Nigeria Content Online

The National
Broadcasting Commission has described as illegal and unacceptable any
political broadcast aired by radio or television stations earlier than
three months to the 2011 general elections.

Chris Okotomho, who
represented Yomi Bolarinwa, the Director-General of the commission, at
a one-day political broadcast forum held in Benin also said the NBC is
worried by the way broadcast stations air political campaigns without
recourse for laid down electoral laws and broadcasting code.

He said if something is not done urgently to curb such excesses, broadcasting would be brought to disrepute.

“Contravening electoral acts is criminal, and whoever breaks the rules could be charged and prosecuted,” he said.

“Members of the public depend on broadcasters to show the way, but they collaborate with politicians who break such laws.”

According to him,
electoral laws stipulate that election campaigns will be aired from 90
days to such election and end 24 hours to the election. He said many
stations act as if they are appendages to certain political parties by
cooperating with them in breaking the law.

“Broadcasters are
in a privileged position and should be seen as such,” he said, adding
that the commission can no longer tolerate the lawlessness observed
recently.

“Political campaign broadcast now is criminal and a violation of broadcast code, which could attract sanction,” he said.

Guest lecturer at
the forum, Osakue Stevenson Omoera, said the performance of the press
decides the outcome of elections in United States of America, Germany,
Switzerland, and recently in Ghana. He said that if Ghana could do it,
Nigerian press has the more reason to abide by the rule.

Review the code

He advised that journalists should be well-remunerated to avoid being bought over by corrupt politicians.

The Zonal Director
of NTA, Layi Ademokoya, observed that the proliferation of private
broadcast organisations has not helped, as they promote the political
interests of their proprietors.

The Ondo State
commissioner for information, Ranti Akerele, called for the review of
the broadcasting code, which he said was made by the military who did
not know anything about politics or campaign.

He called on the NBC to urgently convene a stakeholders’ meeting
with a view to amending the broadcasting code, more so now that the
nation’s constitution is undergoing a review.

Ten days ago, David Mark, the
senate president, was palpably enraged during a plenary session. Mr.
Mark’s anger was directed at senators who were members of the senate
committee on communication which was supposed to have screened the new
management team of the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC). The
senators had publicly accused the committee chairman, Sylvester Anyanwu
of fraud over the screening exercise.

“This is an embarrassment to the
entire senate and I feel very sad about this; a senator accusing the
other publicly,” Mr. Mark said angrily. In that rage, he promptly
disbanded the committee over allegations that its chairman, Mr Anyanwu,
carried out the exercise alone at night, and forged the signatures of
two other members of the committee, claiming that six of the members
took part in the exercise.

For a nation that has increasingly
loathed the unending wrongdoings of federal legislators, that seemed
like a welcome decision and the general consensus seemed to be that Mr.
Anyanwu deserved what he got.

However, a more thorough
investigation of the events that led to Mr. Mark’s show of rage
indicates that the senate president’s furious display that day was the
final act in the drama he scripted the previous night.

It was also established that
although the screening of the new Executive Vice Chairman and chief
executive officer, and three other management staff of NCC took place
in the night as claimed, the nominees were vetted only by Mr. Anyanwu
and his deputy, Joseph Akaagerger (PDP Benue state) because of
pressures from the senate president. They had allegedly acted in
response to an earlier threat by Mr. Mark who directed both Mr Anyanwu
and Mr. Akaagerger to produce the report of the screening that night or
lose their plum positions.

Abubakar Argungu (PDP, Kebbi
state), a member of the committee who broke the scam on the Senate
floor narrated how six members of the committee converged for the
screening the previous evening but the event had to be postponed
because the security report and the Code of Conduct Bureau reports on
the nominees did not reach the committee before dark.

“The point Argungu raised is a
very serious one. I sent the security reports from my office,” the
Senate president said. But officials close to Mr. Mark’s office who
would not want to be named, said the senate president sent the crucial
reports later at night, after the committee members had left, and
threatened that if the assignment was not carried out by the committee
that night, it will be dissolved.

“It appeared the senate president was in haste to confirm the nominees,” one of the officials said.

But for the emergency plenary the
senate will hold on Tuesday, the day of the screening debacle was
supposed to be the last one before 29 September when the senate was
scheduled to return from a two month vacation.

“If the nominees were not
confirmed that day, they would have waited till the senate resumed at
the end of September,” Mr. Anyanwu, the chairman of the committee
confirmed in an interview.

Some in the National Assembly
spoke of the intersection of personal interests in an establishment
viewed in legislative circles as influential. “The senate president had
issued the threat apparently because he sensed the committee was
reluctant about the job because of their personal interests,” one
official said.

Loose funds

The Nigerian Communications
Commission is seen as a crucial government agency which averages N45
billion in subventions from the federal government and N18 billion from
external revenue annually. Another layer of pork is a seemingly loose
fund called Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF). It was established
“to facilitate the rapid achievement of national policy goals for
universal access to telecommunications, information, and communication
technologies (ICTs),” says the Communications Act of 2003. “It is a
honey pot which invisible hands lick from without trace,” said a staff
of the Commission.

It is managed by a secretary who
reports to the Executive Vice Chairman and the CEO who is under the
authority of the commission’s board chairman. It was not confirmed if
the propelling force for the battle over the fund’s control is because
of the approaching 2011 general elections.

Clash of Interests

There are clear indications that
the whole screening exercise was marred by the selfish desire of a
number of people to place ethnic sentiments ahead of national
interests. There were efforts to ensure that the next executive vice
chairman comes from a particular zone. The south east zone apparently
considered the position to be zoned to their area, while a section of
the north was bent on wresting it away for the first time.

The fierce campaign for who
succeeds Ernest Ndukwe, NCC former CEO, started shortly before he
retired last April. There were five contenders for the office, all
engineers, including two executive commissioners in the Commission,
Stephen Adedayo Bello and Bashir Gwandu. Others were Eugene Juwah, Umar
Garba Danbatta, and Johnson Asinogu, a former employee of the
commission.

When Mr. Ndukwe was leaving, he handed over to Mr. Bello, the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management.

However, two months later, Mr.
Gwandu took over, as the acting CEO, from Mr. Bello who attained the
compulsory retirement age of 60, last June.

Immediately Mr. Gwandu took over
office, Funsho Fawemi, the secretary of the Fund embarked on a
compulsive annual leave of absence, although Mr. Gwandu has denied that
he ordered that.

Despite being recommended by Dora
Akunyili, the Information Minister, Mr. Gwandu was reportedly not
favoured at the presidency because Mr. Ndukwe who has more influence at
the presidency, had another preference.

“Mr. Ndukwe promoted Eugene Juwah, – former executive director of MTS First Wireless – to the presidency,

through Mike Oghadome, the chief
of staff to the President and former deputy governor in Edo state,” a
presidency source said. “Remember Ndukwe was arrested by EFCC (Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission) last year and Gwandu is his antagonist
and believed to be capable of throwing open some secrets if he was
retained as the Executive Vice Chairman. The senate president and his
deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, were then lobbied with an opportunity to
appoint the chairman and one Executive commissioner respectively,” the
source said. “The senate president nominated Peter Igoh from his
constituency and Ekweremadu nominated Okechukwu Itanyi, his former
senior colleague.” Mr. Itanyi was until 2007, the deputy governor of
Enugu State where the deputy senate president also served as
commissioner and chief of staff.

On 22 July, the letter nominating
the new management arrived in the senate and was read by Mr. Ekweremadu
who presided that day and referred it to the senate communication
committee. The committee was given four days to turn in a report.

Ethnic bias

At the committee, three members
were from Kebbi State; Mr. Gwandu’s home state. They were perhaps not
happy with the presidency’s choice and favoured Mr. Gwandu. Some
reports had also accused Mr. Gwandu of bribing the committee chairman
with N230 million to frustrate the screening and subsequently elongate
his stay in office.

Mr. Gwandu who was earlier
adjudged to be the most qualified for the job was considered to be the
first northerner to head the commission since its inception, 18 years
ago.

There was visibly a clash of
multiple interests, few options and little time left for deals before
the day the committee was disbanded.

When the ethnic argument was no
longer tenable, Mr. Argungu’s revelation of a scam at the screening was
the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“I am a member of the committee
and there was no screening,” Mr. Argungu said. “I am surprised the
chairman is presenting them for confirmation this morning.” Tanko
Ayuba, also from Kebbi state reacted sharply saying the committee
chairman approached them to sign the screening report that morning.

“It is time for us to own up on
this matter and say exactly the way it is” Mr. Ayuba said. “We signed
only this morning.” When the scandal took an explosive turn, the senate
president called for a closed door meeting where frayed nerves were
calmed.

However, before the closed
door-calming-meeting, the senate president had taken the hard line
option of disbanding the committee. “The senate president overreacted,”
a senator said in an interview.

Denials all

The players in the debacle
however denied they played any dirty role. In an interview, Mr. Gwandu
said he did not bribe Mr. Anyanwu or any other member of the committee.

“I know Sylvester (Mr. Anyanwu)
very well, of course, and I have cooperated with the committee whenever
required,” he said. “But I have never given money to him or anybody to
influence anything. Where would I even get that kind of money from? The
biggest contract I have given is for my complimentary cards.” He also
denied influencing the decision of the northern senators to prefer him.

Mr. Anaynwu, on his part, denied receiving any bribe from Mr. Gwandu ascribing the allegation to his political enemies.

Media assistants to the senate president also denied his involvement
saying the dissolution of the committee that day was a spontaneous act.

It’s
three years since former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, handed over
power, but the disagreement between his former deputy, Atiku Abubakar
appears unending. The discord between both men is blamed on Mr
Abubakar’s opposition to Mr Obasanjo’s tenure extension plot. Mr
Obasanjo, it appears, is still in contention with his former deputy in
his home state of Adamawa – especially after Mr Abubakar returned to
the PDP, following his sojourn in the Action Congress on whose ticket
he contested the 2007 presidential election.

Although the
state’s chapter of the PDP has refused to recognise the return of Mr
Abubakar, his former associates in the AC have flocked back into the
party.

Murtala Nyako, the
Adamawa State governor has now found himself fighting the outcome of
the return. Mr Nyako’s government has been at the receiving end of
non-salutary comments foisted on the people of the state by Mr
Obasanjo. The fight to oust Mr Nyako is seen perhaps among the opposing
camp, as a fight to undo the handiwork of his sponsor.

The governor has
repeatedly denied his imposition by Obasanjo, although he agreed that
Mr Obasanjo had impressed it on him to obtain the PDP gubernatorial
form despite his unwillingness to run for the office. He reportedly
said his only request was for Nyako to do him the favour of obtaining
the party form, saying that would not conflict with his prerogative not
to run eventually.

Mr Nyako, speaking
recently at the national secretariat of the party during a
reconciliation meeting summoned by the party chairman, Nwodo
Okwesielieze, expressed indifference to a bouquet of allegations
against the state chapter of the party under his watch, choosing only
to respond to allegations of his imposition without properly conducted
primaries. He explained how Obasanjo persuaded him to run and how he
had expressed restraint about the move.

However, the state
PDP chairman, Mijinyawa Kugama, denied the charge that the governor did
not emerge through due process. He said the decision to pick Mr Nyako
came during the party’s North East zonal delegates meeting held at
Bauchi. He said he and the present Minister of State, Aliyu Idi Hong,
were told they had to forward the names of candidates for the various
state and national election offices. An earlier annulment of the result
of the primaries won by Silas Zwingina created a void for the guber
office. Mr Kugama said it was then decided that the party delegates
should vote for a candidate to fly the party’s gubernatorial flag. The
lot, he said, fell on Mr Nyako, who was unanimously elected except for
two delegates who abstained from voting.

“Reports that the governor was imposed on the party without recourse to due process are wicked insinuations,” he said.

The charge of
imposition dogging the party gave impetus to the formation of a rival
splinter faction led by Medan Teneke, which supports the former Vice
president.

What is unsettling
in Adamawa politics is that since Mr Abubakar returned to the PDP, nine
AC members of the State House of Assembly recently renounced their
membership of the party for the PDP. Sajou Gela, member representing
Mubi constituency in the House said they were moving to the PDP because
they have been asked to do so by Mr Abubakar.

This movement has
strengthened the hitherto miniature opposition elements in the party.
There’s now talk of shifting allegiances among groups torn between Mr
Abubakar and Mr Nyako’s groups.

A loyalist of Mr
Nyako, who is also a broadcaster with the state radio station, openly
said on his show, Katakore, named after him, that the change in the
Assembly’s leadership was a prelude to a plot backed by external forces
to impeach the state governor.

However, Gibson
Nathaniel, the new Speaker of Assembly, vehemently denied the charge.
He said the change in leadership in the House was to pave way for a
“new and honest way” of handling issues in the state legislature.

“The change in
House leadership was to remove the House from the pedestal of
stagnation in terms of oversight and support function,” Mr Nathaniel
said.

Although Mr
Nathaniel had assured Mr Nyako of the support of the legislature to
move the state forward, many were stunned by the attack on the state
legislature by some youth calling for the return of the former Speaker,
James Barka. There are also discordant tunes of intra-party allegiance,
which explains why some of the youth caught in the attack on the
legislature allegedly confessed to being sponsored by the youth leader
of PDP in the state.

No divisions

However, Mr Nathaniel said the composition of the new leadership structure was predicated on performance.

“We are now in PDP
for the sake of equity, since equity is acceptable to everyone and we
in the House of Assembly do not measure you from where you come from
since we are one constituency,” he said. “We measure you by the
yardstick of your performance and coexistence and eventually along
those lines, we emerged, and three were former AC and three originally
PDP.” The former Speaker of the Assembly, James Barka, resigned his
office last Monday, but his deputy was not elevated to the office as
members of the state legislature passed a vote of no confidence on him.

“This House of
Assembly was dominated by six people out of 25. Major decisions on key
policy issues were taken by this group of six persons in terms of
running the house and in sourcing for funds. In the course of that, we
discovered that a high level of dishonesty was exhibited, by the
group,” Mr Nathaniel said. “We, therefore, thought that it was unfair,
ungodly and unholy to dominate and mismanage the affairs of this
House.”

He said, for one and a half years, the House did not hold any
leadership meeting – a meeting which was supposedly held at least once
in a month between the Speaker and other appointed leaders of the
House. He also alleged a mismanagement of the running cost meant for
the activities of the house.

Ten days ago, David Mark, the
senate president, was palpably enraged during a plenary session. Mr.
Mark’s anger was directed at senators who were members of the senate
committee on communication which was supposed to have screened the new
management team of the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC). The
senators had publicly accused the committee chairman, Sylvester Anyanwu
of fraud over the screening exercise.

“This is an embarrassment to the
entire senate and I feel very sad about this; a senator accusing the
other publicly,” Mr. Mark said angrily. In that rage, he promptly
disbanded the committee over allegations that its chairman, Mr Anyanwu,
carried out the exercise alone at night, and forged the signatures of
two other members of the committee, claiming that six of the members
took part in the exercise.

For a nation that has increasingly
loathed the unending wrongdoings of federal legislators, that seemed
like a welcome decision and the general consensus seemed to be that Mr.
Anyanwu deserved what he got.

However, a more thorough
investigation of the events that led to Mr. Mark’s show of rage
indicates that the senate president’s furious display that day was the
final act in the drama he scripted the previous night.

It was also established that
although the screening of the new Executive Vice Chairman and chief
executive officer, and three other management staff of NCC took place
in the night as claimed, the nominees were vetted only by Mr. Anyanwu
and his deputy, Joseph Akaagerger (PDP Benue state) because of
pressures from the senate president. They had allegedly acted in
response to an earlier threat by Mr. Mark who directed both Mr Anyanwu
and Mr. Akaagerger to produce the report of the screening that night or
lose their plum positions.

Abubakar Argungu (PDP, Kebbi
state), a member of the committee who broke the scam on the Senate
floor narrated how six members of the committee converged for the
screening the previous evening but the event had to be postponed
because the security report and the Code of Conduct Bureau reports on
the nominees did not reach the committee before dark.

“The point Argungu raised is a
very serious one. I sent the security reports from my office,” the
Senate president said. But officials close to Mr. Mark’s office who
would not want to be named, said the senate president sent the crucial
reports later at night, after the committee members had left, and
threatened that if the assignment was not carried out by the committee
that night, it will be dissolved.

“It appeared the senate president was in haste to confirm the nominees,” one of the officials said.

But for the emergency plenary the
senate will hold on Tuesday, the day of the screening debacle was
supposed to be the last one before 29 September when the senate was
scheduled to return from a two month vacation.

“If the nominees were not
confirmed that day, they would have waited till the senate resumed at
the end of September,” Mr. Anyanwu, the chairman of the committee
confirmed in an interview.

Some in the National Assembly
spoke of the intersection of personal interests in an establishment
viewed in legislative circles as influential. “The senate president had
issued the threat apparently because he sensed the committee was
reluctant about the job because of their personal interests,” one
official said.

Loose funds

The Nigerian Communications
Commission is seen as a crucial government agency which averages N45
billion in subventions from the federal government and N18 billion from
external revenue annually. Another layer of pork is a seemingly loose
fund called Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF). It was established
“to facilitate the rapid achievement of national policy goals for
universal access to telecommunications, information, and communication
technologies (ICTs),” says the Communications Act of 2003. “It is a
honey pot which invisible hands lick from without trace,” said a staff
of the Commission.

It is managed by a secretary who
reports to the Executive Vice Chairman and the CEO who is under the
authority of the commission’s board chairman. It was not confirmed if
the propelling force for the battle over the fund’s control is because
of the approaching 2011 general elections.

Clash of Interests

There are clear indications that
the whole screening exercise was marred by the selfish desire of a
number of people to place ethnic sentiments ahead of national
interests. There were efforts to ensure that the next executive vice
chairman comes from a particular zone. The south east zone apparently
considered the position to be zoned to their area, while a section of
the north was bent on wresting it away for the first time.

The fierce campaign for who
succeeds Ernest Ndukwe, NCC former CEO, started shortly before he
retired last April. There were five contenders for the office, all
engineers, including two executive commissioners in the Commission,
Stephen Adedayo Bello and Bashir Gwandu. Others were Eugene Juwah, Umar
Garba Danbatta, and Johnson Asinogu, a former employee of the
commission.

When Mr. Ndukwe was leaving, he handed over to Mr. Bello, the Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management.

However, two months later, Mr.
Gwandu took over, as the acting CEO, from Mr. Bello who attained the
compulsory retirement age of 60, last June.

Immediately Mr. Gwandu took over
office, Funsho Fawemi, the secretary of the Fund embarked on a
compulsive annual leave of absence, although Mr. Gwandu has denied that
he ordered that.

Despite being recommended by Dora
Akunyili, the Information Minister, Mr. Gwandu was reportedly not
favoured at the presidency because Mr. Ndukwe who has more influence at
the presidency, had another preference.

“Mr. Ndukwe promoted Eugene Juwah, – former executive director of MTS First Wireless – to the presidency,

through Mike Oghadome, the chief
of staff to the President and former deputy governor in Edo state,” a
presidency source said. “Remember Ndukwe was arrested by EFCC (Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission) last year and Gwandu is his antagonist
and believed to be capable of throwing open some secrets if he was
retained as the Executive Vice Chairman. The senate president and his
deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, were then lobbied with an opportunity to
appoint the chairman and one Executive commissioner respectively,” the
source said. “The senate president nominated Peter Igoh from his
constituency and Ekweremadu nominated Okechukwu Itanyi, his former
senior colleague.” Mr. Itanyi was until 2007, the deputy governor of
Enugu State where the deputy senate president also served as
commissioner and chief of staff.

On 22 July, the letter nominating
the new management arrived in the senate and was read by Mr. Ekweremadu
who presided that day and referred it to the senate communication
committee. The committee was given four days to turn in a report.

Ethnic bias

At the committee, three members
were from Kebbi State; Mr. Gwandu’s home state. They were perhaps not
happy with the presidency’s choice and favoured Mr. Gwandu. Some
reports had also accused Mr. Gwandu of bribing the committee chairman
with N230 million to frustrate the screening and subsequently elongate
his stay in office.

Mr. Gwandu who was earlier
adjudged to be the most qualified for the job was considered to be the
first northerner to head the commission since its inception, 18 years
ago.

There was visibly a clash of
multiple interests, few options and little time left for deals before
the day the committee was disbanded.

When the ethnic argument was no
longer tenable, Mr. Argungu’s revelation of a scam at the screening was
the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“I am a member of the committee
and there was no screening,” Mr. Argungu said. “I am surprised the
chairman is presenting them for confirmation this morning.” Tanko
Ayuba, also from Kebbi state reacted sharply saying the committee
chairman approached them to sign the screening report that morning.

“It is time for us to own up on
this matter and say exactly the way it is” Mr. Ayuba said. “We signed
only this morning.” When the scandal took an explosive turn, the senate
president called for a closed door meeting where frayed nerves were
calmed.

However, before the closed
door-calming-meeting, the senate president had taken the hard line
option of disbanding the committee. “The senate president overreacted,”
a senator said in an interview.

Denials all

The players in the debacle
however denied they played any dirty role. In an interview, Mr. Gwandu
said he did not bribe Mr. Anyanwu or any other member of the committee.

“I know Sylvester (Mr. Anyanwu)
very well, of course, and I have cooperated with the committee whenever
required,” he said. “But I have never given money to him or anybody to
influence anything. Where would I even get that kind of money from? The
biggest contract I have given is for my complimentary cards.” He also
denied influencing the decision of the northern senators to prefer him.

Mr. Anaynwu, on his part, denied receiving any bribe from Mr. Gwandu ascribing the allegation to his political enemies.

Media assistants to the senate president also denied his involvement
saying the dissolution of the committee that day was a spontaneous act.

“We do not know who
is giving us the documents and we do not want to know.” These were the
words of Daniel Schmitt (not his real surname), the co-founder of
Wikileaks, the whistle-blower on-line media portal that has exposed
national secret files on the Internet.

Call it a bluff, but one cannot help but wonder at the driving force behind this organization.

Addressing young
journalists participating in the 2010 International Institute of
Journalism (IIJ) Summer Academy in Hamburg, Mr Schmitt – the only known
identity associated with the website, aside the founder of the
organization, John Assange – commanded rapt attention from everyone
present at the meeting; even as he boasted that his organization is
“the most aggressive press agency in the world.”

“We publish the
unpublishable documents and are ungagging the media,” he said. “We have
no political agenda, not right nor left or anywhere. We are just a
relay for neutral sources. What we do is to disclose what creates
transparency.”

Wikileaks has, in
the last two years, published classified documents released to it by
unknown sources on the ongoing war in Iraq and Afghanistan. This
highlights crimes committed by the coalition forces in the war-torn
countries. It has also published a number of documents that revealed
details of corruption in governance and the financial sector in several
countries.

The latest of such
publication, the ‘Afghanistan war log,’ a 90,000 page document released
a fortnight ago, detailed how the coalition forces in Afghanistan were
responsible for the deliberate killings of civilians in the war with
the Talibans. It also revealed how the Pakistani Intelligence service
(ISI) is funding the Taliban insurgency in the country. Wikileaks gave
a new twist to its model and journalism with this release by liaising
with three leading media organization: The Guardian, The New York Times
and Der Spiegel to analyze and publish the report on the same day.

The US government
claimed that Mr Assange now has “blood on his hand” by revealing names
of US secret agents in Pakistan in the report. However, Mr Schmitt told
the audience that the US is the guilty one if anything happens to the
secret sources.

“Prior to our
release of the documents, we approached the US authority and asked to
check the document so that they can take care of their agents, but they
told us they have no interest,” he said. “We are no more responsible
than the US government which says that they are not interested in
removing the names. It is very unfortunate. We did our absolute best to
minimize any possible harm that was there.”

Mr Assange; the founder of the website, has alleged that “crimes against humanity are clearly being committed in the war.”

Focus on human interest

When questioned on
the risk of threats to national security via the publication of
government secrets, Schmitt, who described himself as having a
background in information technology, responded that it is time the
world focuses on human interest and not on national interest. “We all
operate on a basis that is sick and seeks the welfare of just a few in
the name of national security while lots suffer,” he said. “Never in my
life, have I slept so well. I am happy and free and started the project
because I believed I am involved in a good project and doing anything
to me will not change anything.”

Ridiculing the information act

Interestingly, Mr
Schmitt has little regard for the Information Act, which is gaining
grounds in more countries. “Wikileaks has showed how useless the
freedom of information law/act is, which claims to provide a lot of
information but still strongly holds down information with the
different styles of laws in various countries which impedes the
validity of the law,” he said. “What is best kept secret… if
revealed, has the most potential to reform.” He also called on
journalists not to waste time on something everyone knows already.
“Help us publish history, as history is the only guidebook civilization
has,” he said. “Every good story is always controversial as it gets
people talking.” He further stated that the organization will be
building more collaboration with other media organization on how to
build a new system of information dissemination.

Donation from terrorist

As a non-profit
making publishing portal, donations are received by a German foundation
from anonymous donors whose identity they “don’t want to know”. NEXT
asked Mr Schmitt if the organization feels justified to spend donations
that might come from terrorist groups or drug cartels.

“What better thing
will they be spending their money on?” he asked. “I will feel good if
donations come from terrorist groups. That will be the best thing for
them to spend their money on. We cannot control who gives us money, but
we are going to use the money on something very good.” Asked what
Wikileaks wanted the world to do with the information it’s releasing,
the bespectacled man, took a deep breath and said: “in the long run, we
want people to take information seriously and focus more on information
than infotainment. To determine what to do with this information as a
people is very imperative because we have to learn how to deal with the
deluge of information out there. That is why we provide for the public
to decide.” A member of the audience then asked Mr Schmitt, on the
state of emotion of the whistle-blower who earns no glory whatsoever.
“We urge anyone submitting documents to Wikileaks not to talk to
anyone, but we absolutely understand the natural urge for recognition
and that is why we have the chat box on Wikileaks for people to talk
about whatever they want to talk about anonymously.” Citing the example
of a US soldier arrested for the leaking of the Iraqi collateral damage
video, Mr Schmitt said the soldier’s cover (which he said Wikileaks
cannot ascertain) was broken because he confided in a friend. “We have
never lost a source on a mistake that we made,” he said.

Leaks on Nigeria

NEXT asked Mr
Schmitt why nothing tangible is yet to be leaked on Nigeria, despite
the massive level of corruption that pervade the country. He assured
the audience that, pretty soon, the website will be releasing a lot of
information on the African continent. He also explained that the
website, in 2007, published a document on the Kenyan government, which
affected the nation’s election.

Mr Schmitt was also asked why the Wikileaks website looks so much
like the popular on-line search website: Wikipedia. “We decided to use
the same layout because Wikipedia is the most popular website in the
world and easily navigable for anyone, so we copied this format for
easy navigation for everyone” he said. “Aggressive nature of news
publishing is in humanity’s interest.”

The
Action Congress (AC), one of the foremost political parties in the
country, on Friday said that it will make public its decision on the
issue of the mega party proposal by Monday.

Bola Tinubu,
former governor of Lagos State and a chieftain of the party, while
speaking to correspondents at the presidential wing of the Murtala
Mohammed Airport (MMA), Lagos disclosed that the party, which is one of
the formidable oppositions to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP), is doing all it can to claim victory, come the 2011 general
elections.

Admitting that he
is not the national chairman of the party, Mr. Tinubu disclosed that
his party is interested in ensuring the survivability of Nigeria,
adding that the PDP has not delivered in its promises to Nigerians.

“Just keep
looking, by Monday you will know what the party decides. I mean I am
not the national chairman or a member of the national working
committee, for we are looking at a country that is stable and
progressing and we want to work hard as the opposition party to wrest
power from this Poverty Development Party that has not done any
Nigerian any good,” he said. “At the last, they have drifted completely
from government and now it is all about zoning, running, they have
personalised Nigeria.” Outlining poverty, unemployment, poor
educational standards, amongst others, to be the characteristics
attributable to the Peoples Democratic Party, the former governor said
that a nation that is attaining 50 years of age is expected to be
making considerable improvement.

“Poverty is on the
line, unemployment is rife in our youth, education of our youth is
poor, as well as the opportunities in this country; last minutes of
fifty years in our independence and we are still talking about our
potential and not reality – the progress that a nation is made,” he
said.

National Assembly as an ‘imperial court’

Mr. Tinubu also
called on the National Assembly to allow the Independent and National
Electoral Commission (INEC) to act as an autonomous body and not to
interfere in the conducts of the elections.

“It is not about
the merger of which party or not. You look at the National Assembly
making laws in a customised and personalized form and not by the
constitution. Taking away the independence of INEC, when you say this
is an independent institution.

You are taking
their independence away by ordering the election, organising the order
of elections, making laws, legislating for the order of election and so
on and so forth. All sort of charade by the majority party in power.
You could see a National Assembly that is now an imperial court,” he
said.

Explaining that
the call for President Goodluck Jonathan to contest next year’s
election has nothing to do with the Action Congress, and that the party
is working towards changing the way things are being done by the PDP,
Mr. Tinubu disclosed that Nigeria is far from being a country with only
one party.

“We will not allow
this country to become a one party state. I don’t want to talk about
Jonathan running, or sitting down or broken ankle. No, that is their
problem; that is the problem of PDP,” he said.

At
last, Kano State governor, Ibrahim Shekarau has formally opened his
campaign to rule Nigeria. Last Thursday, the governor, at a rally held
at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, made known his intention
to contest the 2011 presidential election on the platform of the All
Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). He became the first presidential aspirant
in the country to declare his intention to contest in the election.

In his speech, Mr. Shekarau berated the PDP
government, which he did not only say is inconsistent in policy
formulation and implementation, but has failed in the 12 years it has
controlled the government at the centre.

“The PDP has ruled this country for almost twelve
years, but they have nothing on ground to show, apart from
inconsistency,” Mr Shekarau said. “Day before yesterday it was National
Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy where the states were
asked to be benchmark for best practice and federal government itself
refused to be benchmarked; yesterday it was seven point agenda and
today what? Nobody knows. You may ask what about tomorrow.”

The governor, however, promised that, if elected, he would turn things around in the country.

“I will do everything towards the realization of
our common aspiration for a better Nigeria,” he told his supporters. “I
will focus on ensuring security of life and property; making the right
move to provide reliable electricity supply; attaining self sufficiency
in food production; and improving schools to meet the standards of
quality for which Nigerian education was renowned.”

“It is time to ask Nigerians to participate in
shaping the future of our nation. It is time for transformational
politics, which is about electing someone committed to doing something
about the challenges facing our country; and not transactional
politics, which is about electing someone on account of instant or
future personal advantage,” the governor said.

But the large crowd that gathered in the
prestigious conference centre to listen to Mr Shekarau unfold his
agenda, may not be a sign of his smooth sail to Aso Rock. Undoubtedly,
there are bumps and potholes on the way that may not be easily filled
and are capable of halting his ambition.

First, the ANPP is practically non-existent in
most states from which Mr. Shekarau is expected to draw his votes to
power. As of today, the party controls only three states, namely Kano,
Yobe and Borno.

On the return of democracy 11 years ago, the ANPP,
then known as All Peoples Party, produced nine governors, all in the
north and over 30 senators and over a hundred members of the House of
Representatives drawn from both the northern and southern part of the
country. It also had a sizeable number of lawmakers in state
legislatures in the south. Today, the party can hardly boast of more
than five senators and 50 members in the House of Representatives, no
thanks to the defection of party faithful to other parties.

The ANPP, presumably the largest opposition party
in the country, has had the misfortune of being used by politicians to
ride to power, after which it is dumped. This occurs both at the level
of government and within the party. As a result, the party’s support
base is diminishing by the day, an ugly development that may affect Mr
Shekarau’s outing.

Closely related to that is the Muhammadu Buhari
factor. Although, Mr Shekarau is perceivably credible, not many can
deny the fact that he rode to power in 2003 on the popularity of the
former military head of state. Against all permutations, Mr Shekarau
dislodged the Musa Kwankwaso PDP administration and went ahead to
secure a second term in office, an achievement no Kano governor ever
made.

Mr. Buhari, the ANPP presidential candidate on two
occasions – 2003 and 2007 – has since the beginning of this year
floated his own party, Congress for Progressive Change, under which he
is expected to contest the presidential election. His supporters have
followed him to his new party abandoning Mr Shekarau. The CPC is not
only creating upset in Kano, but the entire north.

Cracks in unity

Yet, the crack in the Kano chapter of the ANPP is
another factor that may work against Mr. Shekarau. In Kano State, the
governor cannot claim to have full control of the party machinery in
the state he has ruled for about eight years. His “sin” is the
anointing of one of his commissioners, Salihu Sagir Takai as his
successor without allowing a free primary contest. To many, this action
did not provide a level playing field for all aspirants.

Already, some unhappy members have moved over to
the PDP and CPC where they hope to realize their ambitions. Indeed,
some say it was the major reason why Bashir Othman Tofa, also from
Kano, came out with his presidential campaign posters on a day Mr
Shekarau had his rally in Abuja.

Even the ANPP states of Yobe and Borno may not
work for Mr. Shekarau. The governors, Ibrahim Geidam and Ali Modu
Sheriff are reportedly not comfortable with Mr Shekarau’s ambition, a
reason they did not send representatives to his formal declaration for
the race.

Messrs Sheriff and Geidam may not be willing to
deploy their machineries to support the Kano State chief executive. And
if they do, they will not be committed to cause.

At the national level, Mr Shekarau cannot also
claim to have a granite support of the executives. Already, the party
is in disarray over the zoning of party offices, a reason attributable
to the frequent postponement of its national convention.

The Kano governor is said to be backing Harry
Akande, a billionaire businessman from Oyo State, for the position of
chairman as against the choice of other top notchers and members of the
party.

It is also believed that the outgoing national
chairman, Edwin Ume-Ezeoke, who is insisting that the chairmanship slot
remains in the South East geo-political zone, is rooting for the
incumbent national publicity secretary, Emma Eneukwu from Enugu State.
Others, including the former governor of Zamfara State, Ahmad Sani, a
senator, want the position zoned to other parts of the country.

With these problems and many others, it is not
clear where Mr Shekarau will garner votes to dislodge the PDP
administration from Aso Rock.

Bolaji Khaleel, Mr. Shekarau’s campaign Director
General, thinks otherwise. He told NEXT last Friday that Mr Shakarau is
not depending on the votes of only members of the ANPP to emerge
President.

“Our chances are as bright as ever. We are not
relying on party members alone to win but Nigerians. How many
politicians are in the country; they constitute about five percent of
the population of Nigeria. You are not a politician and there are
millions like you who want good governance. Our well wishers are there
to vote and so we are not relying on the party members,” Mr Khaleel, an
indigene of Kwara State said.

The ANPP National Director of Publicity, Sabo
Mouhammad agrees with him. “He (Shekarau) is a party man and has
contributed immensely to the growth of the party.

Although, the party is yet to come out with
guidelines, the coming of Mr. Shekarau is a good omen. The party’s
chances are bright in view of the crisis in the PDP and also because
the PDP government is not performing.

On May 26, 2006,
Augustine Igbokwe penned a sombre four-paragraph letter to the
Commissioner of Police in Imo State where he lived, complaining about
grave threats to his life and that of a kinsman.

“If this incessant
threat to my life and that of Sebastine Dike is not checkmated,” he
said, “it may tantamount to loss of our lives.” He told the police how
his alleged attacker openly threatened to kill him at a funeral for not
supporting the emergence of the accused person’s brother as a local
chief in Isiala Mbano Local Government Area, where they all hailed
from. Whether the police responded to this citizen’s anxiety is neither
stated nor claimed anywhere, but based on testimonies from relatives,
community members and police documents, no arrest, warning or an order
for an undertaking was executed.

Nearly a year
later, in April 2007, while attending a political function in a nearby
location, Mr Igbokwe lost his life, allegedly in the hands of the same
assailant he warned against – a 49-year-old former member of the State
House of Assembly, Jasper Ndubuaku.

According to police
documents and eye witnesses, he was shot and killed by Mr Ndubuaku,
currently an aide to the state governor, Ikedi Ohakim, opening a
homicide case that fortifies a long-standing concern about the rights
of ‘ordinary’ Nigerians to police protection, or justice in the face of
mortal danger.

It is not clear how
the two parties lived for close to 12 months after that notification,
but on April 14, 2007, during the state governorship and House of
Assembly elections, the police document says Mr Ndubuaku shot and
killed Mr Igbokwe.

Several police
correspondences on the matter, obtained by NEXT, do not point to any
action on the solemn warnings, neither have they been denied. But
somehow, the security records, in a rambling pattern, chronicle events
observed through investigations that have run for more than three
years, with the victim’s body unburied throughout the period.

Mr Igbokwe’s
brother, Eugene, said the case has gone through a “lengthy and windy”
investigation, but has only succeeded in failing to prosecute the named
suspect. “It is a long matter that cannot be discussed in a rush,” he
said.

After the prolonged
period, which saw the family and community leaders repeatedly accusing
the police of a cover-up, the matter drew renewed attention under the
new Inspector General of Police, Ogbonnaya Onovo. Now, although
investigations indicted the accused, prosecution is yet to be initiated
by the state Ministry of Justice, which is responsible for such
arraignments.

Political storm

After the office of
the Attorney General had been requested by the police to charge the
case to court, in a memo (CB:3514/X/LEG/FHQ/ABJ/VOL.II/44), K.C
Nwokorie, the assistant chief state counsel in a letter he signed on
February 12, 2010, for the Director of Public Prosecution, Imo State
Ministry of Justice, requested the original case file from the police,
after which nothing has since happened.

The Commissioner of
Police, Legal/Prosecution section, ‘c’ department, Abuja, B. A Hassan,
also on March 25, 2010, wrote the Commissioner of Police, ‘A’
Department, Imo State command, reminding him of the case and his
readiness to provide necessary resources to facilitate the arraignment.

Over phone with
NEXT, the state Attorney General, K. C. O Njemanze, denied knowledge of
the case, citing the high volume of criminal files his office attends
to daily. Like thousand others, he said, if the case involved murder,
the suspect cannot be spared prosecution.

“If it involves
murder and armed robbery, which are very sensitive, we must charge
those concerned. Nobody is above the law here,” he said. “We charge the
person straight, no matter whose ox is gored.” He, however, promised to
provide further details if the particulars of the case were sent to him.

Many about turns

In a March 19,
2010, letter, endorsed by S.U. Onuoha, the state solicitor general, on
behalf of the AG, the police was asked to discountenance a previous
request made by the state Director of Public Prosecutions asking for
the original case files and the arrest and arraignment of Mr Ndubuaku.

Mr Onuoha wrote
that the Attorney General was yet to vet the case, three years after
the incident, and that he would inform the police of other developments.

But the victim’s family seem determined not to let go.

The deceased today
lies in the Aladinma Hospital mortuary in Imo State, partly as a
preserved evidence for this yet-to-be completed investigation, and also
as a heartbreaking memento of a horrific pursuit of justice by a family
bereaved by a murdered son. The victim’s mother, relatives say, later
died inconsolable after her son’s tragic death.

As the family
endured an arduous process which involved the relatives often
travelling to Abuja to keep appointments at the police headquarters,
the suspect was never arrested or arraigned, NEXT understands.

“There have been a string of arrests in this case, all of which have
targeted persons with very remote bearing to this case and have yielded
nothing,” said Access to Justice, a rights campaigning group, in its
December 2007 letter to former Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro.
“All of those arrests have been one-sided, extending only to relatives
of the deceased person. The principal suspect of this murder has
enjoyed some kind of arrest and detention immunity.”

One too many Nigerians are carrying scars from police brutality
and extra-judiacial killings. One such person is 16-year-old Godwin Joshua, an
SS1 student, who was shot by yet-to-be-identified police officers on April 3,
2010 in Ajegunle.

April 3 was the day almost 2,000 youth marched the streets of
Ajegunle, protesting the death of another youth, Charles Okafor, who died two
days earlier following alleged police harassment and brutality.

Godwin remembers that day clearly. He remembers he did not pray.
He remembers when he woke in the morning, his plan was to do “my duty at home
and later I’ll go to work then go and play ball”. He even remembers the black
pair of jeans and blue shirt he wore on the day. And he remembers it was a
little after 10am when he became a victim of police brutality.

“My dad sent me on an errand so when I returned I took up my
tools to go to where they called me to work because I do furniture work. But
when I got there what I saw was unbelievable. People were running here and
there. The police were shooting and everyone was running. I also ran but the
next thing I found myself…,” Godwin pauses and shakes his head. It’s obvious
the memories are still fresh. He says the next thing he remembers is the pain
he felt in his legs and being at a police station and a group of Police
officers deciding his fate.

“Some of the police were saying that they should give me a gun
or machete so that they’ll take my picture, so that they will say maybe I am
among those that are fighting,” Godwin recounts, “but one of the police man
said I am too small for such a thing that they should just throw me somewhere
or take me to anywhere”.

The bullets had hit his right and left thighs, barely missing
his penis. Assuming he would not survive, he said, the police took him to the
Isolo General Hospital where they abandoned him. Family members found him three
days later.

Pain untold

“He was lying down on the bed. All his legs were swollen. I felt
serious tears in my eyes. I said to myself how can a man live like this in his
own country, not America, or anywhere else, but my own country. I don’t want to
say I regret being a Nigerian,” said Godwin’s father Udofia Joshua.

Godwin says “for those three days the only thing that came to my
mind was just for God to take my life because I was going through pain. Nothing
on earth amused me during that period.”

Unable to pay for hospital treatment, Mr. Joshua took his son
home and resorted to use of traditional medicine and family care.

Godwin’s cousin, Magdalene Joshua, a nurse, attended to him for
the four months, giving him injections and dressing his wounds. She wonders why
the police carried Godwin to the Isolo General Hospital instead of either the
General Hospital in Ajeromi or Apapa.

She recounts her experience attending to Godwin. “If you entered
the room (where the victim lay for months), it would be smelling due to the
odour. If you see the leg that time when I was doing the dressing. My
instruments like forceps, I used to put rope to pull it out. That time he could
not do anything,” she said.

“It is God that did it because for those four months, there was
no money. It is only if people come around they’ll give us small something,”
she narrated.

For the victim’s mother, Magdalene Joshua, her days of “worrying
sick and thinking a lot” are over.

She says she is thankful because other youths, like Babatunde
Olotu, were killed on the day of the protest. She says wants to see her son
“walk better like before, finish school and further his education.”

Godwin believes “only the rich can get justice in this country”.

But as he manages to walk, he says he doesn’t forget to pray
every day. He sees life as having given him a second chance. He is, however,
worried for his family.

“The Police abandoned me so I cannot count on them. All I can ask is help
for my family because they are down. Even the money they have spent on me they
borrowed it and till now they have not paid back. But I don’t trust the Police
to help.”

Last
week, the Nigerian Consulate in Johannesburg, South Africa, told a
Nigerian woman she cannot apply for her children without a letter from
the children’s father, and kindly offered to issue the documents as
soon as the paternal endorsement is received.

The shocked woman
asked the reason for her denial and the reason given by the immigration
officer at the consulate was that “in Nigeria, the children belong to
the man.” This incident is a pointer to the series of institutional
discriminations against women in the country, including the lack of
opportunities for men married to Nigerian women to take their wives’
nationality if they so desire, while foreign women married to Nigerian
men have no such problem.

Immigration
officials at the Lagos Passport Office, Ikoyi, confirmed that the
father’s consent is indeed a prerequisite while applying for the
passports of minors.

A senior official
at the office, who doesn’t want to be named because he did not have
clearance to speak on the issue, said this is done to prevent
situations where the mother of a child might want to take such a child
away from their father without the father’s knowledge, for instance,
while divorce is being ironed out.

“I have had cases here where fathers have denied being aware that their children have applied for passports,” he said.

However, Chibogu
Obinwa, the senior programme officer of BAOBAB, a women’s human rights
advocacy group, thinks the reason given by the Immigration Service
cannot hold water.

“It does not take
into consideration the circumstances which may have led the woman
wanting to take the children out of the marriage,” she said. “It could
be that the woman is in an abusive marriage, (to her and the children)”.

Another senior
official at the office of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) at
Alagbon Close, Lagos, who also requested anonymity, corroborated what
the officer said at the Passport Office.

“It is purely for
security reasons,” he said. “It is intended to check crimes such as
human trafficking and child labour.” When asked if the mother’s consent
is required when a father is the one applying for their passport, the
immigration official said this may not be necessary since Nigeria is a
patrilineal society.

“You must
understand that Nigeria is a patrilineal society and the child belongs
to the father. In a country like Ghana that is a matrilineal society,
this may be possible.”

Jiti Ogunye, a
Lagos-based lawyer, expressed displeasure at the practice of government
officials in the application of laws, which he said reinforce the
patriachal posture of the Nigerian society. Mr Ogunye said such
practices are unconstitutional, as they negates the principle of
equality of sexes and the abhorrence of discrimination enshrined in the
country’s constitution.

“It is
unconstitutional, because there should be equality of treatment of both
gender by the law and in the application of all laws and regulations in
Nigeria, discrimination should be avoided. You can’t discriminate
anybody on the account of sex, circumstances of birth, state of origin
and religion. The constitutional provision in section 34 of the
constitution writes against discrimination.

However, Mr Ogunye
believes that while the immigration has the power to request for the
father’s consent to corroborate the mother’s claims if she shows up
first at the passport office, such treatment should be meted out to the
man also if he is the one that shows up first at the passport office.
This, he said, will justify the principle of equality as stated in the
constitution.

When asked if the
immigration is not deliberately negating the tenets of the constitution
on equality of sexes, the senior immigration official at the
immigration office at Alagbon retorted, “Our job is to implement
government policies. It is the job of a court of competent jurisdiction
to decide what is constitutional or not.”

A history of discrimination

The Nigerian
immigration law has a long history of discrimination against women in
its administrative policy on the issuance of international passports.
Prior to June 2009, when Priye Iyalla-Amadi, the wife of the famous
Nigerian writer, Elechi Amadi, got what is being regarded today as a
landmark judgement against the NIS, even adult women were required to
get their husband’s consent before they can apply for international
passports.

In the case
between Priye Iyalla-Amadi versus the NIS, a federal high court in Port
Harcourt declared as unconstitutional the policy of the NIS which
compelled a married Nigerian woman to produce a letter of consent from
her husband as a condition for issuance of international passport.

NEXT can confirm
that since the judgement was issued, the NIS has jettisoned the policy
that requires married women to get their husband’s consent before they
are issued passports.

“I have not been
asked to produce any such thing. Not at all,” said Mrs. Osinsanya, an
applicant at the Lagos passport office in Ikoyi.