₦airaland Forum

The Nigerian Law School has issued a new grading system which abolishes the conditional pass grade for Law school students.

In a circular signed by the DG Prof. Isah Hayatu SAN and circulated to the Students’ whatsapp and Telegram groups, unlike the old grading threshold which grades a 30-39 grade in one of the courses as “conditional pass”, the new grading threshold removed the conditional pass grade and allows a pass for a student who passes four out of the five courses and scores at least 35% in the fifty provided that such student’s cumulative score is not below 200 marks.

The new condonation grading system is detailed as follows:

Pass – 40% to 49% in four(4) Courses and between 35% to 39% in the fifth Course provided that the deficiency is not more than five (5) marks and is remedied. The cumulative score must not be below 200 marks

Second Class Lower Division – Not less than 50% in four (4) Courses and between 40& to 49% in the fifth course. The cumulative score not to be below 250 marks

Second Class Upper Division – Not less than 60% in four (4) Courses and between 40% to 59% in the fifth course. The Cumulative score is not below 300 marks

First Class Division –Not less than 70% in four (4) Courses and between 40% to 69% in the fifth Course provided the cumulative score is not less than 350 marks.

Anambra State Government takes over Burial in the state and everybody has to pay TAX for any Burial...

1. All burial/funeral ceremonies of indigenous deceased persons *must* be registered with the town union of the deceased persons. Registration fee is NGN1,500

2. No person *must* erect any billboard, banner or posters of any kind of deceased persons in the State. 100k fine or 6 months jail term or both for violation.

3. Persons are allowed to erect only directional posts (such as the ones leading to the venue). Must not be erected before seven days to the burial date and must be removed not later than seven days after the burial date. 100k fine or 6 months jail term or both for violation.

4. Corpse *must* not be deposited in the mortuary or any other place beyond 2 months from the date of death. 100k fine or 6 months jail term or both for violation.

5. No blocking of road/street because of burial except with the approval of the appropriate local govt authority.

6. No public display of casket for purposes of fabrication and sale. 50k fine or 1 month jail term or both for violation.

7. Deceased family *must* clear outstanding levies owed to the community or religious body before the funeral ceremony.

8. There *must* be no Wake of any kind for any deceased person in the State. All vigil Mass, service of songs or religious activity for the deceased person prior to the burial *must* end by 9:00pm. There *must* be no food, drink, life band or cultural entertainers during and after vigil Mass, service of songs or religious activity for the deceased person.

9. All burial/funeral ceremonies for any deceased person in the State *must* be for one day.

10. All burial Mass/services *must* start not later than 9:00 am and *must not* last more than 2 hours.

11. No preserved corpse must be exposed for more than 30 minutes from the time of exposition . It could be kept in a room under lock and key.

12. All condolence visits after any burial/funeral ceremony must not exceed one day.

13. During a condolence visit, no person must give to the deceased person's family, as a condolence gift, any item exceeding money, one jar of palm wine, one carton of beer and one crate of soft drink.

14. No deceased person's family must give out any souvenir during burial/funeral ceremony.

15. For Ibuna Ozu Nwa Ada, there must be no demand of more than 10k by the maiden family of the deceased woman.

16. Undertakers at any burial ceremony must not exceed 6 in number. There must be no dancing with the casket by the undertakers.

17. Wearing of special uniform/aso ebi is restricted to: (1) immediate family of the deceased person, (2) church groups, and (3) umunna, umu ada and iyom di, where applicable.

18. Provision of food/drinks is *not* compulsory. It is at the discretion of the bereaved family.

19. No burial on any local market day of the town. For Ifitedunu, no burial on Nkwo market day.

20. Umuada of the deceased person's family must stay only on the day of the Wake and the burial/funeral.

21. No more custom of Ndi Youth demonstrating with the picture of the deceased person within the town.

22. No destruction of cash crops, economic plants, household utensils/ properties by Ndi Youth, condolence visitors, masquerade or any other person.

23. No use of any type of guns except Nkponana.

24. No brochure of the deceased person except for Order of Mass/service.

25. All condolence registers during any burial/funeral ceremony must be kept at a convenient corner on the premises.

26. There shall be no second funeral rites after burial except in the case of legacy.

27. Commissioner for Lands is required to create State burial ground in every community. Rejected corpses and unidentified corpses will be buried there. A "rejected corpse" is a corpse deposited in a mortuary for more than two months. Every mortuary attendant is bound to report to the Ministry of Health any corpse that has stayed beyond one (1) month from the date it was deposited. Failure to notify the Govt is an offence.

28. There will be Monitoring and Implementation Committees. Members will be paid such remuneration as may be determined by the town union of the town. The Town Monitoring Committee is responsible for (1) registering all deaths in the town, (2) giving clearance for every burial/funeral ceremony in the town, and (3) submitting records of the implementation of the Law to the Department of Town Union and Chieftaincy Matters in the State. The Implementation Committee must be present at any burial ceremony to observe the implementation of the Law. Obstruction of the Committee is an offence and attracts a fine of 50k.

29. Contravention of the provisions of the Law is an offence punishable by 100k fine or six months jail term.

30. Magistrate Court has jurisdiction to try offences under the Law.

O. Moses Usman, LL.M

"The most unfortunate thing about this is, my son is passing through a traumatic situation, such that he is passing through lots of medical problems like loosing weight and confidence level in the system. Is so painful that years of preparing for this, reading in the sun, nights of sleeplessness due to reading, winning several awards and competitions in his Science Senior Secondary School in Ibadan, someone sitting in an AC, could just wake up one morning and do this to him."

The importance of registering a business can never be over-emphasized. For one, when it comes to doing serious business, many agencies will never take you serious if your company is not registered.

Secondly, you might have to discover that people and that includes you and I, feel more comfortable paying for services and products into a corporate account with the name of an organization than paying into Individual account. You may have missed an important sale because when your prospect made up his mind to buy, the account number you sent him was an individual account in your name. He thought it too risky because it was a sizable amount involved.

People feel if the account is in a corporate name, the organization can be traced if the transaction went foul. If you register your company, you can use the documents to open a corporate account with less stress.
In this post, you’ll be learning simple steps you can take to register your business name with the corporate affairs commission in less than 21 days.

REQUIREMENTS FOR INCORPORATING A PRIVATE COMPANY IN NIGERIA.

The steps for incorporating a new company at the nation’s registry, The Corporate Affairs Commission, can be summarized in the following 10 steps:

i. Submission of the proposed Company Names to the CAC. This is the first step in the entire process. The promoters of the company must decide on a company name and submit for approval. The government officials reserve the right to approve or deny company names submitted for a number of justifiable reasons – availability, suitability, legality, similarity, etc.

ii. Details of Directors: Long story short, you will be required to provide the biodata of the Directors of the proposed company. This information include: Full Names, Residential Address, Nationality, Age, Valid Identification Document and Signature of the Directors. The minimum number of directors for a private company is 2 and maximum is 50. There is no maximum for public companies. There are statutory requirements for being a director, one of which is that the directors must not be less than 18 years old.

iii. Shareholders/Subscribers. The legal minimum number of shareholders in a private company in Nigeria is 2 and a maximum of 50. The shareholders subscribe to the memorandum and articles of association and are allotted shares in the company.

iv. Appoint a Company Secretary. Every Nigerian company must appoint a Nigerian Company Secretary, as it has become a legal requirement. The company secretary of a private limited company needs no formal qualifications. It is the directors’ responsibility to ensure he/she has the appropriate knowledge and experience to act as a Secretary of the company.

v. Registered Address of the Proposed Company. The company must have a Nigerian business address. This requirement needs no much explanation and not debatable either.

vi. Core Areas of the company’s business activities (Nature/Objects of company). Nigerians and Non-Nigerians are allowed to carry on all forms of business provided it’s legal and not in the “Negative List”. If the company will engage in specialist services (Hospital, Consultancy, Schools, Media & Advertising, etc), the directors may need to provide an evidence of professional proficiency. E.g. Certificate of a professional body/trade association, Academic Certificate, or both.

vii. Valid Identification. Although this requirement has been stated earlier, it is worthy of mention here again. A photocopy of Identification of all the directors is required. (E.g. National ID card, Data Page of your National Passport, Voter’s Card or Driver’s License).

viii. The Company’s Share Capital and Allotment. In simple terms, the share capital of a company (usually in monetary terms), is the amount of capital the subscribers have to carry on the business. The minimum share capital of a private company must not be less than N10, 000:00 (Ten Thousand Naira only) However, for economic reasons, it is advisable that an average Nigerian company incorporate a N1, 000,000: 00 (One Million Naira only) share capital company. A company’s share capital is also industry-dependent. For example, advertising agencies must have at least N10 million as share capital. The law also stipulates a minimum of N10 million share capital for a Nigerian company with foreign ownership. Your regulator or adviser should advice you appropriately. A minimum of 25% of the authorized share capital must be subscribed and paid for.
Once the issue of share capital has been decided on, then the subscribers must also decide on allotting the shares. If there are 2 persons that formed the company, they could share it 50% each.

ix. Draft the Memorandum of Understanding and Articles of Association (MEMART). This is a legal document that spells out the business objectives and the framework on which the company intends to run its business within the acceptance of the law. This legal document also shows the particulars of the shareholders and their shares allotment.

x. Payment of Stamp Duty and Statutory Filling Fees. The total fees payable to the Stamp Duty office and the Corporate Affairs Commission is dependent on the company’s share capital.

These are the basic requirements for incorporating a private limited liability company in Nigeria.

If you need professional service to register a limited liability company, please contact the email address or phone number supplied below. If you have any questions on the content of this article, please do not hesitate to send a mail.

pacesettersattorneys@gmail.com

Justin Fashanu was the first black footballer to command a £1million transfer fee, with his transfer from Norwich City to Nottingham Forest in 1981. He was also the first professional footballer to be openly gay.

Fashanu committed suicide on May 2, 1998, after a 17-year-old boy accused him of sexual assault.

Elections are not conducted with the barrel of the gun. They are not conducted with bullets flying all about. Elections are done with our thumb prints. If we, in present day Nigeria, allow politicians that hire thugs using bullet to kill women in the day of elections and even burning a woman alive, including killing of corps members trained at great cost by their parents, it is unfortunate.

That corps member maybe the only child of the family, trained at the university and making his parents proud. That corps member, in furtherance of his service to his fatherland, availed himself for election, only for a mad man to come from nowhere and gun him down. We sure need to do something about it as a National Assembly and the nation at large.

When I saw how the elections were conducted in Kogi State, I felt disappointed. It wasn’t because of the All Progressives Congress (APC) or the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); it is about justice. I do not care who won the election if it was free and fair. What is important is for the people to have justice. It is not about political parties; it is about free and fair elections, that is, allowing the poor people to decide who will lead them. If the power to decide the political leader is taking away from the ordinary people and the politician becomes convinced that he can come to power by rigging elections, that politician will not respect the masses; he will not respect the poor people.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

It is with sorrow that the Bonnke Family would like to announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, and grandfather, Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke. He passed away peacefully, surrounded by his family, on December 7, 2019. For the past 60 years he has preached the glorious Gospel of Jesus throughout the entire world. We want to thank you on behalf of him and our family, for your kind love and unwavering support, which enabled him to preach the matchless message of salvation to countless people.

He preached Jesus…

“Great and marvelous are Your works,
Lord God Almighty!
Just and true are Your ways,
O King of the saints!
Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name?
For You alone are holy.
For all nations shall come and worship before You,
For Your judgments have been manifested.”
Revelation 15:3-4

In Christ,
Anni Bonnke and Family

We kindly ask, in lieu of flowers, to please make a donation to Christ for all Nations – Africa Crusade.

Odisababa@gmail.com

The Nigerian Law School has released the results of the August 2019 Bar finals examination.

According to the information gathered by TNL, a total of five thousand, six hundred and eighty-nine, (5,689) students sat for the Bar finals in which 894 students failed to make it through.

The summary of the results shows that 147 students bagged the first-class degree making it a total of 2.58%, while 741 bagged the second class upper degree making up 13.03%.

On the other hand, 2,246 students got the second class lower degree (39.485), 1,291 with the pass grade (22,695), and 319 students with conditional pass (5.61%).

The result also shows that 41 students were absent while 10 results were withheld. With the summary, it is clear that about 85% of the students who sat for the exam passed that bar final.

Recall that the Council of Legal Education had earlier reviewed the grading system of the Nigerian Law School.

The 2019 results by fact have recorded the highest number of first-class ever.

Cc: TNL

Pacesetters Attorneys therefore congratulates the soon-to-be-called wigs, as they warm themselves up as prospective gentlemen of the bar.

King Jaja of Opobo

Jaja of Opobo, the man who rose against the odds of poverty and colonial rule to become Nigeria’s first international trader and millionaire in the 19th century was born as Mbananso Okwaraozurumbaa in a small village in Orlu in what is now Imo State in present-day Nigeria.

The founder and king of a prosperous city, he is popularly known as Jaja Opogo, a name given to him by the British which later became his household name. To the Igbos, he is known as Jaja Jubogba or Jo Jo Ubam. He is regarded as a hero who left a mark of great significance in the history of Nigeria and West Africa.

Jaja Wachuku, the Nigerian prince and statesman who saved Nelson Mandela from death penalty
Madam Efunroye Tinubu, the repentant Nigerian slave trader who helped abolish the practice in the 1800s
British colonialists in West Africa survived Malaria in the early 1900s thanks to this Nigerian-born herbalist
The dark history of the Nigerian colonial town of Badagry, one of Africa’s first slave ports
At the age of 12, Jaja was captured by his father’s enemies and sold into slavery ending up in the Kingdom of Bonny. It was his first owner who gave him the name Jubo Jubogha. Jaja worked very hard for his master and was very humble until he was sold again to Chief Alali who was the ruler of the Opubo Anne Pepple Royal House.

In those days, the Bonny Empire was a flourishing kingdom in ancient Nigeria that gained its wealth through trade and business in the slave trade. Slaves were granted their freedom if they had successful businesses and could rise in the social classes to become prominent people in society as well as rule. Jaja worked for the chief and run businesses on the side until he was able to buy his freedom and become a man of is own.

With his new found freedom and already flourishing businesses, Jaja concentrated on running his businesses well and learnt the tricks and wits of working as a trader especially with the British. At a very young age, he had earned for himself high social status and an enviable name in the trading business in West Africa.

At the death of his former enslaver, the ruler of the Opuba Anne Pepple Royal House, there was no one interested in taking up the throne because of the debts the royal house had incurred over the years. Seeing it as both a business opportunity and a way of honouring the late chief, Jaja boldly took up the role and paid off the debts in a matter of two years.

King Jaja of Opoba(left) and Governor Nana Olomu (right)

By the rule of Jaja, the Anne Pepple Royal House became the richest and strongest trading house under the Bonny Empire. But in 1859, Jaja was forced to leave the royal house after a fire outbreak allowing the envious Manilla Pepple House to take over the Anne Pepple House. In the same year of 1859, Jaja established the Opobo city-state.

Through his intelligent administration and expansion of trade links, Opobo city-state became powerful and had control over the traditional sources of palm oil in the region and took over fourteen of the eighteen trade houses under the Bonny Empire.

Jaja was very opened to western social development and learnt to speak very fluent English, building schools in Opobo, as well as other social amenities which quickly developed the city. Jaja employed many African Americans to teach in his schools providing quality education to students. Despite being open to western trade and social development, Jaja was greatly against the political ambitions of the British Empire and protected his city for as long as he could.

It only took a while for Jaja to be labelled as a tyrant by the British who tried to get rid of the powerful King and businessman who was in charge of several of West Africa’s biggest trading businesses. To prove to the British that an African was capable of being great without their help, Jaja started exporting palm oil directly to the UK through his own ships pioneering Nigerian export trade and becoming the first Nigerian and West African to directly export to the West.

Jaja became a millionaire and caused the western trade to fall in West Africa. Through his monopoly over importation and exportation of oil, foreign traders especially the Britsih were forced to pay taxes.

Through his wealth, King Jaja also became a powerful politician and owned a strong military which was sent out to help the British during the Anglo-Ashanti wars in 1875 to which the Queen honoured him. Jaja had many wives and children who he took pride in and was a very responsible father sending all of his children to the best school in West Africa and the West.

In 1884, King Jaja of Opobo was made to sign a peace treaty with the Britsih under the orders of Consul Hewet. The treaty made Opobo city a protectorate under the British. King Jaja only agreed to the treaty after it was agreed that the clause under the treaty that allowed free trade and unlimited access to the city be removed.

A year later, the British empire declared the Gulf of Guinea a British protectorate allowing free trade and Jaja opposed this ruling declaring that his city will not be affected by such rules. At the Berlin conference of 1884, he was labelled a terrorist and accused of illegal trade and plans to rid his city of the British.

In 1887, King Jaja of Opobo was trapped by the British through the then Vice Consul Harry Johnston who invited Jaja for a peace talk conference which he accepted after several appeals. While onboard the warship Goshawk, King Jaja of Opobo was served with deportation or to see the complete destruction of his city. King Jaja was deported to Accra, Gold Coast, now modern-day Ghana, where he was immediately arrested, tried and found guilty on all charges and exiled to St Vincents Island in the West Indies.

His absence caused a halt in trade between the British and the City of Opobo. After several appeals to the British Empire against his unfair treatment, King Opobo was granted permission to return to his city-state in 1891 but died on his journey home. It is widely speculated that he was poisoned to death after being served a cup of tea with strict orders to be given to him.

The city of Opobo still exists in modern-day River State, Nigeria and a huge statue of the great king whose rule has been described as the fairest, close to perfect and a just practice of democracy Africa has ever seen can be found in the centre of the city.