₦airaland Forum

Aburi: The “Sovereign National Conference That Got Away”.


Aburi: The “Sovereign National Conference” That Got Away
By Max Siollun
Published 05/21/2007
Nigeria Matters
Unrated


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After Nigeria was dragged to the brink of the abyss by two military coups in 1966, its military leaders met to try to bring the country back from the brink. The meeting evolved into perhaps the best documented constitutional debate of all time which touched upon fundamental concepts regarding the balance of power between the central government and federating regions in a federation and professional soldiers’ outlook to military coups and seniority. It was a potential breakthrough occasion. Between January 5th and 7th 1967, the members of Nigeria's then ruling military junta, the Supreme Military Council (SMC), met for the first time at Aburi in Ghana under the auspices of the Ghanaian Head of State: Lt-General Joe Ankrah. Ankrah was no stranger to coup plots as he had become Ghana’s first military Head of State after Ghana’s first President Kwame Nkrumah was deposed in a coup while Nkrumah was abroad visiting China. Ankrah was later forced to resign in April 1969 after admitting his role in a bribery scandal. Ankrah had served in the Congo during the UN peace-keeping mission there in the early 1960s and it is likely he personally knew the Nigerian soldiers (including Ironsi, Fajuyi, Ojukwu and Gowon) who served in the same mission. The meeting at Aburi was the first official meeting of all members of that SMC. Following a second bloody army coup in July 1966, the Military Governor of the eastern region of Nigeria: Lt-Colonel 'Emeka' Ojukwu had refused to attend any SMC meeting outside the eastern region of Nigeria due to concerns over his safety. The massacre of tens of thousands of Igbos in northern Nigeria only heightened Ojukwu's sense of isolation and insecurity. In turn, Ojukwu's public belligerence towards the SMC (whom he suspected of tacitly supporting, or having a hand in the massacres) served to antagonise the SMC, who began to suspect that Ojukwu was planning the secession of the eastern region from the rest of Nigeria.
 
The fashionable political theory being bandied about in Nigeria today is that a "Sovereign National Conference" (SNC) should be held to resolve the country’s constitutional problems and coup plotting culture. Many do not realise that Nigeria has already had half a dozen constitutional debates - none of which has ever resolved the nagging problems which have dogged Nigeria from independence till today. Nigeria has wasted billions of Naira on constitutional debates and constitutions that are no longer in use, and a future SNC is unlikely to discuss anything that has not already been covered in the previous constitutional debates. Ironically the best recorded of these constitutional debates was never implemented, and Nigeria has been paying the price since. To plan for the future Nigeria might do well to go back into its archives and learn from the "SNC" which it has already had.


BETWEEN ONE AMBITIOUS MAN AND THE REST OF THE COUNTRY
 
In the months preceding Aburi the SMC and Ojukwu had engaged in a war of words with the two sides trading multiple accusations and blaming each other for causing or exacerbating the crisis. The Military Governor of the north: Lt-Colonel Hassan Usman Katsina dismissed Ojukwu's confident and eloquent public statements on the crisis as attempts by Ojukwu "to show how much English he knows". As far as Katsina was concerned, Nigeria's problem was a stand-off "between one ambitious man and the rest of the country". Throughout the six months following the coup of July 29th 1966, Ojukwu repeated his mantra that "I, as the Military Governor of the east cannot meet anywhere in Nigeria where there are northern troops". That virtually ruled out an SMC meeting inside Nigeria's borders. Ojukwu had even turned down offers to attend an SMC meeting on board a British (whom Ojukwu, and Igbos in general did not entirely trust) naval ship, and at Benin, but was finally convinced to attend in the neutral territory of Aburi in Ghana. Ojukwu's aides were not without doubt. Some warned him that the Aburi meeting could be a trap set by anti-Igbo members of the Federal Government to arrest or kill him. Ojukwu brushed aside their concerns by pointing out that he had received a guarantee of safe passage from Lt-Colonel Gowon, and that he had to trust Gowon's word as an officer and a gentleman. Virtually everything discussed at that Aburi conference is relevant till today. So much so that a reader would be tempted to believe that the discussion was on Nigeria's current problems, rather than over 40 years earlier, in 1967. It is probably the best recorded constitutional debate in history. Aware that something momentous was occurring, the Ghanaians had the conference tape recorded. The tape of the discussions was later released by Ojukwu as a series of six long playing gramophone records. In attendance on the Federal Military Government (FMG) side were:


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NAME
POSITION

Lt-Colonel Yakubu Gowon
Head of the SMC*

Commodore Joseph Edet Akinwale Wey
Head of the Nigerian navy

Colonel Robert Adeyinka Adebayo
Military Governor of the western region

Lt-Colonel Hassan Usman Katsina
Military Governor of the northern region

Lt-Colonel David Akpode Ejoor
Governor of mid-west region

Major Mobolaji Johnson
Military Governor of Lagos

Alhaji Kam Selem
Inspector-General of Police

Timothy Omo-Bare
Police

 
*Head of the SMC as Ironsi’s whereabouts were “unknown”.

Ojukwu was in attendance as the eastern region's Military Governor. The FMG delegation arrived "wreathed in smiles"[1] and anxious to mollify their former brother-in-arms Ojukwu. Colonels Adebayo and Gowon even offered to embrace Ojukwu. However Ojukwu was still stung by the terrible massacres of his Igbo kinsmen in northern Nigeria the previous year and was in no mood to embrace his former colleagues. The contrast in the demeanour of the participants was in itself a microcosm of what took place over the course of the next two days. While the federal delegation behaved as if the Aburi conference was a social gathering to reunite former friends who had fallen out in a social tiff, Ojukwu saw the conference for what it really was: a historic constitutional debate that would determine Nigeria's future social and political structure.
 
Typically, western perspective was focused on image, rather than on the genuine problems of the protagonists. Secret diplomatic dispatches later declassified by the United States State Department depicted the FMG-eastern region stand-off as a personality clash between Ojukwu and Gowon. According to the American perspective: "many Americans admire Ojukwu. We like romantic leaders, and Ojukwu has panache, quick intelligence and an actor's voice and fluency. The contrast with Gowon - troubled by the enormity of his task, painfully earnest and slow to react, hesitant and repetitive in speech - led some Americans to view the Nigerian-Biafran conflict as a personal duel between two mismatched individuals".[2] As they were busy fighting in Vietnam and fighting a "cold war" against the USSR, the Americans did not become militarily or politically involved in the dispute. Instead, treating the conflict as one falling within Britain's sphere of influence.
 
THE REUNION
 
The Ghanaian host Lt-General Ankrah made a few introductory remarks and reminded his guests that "the whole world is looking up to you as military men and of there is any failure to reunify or even bring perfect understanding to Nigeria as a whole, you will find that the blame will rest with us through the centuries". Ankrah added that although he understood that the eastern region/rest of Nigeria stand-off was an internal matter for Nigerians, they should not hesitate to ask him for any help should they feel the need. Although Commodore Wey played an avuncular role, the discussion revolved around the younger Colonels: Adebayo, Ejoor, Katsina, Ojukwu and Gowon. Ojukwu showed from the beginning that he was prepared for serious business. He arrived at the conference armed with notes, and an army of secretaries. The extent of Ojukwu’s pre-preparation is shown by the fact that he gave the other debaters copies of documents he had prepared in advance, which enunciated his ideas. The other debaters should have realised at this point, that something serious was going to occur. After the hostility and bitterness that preceded the Aburi meeting, the civilian observers were stunned at the camaraderie displayed by the military officers. The debaters threw off formality and addressed each other by their first names: "Emeka", "Bolaji", "Jack" (nickname of Lt-Colonel Gowon) were thrown around as if addressing each other in at a social gathering. One of Ojukwu’s secretaries was amazed to observe that “the meeting went on in a most friendly and cordial atmosphere which made us, the non-military advisers, develop a genuine respect and admiration for the military men and their sense of comradeship. The meeting continued so smoothly and ended so successfully…..that I for one, was convinced that among themselves, the military had their own methods”.[3]
 
Ojukwu decided to show his good faith, and to test the good faith of the others by asking all present to renounce the use of force to settle the crisis. Ojukwu's motion was accepted without objection. While this request by Ojukwu may sound very noble, he was in fact playing a cunning soldier-politician. Ojukwu (despite his boasts of the eastern region's military prowess) realised that he could not succeed in a military campaign against the far more heavily armed FMG. By getting them to renounce the use of force, Ojukwu was trying to negate the FMG's military advantage. For he knew that if the political situation eventually got out of control, the FMG would find it difficult to resort to a military campaign having already given their word that they would not use force. This may have been an influential factor in Gowon's subsequent reluctance to engage the eastern region in a fully fledged war.
 
POLITICIANS
 
The assembled military officers struck a chord in unison on the subject of politicians. All of them voiced their contempt for the behaviour of civilian politicians whom they blamed for the wholesale bloodletting of the previous years (ignoring the fact that more Nigerian civilians had been murdered by politically motivated violence, in the one year of military rule so far, than in the preceding five years of civilian democratic rule). Commodore Wey slammed the point home rather forcefully when he declared that "Candidly if there had ever been a time in my life when I thought somebody had hurt me sufficiently for me to wish to kill him it was when one of these fellows [politicians] opened his mouth too wide".
 
IRONSI’S FATE
 
Despite Ironsi’s murder six months earlier, no public announcement regarding his death had been made and his whereabouts were still presumed unknown, although most of the SMC definitely knew he was dead. Gowon’s regime had eerily repeated the mistake made by Ironsi himself: failing to publicly acknowledge the army officers killed in a coup d’etat. By not announcing Ironsi’s death, Gowon also made his own position tenuous and gave Ojukwu the opportunity to reason that since the Supreme Commander Ironsi was “missing”, only the officer directly behind Ironsi in army seniority could replace him as Supreme Commander. Major Mobolaji Johnson encapsulated the issue that the east was steadfastly refusing to recognize Gowon as Head of State while the other regions accepted him (albeit tentatively in the case of the west): “The main problem now is that as far as the east is concerned, there is no central government. Why? This is what we must find out. …..For all the east knows the former Supreme Commander [Ironsi] is only missing and until such a time that they know his whereabouts they do not know any other Supreme Commander. These are the points that have been brought out by the east.” Ojukwu demanded that Gowon make a categorical public statement on the fate of Ironsi. Ejoor supported this by flatly requesting “we want to know what happened to Ironsi and Fajuyi”. Despite Ojukwu’s request for an announcement, most, if not all the participants already knew that Ironsi had been murdered. Gowon was informed of the death of Ironsi and Fajuyi not long after they had been killed. Gowon’s ADC Lt William Walbe was one of the junior northern soldiers that led Ironsi and Fajuyi into a bush alongside Iwo road outside Ibadan and murdered them there. Colonel Adebayo had ordered a search for their bodies, which were eventually discovered by the police. The head of the police Kam Selem would have been informed when his men discovered the bodies. Although Ojukwu was several hundred miles away in the east when Ironsi and Fajuyi were murdered, he likely would have had the story of their death relayed to him by one of Ironsi’s ADCs Captain Andrew Nwankwo who was captured along with Ironsi and Fajuyi but managed to escape moments before they were shot. Nwankwo eventually managed to find his way back to the east. Commodore Wey acknowledged that all the debaters already knew what happened to Ironsi. Ojukwu simply wanted Gowon to publicly acknowledge what the SMC members already knew: that Ironsi was dead. Ojukwu later acknowledged that “I heard the rumour that he [Ironsi] had been assassinated, so I began making contacts because I wanted to force them out in the open so that we could start dealing with the real situation.”[4] Gowon agreed to make a public announcement, and Kam Selem concurred, although he counselled that “the statement should be made in Nigeria so that the necessary honour can be given”.
After the soldiers agreed to make a public statement formally announcing Ironsi’s death shortly after they returned to Nigeria, the microphones were switched off and the civilians were asked to leave the room. Gowon then narrated the grisly tale of how Ironsi and Fajuyi had been abducted from State House in Ibadan by junior northern soldiers (including Gowon’s ADC Lt Walbe), driven out to an isolated bush outside Ibadan and shot there.




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COUP PLOTTERS: OJUKWU'S PROPHECY
 
When Ojukwu expressed his disgust over the murder of Igbo army officers by their northern colleagues in July 1966, Lt-Colonel Katsina interjected by asking Ojukwu why he had not reacted with the same revulsion when senior northern military officers were murdered by Igbo soldiers seven months earlier. Ojukwu reasoned that in January 1966, soldiers from every region of the federation (Nzeogwu: Mid-West, Ifeajuna-East, Ademoyega: West, Kpera: North) had staged a coup in which soldiers and politicians from every region of the federation (Akintola: West, Balewa: North, Unegbe: East, Okotie-Eboh: Mid-West) were also killed. Whereas when northern soldiers staged a revenge coup in July, soldiers from one region of the federation only (North: Danjuma, Murtala, Martin Adamu et al) singled out soldiers from one region in the federation as their targets (East: Okoro, Ironsi etc). Katsina took this opportunity to remind Ojukwu of the effort he had put in to prevent the murder of Igbos. Katsina told Ojukwu that "If you know how much …we have tried to console the people to stop all these movements and mass killings, you will give me and others a medal tonight."
 
Despite agreeing to attend the conference, Ojukwu was still refusing to recognize Lt-Colonel Gowon as Nigeria's Head of State. Ojukwu had defiantly continued to address Gowon as the "the Chief of Staff (Army)" (the post which Gowon occupied before the July counter-coup) in his public statements. Ojukwu was alarmed at the ascension of Gowon to the highest office in the land despite the presence of several other officers who were more senior than him (Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe, Commodore J.E.A. Wey, Colonel Adebayo, Lt-Colonels Hilary Njoku, Phillip Effiong, George Kurubo, Ime Imo, Conrad Nwawo and Lt-Colonels Ejoor and Ojukwu who were promoted to Lt-Colonel in the same week as Gowon). Ojukwu almost prophetically warned that allowing a middle ranking officer backed by coup plotters to become the Head of State irrespective of seniority would create a dangerous precedent which Nigeria would find difficult to emerge from. He told Gowon that "any break at this time from our normal line would write in something into the Nigerian army which is bigger than all of us and that thing is indiscipline.....How can you ride above people's heads purely because you are at the head of a group who have their fingers poised on the trigger? If you do it you remain forever a living example of that indiscipline which we want to get rid of because tomorrow a Corporal will think....he could just take over the company from the Major commanding the company…". Ojukwu's warning was of course not heeded and his prediction that junior officers would in future overthrow their superior officers proved prophetic. The NCOs and Lieutenants that shot Gowon to power graduated into the Colonels that overthrew him exactly nine years later. As Brigadiers, they overthrew the elected civilian government of Shehu Shagari on the last day of 1983, and removed Major-General Buhari from power in 1985. Ojukwu's impassioned monologue at Aburi could serve as an anti coup plotter thesis. He continued to Gowon "you announced yourself as Supreme Commander. Now, Supreme Commander by virtue of the fact that you head or that you are acceptable to people who had mutinied against their commander, kidnapped him and taken him away? By virtue of the support of officers and men who had in the dead of night murdered their brother officers, by virtue of the fact that you stood at the head of a group who had turned their brother officers from the eastern region out of the barracks they shared?".
 
THE STAR OF THE SHOW
 
It was obvious to the non military observers of the Aburi conference that Ojukwu "was clearly the star performer. Everyone wanted to please and concede to him".[1] On the federal side, only the Military Governor of the Northern Region: Lt-Colonel Hassan Usman Katsina, seemed to realize the significance of what was going on. Anxious not to allow Ojukwu's domination of the proceedings to continue for too long, he at one point dared Ojukwu to "secede, and let the three of us (West, North, Mid-West) join together". Alarmed by talk of a possible break-up of Nigeria, Ankrah quickly interjected and told his guests that "There is no question of secession when you come here [Ghana]". Although the FMG delegation was keen to mollify and make concessions to Ojukwu, Lt-Colonel Katsina was blunter than his other colleagues. He declared matter of factly to Ojukwu: "You command the east, if you want to come into Nigeria, come into Nigeria and that is that".
 
THE CONSTIUTIONAL DEBATE
 
Back then as now, each region of Nigeria was petrified of domination by other regions. No region of the federation was keen to adopt a course which would concentrate too much power at the hands of Nigeria's central government. Even Gowon acknowledged this (and unwittingly played into Ojukwu's hands) by admitting that he would "I would do away with any decree that certainly tended to go towards too much centralisation". Ojukwu pounced on the central powers theme and remarked that "Centralisation is a word that stinks in Nigeria today. For that 10,000 people have been killed” (this figure was later revised up to 30,000, and then 50,000). The clash, and ill defined relationship between Nigeria's central and regional governments has been the greatest source of political bloodletting in the country's history. It led indirectly to the gruesome "religious" clashes that resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians over the introduction of Sharia law in some northern states in 2000. It led to the civil war in which over a million civilians died. It led to the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa after he agitated for greater self determination for his Ogoni people.





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Using his "skilful histrionics and superior intellectual adroitness",[1] Ojukwu managed to get the other Colonels to understand, and share his reasoning: that in order to keep Nigeria together as one nation, its constituent regions first had to move a little further apart from each other. Ojukwu used a metaphor to explain his reasoning: “It is better that we move slightly apart and survive, it is much worse that we move closer and perish in the collision.” This may have been a paradox, but the Colonels accepted the logic of Ojukwu's argument. The problem then (as it still is in Nigeria today) is that Nigeria is so large, diverse and unwieldy that it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to find a leader who can elicit popularity and a following throughout, or most of the country. Amazingly Gowon accepted Ojukwu's thesis without really understanding the constitutional implications of what he was agreeing to. Gowon was effectively sanctioning measures which would paralyse his own powers. Lt-Colonel Katsina and Colonel Adebayo also agreed and were attracted to the concept of regional autonomy. Adebayo agreed so enthusiastically that he advocated a “repeal [of] those Decrees that were passed after 15th January, 1966 but I think we should revert to what the country was as at 14th January, 1966, that is regional autonomy”. Ojukwu envisaged a titular Head of State that would act only with the concurrence of the various regional governments: "what I envisage that whoever is at the top is a constitutional chap - constitutional within the context of the military government. That is, he is a titular head, but he would only act where, say when we have met and taken a decision". Having got what he wanted Ojukwu was not content with the agreement to be an oral one (even though it had been taped). He insisted that “we must write it down in our decisions quite categorically that the legislative and executive authority of the Federal Military Government shall be vested in the Supreme Military Council because previously it had been vested in the Supreme Commander”. The reason for this nuanced request from Ojukwu is that Gowon was now the Supreme Commander. By vesting official authority in the SMC (of which Ojukwu was a member) rather than the Supreme Commander Gowon, Ojukwu could ensure that no official decisions could be taken without his consent. To signify the limited powers that would be exercised by the Head of State envisaged, Ojukwu proposed that the diluted phrase "Commander-in-Chief" should be used to address the Head of State as opposed to "Supreme Commander" (a phrase signifying immense power). The title "Commander-in-Chief" has been employed by every Nigerian Head of State subsequent to Aburi.
 
While the other delegates arrived at Aburi with a simple, but unformulated idea that somehow, Nigeria must stay together, "Ojukwu was the only participant who knew what he wanted, and he secured the signatures of the SMC to documents which would have had the effect of turning Nigeria into little more than a customs union".[2] Ojukwu managed to get virtually everything he wanted, and was so pleased by his success that he even declared that he would serve under Gowon if he (Gowon) kept to the agreements reached. At that point, Gowon arose from his table position and embraced Ojukwu.
 
The fulcrum of the agreement at Aburi was that each region would be responsible for its own affairs, and that the FMG would be responsible for matters that affected the entire country: a simple enough concept. Afterwards the officers toasted their reconciliation and agreement with champagne. The federal delegation's jubilation was such that on his plane flight home, Ojukwu asked one of his secretaries whether the federal delegation had fully understood the implications of what had been agreed. Hindsight tells us that no one at Aburi (other than Ojukwu) really understood the constitutional implications of what had been agreed. Ojukwu was obviously delighted with this - hence why he was in such a hurry to implement the decisions taken, and why the Federal Government had to renege on them. Some have argued that Ojukwu took the SMC for a ride by using his superior intelligence to trap the SMC officers into an agreement they did not understand. Ojukwu was engaged in a constitutional debate by himself against five military officers, and two police officers, yet still got his way. He can hardly be faulted for outwitting opponents that outnumbered him by seven to one. Questions might be asked of the other SMC members of greater numerical strength who allowed Ojukwu to extract such substantial concessions from them.
 
A CONSTITUTION IN WAITING
 
By failing to implement the Aburi decisions, Nigeria missed a golden opportunity to find a constitutional arrangement acceptable to all of its constituent parts. Had even half of the Aburi accords being ratified, Nigeria may have saved itself a substantial amount of the subsequent bloodshed that ensued over the next four decades. It is a sad commentary on the lack of progress that Nigeria has made since Aburi that the issues discussed then (over 40 years ago years ago) are still being argued over today. Back in 1967, the Aburi decisions were not implemented for one primary reason: oil. Nigeria's greedy power brokers did not want a loose constitutional arrangement that would deprive them of the vast revenues which Nigeria earns from its crude oil exports. Hence Nigeria is glued together under a powerful central government of a type more suitable to a country with contiguous ethnicity. Nigeria is quite simply too large, too diverse, and too fractious a country to have an all powerful central government of the type it has today. Across Nigeria, there are groups agitating for greater devolvement of federal power to the regions. Although the mantra of these groups is "restructuring" of the Nigerian federation - what they really intend is what Ojukwu wanted to achieve at the Aburi conference in 1967: a constitutional arrangement that would devolve so much power to the regions that the entity known as Nigeria would exist in name only.
 
Rather than engaging in another constitutional drafting/conference exercise at which will waste more taxpayers' money, and serve as a means for corrupt "big men" to get even richer, Nigeria would do well to dip into its archives and review the transcript of the debate at Aburi which is gathering dust in the national archives. The debate transcript is sufficiently detailed to serve as a constitution in waiting. To learn from the debates and mistakes of the past may ensure a better future for Nigeria. What Nigeria needs is a "constitutional chap" of the type envisaged by Ojukwu back at Aburi. As Ojukwu said “It is better that we move slightly apart and survive, it is much worse that we move closer and perish in the collision.”
 
 
*The above article is an extract from a forthcoming book by the author.

I've been searching my files for an account of the Aburi Conference (I should index my stuff better). I've finally found it. I hope I don't get banned when I post it.

mcnepow: UNILAG FM now becomes MFM!

Chief Abdul-Ganiyu "Gani" Oyesola Fawehinmi (SAN)

Gani Fawehinmi was born on April 22, 1938 into the prominent Tugbolo Fawehinmi family in Ondo. His father, a timber magnate, was fully responsible for his education and welfare. His hope of becoming a lawyer was almost dashed when he lost his father while he was a law student in London. All efforts to raise a loan to enable him to complete his university education proved abortive. So he had to fend for himself.


Although he eventually succeeded in becoming a lawyer, Gani decided to dedicate his entire life to struggle for the establishment of a society where every needy child would be educated at the expense of the State. Chief Fawehinmi and his estates have given scholarship to many indigent undergraduates on an annual basis since 1976.


Having identified law as a tool of oppression in the hands of the ruling class Gani provided legal services, on pro bono publico basis, to thousands of workers, students and other victims of social injustice, abuse of power and oppression.


Gani made most of his money from publishing the Nigerian Weekly Law Reports (NWLR). Before his revolutionary intervention in law reporting only a handful of privileged lawyers who had access to cyclostyled copies of the judgments of the appellate courts were winning cases in our Courts. Chief Fawehinmi sent his lawyers to courts around the country to obtain such judgments but decided to popularise legal knowledge by embarking on regular publication of law reports.

Upon the completion of his legal education in London Gani returned home and was called to the Nigerian Bar in January 1965. Barely a year later, the first republic was sacked by the armed forces. The Constitution was suspended while draconian decrees were imposed on the Nigerian people. In 1969, he took up the case of a factory worker whose wife had been snatched by a powerful permanent secretary in the service of the Benue Plateau State Government. Not withstanding that he was a rookie lawyer, he defeated the late Chief Rotimi Williams, QC, who was the counsel to the permanent secretary.


For daring to challenge the corrupt establishment the Yakubu Gowon regime arrested and detained him without trial for several months. Instead of cowing him into submission, the brutal experience strengthened him as Gani resolved to wage a decisive battle against injustice in all its ramifications.

For instance, in the Garba v. University of Maiduguri (1986) 2 NWLR (PT 18 ) 559, the fundamental right of students to fair hearing before rustication or expulsion was upheld.

The injustice in the Legal Practitioners Act which made the Attorney-General of the Federation the accuser and the prosecutor with respect to allegations of misconduct involving lawyers was highlighted by the Supreme Court in the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee v. Fawehinmi (1985) 3 NWLR (PT 7) 300. The decision led to the amendment of the Act.

The dismissal of the case of Fawehinmi v. Nigerian Bar Association (1989) 2 NWLR (PT 107) 558 by the Supreme Court on the ground that the respondent was not a juristic personality led to the registration of the Nigerian Bar Association under the Companies and Allied Matters Act.

In Balarabe Musa v. INEC (2003) 10 WRN 1, the political space was liberalised when the Supreme Court struck down the stringent conditionalities imposed by INEC on new political parties.

In Fawehinmi v. Akilu (1987) 2 NWLR (PT 67) 767 the Supreme Court relaxed the anachronistic doctrine of locus standi so as to permit the private prosecution of criminal offences by concerned individuals on the ground that “we are all our brothers’ keepers”.

Since the Attorney-General of the Federation has never sued the Federal Government as a defender of public interest, the locus standi of Gani to challenge the violations of the Constitution and other illegalities was upheld in the case of Fawehinmi v. The President (2007) 14 NWLR (PT 1054) 275.

In Abacha v. Fawehinmi (2001) 51 WRN 29 the Supreme Court held that since the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights has been domesticated by the National Assembly, our domestic courts have the jurisdiction to construe and apply its provisions whenever there are allegations of human rights infringement.

In Fawehinmi v. Inspector-General of Police (2002) 23 WRN 1 it was declared by the Supreme Court that the public officers covered by the immunity clause in Section 308 of the Constitution can be investigated while in office.

However, one of Gani’s post-humous rewards for his contribution to the legal system in Nigeria is the enactment of the Fundamental Procedure Rules 2009. Under the new human rights regime in Nigeria, concerned individuals and public spirited organizations can now file actions in courts challenging the violation of the human rights of other citizens.

In 1986, while Chief Gani Fawehinmi was Dele Giwa's Lawyer, the latter was killed in a bomb blast under suspicious circumstances.

Again, in 1995, Chief Fawehinmi served as counsel to Ken Saro-Wiwa when Saro-Wiwa was being tried for murder, but Fawehinmi withdrew from the case, branding the tribunal a Kangaroo court.

As a result of his activities chief Gani Fawehinmi had been arrested, detained and charged to court several times. His international passport was seized on many occasions and his residence and Chambers were searched several times. He was beaten up time after time and was deported from one part of the country to another to prevent him from being able to effectively reach out to the masses among whom he was popular. His books were confiscated by the Federal Military Government and his library at Surulere, a suburb of Lagos, were set ablaze. His law Chambers at Anthony Village, Lagos State, were invaded by persons suspected to be agents of the government. The guards were shot, two of them seriously wounded.
Gani died in the early hours of 5 September 2009 after a prolonged battle with lung cancer. He was 71 years old.


Gani had been locked up in the following police and security cells between 1969 and 1996:

* Police Headquarters, Kaduna , 1969.
* Jos Police Station, 1969
* Ilorin Police Station, 1969
* Police Headquarters, Lagos, 1969
* Police Headquarters, Lagos 1972 (twice)

* C. I. D. Alagbon, Lagos, 1978
* Inter-Centre Detention Outpost, Lagos, 1978

* Ikoyi Police Station,1978
* Panti Police Station, Lagos, 1987
* Panti Police Station, Lagos, 1988 (three times)
* Police Station Ikeja, 1988
* Panti Police Station, Lagos, 1989 (twice)
* Ikoyi Police Station, 1989
* State Security Services (SSS) Cell Maiduguri, 1989
* State Security Services (SSS) Cell Awolowo Road, Ikoyi 1991
* C. I. D. Police Station Ikoyi, 1992
* Police Station Wuse Abuja, 1992
* Inter-Centre Cell, Lagos 1993
* State Security Services (SSS) Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, 1993
* C. I. D. Police Station Ikoyi, 1993
* Police Station Wuse Abuja, 1993
* Police Headquarters, Abuja, 1993
* Panti Police Station, Lagos, 1994
* F. I. I. B. Alagbon, Ikoyi, Lagos 1994 (Once)
* Panti Police Station, Lagos, 1995 (Twice)
* State Security Services Shangisha Cell Lagos, 1995 (Once)
* State Security Service Shangisha Cell Lagos, 1996 (Once)

In all these arrests and detentions, he was treated sometimes cruelly, sometimes crudely and sometimes with some civility.

He had also been detained in the following federal prisons by various Military Governments from 1969 to 1996:

* Kaduna Prison, 1969
* Gombe Prison, 1969 - 1970
* Ikoyi Prison, 1978
* Gashua Prison, 1989
* Nigerian Prison Ikoyi, 1990
* Nigerian Prison Kuje, 1992
* Nigerian Prison Kuje, 1993 and
* Nigerian Prison, Bauchi 1996

The fundamental rights include:
Chapter 4
33.

Right to life.

34

Right to dignity of human persons.

35

Right to personal liberty.

36.

Right to fair hearing.

37

Right to private and family life.

38

Right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion

39.

Right to freedom of expression and the press.

40

Right to peaceful assembly and association.

41

Right to freedom of movement.

42

Right to freedom from discrimination.

43

Right to acquire and own immovable property.

44

Compulsory acquisition of property.

45

Restriction on and derogation from fundamental human rights.

46

Special jurisdiction of High Court and Legal aid.

The directive principles of state policy include:

Chapter 2
13.

Fundamental obligations of the Government.

14

The Government and the people

15

Political objectives.

16.

Economic objectives.

17

Social objectives.

18

Educational objectives.

19.

Foreign policy objectives.

20.

Environmental objectives.

21.

Directive on Nigeria cultures

22.

Obligation of the mass media

23.

National ethics.

24.

Duties of the citizen.

You can view the constitution here

http://www.nigeria-law.org/ConstitutionOfTheFederalRepublicOfNigeria.htm

Or view the amended version here:

http://www.nassnig.org/nass2/legislation.php

I don't believe that democracy day should be about naming institutions, public holidays or military parades. Democracy day should be a day to honour those that fought for democracy and enhance the struggle for true, lasting democracy by getting informed of our rights. How many people know their rights as enshrined in the constitution? How many people are ready to enforce those rights? How many people know the directive principles of state policy? Why do we allow politicians to manipulate with divide and rule tactics (ethnicity, religion, etc)?

I would like to see a tradition where people buy copies of the constitution and give to those who can't afford (just the same way we give gifts at christmas, etc). Get somebody who can't read and explain the constitution to the person, etc.

I believe we don't have true democracy, but democracy is a process, not an event. Let's use today to see how we can deepen democracy.

Back to my first post (and in tandem with my next post), we must never forget the people who suffered and died for our rights! The heroes of democracy day are not the politicians, GEJ, OBJ, etc. The heroes are people like Chief Gani Fawehinmi etc. We must never forget what they did. In fact, we must learn from what they did and use that to confront the human rights abuses of our times.

In the past, students were politically aware and ready to fight for their rights, but listening to some students make excuses for government today is quite depressing.

We must never forget those who suffered and died, those who spoke up despite the consequences. We must learn from them. We must utilise the victories they won for us.

Do you know about Gani Fawehinmi vs Abacha & othrs? What is the implication of this judgement?

What is the implication of the judgement in the case between Gani and the inspector general (I forget the citation, but it's the case regarding Tinubu).

What can we learn from the students of College of Medicine, University of Lagos?

What about the Tell incident?

Chief MKO Abiola headed the presidential committee tasked with building a stadium in Abuja (this was in 1990/1991). It would have been fitting to name the National Stadium Abuja after him.

A little joke: Unilag babes are now "ABIOLA BABES"! Kudos Jonathan for taking us back to the 80's.

Unilag students (Abiola Babes) protesting.

After the war, David Ejoor was promoted. He became a Major General and Chief of Army Staff (or rather, Chief of Staff, Army).

(In summary) In the first republic we had federalism. Ironsi introduced a unitary system. After the coup and progrom, Ojukwu feared northern domination. He therefore requested (demanded) that those provisions should be included in the decree. This was to ensure that the Head of State cannot make decisions unilaterally. The SMC, which is composed of the regions, must concur. in effect, the regions (whose governors were in the SMC) could veto the head of state's decisions.

I believe it was Joe Garba, Shehu Musa Yar'Adua and Abdullahi, who staged the coup that brought Murtalla to power, that insisted that the governors should be removed from the SMC.

Colonel Robert Adeyinka Adebayo, the military governor of Western Region, demanded that northern troops should be withdrawn from the West. Any governor that made such a demand during, for example, the Babangida or Abacha regimes, would have been sacked and detained.

At that time, the Supreme Military Council was composed of the Head of State, the Chief of Staff and Regional Governors (that is, at first, Ironsi, Ogundipe, Ojukwu, Katsina, Fajuyi, Ejoor and Mobolaji Johnson, later on, Gowon, Adebayo and Wey).

During the first republic the regions had considerable autonomy. This continued at the beginning of military rule. For example, the military governor of Mid-West Region, David Ejoor, could declare his region neutral and state that he didn't want Federal or Biafran troops in his region. No military governor in the subsequent regimes could make such a declaration. He would have been sacked and detained, that is if he isn't shot.

The Supreme Military Council we had then is very different from subsequent SMC, AFRC and PRC.

Was it Colonel Yohanna Madaki or Colonel John Madaki that ordered soldiers to shave, with broken bottles, the heads of civil servants who turned up late for work?

Please read page 173 of "You Must Set Forth at Dawn" by Wole Soyinka (Bookcraft: 2006). The humiliation of Professor Ola Rotimi by soldiers. The point at which Professor Soyinka asked "In Ola Rotimi's position, what would I have done? What was the right decision at such a moment? Why should anyone be subjected to such a dilemma?"

(May 1986)

About twenty students and bystanders at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in Zaria massacred by security forces after staging peaceful protests over impending introduction of SAP. More students killed in protests against SAP and the ABU massacre during the following days at Kaduna Polytechnic, the University of Benin and the University of Lagos.

(April 1988)

Students demonstrate at 33 universities against fuel price increase demanded by IMF-inspired SAP.

(May-June 1989)

Dozens of people killed and hundreds arrested in riots and strikes against SAP in Lagos, Benin City and Port Harcourt. Government forced to offer a welfare program called a "SAP Relief Package," the establishment of a mass transit scheme and a “People's Bank,” and a review of the minimum wage.

(March-May 1990)

Students and faculty on campuses nationwide protest government's decision to accept a $150 million university restructuring loan from the World Bank, especially conditions requiring closure of many departments and programs. Military government stages armed assaults and hundreds of arrests, with hundreds more expelled from university system.

(May 1992)

Students at Universities of Ibadan and Lagos protest against implementation of Structural Adjustment Program, which they accused of being responsible for the deterioration of campus facilities and education programs as well as doubling of transport prices. Police respond by shooting at the demonstrators, wounding at least five students. Battles between young anti-government demonstrators and riot police in Lagos leave at least three dead and hundreds injured. The IMF and World Bank made the removal of subsidies and probable increase of the price of gasoline the main imperative in its negotiations with the Nigerian government.

The publication went viral. In universities and offices across the country, people were making photocopies of photocopies of the publication. Dr Tai Solarin was distributing copies to passersby on the streets.

It was alleged that the publication was a photocopy of a cover story by Ebony magazine, listing the richest black people in the world. The publication listed General Ibrahim Babangida as the richest man in the world and stated he owned a refinery and that his wife owned a boutique in Paris.

The Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) had led to a massive devaluation of the naira and cuts in government spending. This had imposed hardship on Nigerians who were used to a strong currency and cheap imports. Starvation was the order of the day. People devised various means of staying alive. Feeding formulas included level 101, level 110, etc.

There were riots across the country, but the main flashpoints seemed to be Ife, Benin, Lagos and Zaria.

In Lagos, protesters overran police checkpoints and were marching to NTA headquarters, Victoria Island, but soldiers from Bonny Camp stopped them.

Students of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos formed an emergency team that operated from University of Lagos Students Union buses. They attended to students that had been shot, beaten or tear gassed by the security forces.

In Benin, Uniben students marched to the Army Children's School, got the children and placed them in front of the protest march. Soldiers ignored orders to shoot at the protesters. It was alleged that the governor of Bendel State, Colonel Tunde Ogbeha was on the street that day and that he pulled out his pistol and shot at the protesters. Thus started the crackdown.

The Nigerian Television Authority did not cover the protests. However, it broadcast a statement by the Johnson Company (publishers of Ebony Magazine) in which Ebony magazine denied publishing the story.

Dr Tai Solarin was arrested by the SSS and taken to their headquarters on Awolowo Road, Ikoyi. He was interrogated in the presence of journalists. He admitted that he did not see the original copy of Ebony Magazine.

However, the violence continued. The people were fed up of being sapped and wanted Babaginda to leave power. What followed was a brutal crackdown by the security forces.

In the wee hours of the morning, on Jan 2nd 1994, hundreds of heavily armed soldiers, policemen & SSS agents stormed the academy press in Lagos to seize all copies of Tell magazine that were there. Security agents had earlier raided Tell’s offices. They seized computers & other office equipment and about 50,000 copies of the magazine.


Academy press offices remained shut throughout the day. Newspapers, such as the Punch, that were printed at Academy press were not on the newsstands that day.


However, somehow, Tell magazine appeared on the newsstands (with the same front page headline story that the government was trying to suppress). They even ran an editorial criticising the actions of the government.

How on earth can we explain this, a professor of my own calibre and age who has served the country for so
many years in different capacities being subjected to indignity and utmost brutality by some majors and privates
who are nitwits ordinarily. I’m not being boastful. It’s like you take a jewel and you start messing it up in the
mud. You cannot explain it. Any time I recalled the humiliation meted out to me by those nitwits I started
weeping, not for myself, but for Nigeria, country, which was being savagely reduced to nothingness.
Professor Femi Odekunle [Tell, August 31, 1998:20]

Yar’ Adua was hale and hearty inside Abakaliki Prison. Then some people came saying they were from Abacha
and they wanted to take Yar’Adua for medical check-up. They picked him up hale and hearty but he arrived
the University Teaching Hospital, Enugu dead. What happened between Abakaliki and Enugu nobody seems
to know. But something happened and if pressure is put on those people who picked him up they would give
an answer to the country.
Comrade Shehu Sani, a Northern Nigerian human rights activists arrested
for the 1995 phantom coup on the account of his human rights activism
[TheNews 7 Sept. 1998:15, 18].

Zakari Biu is an animal. He’s just wicked..he is dead to feelings. I fact, I don’t know why such people should
still be walking the streets of Lagos or this country. I am surpised as I am told that he has even been promoted,
even given special assignments. I am surprised at this government. Zakari Biu, for what, they know him to have
done, that they could still keep him. This government itself is culpable of all acts they committed...Omenka
started the whole thing. He co-supervised our torture. But the main actor in my case was really Zakari Biu. I
say both of them have the same instincts, if we compare them.
Col. Ronald Emokpae [Tell, April 12, 1999:24].

I have called for the arrest and trial immediately at the Abuja High Court the following government officials
for the atrocities committed against Nigeria and Nigerians in the course of the late Gen. Abacha’s
administration: Alhaji Ismaila Gwazo; Brigadier-Gen. Sabo [rtd].., Col. Frank Omenka..There are also Lt. Col.
M. Garuba..and Lt. Ibrahim who was one of the people beating Generals in Jos...For the purpose of true national
reconciliation and genuine peace, these people should be retired and be put on trial.
Chief Yomi Tokoya, a suspected coupist released on July 15, 1998 [The News 7
Sept 1998:19]

..the experience I had when the government decided to send Operation Sweep, a para-military outfit to break
up the farewell reception the human rights groups and pro-democracy activists organised for me, personally was
a vivid demonstration of the dehumanisation Nigerians were going through everyday under the General Abacha
administration. It was very surprising and careless about international protocol, hence they could break a
reception held for an ambassador.
Ambassador Walter Carrington, former US Ambassador to Nigeria [Tell, March 29
1999:25]

"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." (Sir Winston Spencer Churchill, from a House of Commons speech on Nov. 11, 1947)

Testimony of Colonel Roland Emokpae


I went through hell. If there was hell on earth, I saw it...apart from the initial mental torture, the agony I had to go through was enormous, because I was the only officer that was subjected to various cells transfer. I was taken to the worst cell and when I asked question, I was told Abacha directed that I should be kept in the worst cell. In fact, that cell...it’s dark, there is not light, it’s infested, it’s so narrow that in fact you have to stand both day and night...That was the first stage of the torture. And for two, three nights I spent there, it was harrowing. After complaining, they had to push me out to another cell. I think I went through about four or five cells in that place.

We were there for three months, and nobody came to talk to you so that you can even ask what was going on...They sent for me; with the usual chaining, arms shackles, whatever and took me to the interrogation centre somewhere in Ikoyi, off Bourdillion. We got in there and I met one of the panels. Omenka was there. One other officer, whose name I have forgotten, and Zakari Biu. And they asked me if I knew why I was there, I said no. They said they were surprised. They said okay, what was my movement like in the last two or three years?… They said, “Look, don’t you know why you are here? Don’t you know the plan you have to topple the government? I said, “This is news to me. I don’t know of that. I have never planned to overthrow any government right from the day I was commissioned”... they were very hostile and they said okay, since I was not willing to cooperate, I should go and put down my statement.

So...at about 6 to 6.15 p.m. a private soldier came and said he had instruction that we should come out. We got out. He said we should UnCloth. We took off our shirts and trousers. He said no, no, we should be naked completely. So, we took off everything. We were naked and we were chained, back to back, and that was how we walked into the open. We stayed there right from about that time till 7 a.m. We spent the night standing...Another funny thing was while they kept us there, Bello-Fadile was chained alone and kept close to us. Maybe they wanted to hear if there had been anything; maybe we could talk, they’ll pick it up. They sent out some men to monitor what was going on. And we kept asking Bello-Fadile, “What is going on? Please if you know, let us know and save us from this humiliation”. He said he did not know, so that was our first ordeal.

The following morning, when people started coming to work, they pushed us in, we wore our dresses; and we were still chained hand to hand, leg to leg and kept in the open field in the scorching sun. My colleague asked for water, he was refused water. At about 4 p.m. the second day, we were now thrown into one dungeon behind, so that nobody would see us… After some time, I heard nothing. And a week or two later, that was when they came picked me up, took me back to the same place, this time, me alone, to ask the same question. I said, “Please, I really don’t know what you people want”. They said well, it would appear I was not ready to cooperate. They claimed that in my movement, they observed that at a point in time, I spoke to Bello-Fadile in his office. I said, “Yes, but I told you, when I came, I had this tooth and eye problem. I went to Bonny Camp which was where Bello-Fadile was ad director of legal services, and we had just finished from Enugu, and he is my course-mate and friend, I felt like saying hi to him. And that was exactly what I did. In fact I spent less than two minutes with Bello-Fadile”. But they said no, no, we spent about two, three hours talking…They took me behind a cell and of course had to hang me. They call it the spider hanging - your hands up, the two legs all suspended, I was there throughout the night. They pulled my shirt off so, I was in my pant only. Look. Name all the kinds of insects, they preyed on me. I told them you are punishing an innocent man. The following day, they took me back to my cell...


About three weeks later, the same Zakari Biu came...With shackles on, I was blindfolded. The next thing, they pushed me into a waiting vehicle and sped off, driving roughly…I didn’t know where they were heading to. But somehow, having had a little knowledge of Lagos, through the cries in the various bus-stops, I was able to kind of guess where they were taking me to. They took me to that particular area and I heard shouts and cries, like some other people were being tortured. “Colonel”, they kept asking me, “tell us what you have done. Tell us how much Bello-Fadile gave to you. How much was promised you by some generals. And I said, “Look I’m sorry. Nobody ever gave me money”...They said okay, I am not ready to talk. This time, I was in chains. I had been blindfolded, I didn’t know what was going on. Then later, that other man that was being tortured was now… I heard a kind of silence, I believed he has passed out and they dropped him. They said I should come out.

In fact, they themselves just brought me out like a bundle of firewood and the next thing, they just threw me on the ground, folded my legs, folded my hands behind and they tied me like they tie logs and they carried me like that. All I knew was a pole was inserted under my armpit and like a barbecued chicken; I was there suspended for hours. In fact, by the time I passed out, everything about me, the limbs, all were gone. While there, they would strike a match and put under my nose, my eyes, to say something, to confess… so after almost about two hours of torture, I was finished, and by the time I regained consciousness, I could not shout, I couldn’t even move. They knew I was passing out. They just removed me, and dumped me like you dump… if you’ve been to abattoir, you must have seen how they throw a slaughtered cow...For 10 good days, I was lying prostrate on the bed. I couldn’t move my knees. Even eating, they had to spoonfeed me

At the end of Emokpae’s “trial” he was sentenced to death by firing squad. “As soon as he [Patrick Aziza] said it, I said, “I’m rejecting it in the name of the Lord”. Openly, he shouted at me, “Shut up and sit down”...Before we knew it, vehicles, tanks and all these things had been brought in, we were shackled again and we were taken back to the black Maria. It was on July 14, 1995 that the judgement was passed”.

Chief Gani Fawehinmi, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Tell Magazine, Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti, Chima Ubani, students of University of Ife, Unilag, Uniben, ABU, UNN, Olisa Agbakoba, Femi Falana, heroes of the SAP Uprising, Wole Soyinka, Femi Falana, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, etc.

The link to the 1960 and 1963 constitutions is broken. I'd love to copy and paste the entire thing on nairaland, but I'm worried about getting banned.

Unfortunately, we've been going back and forth along this path. I was surprised and shocked when I read the 1960 and 1963 constitutions for the first time. They contain most of what we need to solve our problems (state police, resource control and derivation, state constitutions, flags, etc. The regions even conducted foreign affairs!).

Then came Military rule and Ironsi tried to consolidate power by concentrating power at the centre. The document you posted above would have returned things to the way they were pre-Ironsi or even provided a looser federation, but the civil servants and military boys were afraid to lose power and ended up concentrating power at the centre and conferring enormous power on the person of the head of state.

Garba, Yar'Adua and (I forget the name of the third coupist) reduced the power of the head of state and vested more power in the SMC, but we were still running a unitary system.

The military were skillful in using propaganda to sustain this system. The Federal Military Government was the big father that was everything to his children. People who clamoured for devolution, privatisation, resource control, etc were greedy people who wanted to break up the family. The people saw the federal government as the symbol of Nigeria. A nice father that was consolidating power in order to protect the interests of the people. They didn't realise that the dictators were consolidating power for their own selfish reasons.

By the way, the first phase of the Blue line rail project, which is nearing completion, is the 7 kilometre stretch from Orile to Mile 2. The contract for the second phase (Mile 2 to Okokomaiko) has just been awarded to Chinese Civil Engineering and Construction Company (CCECC).

I made a vow not to promote that awful video, but I was going to post a link to the story/pictures. The anti-spambot hid it and banned me

Thank God! The anti-spambot has released me.

Sorry, I've been busy. Forgot to post the link.

Lagos mega-city project enters crucial stage

By Akinpelu Dada

Monday, 26 Mar 2007

The presentation of a bill for the establishment of the Lagos Mega City Development Authority to the National Assembly by President Olusegun Obasanjo, last week is signalling a new vista in the redevelopment of the nation’s erstwhile capital city, which is also its commercial nerve centre.


Before now, stakeholders have been upbeat about the new wave of attention that the Lagos metropolis is receiving from the Federal Government, which is working with both the Lagos and Ogun state governments to halt the decadence of the last decade.


While still seeking legislative approval, the Prof. Akin Mabogunje-led authority appears not to be taking things lying low, as it has embarked on consultation with select groups of stakeholders.


From sessions with traditional rulers in both states to meetings with journalists, the message is the same – the need for all to rally support for the planned transformation of the city.


In response to protests by foreign investors that the current state of security, sanitation and transportation within the metropolis was a serious disincentive to their participation in the development of the country, Obasanjo, after consultation with Governor Bola Tinubu, set up the Presidential Committee on the Redevelopment of the Lagos Mega-City Region with Mabogunje as chairman.


The committee, which was inaugurated on December 30, 2005, was mandated to examine the current state of Lagos and make necessary recommendations on how to transform it.


The committee had noted that the Lagos mega-city region spanned 153,540 hectares of continuous built-up areas comprising virtually all of the local governments in the state as well as four local governments in Ogun State namely, Ado-Odo/Ota, Ifo, Obafemi Owode and Sagamu.


Planning the transformation and redevelopment of the mega-city region, the committee noted, required the recognition of the major activity centres. This, according to the committee, is to efficiently disperse employment opportunities among them and, thus, to better tackle the problem of the present traffic congestion arising from the over-concentration of employment opportunities in Apapa, Lagos Island and Victoria Island.


Consequently, 28 major activity centres, their internal road systems and the major roads linking them were identified and their planning and redevelopment, with private sector support, recommended as a first step in the transformation plan.


Mabogunje, in soliciting the support of the media for the authority’s work, said that journalists were important in getting the people informed, and should be in the vanguard of canvassing attitudinal change by the people.


He said that for the media to perform the task successfully, they must have correct information and must not be populist when certain actions were being taken, noting that the media should help in community mobilisation.


On the funding mechanism for the proposed transformation projects, Mabogunje said that the bill before the National Assembly had made provision for the Federal Government to contribute 45 per cent, while Lagos and Ogun states would contribute 40 and 15 per cent respectively.


He said that the authority hoped to source for additional resources from the capital market through the Urban Development Bank to execute some of the projects aimed at restoring the lost glory of Lagos. The contributory pension fund, he said, would also provide a ready pool of money for the projects


 Mabogunje said the authority would also rely on a robust foreign and local private sector partnership to encourage investment in the provision of efficient and comfortable public transportation, housing and other social amenities.


On current transportation problem in Lagos, he stated that negotiations had commenced with an American firm, Lemna International Incorporated, for the provision of a $450m light rail mass transit scheme running from Okokomaiko to Mile 2 and terminating at the Ebute Meta terminus of the Nigerian Railway Corporation.


He said the rail project, which would run through the Badagry Expressway on a dedicated lane, would compliment a similar one being planned by the Lagos State Government that would run through Ijoko Ota-Alagbado-Iddo corridor.

http://archive.punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20070326975862


Of course, like I said, Obasanjo, Tinubu, Daniel and Osoba left office and that was that.

juman: I commend the Arc Bishop for what he said.

The Arc Bishop was very close to OBJ when in power, why could not he advice him rightly?? OBJ failed totally.

Or OBJ did'nt listen to good advise?

You are inhuman, Akinola tells [Nigerian president] Obasanjo

Tuesday 6 September 2005

Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Most Rev. Peter Jasper Akinola, on Saturday looked President Olusegun Obasanjo in the face and told him that he was harsh and inhuman going by the policies of his administration.

Akinola who was delivering a sermon at the final church service for the late Madam Oyindamola Adenuga, mother of Otunba Micheal Adenuga, chairman of Globacom, at Saint John’s Anglican Church, Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State, said majority of Nigerians had been impoverished following the harsh policies of the Obasanjo administration.

The cleric who also chided the president for coming late to the service, 45 minutes behind schedule, challenged him to constitute an independent body, devoid of ministers and other political ‘jobbers’ to gauge the true feelings of the generality of Nigerians about his government.

He noted that while very few people were enjoying the government’s agenda, majority of Nigerians were suffering as a result of the administration’s reforms which he said lacked human face.

He observed that since the government began to pursue its economic reforms; the economic lives of the common man have been paralysed.

“I believe in reforms, but they must have human face. People are suffering, and the president seems not to be bothered,” the clergy stressed.

According to him, “the president may not know because he only flies about without being at home to know how people fare in the country.”

Akinola who did not spare the president for coming late to the ceremony, chided him for keeping him and other members of the congregation waiting for several minutes.

The president had actually arrived the church, venue of the programme, 45 minutes behind schedule causing the congregation to murmur as his entourage arrived the church at about 10.45 a.m for the service slated for 10a.m.

Akinola who was unsparing in his chastisement of the president’s action urged the president to accord God the same respect he paid to “Aso Rock duties.”

“You kept the Primate waiting for 45 minutes, if you are to be in the Villa, you will come earlier,” he admonished President Obasanjo.

Responding, Obasanjo apologised profusely, saying it was not in his character to go late to events, let alone a church service.

He added that there were two people he would never argue with in his life, and the two people according to him, were the priest on the pulpit and a referee on the field of play.

He said there was a marked difference between a priest economist and a practical economist as he had made a pastor who is also his friend to realise in his discussion sometime ago

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/1478146/posts

hamsky: The plastic (polymer) naira notes are printed in australia by a company called Securency International {There was a scandal concerning this lately: http://www.proshareng.com/news/singleNews.php?id=7715}

CBN and the polymer notes scandal

The festering scandal surrounding the printing of polymer notes by the Central Bank of Nigeria should be speedily investigated in order to restore the apex bank’s integrity. An Australian newspaper ‘The Age’ that blew the scam open, reported that Securency International, a company that manufactures polymer used in banknotes in 28 countries, paid kickbacks to secure polymer note printing contracts in some countries, including Nigeria. The sum of N750 million is said to have been paid to bribe Nigerian officials.


At the Nigerian end of the international swindle, the newspaper reported that Securency International, a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia, paid millions of dollars into the offshore bank accounts of two British-based businessmen for onward transfer to some top Nigerian government functionaries and CBN officials to win the 2006 polymer printing contract.


Securency reportedly supplied 1.9 billion banknotes to the CBN between 2006 and 2008. Bribe payments for the contract were reportedly deposited in the Seychelles and the Bahamas, listed by the Australian Tax Office as tax havens known for their secretive banking arrangements. Nigeria’s contract was Securency’s biggest in Africa.


In a media release dated 23 May, 2009, the RBA stated that “allegations have been made in The Age newspaper today that payments made to agents by Securency International Pty Ltd., a company in which the Reserve Bank is a shareholder, may have been used by the agents to pay ‘kickbacks’ to foreign government officials.” The RBA added that the Board of Securency had immediately referred the matter to the Australian Federal Police. Securency Pty Ltd, which is at the centre of the bribery scandal, is a joint venture between the RBA and Innovia Films, a global supplier of polypropylene films.


Since May, when the scandal was blown open, the Australian Federal Police and an international audit firm have been investigating Securency and its sister company, Note Printing Australia. From the investigators’ preliminary reports, Mr. Peter Chapman, the Africa manager at Securency, has been forced to resign while the firm’s South African middleman, Mr. Donald McArthur, was fired. The Australian Federal Government said it had referred all questions about Securency to the Reserve Bank while the RBA has, so far, declined to answer questions about Securency’s activities in Nigeria.


Naira notes and coins are printed/minted by the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc and other overseas printing/minting companies and issued by the CBN. In its 2007 Annual Report, the CBN said the volume of banknotes produced by NSPM increased from 583.1 million to 1,550 million pieces. But for the printing of the controversial polymer notes, the NSPM only handled 615 million notes while 1.3 billion notes were printed abroad.


Based on the wide public acceptance of the N20 polymer note the CBN released in 2007, President Umaru Yar’Adua had, in October 2008, approved the conversion of the other lower banknote denominations on the recommendation of the Board of the apex bank. The contracts in question were awarded during Prof. Chukuma Soludo’s tenure as CBN governor.


But the former CBN Governor who described the allegation as “wild and wicked” declared that there could not have been a contract between the CBN and Securency, because orders for new notes were usually placed by the apex bank through the Nigerian Minting and Security Company. The present CBN Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, however, said the Federal Government would look into the matter with a view to determining whether or not Central Bank officials received the alleged kickbacks.


But contrary to Prof. Soludo’s denial, the RBA credited the polymer contract award to the CBN. In its 2006 Annual Report, the RBA states that “The Central Bank of Nigeria recently placed orders for its first polymer denomination – a redesigned 20 naira to be issued in 2007.” The 2007 report also named Nigeria as one of the 14 countries Securency produced substrate for. Could the NMSC have contracted the printing job without the CBN’s recommendation and approval? The apex bank should unravel the bribery allegation as its reputation is at stake.


Sadly, the Yar’Adua administration has been glaringly ineffective in prosecuting both local and foreign bribery cases. In spite of the fact that the Australian authorities reported the case to the Presidency as far back as May, like the previous international scandals involving Wilbross, Halliburton and Siemens, the Nigerian authorities, do not look disturbed as they seem to have chosen to maintain a conspiracy of silence. But there is no place to hide for corrupt Nigerian officials in a global village where information flows freely across national borders.


The reports now in the public domain have supplied sufficient clues on the scam for a serious anti-graft agency to work on. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Police must step in immediately as they did with the bank loans scams. The image of the CBN leadership is now at stake. A regulatory authority that is penalising commercial banks for breaching business ethic codes should not be comfortable with the tar splashed by the polymer notes scam.

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