of the Conference.

STEPHEN O. OBAJAJA is a partner in the Lagos law firm of Fountain Court Partners.
Block 36B, LSPDC Estate
Ogudu Road
Ojota
Lagos .
Kingjaja_j@yahoo.com
08052066172

THIS BEAUTIFUL PLACE CALLED IGARRA

My home town, Igarra, is the Headquarters of Akoko-Edo L. G. A. which is today the oldest in the Nigerian Federation. Igarra is a chic little town which you cannot altogether describe as sleepy as the town could sometimes be bubbly and actually boisterous at weekends and during celebrations whether it be of a social or cultural nature.

Igarra which is otherwise known as ETUNO has a very congenial and serene atmosphere as it is nestled among large boulders and exotic greens which explain why the chief occupation of the people was and remains farming though it is fast becoming unfashionable as Igarra has had its own brush with urban drift. It is estimated that more than 75% of its sons and daughters live and work outside the town.

Igarra is a unique town in Edo State as it shares and has little in common with any other in the state, its history, language and cultural heritage has nothing to do with those of neighbours as close as the Enwan, Somorika or even the Uneme people.

It has been established that the Igarra people have a common ancestry with the Igalla’s and the Igbirra’s of Kogi State, even as there are other theories as to the origin of the Igarra people but the former remains more plausible and has become widely accepted. The others are largely myths and legends unsubstantiated with little or no shred of evidence.

Be that as it may, the Igarra man does not understand a single word of the Igalla language and the corollary is also true of the Igalla man. The Igbirra’s with whom we share some language and cultural affinity albeit to a very limited extent is totally different in outlook and make up from the Igarra man. Whither then did the Igarra man emanate and who is his brother and how did he get to his present place of abode? (i.e. Igarra).

Igarra town has maintained its rustic charm over the years, there is something about it that will and always brings back those born and bred there. Those of its sons and daughters born abroad are not left out, it takes only a single visit for them to join the bandwagon of end of year holiday makers and fun seekers in that rustic rocky town. Many reasons have been and continued to be adduced for this state of affairs but we make bold to say that the most important one is that Igarra community is structured in such a way that every son and daughter even if begotten in far away Australia has an affiliation with the red earth of Igarra and will always come back to commune and once the communion, the bond of affinity may never again be broken.

This structure that I write about has been likened to a ‘beanstalk’ (orupeza) by the erudite Prof. Adebayo Akerele of the University of Benin in a most elucidating lecture delivered in Igarra in April 1998 to mark the Igarra day celebrations of that year. The average Igarra family is connected to the other in more ways than one; the town remains a close knit community where people are related by blood and marriage. This is why it is possible for Mr. A of Ugbogbo to be related to Mr. B of Utua paternally as cousins and Mr. B is related to Mr. C of Ufa maternally as cousins and Mr. C marries Mr. A’s daughter. Mr. A is related to Mr. B by blood though not related to Mr. C, now Mr. C has become a relation of Mr. A by marriage whilst still a relation of Mr. B by blood thus completing the ‘beanstalk’ theory of Igarra families. The mind picture drawn in this analysis is a reflection of the entire Igarra community.

A most interesting aspect of the structure is the Anda/kindred/clan family system (that is a group of families descended from a common ancestor, the families could either be large or small, extended or nuclear). The ‘Anda’ system consists of 14 existing families. In this ‘Anda’ system, members of the same ‘Anda’ may not be strictly related by blood yet they are forbidden to marry. They see themselves as brothers and sisters. A marriage between any of the members is an abomination, sexual relations amongst them incest, viewed as, if not even more abominable than sexual relations among siblings. If sexual relations thus occur, all be it inadvertently, the parties involved must undergo a spiritual/public cleansing to appease the gods and to ward off the unpleasant consequences that are sure to follow.

Meanwhile, when a female member of an ‘Anda’ marries into another ‘Anda’, (i.e. from/into any of the other 13 ‘Andas’) she becomes an ‘Opashi’ in Igarra parlance but remains a bonafide member of her ‘Anda’ and She continues to enjoy some rights and privileges conferred by the ‘Anda’. Her children are equally seen as ‘extended’ children of the ‘Anda’ (‘Azi’ in Igarra parlance) even though by virtue of the patrilineal system in Igarra they are children and descendants of their fathers ‘Anda’ only, to which the mother’s ‘Anda’ can lay no claim. Be that as it may, the ‘Azi’s are always welcome to the mother’s ‘Anda’, they have full freedom and access to the ‘Anda’s heritage short of being or claiming membership of the ‘Anda’.

In the Igarra heritage, there is the ‘Chao’ (Hello) phenomenon. The word ‘Chao’ in Igarra is the principal phrase of greeting, this word is so adaptable and flexible that it often takes its meaning from context, which is why it is possible to use it both in times of grief and happiness. If a man is bereaved, you use the word in that context and you bring a lot of succour to him and the burden becomes lighter to bear. If a man has a new-baby, a new car, use the word ‘Chao’ in context and it is perfect for felicitation. From this has emerged the unifying, rallying, all encompassing ‘Chao whistle’. This comes to the Igarra man naturally at birth such that every Igarra son and daughter, young and old knows and uses this whistle, if you wish to draw on Igarra man’s attention, if you wish to know who the Igarra man is in a crowd whether in Igarra or in far away Australia, use this whistle and you see eyes turning, necks craning to behold the source of the whistle. You do not have to know a man’s name, just blow the whistle and he/she will answer back. The point I am driving at here is that the ‘Chao’ phenomenon is another veritable force that binds the Igarra people together and perpetually keeps step with them wherever they may be, constantly prodding ‘the red earth of Igarra, the red earth of Igarra, do not forget’.

Every Igarra man has a relation back home, why will he not go to Igarra? During the festive period of Easter and the Christmas and New Year festivities, you can be sure to meet others you have not seen in years as they too will surely come home to roost. At such times, the meetings and celebrations are usually boisterous and whoopy. So lasting are the impressions and memories that you wait in anxiety for the year to roll by, so you can be back. Such is the stuff dreams are made of.

To the average Igarra man, the historical and cultural festivals are even more important, revered and respected, that is why the Igarra man will speak of, prepare for and partake in ‘Ekuochi’ festival, second and final funeral ceremony and the ‘Aba’ festival (which is the mother of them all) with brio and gusto. The ‘Ekuochi’ festival is essentially a night of ritual and drama (masquerade/musical concert). The Aba festival is a seven yearly affair; it is a week long cocktail of ceremonies that is a study in exoticism and epicureanism. It is the single most important festival in the Igarra socio-cultural calendar. For those who know, it borders even more on the spiritual than the physical activities the general public enjoys. The festival marks the initiation of youths into adulthood and signals the passage of ‘Opoze’ into ‘Azebani’ (that is the movement of those at the peak of their prime, usually between the ages of 55 and 65 into elder statesmanship). Just as in National life, the Igarra culture and traditions recognizes that once a man has paid his dues, contributed his fair share to the development of Igarra community and the society in general it is only natural for him to step back and savour the last days while waiting in the lounge to board the flight to eternal rest with other souls triumphant in he Lord God Almighty. His role then will be one of advisory and custodianship of the rich cultural heritage of the Igarra people, he will no longer take part in that tedious aspect of the day to day administration of the affairs of the community. This task now devolves on the new ‘Opoze’ and after a cycle of seven years when another ‘Aba’ festival is celebrated, the process is again repeated. Now between the ‘Azebani’ and the youths that are initiated into adulthood every ‘Aba’ year, there are seven (7) age grades, it therefore means that it takes 49 years or thereabout for the Igarra youth to become an elder statesman during which time he may have completed his earthly mission. He could have retired from paid employment and for those self-employed, their children or trained subordinates and aides may have taken over/picked up the gauntlet from where they let off. They may still be active, they constitute the experienced elite of society and for them the energy remaining is to be employed in the service of community and humanity. It is time to annex/harness extended ties and link the old with the new.

The Igarra man, wherever he is comes home for the ‘Aba’ festival, the last three editions in 1993, 1999 and 2005 on which I am competent to comment as an adult who had the opportunity of viewing things maturely and dispassionately, with the benefit of hindsight drew crowds from all over Nigeria, the rest of Africa, Europe, America and Asia. From the four corners of the world came many Igarra families whose only link with the town hitherto were positive averments by their forebears that their roots and ancestry were in that rocky, rustic town tucked away somewhere in the bowels of the black continent of Africa and most probably at a time when the only impression they had about Africa was that of the ‘dark continent’ and for them therefore their roots were in the middle of nowhere. But then, they took the leap of faith, they came, they have since established their root and halted their cultural displacement and ancestral history which was dangerously spinning and sinking into atrophy, they avoided self immolation and the atavistic urge is at an all time high. The ‘Aba’ festival is fast becoming a tourist attraction and one can only hope that someday it could become something as big and revered as the Argungu fishing festival or the Osun/Oshogbo festival with international clout and flavour which has brought renown to the Sokoto and Osun people respectively.

From the foregoing, it is obvious that Igarra has all it takes to be a great town, the careful and delicate structures in place is to give the town and its people strong communal base and a sense of public duty. Igarra’s sons and daughters have made good at home and abroad, their clout permeates all aspects of our national life and human endeavour both in the public and private domain (science, medicine, law, engineering, finance, arts and the social sciences). It is not for want of human resources or persons who can make things work that Igarra remains poor as many of our people are erroneously led to believe. At every material time in history, the Igarra’s have always had and will always have such people but this will only translate to common good if the people apply and address their minds to it. Today is the right time; the Igarra people must jettison old praxis, find a new way of doing things and release the latent energy in us all to develop our town and our people. The problem has always being with people with bankrupt and less than puritanical sense of public duty, but this has to change so that when our earthly sojourn ends and we are no more, history will reserve a kind and positive place for us in its annals.

In whatever we say or do, we must know that we have only one place to call home, whatever heights we attain in life, we can never, ever divest ourselves from Igarra. Let these words of Martin Luther King Jnr. be a constant reminder of what you owe yourself, others and Igarra as an Igarra man, ‘every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment; life’s most persistent and urgent question is what are you doing for others?’ And for Igarra, permit me to add.

I end this treatise by asking you to call to mind the immortal words of Frantz Fanon thus, ‘every generation must discover its mission which it either fulfills or betrays’. We have and you have discovered yours, it is Igarra, we must fulfill it.

Stephen O. Obajaja Esq. is a Partner at the Lagos Law Firm of Fountain Court Partners.

STEPHEN O. OBAJAJA

Fountain Court Partners

Block 36B, LSPDC Estate

Ogudu Road

Ojota – Lagos.

08052066172.

AN OPEN LETTER TO DEACON (DR) DOMINGO OBENDE: SENATOR-ELECT

AN OPEN LETTER TO DEACON (DR) DOMINGO OBENDE: SENATOR-ELECT

“It’s an old maxim in the schools that flattery is the food of fools, yet now and then, men of wit will condescend to take a bite” – Jonathan Swift

For the umpteenth time, let me say congratulations again for your well deserved victory at the just concluded polls and your election to represent the Edo North people at the National Assembly. Congratulations to you and a big congratulation to the people of Edo North Senatorial District, for this victory is and should mark the beginning of real constituency engagement by our representative. However, I must confess that I do not envy your current position. My reason is as simple as it sounds and the following will form the core of them.

First you have been saddled with the problems of underdevelopment that have ravaged our people for the past decades. Those that have had the opportunity to hold the baton have scared away development from the place. Infrastructural and human capital development is non-existent: roads are dead traps, hospitals are mere buildings with the name hospital still hanging on them, our schools have been taken over by forest and let us not even think of job opportunity for the youths. Ironically it is not in your office to do all these but it is expected by the people that you use your God-given mandate to bring them to the attention of those in authority, especially to the state Governor who we all know is determined to bring an end to underdevelopment in the state.

Secondly, there is the problem of ethnic tension in Akoko-Edo Local Government Area (I believe this is also largely true of other Local Government Areas that make up the Senatorial District) the principal cause of this tension between our local communities is the fear of domination and boundary (land) claims which was evident during the run-up to the primaries that eventually gave you the ticket under the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). This is the time to send a clear cut message to all that you are a statesman and that you are not interested in vendetta. I know that by human nature you may hold grudges but listen to John Grisham when he says that “Life is too short to despise people who simply can’t help what they’ve done.” You must unite all by reaching out to them in bringing development to their own doorstep. And for those that said “over their dead body for you to become Senator” well today you are a living testimony and if there are still others living who still wish to continue with the same prayers, well do not worry for the God you serve is indeed a living God.Thirdly, you should be aware that some Etuno people will find it convenient to locate the road leading to your doorstep, because for the first time in our history you are the highest political office holder and for a people that have suffered marginalization for the better part of their history you should expect them to think of you as their long-awaited messiah, thus they must knock on your door. Your appreciation of the foregoing will help you to recognize those with genuine challenges for you to figure out ways to assist them.

However, having recognized the above, another reason why I am already feeling the heat for you is that your victory is that of the minority to echo Hon. Peter Ologun’s perspective. The minorities you must understand are not only the Etuno or Akoko-Edo people, the minorities are also the impoverished people of Edo North Senatorial District whose commonwealth was sacrificed on the altar of do-or-die politics. Where safe drinking water is a luxury, where roads are death traps and contracts are formulated to say thank you to political charlatans and all sorts of funny characters.

It is for the above reasons and many others which I am sure you are already aware of that I do not envy you, my Distinguished Senator. However as scary as these challenges may seem, they have also provided a clear and golden pen for you to write your name on the pages of history. How you do this is based on your adhering to Jonathan Swift’s remark above. I have in the past few weeks read and heard so much flattering statements that places you as the one and only that we never had and now have (they may be correct, please do not prove them wrong). They posit that you have done a lot in just this few weeks that you have been elected to diminish the achievements of the previous Senator (if there are any?)– I wonder where and when – even when you have not resumed office.

Many things already unfolding are the ploy of sycophants and their political acolytes to swerve you away from the real issues at hand. You are been touted as the much awaited messiah: Senator-elect you are not the messiah yet; a messiah’s success is not measured by his birth but by his/her achievements – that is your ability to tackle all the challenges highlighted above. You should be wary of career politicians for them any master is worthy of service as far as doing that would provide their daily needs.

This is the time for you to sit up and engage the electorate. Four years is far from here but you must also understand that it will come and go like yesterday. You should not go to the floor of the Senate to be a ‘siddon- look’ Senator. You must be seen contributing to the discourse on issues calling for national attention as well as those issues affecting the Senatorial district. You should research the issues as they come and have a good understanding of them before you venture into making your contributions.

Achieving greatness is not always an easy task as it sounds; however, history has always provided us with practical examples of great achievers and their achievements. The likes of Obafemi Awolowo, Adams Oshiomhole, Nelson Mandela, Raji Fashola, Alhaji Aliu Omokide to mention but a few whose songs we sing daily as practical examples of great achievers only gained prominence in our psych with popular and concrete achievements. Yes! Their achievements are popular because those achievements did not push aside the bottom-up approach in favour of the up-down approach. My Senator, research individual communities thoroughly to understand their different challenges for what is good for the goose, may not always also be good for the gander.

You should have an open line of communication with members of the Senatorial District – it is possible. They must know that you are also there for them. The team you put up to assist you do your work should not be as a result of paying back favour done during the election, because the gap between winning elections and delivering democratic dividends is a huge gulf. Your team must be up and doing especially in engaging people from the district. Because in the end, the greatest part of your achievements will not be measured by your being noticeable on the floor of the Senate but your positive attitude towards the development of the district by engaging the people.

Thank you for your time and may God give you the grace to read between the lines of Jonathan Swift’s words.

BALOGUN TREASURE OMEIZA
WARHOUSE COMMUNICATIONS LIMITED
SUITE 12B LANDMARK PLAZA
NO. 1, YESDERAM STREET, OFF IBB WAY
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ABUJA.
08034522903.

NIGERIA’S SHINING EXAMPLES

NIGERIA’S SHINING EXAMPLES

I recently read two good books, Lee Kuan Yew’s memoirs “From Third World to First” and Peter Enahoro’s book “Then Spoke the Thunder”; the former for the umpteenth time and the latter for a second time and I was struck anew with the way Nigeria was wasted. Lee Kuan Yew wrote about his first Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Lagos in 1966 and his judgement of events and Nigeria at the time, especially the demeanour and carriage of the then Finance Minister, Chief Okotie Eboh fills one with a sense that our first republic leaders were steeped in an unexplainable state of insouciance.

He went on to Ghana and the story was not much different as the Government of that great pan Africanist, Osagyefo kwame Nkrumah was fast developing into a farce papered over by hero worship. Peter Enahoro in one of the best books on a Nigerian life, indeed his own life; though he denied the book is an autobiography or memoir gave an uncanny insight into Nigerian history before, since independence and much after up until the new Century. Reading his book, one gets a fresh and often times eyewitness perspective into momentous events that shaped a distorted Nigeria and not a few African countries.

The picture of Nigeria he painted was to say the least agonizing and it grieves the heart that many leaders at every critical juncture in Nigeria’s history took the wrong turn. Many knowingly and what US Lieutenant Colonel, Frank Slade wrote is especially true of many of Nigeria’s leaders “now I have come to the crossroads in my life. I always knew what the right path was. Without exception, I knew, but I never took it. You know why? It was too damned hard” and even today some of those leaders of yore still echo the sentiments of our inglorious and ignominious past.

Enahoro’s chapter dedicated to Liberia’s Samuel Kenyon Doe and another one poignantly titled “a parade of the lions” on selected African leaders and the destructive path they charted for themselves and their countries is one of the most illumining and close quarter view of African leaders from the Niger to the Nile you will get anywhere and without exception, to the last man, these leaders failed to build their nations. Those who tried were ultimately defeated by flaws in their own character even though their countries may have done well by them if they had but a measure of temperance.

A review of Nigeria’s history paints a picture of everything a nation should not be and twelve years of democratic rule has done little to lift the gloom and show a pathway to building a proper and great nation. The stench of corruption is yet putrefying, presidential election results sired resentments in ordinary folks up North and violence erupted claiming the lives of many. The most shameful aspect of the carnage was the senseless killing of defenseless University graduates on National Assignment. Nigeria is a country where it is hard to escape the grueling suffocation of faith and dashed hopes in the nation’s future. But it is not all gloom and doom. In the midst of all these seemingly intractable and insurmountable troubles I have read in the last few days from shores afar of two Nigerians, who are products of this environment and whose lives are shining examples that Nigeria can be remade.

The New York Times, one of the most influential publications around the World wrote in a feature on Nigeria on Thursday, April 21, 2011 “one Nigerian politician is charting a new direction. Before Babatunde Fashola became its governor in 2007, Lagos-Nigeria’s business capital and Africa’s premier megacity-was known as the world’s first failed city state. The place had seen almost no new infrastructure for four decades, despite its population soaring from 5 million in 1976 to 18 million. Traffic was gridlocked day and night. Slums expanded, on stilts, into the lagoons that gave the city its name. Crime was rife, pollution choking, brown-outs constant. It was, says Fashola, a city of “very evident despair.”

The Times continued, Fashola, 47, was perhaps the only person in Lagos who saw that as an opportunity. “You are going to need more water, more roads, more jetties, schools, hospitals, space for housing,” he says. “That all means jobs.” Fashola set about rehabilitating and expanding a maze of overpasses, part of a new transport network that will connect cars and buses with trains, trams, airports, and water taxis. He unveiled plans for a new 17,000-hectare industrial zone and a gleaming new 900-hectare city center on land reclaimed from the sea that will be home to 250,000 residents and contain offices for another 150,000 commuters. All that building has indeed created hundreds of thousands of jobs. Efforts to clean the streets had the multiple effect of tidying, employing and cutting crime.

To Fashola, the new Lagos is a “statement … that things could be changed no matter how bad they were”. It’s also an example of how a new Nigeria might emerge from the old. The development of Lagos’ nonoil economy means 70% of the city’s revenue is now raised locally. Citizens not only are willing to pay tax: more to the point, by doing so they and their government reconnect, reversing decades when state and citizens lived in separate worlds.

The Times fittingly concluded “there are lessons for the whole country here. No Nigerian politician has missed that Fashola is the country’s most admired leader. Though internal ACN rivalries block any presidential bid (and Fashola in any case insists he prefers state politics to national) the governor is proving that results are possible within Nigerian politics. But while change is inevitable, it is unlikely to come fast or smoothly, because the bad old generation of Nigerian leaders will not go quietly. A western diplomat described Nigeria as having it “all to lose, rather than poised for victory.”

In a rare burst of good fortune for Nigeria in the Western press, the same Times in its reputable Annual Time 100 of Monday, April 25, 2011 which wrote of the 2011 edition; “meet the most influential people in the world. They are artists and activists, reformers and researchers, heads of state and captains of industry. Their ideas spark dialogue and dissent and sometimes even revolution” found space for a distinguished Nigerian. Nigeria’s Central Bank Governor, scion of the Kano emirate, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was named in the exalted company of 100 shaping and shaking the World – his a force for good in society.

The influential magazine wrote “the story of Nigeria's first half-century of Independence is a tale of wasted potential: sub-Saharan Africa's most populous country, home to its biggest oil riches, impoverished by thieving autocrats. A key reason a new Nigeria no longer seems fanciful is Central Bank governor Lamido Sanusi.

A veteran of an often corrupt banking industry, Sanusi, 50, took up his position at the height of the financial crisis in June 2009 and immediately turned on his former peers. He took over nine banks, sacked the chief executives of eight of them, ordered a series of mergers and named their biggest debtors. He was, he said, cleaning up not just banking but all Nigeria. Sanusi's will be a long fight and a dangerous one: death threats have obliged him to employ armed guards. But it is also essential for Africa's sleeping giant to finally awaken”.
The two New York Times publications within four days of each other confirm what some of us already know. There is a glimmer of hope in the country’s future even though it is but a flicker. We need a Million Fashola’s and Sanusi’s but if we do not find them – not to despair, a few might still suffice – history has shown that only a few sold to a committed purpose change a nation.

All therefore hail Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) and Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (OFR), the men who will change Nigeria…

Stephen o. Obajaja Esq. is a Partner at the Lagos Law Firm of Fountain Court Partners.

THE MAN WHO WILL BE SENATOR

THE MAN WHO WILL BE SENATOR

When someone wrote “every child no matter the circumstances of birth is a beacon of hope for the future” there was no means of knowing that he was speaking to the life and times of a man whose gentleness and humility knows no bounds even in the face of great wealth and an abundance of all good things life has to offer.
Deacon (Dr.) Domingo Alaba Obende was born and raised in the humblest of circumstances. His is a classic case of the much abused rags to riches cliché but he will never speak about it in the solicitous way made men in Nigeria do. The man fondly called “DD” was born on the 5th day of December 1954 in Igarra, Akoko – Edo Local Government Area in the then Western region of Nigeria now Edo State. He had his elementary education at the Local Authority Primary School (LA) in Igarra before he proceeded to Lagos, where he attended Prestige Commercial Institute, Ebute Metta, Yaba Trade Centre and subsequently the Universities of Benin, East London and St. Andrews, California, United States of America.

“DD”, holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria and an MBA Degree in Public Services from the University of East London Business School, London, United Kingdom. In the year 2007, in recognition of his contribution to critical thought, business and the advancement of humanity, he was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy (Honoris Causa) in Business Management by the St. Andrews University College, Riverside, California, United States of America.

After a life time of success in business, “DD” ventured into active politics and public life at the return of democratic rule in 1999. He joined the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) where he contested the Edo North Senatorial District Primaries in December 2006 but lost the ticket to Senator Yisa Braimoh in controversial circumstances at a time he was the leading and preferred candidate of the PDP. This and all the intrigues and horse –trading in the PDP at the time did not deter the loyal party man that “DD” was and he still is as he remained in the PDP to shore up its electoral fortune until his continued membership of that troubled and strife ridden party with Godless godfathers became untenable. He could have resigned from politics as his numerous businesses were obviously crying for his attention but being the man that he is, he chose to pitch his tent with the Action Congress of Nigeria as his avowed intent was to serve and lift his people from poverty.
This iconic man will not suffer fools gladly either. In a show of rare insight and awareness in today’s politics, he left the PDP, in his words, to challenge the single leadership structure of the PDP as according to him, any political system that revolves around a single individual cannot ensure a democracy that is genuine and developmental. “DD” believes that only a collective democratic system will bring dividends of democracy to the down trodden and the less privileged who are often left behind in the governance process. See how passionate this man is about the poor and the good of his people!!!

You can therefore understand why something came alive in me on Wednesday, the 12th day of January in the year of our Lord 2011, when word reached me that the Action Congress of Nigeria, our great party in Edo State has elected through transparent, free, fair and largely trouble free party primaries the Man “DD” to fly the flag of the party in the forthcoming General Elections in Edo North Senatorial District. My joy knew no bounds as this means the great man will square up against the dour, uninspiring and now unelectable Senator Yisa Braimoh of the PDP who wasted space and every one’s time for four years that are better forgotten. The only snag for me was that Dr. Tunde Lakoju, a man who likes to think he is the only person in Akoko – Edo Local Government Area went all out against all entreaties and the edifying position taken by the party leaders in the State to contest against “DD”. Well it is his Constitutional right to so do and he has indeed exercised that right but how well he was trounced!!! It is good that he did and in the process unwittingly made his demystification easy. One can only hope he has finally been put in his place and that he will learn to be less obtrusive next time. Why he thinks he is more deserving of the opportunity to represent us in a pack comprising “DD”, Comrade Peter Akpatason, the sagacious labour leader, and the distinguished Retired but not tired Assistant Inspector General of Police, the much loved and respected Chief Mike Okuo beats me silly.

Now back to the man who will be Senator. I am not one to gloat so I will not say that I told you so but nonetheless I will gleefully quote from an earlier paper where I canvassed “fairness and equity demands that an Akoko – Edo person must be senator now. The Etsako and Owan people have had more than their fair share of the largesse of office”. In the same piece I further wrote “on the basis of equity, justice and fair play, an Akoko - Edo person must be senator now. If that is true then this senator with all sense of fairness and responsibility must be an Igarra person. Even in the LGA, the Igarra people have always held the short end of the stick. In recent memory, between 1999 and now, Dr. Tunde Lakoju, who incidentally is also a Commissioner in the present administration of the Comrade Governor and Colonel Tunde Akogun (Rtd) who currently represents the Akoko – Edo people in the House of Representatives have been elected to the House of Representatives. Chief Paul Kehinde Udofe was also Commissioner in the Administration of Chief Lucky Igbinedion. The Late Chief Samson Ekhabafe before his unfortunate demise was Commissioner in 1983, He was Attorney General in the administration of Chief Lucky Igbinedion, He was again Commissioner for Water Resources in the administration of Professor Oserhiemen Osunbor and was factional Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party in Edo State. My point is by now obvious. Telling you none of these men hails from Igarra and that in all that time no Igarra man has been elected or appointed to any of these posts will be merely begging the question. So our next senator must be an Igarra person”.

How psychic and prescient this has proven. I am particularly delighted that the good people of Edo North Senatorial District, barring a few who will never outgrow the pull him down syndrome listened to the voice of reason. I do not recall a time when the Trinity (Akoko – Edo, Etsako and Owan people) agreed wholeheartedly on something as they have done on the burning and divisive Senatorial issue. I particularly am impressed with Comrade Peter Akpatason for his pragmatism and farsightedness. His political future is spread before him and I pray it be a successful and edifying one. He accepted that politics is about elite consensus and once it breaks down, there is bound to be trouble. Anyone who thinks that assessing strengths, pruning candidates, aligning, realigning, and realistically stepping down in deserving cases whether to ensure continued cohesion of a political party, forestall breakdown in law and order, maintain peace and guarantee the continued appeal of the party to the electorate is not part of the internal workings of a political party in a democracy had better get another think coming. The Comrade gentleman by his actions in the days leading to and shortly after the political considerations that saw “DD” emerge as the preferred candidate agrees with “DD” on the point that “this is no time for recrimination and it is no time to plot intrigues. This is the time to be focused without wavering. Therefore, every hand must be on deck as we fight for a common purpose”.

We may not know what will happen in the coming days because as they say, in politics, a lot can happen in the course of one day but one thing I do know is that the man who will be Senator is a gracious man. He must therefore be gracious in victory now and in the coming General Elections. It is no time to recriminate. The Senatorial project is an all embracing one. Every one is important whether they bought or did not buy into the idea. We of the Senatorial District must heed the wisdom in the recent words of that fine democrat, President Barack Obama of the United State’s as he counsels his people, a counsel which also speaks to us - “at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized – at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who happen to think differently than we do – it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we’re talking with each other in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds”. Our creed should be that in the struggle to liberate our people from poverty, there are no winners and losers. Let it be that we all won as the good of the Senatorial District is secured.

Interestingly though, “DD” has become the face of hope for the Akoko - Edo people in the same mould Comrade Adams Oshiomole was for the people of Edo North in 2007 when he was the leading and preferred Gubernatorial candidate in Edo State before the abracadabra of the PDP and the kill joy that was Iwu’s INEC denied the people of the State the right to choose who governs them before the heroics of the judiciary vindicated the Comrade Governor’s insistence on the path of rectitude and restored the mandate of the people. The General Elections in April 2011 is “DDs” to lose. The groundswell of support he now enjoys is unprecedented in the history of the Senatorial District; Senator Yisa Braimoh’s scorecard does not inspire confidence and it will be a herculean task for him and the PDP which now enjoys thin support in the State to win the Senatorial District; a critical factor in Nigerian politics is to have the support of Party Chieftains, the State Governor and men of Power and means across the State and “DD” has this in abundance; “DD” represents the change we crave as his relative freshness in politics means that he is untainted with the muck with which the old guard is associated, infact “DDs” candidature is seen in the Senatorial District as a breath of fresh air after the suffocating years of thin ‘gods’ in Edo North and Akoko –Edo politics; “DD” is a courageous, dogged and committed fighter and this he demonstrated in quantum leaps whilst the quest to receive the nod to represent the Edo North people lasted, he neither waivered nor exercised any shade of doubt that one day we will collectively birth the vision he had for Edo North; there is a perception and rightly so that “DD” can be trusted – a man of means, influence and considerable persuasive skills who will get things done for the Senatorial District at the National Assembly.

“DD” is a man of immense goodwill and the good people of the Senatorial District know this and they seem eager to reward a man who they all agree is a gentleman and they know they will do pretty well by him. They know he understands them because he has seen it all. He has been at the valley, he has being to the mountain top, he is humane, urbane and cosmopolitan, he knows that things can be done in a better way, he knows that there is too much mediocrity here and above all the people know that he can do it. For “DD”, a man’s word is his bond and he does not give his lightly. If he says he will do it, you can be sure he will follow through. This man has the light and he will show us the way. This man has shattered the glass ceiling. He will be the first elected Senator from Akoko – Edo Local Government Area. The intangible gains for all of us are better imagined. No longer will it be that any one cannot aspire to a particular office because of untenable reasons, perceptions and ill considered cultural baggage’s.

Personally, I have not met a Billionaire who is more humble and I have met many. “DD” has never failed to spend time with a man like me to ruminate over the state of the nation and on sundry issues that affect our local community any time I catch up with him in Igarra, Lagos and Abuja. For such a man, the three hours I spent with him alone on Christmas day 2010 will ever count for much as I saw a man who was committed and willing to make the sacrifice that will be necessary in the coming days, months and years in the cause of serving the people. “DDs” avowed belief in divine orchestration and in the Almighty God is rare in today’s politician. I will never forget his punching one liner, “Stephen, every one will fulfill destiny by God Almighty”. I cannot but thank God that God’s purpose for this man’s life will not be still born, that this man will fulfill destiny, that with this man, it will be well with the people, that this man truly believes in ‘one people, one community’, that finally the Edo North people will have a man who understands that he is only a custodian of wealth and power and that the good of the people is why noble men venture into politics, it is why men should seek wealth and power.

Finally, may God Almighty reward the man who seek him earnestly, may he bless his cause and cause light perpetual to shine on his path even as the people of the Senatorial District earnestly look forward to the election of the man who seeks to make them ‘one people, one community’, Deacon (Dr.) Domingo Alaba Obende, the Man who will be Senator to the Glory of God.

STEPHEN O. OBAJAJA is a Partner at the Lagos Law firm of Fountain Court Partners.