₦airaland Forum

adadadon:
don you understand English
1 Faleke is not qualified because he did not participate in the primaries
2 A Primaries was held and a second position emerged
3 Audu/faleke ticket is not yet elected

1. The mandate Audu got at the primaries has been handed both to him and the Deputy by the virtue of him selecting Faleke as his Deputy.

Looking at it at another angle. After emerging the party's candidate, authority has been imposed on him by the party to make certain important decisions. One of such decision is the selection of who succeeds him per adventure he is unable to discharge the duties of the party's candidate (As a governor) and he selected Faleke.

That decision is binding on the party. Take it to any court.


It is not only through primaries that a party can present a candidate.

A candidate can emerge by General consensus of the party as was the case in Benue state, which PDP challenged at the tribunal and lost, and even challenged at the appeal court and still lost.

2. There is no where it is written in all of our laws, that if anything happens to the flagbearer, that the person that emerged 2nd during the primaries should be handed the mandate.

limamintruth:
The votes are owned by them as governorship candidate & deputy governorship candidate respectively. Do not confuse yourself pls.
Same way the votes that brought obasanjo & atiku to power was in their separate positions as presidential & vice presidential candidate respectively.

Therefore whoever will represent apc as substitute has to contest afresh the entire election in his/her new capacity/position as apc's substantive/rightful governorship candidate. Understand?

I understand what you are saying but I disagree.

Not too worry, the supreme court will soon give the final binding verdict.

But to think there is going to be a fresh election is a long thing.

limamintruth:
Still wishful thinking mister. Casted votes cannot be transferred from one individual to another whether or not both are of the same political party.

you are still getting it wrong. There is no transfer of votes. The votes are owned by both of them. Atiku Vs Obasanjo's case comes in here as declared by the Supreme Court.

That mistake is from Channels.

Bobbystanley:
I disagree with you. Candidacy matters a lot when it comes to election. Party comes second.

And as core Nigerians we are, Tribe is always a big factor to consider while Voting..

APC should field another candidate for a fresh election in my Opinion since the constitution says nothing about this kind of scenario.

In the face of the law, the party takes priority not the candidate.

limamintruth:
Lol; wishful thinking by apc legal apologists.

I can see that in their desperation, apc newspaper 'the nation' went around interviewing their legal apologists to mislead people.

But whether apc likes it or not, no party can participate in any election without a flagbearer; a party's candidate is just as important as the party sponsoring him/her.

Note that no party can succeed without fielding a candidate, but its possible to have an independent candidate(who is not contesting on the platform of any political party) participate in election.

Independent candidacy is nonexistent in Nigeria.

The mandate is jointly owned by the party and the candidates. The party takes the prority here followed by the candidates.

According to the electoral Act, If the major flag bearer dies before the election, then the election will be cancelled and another election conducted.

According to the constitution, If an elected candidate dies before assuming office, the Deputy is sworn in as replacement.

The constitution/electoral Act is silent on what happens when the election is still in progress and the lead candidate of one of the parties dies.

From my own opinion, as the mandate is also owned by the party, the votes gotten so far cannot be voided as it is a vote for APC, Audu and Faleke.

As APC and Faleke are still available, the votes gotten so far rightly belongs to them and they should go on to complete the process with Faleke as the Flag bearer.

Faleke will then nominate someone as a running mate.

Nelkoko:
D same question shld b 4warded 2 d hausa/fulani y they dont want d igbos 2 rule Nigeria

You guys are too emotional abeg. Must u bring Hausa/Fulani issue to every thread?


Have u guys presented a candidate to Nigeria and provided him with the backing he needed?

How many of u guys supported Ojukwu with passion when he contested as president? Was it not sad to note that he lost majority of the SE votes to Obasanjo?

How many of u supported Ekwueme when he contested against Obasanjo? Didn't Obasanjo even claim significant SE delegates from Ekwueme?

How many of u guys supported Okorocha to be President when he contested in APC? Was it not that u guys abused him to the high heavens and instigated hate against him?

Assuming a significant proportion of the SE peeps backed him, and strongly put down their voice for him the way the SS did in demanding for the presidency before Obj brought GEJ in, Okorocha would have gotten at least the VP post with PMB.

And that would have given him a greater advantage in clinching the number one seat.

Assuming Ngige was voted for as Senator, he would have automatically become the senate president, which would also have given him an advantage in aiming for the number 1 position.

Pls stop blaming others for everything. Kindly look inwards first.

[size=14pt]All change in Nigeria[/size]


Economic reform begins with a crackdown on corruption, says Muhammadu Buhari, president of Nigeria

Mon Nov 02 2015
AFRICA

In 2014, before the election that saw the first change of power in Nigeria by peaceful democratic means in our history, the then government rebased our country’s GDP. Now, by internationally recognised metrics, we possess the largest economy in Africa. While this should be a source of pride for Nigerians, it goes no way to addressing the deep structural challenges our economy faces; nor does it put more money in the pockets or more food on the table of millions of our citizens who go without, every day. To achieve dynamic and sustainable economic growth, and to eradicate poverty, we need as a nation to undertake serious economic reforms. Some will be painful, but all are necessary.

I am determined that if my government stands for anything it is the complete breaking of the cycle of gross corruption and theft that has caused investors to look first anywhere but Nigeria when considering business opportunities in Africa. In visits, starting with Britain, America, Germany and France, I have sought and received the support of their governments to locate and then return missing billions siphoned out of Nigeria by leaders of previous administrations. Colossal estimates have been bandied about on the amounts spirited out of Nigeria. Whatever can be repatriated of the stolen money must be re-invested in our economy. That process has now begun, and my administration will not rest until the funds are returned, and those who removed them are brought to justice.

This return of our people’s money will be combined with a diversification of our economy, and particularly a manufacturing base that has been allowed to wither in recent years. Our oil sector, the largest in Africa, has failed to reach its full potential because past governments failed to maintain our capacity to process and refine raw materials. This is similarly the case for other extractive sectors. In collaboration with international partners and our own leading businesses we are working to ensure this is addressed expeditiously.

Given the fall in oil and commodities prices, we will also seek to rebalance the economy in other areas. Nigeria’s fight against Boko Haram and (once it is defeated) our long-term security require a local military manufacturing base. We are already in serious discussions with partners to build capacity that can supply locally developed equipment for our armed forces that will, in time, lower our levels of imports of such equipment and improve our balance-of-payments position.

Broader and deeper transformation in the manufacturing sector is of course possible, and essential, but will not flourish without greater investment in electricity supply. Nigeria, like much of Africa, remains underpowered, and we are working on a strategy to boost our own electricity production, leveraging, in the first instance, internally available natural gas, water and wind resources.

It has also been seen in other parts of the world, from eastern Europe to Asia, that the diversification and opening up of competition within a nation’s internal market leads to growth and job creation. Nigeria, again like much of Africa, remains too state-dependent. In certain strategic areas state intervention is necessary, even in the most advanced economies. But we are determined to attract local and international investors by market reform and improving the environment for business.


We can see in Lagos, Nigeria’s most economically advanced region, that competition lowers prices for consumers in everything from the retail sector to the supply of public services, and creates jobs. We will take that blueprint and, underpinned by infrastructure investment, we can grow supply and opportunity in products and services.

The good and the greatness
I know that millions of people in Nigeria are waiting to see signs of economic recovery and most importantly, the chance for a job and the better life and self-respect that employment and a career can bring. I wish my administration could deliver this for each and every Nigerian overnight. But no government anywhere in the world has ever been able to achieve such transformation instantaneously. We look to examples such as Singapore, which has managed to achieve economic greatness despite having few natural resources beyond the ingenuity of its own people. It is possible for Nigeria, with its surfeit of natural resources, to achieve the same.

Yet we also note that most nations that have achieved rapid economic growth in recent decades have one thing in common: they first addressed their breakdown in governance, cracked down on corruption and demonstrated to their own people and the world that to invest in that country is safe. That is where we also must begin.

Delivering on that promise to the people and to the world is already under way. It is the [color=#990000][/color]only way we will reach the economic greatness Nigerians deserve.

Muhammadu Buhari
President of Nigeria

http://www.theworldin.com/article/10501?fsrc=scn/tw/wi/bl/ed/allchangeinnigeria

Lalasticlala

[size=13pt]Avoiding another civil war[/size]

http://punchng.com/avoiding-another-civil-war/

Anthony Akinola

One thing we must not deny ourselves is the right to know the history of our nation. History is such an important subject that only idiots or clowns will not appreciate its significance.

Many young Nigerians are ill-informed about the darkest days of our history, those very dark days when otherwise members of the same union had to take up arms against one another. For someone who closely observed the days when members of the Yoruba ethnic group danced in the streets to welcome the great Nnamdi Azikiwe, an Igbo, in almost equal numbers as they did another great Nigerian of Yoruba origin, Obafemi Awolowo, the civil war of 1967-70 and what now appears to be an attempt to retrieve better forgotten war drums cannot but be disheartening. Our compatriots, especially those residing in foreign nations, do us a great disservice by wanting to manifest the so-called prediction of those who have never wished our race well for their own very selfish reasons.



The Nigerian Civil War itself can hardly be discussed in isolation. Understanding it entails an excursion into the history of our great nation. Its remote causes can be summarised as emanating from the very nature of our colonial-imposed federalism, as well as the colonial masters’ legacy of divide and rule. Suffice it to say that the creation of Nigeria was designed, first and foremost, to serve the interests of the colonial masters. The federation bequeathed to Nigerians at independence was lopsided, with political power skewing heavily in favour of the North to the detriment of the then southern regions, Eastern and Western. The colonial approach to education and religion could hardly be described as an effort directed at promoting unity in a nation of different languages and cultures.

The immediate causes of the war derived from the aforementioned factors, as post-independence history was a history of the South attempting to challenge a structure that impeded progress as well as the political ambitions of its key leaders. The North, based on its population, agitated for, and successfully got, 50 per cent of representation at the Federal House of Representatives during the Ibadan Constitutional Conference of 1950. This was not without opposition from politicians of the Western Region but the North got its way with support from those of the Eastern Region. That co-operation between the North and the East more or less heralded an opportunistic alliance of their main political parties beyond independence in 1960.

However, the South continued to challenge what had constituted northern primacy in politics resulting in a succession of crises. The census crisis of 1962-3 and the contentious federal election of 1964 saw an otherwise divided South singing in unison. It would be naïve to assume that the feelings of ethnic politicians did not influence the thinking of soldiers, no matter what were their pretensions to patriotism and non-partisanship, and this was what came into fore on January 15, 1966 when a bloody coup attempt terminated our teething experiment at democratic politics. The soldiers struck on the background of a comical election that had produced a hitherto unprecedented violence in the Western Region in 1965.

The coup leaders, comprised mainly of soldiers from the Igbo-dominated Eastern Region, claimed to have acted in the national interest. What, however, did not seem to have been in the national interest was the pattern which the execution of their coup took. The key politicians and soldiers killed were northerners and notable southern “collaborators”. The “cleansing” exercise did not claim Igbo casualties. The coup itself could not be described as successful, hijacked as it was by senior officers who were hardly party to it. The subsequent leadership of Maj. Gen. J.T.U. Aguiyi-Ironsi, an Igbo, did not help matters with his Decree No 34 of May 25, 1966 which transformed federal Nigeria into a unitary state.

Behind in Western education and commerce, the North saw a unitary state as an orchestrated attempt to undo its peoples in the Civil Service and economic sectors of society. Coupled with failure to bring the coup makers to trial, Ironsi’s unitary decree became more or less the catalyst to the counter-coup of July 1966 – “the northern reply” – which claimed the lives of many Igbo officers and men, including Aguiyi-Ironsi himself. This was soon followed by a massive killing of Igbo residents in the North.

With dead bodies and mutilated limbs arriving in the East from the North, there were bound to be anger and a civil war invitingly inevitable. There were quite a number of elements in the decision to go to war and this included the refusal of Lt. Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Military Governor of the Eastern Region, to accept the authority of Lt. Col Yakubu Gowon, said to be his junior by enrolment in the military, as Head of State and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. Many attempts at reconciliation failed to yield fruitful results. For instance, the agreements reached at Aburi, Ghana, favoured the demands of the secessionists but would later be reneged upon by the federal authorities once its implications became glaring. Odumegwu-Ojukwu would appear to have “outsmarted” his colleagues at the Aburi meeting

Of course, the decision to go to war cannot be explained without reference to the then newly-discovered oil in the Eastern Region. It assured “Biafra” was a project that could be economically sustained. It was also because of oil that the major powers were neither spectators nor pacifists in the “fratricidal” conflict. They were more interested in having access to the oil than in bothering with the number of Nigerians killed!

Gowon rightly declared that there was “no victor and no vanquished” in the conclusion of a war for which we were all to be blamed. What we must never do again is put our nation in a situation that makes another civil war an attractive option. To our young compatriots agitating for Biafra, I make bold to remind them that the Igbo have contributed to the demographic integration of Nigeria more than any other ethnic group in the federation. It is doubtful if the new agitators have factored in this reality.

Dr. Akinola is a researcher and political analyst based in Oxford, United Kingdom

Copyright PUNCH.

This is a very balanced opinion. How I wish more Nigerian scholars will write more about Nigeria like this.

Kudos to the Professor, more ink to your pen.

To all the lazy readers there, this definitely is beyond your intellectual capacity.

Can a New Buharinomics Save Nigeria?


This is a paper delivered by  Chukwuma Charles Soludo, CFR  at the 3rd Anniversary lecture of the RealNews magazine: Oriental Hotel, Lagos: 19th November, 2015

I: Introduction.

I gave my commitment to the management of RealNews magazine since late May to deliver this third anniversary lecture, and we agreed that given my tight schedule, I could just speak ex tempore or from speaking notes. However, I decided to write down my thoughts a few days ago for the avoidance of doubt. My apologies if you find this a bit tardy. I have taken liberty to slightly modify the topic to reflect my central message.

The timing of this lecture is auspicious—coming in the 6th month after the inauguration of a new administration, and also with a new federal cabinet now in place.

Before the government rolls out its full agenda, this is a good time to begin our citizen duty of joining the ever continuous discourse on the economy. Our focus for now shall be pre-emptive and provocative— to challenge the Buhari/APC regime not only to demonstrate that it can manage the economy better than the PDP but also that it can lay the foundation for sustainably shared prosperity in a post-oil economy.

Let me make three quick points to provide some context to our discourse. First, I supported President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) over Jonathan not because I was convinced about the credibility of the APC manifesto (and I said so in my article in January this year) but for three reasons.

I was convinced that the last economic team was bankrupting the economy and had no clue as to how to fix it. Second, PMB is the first president of Nigeria under a democracy to have seriously desired the job and struggled for it for over 12 years. To me therefore, he must have a few points to prove, and I was willing to bet on a man who purposefully wanted the job than otherwise.

Third, I was convinced that it would be in the enlightened self-interest of the APC, once in power to do their utmost to keep power by delivering on the economy unlike the PDP which had taken power for granted. I am still confident that PMB can deliver change (although as I had indicated in my article in January, I didn’t believe that any of the two parties could deliver on their manifesto) but he and his team now need to run at the speed of a 1000 km per hour. We must support them to succeed by contributing when we can, and criticising when we must—tough love! I am enjoying my status as ‘an independent’ (I don’t belong to APC or PDP) and I therefore have the liberty to say it as I see it from the balcony!

Second, I am happy that the ministers are now in place, and I believe the president has assembled a team of eminently qualified and experienced Nigerians. A more important point is that it is a team of ‘believers’—who share in the mission and vision of APC. So now that a strong team of ‘believers’ is in place, there can be no excuses!

Furthermore, I read in the media that the Vice-President, Prof. Osinbajo indicated that he is “responsible for the economy”, and I believe President Buhari deserves great commendation for this fundamental delegation. No question, the buck stops on Mr. President’s table. However, as I argued in my article published January this year – “Buhari vs Jonathan: Beyond the Election” (which Vanguard newspaper still posts on their website under a section captioned ‘The Soludo Debate’), I believe the intention of our constitution is that the VP should be the ‘coordinating minister of the economy’.

Besides being the chair of the national economic council (NEC), our laws make the VP chair of major economic institutions of the federal government. Thus, once a president selects his VP, we should begin to have some ideas about the possible direction of economic policy akin to a party in the UK naming its Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ours is a peculiar institutional design but to the best of my knowledge, these provisions have been undermined in the past (I have thoughts on possible amendment to the constitution so that VPs are not automatic successors to the President in case of ‘accident’ and to shield the office from the distractions of day to day politics to focus on the economy and no more).

President Buhari has repeatedly stated his focus on “re-building” our institutions, and where else to begin the process of systematic dialogue on the economy than the strengthening of institutions for doing so within government? There are other institutional structures it must create/strengthen to consolidate and sharpen what Nigeria desperately needs now: a War Room on the Economy!

The rest of the paper is organized as follows: In section II, we summarize a caricature of the baseline statistics on the economy that PDP bequeathed but which APC/PMB must improve upon. Section III shows that the ‘old’ Buharinomics of command and control is a tried and failed policy and won’t work now. In Section IV, we hint at a few issues the new Buharinomics must take cognizance of if it hopes to build a sustainable, shared prosperity for Nigeria. We conclude in Section V.

II: Baseline Statistics: What is the APC/Buhari Government trying to ‘Change’?

Every team serious about ‘change’ starts with a clear identification of the baseline from which it measures deviations/progress.

Nigeria has had 16 uninterrupted years of democracy with the PDP controlling the federal government as well as majority of the states. APC is now in charge at both the centre and majority of the states. A minimum standard for measuring ‘change’ is the extent to which APC government beats the record of the PDP in measurable terms. As the saying goes, if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve/change it!

Government must strengthen the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and preserve its independence to produce and publish credible national statistics. It needs serious funding. I really wish our policymakers can be a little less careless or casual about the use of official statistics. I criticised the last government for relying on ‘estimates’ by World Bank staff instead of the NBS statistics. When I hear the narrative so far in the media by the new government regarding the economy, I take it largely as the kind of ‘usual propaganda’ new officials deploy to show that their predecessors “did nothing” and therefore lay the ground for claiming that they are “doing everything for the first time in our history”.

Fortunately also, there are many people as well taking a hard look at the numbers and recording scores. At AfriHeritage, we are developing a template for measuring government performance. As Nigeria has largely evolved into a two party state in a democracy, I prefer to frame the discourse on the baseline as ‘PDP’s legacy and the APC’s challenge’!

Since it is the practice to blame the PDP for every ill that befell our country in the last 16 years (and there are many of them) it is also fair to credit them with the positive ones.

According to data from NBS, one outstanding legacy of the PDP is that in 16 years it held sway, it more than doubled the GDP of Nigeria (indeed with average year-on-year GDP growth rate in excess of 6% over the past 12 years, the GDP actually doubled within the last 12 years. It met average annual growth rate of about 2% and raised it to 6-7%, led by the non-oil sector. Yes, non-oil sector, and the “diversification” reported in the recently re-based GDP happened within the last 16 years. Will the economy more than double in the next 12 years under the APC? For me, if only the APC can double the size of GDP from about $550 billion to $1.1 trillion in 12 -16 years, and further half the poverty index,
Nigeria will indeed be on course to be one of the largest 10 economies in the world by the end of this century.

As at 1999 when PDP came to power, Nigeria was largely a pariah state still lucky to have survived as one indivisible sovereign, especially in the context of the struggle by NADECO and restiveness in many parts of the country. On corruption, Transparency International scored it 1.6 out of 10 and ranked 98 out of 99 countries in 1999.

Nigeria was listed among four countries that were non-compliant on the anti-money laundering rules by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). We could not service our external debt and relied on stressful rescheduling, with all the intrusive donor conditionalities. Poverty was estimated at 70%, and unemployment at nearly 20%. The 1990s will go down in our economic history as the decade of stagnation: when per capita income growth was zero. Average oil price in May 1999 when President Obasanjo took over was $15.24 while stock of reserves was about $5 billion.

After 16 years, several challenges remain and some have even worsened (especially insecurity). Although President Jonathan’s regime had the worst economic management relative to the resources at its disposal, it must be stressed that tremendous progress was made in the aggregate 16 years of PDP government. Yes, it should have left more than $100 billion in reserves but left only $30 billion (still about six times of what it met).

We also wish that Jonathan’s team did not leave Nigeria with unprecedented rate of debt accumulation. But, according to statistics from NBS, the PDP handed over a $550 billion economy (largest in Africa and 26th in the world), with 7.5% unemployment rate (better than European Union, France, Sweden, Belgium, etc although the underemployment figure is much higher); 32%?? poverty rate (as claimed by the former Finance Minister, or 61%??: NBS needs to clarify this claim); a stock of reserves of $30 billion; GDP growth rate averaging 6% over last 12 years; a relatively more diversified economy, with ICT penetration from 0.2% to over 60%, and a new contributory pension scheme now with trillions of Naira in pension fund.

Our external debt is down although total debt stock is escalating. Our Gini coefficient (degree of inequality) is not different from China’s. Nigeria has consolidated and stronger banking system that currently finances both government debt and the private sector, with a relatively vibrant capital market. The capitalization of the Nigerian Stock Exchange grew from less than N1 trillion to N12 trillion as at handover. For the first time, Nigerian economy is now rated by credit rating agencies (Fitch, and Standard and Poor’s). Even on corruption perception, Nigeria is far better today than in 1999, and PDP created the two major anti-corruption agencies— ICPC and EFCC, and as at 2014 TI scored Nigeria 2.7 and ranked 136 out of 175 countries. PDP secured debt relief for Nigeria, thereby relieving Nigeria from the stranglehold of the IMF/World Bank policy conditionalities. APC does not have to negotiate with Washington on many economic policies. The list is long. The point therefore is that despite the fall in oil price, APC is starting from a much stronger base than PDP did in 1999 and the challenge now is to do far better. In the coming years, Nigerians will be asking APC to show us their figures!

More coming soon.



http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/11/can-a-new-buharinomics-save-nigeria/

cc: lalasticlala, obinoscopy, Afam4eva, ishilove, OAM4J

TonyeBarcanista:
The party will get over it. I expect them to present strong evidence in court

Strong evidence?? Where?

Appellate courts only looks at the merit of a lower court ruling viz a viz the evidence and arguments it received. There is no strong evidence you are presenting again. You have already presented all your strong evidence at the lower court.

mozel247:
Even when it is glaring to everyone that the process that produce Ortom was flaw. PDP have to prove it with documents. That was y I laugh when they uses Taraba as their hope.

I am sure PDP will still lose the Taraba Appeal. Because APC was able to effectively proof its case.

Moreover 2 PDP Senators from that same Taraba state already has their victories nullified by the Tribunal, while the Appeal court has already decided the Appeal emanating from one of the cases, with APC still wining the Appeal.

This is the news below:-

Appeal court sacks PDP senator in Taraba

By Emmanuel Ande, Yola on November 18, 2015 1:15 am

OVER one week after the Elections Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja sacked Taraba State governor, the Court of Appeal sitting in Yola yesterday upheld the Taraba Election Petitions Tribunal’s ruling, which sacked Senator Bashir Marafa Abba of People’s Democratic Party (PDP), representing Taraba Central Senatorial District.

In a unanimous judgment that lasted for over two hours, the three judges, Justices Jummai Hanatu Sankey, Duobele Abraham and Maiwada, all agreed that the appeal brought before the court by the plaintiffs lacked merit and was therefore dismissed.

They upheld the decision of the Tribunal sacking Marafa Abba as senator representing Taraba Central.

The tribunal had last month sacked Marafa after the plaintiff at the tribunal proved all the allegations of election malpractice where it ruled that Yusuf of APC be declared the winner of the senatorial election.

Speaking after the judgment, Chairman of Taraba APC, Alhaji Hassan Jika Ardo, expressed delight at the judgment and commended the judiciary for living up to expectations.

Ardo urged APC supporters in the state to continue to remain calm in the state, adding that his party would continue to seek justice in the law court over what he described as snatching of the party hard-earned victories in the last general elections.

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/2015/11/appeal-court-sacks-pdp-senator-in-taraba/

cc: Afam4eva, OAM4J, Lalasticlala

mozel247:
Even when it is glaring to everyone that the process that produce Ortom was flaw. PDP have to prove it with documents. That was y I laugh when they uses Taraba as their hope.

I tire oh, the burden of proof lies with the party alleging. The tribunal (not Appeal court) maintained in their own ruling that the document PDP submitted and claimed it emanated from INEC was not on INEC's letter head and was not signed by INEC's authorized persons.

it is evident to learned minds that such a document will not be admissible in court.

Most times during Appeal, new evidence is not usually tendered, what the Appeal chiefly looks at is whether the lower court was right in its submissions.



Now compare this Benue scenario to that of Taraba where INEC was physically in court to discountenance the purported PDP primaries in Abuja. Another second major point in that Taraba petition was also that submission of nomination has closed for political parties by the time PDP submitted its candidate for the Taraba gubernatorial election.


I am sure the PDP wailers would soon hit this thread with their wailings on 'judicial manipulation'. The zombies dont know that cases are not won by wailing on the internet and on the pages of newspapers but in the court rooms by intelligent and sharp minds!

I thought the PDP and their court jester on nairaland were threatening the tribunal that the Benue Election Tribunal Appeal "must" go their way because of the outcome of the Taraba tribunal.

Bunch of jokers!

Appeal court upholds election of Benue Governor, Samuel Ortom


The Court of Appeal sitting in Makurdi, on Wednesday upheld the verdict of the Election Petition Tribunal which affirmed the qualification and election of Samuel Ortom as governor of Benue State.

The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party had asked the court to reverse the tribunal’s judgement and declare him winner of the April governorship election in the state.

He said that the tribunal erred in its judgment as Mr. Ortom was not qualified to contest in the election.

He said Mr. Ortom was not validly nominated by the All Progressives Congress to stand for the election.

He had sought a declaration by the appellate court to set aside the tribunal’s judgement which had dismissed his petition for lack of merit.
Mr. Tarzoor had also asked the court to direct the Independent National Electoral Commission to declare him winner of the April governorship poll.

In its argument, the APC had insisted that its candidate was validly nominated in conformity with the requirements of the Electoral Act, 2010, adding that the burden of proof rests on the shoulders of the appellants.
All parties in the case – APC, PDP, INEC – had filed cross appeals and cross appellant appeals challenging certain aspects of the tribunal’s judgment.

However, in a unanimous decision read by Justice Mohammed Garba, the court dismissed the appeal in its entirety for lack of merit.
Mr. Garba said the appellants failed to discharge the burden of proof which rested on them, in line with the legal dictum that ” he who alleges must prove”, adding that the lower court was right in dismissing the petition.

Reacting to the judgment, counsel to the PDP, Donald Kertyo, said his team would test the ruling at the Supreme Court.

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/regional/north-central/193409-appeal-court-upholds-election-of-benue-governor-samuel-ortom.html

tafrica:
I only corrected ur narratives that the release didn't mention Dasuki, it expressly did.

You've got the wrong guy man. I didn't say anything about Dansuki.

I only quoted u to answer ur question why the president's twitter handle was tweeting the issue.

tafrica:
Go and read last night's tweets from @NGRPresident handle. He specifically said Dasuki was indicted and ordered fro the arrest of others. Let's watch how long it will take them to arrest him, but I'm worried why it was presidential twitter handle that hastily tweeted interim report, yet to be completed and why they made it look like it was all about Dasuki when the probe was meant to be from 2007 till date.
I support anyone be probed but they are making it look like witch hunting, when you are in Buhari's bad books. Same way @APCNigeria handle was tweeting Saraki's case.
I'm yet to see any Buhari's Fav being invited or arrested by EFCC/DSS. Sylva and Audi's cases all buried. We should be worried about CORRUPTION OF ANTI-CORRUPTION.

There was a press release from the presidency which was released by the Special Adviser to the president on media.

The twitter handle of the president merely twitted this press release.

It is a common practice all over the world to have presidential twitter handles tweets the communique emanating from the presidency.

Prinzemel:
[It was discovered that the former NSA directed the Central Bank of Nigeria to transfer the sum of $132 Million and €9.9 Million to the accounts of Societe D’equipmente Internationaux in West Africa, United Kingdom and United States of America for un-ascertained purposes, without any contract documents to explain the transactions.]

When did dasuki have the power to solely give directives to the CBN to transfer sums into other accounts?. PMB is just frustrating the former NSA cos of the role he played in the. Year 1985.

Why not wait for CBN to release the records if indeed that happened. Why not get facts from all sides before running to conclusion.

We were in this country when a certain Abacha ordered the CBN to print billions for him.

What we have in Nigeria are weak institutions who cannot look authority in the face and ask for due process.

If the CBN receives such orders, they only need the authority of the Finance Ministry/presidency and they will comply.

Why not try to stimulate investigative reasoning by asking if there was such approval from Finance/Presidency or if CBN acted only on the demand of the former NSA? And if that is the case, under which law/process permits the CBN to release funds to the NSA based only on the NSA's demand?


Pls let's look at the issues holistically before taking sides.

It is billions we are talking about here.

patmaine:
trying to play smart

Oga keep quiet. You have been corrected and u re still trying to argue.

This is a very terrible behaviour associated with a lot of folks on nairaland.

Once u see a superior point, it is expected in the world of civil and intelligent men, to appreciate the giver of the info and back down.

Go and read the report again. The naira figures were the contract awarded in naira while the other foreign denominations were the denominations the contracts were executed.

We have dollar, pounds and naira contract from the report.

porka:
What about those who deducted Nigeria's money and were merely asked to return the money (reluctantly), when will they be charged?

Where did they derive the authority to deduct Nigeria's money from Nigeria's account without appropriation?

They derived the power from From the contract signed by the previous Administration.

But now Buhari has dictatorially ordered that the money be refunded without recourse to the contract. What I expect u to be doing is calling PMB out for the dictatorial way he asked that the money be refunded!

This is a democracy and a contract was validly signed for the 1% commission.

adconline:
This is no Abacha republic! GMB shouldnt be giving orders like Idi Amin. Let him prosecut these guys for alleged offenses thru the courts. Build a water-tight case and u are going to get a conviction... Enough of this abracadabra!!

What point are u making? Conviction of a criminal does not just happen in thin air, it starts with the arrest of the criminal to prevent the criminal from being at large.

The president sure has the powers to order the arrest of a suspected criminal.

The powers he lacks is to hold him perpetually without a trial. And it is the courts that convicts based on available evidence.

As of now, the president has executed his power to order the arrest of a suspected criminal, why not chill to see the outcome before yarning opaka??

Abi how many times have u seen the president order the arrest of someone publicly like this before?? Does that not tell u this is a very high profile case?

vedaxcool:
Abobaku Saraki, on the contrary you should go back to you core competence as a catholic fanatic on the religion section, you seem to hardly make headway in the policitcs section, your greatest contribution to the polictics section is nothinng more than Abobaku for Saraki! lmao

Don't mind the man.

8unit:
Yes I campaigned for PMB but he's not working more than our Young and agile VP PYO. So with the issues of PMB's certificate saga exhumed, He'll be impeached and PYO takes over. We don't give a shiit! Sai APC, Sai President PYO, Sai SW!

Silly wailers. When are u going to get over this defeat?

chukwudi44:
What is warped about my post? The holy bible says remove the log in your own eyes then you will see clearly the acratch in your neighbour's eyes!!

Yourself and Falana are bloody hypocrites!!! If the useless position seeking Falana wants to promote aderence to the rule of law,he should first condemn fragrant disregard of court orders by the illiterate Buhari regime!! The same thing happened during the Buhari certificate controversy,the stupid were lawyer kept mute and feigned ignorance!!

Well Falana and his likes can't rant for all I care the supreme court Judgement on the matter is final.

I have told u to stop dabbling unnecessary into legal issues as you always turn out wrong.

For your information, per adventure you don't know, the Supreme Court can overrule itself.

If Senior members of the law continue to speak out against the ruling as Falana is doing it can be revisited.

The ruling has effectively rendered the ACJA 2015 useless. And that is an affront on the constitutional power of the National Assembly to make laws, and also an affront on the constitutional powers of the President to assent to laws made by the NA.


NB
The nonsense you wrote about PMB'S certificate is amazing. Is it not PDP and their numerous proxies who withdrew their case on PMB's certificate on their own volition?? Did anyone put a gun on their head? Were they not the party controlling all the organs of govt at this time?

chukwudi44:
Allow Falana to continue whining!!! The suporeme court's judgement is final!! Anyone not satisfied should go to the nearest transformer and do the needful.

Falana is yet to condemn the fragrant disregard of courts orders on Dasuki and Nnamdi Kanu!! Bunch of hypocrites

You have come again with your warped reasoning.

The case being discussed here is the CCT case. Why bringing Dansuki here?? Falana is free to do a write-up on any case he deemed fit.

You cannot arm-twist/blackmail him.

lonelyvoiz:
One thing Fanana failed to tell his readers is the question and objection by Saraki's counsels that the trial is not a criminal case hence the supreme court has a date with the case to decide if its criminal case as being argued.

Without resolving the nature of the case as argued by Saraki's lawyers, it will be wrong to apply the AJCA as amended.

Fanala should stop bullying the SC with his judicial activism using his warp interpretation before the court of public opinion.

The Appeal court has already ruled in favour of the CCT and the prosecution and until there is a counter ruling from the Supreme Court, it remains a criminal case as ruled by the Appeal court.

Anyone can continue arguing that their case is not a criminal case while delaying trial until the Supreme Court rules on this preliminary objection.

That is what the ACJA 2015 seeks to prevent. After the Appeal court rules, let trial continue so says the law. Even though the case is still pending at the Supreme Court.

The law further protects the person facing trial that if the trial is concluded and judgement giving before the Supreme court concludes the hearing on the preliminary objections, such judgement will not be executed/enforced until the Supreme Court dispenses the case before it.

Now if the ruling of the Supreme court is in favour of the person facing trial, the judgement of the lower court on the matter thereafter becomes a nullity. And if the ruling is in favour of the lower court/prosecution, the judgement of the lower court is then enforced/executed.

And recall that even the judgement of the lower court on the matter is still open to the appeal process up to the Supreme court again.

So the 'Accused' is well protected here.

There is no reason whatsoever to be delaying trial. This is what renders our judicial process ineffective and inefficient.

The ACJA 2015 signed into law by GEJ is a good law. Though I ain't his fan, I give him kudos for it.

This stay of proceedings granted by the Supreme Court wants to totally rubbish this law.

This is a very dicey situation and the supreme court needs to revisit this order.

The NJC urgently needs to call the lead Judge that gave that ruling to order. I even heard the Judge is retiring in 2 weeks, no wonder he had the temerity to give such a terrible ruling.

This ruling spells doom to the fight against corruption as it will always be cited, and as such needs to be discounted by another proclamation of the Supreme Court.

CCT vs Saraki: Why Supreme Court ruling shouldn’t stand, by Femi Falana



On May 13, 2015, President Goodluck Jonathan signed the Administration of Criminal Justice Bill into law.

Both chambers of the national assembly had passed the bill to modernise our criminal justice system. In particular, the law has abolished stay of proceedings and interlocutory appeals by merging all preliminary objections with the substantive case in any criminal case instituted in a federal court in the country.

The revolutionary intervention of the law was occasioned by the unending trial of politically exposed persons in corruption cases.

In fact, the last straw that broke the camel’s back was the case of Mohammed Abacha v FRN, which had been stalled for 12 years on account of the preliminary objections raised and argued from the high court to the apex court by the defense counsel, Mr. J. B. Daudu SAN.

At the end of the “Israelite’s journey,” the Supreme Court ordered that the trial be commenced de novo at the federal capital territory high court. Having been completely frustrated in the circumstance, the federal government was compelled to discontinue Mr. Abacha’s corruption charge involving the theft of N664 billion under the pretext that the case would be “amicably” resolved!

Before then, the Lagos State government had been forced to abolish stay of proceedings in criminal trials following the prosecution of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha over the murder of Mrs. Kudirat Abiola.

The trial had lasted 13 years on account of several preliminary objections and interlocutory appeals that were pursued from the High Court to the Supreme Court.

Contrary to the misleading view of many senior lawyers that the abolition of stay of proceedings in criminal trials is illegal it has been judicially decided that statutes that oust the jurisdiction of courts to stay proceedings are constitutionally valid. In FRN v Nwude (2006) 2 EFCCLR 149 at 161 it was held by Justice Oyewole J. (as he then was) that section 40 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Act, 2004 which abolished stay of proceedings is not an infraction of the powers of the court.

According to his lordship,”inherent powers of the court only come into play in the absence of express statutory provisions and the court then fills in the gap by invoking its inherent powers to do justice in a given case….the intention of the legislature in this instance is to remove impediments in the way of the administration of justice.” Similarly, in Ajiboye v FRN (2013) 17 WRN 127 at 145 the Court of Appeal (per Justice Ogbuniya JCA) struck out the application for stay of proceedings on the ground that it was incompetent “in the face of the sacrosanct prescription of section 40 of the Act which clearly ousted the jurisdiction of the court over it.”

It is trite in law that jurisdiction oxygenates all proceedings in our courts. Accordingly, the exercise of judicial powers by any court without jurisdiction is bound to end in a nullity, regardless of the industry invested in it. With the enactment of the AJCA, the suspension of criminal cases by all accused persons has been effectively stopped in Nigeria.

Therefore, any judge who orders a stay of proceedings in any criminal trial does so illegally and is liable to be sanctioned by the National Judicial Council. It is unfathomable that the Supreme Court decided to return the country to the status quo ante in a rather brazen and bizarre manner.

Given the ouster clause contained in section 306 of the AJCA, the Code of Conduct Tribunal ought not to have delivered its ruling in respect of the preliminary objections filed by Dr. Saraki. The ruling should have been read together with the judgment after the conclusion of the trial. It was the premature ruling of the Tribunal which led to the filing of an interlocutory appeal in the matter.

Instead of declining jurisdiction to entertain the interlocutory appeal that has been abolished by the AJCA, the Court of Appeal ordered a suspension of the trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal to await its decision. Although the Court of Appeal eventually dismissed the appeal the trial of the substantive case at the Code of Conduct Tribunal has been further halted by the Supreme Court which has granted another stay of proceedings pending the hearing of the interlocutory appeal filed before it by the accused person.

However, it is sad to note that in granting the order of stay of proceedings in the case the apex court ignored the provisions of sections 306 and 396 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015. It was not a case of oversight or lack of knowledge of the existence of the AJCA on the part of the Court, but a deliberate judicial decision to turn back the hand of the clock in the ongoing battle against corruption and impunity in the land. Curiously, some senior lawyers have endorsed the blatant violation of the law in the matter.

I am disturbed that a progressive lawyer like Emeka Ngige SAN was reported to have justified the illegality of the order of stay of proceedings. No doubt, the prosecution and the defence counsel who are Senior Advocates of Nigeria cannot be exonerated in the mockery of the criminal justice system.
By arguing preliminary objections that have been merged with the substantive case the senior counsel involved in the diversionary legal rigmarole overlooked the relevant provisions of the AJCA. Similarly, the members of the Code of Conduct Tribunal and the Justices of the Appeal Court did not advert their minds to the combined effect of sections 306 and 396 of the AJCA.

In any case, one had expected the learned Justices of the Supreme Court to correct the litany of legal errors committed at the lower courts. But the errors were endorsed as the apex court decided to halt the trial without any legal justification whatsoever.

The counsel to the federal government, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs SAN was even boxed to a corner by the Court to the extent that he had to undertake not to proceed with the trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal pending the determination of the interlocutory appeal!

As a creation of the law, the Supreme Court is bound by the law. So are the Justices of the Court. In Joseph Amashoma v The State (2011) 14 NWLR (pt 1268) 530, the Honourable Justice John Fabiyi held that “The appellant’s counsel should be reminded of the doctrine of Separation of Powers as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution. The Legislature is to enact law while it is the duty of the Judiciary to interpret the law as enacted….There is no escape route.”

In the instant case, there was no escape route. Yet, the Supreme Court discountenanced the tenet of separation of powers by the deliberate refusal to limit itself to the interpretation of the relevant provisions of the AJCA.

As the inherent powers of a Court cannot be invoked to supersede the extant provisions of a valid and subsisting legislation the Supreme Court ought to be challenged to justify the purported annulment of the clear and unambiguous provisions of the AJCA.

With profound respect to the revered members of the panel of the Court the order of stay of proceedings granted by them last week flies in the face of section 306 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 which provides that “An application for stay of proceedings in respect of a criminal matter before the court shall not be entertained.”

Indeed, ex abundanti cautela, section 396 thereof further provides that all preliminary objections “shall be considered along with the substantive issues and a ruling shall thereon be made at the time of the delivery of judgment.”

Apart from abolishing stay of proceedings the AJCA has effectively banned interlocutory appeals in criminal trials.

Therefore, the controversial ruling of the Supreme Court should not be allowed to stand because of its far-reaching implications and negative impact on the administration of criminal justice in the country.

Since the ruling is binding on all other courts in line with the hallowed principle of stare decisis the Supreme Court should take advantage of the substantive appeal in the Saraki’s case to review its position with a view to confirming the abolition of stay of proceedings by section 306 of the AJCA. This clarification should be made, as soon as possible, in line with the letter and spirit of the AJCA.

Otherwise, every accused person will continue to file interlocutory appeals and proceed to ask for a stay of proceedings pending the determination of such appeals. The application will have to be granted as the hands of either the trial court or the Court of Appeal would have been tied by the erroneous decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Saraki v FRN.

The apex court is advised to distance itself from the antics of the influential agents of impunity in the legal profession who have resolved to frustrate the trial of corruption cases by filing cumbrous motions and frivolous preliminary objections designed to shield members of the ruling class from prosecution. Our judges should realize that the inglorious era of engaging in dilatory tactics in criminal trials by defence counsel has been consigned to the dustbin of history.




http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/11/cct-vs-saraki-why-supreme-court-ruling-shouldnt-stand-by-femi-falana/


Afam4eva, OAM4J, Lalasticlala, Seun

freshvine:
When I am talking about support, I don't mean "numbers" but yoruba personalities.

Give me 5 known yoruba Christian personality that support APC and I will give you 20 that don't.

For me I'll give 20 yoruba elites/leaders.

Now you have changed it to yoruba elite right? Lol

Baba drop it. It was a mix on both sides. And PMB enjoyed the majority.

This Afenifere people that didn't support PMB had issues mainly with Tinubu. Not actually PMB. Tinubu refused and till date refuses to differ to them and that is the reason they despise him.

Unfortunately for them, the Tinube they despise had series of political successes to his name in contrast to them which makes them even hate Tinubu the more.

The way Tinubu parted with them sef is the only reason I like Tinubu. Those Afenifere guys are greedy old men that cut a deal for themselves with Obj in 2003. This they did to the detriment of their party then, AD (Alliance for Democracy).

Tinubu did not support this move and they ostracised him for that. Tinubu was later vindicated on his stance when it was only him that survived the Obj onslaught.

This elders hated him more as he was the only one that had the financial muscle to finance an effective opposition party and he too took control of the party structure of the new ACN. Some of these Afenifere elders formed the DPA, while others remained in AD. These two parties never achieved limelight and political success. Whereas, Tinubu's ACN continued to soar higher. Their envy of Tinubu then spiraled even more.

This is not about religion, get it into your head. It is about self interest!

These same elders similarly cut a deal with GEJ, same way they greedily cut a deal with Obasanjo in 2003.

To tell u this has nothing to do with religion, recall that Chief Falae their unofficial leader, contested on the joint sponsorship of both AD and APP (which later changed name to ANPP). APP was predominantly hausas and muslims.

The talkative Yinka Odumakin was PMB's spokesman in 2011.

It is not about religion I repeat. The majority of people in the yoruba nation got tired of GEJ's ineptitude and decided to vote him out

The main reason Afenifere did not support PMB is because of Tinubu and their greedy penchant for cutting deals for themselves.

It has nothing to do with religion!

The topic is at variance with the body.