Dear Umaru,
How are you and your German medics? I am sure they are trying their best to ensure you are able to stand on your feet. Their best will always be good as long as the Divine Healer wants. Don’t worry, we are also praying that this vibrant Nation will have a strong and living leader since we know that no nation can rise above its leader. A dying leader can not lead a living nation. The creator knows how best to answer our prayer. You may stay clear of ‘eating apple’ for the moment since I can vouch that you do not have any business with the Filipino women.
How is Turai? We are all amazed with the way she is steering the wheel and holding firm to the front seat of the nation. She’s really a wonderful first female President. How is Zainab with Usman Saidu Nasamu Dakingari? I do hope she has overcome her struggles with the other Kebbi state first ladies. The office of the state first lady is naturally hers. Other wives can relegated to deputy first lady, senior assistant deputy first lady and assistant deputy first lady.
How are A’isha Nafisat and her hubby, Isa Yuguda doing in Bauchi State house? I hope Isa is not finding tough time with Farida over the N39.1 billion illegal loans he took from FinBank without the approval of his state House of Assembly. I trust you’d come to his aid. Anyway which father-in-law would not rescue such a loyal in-law who could abandon the party that brought him to power to join his papa-in-law without losing his gubernatorial seat.
How is your third point agenda coping with her boyfriend, Alhaji Abdurrahman Musa Bashir Rahamaniyya and the heavy burden of non performing debts? Make sure you call Lamido Sanusi to order so that Farida can let him off the hook. As a future in-law, can’t they simply understand that he has the right to decide which loan to pay back and which one to hold back. How are the other points of the agenda? Any gubernatorial suitors in sight for them? If you care, I overheard that Governors Muazu Babangida Aliyu and Murtala Nyako of Niger and Adamawa States respectively are about to increase their fleets of first ladies with some under 20’s (do not say I told you because they are classified state secrets). You know I would not fancy being given the Gbenga Aruleba’s kind of VIP treatment.
How is your brother-in-law, Comptroller General of Customs, Abdullahi Inde Dikko and his forged certificates making waves around the nation? I wonder what our people want to bring out of this. Can’t they just understand that an acquaintance with the president (sorry, first gentleman or President’s husband) covers a multitude of forgery. Some people cannot just read between the lines that this country belongs to just a few of us. They should know that it’s your country and you can do whatever you want with it. If you like you can make the most perverting lawyer in the land your Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) or the Authorised Government Fraudster. Aondoakaa’s handling of your godfather, Ibori’s cases is an embarrassment to the nation but highly commendable by you and the gang of government robbers who make your inner caucus. Once you sanction his actions, who else should care?
Lately, I have been having a running battle with some 140 millions of this ‘poor’
Nation who claim to be disturbed by your ‘slow and unsteady’ approach to the affairs of the nation. I keep telling them that everyone has his/her pace of operation. Even with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day, then what is wrong if you don’t move at the pace they’d expected. They should have remembered that Bukola Saraki said you needed 2 years to diagnose the problem of the nation and I am also adding that you need another 2 years to gather your team, 2 years to plan your strategy, 2 years to assign responsibility and 4 years to execute your 7 pointless agenda. At this rate, Vision 20, 2020 will certainly become a reality by 2200 A.D provided the other nations wait for us. Unlike your uncle Sege, you may not need to ask for a third term, you may simply request for the unused term of MKO.
I hear a lot of hullaballoo regarding your ineptitude, inefficiency and irrelevance but trust me! I do always join aunty Dora to blindly defend and rebrand you before the ‘poor compatriots.’ When does an unelected Commander-In-(CT)hief start to account to the electorate. Only OBJ, Iwu and a few others who were instrumental in bringing you to this exalted but exhausted position have the right to ask how you are performing. Now that El Rufai and Nuru Ribadu are asking, I think they have the audacity and the right to do so and you must answer them by yourself since both are apparently among the few who smuggled you into the Aso Rock as I may not know what to tell them.
What about the 6000 MW at the end of the year? We all know it will take your government another 3 years to get to that somewhat very low target. The problem is what we would have to tell the people. I think I have a bright idea. You can tell them that you utilize the money meant for the project to settle and resettle the Militants. Then ask the people which one they prefer, whether to have electricity and have the militants around kidnapping the CBN looters or their fathers or have peace without electricity.
Thanks for subverting Uwais’ Report. The people seem not to understand our ‘do or die’ politics. If they do, how could they expect such ingenious report to see the light of the day. They have forgotten that PDP has a pact to rule for another 60 years. With this, may be they can understand your plight that the only problem you have with a ‘free and fair’ election is that you can never be sure of who wins.
Umaru, I really sympathize with you. I am one of the very few who understand you and your position. I know how much your health is failing you and I understand the pains of dialysis. I know how much you struggle with Turai for authority and how much you are undermined by those you put in top positions because they know you barely manage to stand on your feet. I know how much you suffer seeing the nation going down without any wit of what to do to intervene. I know how much unwilling you were to take this office that is much bigger than your imagination having failed to perform too well at even a state level. I know how much Oluṣẹgun Mathew Okikiọla Arẹmu Ọbasanjọ used you just to kill the wild dreams of both infamous Abubakar Atiku and Badamosi Babangida in spite of your initial objection. I know all.
Now that you have been used and coerced into power, now that you sure have bitten off much more than you can chew, there is only one honourable option left. Obasanjo may be blamed for forcing you into power in your dying state but no one but you will receive the culpability for holding on to it. The only acceptable option is to throw in the towel and Nigeria and Nigerians will celebrate with you. One man should not hold back the destiny of the giant of Africa. You exit is the rebranding Nigeria needs at the moment. Our star wants to shine again.
You have failed a nation that was filled with high hope and euphoria when you publicly declared your assets. Of what use is it, when you have taken a step forward and 100 steps backward? You have almost totally drained all the country’s foreign reserve. Your own war against corruption is to fight the anti corruption crusaders thereby allowing free for all looting. You court the most corrupt and you are not even ashamed to call them your friends. You boycott UN general Assembly for an unspeakable event in Saudi. Not even under the despondent Abacha were our Universities closed for up to 111 days.
Umaru, a word is enough for the wise. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others, only a fool wait to learn from his own mistakes. Go now before we start making the kind of intercessory prayers we made for Abacha. God still hear the prayers of his people. Nigeria is tired of retrogression.
Sincerely,
Rufus Kayode Oteniya
OteniyaRK (oteniyark@hotmail.com) is the founder of Nigeria Think Tank a Facebook discussion forum created to confront problems confronting us as a people and Transparency in Nigeria a site to promote transparency, accountability and integrity in our policies, polities and politics.
Cc:
140 million Good People of our Great Nation
Monday, November 9, 2009
The President owes us an apology and a refund of $1million
While assuming the presidency of Nigeria on May 29, 2007, the then Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua swore as follows:
I, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua do solemnly swear/affirm that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria; that as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I will discharge my duties to the best of my ability, faithfully and in accordance with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the law, and always in the interest of the sovereignty, integrity, solidarity, well being and prosperity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; that I will strive to preserve the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy contained in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; that I will not allow my personal interest to influence my official conduct or my official decisions; that I will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria…
Having taken this oath, the president is expected at all times to act according to the dictates of the oath. In performing his duty, he is expected to discharge his duties to the best of his ability, faithfully and in accordance with the Constitution and the law of the nation. His actions are expected to be in consonance with the sovereignty, integrity, solidarity, well being and prosperity of Nigeria. He is also not expected to allow his personal disposition to override his State duties and his personal interest to take precedence over the national interest of Nigeria.
Chapter 2 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria of the Federal Republic of Nigeria addresses the fundamental objectives and directive principles of our national policy. While section 13 states that ‘It shall be the duty and responsibility of all organs of government, and of all authorities and persons, exercising legislative, executive or judicial powers, to conform to, observe and apply the provisions of this Chapter of this Constitution, section19 spells out the foreign policy objectives of the Nigeria states:
The foreign policy objectives shall be -
(a) promotion and protection of the national interest;
(b) promotion of African integration and support for African unity;
(c) promotion of international co-operation for the consolidation of universal peace and mutual respect among all nations and elimination of discrimination in all its manifestations;
(d) respect for international law and treaty obligations as well as the seeking of settlement of international disputes by negotiation, mediation, conciliation, arbitration and adjudication; and
(e) promotion of a just world economic order.
Having sworn to protect the constitution that states clearly in section 19 what Nigeria’s foreign policy objectives are, can there be any worse disservice or how can the action of the president be justified when he elected to be a in Saudi Arabia between September 19 – 25, 2009 just to be a special guest of honour at the opening of a new ultramodern King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia at a time when Nigerian Universities have been shot for more than 3 months while the world’s leaders are in New York attending the sixty-fourth UN General Assembly to discuss rising challenges of today’s world? The assembly mostly focused on the big issues like climate change, disarmament, the global financial crisis, Millennium Development Goals and key issues of peace and security around the globe.
This clearly shows the insensitivity of the president and his advisers and a lack of respect for the constitution he swore to protect. It is also a slap on our collective psyche to see our president pretending to care about education outside the country while he was careless whether our children are locked out of universities. It was most shocking and hypocritical to show care abroad when were careless at home. Candidly, to call the trip an embarrassment to the nation is an understatement. It portrays a nation led by leaders void of decision faculty who cannot place their priorities right and no other nation can respect such.
A president attending an occasion that is of little or no strategic interest to Nigeria at a time when such a salient meeting was being held where the president could have rebranded Nigeria and intimate the globe of the progress of the amnesty programme of resolving the crises in the Niger-Delta can be likened to a man who abandons his wedding ceremony to attending a friend's birthday celebration. A wedding is supposed to be a once in a lifetime experience while birthday comes up annually. The commissioning of the University could have been held any other time while the UN General Assembly comes up once annually.
Apparently, human beings and governments have never been perfect or never will they, but the standard is that whoever makes a mistake should admit and pay for it. That is where we miss. I’ve waited endlessly and fruitlessly hoping to see this government come out to say to the good people of this great nation how sorry they felt for affronting the nation with their bad decision.
When in May 18, 1993 the former US president, Bill Clinton decided to delay his departure from Los Angeles International Airport for about an hour so the high-priced celebrity Beverly Hills hairstylist Cristophe could board Air Force One and give him a haircut, he admitted his bad judgement and apologised to the nation for his role in wasting tax-payers’ money and in bringing LA to a standstill for an hour. He volunteered to partly bear the cost of his action. In this regard, I profoundly believe the president owes us an apology and a refund of the cost.
My conservative estimate puts the cost at $1 million. This include all the direct cost associated to the tour (Presidential jet, fuel, hangar’s charges, hotel for the president and all the entourage, Insurance, estacodes, security vote, SSS, feeding etc) and all the indirect cost like the salaries and allowances of the president and everyone involved in the tour for that one wasteful week.
It is a moral requirement that the president must be responsible.
God Bless Nigeria!
Nigeria Go Better!
Rufus Kayode Oteniya (oteniyark@hotmail.com) is the founder of Nigeria Think Tank a Facebook discussion forum created to confront problems confronting us as a people and Transparency in Nigeria a site to promote transparency and accountability in our policies, polities and politics.
I, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua do solemnly swear/affirm that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria; that as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I will discharge my duties to the best of my ability, faithfully and in accordance with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the law, and always in the interest of the sovereignty, integrity, solidarity, well being and prosperity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; that I will strive to preserve the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy contained in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; that I will not allow my personal interest to influence my official conduct or my official decisions; that I will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria…
Having taken this oath, the president is expected at all times to act according to the dictates of the oath. In performing his duty, he is expected to discharge his duties to the best of his ability, faithfully and in accordance with the Constitution and the law of the nation. His actions are expected to be in consonance with the sovereignty, integrity, solidarity, well being and prosperity of Nigeria. He is also not expected to allow his personal disposition to override his State duties and his personal interest to take precedence over the national interest of Nigeria.
Chapter 2 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria of the Federal Republic of Nigeria addresses the fundamental objectives and directive principles of our national policy. While section 13 states that ‘It shall be the duty and responsibility of all organs of government, and of all authorities and persons, exercising legislative, executive or judicial powers, to conform to, observe and apply the provisions of this Chapter of this Constitution, section19 spells out the foreign policy objectives of the Nigeria states:
The foreign policy objectives shall be -
(a) promotion and protection of the national interest;
(b) promotion of African integration and support for African unity;
(c) promotion of international co-operation for the consolidation of universal peace and mutual respect among all nations and elimination of discrimination in all its manifestations;
(d) respect for international law and treaty obligations as well as the seeking of settlement of international disputes by negotiation, mediation, conciliation, arbitration and adjudication; and
(e) promotion of a just world economic order.
Having sworn to protect the constitution that states clearly in section 19 what Nigeria’s foreign policy objectives are, can there be any worse disservice or how can the action of the president be justified when he elected to be a in Saudi Arabia between September 19 – 25, 2009 just to be a special guest of honour at the opening of a new ultramodern King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia at a time when Nigerian Universities have been shot for more than 3 months while the world’s leaders are in New York attending the sixty-fourth UN General Assembly to discuss rising challenges of today’s world? The assembly mostly focused on the big issues like climate change, disarmament, the global financial crisis, Millennium Development Goals and key issues of peace and security around the globe.
This clearly shows the insensitivity of the president and his advisers and a lack of respect for the constitution he swore to protect. It is also a slap on our collective psyche to see our president pretending to care about education outside the country while he was careless whether our children are locked out of universities. It was most shocking and hypocritical to show care abroad when were careless at home. Candidly, to call the trip an embarrassment to the nation is an understatement. It portrays a nation led by leaders void of decision faculty who cannot place their priorities right and no other nation can respect such.
A president attending an occasion that is of little or no strategic interest to Nigeria at a time when such a salient meeting was being held where the president could have rebranded Nigeria and intimate the globe of the progress of the amnesty programme of resolving the crises in the Niger-Delta can be likened to a man who abandons his wedding ceremony to attending a friend's birthday celebration. A wedding is supposed to be a once in a lifetime experience while birthday comes up annually. The commissioning of the University could have been held any other time while the UN General Assembly comes up once annually.
Apparently, human beings and governments have never been perfect or never will they, but the standard is that whoever makes a mistake should admit and pay for it. That is where we miss. I’ve waited endlessly and fruitlessly hoping to see this government come out to say to the good people of this great nation how sorry they felt for affronting the nation with their bad decision.
When in May 18, 1993 the former US president, Bill Clinton decided to delay his departure from Los Angeles International Airport for about an hour so the high-priced celebrity Beverly Hills hairstylist Cristophe could board Air Force One and give him a haircut, he admitted his bad judgement and apologised to the nation for his role in wasting tax-payers’ money and in bringing LA to a standstill for an hour. He volunteered to partly bear the cost of his action. In this regard, I profoundly believe the president owes us an apology and a refund of the cost.
My conservative estimate puts the cost at $1 million. This include all the direct cost associated to the tour (Presidential jet, fuel, hangar’s charges, hotel for the president and all the entourage, Insurance, estacodes, security vote, SSS, feeding etc) and all the indirect cost like the salaries and allowances of the president and everyone involved in the tour for that one wasteful week.
It is a moral requirement that the president must be responsible.
God Bless Nigeria!
Nigeria Go Better!
Rufus Kayode Oteniya (oteniyark@hotmail.com) is the founder of Nigeria Think Tank a Facebook discussion forum created to confront problems confronting us as a people and Transparency in Nigeria a site to promote transparency and accountability in our policies, polities and politics.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Democracy 101 – Part 4 (Separation of Powers)
“When the people know their rights and act on them, the revolution is already on the go.”
Separation of powers is a key characteristic of a liberal democracy where the government has an inherent control system to ensure that no arm of it is able to abuse power. Under this model, the government is divided into three branches with separate and independent powers and areas of responsibility,
This political arrangement creates a division of the legislative, executive, and judicial functions of the government among separate and independent bodies. Such a separation limits the possibility of arbitrary excesses by government since the sanction of all three branches is required for the making, executing, and administering of laws.
The separation of powers creates checks and balances which allows for a system based regulation that allows one branch to limit another, such as the power of Legislative to alter the composition and jurisdiction of the federal courts or the Judiciary ruling that a law is unconstitutional. Unfortunately, the Judiciary and the Legislative can not be said to be independent of the executive in our system. The executives mostly wield overwhelming influences on the other arms of the government.
Legislative
This is an arm of the government that is solely responsible for making laws. Legislatures may be unicameral or bicameral. In Nigeria, at the federal level, we have a bicameral Legislative (the Senate and the House of Representative) while at states level, we have the unicameral Legislative i.e. the state Assemblies. Their powers includes writing and passing laws, enacting taxes, authorising borrowing, declaring a war, establishing the government’s budget, confirming executive appointments, ratifying treaties, investigating the executive branch, impeaching and removing from office members of the executive and judiciary, and redressing constituents’ grievances. Members are elected directly from constituencies representing an entire population. In presidential system, the executive and Legislative branches are clearly separated; in parliamentary systems, members of the executive branch are chosen from the Legislative membership.
The Legislative In Nigeria
Section 4 of the Nigerian Constitution states as follows:
4. (1) The Legislative powers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be vested in a National Assembly for the Federation, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.
(2) The National Assembly shall have power to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Federation or any part thereof with respect to any matter included in the Exclusive Legislative List set out in Part I of the Second Schedule to this Constitution.
(3) The power of the National Assembly to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Federation with respect to any matter included in the Exclusive Legislative List shall, save as otherwise provided in this Constitution, be to the exclusion of the Houses of Assembly of States.
(4) In addition and without prejudice to the powers conferred by subsection (2) of this section, the National Assembly shall have power to make laws with respect to the following matters, that is to say:-
(a) any matter in the Concurrent Legislative List set out in the first column of Part II of the Second Schedule to this Constitution to the extent prescribed in the second column opposite thereto; and
(b) any other matter with respect to which it is empowered to make laws in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.
(5) If any Law enacted by the House of Assembly of a State is inconsistent with any law validly made by the National Assembly, the law made by the National Assembly shall prevail, and that other Law shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void.
(6) The Legislative powers of a State of the Federation shall be vested in the House of Assembly of the State.
(7) The House of Assembly of a State shall have power to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the State or any part thereof with respect to the following matters, that is to say:-
(a) any matter not included in the Exclusive Legislative List set out in Part I of the Second Schedule to this Constitution.
(b) any matter included in the Concurrent Legislative List set out in the first column of Part II of the Second Schedule to this Constitution to the extent prescribed in the second column opposite thereto; and
(c) any other matter with respect to which it is empowered to make laws in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.
(8) Save as otherwise provided by this Constitution, the exercise of Legislative powers by the National Assembly or by a House of Assembly shall be subject to the jurisdiction of courts of law and of judicial tribunals established by law, and accordingly, the National Assembly or a House of Assembly shall not enact any law, that ousts or purports to oust the jurisdiction of a court of law or of a judicial tribunal established by law.
(9) Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section, the National Assembly or a House of Assembly shall not, in relation to any criminal offence whatsoever, have power to make any law which shall have retrospective effect.
Executive
This is a branch of government charged with executing or carrying out the laws and appointing officials, formulating and instituting foreign policy, and providing diplomatic representation. The executive is vested with the power to spend money allocated for certain purposes as in the budget and may veto laws and grant pardon to convicted criminals. This arm of government wages war at the direction of the Legislative because the Legislative makes law for the military. The executive is usually empowered to make decrees or declaration such as declaring a state of emergency or promulgating lawful regulations and executive orders. In an ideal situation, a system of checks and balances keeps the power of the executive more or less equal to that of the judiciary and the legislature.
The executive power is vested in the President to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and the laws of the country. The principal responsibility of the President is to ensure that the laws are faithfully executed. The Constitution does not require the President to personally enforce the law; rather, officers subordinate to the President may perform such duties. The Constitution, empowers the President to ensure the faithful execution of the laws made by Legislative. Legislative may itself terminate such appointments, by impeachment, and restrict the President. The President's responsibility is to execute whatever instructions he is given by the Legislative.
As a check and balance, the President can exercises a check over the Legislative through his power to veto bills, but Legislators may override any veto by a two-thirds majority in each house. When the two houses of Legislative cannot agree on a date for adjournment, the President may settle the dispute. Either house or both houses may be called into emergency session by the President.
The President, as noted above, appoints judges with the Senate's advice and consent. He also has the power to issue pardons and reprieves or amnesties as it is ongoing in the Niger Delta part of the federation. Such pardons are not subject to confirmation by either the House of Representatives or the Senate, or even to acceptance by the recipient.
The President is the civilian Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. However, it is the Legislative that has the power to raise, fund and maintain the armed forces, and to prescribe the laws and regulations under which the armed forces operate. Legislative also has the sole power to declare war, and requires that all Generals appointed by the President be confirmed by a majority vote of the Senate before they can assume their office.
The Executive in Nigeria
Section 5 of the Nigerian Constitution states as follows:
5. (1) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the executive powers of the Federation:
(a) shall be vested in the President and may subject as aforesaid and to the provisions of any law made by the National Assembly, be exercised by him either directly or through the Vice-President and Ministers of the Government of the Federation or officers in the public service of the Federation; and
(b) shall extend to the execution and maintenance of this Constitution, all laws made by the National Assembly and to all matters with respect to which the National Assembly has, for the time being, power to make laws.
(2) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the executive powers of a State:
(a) shall be vested in the Governor of that State and may, subject as aforesaid and to the provisions of any Law made by a House of Assembly, be exercised by him either directly or through the Deputy Governor and Commissioners of the Government of that State or officers in the public service of the State; and
(b) shall extend to the execution and maintenance of this Constitution, all laws made by the House of Assembly of the State and to all matters with respect to which the House of Assembly has for the time being power to make laws.
(3) The executive powers vested in a State under subsection (2) of this section shall be so exercised as not to:-
(a) impede or prejudice the exercise of the executive powers of the Federation;
(b) endanger any asset or investment of the Government of the Federation in that State; or
(c) endanger the continuance of a Federal Government in Nigeria.
(4) Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section:-
(a) the President shall not declare a state of war between the Federation and another country except with the sanction of a resolution of both Houses of the National Assembly, sitting in a joint session; and
(b) except with the prior approval of the Senate, no member of the armed forces of the Federation shall be deployed on combat duty outside Nigeria.
(5) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (4) of this section, the President, in consultation with the National Defence Council, may deploy members of the armed forces of the Federation on a limited combat duty outside Nigeria if he is satisfied that the national security is under imminent threat or danger:
Provided that the President shall, within seven days of actual combat engagement, seek the consent of the Senate and the Senate shall thereafter give or refuse the said consent within 14 days.
Judiciary
This is the branch of government whose task is the authoritative adjudication of controversies over the application of laws in specific situations. This power to decide cases and controversies is vested in the Supreme Court and lower courts established by the laws made by the legislative. The judges are appointed by the executive with the advice and approval of the Legislative and can be removed by the Legislative through impeachment proceedings. In the course of the its duty and power, the judiciary does the following:
· Determines which laws Legislative intended to apply to any given case
· Determines whether a law is (un)Constitutional
· Determines how Legislative meant the law to apply to disputes
· Determines how laws should be interpreted to assure uniform policies in a top-down fashion via the appeals process, but gives discretion in individual cases to low-level judges. (The amount of discretion depends upon the standard of review, determined by the type of case in question.)
· Polices its own members
As a check and balance, Supreme Court decisions are binding across the nation. The power to review the constitutionality of laws may be limited by Legislative, which has the power to set the jurisdiction of the courts. The only constitutional limit on Legislative’s power to set the jurisdiction of the judiciary relates to the Supreme Court; the Supreme Court may exercise only appellate jurisdiction except in cases involving states and cases affecting foreign ambassadors, ministers or consuls.
The Chief Justice presides in the Senate during a President's impeachment trial. The rules of the Senate, however, generally do not grant much authority to the presiding officer. Thus, the Chief Justice's role in this regard is a limited one.
Judiciary In Nigeria
6. (1) The judicial powers of the Federation shall be vested in the courts to which this section relates, being courts established for the Federation.
(2) The judicial powers of a State shall be vested in the courts to which this section relates, being courts established, subject as provided by this Constitution, for a State.
(3) The courts to which this section relates, established by this Constitution for the Federation and for the States, specified in subsection (5) (a) to (1) of this section, shall be the only superior courts of record in Nigeria; and save as otherwise prescribed by the National Assembly or by the House of Assembly of a State, each court shall have all the powers of a superior court of record.
(4) Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this section shall be construed as precluding:-
(a) the National Assembly or any House of Assembly from establishing courts, other than those to which this section relates, with subordinate jurisdiction to that of a High Court;
(b) the National Assembly or any House of Assembly, which does not require it, from abolishing any court which it has power to establish or which it has brought into being.
(5) This section relates to:-
(a) the Supreme Court of Nigeria;
(b) the Court of Appeal;
(c) the Federal High Court;
(d) the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja;
(e) a High Court of a State
(f) the Sharia Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja;
(g) a Sharia Court of Appeal of a State;
(h) the Customary Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja;
(i) a Customary Court of Appeal of a State;
(j) such other courts as may be authorised by law to exercise jurisdiction on matters with respect to which the National Assembly may make laws; and
(k) such other court as may be authorised by law to exercise jurisdiction at first instance or on appeal on matters with respect to which a House of Assembly may make laws.
(6) The judicial powers vested in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this section:
(a) shall extend, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Constitution, to all inherent powers and sanctions of a court of law
(b) shall extend, to all matters between persons, or between government or authority and to any persons in Nigeria, and to all actions and proceedings relating thereto, for the determination of any question as to the civil rights and obligations of that person;
(c) shall not except as otherwise provided by this Constitution, extend to any issue or question as to whether any act of omission by any authority or person or as to whether any law or any judicial decision is in conformity with the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy set out in Chapter II of this Constitution;
(d) shall not, as from the date when this section comes into force, extend to any action or proceedings relating to any existing law made on or after 15th January, 1966 for determining any issue or question as to the competence of any authority or person to make any such law.
God Bless Nigeria!
Nigeria Go Better!
To be continued
Rufus Kayode Oteniya (oteniyark@hotmail.com) is the founder of Nigeria Think Tank a Facebook discussion forum created to confront problems confronting us as a people.
Separation of powers is a key characteristic of a liberal democracy where the government has an inherent control system to ensure that no arm of it is able to abuse power. Under this model, the government is divided into three branches with separate and independent powers and areas of responsibility,
This political arrangement creates a division of the legislative, executive, and judicial functions of the government among separate and independent bodies. Such a separation limits the possibility of arbitrary excesses by government since the sanction of all three branches is required for the making, executing, and administering of laws.
The separation of powers creates checks and balances which allows for a system based regulation that allows one branch to limit another, such as the power of Legislative to alter the composition and jurisdiction of the federal courts or the Judiciary ruling that a law is unconstitutional. Unfortunately, the Judiciary and the Legislative can not be said to be independent of the executive in our system. The executives mostly wield overwhelming influences on the other arms of the government.
Legislative
This is an arm of the government that is solely responsible for making laws. Legislatures may be unicameral or bicameral. In Nigeria, at the federal level, we have a bicameral Legislative (the Senate and the House of Representative) while at states level, we have the unicameral Legislative i.e. the state Assemblies. Their powers includes writing and passing laws, enacting taxes, authorising borrowing, declaring a war, establishing the government’s budget, confirming executive appointments, ratifying treaties, investigating the executive branch, impeaching and removing from office members of the executive and judiciary, and redressing constituents’ grievances. Members are elected directly from constituencies representing an entire population. In presidential system, the executive and Legislative branches are clearly separated; in parliamentary systems, members of the executive branch are chosen from the Legislative membership.
The Legislative In Nigeria
Section 4 of the Nigerian Constitution states as follows:
4. (1) The Legislative powers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be vested in a National Assembly for the Federation, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.
(2) The National Assembly shall have power to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Federation or any part thereof with respect to any matter included in the Exclusive Legislative List set out in Part I of the Second Schedule to this Constitution.
(3) The power of the National Assembly to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Federation with respect to any matter included in the Exclusive Legislative List shall, save as otherwise provided in this Constitution, be to the exclusion of the Houses of Assembly of States.
(4) In addition and without prejudice to the powers conferred by subsection (2) of this section, the National Assembly shall have power to make laws with respect to the following matters, that is to say:-
(a) any matter in the Concurrent Legislative List set out in the first column of Part II of the Second Schedule to this Constitution to the extent prescribed in the second column opposite thereto; and
(b) any other matter with respect to which it is empowered to make laws in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.
(5) If any Law enacted by the House of Assembly of a State is inconsistent with any law validly made by the National Assembly, the law made by the National Assembly shall prevail, and that other Law shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void.
(6) The Legislative powers of a State of the Federation shall be vested in the House of Assembly of the State.
(7) The House of Assembly of a State shall have power to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the State or any part thereof with respect to the following matters, that is to say:-
(a) any matter not included in the Exclusive Legislative List set out in Part I of the Second Schedule to this Constitution.
(b) any matter included in the Concurrent Legislative List set out in the first column of Part II of the Second Schedule to this Constitution to the extent prescribed in the second column opposite thereto; and
(c) any other matter with respect to which it is empowered to make laws in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.
(8) Save as otherwise provided by this Constitution, the exercise of Legislative powers by the National Assembly or by a House of Assembly shall be subject to the jurisdiction of courts of law and of judicial tribunals established by law, and accordingly, the National Assembly or a House of Assembly shall not enact any law, that ousts or purports to oust the jurisdiction of a court of law or of a judicial tribunal established by law.
(9) Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section, the National Assembly or a House of Assembly shall not, in relation to any criminal offence whatsoever, have power to make any law which shall have retrospective effect.
Executive
This is a branch of government charged with executing or carrying out the laws and appointing officials, formulating and instituting foreign policy, and providing diplomatic representation. The executive is vested with the power to spend money allocated for certain purposes as in the budget and may veto laws and grant pardon to convicted criminals. This arm of government wages war at the direction of the Legislative because the Legislative makes law for the military. The executive is usually empowered to make decrees or declaration such as declaring a state of emergency or promulgating lawful regulations and executive orders. In an ideal situation, a system of checks and balances keeps the power of the executive more or less equal to that of the judiciary and the legislature.
The executive power is vested in the President to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and the laws of the country. The principal responsibility of the President is to ensure that the laws are faithfully executed. The Constitution does not require the President to personally enforce the law; rather, officers subordinate to the President may perform such duties. The Constitution, empowers the President to ensure the faithful execution of the laws made by Legislative. Legislative may itself terminate such appointments, by impeachment, and restrict the President. The President's responsibility is to execute whatever instructions he is given by the Legislative.
As a check and balance, the President can exercises a check over the Legislative through his power to veto bills, but Legislators may override any veto by a two-thirds majority in each house. When the two houses of Legislative cannot agree on a date for adjournment, the President may settle the dispute. Either house or both houses may be called into emergency session by the President.
The President, as noted above, appoints judges with the Senate's advice and consent. He also has the power to issue pardons and reprieves or amnesties as it is ongoing in the Niger Delta part of the federation. Such pardons are not subject to confirmation by either the House of Representatives or the Senate, or even to acceptance by the recipient.
The President is the civilian Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. However, it is the Legislative that has the power to raise, fund and maintain the armed forces, and to prescribe the laws and regulations under which the armed forces operate. Legislative also has the sole power to declare war, and requires that all Generals appointed by the President be confirmed by a majority vote of the Senate before they can assume their office.
The Executive in Nigeria
Section 5 of the Nigerian Constitution states as follows:
5. (1) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the executive powers of the Federation:
(a) shall be vested in the President and may subject as aforesaid and to the provisions of any law made by the National Assembly, be exercised by him either directly or through the Vice-President and Ministers of the Government of the Federation or officers in the public service of the Federation; and
(b) shall extend to the execution and maintenance of this Constitution, all laws made by the National Assembly and to all matters with respect to which the National Assembly has, for the time being, power to make laws.
(2) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the executive powers of a State:
(a) shall be vested in the Governor of that State and may, subject as aforesaid and to the provisions of any Law made by a House of Assembly, be exercised by him either directly or through the Deputy Governor and Commissioners of the Government of that State or officers in the public service of the State; and
(b) shall extend to the execution and maintenance of this Constitution, all laws made by the House of Assembly of the State and to all matters with respect to which the House of Assembly has for the time being power to make laws.
(3) The executive powers vested in a State under subsection (2) of this section shall be so exercised as not to:-
(a) impede or prejudice the exercise of the executive powers of the Federation;
(b) endanger any asset or investment of the Government of the Federation in that State; or
(c) endanger the continuance of a Federal Government in Nigeria.
(4) Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section:-
(a) the President shall not declare a state of war between the Federation and another country except with the sanction of a resolution of both Houses of the National Assembly, sitting in a joint session; and
(b) except with the prior approval of the Senate, no member of the armed forces of the Federation shall be deployed on combat duty outside Nigeria.
(5) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (4) of this section, the President, in consultation with the National Defence Council, may deploy members of the armed forces of the Federation on a limited combat duty outside Nigeria if he is satisfied that the national security is under imminent threat or danger:
Provided that the President shall, within seven days of actual combat engagement, seek the consent of the Senate and the Senate shall thereafter give or refuse the said consent within 14 days.
Judiciary
This is the branch of government whose task is the authoritative adjudication of controversies over the application of laws in specific situations. This power to decide cases and controversies is vested in the Supreme Court and lower courts established by the laws made by the legislative. The judges are appointed by the executive with the advice and approval of the Legislative and can be removed by the Legislative through impeachment proceedings. In the course of the its duty and power, the judiciary does the following:
· Determines which laws Legislative intended to apply to any given case
· Determines whether a law is (un)Constitutional
· Determines how Legislative meant the law to apply to disputes
· Determines how laws should be interpreted to assure uniform policies in a top-down fashion via the appeals process, but gives discretion in individual cases to low-level judges. (The amount of discretion depends upon the standard of review, determined by the type of case in question.)
· Polices its own members
As a check and balance, Supreme Court decisions are binding across the nation. The power to review the constitutionality of laws may be limited by Legislative, which has the power to set the jurisdiction of the courts. The only constitutional limit on Legislative’s power to set the jurisdiction of the judiciary relates to the Supreme Court; the Supreme Court may exercise only appellate jurisdiction except in cases involving states and cases affecting foreign ambassadors, ministers or consuls.
The Chief Justice presides in the Senate during a President's impeachment trial. The rules of the Senate, however, generally do not grant much authority to the presiding officer. Thus, the Chief Justice's role in this regard is a limited one.
Judiciary In Nigeria
6. (1) The judicial powers of the Federation shall be vested in the courts to which this section relates, being courts established for the Federation.
(2) The judicial powers of a State shall be vested in the courts to which this section relates, being courts established, subject as provided by this Constitution, for a State.
(3) The courts to which this section relates, established by this Constitution for the Federation and for the States, specified in subsection (5) (a) to (1) of this section, shall be the only superior courts of record in Nigeria; and save as otherwise prescribed by the National Assembly or by the House of Assembly of a State, each court shall have all the powers of a superior court of record.
(4) Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this section shall be construed as precluding:-
(a) the National Assembly or any House of Assembly from establishing courts, other than those to which this section relates, with subordinate jurisdiction to that of a High Court;
(b) the National Assembly or any House of Assembly, which does not require it, from abolishing any court which it has power to establish or which it has brought into being.
(5) This section relates to:-
(a) the Supreme Court of Nigeria;
(b) the Court of Appeal;
(c) the Federal High Court;
(d) the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja;
(e) a High Court of a State
(f) the Sharia Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja;
(g) a Sharia Court of Appeal of a State;
(h) the Customary Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja;
(i) a Customary Court of Appeal of a State;
(j) such other courts as may be authorised by law to exercise jurisdiction on matters with respect to which the National Assembly may make laws; and
(k) such other court as may be authorised by law to exercise jurisdiction at first instance or on appeal on matters with respect to which a House of Assembly may make laws.
(6) The judicial powers vested in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this section:
(a) shall extend, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Constitution, to all inherent powers and sanctions of a court of law
(b) shall extend, to all matters between persons, or between government or authority and to any persons in Nigeria, and to all actions and proceedings relating thereto, for the determination of any question as to the civil rights and obligations of that person;
(c) shall not except as otherwise provided by this Constitution, extend to any issue or question as to whether any act of omission by any authority or person or as to whether any law or any judicial decision is in conformity with the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy set out in Chapter II of this Constitution;
(d) shall not, as from the date when this section comes into force, extend to any action or proceedings relating to any existing law made on or after 15th January, 1966 for determining any issue or question as to the competence of any authority or person to make any such law.
God Bless Nigeria!
Nigeria Go Better!
To be continued
Rufus Kayode Oteniya (oteniyark@hotmail.com) is the founder of Nigeria Think Tank a Facebook discussion forum created to confront problems confronting us as a people.
Forget the son of whom you are!
It was a normal Wednesday for most people save that it was rainy and a little bit cold but for me, it was a special day. The wet morning would mark the beginning of a life voyage. I was ready to start the first part of a journey that would constantly take me away from home for a long time. My brother and I would be travelling with our uncle to Ilesa - his base - on the day and two days later, on Friday 03.09.76, we would complete the second part of the journey from Ilesa to Efon Alaaye, a hilly town in Ekiti state on the border with Osun state that is about 32 km away from Ilesa. It was a day, I’d been looking forward to see since my dad decided that I would join my brother in the same boarding school.
Having passed the entrance examinations, I have been offered admission to St Charles grammar school, Oshogbo, a catholic secondary schools and C.A.C grammar school, Efon Alaaye. My dad had a dilemma choosing which school I should attend. As a devoted catholic, he had thought I should attend a catholic school in furtherance of his commitment to the faith. Many devoted parents in those days would like their children to attend catholic schools with the hope that one of them would go further to a major seminary to become a nun or a priest. This thought was always a big contemplation in some families especially those from hometown and it was always a pride to produce a monk in the family. I didn’t know why my dad gave up on St Charles but I suspected it must have to do with the fact that my immediate junior brother had already showed interest in being a reverend father even from as early as he could babble words from his buccal cavity. Dad must be giving this a considerable thought and it really helped to remove pressure from the rest of us. For one reason or the other, he ended up not being one.
The choice of Efon Alaaye, according to dad, would afford me the opportunity to acquaint with my root - the birth place of both parents - where I remembered I had visited twice before I went to write the entrance exam and the subsequent interview for the successful candidates. This was the same reason that motivated the enrollment of my senior brother in the same school a year earlier. Thanks to the choice, it gave me the main touch of my place of origin to date.
Finally, as we were set for the journey, dad called us to give us his last words which ended with the phrase ‘remember the sons of whom you are.’ As an 11 year old, I took it in an unthinking way. It didn’t make much meaning to me neither did I inquire. This later became a ritual that I’d be told each and every time that I needed to leave home for school till I was in my third year in the university when daddy would say it to me for the last time before he went to meet his Creator. May his perfect soul continue to rest in perfect peace.
After hearing the phrase a few more time, I inquired from dad why he kept saying this when it was as plain as the nose on my face that I couldn’t forget my father. Dad took time to explain to me that it is the wish of every parent to see their children grow up to be honest, obedient, God-fearing, respectful, hard-working, even-tempered, meticulous, selfless etc. “These are exactly what you see in us - your parents.” Daddy was an embodiment of virtues. He also told me that parents are expected to set good examples and standard for their offspring. They should tell their children the same thing he was telling me so that they would remember the house they come from. Parents expect their children to even better than them.
Many years on, I still remember the son of whom I am. Expectedly, in the course of life, I did a few things that dad mustn’t know about especially in the school but there were so many things mates could do that I couldn’t because my dad’s words keep echoing. Did every parent tell their children this? Are all parents telling their children this? Can all parents tell their children this?
What would some parents be telling their children? What will those stealing government money thereby invoking poverty on the masses tell their children? What will those on the EFCC list tell their children when they remember that their children also read newspapers? What will those reckless and selfish politicians who kill directly or indirectly tell their children? What will those who flaunt ostentation with no legitimate means that support their lifestyle tell their children? What will the money launderers, 419 fraudsters, drug traffickers and addicts; prostitutes, armed robbers, pen robbers, corrupt officers etc tell their children? What will those who have waited for Obama and Hilary Clinton to tell them that they failed their people woefully tell their children? As dad said that it is the wish of every parent to see their children grow up to be honest, obedient, God-fearing, respectful, hard-working….in life, if they want their children to be honest and God-fearing, they have nothing else to tell their children than FORGET THE SON/DAUGHTER OF WHOM YOU ARE!.
What would you tell your son or daughter? Remember or forget the son/daughter of whom you are?
God Bless Nigeria!
Nigeria Go Better!
Rufus Kayode Oteniya (oteniyark@hotmail.com) is the founder of Nigeria Think Tank a Facebook discussion forum created to confront problems confronting us as a people.
Having passed the entrance examinations, I have been offered admission to St Charles grammar school, Oshogbo, a catholic secondary schools and C.A.C grammar school, Efon Alaaye. My dad had a dilemma choosing which school I should attend. As a devoted catholic, he had thought I should attend a catholic school in furtherance of his commitment to the faith. Many devoted parents in those days would like their children to attend catholic schools with the hope that one of them would go further to a major seminary to become a nun or a priest. This thought was always a big contemplation in some families especially those from hometown and it was always a pride to produce a monk in the family. I didn’t know why my dad gave up on St Charles but I suspected it must have to do with the fact that my immediate junior brother had already showed interest in being a reverend father even from as early as he could babble words from his buccal cavity. Dad must be giving this a considerable thought and it really helped to remove pressure from the rest of us. For one reason or the other, he ended up not being one.
The choice of Efon Alaaye, according to dad, would afford me the opportunity to acquaint with my root - the birth place of both parents - where I remembered I had visited twice before I went to write the entrance exam and the subsequent interview for the successful candidates. This was the same reason that motivated the enrollment of my senior brother in the same school a year earlier. Thanks to the choice, it gave me the main touch of my place of origin to date.
Finally, as we were set for the journey, dad called us to give us his last words which ended with the phrase ‘remember the sons of whom you are.’ As an 11 year old, I took it in an unthinking way. It didn’t make much meaning to me neither did I inquire. This later became a ritual that I’d be told each and every time that I needed to leave home for school till I was in my third year in the university when daddy would say it to me for the last time before he went to meet his Creator. May his perfect soul continue to rest in perfect peace.
After hearing the phrase a few more time, I inquired from dad why he kept saying this when it was as plain as the nose on my face that I couldn’t forget my father. Dad took time to explain to me that it is the wish of every parent to see their children grow up to be honest, obedient, God-fearing, respectful, hard-working, even-tempered, meticulous, selfless etc. “These are exactly what you see in us - your parents.” Daddy was an embodiment of virtues. He also told me that parents are expected to set good examples and standard for their offspring. They should tell their children the same thing he was telling me so that they would remember the house they come from. Parents expect their children to even better than them.
Many years on, I still remember the son of whom I am. Expectedly, in the course of life, I did a few things that dad mustn’t know about especially in the school but there were so many things mates could do that I couldn’t because my dad’s words keep echoing. Did every parent tell their children this? Are all parents telling their children this? Can all parents tell their children this?
What would some parents be telling their children? What will those stealing government money thereby invoking poverty on the masses tell their children? What will those on the EFCC list tell their children when they remember that their children also read newspapers? What will those reckless and selfish politicians who kill directly or indirectly tell their children? What will those who flaunt ostentation with no legitimate means that support their lifestyle tell their children? What will the money launderers, 419 fraudsters, drug traffickers and addicts; prostitutes, armed robbers, pen robbers, corrupt officers etc tell their children? What will those who have waited for Obama and Hilary Clinton to tell them that they failed their people woefully tell their children? As dad said that it is the wish of every parent to see their children grow up to be honest, obedient, God-fearing, respectful, hard-working….in life, if they want their children to be honest and God-fearing, they have nothing else to tell their children than FORGET THE SON/DAUGHTER OF WHOM YOU ARE!.
What would you tell your son or daughter? Remember or forget the son/daughter of whom you are?
God Bless Nigeria!
Nigeria Go Better!
Rufus Kayode Oteniya (oteniyark@hotmail.com) is the founder of Nigeria Think Tank a Facebook discussion forum created to confront problems confronting us as a people.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Democracy 101 Part 3 (Forms of Democracy and the Rule of Law)
This is a continuation of the series on ‘Educational Revolution’ which started with ‘Finally, our J.J. Rawlings Is Here ', then ‘Democracy 101 - part 1'and 'Democracy 101 – Part 2 '' with the main objective of highlighting the rights of the electorate and the limit of the power of the elected officers. When the people know their rights and act on them, the revolution is already on the go.
Democracy can be in different forms but bearing to our system, in this piece, we will be discussing, direct, representative and liberal or constitutional democracies.
Direct Democracy
It is a political system where the citizens participate in the decision-making personally, contrary to relying on representatives. This belief is based on the right of every citizen over a certain age to attend political meetings, vote on the issues being discussed at that meeting and accepting the majority decision should such a vote lead to a law being passed which you as an individual did not support.
Part of this belief also, is the right of every one to hold political office if he/she chooses to do so. In this system. everyone has the right to actively participate in the system regardless of religious beliefs, gender, sexual orientation, physical well being etc. Only those who have specifically gone against society are excluded from direct democracy. For example, those in prison have offended the society in some ways and, therefore, their democratic rights are suspended for the duration of their time in prison. Once released, and having ‘learnt a lesson’, their democratic rights are once again restored.
Contemporarily, this form of government is rarely used except in some small societies, usually city-states and some town meetings. However, some bigger societies’ use of referenda or referendums is akin to direct democracy. In Switzerland, about five million voters make decisions through national referenda and initiatives two to four times a year.
Representative Democracy
As opposed to direct democracy, representative democracy is a system where citizens within a country elect representatives to act in their interests, but not as their proxies, that is, not necessarily as directed but with enough authority to exercise initiative in the face of changing circumstances. The people thereby hand over the responsibility of decision and law making to someone else who wishes to be in that position thus excluding themselves from the process of decision making. Each elected representative represents an area called a constituency. If his/her performance is satisfactory, he/she can be re-elected by that constituency at the next election to serve another term.
Representatives are however responsible to their electorate. In this way they are held accountable to them. If they fail to perform they can be removed by the people of their constituency. In this way, the people exercise control over their representatives. If an elected representative’s performance is dissatisfying, he/she may be recalled by his/her constituency.
A representative is usually expected to have a constituency office where the people can voice their opinions on different issues since they play no direct part in the mechanism of decision making.
There is no necessity that individual liberties are respected in a representative democracy. A representative democracy that emphasises individual liberties is called a liberal or constitutional democracy. One that does not is an illiberal democracy.
Liberal Democracy
Nigeria, as well as being a representative democracy, is also a liberal democracy. As written above, a liberal democracy is a form of representative democracy where elected representatives who hold the decision power are moderated by a constitution that emphasises protecting individual liberties and the rights of minorities in the society, such as freedom of speech and assembly, freedom of religion, the right to private property and privacy (within the confines of the law), as well as equality before the law and due process under the rule of law, and many more. “The price of the democratic way of life is a growing appreciation of people's differences, not merely as tolerable, but as the essence of a rich and rewarding human experience.” – Jerome Nathanson
A democracy like ours is usually expected to have a universal suffrage, granting all adult citizens the right to vote regardless of tribe, gender or property ownership. And according to the principles of liberal democracy, the elections should be free and fair, and the political process should be competitive with political pluralism which is usually defined as the presence of multiple and distinct political parties. This makes the fear of the electorate to be the beginning of wisdom.
Separation of powers is another key character of a liberal democracy where the government should be limited in its impact on the citizens and the government should not enjoy arbitrary power. The government is also expected to remove obstacles limiting the well being of people without any exclusion of any group. Usually, the government’s involvement in the economic market of a country should be minimal. The government should be there to deal with problems when needed. The concept of an open society is closely related to liberal democracies.
Rule of law
This is a term that we often hear especially from our government without the government taking time to explain the meaning to us. The government has often claimed to make rule of law and due process her core point of governance.
So what is Rule of law?
The rule of law, also called supremacy of law is a featured characteristic of a constitutional democracy like ours which in its most basic form, is the principle that no one is above the law. This means that the Law is the King that rules. It is a general legal saying according to which decisions should be made by applying known principles or laws, without the use of discretion in their application or any act of will.
The most important application of the rule of law is the principle that governmental authority is legitimately exercised only in accordance with written, publicly disclosed laws adopted and enforced in accordance with established procedural steps that are referred to as due process. The principle is intended to be a safeguard against arbitrary governance, whether by a totalitarian or a democratic leader. Thus, the rule of law is hostile both to dictatorship and to anarchy.
In a society where it functions, the rights of individuals are determined by legal rules and not the arbitrary behaviour of authorities. There can be no punishment unless a court decides there has been a breach of law. Everyone, regardless of his/her position in society, is subject to the law in fairness and with no favour. Another critical feature of the rule of Law is that individual liberties depend on it. Its success depends on the role of impartiality of judges. It also depends on Prerogative Orders in which a case is taken up from an inferior court to a superior one to ensure justice is done. It also prohibits an inferior court from hearing a case it does not have the power to listen to and gives Mandamus orders to an inferior court to carry out its duties.
According to H.L Mencken, “a good politician under democracy is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.” Yes! It is true that there is no perfect democracy and no perfect rule of law but how much democratic is our democracy and how much do we adhere to the principles of the rule of law?
Rule of law is often said than done and the more the people say it, the less they seem to demonstrate the understanding of it. The more the government preach and claim adherence to it, the more events prove they are farther from it. There is no rule of law: where there is selective justice, where the government chooses which law to obey and which one to disobey, where there are human right abuses like extrajudicial killing, where there is no care for human life and happiness but their destruction – isn’t this the first object of a good government?, where there is a failure of budget implementation - suffice to know that a budget is an enacted law, where governors and other representatives cross to other parties without relinquishing their offices, where the government operates excess crude account without any constitutional provision for it, where votes don’t count and no free and fair election; where some are above the law etc. Even though democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions, it guarantees equality of opportunity where there is rule of law.
Where are the twelve northern states governors who adopted the Shari'a penal code: Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Jigawa, Niger, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara. They chose this code that provides harsh sentences for alcohol consumption, amputation for theft; lashing and stoning and for infidelity? By now they should all be amputees because they ALL ended up stealing billions from the State covers. Should some be above the law? Animal Farm!
Re-phrasing the word of Howard Winters, a developing democracy should be a government which gradually increases the number of people included in the term 'we' or 'us' and at the same time decreases those labelled as 'you' or 'them' until that category has no one left in it. It should carry people along.
However, we have seen some considerable improvement in the area of the rule of law by this government if compared to the former government of President Obasanjo but not as much as the government claims.
Nigerians should know that there can be no punishment unless a court decides that there has been a breach of the law i.e. everyone is innocent until proven guilty by a court. They have the right be tried and proclaimed innocent or guilty only by a court of law. The POLICE AND ANY OTHER FORCE have no right to manhandle, torture or beat anyone NEITHER DO THEY HAVE THE RIGHT TO KILL ANYONE except their lives are under intense threat. Your fundamental rights are to be protected under this dispensation. They are not what anyone can give you but what no one can take away from you. The central tenets of democracy are equality and freedom.
God Bless Nigeria!
Nigeria Go Better!
To be continued!
Rufus Kayode Oteniya (oteniyark@hotmail.com) is the founder of Nigeria Think Tank a Facebook discussion forum created to confront problems confronting us as a people.
This article is also published on the following links:
1. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=58221486905&ref=mf#/topic.php?uid=58221486905&topic=10272
2. http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/rufus-kayode-oteniya/democracy-101-part-3-forms-of-democracy-and-the-rule-of.html
3. http://www.pointblanknews.com/artopn1608.html
4. http://article.wn.com/view/WNATE88744367CAAE3E34D2C05E0ED80D80C/
5. http://www.huhuonline.com
6. http://www.championsfornigeria.org/cfn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=410:democracy-101-part-3-forms-of-democracy-and-the-rule-of-law&catid=14:articles&Itemid=35
Democracy can be in different forms but bearing to our system, in this piece, we will be discussing, direct, representative and liberal or constitutional democracies.
Direct Democracy
It is a political system where the citizens participate in the decision-making personally, contrary to relying on representatives. This belief is based on the right of every citizen over a certain age to attend political meetings, vote on the issues being discussed at that meeting and accepting the majority decision should such a vote lead to a law being passed which you as an individual did not support.
Part of this belief also, is the right of every one to hold political office if he/she chooses to do so. In this system. everyone has the right to actively participate in the system regardless of religious beliefs, gender, sexual orientation, physical well being etc. Only those who have specifically gone against society are excluded from direct democracy. For example, those in prison have offended the society in some ways and, therefore, their democratic rights are suspended for the duration of their time in prison. Once released, and having ‘learnt a lesson’, their democratic rights are once again restored.
Contemporarily, this form of government is rarely used except in some small societies, usually city-states and some town meetings. However, some bigger societies’ use of referenda or referendums is akin to direct democracy. In Switzerland, about five million voters make decisions through national referenda and initiatives two to four times a year.
Representative Democracy
As opposed to direct democracy, representative democracy is a system where citizens within a country elect representatives to act in their interests, but not as their proxies, that is, not necessarily as directed but with enough authority to exercise initiative in the face of changing circumstances. The people thereby hand over the responsibility of decision and law making to someone else who wishes to be in that position thus excluding themselves from the process of decision making. Each elected representative represents an area called a constituency. If his/her performance is satisfactory, he/she can be re-elected by that constituency at the next election to serve another term.
Representatives are however responsible to their electorate. In this way they are held accountable to them. If they fail to perform they can be removed by the people of their constituency. In this way, the people exercise control over their representatives. If an elected representative’s performance is dissatisfying, he/she may be recalled by his/her constituency.
A representative is usually expected to have a constituency office where the people can voice their opinions on different issues since they play no direct part in the mechanism of decision making.
There is no necessity that individual liberties are respected in a representative democracy. A representative democracy that emphasises individual liberties is called a liberal or constitutional democracy. One that does not is an illiberal democracy.
Liberal Democracy
Nigeria, as well as being a representative democracy, is also a liberal democracy. As written above, a liberal democracy is a form of representative democracy where elected representatives who hold the decision power are moderated by a constitution that emphasises protecting individual liberties and the rights of minorities in the society, such as freedom of speech and assembly, freedom of religion, the right to private property and privacy (within the confines of the law), as well as equality before the law and due process under the rule of law, and many more. “The price of the democratic way of life is a growing appreciation of people's differences, not merely as tolerable, but as the essence of a rich and rewarding human experience.” – Jerome Nathanson
A democracy like ours is usually expected to have a universal suffrage, granting all adult citizens the right to vote regardless of tribe, gender or property ownership. And according to the principles of liberal democracy, the elections should be free and fair, and the political process should be competitive with political pluralism which is usually defined as the presence of multiple and distinct political parties. This makes the fear of the electorate to be the beginning of wisdom.
Separation of powers is another key character of a liberal democracy where the government should be limited in its impact on the citizens and the government should not enjoy arbitrary power. The government is also expected to remove obstacles limiting the well being of people without any exclusion of any group. Usually, the government’s involvement in the economic market of a country should be minimal. The government should be there to deal with problems when needed. The concept of an open society is closely related to liberal democracies.
Rule of law
This is a term that we often hear especially from our government without the government taking time to explain the meaning to us. The government has often claimed to make rule of law and due process her core point of governance.
So what is Rule of law?
The rule of law, also called supremacy of law is a featured characteristic of a constitutional democracy like ours which in its most basic form, is the principle that no one is above the law. This means that the Law is the King that rules. It is a general legal saying according to which decisions should be made by applying known principles or laws, without the use of discretion in their application or any act of will.
The most important application of the rule of law is the principle that governmental authority is legitimately exercised only in accordance with written, publicly disclosed laws adopted and enforced in accordance with established procedural steps that are referred to as due process. The principle is intended to be a safeguard against arbitrary governance, whether by a totalitarian or a democratic leader. Thus, the rule of law is hostile both to dictatorship and to anarchy.
In a society where it functions, the rights of individuals are determined by legal rules and not the arbitrary behaviour of authorities. There can be no punishment unless a court decides there has been a breach of law. Everyone, regardless of his/her position in society, is subject to the law in fairness and with no favour. Another critical feature of the rule of Law is that individual liberties depend on it. Its success depends on the role of impartiality of judges. It also depends on Prerogative Orders in which a case is taken up from an inferior court to a superior one to ensure justice is done. It also prohibits an inferior court from hearing a case it does not have the power to listen to and gives Mandamus orders to an inferior court to carry out its duties.
According to H.L Mencken, “a good politician under democracy is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.” Yes! It is true that there is no perfect democracy and no perfect rule of law but how much democratic is our democracy and how much do we adhere to the principles of the rule of law?
Rule of law is often said than done and the more the people say it, the less they seem to demonstrate the understanding of it. The more the government preach and claim adherence to it, the more events prove they are farther from it. There is no rule of law: where there is selective justice, where the government chooses which law to obey and which one to disobey, where there are human right abuses like extrajudicial killing, where there is no care for human life and happiness but their destruction – isn’t this the first object of a good government?, where there is a failure of budget implementation - suffice to know that a budget is an enacted law, where governors and other representatives cross to other parties without relinquishing their offices, where the government operates excess crude account without any constitutional provision for it, where votes don’t count and no free and fair election; where some are above the law etc. Even though democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions, it guarantees equality of opportunity where there is rule of law.
Where are the twelve northern states governors who adopted the Shari'a penal code: Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Jigawa, Niger, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara. They chose this code that provides harsh sentences for alcohol consumption, amputation for theft; lashing and stoning and for infidelity? By now they should all be amputees because they ALL ended up stealing billions from the State covers. Should some be above the law? Animal Farm!
Re-phrasing the word of Howard Winters, a developing democracy should be a government which gradually increases the number of people included in the term 'we' or 'us' and at the same time decreases those labelled as 'you' or 'them' until that category has no one left in it. It should carry people along.
However, we have seen some considerable improvement in the area of the rule of law by this government if compared to the former government of President Obasanjo but not as much as the government claims.
Nigerians should know that there can be no punishment unless a court decides that there has been a breach of the law i.e. everyone is innocent until proven guilty by a court. They have the right be tried and proclaimed innocent or guilty only by a court of law. The POLICE AND ANY OTHER FORCE have no right to manhandle, torture or beat anyone NEITHER DO THEY HAVE THE RIGHT TO KILL ANYONE except their lives are under intense threat. Your fundamental rights are to be protected under this dispensation. They are not what anyone can give you but what no one can take away from you. The central tenets of democracy are equality and freedom.
God Bless Nigeria!
Nigeria Go Better!
To be continued!
Rufus Kayode Oteniya (oteniyark@hotmail.com) is the founder of Nigeria Think Tank a Facebook discussion forum created to confront problems confronting us as a people.
This article is also published on the following links:
1. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=58221486905&ref=mf#/topic.php?uid=58221486905&topic=10272
2. http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/rufus-kayode-oteniya/democracy-101-part-3-forms-of-democracy-and-the-rule-of.html
3. http://www.pointblanknews.com/artopn1608.html
4. http://article.wn.com/view/WNATE88744367CAAE3E34D2C05E0ED80D80C/
5. http://www.huhuonline.com
6. http://www.championsfornigeria.org/cfn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=410:democracy-101-part-3-forms-of-democracy-and-the-rule-of-law&catid=14:articles&Itemid=35
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Democracy 101 – Part 2 (Political Party)
This is a continuation of the series on ‘Educational Revolution’ which started with ‘Finally, Our J.J. Rawlings Is Here’ and then ‘Democracy 101 - part 1’ with the main objective of highlighting the rights of the electorate and the limit of the power of the elected officers. When the people know their rights and act on them, the revolution is already on the go.
The series is all about the change that we deserve and desire which will certainly come when we know true democracy and keep ourselves informed. We have to commit ourselves to educate our families, relations, friend, enemies and neighbours to populate the educated camp till the ignorant camp is totally deserted. An individual’s commitment to a group effort is what makes it work. It makes a team work, a society work, a civilization work and a change work. Now is the time for all good people of our great nation to come to the aid of our nascent democracy. Education is all we need for this revolution.
Every great change begins with a dream. We have dreamt dreams and we all have to always remember that we have within us, the required ingredients to reach for the stars and change the world. We have the strength and the passion which are God-given, we only need to activate them! “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future” JFK. Change neither comes from the East or the West nor from the North or the South, it comes from you and I. We are the real CHANGE that Nigeria needs right now. It's our moment to make this country a better place than we met it. We have to work together to confront the problems confronting us as a people. We have to save the nation of our fathers for the sake of our children. I have chosen to be among those who would be rightly judged by posterity. What about you?
Having introduced this topic in part 1, it is pertinent to know that in a democracy, political parties are the bedrock of activities.
A political party is an organised political group formed with the intention to put forward candidates to be elected for government. It seeks to attain and maintain political power by participating in electoral campaigns. A party is expected to be based on ideology and specific visions and goals hence membership should be of people whose political beliefs and interests are geared toward the same ideological direction and principles. Democracy starts at party level where every member is expected to have equal access to a political office through primary elections at the party level. In a democratic election, it is often allowed that different political parties with disparate interests can form a coalition in order to gain power.
In Nigeria today, parties are not often formed on ideological lines rather on selfish and arbitrary interests which are mostly temporal and personal, little wonder we have 54 registered parties and most of them without any clear vision.
We all have political rights that include freedom of political association. This is contrary to the belief in the first and second republics where people from certain zones were erroneously expected to belong to certain political parties and if they did otherwise, they were regarded as rebels, infidels and public enemies. This even degenerated to burning of houses and other properties of the so called ‘infidels’ and in extreme cases, killing. EVERYONE IS FREE TO BE A MEMBER OF ANY REGISTERED POLITICAL PARTY OF CHOICE. In some cases, members of the same family can be divergent politically.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the action film icon turned republican ‘governator’ (a combination of Governor and the Terminator, one of his film roles) of California state has a wife who is not only a descendant of the famous democrat’s family of Kennedy but openly a member of the democratic party. She was even a top contender to replace Hilary Clinton in the Senate before she pulled out after the latter’s appointment as the Secretary of States. Why can’t we tolerate opposing political views and membership? “You cannot grow democracy that does not have opposing point of view; people must be allowed to organize political organisations that argue, that shout, that fight with each other not in the battle field but in the field of ideas. When a ruling party thinks there is no need for the other party’s view, then you are already out of democracy and back into tyranny”. Colin Powell Abuja, Nigeria 03.06.09
A member of a political party is free to leave and join another party but this is not a common scene in a true democracy because people don’t often change in principles and ideologies but it is a common thing in our system as most of the politicians are 100% self-seeking. In a case where a public officer cross-carpets to another party, the Nigerian constitution makes it mandatory for the officer holder to relinquish the office won on the platform of the former political party except when the old party has evidently disintegrated. This is a provision of the constitution that is often breached mostly when it favours the ruling PDP as evident in the recent crossing of the Yuguda, Ohakim and some National Assembly members. They all ate their cakes and still kept them.
What an irony! The President and the Attorney General of the nation who are supposed to be the chief custodian and enforcer of our constitution to which they swore to protect are the chief abusers as they openly embraced this unconstitutional moves. Are they ignorant or they think we are? Constitutionally, those who decamped have technically lost their offices!
Advice: All good meaning Nigerians should join political parties of their choices in order to start making changes right from the grassroots. The problem is not with the parties but with the members. We should join with the mind to be agents of change, to make a difference and to serve in any capacity possible. It so bad that all the people who really know how to run the country are busy doing other things or building other nations! We have left the nation for too long in the hands of middle-of-the-road politicians and marauders whose road-side politics is all about personal interest, looting and no result. If good people ignore politics, bad people will continue to take advantage (as we have now) to make bad laws, bad budgets, bad government and bad system for good people…. To be continued.
In the subsequent parts, different forms of democracy, separation of power, the rule of law and electoral reform will be discussed as they apply to Nigeria.
God Bless Nigeria!
Nigeria Go Better!
This article is also published on the following links:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=58221486905&ref=mf#/topic.php?uid=58221486905&topic=10175
http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com
http://www.huhuonline.com/article159.html
http://www.modernghana.com/news/229401/1/democracy-101-part-1-introduction-by-rufus-kayode-.html
http://www.championsfornigeria.org/cfn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=384:democracy-101--part-1-introduction&catid=14:articles&Itemid=35
http://www.pointblanknews.com/artopn1580.html
The series is all about the change that we deserve and desire which will certainly come when we know true democracy and keep ourselves informed. We have to commit ourselves to educate our families, relations, friend, enemies and neighbours to populate the educated camp till the ignorant camp is totally deserted. An individual’s commitment to a group effort is what makes it work. It makes a team work, a society work, a civilization work and a change work. Now is the time for all good people of our great nation to come to the aid of our nascent democracy. Education is all we need for this revolution.
Every great change begins with a dream. We have dreamt dreams and we all have to always remember that we have within us, the required ingredients to reach for the stars and change the world. We have the strength and the passion which are God-given, we only need to activate them! “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future” JFK. Change neither comes from the East or the West nor from the North or the South, it comes from you and I. We are the real CHANGE that Nigeria needs right now. It's our moment to make this country a better place than we met it. We have to work together to confront the problems confronting us as a people. We have to save the nation of our fathers for the sake of our children. I have chosen to be among those who would be rightly judged by posterity. What about you?
Having introduced this topic in part 1, it is pertinent to know that in a democracy, political parties are the bedrock of activities.
A political party is an organised political group formed with the intention to put forward candidates to be elected for government. It seeks to attain and maintain political power by participating in electoral campaigns. A party is expected to be based on ideology and specific visions and goals hence membership should be of people whose political beliefs and interests are geared toward the same ideological direction and principles. Democracy starts at party level where every member is expected to have equal access to a political office through primary elections at the party level. In a democratic election, it is often allowed that different political parties with disparate interests can form a coalition in order to gain power.
In Nigeria today, parties are not often formed on ideological lines rather on selfish and arbitrary interests which are mostly temporal and personal, little wonder we have 54 registered parties and most of them without any clear vision.
We all have political rights that include freedom of political association. This is contrary to the belief in the first and second republics where people from certain zones were erroneously expected to belong to certain political parties and if they did otherwise, they were regarded as rebels, infidels and public enemies. This even degenerated to burning of houses and other properties of the so called ‘infidels’ and in extreme cases, killing. EVERYONE IS FREE TO BE A MEMBER OF ANY REGISTERED POLITICAL PARTY OF CHOICE. In some cases, members of the same family can be divergent politically.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the action film icon turned republican ‘governator’ (a combination of Governor and the Terminator, one of his film roles) of California state has a wife who is not only a descendant of the famous democrat’s family of Kennedy but openly a member of the democratic party. She was even a top contender to replace Hilary Clinton in the Senate before she pulled out after the latter’s appointment as the Secretary of States. Why can’t we tolerate opposing political views and membership? “You cannot grow democracy that does not have opposing point of view; people must be allowed to organize political organisations that argue, that shout, that fight with each other not in the battle field but in the field of ideas. When a ruling party thinks there is no need for the other party’s view, then you are already out of democracy and back into tyranny”. Colin Powell Abuja, Nigeria 03.06.09
A member of a political party is free to leave and join another party but this is not a common scene in a true democracy because people don’t often change in principles and ideologies but it is a common thing in our system as most of the politicians are 100% self-seeking. In a case where a public officer cross-carpets to another party, the Nigerian constitution makes it mandatory for the officer holder to relinquish the office won on the platform of the former political party except when the old party has evidently disintegrated. This is a provision of the constitution that is often breached mostly when it favours the ruling PDP as evident in the recent crossing of the Yuguda, Ohakim and some National Assembly members. They all ate their cakes and still kept them.
What an irony! The President and the Attorney General of the nation who are supposed to be the chief custodian and enforcer of our constitution to which they swore to protect are the chief abusers as they openly embraced this unconstitutional moves. Are they ignorant or they think we are? Constitutionally, those who decamped have technically lost their offices!
Advice: All good meaning Nigerians should join political parties of their choices in order to start making changes right from the grassroots. The problem is not with the parties but with the members. We should join with the mind to be agents of change, to make a difference and to serve in any capacity possible. It so bad that all the people who really know how to run the country are busy doing other things or building other nations! We have left the nation for too long in the hands of middle-of-the-road politicians and marauders whose road-side politics is all about personal interest, looting and no result. If good people ignore politics, bad people will continue to take advantage (as we have now) to make bad laws, bad budgets, bad government and bad system for good people…. To be continued.
In the subsequent parts, different forms of democracy, separation of power, the rule of law and electoral reform will be discussed as they apply to Nigeria.
God Bless Nigeria!
Nigeria Go Better!
This article is also published on the following links:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=58221486905&ref=mf#/topic.php?uid=58221486905&topic=10175
http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com
http://www.huhuonline.com/article159.html
http://www.modernghana.com/news/229401/1/democracy-101-part-1-introduction-by-rufus-kayode-.html
http://www.championsfornigeria.org/cfn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=384:democracy-101--part-1-introduction&catid=14:articles&Itemid=35
http://www.pointblanknews.com/artopn1580.html
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Democracy 101 – Part 1 (Introduction)
In my last article entitled “finally, our J.J. Rawlings is here” I promised to start the series ‘Democracy 101’ out of concern for somewhat misconception and incomprehension of our democracy with the main objective of highlighting the rights of the electorate and the limit of the power of the elected officers. When the people know their rights and act on them, the revolution is already on the go. According to Voltaire, the 17th century French enlightenment writer “so long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.”
Our democracy will not work unless we know true democracy and keep ourselves informed. George Orwell, the famed author of ‘animal farm once said “in a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” Now is the time for all good people of our great nation to come to the aid of our nascent democracy. Education is all we need for the revolution. In order to refresh a little, I’d like to quote two paragraphs from my last article.
“We have failed to understand this democracy. Historically, having been subjected for too long to the authoritarian monarchs and dictatorial military rule, we have forgotten that we are under a new dispensation. First we have had the monarchs – Obas, Igwes, Emirs etc - who were lords. The owned the land, owned everything and everyone in the land. They could do and undo. A king could take over your wife or any other possession from you at will. You were not allowed to question the legality or the authority of the king and if you did, the penalty could be as severe as a death sentence. We were also under the military regime for most part of our national life as a an independent nation. Under the military, the rulers had absolute power and we seem to have been accustomed to being under authoritarian rule.”
“In 1999, the same old military dictators who have seized power for all but four years between 1966-1999 only changed their military regalia for civilian ‘kaftan and agbada’ pretending to be democratic leaders. It is natural of them to pretend not to understand democracy and democratic values in the real sense, it unnatural of us to allow and watch them take away our inalienable rights unchallenged. ‘A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no one can take away from you.’ Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will. We are to let them know that a democracy that cannot serve the electorate can never save the elected.”
What is democracy?
Democracy is the most bastardised of all political terms in the modern world. It is often used by most governments including the obvious tyranny to make believe that their political system is democratic. Every government is democratic in principle but in practice, only a few are close to it.
There is no universally acceptable definition of democracy but whichever way one defines democracy, some key elements cannot be excluded. Democracy guarantees equal access for all to the government that is ensuring the voting right of everyone who is eligible in choosing the leaders or be chosen as a leader. Democracy is mostly defined as the government of the people by the people or chosen by the people and for the people. It can simply be described as a form of government in which the people have a say in who should hold power and how power should be used.
In a democracy, the right to govern is vested in the citizens of the country or a state or a local government and it is exercised directly or indirectly through a majority rule. This is usually done through competitive elections that are essentially expected to be free and fair in which one man has one vote and every vote counts. In addition, freedom of political expression, freedom of speech and freedom of the press are essential so that citizens are informed and are able to vote in their best interests. While the majority rules, in a functioning democracy, the rights of the minority is always protected.
Democracy must guarantee the declaration in Article 1 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which states that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” In essence, the fundamental human rights must be guaranteed within the limit of the law. These are the basic rights and freedoms which form the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world to which all humans are entitled. These include civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of expression, and equality before the law; and economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to participate in culture, the right to food, the right to work, and the right to education.
Democracy is more than simply "one-man, one-vote." True democracy takes for granted that the general outlook on life, the sense of identity, and the interests of the individuals acting in co-operation are similar enough for a community, and a nation, to be formed. This sense of sameness allows a political consensus to be maintained. Those who have been out-voted by the majority will still feel sufficiently part of the overall electorate in order to agree to the majority decision. Where a consensus is lacking, the out-voted will feel a sense of oppression and "one-man, one-vote democracy" will become the tyranny of the majority otherwise it becomes nothing more than a gang rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine percent.
A functioning democracy has to ensure a distribution of power with balances as in the ‘separation of powers’ in such a way that too much power is not concentrated into one hand such that it will not cause an abuse of power. Even though democracy is synonymous to a political state, it’s principle can also be applicable to private organisations, associations and other groups such as trade unions.
Democracy In Nigeria
Having introduced democracy, I would like to compare the ideal elements with what we have on the ground in Nigeria looking at the following points:
Election: As stated above, a key element of democracy is guaranteeing the voting rights of the citizenry through a free and fair election where every vote counts. This feature of democracy still seems to be a tall dream to us considering that the polls which brought Yar'Adua to power over two years ago were so marred with irregularities, intimidation and vote-rigging such that the president had to agreed such. And more recently, the chaotic re-run of governorship elections in Ekiti state showed no sign that the electoral system has improved, suggesting the next presidential polls in 2011 could be just as messy as the last if we do not act now.
Equal Access to Election: All eligible citizens should have equal access to voting and being voted for from the party level to the main inter-party election. The current campaign being spearheaded by the senate president David Mark that the PDP senators should have automatic return is a direct breach of democratic principle denying others the access to contest for senate. The same call is also being made by first term governors of the same party.
Human Right: Our human rights record remains poor and government officials at all levels continue to commit serious abuses of office. There are extrajudicial killings and use of excessive force by security forces; impunity for abuses by security forces; arbitrary arrests and threats to journalist; prolonged pre-trial detention; political corruption and executive influence on the judiciary; torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners, detainees and suspects; harsh and life‑threatening prison conditions; vigilante killings; infringement of privacy rights; and the abridgement of the right of citizens to change the government.
In the next piece, different forms of democracy, separation of power and the rule of law will be discussed as they apply to Nigeria.
God Bless Nigeria!
Nigeria Go Better!
Rufus Kayode Oteniya (oteniyark@hotmail.com) is the founder of Nigeria Think Tank a Facebook discussion forum created to confront problems confronting us as a people.
This article is also published on the following links:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=58221486905&ref=mf#/topic.php?uid=58221486905&topic=10073
http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/rufus-kayode-oteniya/democracy-101-part-1-introduc.html
http://www.huhuonline.com/article156.html
http://www.pointblanknews.com/artopn1561.html
http://www.modernghana.com/news/229401/1/democracy-101-part-1-introduction-by-rufus-kayode-.html
http://www.championsfornigeria.org/cfn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=384:democracy-101--part-1-introduction&catid=14:articles&Itemid=35
Our democracy will not work unless we know true democracy and keep ourselves informed. George Orwell, the famed author of ‘animal farm once said “in a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” Now is the time for all good people of our great nation to come to the aid of our nascent democracy. Education is all we need for the revolution. In order to refresh a little, I’d like to quote two paragraphs from my last article.
“We have failed to understand this democracy. Historically, having been subjected for too long to the authoritarian monarchs and dictatorial military rule, we have forgotten that we are under a new dispensation. First we have had the monarchs – Obas, Igwes, Emirs etc - who were lords. The owned the land, owned everything and everyone in the land. They could do and undo. A king could take over your wife or any other possession from you at will. You were not allowed to question the legality or the authority of the king and if you did, the penalty could be as severe as a death sentence. We were also under the military regime for most part of our national life as a an independent nation. Under the military, the rulers had absolute power and we seem to have been accustomed to being under authoritarian rule.”
“In 1999, the same old military dictators who have seized power for all but four years between 1966-1999 only changed their military regalia for civilian ‘kaftan and agbada’ pretending to be democratic leaders. It is natural of them to pretend not to understand democracy and democratic values in the real sense, it unnatural of us to allow and watch them take away our inalienable rights unchallenged. ‘A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no one can take away from you.’ Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will. We are to let them know that a democracy that cannot serve the electorate can never save the elected.”
What is democracy?
Democracy is the most bastardised of all political terms in the modern world. It is often used by most governments including the obvious tyranny to make believe that their political system is democratic. Every government is democratic in principle but in practice, only a few are close to it.
There is no universally acceptable definition of democracy but whichever way one defines democracy, some key elements cannot be excluded. Democracy guarantees equal access for all to the government that is ensuring the voting right of everyone who is eligible in choosing the leaders or be chosen as a leader. Democracy is mostly defined as the government of the people by the people or chosen by the people and for the people. It can simply be described as a form of government in which the people have a say in who should hold power and how power should be used.
In a democracy, the right to govern is vested in the citizens of the country or a state or a local government and it is exercised directly or indirectly through a majority rule. This is usually done through competitive elections that are essentially expected to be free and fair in which one man has one vote and every vote counts. In addition, freedom of political expression, freedom of speech and freedom of the press are essential so that citizens are informed and are able to vote in their best interests. While the majority rules, in a functioning democracy, the rights of the minority is always protected.
Democracy must guarantee the declaration in Article 1 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which states that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” In essence, the fundamental human rights must be guaranteed within the limit of the law. These are the basic rights and freedoms which form the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world to which all humans are entitled. These include civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of expression, and equality before the law; and economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to participate in culture, the right to food, the right to work, and the right to education.
Democracy is more than simply "one-man, one-vote." True democracy takes for granted that the general outlook on life, the sense of identity, and the interests of the individuals acting in co-operation are similar enough for a community, and a nation, to be formed. This sense of sameness allows a political consensus to be maintained. Those who have been out-voted by the majority will still feel sufficiently part of the overall electorate in order to agree to the majority decision. Where a consensus is lacking, the out-voted will feel a sense of oppression and "one-man, one-vote democracy" will become the tyranny of the majority otherwise it becomes nothing more than a gang rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine percent.
A functioning democracy has to ensure a distribution of power with balances as in the ‘separation of powers’ in such a way that too much power is not concentrated into one hand such that it will not cause an abuse of power. Even though democracy is synonymous to a political state, it’s principle can also be applicable to private organisations, associations and other groups such as trade unions.
Democracy In Nigeria
Having introduced democracy, I would like to compare the ideal elements with what we have on the ground in Nigeria looking at the following points:
Election: As stated above, a key element of democracy is guaranteeing the voting rights of the citizenry through a free and fair election where every vote counts. This feature of democracy still seems to be a tall dream to us considering that the polls which brought Yar'Adua to power over two years ago were so marred with irregularities, intimidation and vote-rigging such that the president had to agreed such. And more recently, the chaotic re-run of governorship elections in Ekiti state showed no sign that the electoral system has improved, suggesting the next presidential polls in 2011 could be just as messy as the last if we do not act now.
Equal Access to Election: All eligible citizens should have equal access to voting and being voted for from the party level to the main inter-party election. The current campaign being spearheaded by the senate president David Mark that the PDP senators should have automatic return is a direct breach of democratic principle denying others the access to contest for senate. The same call is also being made by first term governors of the same party.
Human Right: Our human rights record remains poor and government officials at all levels continue to commit serious abuses of office. There are extrajudicial killings and use of excessive force by security forces; impunity for abuses by security forces; arbitrary arrests and threats to journalist; prolonged pre-trial detention; political corruption and executive influence on the judiciary; torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners, detainees and suspects; harsh and life‑threatening prison conditions; vigilante killings; infringement of privacy rights; and the abridgement of the right of citizens to change the government.
In the next piece, different forms of democracy, separation of power and the rule of law will be discussed as they apply to Nigeria.
God Bless Nigeria!
Nigeria Go Better!
Rufus Kayode Oteniya (oteniyark@hotmail.com) is the founder of Nigeria Think Tank a Facebook discussion forum created to confront problems confronting us as a people.
This article is also published on the following links:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=58221486905&ref=mf#/topic.php?uid=58221486905&topic=10073
http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/rufus-kayode-oteniya/democracy-101-part-1-introduc.html
http://www.huhuonline.com/article156.html
http://www.pointblanknews.com/artopn1561.html
http://www.modernghana.com/news/229401/1/democracy-101-part-1-introduction-by-rufus-kayode-.html
http://www.championsfornigeria.org/cfn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=384:democracy-101--part-1-introduction&catid=14:articles&Itemid=35
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Finally, Our J.J. Rawlings Is Here. The Beginning Of A Revolution
Warning: In order to understand this article fully, you would need to read the whole piece. It is about intellectual revolution!
I have no doubt in my mind just like most Nigerians that we need a revolution in order to get out of this anarchic state that has swallowed up our great nation. I also agreed with many who were calling for our own Jerry John Rawlings to come out from obscurity to slaughter all our ‘public enemies’ and rid the nation of the undesirable looters that are evidently all over the place pretending to be leaders but unlike most people and unknown to all, because I knew I could really change the world if I care enough, I even volunteered to be our own J. J. Rawlings with a set date in my mind to start the onslaught.
The Ghanaian full blown bloody revolution led by Jerry Rawlings’ Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) on 4 June1979 led to the ousting of the Supreme Military Council from office and the executions of some former military dictators. Ignatius Kutu Acheamphong, Akwasi Afrifa, and Fred Akuffo were killed. Five other generals - Joy Amedume, Yaw Boakye, Roger Felli, Kotei, and Utuka - were also put to death. And without the involvement of the both Rawlings and AFRC, some Supreme Court Justices Kwadjo Agyei Agyepong, Frederick Sarkodie, and Cecilia Koranteng Addo, as well as two other military officers, Major Sam Acquah, and Major Dasana Nantogmah were also executed in a vengeful killing. The perpetrators were later apprehended and executed by firing squad. Rawlings also later carried out a much wider "house-cleaning exercise" aimed at purging the armed forces and society at large of corruption and graft as well as restoring a sense of moral responsibility and accountability in public life. In all less than 40 people directly or indirectly became the victims of Ghanaian bloody revolution.
As the day drew nigh, I began to plan my strategies, compiling the list of those to be eliminated and the list kept growing overwhelmingly for a lone ranger like me. I have already got over 2000 names of serving and former office holders at the federal level that I deemed in my opinion to be corrupt. This list included present and past Commander In Chief – substantial and interim, their Deputies and First Ladies; Federal Ministers, Special/Senior Advisers, - Special/Senior Assistant, Permanent Secretaries, Director Generals, Directors, Chairmen of Parastatals, Federal Contractors and members of the National Assembly. I have also compiled over 30,000 names of equivalent officers at the State level, 40,000 at the local government level. Since I was vey serious about the cleansing of the society and I didn’t want to leave any room for chance, I wondered what I should do to the over 50 million corrupt Nigerian adults especially those in the urban areas who give, demand and receive bribes, who make living through corrupt and illegitimate practices and who do not live by the rule of ethics. “They all have to go!” I said to myself.
After considering the enormity of the task ahead, not only will it take eternity for me to exterminate these unwanted citizens but I also found my name on the list, then, I knew I have to change my stratagem. Shedding of the blood of a few may have worked in Ghana but can never work in our own nation owing to the profundity and extent of corruption in the system that has caused Nigeria to be inducted by Transparent International (TI) into the Corruption Hall of Fame (CHF).
In the quest for a change of strategy, I have pondered so deeply in the last few days to diagnose the real problem with the Nigerian politics and politicians. I began to wonder why we are where we are today, what is it that others do right and we do wrongly, why are the politicians so heartless and careless about the plight of the people and why can’t they change for better with the world? Why do we hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office? Why have we forgotten that a free society that cannot help the many who are poor can never save the few who are rich?
After a very long careful and deep reflection, I found out that our politicians are ok, they are rational, they are doing what the people expect them to do. The filching leaders are not the problems of Nigeria, the corrupt politicians are not to blame for the sorry state of the nation. Those siphoning the national treasures and pilfering the commonwealth are not the problems of Nigeria. The government is not the problem, the governed are. Everyone thinks of changing the people in government, but no one thinks of changing oneself. “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek” Barack Obama
We are the change that will change the status quo. We are the change that will change the political class because we are the ones failing in our capacity to use the constitutional power bestowed on us. As soon as we do, they public servants will cease to be public bosses. We have given up the right to challenge and demand accountability from the leaders who are there to serve us. We have failed to realise that we are the employer and until we stand to our responsibility, things will continue to get worse. If only we pay attention and act, we will get good government and good leadership that we desperately desire. An average Nigerian does not care to be free. He simply wants to be safe. Even to those who think they are free, I’d like to quote Goethe “none are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free.”
We have failed to understand this democracy. Historically, having been subjected for too long to the authoritarian monarchs and dictatorial military rule, we have forgotten that we are under a new dispensation. First we have had the monarchs – Obas, Igwes, Emirs etc - who were lords. The owned the land, owned everything and everyone in the land. They could do and undo. A king could take over your wife or any other possession from you at will. You were not allowed to question the legality or the authority of the king and if you did, the penalty could be as severe as a death sentence. We were also under the military regime for most part of our national life as a an independent nation. Under the military, the rulers had absolute power and we seem to have been accustomed to being under authoritarian rule.
In 1999, the same old military dictators only changed their military regalia for civilian ‘kaftan and agbada’ pretending to be democratic leaders. It is natural of them to make believe not to understand democracy and democratic values in the real sense, it unnatural of us to allow and watch them take away our inalienable rights unchallenged. ‘A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no one can take from you.’ Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will. We are to let them know that a democracy that cannot serve the electorate can never save the elected.
“No one should negotiate their dreams. Dreams must be free to flee and fly high. No government, no legislature, has a right to limit your dreams. You should never agree to surrender your dreams” Rev. Jesse Jackson
I still believe in revolution but no more bloody but intellectual. I will no longer be the lone ranger, 140 million Jerry Rawlings will be involved. Our weapons will no longer be arms but from our intellectual arsenal. It is called education. Our revolution shall be called EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION. We shall educate the people of their rights and educate the office holders of their limits. When people know their rights, no one can easy take them away. Education is the most powerful weapon which we can use to change Nigeria and with it, we can overthrow the status quo.
“A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the sound of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.” Jawaharlal Nehru
Democracy is certainly alien to us but having lived about 20 years in a functioning democracy, I think I will be able to be a Rawlings. I shall be making a follow up to this piece with a series called DEMOCRACY 101 where every practical thing we need to know about democracy will be exhaustively discussed. Watch out every Wednesday!
God Bless Nigeria!
Nigeria Go Better!
Rufus Kayode Oteniya (oteniyark@hotmail.com) is the founder of Nigeria Think Tank a Facebook discussion forum created to confront problems confronting us as a people.
This article is also published on the following links:
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=58221486905&topic=9943
http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/rufus-kayode-oteniya/finally-our-j.j.-rawlings-is-here.-the-beginning-of-a-revol.html
http://pointblanknews.com/artopn1524.html
http://nigeriathinktank.blogspot.com/2009/07/finally-our-jj-rawlings-is-here.html
http://www.championsfornigeria.org/cfn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=376:finally-our-jj-rawlings-is-here-the-beginning-of-a-revolution&catid=14:articles&Itemid=35
I have no doubt in my mind just like most Nigerians that we need a revolution in order to get out of this anarchic state that has swallowed up our great nation. I also agreed with many who were calling for our own Jerry John Rawlings to come out from obscurity to slaughter all our ‘public enemies’ and rid the nation of the undesirable looters that are evidently all over the place pretending to be leaders but unlike most people and unknown to all, because I knew I could really change the world if I care enough, I even volunteered to be our own J. J. Rawlings with a set date in my mind to start the onslaught.
The Ghanaian full blown bloody revolution led by Jerry Rawlings’ Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) on 4 June1979 led to the ousting of the Supreme Military Council from office and the executions of some former military dictators. Ignatius Kutu Acheamphong, Akwasi Afrifa, and Fred Akuffo were killed. Five other generals - Joy Amedume, Yaw Boakye, Roger Felli, Kotei, and Utuka - were also put to death. And without the involvement of the both Rawlings and AFRC, some Supreme Court Justices Kwadjo Agyei Agyepong, Frederick Sarkodie, and Cecilia Koranteng Addo, as well as two other military officers, Major Sam Acquah, and Major Dasana Nantogmah were also executed in a vengeful killing. The perpetrators were later apprehended and executed by firing squad. Rawlings also later carried out a much wider "house-cleaning exercise" aimed at purging the armed forces and society at large of corruption and graft as well as restoring a sense of moral responsibility and accountability in public life. In all less than 40 people directly or indirectly became the victims of Ghanaian bloody revolution.
As the day drew nigh, I began to plan my strategies, compiling the list of those to be eliminated and the list kept growing overwhelmingly for a lone ranger like me. I have already got over 2000 names of serving and former office holders at the federal level that I deemed in my opinion to be corrupt. This list included present and past Commander In Chief – substantial and interim, their Deputies and First Ladies; Federal Ministers, Special/Senior Advisers, - Special/Senior Assistant, Permanent Secretaries, Director Generals, Directors, Chairmen of Parastatals, Federal Contractors and members of the National Assembly. I have also compiled over 30,000 names of equivalent officers at the State level, 40,000 at the local government level. Since I was vey serious about the cleansing of the society and I didn’t want to leave any room for chance, I wondered what I should do to the over 50 million corrupt Nigerian adults especially those in the urban areas who give, demand and receive bribes, who make living through corrupt and illegitimate practices and who do not live by the rule of ethics. “They all have to go!” I said to myself.
After considering the enormity of the task ahead, not only will it take eternity for me to exterminate these unwanted citizens but I also found my name on the list, then, I knew I have to change my stratagem. Shedding of the blood of a few may have worked in Ghana but can never work in our own nation owing to the profundity and extent of corruption in the system that has caused Nigeria to be inducted by Transparent International (TI) into the Corruption Hall of Fame (CHF).
In the quest for a change of strategy, I have pondered so deeply in the last few days to diagnose the real problem with the Nigerian politics and politicians. I began to wonder why we are where we are today, what is it that others do right and we do wrongly, why are the politicians so heartless and careless about the plight of the people and why can’t they change for better with the world? Why do we hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office? Why have we forgotten that a free society that cannot help the many who are poor can never save the few who are rich?
After a very long careful and deep reflection, I found out that our politicians are ok, they are rational, they are doing what the people expect them to do. The filching leaders are not the problems of Nigeria, the corrupt politicians are not to blame for the sorry state of the nation. Those siphoning the national treasures and pilfering the commonwealth are not the problems of Nigeria. The government is not the problem, the governed are. Everyone thinks of changing the people in government, but no one thinks of changing oneself. “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek” Barack Obama
We are the change that will change the status quo. We are the change that will change the political class because we are the ones failing in our capacity to use the constitutional power bestowed on us. As soon as we do, they public servants will cease to be public bosses. We have given up the right to challenge and demand accountability from the leaders who are there to serve us. We have failed to realise that we are the employer and until we stand to our responsibility, things will continue to get worse. If only we pay attention and act, we will get good government and good leadership that we desperately desire. An average Nigerian does not care to be free. He simply wants to be safe. Even to those who think they are free, I’d like to quote Goethe “none are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free.”
We have failed to understand this democracy. Historically, having been subjected for too long to the authoritarian monarchs and dictatorial military rule, we have forgotten that we are under a new dispensation. First we have had the monarchs – Obas, Igwes, Emirs etc - who were lords. The owned the land, owned everything and everyone in the land. They could do and undo. A king could take over your wife or any other possession from you at will. You were not allowed to question the legality or the authority of the king and if you did, the penalty could be as severe as a death sentence. We were also under the military regime for most part of our national life as a an independent nation. Under the military, the rulers had absolute power and we seem to have been accustomed to being under authoritarian rule.
In 1999, the same old military dictators only changed their military regalia for civilian ‘kaftan and agbada’ pretending to be democratic leaders. It is natural of them to make believe not to understand democracy and democratic values in the real sense, it unnatural of us to allow and watch them take away our inalienable rights unchallenged. ‘A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no one can take from you.’ Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will. We are to let them know that a democracy that cannot serve the electorate can never save the elected.
“No one should negotiate their dreams. Dreams must be free to flee and fly high. No government, no legislature, has a right to limit your dreams. You should never agree to surrender your dreams” Rev. Jesse Jackson
I still believe in revolution but no more bloody but intellectual. I will no longer be the lone ranger, 140 million Jerry Rawlings will be involved. Our weapons will no longer be arms but from our intellectual arsenal. It is called education. Our revolution shall be called EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION. We shall educate the people of their rights and educate the office holders of their limits. When people know their rights, no one can easy take them away. Education is the most powerful weapon which we can use to change Nigeria and with it, we can overthrow the status quo.
“A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the sound of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.” Jawaharlal Nehru
Democracy is certainly alien to us but having lived about 20 years in a functioning democracy, I think I will be able to be a Rawlings. I shall be making a follow up to this piece with a series called DEMOCRACY 101 where every practical thing we need to know about democracy will be exhaustively discussed. Watch out every Wednesday!
God Bless Nigeria!
Nigeria Go Better!
Rufus Kayode Oteniya (oteniyark@hotmail.com) is the founder of Nigeria Think Tank a Facebook discussion forum created to confront problems confronting us as a people.
This article is also published on the following links:
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=58221486905&topic=9943
http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/rufus-kayode-oteniya/finally-our-j.j.-rawlings-is-here.-the-beginning-of-a-revol.html
http://pointblanknews.com/artopn1524.html
http://nigeriathinktank.blogspot.com/2009/07/finally-our-jj-rawlings-is-here.html
http://www.championsfornigeria.org/cfn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=376:finally-our-jj-rawlings-is-here-the-beginning-of-a-revolution&catid=14:articles&Itemid=35
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
A Dream For My Fatherland
Nigeria is what it is today because we want it so, we can change it if we choose. Change requires action and it starts with changing oneself. We can change the whole world, if we all change ourselves. We need to change from being indifferent. According to Albert Einstein, “the world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” When good men do nothing, evil shall surely prevail.
In order to achieve a desired change, we need to move from talking to acting. A talk cannot move an object, only an action can do. An action is a finished product of a dream. We need to dream dreams, we need to plan, we need to believe and we need to act in order to have a ‘change we can believe’. There can be no plan without a dream as there can never be a successful action without believing.
A dream gives a clear vision of the future. As yesterday was the birthplace of today, a dream is the birthplace of the future and a dream is the mother of an action. Benjamin Disraeli asserted that “action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.”
In about three months, Nigeria will 49 years old as an independent nation. Many years with very little to show economically, politically and otherwise. In these years, the landscape of our history has been dominated mostly by challenging stories like corruption, civil war, wasted resources, military coup, ethnic violence, leadership failure, lack of infrastructure, brain drain, 419, Niger Delta palaver, indolent leaders etc.
Our potential remains only a potential. Our challenges endure but fail to paralyse us, they're supposed to help us discover who we are. According to Harriet Beecher “when you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn,”
Through it all, we have kept our sanity, we see life the way it should be and not the way it is. In our defeat, we dream victory. In our despair, we chose hope which make every good thing possible. Our God-given inner strength gives us courage to carry on and continue to be hopeful. Our dream is fast becoming a reality, we can see it at the corner, we can smell her fragrance, we can hear the elegant steps of her feet in quiet and we are nostalgic of the arrival. Even when all seemed bleak, we chose to overcome fear, overcome uncertainty, overcome peril, overcome injustice, overcome threat while continuing to avow to ourselves that life with all its troubles can be good hence ‘suffering and smiling’ that everything is meaningful even if in a sense beyond our understanding; and that there is always a bright tomorrow to cover the sad yesterday.
In the midst of these negativities, I still have positive dream for fatherland. I have a dream that my fellow countrymen will rise to defend the country of their fathers to give reasons for hope to their children as Nigeria shall stand tall, rise and be reckoned with in the comity of great nations.
I have a dream that my people shall coexist harmoniously; communal rivalry, religious intolerance and clash shall belong to the past, Niger Delta shall see peace and prosperity again and the Hausas, Ibos, Yorubas, Ijaws and all other tribes shall be one another’s keepers.
I have a dream that my country shall no longer depend on what is under the feet of her people but what is up in their heads. Natural resources shall no longer be the mainstay but agriculture, industrial production and services.
I have a dream that our sons and daughters will leave the countries of their birth in Europe and America and ask after the country of their ancestors which they shall be proud to call theirs.
I have a dream that every vote of the electorate shall count; from the half-naked woman protesting in Ekiti, to the covered Purdah in Sokoto, from the powerful in Abuja to the ordinary man in Zaria, from the market man in Aba to the businessman in Yola, from the student in Ibadan to the professor in Nsukka and from the urban man in Lagos to the ‘natural woman’ in Koma.
I have a dream that our Moses shall lead us out of the wilderness of poverty and from the Red Sea of corruption, our David shall slain Goliath who is feeding fat on the nation’s commonwealth, our Elijah will command fire on all the prophets of Baal holding the nation down and our Samson shall cause havoc in the camp of those squandering and pilfering our resources and the marauders we see today, we shall see them no more.
I have a dream that Nigeria will be ruled by men of noble character who are prepared to take us to the promised land and no more animals in human skin (apology to Fela Anikulapo Kuti), no more by the dumbest, no more by the weakest, no more by the sick and no more by the reluctant presidents. The days of the indecisive government are numbered.
I have a dream that our democracy will be democratic, our constitution will be constitutional and our Aso Rock Presidential Villa shall cease to be Ass hol* Rock Villa.
I have a dream that our leaders shall know that leadership is a call to service and not a call to be bosses, our executive will no longer be executhief, they will not only wield power but also generate power such that everyone of us can turn to the corner of our rooms and say let there be light and there shall be light.
I have a dream that the legislature shall make laws for the benefit and protection of the all and not only to increase their own salaries and allowances. The shall know the difference between constituency allowance and personal allowance.
I have a dream that the judiciary shall be judicious and no more pervert the law, they shall look unto the constitution and laws of the land to judge cases and not towards Aso Rock Villa and they shall prosecute and not persecute.
I have a dream that INEC will be truly independent of the executive, The Police shall not be agent of the oppressor but friend of the people. They shall gracefully perform their duties without asking for ‘egunje.’The military shall defend and not invade our fatherland, the civil and public servants shall serve their fatherland wholeheartedly without filching the public funds and Attorney General shall no more assault the constitution.
I have a dream that the poor masses shall no more be guilty until proven innocent, they shall join the high-ranking to be innocent until proven guilty. The prisons shall no more be filled with petty offenders while the major thieves are power brokers who dine and wine in the seats of the government.
This is my dream for fatherland, it is your dream and our dream for motherland. If it is our dream, then we must sustain it to reality. This change’s real! Dreaming may be easy, action may be difficult but putting a dream into an action is the most complicated thing in the world but with God on our side, our dream shall come to be.
Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the harvest and the playtime. W.E.B. Du Bois
The time to act is no other but now. We do not need to wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. If we fail, our dream shall be dream and our vision shall be vision and our world shall remain the same. Certainly, the cost of our action shall be huge but the cost of inaction shall even be more. There can never be any gain without pain.
Those who profess to favour freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will. Frederick Douglass
As charity starts from home, our action shall start with the people closest to us. Let us educate the people in our families, neighbourhood and grassroots of their inalienable rights. No one shall sell his voting right for a bowl of porridge.
We shall encourage and support the good people among us especially the youth to go into politics and for elective positions, if they fail, the bad ones whose affinity for power is inexhaustible will continue to dominate the political climate. Voting and being voted for; are not only our civil duties but also our constitutional rights.
"The ball is now in your court...Election is still two years away...What is wrong in identifying now your candidates and beginning to mobilise support for them...Why can't you invade your homeland...Use your mobile telephones now to mobilise the people and guard democracy... the way Barrack Obama used the Internet technology to mobilise the youths to strengthen democracy... Mobilise the youths to guard the ballot boxes from start to finish...Defend the vote, nobody is going to do it for you..." Prof. Wole Soyinka.
We shall foster the unity of all progressive groups and protect our destiny against the ‘do or die’ policy of the incumbent, organise mass action against any breach of our collective will. No passive people can expect a change. We have talked, we have praised, we have criticized, we have waited but we haven’t acted. We must act and now is the time.
This is a call on all good people of this great Nation! A thousand words are not as effective as one action. A thousand good intentions are not as good as one action. In recent time, the power in mass action or protest has been more revolutionary than any bloody guerrilla. No government can stand against the power of the masses. Demonstrations by the nationalist group in 2006 caused the ousting of the corrupt prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand. The 1989 Tiananmen Square protests resulted in the opening up of China though much is still left to be desired especially in the area of human rights. A mass protest that started from a remote village led to the end of the repressive communist leader Nikolai Ceausescu of Romania and after the assassination of Benigno Aquino, a political opponent and a tainted presidential election The People Power Revolution in February 1986 removed the authoritarian Ferdinand Marcos of Philippines. The recent event in Madagascar and the current protest in Iran are other testimonies to the power of the people. All these shall amount to nothing compared to what shall happen in motherland.
Our dream will take us on a journey for which we do not know the end but certainly, we shall not return to the starting point. Our action shall take us to war with the enemy but our weapons shall not be guns and matchets but all from our intellectual arsenal. Our action shall be like a road in the countryside where there was never a road but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence. A change has come!
If you share the dream, spread it.
God Bless Nigeria!
Nigeria Go Better!
Rufus Kayode Oteniya (oteniyark@hotmail.com) is the founder of Nigeria Think Tank a Facebook discussion forum created to confront problems confronting us as a people.
This article is also published on the following links:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=58221486905&ref=mf#/topic.php?uid=58221486905&topic=9655
http://nigeriathinktank.blogspot.com/
http://pointblanknews.com/artopn1457.html
http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/rufus-kayode-oteniya/a-dream-for-my-fatherland.html
http://huhuonline.com/specialletter49.html
http://www.modernghana.com/news2/223471/1/a-dream-for-my-fatherland-.html
In order to achieve a desired change, we need to move from talking to acting. A talk cannot move an object, only an action can do. An action is a finished product of a dream. We need to dream dreams, we need to plan, we need to believe and we need to act in order to have a ‘change we can believe’. There can be no plan without a dream as there can never be a successful action without believing.
A dream gives a clear vision of the future. As yesterday was the birthplace of today, a dream is the birthplace of the future and a dream is the mother of an action. Benjamin Disraeli asserted that “action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.”
In about three months, Nigeria will 49 years old as an independent nation. Many years with very little to show economically, politically and otherwise. In these years, the landscape of our history has been dominated mostly by challenging stories like corruption, civil war, wasted resources, military coup, ethnic violence, leadership failure, lack of infrastructure, brain drain, 419, Niger Delta palaver, indolent leaders etc.
Our potential remains only a potential. Our challenges endure but fail to paralyse us, they're supposed to help us discover who we are. According to Harriet Beecher “when you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn,”
Through it all, we have kept our sanity, we see life the way it should be and not the way it is. In our defeat, we dream victory. In our despair, we chose hope which make every good thing possible. Our God-given inner strength gives us courage to carry on and continue to be hopeful. Our dream is fast becoming a reality, we can see it at the corner, we can smell her fragrance, we can hear the elegant steps of her feet in quiet and we are nostalgic of the arrival. Even when all seemed bleak, we chose to overcome fear, overcome uncertainty, overcome peril, overcome injustice, overcome threat while continuing to avow to ourselves that life with all its troubles can be good hence ‘suffering and smiling’ that everything is meaningful even if in a sense beyond our understanding; and that there is always a bright tomorrow to cover the sad yesterday.
In the midst of these negativities, I still have positive dream for fatherland. I have a dream that my fellow countrymen will rise to defend the country of their fathers to give reasons for hope to their children as Nigeria shall stand tall, rise and be reckoned with in the comity of great nations.
I have a dream that my people shall coexist harmoniously; communal rivalry, religious intolerance and clash shall belong to the past, Niger Delta shall see peace and prosperity again and the Hausas, Ibos, Yorubas, Ijaws and all other tribes shall be one another’s keepers.
I have a dream that my country shall no longer depend on what is under the feet of her people but what is up in their heads. Natural resources shall no longer be the mainstay but agriculture, industrial production and services.
I have a dream that our sons and daughters will leave the countries of their birth in Europe and America and ask after the country of their ancestors which they shall be proud to call theirs.
I have a dream that every vote of the electorate shall count; from the half-naked woman protesting in Ekiti, to the covered Purdah in Sokoto, from the powerful in Abuja to the ordinary man in Zaria, from the market man in Aba to the businessman in Yola, from the student in Ibadan to the professor in Nsukka and from the urban man in Lagos to the ‘natural woman’ in Koma.
I have a dream that our Moses shall lead us out of the wilderness of poverty and from the Red Sea of corruption, our David shall slain Goliath who is feeding fat on the nation’s commonwealth, our Elijah will command fire on all the prophets of Baal holding the nation down and our Samson shall cause havoc in the camp of those squandering and pilfering our resources and the marauders we see today, we shall see them no more.
I have a dream that Nigeria will be ruled by men of noble character who are prepared to take us to the promised land and no more animals in human skin (apology to Fela Anikulapo Kuti), no more by the dumbest, no more by the weakest, no more by the sick and no more by the reluctant presidents. The days of the indecisive government are numbered.
I have a dream that our democracy will be democratic, our constitution will be constitutional and our Aso Rock Presidential Villa shall cease to be Ass hol* Rock Villa.
I have a dream that our leaders shall know that leadership is a call to service and not a call to be bosses, our executive will no longer be executhief, they will not only wield power but also generate power such that everyone of us can turn to the corner of our rooms and say let there be light and there shall be light.
I have a dream that the legislature shall make laws for the benefit and protection of the all and not only to increase their own salaries and allowances. The shall know the difference between constituency allowance and personal allowance.
I have a dream that the judiciary shall be judicious and no more pervert the law, they shall look unto the constitution and laws of the land to judge cases and not towards Aso Rock Villa and they shall prosecute and not persecute.
I have a dream that INEC will be truly independent of the executive, The Police shall not be agent of the oppressor but friend of the people. They shall gracefully perform their duties without asking for ‘egunje.’The military shall defend and not invade our fatherland, the civil and public servants shall serve their fatherland wholeheartedly without filching the public funds and Attorney General shall no more assault the constitution.
I have a dream that the poor masses shall no more be guilty until proven innocent, they shall join the high-ranking to be innocent until proven guilty. The prisons shall no more be filled with petty offenders while the major thieves are power brokers who dine and wine in the seats of the government.
This is my dream for fatherland, it is your dream and our dream for motherland. If it is our dream, then we must sustain it to reality. This change’s real! Dreaming may be easy, action may be difficult but putting a dream into an action is the most complicated thing in the world but with God on our side, our dream shall come to be.
Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the harvest and the playtime. W.E.B. Du Bois
The time to act is no other but now. We do not need to wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. If we fail, our dream shall be dream and our vision shall be vision and our world shall remain the same. Certainly, the cost of our action shall be huge but the cost of inaction shall even be more. There can never be any gain without pain.
Those who profess to favour freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will. Frederick Douglass
As charity starts from home, our action shall start with the people closest to us. Let us educate the people in our families, neighbourhood and grassroots of their inalienable rights. No one shall sell his voting right for a bowl of porridge.
We shall encourage and support the good people among us especially the youth to go into politics and for elective positions, if they fail, the bad ones whose affinity for power is inexhaustible will continue to dominate the political climate. Voting and being voted for; are not only our civil duties but also our constitutional rights.
"The ball is now in your court...Election is still two years away...What is wrong in identifying now your candidates and beginning to mobilise support for them...Why can't you invade your homeland...Use your mobile telephones now to mobilise the people and guard democracy... the way Barrack Obama used the Internet technology to mobilise the youths to strengthen democracy... Mobilise the youths to guard the ballot boxes from start to finish...Defend the vote, nobody is going to do it for you..." Prof. Wole Soyinka.
We shall foster the unity of all progressive groups and protect our destiny against the ‘do or die’ policy of the incumbent, organise mass action against any breach of our collective will. No passive people can expect a change. We have talked, we have praised, we have criticized, we have waited but we haven’t acted. We must act and now is the time.
This is a call on all good people of this great Nation! A thousand words are not as effective as one action. A thousand good intentions are not as good as one action. In recent time, the power in mass action or protest has been more revolutionary than any bloody guerrilla. No government can stand against the power of the masses. Demonstrations by the nationalist group in 2006 caused the ousting of the corrupt prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand. The 1989 Tiananmen Square protests resulted in the opening up of China though much is still left to be desired especially in the area of human rights. A mass protest that started from a remote village led to the end of the repressive communist leader Nikolai Ceausescu of Romania and after the assassination of Benigno Aquino, a political opponent and a tainted presidential election The People Power Revolution in February 1986 removed the authoritarian Ferdinand Marcos of Philippines. The recent event in Madagascar and the current protest in Iran are other testimonies to the power of the people. All these shall amount to nothing compared to what shall happen in motherland.
Our dream will take us on a journey for which we do not know the end but certainly, we shall not return to the starting point. Our action shall take us to war with the enemy but our weapons shall not be guns and matchets but all from our intellectual arsenal. Our action shall be like a road in the countryside where there was never a road but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence. A change has come!
If you share the dream, spread it.
God Bless Nigeria!
Nigeria Go Better!
Rufus Kayode Oteniya (oteniyark@hotmail.com) is the founder of Nigeria Think Tank a Facebook discussion forum created to confront problems confronting us as a people.
This article is also published on the following links:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=58221486905&ref=mf#/topic.php?uid=58221486905&topic=9655
http://nigeriathinktank.blogspot.com/
http://pointblanknews.com/artopn1457.html
http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/rufus-kayode-oteniya/a-dream-for-my-fatherland.html
http://huhuonline.com/specialletter49.html
http://www.modernghana.com/news2/223471/1/a-dream-for-my-fatherland-.html
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Nigerians And The Title Craze; Proud To Be Called Mr.
Scene1 (Outside the office)
Oteniyark: Good morning Mr. Nwachukwu
Nwachukwu: Point of correction please! I’m Chief Engineer Nwachukwu.
Oteniyark: Can’t an engineer be addressed as a Mister?
Nwachukwu: I don’t know but as far as I am concerned, as the Chief Engineer of our company where you also work, the members of staff must call me Chief Engineer Nwachukwu otherwise I will ignore their calls.
Scene 2 (On the telephone)
Oteniyark: Hello good afternoon, could you allow me speak with Mr. A. Bello?
Yakubu: You mean my dad, Ambassador A. Bello?
Oteniyark: No, Mr. Bello is a pensioner.
Yakubu: Yes, It’s my dad, he was a Nigerian ambassador 18 years ago.
Scene 3 (At a public function)
Oteniyark: It is my pleasure to introduce the guest speaker Mr. Tony Bamgbose who was a member of the State House of Assembly.
Tony: Beg your pardon! I am honourable Bamgbose.
Oteniyark: I also have the privilege of inviting to the high table, the wife of the state governor, Mrs. T. A. Agbabiaka.
An aid of the governor’s wife hurriedly jumped to the podium
Governor’s wife’s aid (whispering): Madam is First Lady and must be addressed as Her Excellency, the First Lady, Alhaja Chief Dr. Mrs. T. A. Agbabiaka LL.D. Please quickly make the correction!
The above scenes are a demonstration of the title craze that is endemic in Nigeria. Everywhere you turn your face in the society, this craziness is conspicuous and cuts across all segments of the society. It is evident in the workplace and business environment as well as political and religious circles.
We may not be the best in many things but not in inventing titles. If we can bring a bit of the ingenuity with which we invent or combine titles to other positive areas of lives, Nigeria will certainly be a better place and will surely rank among the best places in terms of positive development. Nigerians generate new titles almost with the same frequency Microsoft comes up with security updates for the Vista operating system. I have seen people adding to their names, strange titles like ‘Akobi’ a Yoruba word meaning first born and ‘Aremo’ another Yoruba word meaning next in line for a king’s throne.
Some good people of this great nation seem to extremely abhor being addressed as Mr. or Mrs. It may be out of sheer ignorance of thinking that the titles are for people of little importance and scarce achievement in the society or out of the ever increasing zeal to flamboyantly exhibit all the achievements and identities at any given opportunity or to cover some deficiencies. Mister may not after all be as insignificant as our dear people think and in fact it is the mother of all titles which can be applicable to any highly regarded man. Mister (Mr.) is a conventional title of respect for a man, prefixed to his name and to certain official designations or positions e.g. Mr. Chairman. Likewise, Mrs. or Ms is a title of honour for a woman. Regardless of other titles somebody possesses, the person can still be addressed as Mr. or Mrs without any disparaging feeling. In a place like America, the president is officially regarded as Mr. President but you dare not add the Mr. to the title of our President in order to save yourself of the Abuja wrath, the president must be introduced as His Excellency President Whoever.
A title, according to the American heritage dictionary of the English language, is a formal designation attached to the name of a person or family by virtue of office, rank, hereditary privilege, noble birth, or attainment or used as a mark of respect. A title can be a prefix or a suffix or in some cases embedded in between the names. Prefix titles are pre-nominal letters which are placed before the name of a person as distinct from a suffix titles which are post-nominal placed after the name. A prefix is used in direct address as in Mr., Dr., Chief, Alhaji, Barrister, etc while a suffix is used more in descriptive form and placed after the name of a person to indicate that the individual holds a position, educational degree, accreditation, office, award or honour. An individual may use several different sets of post-nominal letters. The order in which these are listed after a name is based on the order of precedence and category of the order. Examples include CEO, SAN, CFR, PhD, MBA, ACCA, retired General, former Senator, Editor in Chief, Commander in Chief, MP etc.
A title can be permanent or temporary. Funny enough most temporary titles have been made permanent in Nigeria. A former senator wants to be eternally addressed as senator. A former legislator will never give up the title of honourable and all of retired generals still bear their formal titles. A permanent title can be relevant throughout one’s lifetime after attaining it while a temporary title may be relevant only for a certain period of time.
A permanent title is a title attained by virtue of one’s gender as in Mr. or Mrs., hereditary privilege or noble birth as in Chief, Prince or Princess, Eze, King, Emir, Obi, Oba or a permanently attainment such as in Pastor, Imam or Alhaji (which is a term of respect used to address a Muslim who has completed one of the Five Pillars of Islam by going on the Hajj, or religious pilgrimage to Mecca). A woman who has completed the pilgrimage is addressed as Alhaja. Whoever has any of these titles is very unlikely to lose the title rather may acquire further titles. A prince may eventually become a king. Titles resulting from academic and professional qualifications are other forms of permanent title as in Eng, Arch, Barrister and Dr. which is usually used in calling a medical doctors or somebody who has doctorate degree in any other field.
Save for Dr, almost all other professional titles are regarded as workplace titles which are officially applicable in the workplace and related environment. Such titles like Engineer, Justice, Architect and Barrister are used in addressing people at the workplace. Outside the workplace, they are more commonly used in describing people. As demonstrated in Scene 1 of the conversation above, at the place of work, somebody can be called Eng. Nwachukwu while outside the workplace, he is called Mr. Nwachukwu, an engineer but an average Nigerian wants to be addressed everywhere he/she goes with the professional title especially those in the professions regarded as noble. No wonder one hears people addressed as Banker Jide, Accountant Emeka, Surveyor Ahmed, Manager Bala, Pharmacist James, Journalist Segun and other inconceivable Nigerian made titles. The earned degrees and qualification and other awarded titles that suffixed a name can also be permanent. Titles like BSc, MSc, MBA, AMNIM, ACA, FCCA, SAN, LL.D, MON, CFR, GCON, RIP etc. These titles always come behind a name. They may or may not be written after a name. In the Western world, these titles are written only when necessary.
On the other hand, temporary titles are earned by virtue of one’s official position, rank, appointment or election and as soon as somebody seizes to be in the position, the titles should seize to exist. It can only exist in a descriptive way referring to the fact that the person once occupied the position. Titles like President, Governor, Senator, Chairman, Honourable, Professor, Bishop, General Overseer, Chief Imam, CEO, COO, CFO, Director, Chief Engineer, Chief Accountant, Attorney General, Minister, Commissioner, General, Brigadier, Colonel, Major, and IG are in this category. Once the title stops to be relevant, all salutation and protocols associated with the position and titles should automatically end. As seen in scene 2, Mr. A. Bello shouldn’t have been addressed as Ambassador A. Bello. It would have been right to say Mr. A. Bello, a former Ambassador. Because we are a people who would not let go of old titles, we believe once a senator is always a senator and most be addressed forever as one, once a general is always a general. Little wonder some governors and ministers are still addressed with the title of senator even after many years of being absent from the Senate. Hilary Clinton will never again be called Sen. Clinton unless she goes back to the Senate rather she can be addressed as Mrs. Clinton, a former senator. All our retired generals still clutch the title like General (rtd) Bala instead of Mr. Bala, a retired General as people like Mr. Collin Powell, a retired US Army General does.
Our desire for titles knows no bound as our people keep the endless invention growing and turning out ‘combined honours’ even when the combinations are senseless. I used to think that this craze about titles are a way of making up for some deficiencies of the protagonist until I found that those who have really achieved in life and who should know much about this are also into it. It is a rat race thing and we know that whoever wins in a rat race still remains a rat. How do you explain the official title of most company heads being referred to as CEO/MD? Is Chief Executive Officer not the same thing as Managing Director? Is this not a tautology? This combination is only meaningful in a company with subsidiaries like the consolidated banks where an individual is the Managing Director of the parent company as well as the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the consolidated group which is directly the same as CEO. Virtually all our banks consciously duplicate their helmsmen’s title as CEO/GMD which makes no sense.
The yearning propensity for titles other than Mr. has created a surge in the number of people going on yearly pilgrimage to the holy lands. While most people do out of genuine desire to fulfil the requirement of the tenets of their faith, some are motivated by the new attributable title and status or class. As the Moslem become Alhaji and Alhaja, some Christians who would not want to be outdone also suffixed their names with JP meaning Jerusalem Pilgrim. Funny as it may be, I have read the profile of somebody being referred to as 3 times Alhaji to show he has gone to Mecca 3 times. The quest for titles has created a boom business for our traditional rulers who are flooded with the request of people seeking honorary chieftaincy title. The honorary title used to be offered by the rulers as rewards to well meaning and deserving indigenes who have or are expected to contribute positively to the community but it is now being commercialized. Once you have the price, you will take the prize. The very smart ones don’t even wait to be awarded the titles by any ruler, they fabricate titles and award them to themselves. I have an uncle who became a chief overnight. These titles are being bastardized as some many ‘unchiefly’ people of questionable personality are becoming chiefs by the day. The same thing can be said of honorary doctorate degree where money plays a major role especially in the private universities. Every Tom, Dick and Harry can now buy such titles in the country and also with a few thousands of dollars same can be obtained from a private university in the US or India.
The way people want to outdo one another with titles reminds me of 3 popular Yoruba Fuji musicians in the 70’s and 80’s when the started the title competition. When one became an Alhaji, the others went to Mecca to equal him, when one added Chief, others also went for chieftaincy titles, then one called himself Brigadier General, another called himself full General and the third called himself Marshall meaning Field Marshal and then one went for honorary doctorate to add Dr. to his already vast collection, then another added Professor to his already overblown collection and it went on like that until one of them became a king without a territory.
After acquiring these titles, you’ll see my fellow countrymen displaying their stuff. A single man can combine about 4 or 5 or more titles. A typical Nigerian will be elated to be introduced, addressed or write his own title profile as Honourable Alhaji Chief Dr. Musa Taiwo PhD, AMNIM, MON & CEO/MD. It sounds incredible but take your time to see business cards of some of your friends to understand what I’m writing. Some are not done with common titles anymore and the invent theirs. It is not uncommon to hear titles like High Chief, Otunba, Ozo, Eze, Eze Ego, King (without Kingdom), Yeye meaning mother, Balogun, Iyalode, Akobi, Special Adviser, Consultant, Diplomat, Chief Press Officer, Commissioner etc.
This title wave has not spared the religious circles. It has blown into the Churches and Mosque to the extent that some clergies take offences if their full titles are not precisely mentioned in introducing them to the podium to deliver God's message. The title of Pastor is not even trendy to many anymore. Titles like Reverend, Apostle, Bishop, General Overseer - GO, President etc are more preferred and mostly pastors have the unofficial title of Daddy and their wives are usually Mummy. In some extreme cases, the daddy is qualified such as Big Daddy to differentiate the office and the anointing or sometimes combined with the official title as in Daddy GO. This goes for other officers who want accurate appellation as in Deacon(ess), Elder, Choirmaster etc. The story is the same in the Islamic circle as Chief Imam will never settle for Imam and all titles must be completely spelt out.
In the political circle, the more dishonourable the Legislators become, the more they crave to be called Honourable, the more mediocre the Executives are, the more they lust for His Excellency, the more unchiefly they become, the more they long to be called Chiefs. The title must be extended to their family members as well. The Governor’s wife become the First Lady of the State (as seen in scene 3 of the conversation above) while the local government Chairman’s wife is the First Lady at the local government level as Councillor’s wife is FL at the council level. All States’ First ladies have offices in the State government secretariat with full staff and official protocols notwithstanding that our Constitution recognizes only the national First Lady. All first lady offices at the state level are illegal and an abuse of office by government supporting the office.
Even with this title craze, I am still proud to be Mr. R.K. Oteniya.
God Bless Nigeria!
Nigeria Go Better!
Rufus Kayode Oteniya (oteniyark@hotmail.com) is the founder and the administrator of Nigeria Think Tank a Facebook discussion forum created to confront problems confronting us as a people.
This article is also published on the following links:
http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/index.php/content/view/12488/55
http://nigeriathinktank.blogspot.com
http://www.pointblanknews.com/artopn1419.html
http://www.huhuonline.com/article128.html
http://www.championsfornigeria.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=360&Itemid=35
http://www.afrora.com/site/news/index.php?id=233892&cursor=0&blogs=0&loc=en_US
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=58221486905&ref=mf#/topic.php?uid=58221486905&topic=9494
Oteniyark: Good morning Mr. Nwachukwu
Nwachukwu: Point of correction please! I’m Chief Engineer Nwachukwu.
Oteniyark: Can’t an engineer be addressed as a Mister?
Nwachukwu: I don’t know but as far as I am concerned, as the Chief Engineer of our company where you also work, the members of staff must call me Chief Engineer Nwachukwu otherwise I will ignore their calls.
Scene 2 (On the telephone)
Oteniyark: Hello good afternoon, could you allow me speak with Mr. A. Bello?
Yakubu: You mean my dad, Ambassador A. Bello?
Oteniyark: No, Mr. Bello is a pensioner.
Yakubu: Yes, It’s my dad, he was a Nigerian ambassador 18 years ago.
Scene 3 (At a public function)
Oteniyark: It is my pleasure to introduce the guest speaker Mr. Tony Bamgbose who was a member of the State House of Assembly.
Tony: Beg your pardon! I am honourable Bamgbose.
Oteniyark: I also have the privilege of inviting to the high table, the wife of the state governor, Mrs. T. A. Agbabiaka.
An aid of the governor’s wife hurriedly jumped to the podium
Governor’s wife’s aid (whispering): Madam is First Lady and must be addressed as Her Excellency, the First Lady, Alhaja Chief Dr. Mrs. T. A. Agbabiaka LL.D. Please quickly make the correction!
The above scenes are a demonstration of the title craze that is endemic in Nigeria. Everywhere you turn your face in the society, this craziness is conspicuous and cuts across all segments of the society. It is evident in the workplace and business environment as well as political and religious circles.
We may not be the best in many things but not in inventing titles. If we can bring a bit of the ingenuity with which we invent or combine titles to other positive areas of lives, Nigeria will certainly be a better place and will surely rank among the best places in terms of positive development. Nigerians generate new titles almost with the same frequency Microsoft comes up with security updates for the Vista operating system. I have seen people adding to their names, strange titles like ‘Akobi’ a Yoruba word meaning first born and ‘Aremo’ another Yoruba word meaning next in line for a king’s throne.
Some good people of this great nation seem to extremely abhor being addressed as Mr. or Mrs. It may be out of sheer ignorance of thinking that the titles are for people of little importance and scarce achievement in the society or out of the ever increasing zeal to flamboyantly exhibit all the achievements and identities at any given opportunity or to cover some deficiencies. Mister may not after all be as insignificant as our dear people think and in fact it is the mother of all titles which can be applicable to any highly regarded man. Mister (Mr.) is a conventional title of respect for a man, prefixed to his name and to certain official designations or positions e.g. Mr. Chairman. Likewise, Mrs. or Ms is a title of honour for a woman. Regardless of other titles somebody possesses, the person can still be addressed as Mr. or Mrs without any disparaging feeling. In a place like America, the president is officially regarded as Mr. President but you dare not add the Mr. to the title of our President in order to save yourself of the Abuja wrath, the president must be introduced as His Excellency President Whoever.
A title, according to the American heritage dictionary of the English language, is a formal designation attached to the name of a person or family by virtue of office, rank, hereditary privilege, noble birth, or attainment or used as a mark of respect. A title can be a prefix or a suffix or in some cases embedded in between the names. Prefix titles are pre-nominal letters which are placed before the name of a person as distinct from a suffix titles which are post-nominal placed after the name. A prefix is used in direct address as in Mr., Dr., Chief, Alhaji, Barrister, etc while a suffix is used more in descriptive form and placed after the name of a person to indicate that the individual holds a position, educational degree, accreditation, office, award or honour. An individual may use several different sets of post-nominal letters. The order in which these are listed after a name is based on the order of precedence and category of the order. Examples include CEO, SAN, CFR, PhD, MBA, ACCA, retired General, former Senator, Editor in Chief, Commander in Chief, MP etc.
A title can be permanent or temporary. Funny enough most temporary titles have been made permanent in Nigeria. A former senator wants to be eternally addressed as senator. A former legislator will never give up the title of honourable and all of retired generals still bear their formal titles. A permanent title can be relevant throughout one’s lifetime after attaining it while a temporary title may be relevant only for a certain period of time.
A permanent title is a title attained by virtue of one’s gender as in Mr. or Mrs., hereditary privilege or noble birth as in Chief, Prince or Princess, Eze, King, Emir, Obi, Oba or a permanently attainment such as in Pastor, Imam or Alhaji (which is a term of respect used to address a Muslim who has completed one of the Five Pillars of Islam by going on the Hajj, or religious pilgrimage to Mecca). A woman who has completed the pilgrimage is addressed as Alhaja. Whoever has any of these titles is very unlikely to lose the title rather may acquire further titles. A prince may eventually become a king. Titles resulting from academic and professional qualifications are other forms of permanent title as in Eng, Arch, Barrister and Dr. which is usually used in calling a medical doctors or somebody who has doctorate degree in any other field.
Save for Dr, almost all other professional titles are regarded as workplace titles which are officially applicable in the workplace and related environment. Such titles like Engineer, Justice, Architect and Barrister are used in addressing people at the workplace. Outside the workplace, they are more commonly used in describing people. As demonstrated in Scene 1 of the conversation above, at the place of work, somebody can be called Eng. Nwachukwu while outside the workplace, he is called Mr. Nwachukwu, an engineer but an average Nigerian wants to be addressed everywhere he/she goes with the professional title especially those in the professions regarded as noble. No wonder one hears people addressed as Banker Jide, Accountant Emeka, Surveyor Ahmed, Manager Bala, Pharmacist James, Journalist Segun and other inconceivable Nigerian made titles. The earned degrees and qualification and other awarded titles that suffixed a name can also be permanent. Titles like BSc, MSc, MBA, AMNIM, ACA, FCCA, SAN, LL.D, MON, CFR, GCON, RIP etc. These titles always come behind a name. They may or may not be written after a name. In the Western world, these titles are written only when necessary.
On the other hand, temporary titles are earned by virtue of one’s official position, rank, appointment or election and as soon as somebody seizes to be in the position, the titles should seize to exist. It can only exist in a descriptive way referring to the fact that the person once occupied the position. Titles like President, Governor, Senator, Chairman, Honourable, Professor, Bishop, General Overseer, Chief Imam, CEO, COO, CFO, Director, Chief Engineer, Chief Accountant, Attorney General, Minister, Commissioner, General, Brigadier, Colonel, Major, and IG are in this category. Once the title stops to be relevant, all salutation and protocols associated with the position and titles should automatically end. As seen in scene 2, Mr. A. Bello shouldn’t have been addressed as Ambassador A. Bello. It would have been right to say Mr. A. Bello, a former Ambassador. Because we are a people who would not let go of old titles, we believe once a senator is always a senator and most be addressed forever as one, once a general is always a general. Little wonder some governors and ministers are still addressed with the title of senator even after many years of being absent from the Senate. Hilary Clinton will never again be called Sen. Clinton unless she goes back to the Senate rather she can be addressed as Mrs. Clinton, a former senator. All our retired generals still clutch the title like General (rtd) Bala instead of Mr. Bala, a retired General as people like Mr. Collin Powell, a retired US Army General does.
Our desire for titles knows no bound as our people keep the endless invention growing and turning out ‘combined honours’ even when the combinations are senseless. I used to think that this craze about titles are a way of making up for some deficiencies of the protagonist until I found that those who have really achieved in life and who should know much about this are also into it. It is a rat race thing and we know that whoever wins in a rat race still remains a rat. How do you explain the official title of most company heads being referred to as CEO/MD? Is Chief Executive Officer not the same thing as Managing Director? Is this not a tautology? This combination is only meaningful in a company with subsidiaries like the consolidated banks where an individual is the Managing Director of the parent company as well as the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the consolidated group which is directly the same as CEO. Virtually all our banks consciously duplicate their helmsmen’s title as CEO/GMD which makes no sense.
The yearning propensity for titles other than Mr. has created a surge in the number of people going on yearly pilgrimage to the holy lands. While most people do out of genuine desire to fulfil the requirement of the tenets of their faith, some are motivated by the new attributable title and status or class. As the Moslem become Alhaji and Alhaja, some Christians who would not want to be outdone also suffixed their names with JP meaning Jerusalem Pilgrim. Funny as it may be, I have read the profile of somebody being referred to as 3 times Alhaji to show he has gone to Mecca 3 times. The quest for titles has created a boom business for our traditional rulers who are flooded with the request of people seeking honorary chieftaincy title. The honorary title used to be offered by the rulers as rewards to well meaning and deserving indigenes who have or are expected to contribute positively to the community but it is now being commercialized. Once you have the price, you will take the prize. The very smart ones don’t even wait to be awarded the titles by any ruler, they fabricate titles and award them to themselves. I have an uncle who became a chief overnight. These titles are being bastardized as some many ‘unchiefly’ people of questionable personality are becoming chiefs by the day. The same thing can be said of honorary doctorate degree where money plays a major role especially in the private universities. Every Tom, Dick and Harry can now buy such titles in the country and also with a few thousands of dollars same can be obtained from a private university in the US or India.
The way people want to outdo one another with titles reminds me of 3 popular Yoruba Fuji musicians in the 70’s and 80’s when the started the title competition. When one became an Alhaji, the others went to Mecca to equal him, when one added Chief, others also went for chieftaincy titles, then one called himself Brigadier General, another called himself full General and the third called himself Marshall meaning Field Marshal and then one went for honorary doctorate to add Dr. to his already vast collection, then another added Professor to his already overblown collection and it went on like that until one of them became a king without a territory.
After acquiring these titles, you’ll see my fellow countrymen displaying their stuff. A single man can combine about 4 or 5 or more titles. A typical Nigerian will be elated to be introduced, addressed or write his own title profile as Honourable Alhaji Chief Dr. Musa Taiwo PhD, AMNIM, MON & CEO/MD. It sounds incredible but take your time to see business cards of some of your friends to understand what I’m writing. Some are not done with common titles anymore and the invent theirs. It is not uncommon to hear titles like High Chief, Otunba, Ozo, Eze, Eze Ego, King (without Kingdom), Yeye meaning mother, Balogun, Iyalode, Akobi, Special Adviser, Consultant, Diplomat, Chief Press Officer, Commissioner etc.
This title wave has not spared the religious circles. It has blown into the Churches and Mosque to the extent that some clergies take offences if their full titles are not precisely mentioned in introducing them to the podium to deliver God's message. The title of Pastor is not even trendy to many anymore. Titles like Reverend, Apostle, Bishop, General Overseer - GO, President etc are more preferred and mostly pastors have the unofficial title of Daddy and their wives are usually Mummy. In some extreme cases, the daddy is qualified such as Big Daddy to differentiate the office and the anointing or sometimes combined with the official title as in Daddy GO. This goes for other officers who want accurate appellation as in Deacon(ess), Elder, Choirmaster etc. The story is the same in the Islamic circle as Chief Imam will never settle for Imam and all titles must be completely spelt out.
In the political circle, the more dishonourable the Legislators become, the more they crave to be called Honourable, the more mediocre the Executives are, the more they lust for His Excellency, the more unchiefly they become, the more they long to be called Chiefs. The title must be extended to their family members as well. The Governor’s wife become the First Lady of the State (as seen in scene 3 of the conversation above) while the local government Chairman’s wife is the First Lady at the local government level as Councillor’s wife is FL at the council level. All States’ First ladies have offices in the State government secretariat with full staff and official protocols notwithstanding that our Constitution recognizes only the national First Lady. All first lady offices at the state level are illegal and an abuse of office by government supporting the office.
Even with this title craze, I am still proud to be Mr. R.K. Oteniya.
God Bless Nigeria!
Nigeria Go Better!
Rufus Kayode Oteniya (oteniyark@hotmail.com) is the founder and the administrator of Nigeria Think Tank a Facebook discussion forum created to confront problems confronting us as a people.
This article is also published on the following links:
http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/index.php/content/view/12488/55
http://nigeriathinktank.blogspot.com
http://www.pointblanknews.com/artopn1419.html
http://www.huhuonline.com/article128.html
http://www.championsfornigeria.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=360&Itemid=35
http://www.afrora.com/site/news/index.php?id=233892&cursor=0&blogs=0&loc=en_US
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=58221486905&ref=mf#/topic.php?uid=58221486905&topic=9494
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