Thursday 16 October 2014

My dream of a Clean Nigeria

So it is a cool evening and I hear the whispers of the wind, wincing through the blinds of the curtain as i lull on the brown tiles of the room. I observe the roughly painted wall that has this ancient sized clock hanging at the extreme right as though it could fall at any point and beneath it is a calendar of two years ago. I stop to wonder why it has not been changed but my tired spirit is not motivated to continue the thought so I ease out of it as gently as I can, slow, steady and out. Then the walls get dimmer and darker, till all I can see is darkness and maybe just something else I really can not figure out. But it is something that looks dark. I try to stare at it but it does not seem like anything I can get from my vast vocabulary of nouns and nomenclatures. Since I couldn't see anything meaningful I decided to dream, like it was an exercise, or a function of will. But that's what I wanted and I knew I would get it. Just then, I saw myself sitting on a slab along a busy road somewhere around the town.
Of course, everyone knows Lagos is a big and bustling city that never sleeps. Yes that was were I was because I could see the green hanging board from the tunnel that wrote "Egbeda, Ikotun, Exit 200M only". the roads were clean, the street light shone into my eyes that I felt like I should wake up. There were hidden street cameras and cars moving to and fro fast. Some were turning right and others left, without blasting the horns and no hawkers by the street to sell pure-water nor 'gala'. Just at every 100 meters there was a neatly kept trash can and the tarred roads were so tyre friendly you could hear the feel of the friction between the cars and the roads as they took their conductors to their destinations.
I am passionate about having a clean nation. I stopped trashing wastes anywhere I could since this passion gripped me and I talk about it with everyone I "catch" trying to trash even just a pure-water sachet. Cleanliness they say is next to godliness and so to exhibit that in all our seeming religiousness we need to start the change from us. The next time you have gala or La Casera please keep it in your bag if you don't find a waste basket till you see one. Try as much as possible not to urinate or excrete on the road. No matter how bad it is, walk into an eatery, bank or public service office closest to you and ask to use the rest room, in the case there is no public toilet in view.
As I came down from the slab, there was this red Peugeot 206 dented by the rear left that had swayed off the other side of the road and came face-to-face with me. The flash light was all in my face and I could not help but open my eyes. I stretched only to feel the waste basket by me. I finally stood up, threw the paper i had just shredded before my "dream" into the basket and walked into the room to get a good sleep after three long days of work with barely three hours of sleep.
Keep your environment clean...

Tuesday 7 October 2014



Opinion: On Rethinking the Provisions of Section 285(6) of the Constitution as Amended on Election Petitions for a Stable Constitutional Democracy
Introduction:

1.     With a background understanding of the nature of electoral processes in Nigeria over the years, it would seem an impossible task breaking through the seeming merry-go-round process that is has been. Until recently, the elections time-table have been similar throughout the country. What is obtained now is that gubernatorial elections in states like Ondo, Edo, Ekiti and the likes have been irregular with the other states as a result of Electoral Tribunals that ousted the then alleged and judged illegal incumbent governors. To stall such situations, the Section 285(6) of the constitution had to be inserted in the constitution as part of the amendments to the 1999 Constitution. 
2.    At the passage of this amendment, there was some applause for the Legislature on their ability to make laws that would indeed work for the good governance of the country but in the light of interpretation of the law when put to test in our courts, the contrary has been the outcome. It is with this backdrop that there is the need to rethink this section of the Constitution.
The Law
1.     The Section 285(6) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended states as follows: ”An election tribunal shall deliver its judgment in writing within 180 days from the date of the filing of the petition”.
2.    In the consolidated cases of ANPP v. Alhaji Mohammed Goni & 4 Ors and Alhaji Kashim Shettima & 1 Other v Alhaji Mohammed Goni & 3 Ors., with suit numbers SC. 1/2012 and SC.2/2012 respectively, the decision of the Supreme Court gave interpretation to this Subsection as:
an election petition tribunal must mandatorily deliver its judgment within 180 days from the date of filing of the petition, failing which, the tribunal becomes automatically stripped of its jurisdiction to continue further hearing of the petition’.
3.    The Court held, per Onnoghen JSC, that “it has been held by this court in a number of cases including consolidated appeal nos. SC/ 141/2011; SC/ 266/ 2011; SC/ 267/ 2011; SC/ 282/ 2011; SC/ 356/ 2011; SC/ 357/ 2011: Brig. Gen Mohammed Buba Marwa & Ors vs Adm. Murtala Nyako & Ors delivered on 27th January 2012 that the time fixed by the constitution is like the rock of Gibraltar or Mount Zion which cannot be moved; that the time cannot be extended or expanded or elongated or in anyway enlarged; that if what is to be done is not done within the time fixed, it lapses as the court is thereby robbed of the jurisdiction to continue to entertain the matter. It is very worrisome that despite the decisions of this court, since October, 2011 on the time fixed in the constitution, some of the justices of the lower court still appear not to have gotten the message. From where will the election tribunal get the jurisdiction to entertain the retrial after the expiration of the one hundred and eighty (180) days assigned in the constitution, without extending the time so allotted? Do the courts have the vires to extend the time assigned by the constitution? The answer is obviously in the negative”
Comments:
1.      Considering the law prima facie would present no bad intent by the law makers, neither would it suggest such mechanical jurisprudence as is evident in the interpretation rendered by the Supreme Court. Indeed the law makers must have intended that the 180 days (6 months) period that is stipulated by the amendment would help the electoral process a great deal. It is suppose to instill sanity and some sense of alacrity on the part of the petitioners as well as the members of the tribunal.
2.      Justice delayed is justice denied and therefore the need to be brisk, thorough and careful about such petitions that call national trust and popular representation to question, hence the necessity for such an amendment. This point is further buttressed on the need to instill a sense of stability to the democratic process and ensure that the nation fully runs on similar and not confused lines.
3.      On the other hand however, justice rushed is also justice crushed; and so some judicial opinions have been based on the arguments that the law seems to insist on hasty proceedings which may forestall justice. This is however not too grounded based on the fact that if an election occurred today, procedurally, the best forms of evidence that can be gathered would only be obtainable within the earliest future date and 180 days should represent such a period.
4.      The law in itself is a clarion call to ensuring that petitioners be on their best and put in expertise, professionalism, enthusiasm and indeed due diligence in probing electoral matters. The only shortcoming that could be perceived is such peculiar cases which in themselves cannot all be preconceived by the law makers, and so the need for a general situation applicable to everyone is what is represented in the law.  
5.      Besides a petitioner should not bring vexatious and ungrounded reasons for complaints before a tribunal and defense should also not be unnecessarily dragged and prolonged as this was the mischief sort to be corrected at the drafting and passing of this law.
Conclusions
1.     Standing on the principle of the mischief that this law sort to correct, it is my submitted opinion that the section 285(6) of the Constitution of the FRN remains a worthy amendment.
2.    I also submit that the decisions of the Supreme court on the interpretation of this constitution are in line with the principles herein adduced. However, I do not subscribe to the emphasis on time rather than on diligent prosecution.
3.    The only addition that I propose is that the law should provide for such extension of time based on incontrovertible evidence of diligent prosecution but insufficiency of time, which in my opinion would indeed be rare. The Courts should be given the power to extend the 180 days period for a definite period also on evidence of such.

4.    The injustice purported to be worked by this law doesn’t really exist as justice is not a relative term but should also not be abused on a journey of eternity due to unnecessarily prolonged issues.