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A Sharia court
sitting in Kaduna on Tuesday upheld last week’s ruling that an online
discussion on the first wrist amputation in the country be banned.

The online forum
was launched by the Civil Rights Congress (CRC), a civil society
organisation, to mark the 10th anniversary of the first Sharia-court
ordered amputation in Nigeria – that of Buba Bello Jangebe, alias ‘Kare
Garke’ (ranch raider), by the Zamfara State government.

The Magajin Gari
Sharia court last week ordered the CRC and its head, Shehu Sani, to
suspend its online debate on the amputation through an interim
injunction that restrained the respondents from opening a chat forum on
Facebook, Twitter, or any blog for the purpose of the debate on the
amputation of Mr. Jangebe pending yesterday’s hearing of the case.

It’s only a forum

Mr. Sani, the
director of CRC, speaking to NEXT immediately after the ruling,
confirmed that “the Sharia court judge just finished judgement and he
upheld the ban of Facebook and Twitter chat on the amputation.”

Mr. Sani said the
chat forum was launched on Twitter and Facebook two weeks ago and was
initially challenged by the Muslim Brotherhood Association of Nigeria.

“We (the CRC) are
utterly surprised at this ruling because we only wanted to create a
forum for people to hear their views on whether what happened is
justified or not,” he said. “This group (the Muslim Brotherhood
Association of Nigeria) approached us and appealed that we close the
chat that was already running online for about ten days, claiming that
people can come around to attack Sharia law and the amputation
doctrine.”

The group then filed a suit against the online debate at the Magajin Gari Sharia court on Friday, 19 March 2010.

Mr. Jangebe had his
right wrist amputated on March 22, 2000, for theft, making him the
first convict of the Sharia law, which 12 states in Northern Nigeria
adopted in 1999 shortly after the nation returned to civilian rule
following 15 years of military dictatorship.

Unnecessary debate?

Abu Sufyan,
chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood Association of Nigeria in Kaduna,
however told NEXT over a phone conversation that his organisation was
trying to protect the image of Islam by challenging such a debate.

“As Muslims, we see
no reason why there should be a debate on an issue that we believe is
our doctrine and which Jangebe (the amputee) himself did not contest
when it happened, because it is a doctrine we believe in,” he said.
“The issue concerns on the belief and Ideology of Islam, which is to
protect the Islamic rights which is bidding on all Muslims.”

Mr. Sanni however
insists that his group “shall not relent in our right to express our
views, therefore we are heading straight to the Upper Sharia court on
Monday to challenge this ruling and if we lose there, the battle moves
to the Sharia court of appeal and the Supreme Court in that order.”

Of freedom of expression

A lecturer in the
department of Journalism at the Lagos State University, Jide Jimoh,
however called the ruling ‘a sad development.’ “This manner of ruling
negates the Section 22 and 39 of the Nigerian constitution and goes
against all binding local and international instruments that guarantees
freedom of expression and association,” he said.

Gbenga Sesan, an
ICT consultant and social media expert, expressed amusement. “I laugh
because Facebook and Twitter are beyond the jurisdiction of the Sharia
court, noting that the server on which the information is hosted is not
in Nigeria,” he said.

However, he raised
the fear that the error of allowing this ruling to stay will create a
precedent for “that will be a huge assault on the freedom which the
internet provides.”

He advised the CRC
to create another group (in a physical space that cannot be touched by
a Kaduna-based court) and register new accounts while they ‘comply’
with the court ruling in the interest of avoiding the injection of
religious sentiments into the ongoing series of events.

“The internet is a
tricky place to issue or uphold rulings because of the free – and
possibly anonymous – nature of cyberspace,” he said.

The Acting President, Goodluck
Jonathan, should embrace the national gender policy that states
reserving 35 per cent of all political appointments for women and
therefore, create wider room for women to participate in governance, a
woman activist and executive director of Equity Advocates, Ene Ede, has
said.

Women activists have expressed concern
over the few women ministerial nominees on the list sent to the Senate
for screening by the Acting President.

“It is the greatest shock to see only
very few women nominated for appointment in the new list,” Ms. Ede
said. “Already, there is what some people call ‘democratic deficit’,
where women have not been accorded their right of place in the polity.
We should have been asked to manage at least 10 slots. And what is
wrong with getting the 35 per cent prescribed by the national gender
policy? Consider the services and contributions that women have
rendered to make the society more comfortable.”

Incidentally, the theme for the 2010
International Women’s Day celebration is ‘Equal rights, equal
opportunity: Prosperity for Women.’ This, Ms. Ede said, underscores the
need to give women a voice in politics, saying history has proved that
women have done exceedingly better than their male counterparts in some
cases, in both traditional and even sophisticated economies.

Qualified for any post

“A woman can head
the Ministry of Defence,” she said. “There are lots of women who have
retired from the armed forces. Why can’t we pick any of them, or are
they not qualified? They can also head power or the petroleum ministry.
If we want real and genuine change, we can get women to head some key
ministries. There is no ministry in this country that cannot be headed
by women.”

She also urged Mr. Jonathan to bring fresher faces to government so as to give his government more dynamism.

“Former President
Olusegun Obasanjo will tell you that he owes a huge part of his success
to the calibre of women he brought in,” she said. “We still have women
who can do better than men, after all we never knew they existed
before. So let us stop all these recycling. Let us see younger women
coming in.

“The Senate, too. I know they are very gender sensitive and so we
would like to see how they will bring the gender sensitivity to bear on
the screening.”

In
the wake of last week’s accident involving tens of pupils of an
unregistered school in the state, the Ondo State government has
announced plans to tackle the spread of mushroom nursery and primary
schools in the state.

The State
Commissioner for Education, Adenike Fatogun, said at a news conference
in Akure on Monday that the state government was not happy with the
spread of illegal schools in the state and that new guidelines for
operators of private schools in the state have been finalised with a
view to reducing quackery in the educational system.

“The state
government could no longer fold its arms and allow mediocrity to ruin
the future of the pupils who are supposed to be the future leaders,”
Mrs. Fatogun said. “We are totally dissatisfied about the operation of
some nursery and primary schools in the state and that is why we are
reviewing the guidelines to make sure that they conform with the normal
standard obtainable in anywhere across the country.” An official of the
state Ministry of Education in Akure said no fewer than 200 unapproved
nursery and primary schools have been recommended for closure in the
state.

“Area Education
Officers (AEO) in the 18 local governments in the state have also been
directed to inspect all private schools in their jurisdictions and
verify whether they are registered with the state government,” he said,
speaking on condition of anonymity.

Packed like sardines

“The Education
Officers are also saddled with the responsibility of ascertaining
whether the facilities and environment where these schools operate meet
the required standard.” The Commissioner also said government would no
longer tolerate the way some schools load pupils inside the school
buses like sardines.

“Government will no longer tolerate the use of rickety buses to transport students to school.

We have discovered
that some schools packed pupils inside the school bus like sardines.
Such act is highly dangerous and needs to be tackled urgently,” she
said.

The Commissioner,
who also decried the way some school buses carry pupils to schools,
said she personally intercepted two school buses in Akure during the
week which were overloaded with pupils.

While advising
parents to be concerned about the security and welfare of their
children, Mrs. Fatogun warned that any private school in the state that
violates government’s directive will have its license revoked.

She disclosed that
the ministry will soon commence new registration of all private schools
in the state with a view to re-branding the educational sector and
identify quacks who only run schools for their selfish reasons.

Renowned Peruvian
economist, Hernando De Soto, has urged Nigerian leaders to focus on
utilisation of the nation’s resources to build a system of Rule of Law
for the country.

Mr. De Soto, who
was the lead discussant at the second annual Bola Tinubu Colloquium
held at the Muson Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos yesterday, also asked
Nigerians to come together and find a common ground to define a system
that will work for everyone.

Speaking on the
topic: ‘This House Must Stand! Pulling Nigeria back from the brink’,
the president of the Lima-based Institute of Leadership and
Development, which is revered as one of the two most important
think-tanks in the world, described the rule of law as an opposite to
anarchy. This, according to Mr. De Soto, “is not chaos” as “anarchy is
a situation where different types of laws operate.”

Mr. De Soto, the
author of a best seller, The Mystery of Capital; Why Capitalism
Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else, explained that
formalisation of the nation’s resources from human to material
resources gives value to resources which then will enhance the world to
relate with it.

Comparing the
development of the West to the poor regions of the world, the economist
wondered that despite the technology and education bestowed on the poor
nations over the last five decades, “they remain the same.”

“We have refused to
learn how they formalised their economy to make it work for them over
the years. Formalisation is getting things under the Rule of Law, which
is invariably securing things. Rules fall into place and make people
that do not know each other deal with each other. The Rule of Law is
needed for people across the globe to work with each other.”

Femi Falana, a
member of the panel of discussants, however demanded that the concept
of the Rule of Law must be redefined globally. Mr. Falana argued that
the concept must be redefined from the way the West has defined it and
called for a new international economic order which he referred to as
“a just rule of law.”

“The Nigerian house has fallen and we are trying to re-build the house by the Rule of Law,” Mr. Falana said.

Middle class action

Maryam Uwais, who
was recently appointed on the Presidential advisory committee to the
Vice President, called on all Nigerians to “focus on a larger picture;
we need to think beyond the fragments that divide us.” Babatunde
Ahonsi, a former senior program officer with the Ford Foundation, said
that Nigeria’s problem is a twined crisis of government and
development. He argued that for the Rule of Law to work in Nigeria, the
middle class must jettison the habit of ‘siddon look’, which he said is
an attitude that ignores the happenings in the nation. He also called
on the middle class to connect with progressive members of the elite
who are interested in making Nigeria great again by “using what we
have, by coming together to form a vanguard that will let Nigerians
come together and rebuild the nation.”

The annual colloquium is organised by a committee of friends to mark
the birthday of the former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, to
discuss topical issues affecting Nigeria.

The Murtala

Mohammed Airport (MMA) Police Command on Monday announced the arrest of

a group of employees with the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company

(NAHCO), alleged to have been stealing from the aviation firm.

The process of the

arrest, which came after the group broke into the ground handling

company’s warehouse and made away with two plasma television sets and a

carton containing 100 mobile phones, commenced on March 23, following a

report to the police.

“We quickly moved

into action by arresting one Sunday John, a staff of NAHCO, who led

detectives to his house in Otta, Ogun State,” said Danazumi Doma,

Commissioner of Police MMA Command, at the police headquarters, Lagos.

Mr. Doma disclosed

that 21 pieces of “expensive” wristwatches and seven automatic electric

door handles believed to have been stolen, were also recovered from the

suspect’s apartment, adding that through Mr. John, the command

apprehended two other employees of the company involved in the crime.

“Through the first

suspect, two members of the syndicate, namely Alen Akin and Ahulor

Alexander, all staff of NAHCO, were also picked up and the remaining

items stolen from the warehouse on the night of March 22, were

recovered,” he said.

Confirming the

arrest of the syndicate, an employee at the aviation handling company,

who asked to remain anonymous, disclosed that the arrest of the group

was the right thing to do, adding that it was unfortunate to figure out

that the perpetrators of the crime were workers in the company.

“Their arrest is

the best thing at this time, although no one had expected that the

thieves will be employees of NAHCO,” the source said.

The MMA police commissioner stated that the suspects will be prosecuted according to the demands of the law.

“All those involved will be charged to court as soon as we conclude our investigations,” he said.

Mr. Doma further

disclosed that the police has been able to eliminate violent crime at

Lagos airports, adding that there has been “drastic” reduction in the

forging and faking of receipts, invoices, and other documents used to

fraudulently clear cargoes at the various aviation ground handling

companies.

“Touting at MMIA has reduced and we have been able to record

considerable success in the war against commercial motorcycle (okada)

operators at the airports,” he said.

Even as the Senate
yesterday commenced the screening of ministerial nominees sent by our
acting president, Goodluck Jonathan, hearing in a suit that Farouk
Aliyu, a former House of Representatives member filed, continued in
Abuja.

Mr. Aliyu, in the
suit, is challenging the resolution of the National Assembly that
sanctioned the elevation of Mr. Jonathan to acting president. He is
challenging the National Assembly’s resolution of February 9, and
asking that a Federal High Court declares it illegal. The defendants in
the suit include the acting president, Attorney General and Minister of
Justice, the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Acting President Jonathan asked the court to dismiss the suit challenging his acting position.

The acting
president’s position is shared by the former Attorney General of the
Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Adetokunbo Kayode, who is the
fourth respondent in the suit.

The defendants,
including the Senate and the House of Representatives, told the court
that it would be in the interest of justice to strike out or dismiss
the suit.

They argued that it disclosed no cause of action, adding that it lacked locus standi.

Canvassing more
grounds upon which the court, presided over by Adamu Bello, should
throw out the suit, the former AGF in his notice of preliminary
objection, noted that the suit did not disclose any reasonable cause of
action. Besides, he prayed the court to dismiss the suit because there
was no dispute between the plaintiff, Mr. Jonathan and the AGF, even as
he asked the court to hold that the “suit is an abuse of court process”.

Similarly, Ken
Ikonne, who also challenged the suit on behalf of the Senate,
emphasised that the plaintiff lacked locus standi in respect of the
suit.

But counsel to
plaintiff, Victor Kalu, prayed the court to declare the resolution of
the National Assembly on Jonathan as illegal and unconstitutional.

The case was adjourned to April 20, for further hearing.

The acting
president, Goodluck Jonathan on Monday restated our federal
government’s determination to strengthen Nigeria’s electoral laws, to
ensure credible elections in our country.

Speaking during an
audience with members of the Alumni Association of the National
Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (AANI) led by its president,
Jani Ibrahim, Mr. Jonathan observed that, with the amendment of the
electoral laws and the cooperation and support of Nigerians, free and
fair elections would be possible.

Mr. Jonathan also
commended members of the association for their immense contributions in
offering advice on several policy issues, and assured that “government
would do its best to tackle the issues of power and security,
especially kidnapping which have become a source of great concern”.

He called on
Nigerians to always aim at doing things that will promote our country,
noting that “there is no other country we can call our own”.

Pursue good governance

Mr. Ibrahim said
the association noted the huge potentials our country is endowed with
and was hopeful that the Acting President’s tenure will record giant
strides, especially in resolving the urgent challenges our country
currently faces in power supply, ethno- religious crisis, corruption
and electoral reform.

Mr. Ibrahim said
history has shown that it is not necessarily the length of a government
that matters, but the decisiveness and eventfulness of its tenure.

He thus urged the
acting president to use the tremendous goodwill he enjoys to vigorously
pursue good governance and resolve the many issues that plague our
nation today.

Some indigenes of
the Ogun West Senatorial District yesterday caused huge traffic jam for
hours in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, following their peaceful
protest over the two ministerial nominees from Ogun State.

The protesters,
who stormed the major streets of the town, were seen carrying placards
denouncing the list. The protesting Yewa/ Awori, who are also
clamouring to produce the next governor for the state, trekked through
Ita-Oshin, Oke-Sokori, Ita-Eko, Ibara, Omida, Oke-Ilewo, Oke-Igbein,
Kuto and Presidential Boulevard before finally stopping at Governor’s
Office, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.

They took their grouse and complaint against the ministerial list to the governor, Gbenga Daniel.

“This is the sixth
ministerial nominations and appointments from Ogun State since 1999,
without a single person from Ogun West,” the protesters said.

The protesters
were received by the governor, Mr. Gbenga Daniel and his deputy,
Salimot Badru-Makanjuola, who incidentally is from Ogun West Senatorial
District.

Kayode Ajibola, the leader of the protesters, said their action was planned to claim their rights.

“There are three
senatorial districts in each of the states of the federation. Two of
them, that is Ogun Central and Ogun East, have cornered all federal
appointments. It is not only unfair, it is ungodly. Who wants to create
another Delta-like militants in Ogun State?” A leader of the area, Ayo
Otegbola, said the district was fighting a just cause. “We have the
right in all standard to have a slot,” he said, noting that the zone
had since 1999 being agitating for equal representation in the state.

Mr. Daniel, who
looked worried over the rejection of his nominees and their
replacements, Jubril Martins-Kuye and Nojeem Alao, said the protest
came at the right time.

Blame the cabal

He assured the
protesters that the letter of complaint submitted to him, would be
taken to Abuja for Mr. Jonathan’s necessary action, just as he warned
the protesters to avoid violence.

“It is good that
you protest. I want to assure you that Ogun West is important in Ogun
State. Your loyalty must therefore be reciprocated,” he said.

Mr. Daniel also attributed his political travails to ‘some cabal’
whom he said operate only for their selfish interest. He was for the
first time reacting to the rejection of his ministerial nominees by the
federal government.

The National Youth Service Corps members has urged corps members to make their personal security a priority.

Director General Maharazu Tsiga gave the charge on
Sunday at the NYSC permanent orientation camp in Issele-Uku, Delta,
when he visited the camp as part of his on-going sensitisation tour.

“The NYSC management has put in place some
measures toward your safety, but your personal efforts are very
essential,’’ he said.

He advised them to be mindful of their friends and
the association they keep “so as to avoid been misguided.” He said
that the on-going sensitisation tour was to see how the corps members
were faring in the various camps with respect to their welfare and
security.

“Do not use your energy and brain wrongly. Do not
waste your time because your parents are not around; work hard and
re-direct your energy positively,’’ he said.

The Ekiti State House of Assembly will be going to Abuja to protest the reduction of the state’s constituencies.

The Independent
National Electoral Commision plans to reduce the number of Ekiti
constituencies from 26 to 24, a development which the state Assembly
committee chairman on information, Morakinyo Adebayo called “an act of
injustice’’ to the state.

Mr. Adebayo
disclosed that the 26 members of the House would stage a peaceful
demonstration to the National Assembly and INEC office to register
their displeasure.

He said that the
responsibility of the state’s constituency rests with the state
Assembly, noting that, “INEC does not have any business in either
reducing or increasing constituencies. If INEC is increasing the
constituency of other states, why then is it reducing our own?.

The Assembly bears the cost of maintaining the constituencies and not INEC.

INEC has nothing to gain in the reduction and we will not rest until the decision is reversed,” he said.