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The Nigerian Governors’ Forum has been under severe criticism since it endorsed the decision taken last week by the Executive Council of the Federation (EXCOF) to execute inmates on death row so as to decongest prisons.

The decision has also attracted criticisms, even beyond the shore of Nigeria as Amnesty International, the global human rights campaigner, said any such step by the government at any level will be contrary to international legal commitments binding on Nigeria.

But the decision of the government to restart the execution of condemned criminals was taken as a means to easing prison congestion and reducing the overcrowding often seen inside the prisons walls.

New proposals for prison decongestion

However, the EXCOF decision may not really see the light of day now if the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), has his way with new reforms he is proposing to overhaul the system and decongest prisons.

Investigation by this correspondent has showed that Mr. Adoke wants states to build their own prisons. Also, he wants the decongestion programme to be a partnership between the Federal and state governments.

According to the Minister of the Interior, Emmanuel Iheanacho, a retired Air Force Captain who toured some prison formations in the Federal Capital City a week ago, the total prison population is about 48,000, of which over 30,000 inmates are classified as awaiting trial persons (ATPs).

Why execution won’t decongest prisons

According to the school of thought opposed to execution, the huge number of prison inmates who are awaiting trial, most of whom are too poor to afford a lawyer’s service, is the main reason to blame for prison congestion.

Findings by NEXT showed that the Legal Aid Council has only about 100 lawyers to cater for the needs of more than 30, 000 awaiting trial perosns, as against the about 870 death row inmates, including women and juveniles, currently populating Nigerian prisons.

Before now, two expert groups had been set up by the former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, to reform the prison system and deal with the problem of overcrowding in prisons. The groups, the National Study Group on Death Penalty, established in 2004, and the Presidential Commission on Reform of the Administration of Justice, established in 2007, both recommended a moratorium on executions because the criminal justice system could no longer guarantee fair trial at all time.

The recommendation resulted in the establishment of a nationwide Prisons Decongestion Programme in 2005 to reduce the number of ATPs in the 227 prisons formations and satellite prisons and improve the country’s slow criminal justice system.

Objectives of FG’s programme

FG’s prison decongestion programme seeks to address the lack of legal representation for indigent accused persons by engaging a large number of private legal practitioners, over 3000 Solicitors to undertake the defence of such persons in courts in the 36 states and the FCT.

Statistics obtained from the Ministry’s monitoring mechanism for the programme indicates that over 47,956 inmates have so far benefited from the programme.

Documents obtained at the AGF’s office showed that as at December 2009, out of the total number of 47,956 cases farmed out, a total number of 11,833 cases have been completed, 7,711 accused persons granted bail, while 28,412 cases are still pending before the various courts in the country.

Amending the Constitution to decongest prisons

Adoke’s proposals seeks to overcome the various blames for overcrowding, which include laxity in police investigation, needless court adjournments, poor state of prison facilities, and diversion of funds meant to achieve the planned reform in the past.

For example, about N8 billion was alleged to have been spent on the programme, without a commensurate profit during the time of the former AGF and Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa (SAN).

First, Mr. Adoke, who has not disclosed the financial cost of his proposals, has proposed a second stakeholders’ summit to discuss amendment which will place prison issues in the concurrent list of the Constitution, “so that states can build their own prisons.”

“This will largely help in decongesting prisons because over 70 percent of the inmates in the Federal prisons are persons accused of having violated state laws. (T)he Federal Ministry of Justice is committed to the successful implementation of this programme and will continue to partner with the private bar and other stakeholders in the criminal justice system in order to improve the state of Nigerian prisons and restore the dignity of the inmates,” Mr. Adoke added.

The AGF’s proposals to the FG include: the possibility of amending sentencing procedures in courts, the possibility of going into funding partnership between the FG and states, a comprehensive overhauling of Nigerian prisons with IT facilities for smooth access to information on inmates, restricting external solicitors to cases in areas of location to reduce logistics problems, and continuous liaison with relevant government agencies.

Others are: the possibility of the Ministry (either alone or in partnership with NGOs) undertaking to pay the fines imposed on indigent convicts, introduction of non-custodial sentences, the monitoring of counsel performance for appropriate sanctions for poor performance, increment in the programme’s budgetary outlay to cover outstanding cases, and the involvement of local and international donor institutions, even as the Ministry of Justice remains the programme coordinator.

Last week, the National Economic Council, made up of state governors and federal officials, backed the execution of close to 300 prisoners presently on death row, purportedly to reduce congestion in the jails. But human rights groups and legal activists have been quick to oppose this.

In 2009, the minister of foreign affairs, Ojo Maduekwe, told a meeting of the United Nations Universal (human rights) Periodic Review that Nigeria has 227 prisons with a combined capacity of 47,815 inmates. Most of the prisons are overfilled with inmates who are mostly awaiting trials.

The governors’ decision appear to be a reversion of the semi-official moratorium placed on execution of convicts – with the last official execution dating back to 2002.

Death to the people

“It was agreed that those people who have been condemned should be executed accordingly,” said Theodore Orji, governor of the southeastern state of Abia, after the meeting.

The Nigeria Death Penalty Group (NDPG) has, however, faulted the governors’ decision. The group, at the weekend, urged the state executives not to implement their decision, asking them to follow universal trends against the use of death penalty.

“The statement of the executive governor of Abia State is in no doubt a threat to the country’s unofficial moratorium,” an official of NGPG, Chino Obiagwu said.

The NDPG is a loose network of groups and individuals committed towards the abolition of the death penalty in Nigeria, convened by Legal Defence and Assistance Project.

“Nigeria has ratified several other international and regional instruments, including (the) African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) providing for the abolition of the death penalty,” the group said. “Nigeria has not officially carried out any execution for a while due to the enormous pressure from the international community and the Civil Society Organisations against the use of death penalty as a form of punishment.”

An official of the Nigerian Prisons, who spoke in Lagos, said the announced execution might not help. “A large percentage of the inmates in the prisons are merely awaiting trials, with fewer of them condemned,” he said, under condition of anonymity. “This is an indication that executing the few might not necessarily profer a solution to the state of Nigeria prisons.”

Poor prisons

The NDPG however said the major problem leading to prison congestion in Nigeria is the lack of infrastructure and inadequate funding by the government.

“Most prisons in Nigeria were built in the 1960s and the Nigerian government has neither expanded nor built additional prisons,” Mr. Obiagwu said. “Again, the state has always been the cause of delays in the prosecution of persons charged with various offences leading to prison congestion.”

It however advised the Abia State government to “set up its Advisory Council on the Prerogative of Mercy to examine the cases of the prisoners on death row and make a recommendation on the suitability of commuting their sentences.”

Last Tuesday, April 20, 2010, inmates of Kaduna Prisons went on rampage, allegedly because of reports that the convicted former head of the Christ Praying Assembly, Reverend King, had been killed.

Two prisoners were also killed in the incident, during which some prisoners attempt to escape.

The jailbreak attempt was the second in less than two months, a problem which is said to have arisen from the congestion and poor amenities of the prison.

Some prison officials also explained that the prisoners were also not happy with the poor feeding arrangement at the prison and its overcrowded cells.

A report by Amnesty International shows that the 227 prisons in Nigerian have the following in common: congestion, dirt and inadequate medical and rehabilitation facilities.

As a result, many inmates fall sick and die before they are even tried.

The All Nigeria
Peoples Party National Secretary, Sa’idu Kumo, on Friday, chided
politicians for forming a mega party with the sole aim of defeating the
ruling People’s Democratic Party in 2011.

Mr. Kumo said that
the activities of the mega party had been more of “a political talk
show” that could not achieve the aim for which the group was formed.

He said that what the people needed to do to get PDP out of power was a well-defined and people-oriented political ideology.

“The problem with this country is that political parties are formed based on interest, and not ideology,” he said.

He said the ANPP
remained a vibrant opposition party that would not participate in any
mega party project, which, he said, would not succeed in removing the
PDP from government.

He appealed to
Nigerians to imbibe the culture of political tolerance and ideology to
save the country’s fledging democracy from total collapse.

The ANPP, he said,
had avoided open media abuse of rival political parties, and was more
interested in educating and sensitising the electorate on the need to
shun ‘money politics’ and embrace the politics of working for national
interest.

“Opposition is not all about abusing people,” he noted.

He, therefore, called on other smaller parties to join the ANPP to
build a strong opposition as “ANPP is the only strong opposition in
Nigerian politics with a standard structure to win election.”

The Rivers State government has revealed plans to downsize its workforce for efficiency in the system.

The state governor,
Chibuike Amaechi, who disclosed this in Port Harcourt on Friday during
an interactive session with civil servants, said that the system is
over populated and has no clear definition of schedule of duty.

The governor said
most civil servants in the state are redundant in their various places
of work “and end up roaming about during official hours.”

He pointed out that
modalities would be worked out with the labour unions to determine how
to actualise the plan to prune down the workforce.

“I must say that it
is worrisome to see that state civil service has a workforce of more
than 50,000, some of whom have no specific duties to perform,” he said.
“They only collect salaries at the end of the month; it is therefore
necessary to maintain only an effective number of staff.”

He directed the
Head of Service and the department handling the automated salary system
to ensure that only genuine workers are paid salaries.

Mr. Amaechi also used the forum to state that promotion in the state civil service would henceforth be based on merit.

He advised the
workers to update themselves through available training opportunities
in order to meet up with the changing trend in the service.

“The civil service is the engine room of government; its role is indeed vital to the success of any administration,” he said.

The Abuja chapter
of Women Optometrists in Nigeria on Friday in Abuja offered free eye
screening, glasses, and other services to Jahi village residents.

Claire Esenwah,
Chairperson of the Chapter told journalists that the choice of the
village was in fulfilment of the mandate to take health care services
to the grassroots.

Mrs. Esenwah said
many people at the grassroots were not aware of the need to go for eye
checkups, noting that this could be detrimental to their health.

She said many of
them were also not aware of the eye defects that they had, adding that
such ailments if not properly screened and treated could lead to
blindness.

“We are doing this
as a way to improve the lives of residents because we know they cannot
afford to do the screening. Besides the screening, we will be giving
out free eye drops, drugs and reading glasses to those with eyes
defects,” she said.

“For those with
very serious eye defects that could not be treated here, we will tell
them to come to the clinic where we can examine them. If surgery is
required, we will make sure that it is done and all expenses will be
borne by WON,’’ she said.

Mrs. Esenwah added that the gesture will also be carried to other
villages in other parts of the country where the offices of the
organisation were located.

The Federal High Court in Asaba on Friday granted
leave to estate agents and valuers engaged by 52 Ijaw communities to
assess property damaged by the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) in the
area.

The 52 communities in Gbaramatu Kingdom had in
July 2009 instituted a N100 billion suit against the federal government
challenging the May 13, 2009 invasion of the areas by the JTF.

The suit filed on their behalf by Femi Falana,
leading Felude Zimughan and Selekeowei Larry, sought for damages for
lives and property “wantonly destroyed” by the military operations.

The communities also prayed the Justice Ibrahim
Buba court to compel the Federal Government to rebuild the houses
demolished during the bombardment.

At Friday’s hearing, Mr. Buba ordered that the
communities be permitted to assess and carry out valuation of property
or properties said to have been destroyed on or about May 13, 2009 by
the JTF.

The communities, through its counsel Mr. Zimughan,
had told the court that armed military men of the JTF were still in
occupation of the territory in which the applicants were located.

Mr. Zimughan said the estate valuers commissioned
by the 52 Ijaw communities required the protection of the court to have
unrestricted access to the property without fear of molestation or
intimidation.

He said the claims and reliefs sought by the
applicants were such that expert evidence was necessary to determine
the actual losses suffered as a result of the military bombardment of
their communities.

Mr. Buba, who granted the reliefs sought by the
applicants, said “The application is granted as prayed” and adjourned
the matter to May 24 for further hearing.

He ordered that the experts commissioned by the
affected communities should enter the areas to assess and carry out
valuation of property said to have been destroyed on May 13 by the JTF.

Counsel to the federal government, Emmanuel Okosun, had earlier told
the court that his clients were not opposed to the application and
would go into the substantive matter.

Cross River State
is so well attuned to its tourism industry that practically most
infrastructure are built to support the sector. This is especially
important since the state recently lost its status as an oil producing
state – and the attendant revenue.

The hotel
revolution in Calabar, the state capital, and other local government
areas, from 2005 onward is enough sign of the acceptance of the
industry in this state. In Calabar, new hotels spring up monthly.

It is an open
secret in Calabar that the commonest investment of politicians is in
this industry: members of the state and national assemblies from the
state now channel resources to gigantic hotel projects with world class
facilities. These hotels come in different architectural designs,
mostly with eye-catching outer Greek columns.

It’s about comfort

The infrastructure
development, especially in the hospitality industry, is aimed at one
thing: boosting patronage. Tourists need comfort.

Now, investment in
mass transit to facilitate the movement of residents and visitors and
tourists is receiving a boost. Following the ban of commercial
motorcycle operation in Calabar, investors have moved into the
transportation business.

Branded taxis and
buses – all brand new – have come to fill the void. The four companies
holding the intra-city mass transit franchise in Calabar today include
Pronto Cars, Canaan Cabs, Calabar Urban Taxis and Red Alert. Their
colours are deep blue, light green, blue fringed with green and red.

The special
adviser on public transportation, Gabriel Okulaja, listed criteria for
franchise to include capital, availability or provision of office,
telecommunication and other facilities necessary in the business. Also,
all the vehicles have a tracking system to prevent them from being
stolen without detection. This device helps in monitoring the vehicles
too.

More companies are
billed to register to operate under the franchise, but out of the
quartet already in business, Canaan Cabs appears to be in a class of
its own. The parent company, Remlords Tours, is an long time player in
the tourism business.

Out with the old

Recently, the
initial 50 cars demanded by the state government for a company to
qualify for the franchise were inaugurated by Mr. Okulaja. Another 150
cars will be added before this year runs out. The 50 cars were
dedicated by Josef Bassey of God’s Heritage Global Mission, Calabar.

Mr. Okulaja said
the decision to ban motorcycles was the culmination of government’s
plan to bring sanity to Calabar roads. “The formal commissioning of
Canaan Cabs is a direct result of the initiative of government in
creating the enabling environment for private sector driven provision
of decent, modern, safe and affordable transportation to the
citizenry,” he said.

Chairman and chief
executive of Canaan Cabs, Nkereuwem Onung, said his company has taken
advantage of the opportunity provided by the government to float the
scheme.

“This scheme is
not limited to Cross River State. Very soon, you shall be seeing Canaan
Cabs in Lagos and other cities. We are out to support tourism and also
meet the mobility needs of members of the public. We have consultants
from the western world. Together we shall build an enviable and
reliable transportation business,” Mr. Nkereuwem said.

According to Mr. Okulaja, a new dawn has broken for public
transportation in Cross River State. “It is an era in which rickety
cars have given way to brand new vehicles to facilitate the movement of
commuters, including that of local and foreign tourists,” he said.

As the year rolls
to an end, many chairs will be vacant and will need to be occupied in
2011. Some weeks ago, two chairs became vacant within 48 hours of each
other, when two senators were extinguished by Death’s mighty sting. We
may not have evidence, but tongues are wagging as to why two senators
from the same state would die, virtually on the same day.

The attraction for
these chairs, the juiciness of these portfolios, and the temptation for
these seats, are definitely provoking others to procure charms, juju,
and voodoo – whether physical or spiritual – that will leave a lasting
damage, probably worse than Haiti or Rwanda.

Earthquakes do not
just happen, in spite of the scientific explanation. There is always an
abundance of spiritual connotation. Now, it is beginning to go beyond
individuals.

Even in Jos, we
have heard that some groups have been charmed by the chairs that belong
to another group, and they want to occupy these by force or
systematically take over the entire middle belt. It may be rumour, but
to every rumour there is always an element of truth. If in doubt, check
your mirror.

Certainly, we would
unearth a can of worms if we try to follow the river of cash flow out
of the Nigerian official establishments, and some people believe access
to this cash is their birthright. Hence, they stake their claims to
these juicy chairs, offices, or portfolio. The very annoying evidence
is that inspite of all they have stolen and stashed away, the level of
poverty, suffering, and stagnation of the mass of people in their area
is stupefying.

In fact, they are
the actual cabal. They recycle themselves and their children, and will
stop at nothing to extinguish even a distinguished soul that stands in
their way. They are ready to use aircraft, witchcraft, and even ‘mammy
water’ to annihilate the presumed enemy. The bible says one shall chase
a thousand and two shall chase ten thousand, pardon my allusion. Now if
one person can kill another because he feels his chair has been
threatened, what will happen if one section feels that their attractive
chairs are being threatened? Does somebody remember the meaning of
genocide or maybe war?

Unfortunately, the
presumed enemy is the entire nation that has been reborn and we are all
collectively saying, NO MORE RESERVED SEATS. It is a thing of shame to
hear someone say he is from an educationally backward state or, to put
it more diplomatically, an educationally challenged state and so, if
called to apply for a position and he scores 35%, he will be given the
job, ahead of others who scored 90%, because we have to follow the laws
of Federal Character. How can we ever progress in such a circumstance?

We need to make a
deliberate effort to kill the charm of the chair before it lures more
people in search of more dangerous charms for these chairs. To these
die hard charmed-chair seekers, government is the only business they
know. They want to continuously sit on juicy chairs where they can
direct the river of cash to flow into the lake of selfishness, greed,
and avarice in their backyards. And continuously produce zombies that
they have brainwashed into believing that ‘there is no blessing in
education’, whereas their children are attending the best schools in
the world, training to become owners of oil blocks, and/or control the
financial institution. They do this to ensure that they can keep the
charm for the chair in their family forever. Even the music of
rebranding, they have become deaf and dumb to.

Power is not a family heirloom. Do your best and leave the rest.

These chairs are for all of us, and only the best should sit on them so that we can all move forward.

Junaid Mohammed,
national chairman of the People Salvation Party (PSP) , speaks on
Nigerian leaders, next year’s elections, and the possible candidature
of Aliyu Gusau and Ibrahim Babangida. Excerpts:

On Ibrahim Babangida

Sincerely
speaking, I don’t have a view and this is quite unlike me. This is
because I have not been able to hear from him the reasons he wanted to
come into electoral contest, and why now? If, for whatever reason, IBB
decides that the country now needs him, or is it the usual empty
rhetoric of ‘my people asked me to come and contest and I’m merely
answering the call of my people?’

I think it will be
very disingenuous for a man who was out of power under the
circumstances he left to now come back and say ‘my people want me to
come back.’ Where were his people when he was forced to leave in 1992?
I’m concerned about the number of retired military officers who believe
they have a divine right to come and govern Nigeria. I know Olusegun
Obasanjo believed in that and that belief was encouraged in a very
substantial way by IBB himself.

I want IBB to
speak for himself, which will justify his coming to be the president of
Nigeria. I would now ask the question, what is it he left behind that
he wants to come back to? That is not to say I believe the nation
should do to him what he did to us, the first and second republic
politicians, when he banned us from participating in political
activities without anything against us.

Now is the time
for him to realise what it meant to have dealt with people in a very
shabby manner. But beside that, I believe he should be allowed to
contest and let the people of this country decide whether he is going
to be a worthy successor to the likes of Obasanjo, Yakubu Gowon,
Murtala Mohammed, and others.

What he is saying
about the youth is also an indictment about what he has said before. He
unilaterally disqualified most of the qualified politicians in this
country. The fact of the matter was that when he banned the old breed,
he did not do it in the interest of the nation, and when he is now
calling the new breed names, people are bound to suspect if there is
anything new he learnt. Even though he was unjust, I don’t believe we
should met out injustice to him because two wrongs don’t make a right.

On Aliyu Gusau

I want you to
quote me, he is barely literate. If he likes, he can sue me because I
can bring out his record from primary to secondary school and to
Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA). The Emir of Gwandu, Mustapha Jokolo, who
grew up in the same household with Aliyu Gusau, has said in an
interview with a Lagos newspaper that the man was never trained as an
intelligence officer; he was just put there by late Shehu Musa Yar’Adua.

I’m not aware whether Aliyu Gusau or anybody else has come out to deny that this is a matter of record.

If these are the
kinds of characters who come out and believe they have the right to
govern alongside IBB or Muhammadu Buhari, then there is a danger to
Nigerian democracy and that danger cannot be wished away by either IBB,
Buhari, T.Y Danjuma, Obasanjo, or Aliyu Gusau. It has to be addressed
by Nigerians themselves.

On Obasanjo and corrupt leadership

On the issue of
corruption, again I want us to be very cautious. Unless you have a
determinant measure that can practically measure the level of
corruption under Obasanjo, Yar’Adua/Goodluck, and level of corruption
under IBB or others. I’m not in a position to say corruption was less
or more or otherwise. Because frankly speaking, this concept of
corruption is quite intimately related to the issue of the resources
available to the country. Such as the issue of Gulf war windfall, which
is yet to be resolved; and I want IBB as a friend to come and address
this issue. As far as I’m concerned, you can only measure corruption by
the measure of affluence or wealth of those who have gone into
government and come out. If you look at the problem we had, the
constitutional crisis and the June 12 debacle, I’m not aware that IBB
has come clean with the matter. But I can say with due humility he has
come clean to me. He has told me about three times how he regretted the
turn of events over the two party systems, and over the issue of Abiola
and the crisis which affected the country. In assessing a government,
you have to assess it at various levels. Corruption then and now have
become institutionalised. Now that Obasanjo is out of office, everybody
knows that he is the most corrupt leader Nigeria ever had. Obasanjo was
a lot more corrupt than IBB.

Role of military in politics

The state of
things now is more of an indictment on the military than the political
elite. Whenever a soldier stages a coup in this country, they always
claim civilians were corrupt, irresponsible, or not patriotic. The fact
that money is, today, the sole determinant of public office and the
soldiers see themselves as the only people who have the money,
indicates that soldiers stage coups because of money, and not for any
patriotic reason. When they went out to bring Obasanjo out of prison,
the first thing they did was to get billions for him, from both local
and foreign sources, for them to oil the machinery that is called the
PDP, and that is how they won the election. So, the only reason why
they are in politics today is because they have the money in abundance
that they can use to buy votes and create confusion in the country.
Tell me one soldier who can say he has anything to offer above any
civilian.

On the political situation

No, it is not a
helpless situation. It is just the political class that is helpless and
hopeless. They were accused of playing monetised politics now that the
soldiers are ahead with that game. Why is the political class not
coming out to say we are not corrupt, these are the people who are
corrupt? In a nation which, since independence in 1960, have had over
30 years of military rule. If the country is in a mess, who are you
going to blame proportionately? But I agree with you, the civilian
political class is hopeless.

The leader Nigeria needs

We need a tough
son, who would make sure that the country’s laws are obeyed and who
will make sure we have a revenue allocation formula, which is realistic
and gives every Nigerian a fighting chance to get education, and to be
competitive in the labour market. We need someone who can make sure
that some of the ills of the society, such as illiteracy, corruption,
diseases, and poverty are eliminated.

The leader we need
must be the kind of leader who will have confidence in the Nigerian
state. He must be the kind of leader who will say there are certain
things to be done, but cannot be done by the system of capitalism which
we operate. And people who are in leadership positions must not use it
to enrich themselves, and I believe that is not too much to ask from a
Nigerian leader.

On rotational presidency

I don’t believe in
rotational presidency. I have been a critic of it since 1978. Because
it is not democratic, it is nonsensical, and is always subjected to
intervention by forces over and above the political system or the
political class. For example, when they had the system under National
Party of Nigeria (NPN), which delivered Shehu Shagari as president,
they didn’t envisage the termination of his presidency unceremoniously
in 1984. Which means that the system simply disappeared. What we have
now in Umaru Musa Yar’Adua is an invalid president who is incompetent,
lazy, and indolent – who cannot do anything and who has been pretending
to be governing Nigeria for the last three years. If what we had in
1984 was a military intervention, what we now have with Yar’Adua is a
divine intervention. Since they don’t have control over military and
divine intervention, what is the need of deceiving ourselves that
zoning and rotation works. Who is fooling who? It does not work and it
has created crisis anywhere it was tried.

And people who are in support of it cited the example of
Switzerland. Switzerland is not a federation. It is a very small
country, less than the population of Kano. So I don’t know the reason
for it. To pretend that Goodluck Jonathan is going to pretend that he
is not going to be interested in the presidency is to delude oneself. I
don’t believe in deluding myself in politics or in public life.