By Bolanle BOLAWOLE
turnpot@gmail. 0705 263 1058

“Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains. One man thinks himself the master of others but remains more of a slave than they are” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

One of the (once-upon-a-time) immovable pillars of our justice system is that a man is presumed innocent until otherwise proven. The man so accused is therefore allowed all his rights and privileges until the charges against him are proven. He is accorded his liberties and freedom. His honour and integrity are not only left intact, they are also held as sacrosanct. No one may abridge his rights. No one may look him in the eyes and pronounce him guilty. He may not be ostracised by anyone.

And no punishment can – and should – be levied against him. He must be free as air and must be taken before a court of competent jurisdiction, charged with offences known to law. He must have his day in court – unhindered and unmolested. No obstacles must be hewn his way – otherwise, that in itself will amount to an obstruction of the cause – and course – of justice which, in itself also, is a serious offence.

That is why, once a case is in court, no one is allowed to comment on it again. In legal parlance, the case/comment is said to be sub judice. The court must be left alone to pronounce on the matter. You don’t have to be a lawyer to know why this should be so. Don’t distract the judge(s). Don’t arrest their judgment before it is delivered. Don’t incite the public against any likely outcome. Avoid a likely breakdown of law and order. Don’t influence the judges with your comments, position or personality. Don’t intimidate or harass them either.

But once judgment is delivered, you are then free to review it and pass comments. Usually, there are opportunities for an appeal. Even in our traditional society, once a matter is taken before the elders for adjudication, the combatants sheath their swords. After each one has stated their own side of the case, they wait patiently for the “judge” or “judges” to ruminate over the matter and pronounce judgment.

It appears that is no longer the case here! Senior lawyers not only discuss matters before the court with relish but also deliver “judgment” on them! As it stands today, the accused is deemed guilty once he has been so alleged. His cloak of innocence is shredded once he or she gets tarred with this or that allegation. In the trending case of Dele Farotimi versus Chief Afe Babalola and others, you will be wrong if you think Farotimi is the only one whose innocence is denied him ever before he had had the opportunity to appear before a law court – competent or incompetent.

While Chief Afe has been “tried” and “convicted” in the court of public opinion before he had had the opportunity to utter a word, the Establishment appears to have made up its mind on the guilt of Farotimi what manner of punishment to inflict (and is already being inflicted) ever before he could have his day in court. To the Establishment, the question is not whether he is guilty but the kind of exemplary punishment to inflict on him to serve as deterrent to others as well as make him an object lesson to any other “hot head”that may want to imitate him.

Why ban a book when the matter has not even been joined in court? What is there to be debated again when you have already banned the book that is in contention? That book, as well as Farotimi, ought to be presumed blameless until those against it have proven their case that it does not qualify for a place on the bookstand – and not before it is found to be so guilty. What is parading naked before us is not the administration of justice but vendetta, victimization and anti-intellectualism all rolled into one.

No book deserves to be banned. At the very worst, you order that the “offending” portions be expunged once the case for it had been proven in a court of competent jurisdiction. The actions already taken against Farotimi’s book while he is yet to be given the opportunity to defend what he wrote is anti-intellectualism. What if, in the end, Farotimi wins his case or have they concluded that he cannot?

As an editor, I won cases of alleged libel that many had thought not win-able. If you successfully plead justification. If you convince the judge that it is the public interest. And natural occurrences can terminate a case of libel, slander, or defamation.

Why did they take Farotimi to court in manacles? I found the position held by Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and an Ekiti indigene like Chief Afe Babalola, very instructive. Titled “Beyond The Removal Of Dele Farotimi’s Handcuffs”, Falana said: “In the last 20 years or thereabout, this is the fourth time that the restraint of suspects has been condemned in the media. Two days ago, Mr. Dele Farotimi who is currently standing trial in Ado Ekiti for criminal defamation was handcuffed by the authorities of the Ado Ekiti Correctional Centre.

“As there was no basis for the restraint, the action of the prison management was deprecated in the media. Since the detained lawyer had not exhibited any form of violence, some lawyers argued that the treatment meted out to him could not be justified under Section 7 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act which provides that a suspect or defendant may not be handcuffed, bound or subjected to restraint except: (a) there is reasonable apprehension of violence or an attempt to escape; (b) the restraint is considered necessary for the safety of the suspect or defendant, or (c) by order of a court.

”In the last 20 years or so, this is the fourth time that the restraint of suspects has been condemned in the media. Specifically, the decision of the authorities to handcuff Tafa Balogun (a former Inspector-General of Police), Olisa Metuh (a former chieftain of the PDP), Agba Jalingo (an online publisher) and Dele Farotimi (a lawyer) was greeted with opprobrium in the media. Based on the condemnation of the humiliation of such suspects, the restraint of each of them was hurriedly discontinued. Hence, Mr. Dele Dele Farotimi was not handcuffed to the Magistrate Court yesterday.

’In several WhatsApp groups, petit bourgeois lawyers and journalists have congratulated themselves for the social media campaign that compelled the prison management to discard Mr. Dele Farotimi’s handcuffs. However, on a daily basis, lowly-placed criminal suspects are handcuffed to and from the several High Courts and Magistrate Courts in all the states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory. As if that is not enough, such suspects are regularly leg-chained like slaves in sugar plantations in the Americas during the slave trade.

”The dehumanisation of poor suspects is considered normal by the elite in our stratified society. For instance, a couple of months ago, a police command paraded a suspect before the electronic and print media for stealing five tubers of yam valued at less than N10,000 to feed himself and his family members. At about the same time, a public officer accused of stealing over N100 billion was neither handcuffed nor paraded before the media.

”It is only when politically-exposed persons and the elite are charged with criminal offences that lawyers and journalists wax lyrical and pontificate so passionately on the sanctity of the presumption of innocence enshrined in Section 36 of the Constitution and Article 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act.

”Under the current democratic dispensation, four judgments of the Ecowas Court and domestic courts in Nigeria have declared the parade of suspects illegal on the ground that it is prejudicial to the right of fair hearing. Based on such judicial decisions, the human rights community mounted a vigorous campaign for an end to the practice of parading suspects by law enforcement agencies in Nigeria.

”Although the campaign has not succeeded, the Lagos State House of Assembly prohibited the parade of criminal suspects via an amendment of the Criminal Law carried out in February 2009. Since the House of Assembly of other states failed to adopt the progressive position of the Lagos State Government, our law firm has filed a suit in the Federal High Court seeking to stop the Nigeria Police Force, EFCC, ICPC and other security agencies from further parading criminal suspects in chains.

”However, in marking this year’s Human Rights Day, the National Human Rights Commission held a conference at Abuja on December 5, 2024. In his goodwill message delivered at the conference, Mr. Hashimu Argungu, the chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), condemned the practice of parading suspects in chains. It is hoped that the Nigeria Police Force will soon ban all police commands from subjecting poor suspects to handcuffs and leg chains before the media.

”In order not to be accused of hypocrisy, Nigerian lawyers should join the campaign to ban detaining authorities from further subjecting all suspects and defendants to the restraint of handcuffs and leg chains unless it is authorised by a court. Nigerian lawyers should also ensure that suspects and defendants are not exposed to any form of media trial. Journalists should also stop the contemptuous culture in the media by which pages of newspapers, television and radio studios as well as myriad online platforms have been turned into parallel trial courts.

”The point that I am struggling to make is this: the campaign for humane treatment of suspects should not end simply because the prison authorities have removed the handcuffs on Mr. Dele Farotimi. In other words, it is time that the handcuffs and leg chains on other suspects and defendants were removed”

Well said! I cannot now remember the activist whom the Establishment sought to shame by putting him in chains; but rather than bow his head in shame, he held up his manacled hands for everyone to behold and denounced it as the symbol of a decadent society and the shame of those upholding and promoting it. And my mind went to Rousseau quoted above.

Those who think themselves the master of others are the worst of all slaves. The handcuffs on some men’s hands are nothing compared to the handcuffs on some other persons’ minds and souls! Neither do we need Rousseau to tell us that Nigeria is a country where everyone is born free but are everywhere in chains – chains even worse than those Femi Falana is railing against here.

Once upon a time the thinking was that the judiciary, touted as the “last hope of the common man”, would help break the chains holding the people down; but today we know better! To break their chains, the people must take their destiny in their own hands and, that way, also help break the chains on the judiciary’s own hands and legs!

Today, the Bar and Bench are the worst enemies of the Judiciary. They are the ones trampling the norms and basic rules that once were the unshakable pillars of their profession. They are the ones “learned” enough to maneouvre the nooks abd crannies of the law, cutting corners here, laying ambush there and exploiting the loopholes carefully and deliberately created to serve selfish ends. They are the ones encouraging media trial. They are the ones leading litigants or acceding to the desire of litigants to pervert the cause and course of justice. They are the ones who say, see and treat the law as an ass, They are the ones fouling the temple of justice and polluting its fountain. They are, therefore, also the ones best placed to clean its Augean stable. Judgment, and restoration, must start from their two houses – the Bar and the Bench! The blame cannot be shifted anywhere and to anyone else, be it litigants, the media or politicians!

• Former Editor of PUNCH newspapers, Chairman of its Editorial Board and Deputy Editor-in-Chief, BOLAWOLE was also the Managing Director/ Editor-in-Chief of The Westerner newsmagazine. He writes the ON THE LORD’S DAY column in Sunday Tribune and TREASURES column in the New Telegraph newspaper on Wednesdays. He is also a public affairs analyst on radio and television.
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By Bolanle BOLAWOLE

turnpot@gmail.com  0705 263 1058

Someone called my attention to a post he had forwarded to me last week and said: “You must have seen the post I forwarded to you (he was not the writer)”. I hadn’t seen it and I said so. “Then, check it out!”, he barked at me. Continuing, he said:  “You must have heard the saying by some misguided elements outside of Yoruba land that they built or developed Lagos!

“People who came to Lagos on the back of lorries and trailers wearing rubber or bathroom slippers and clutching polythene bags with the only clothes on their back their only worthy possessions have laid claims to being the ones who developed Lagos to its present enviable state.

 “People who cannot build their own place of origin claim possession of the magic wand with which they built other people’s land! Laughable as this is, records must be set straight; if not for the purpose of the present generation but for future generations. A falsehood not controverted stands the chance of wearing the toga of truth on the long run”. 

The vitriols almost discouraged me from searching for the said post but the reporter in me took the better part of me. When I opened the post and saw the pedigree of the writer – a university professor – I settled down to read. My first degree, earned at Great Ife, was in History and Political Science (combined honours); so historical excursions thrill me.

 It is also for this reason, I think, that Professor Ayo Ojeniyi reportedly wrote what you are about to read. Titled “Yoruba built Lagos before Nigeria became a country”; it is also meant to set the records straight, as they say. It goes thus:    

“The aim of this post is an attempt to correct the dangerous misinformation trending among some youths that Lagos was developed with Nigeria’s monies, when Lagos was not even part of Nigeria until 1914! For the sake of our generation and posterity, we need to teach factual history. Communication technology is a major signifier of civilisations and if Lagosians were already making telephone calls more than 70 years before Nigeria, where, then, is the warped idea that Nigerian money was used to develop Lagos?

 In 1845, the first storey building in what became Nigeria was located in Badagry in present-day Lagos State. By 1848, Madam Ẹfúnróyè Tinúbú was a politically and economically Influential figure in Lagos. The landmark Tinubu Square in Lagos was named after her and it also has a statue of her. 

In 1852, a Post Office was established in Lagos. In 1856, the Cable and Wireless Company of the UK commissioned a submarine cable link between Lagos and London.

 In 1859, the oldest secondary school in what became Nigeria – CMS Grammar School, Bariga, Lagos – was founded by the Church Missionary Society. In 1872, Lagos was a cosmopolitan trading centre with a population of over 62,000 people. 

In 1876, imports were valued at £476,813 and exports at £619,260. In 1886, telecommunications started. By 1893, offices in Lagos, Jẹbba and Ilọrin had been provided with telephone services.

 In 1886, electricity generation began in Lagos with the use of generators to provide 60 kw. In 1894, First Bank, in what became Nigeria’s  first bank, was established in Lagos. In 1898, there was electric street lighting in Lagos. In 1903, the first set of films shown in what became Nigerian theatres was in Glover Memorial Hall in Lagos.

A Lagosian named Thomas Jones, famously known as Tom Jones, became the first Nigerian to drive an automobile before 1913. In 1913, Ọlayinka Herbert Macaulay, another Lagosian, was the first Nigerian to own a car – all these before the amalgamation of Nigeria! In 1913, Tom Jones donated the first public library to Lagos.

In 1923, what became the Nigerian Electricity Supply Company was established as the Electricity Utility Company for the commissioned electricity power station at Ijọra, Lagos. At its commencement, the power plant had a generating capacity of 20 Megawatts. In the same year, Ọlayinka Herbert Macaulay formed what became Nigeria’s first political party, the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP).

In 1930, Onikan Stadium, Lagos was built; which is why it is the oldest stadium in Nigeria. In 2019, it was renamed Mobolaji Johnson Arena. In 1930 Abibu Oluwa was one of the first music performers in Lagos. In 1946, the father of what became the Nigerian theatre, Herbert Ogunnde, featured in Tiger’s Empire in Lagos Theatres.

 In 1947, Yaba College of Technology, popularly known as YABATECH, was founded in Yaba, Lagos. In the 1950s, popular music was flourishing in a wide range of styles with Tunde Nightingale, Bobby Benson, Victor Olaiya, Rex Lawson, J.O. Araba, C.A. Balogun, etc; while Ayinla Omowura started playing a form of Apala different from that of Haruna Isola. It was called Olalomi. Later in 1971, Omowura came out with a high tempo Apala and became extremely popular.

By the 1950s, Ọlábísí Àjàlá, a Lagos socialite and globetrotter who saw the world, had toured about 87 countries on a motorcycle but died back home at the age of 65 years. In 1952, Akintola Williams was the  first Nigerian chartered accountant. He founded Akintola Williams & Co., Nigeria’s first Indigenous accountancy firm.

In 1958, Sir Adetokunbo Adegboyega Ademola became the first indigenous Chief Justice of Nigeria.  In 1964, Chief SL Akintọla became the first man to import a bulletproof car into Nigeria (a Mercedes Benz car valued at £8,000).

Since 1967, the Juju maestro, King Sunny Ade, had become a household name. His Ariya Club at Jibowu, Yaba was always the fans’ delight. He is the first African to be nominated twice for a Grammy Award. By 1970, Fela Anikulapo Kuti had laid the foundation for a musical revolution called the Afrobeat; he constructed a distinct Afro-Rock aesthetic.

 In 1977, superstar American musicians, Steve Wonder and James Brown, landed in Lagos as Nigeria hosted the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC). Contemporarily, there are a bevvy of popular musicians from Lagos: K1, Simi, Asake, Bank W, Naira Marley, Tiwa Savage, Adekunle Gold, Teni, Joeboy, Lil Kesh, Lil Frosh, Olamide, Niniola Apata, Korede Bello, Bola Abimbola, WurLD, WizKid, Sean Tizzle, Pepenazi, Wasiu Alabi Pasuma, Brymo, Segun Bucknor, Wande Coal, Darey, DJ Cuppy, Lara George, May D, Nikky Laoye, Koker, Akin Euba, Kunle Ajayi, YCEE, Oritse Femi, Mo’Cheddah, Portable, DJ Lambo, DJ Spinall, MCskill, etc. .

Ọbafẹmi Awolọwọ will continue to be the Yoruba hero because he solidly gave his people the system of Free Education, Free Healthcare and he outstandingly introduced television to the Yoruba in 1959; making Yorubaland the first region to have a TV station in Africa, even before France; all done with revenue from cocoa…

The point is: Lagos was a prosperous city-state long before Nigeria came into being, and it was built by the  Yoruba and not by any other ethnic group in Nigeria”.

Any extension of the frontiers of knowledge is service to humanity. Professor Ojeniyi’s contribution must have gone viral because another illustrious son of the land, whom we fondly call Triple A, also later forwarded it to me. So, thank you, Professor Ojeniyi!

Food for thought…

“An emir was kidnaped and N1 billion ransom in cash was demanded. Demand was not met and the emir was killed. The son asked for the corpse of the murdered emir. The kidnappers demanded N60 million and six motorbikes as ransom (before) the dead body of the killed emir (could be released). In all these goings-on, we have SSS, DSS, FIB, CID, EFCC, ICPC, Army, Navy, Air force and other paramilitaries. 

The kidnappers were discussing on phone with the family of the emir, just as they have been doing all over the country. We have ministers of communication, telecommunications, information and others that have access to service providers. In fact, we have minister Bosun Tijani that they hyped and over-hyped as a computer guru. So, if we cannot track calls made by kidnappers and know their location in this modern era, what is the use of communication, telecommunications, information and other nonsense ministries?” 

Above was an intriguing post I received last week. It is most embarrassing that we appear helpless even when technology is supposed to have come to the rescue. Why are the concerned authorities not leveraging technology to fight these criminals? Is there something they know that we do not know? They should please tell us! They cannot continue to keep mute over this very important matter. Why is technology helpless here? Or are we the ones shying away from applying it? If so, why? The needless waste of life apart, this embarrassment has got to stop! Or what do you think?

South-west and the menace of the ‘bad boys’

Everywhere one goes these days in the major towns and cities of the South-west, the menace of the “bad boys and girls” stares one in the face. It is no longer a menace that stalks the night, they have become so daring now that they operate without cover in broad daylight. The “twale” and “alright sir” boys especially have become law unto themselves in Lagos. 

The police hardly bother them. If you are unlucky to fall prey, the police look away, even if they are within the vicinity and can see goings-on. What kind of society have we become? To think that the South-west is fast taking after the South-east and the North! I got scared out of my home town of Owo in Ondo state sometime ago when I heard of the siege laid on it by cultists. Who is safe? And where can anyone find solace?

If UNICEF is to be believed, then, the worst is yet to come. According to the UN body, the rate of school drop-out in the South-west has become alarming. Close to 10 percent of children of school-going age are said to be out of school. We do not need anyone to tell us that this is a time bomb ticking. 

Many reasons have been adduced for this unsavoury state of affairs, principal of which is the economic crunch ravaging the land. Where people are at their wits end to fill their belly, education must necessarily take the back seat.  To make matters worse is the fact that education loses its allure where graduates roam the street year-in, year-out without any hope of securing gainful employment. A morally bankrupt political class such as we have can also not be expected to bring forth good fruits.  

But we must do something – and do it fast! We have to pour resources into education. We also have to create jobs. Re-ordering our priorities has become a task that must be done. Otherwise, our society will collapse; and when it does, it will fall on all of us. For those with multiple visas who think they can run away, let us remind them that there is no place like home. Let us also encourage them to address their mind to the ultra-nationalist fervour ravaging Europe and America as we speak. Soon, there will be no hiding place for those who steal here and run abroad to enjoy the loot. 

* Former Editor of PUNCH newspapers, Chairman of its Editorial Board and Deputy Editor-in-chief, BOLAWOLE was also the Managing Director/ Editor-in-chief of The WESTERNER newsmagazine. He writes the ON THE LORD’S DAY column in the Sunday TRIBUNE and TREASURES column in NEW TELEGRAPH newspaper on Wednesdays. He is also a public affairs analyst on radio and television.

By Fred Itua 

Edo State is at a crossroads. A simple task awaits every son and daughter of Edo extraction and residents in the State- to vote for a credible governor that will fix the mess of Governor Godwin Obaseki. The task and choices before the people are simple, yet some folks have elected themselves to make the process different and impossible. On the 21st of September 2024, the people of Edo State will choose between realism and empty promises; an assured future and a rehearsed selfish capitalism. Whoever the people chose to pitch their interests with, there will be consequences. 

Monday Okpebholo, a senator, entrepreneur, philanthropist, politician, a home boy, and the presumptive governor of Edo State, stands tall among other candidates. Beside their verbosity and empty rhetorics, no candidate stands close to Senator Monday Okpebholo.

Rather than dwell on the inadequacies of other infant politicians, who neither understand the peculiar needs of Edo people, or appreciate the enormous tasks at hand, I will expouse Okpebholo’s remarkable prospects and why he needs the vote of Edo people and residents.

The current governor of the State, Godwin Obaseki, has made the choices before us easy. His abysmal failure and his failed inability to rise above pettiness have made the job of electing Okpebholo as the next governor of Edo easy. His Greek gift notwithstanding to civil servants, his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), will suffer a resounding defeat that even the deaf will hear.

Okpebholo was born and raised in Edo State. Though this is not a yardstick to measure possible performance, it is, however, necessary to establish certain facts. As a homegrown politician, he understands the people, their needs, and their expectations. He is not a stranger to the realities on the ground. 

Okpebholo has intervened in key areas, and he is not an accidental philanthropist whose only footprints are found in loud promises and empty substances. Okpebholo has brought reprieve to needy families in Edo, provided jobs, funded community infrastructure, awarded scholarships, provided free internet services, supported security architecture of the State, and brought Federal presence to the three senatorial districts of Edo State. 

There are five critical areas in Edo State that need urgent intervention. Interestingly, Okpebholo has zeroed in on these cardinal areas that will fastrack development in Edo, create jobs and prosperity, quality health and education, ICT development, agriculture and creation of new smart cities and towns. They are not rocket science. Okpebholo already has proven track records in these key areas.

Edo State has a vibrant and educated youth population. Unfortunately, the Obaseki administration has failed to harness these talents in developing Edo State. Instead, he is notorious for signing MoUs that are gathering dusts in some archives somewhere. On the other hand, Okpebholo belongs to the youth generation. He understands their needs and aspirations, and he is ready to harness these youngsters. 

Okpebholo, as a man with street credibility and a practical entrepreneur, he will create jobs through friendly policies that will attract the right investors to the State. He is not a portfolio businessman who relies cunningly on his adulterated fine tenses to deceive the gullible public. With Okpebholo, job and wealth creation are assured.

In Obaseki’s Edo State, all the tertiary institutions have progressed backward. He has stiffled growth and has suffocated parents and students with unrealistic fees. For the PDP administration in Edo, the people don’t matter. Secondary schools are understaffed, and the motivation is low. Obaseki behaves like an emperor who can not be questioned. 

With Okpebholo as governor,  a new deal is sure. Okpebholo, as a grassroot man, understands the people. He will prioritise education and make fees affordable to all. For him, he understands the imperativeness of quality education, and he will not fail to deliver that dividend to the people. 

Healthcare centres and hospitals in Edo State are glorified chemist shops. There are no trained medical professionals, and the buildings are in their worst forms. No medical equipment and the administration of the PDP fiddles while Rome burns. 

With Okpebholo as governor, primary healthcare and the resuscitation of the State’s health architecture will be revived. Critical medical staff and professionals will be hired to attend to the health needs of Edo people. Okpebholo wI’ll not fiddle while Edo people suffer. Never!

Besides being a major tourism hub, which Okpebholo has revealed that he will prioritise, Edo State is a major agricultural hub. It has one of the biggest rainforests in West Africa. It prides itself as the home of timber and agricultural products. In the eight years of the PDP administration in Edo State, it has failed abysmally to harness this goldmine and add to the economy of the State. 

Okpebholo understands the importance of food security and how it can add to the economy of Edo State. Hence, he has prioritised it as a key component of his manifesto. The three senatorial districts of Edo State have unique agricultural products, and Okpebholo plans to drive agricultural revolution in the Heartbeat State.

In terms of road infrastructure, Edo State is a failed State. The few miserable roads constructed by Obaseki are so substandard that heavy rains can wash them away. If you are in doubt, visit Edo State. For Okpebholo, this is the number one priority- road construction across the three senatorial districts. Okpebholo will not embrace excuses and fail to deliver. He will Renew the Hope of Edo people. As a senator, he has influenced road projects to the three senatorial districts of Edo State. Imagine what he will do as governor. 

Edo State has played the role of the opposition for too long, and this is beginning to mess up the State. There is no federal presence. Obaseki, who should ordinarily embrace the government at the centre, has continued to be at loggerheads with the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration. Okpebholo as governor will unify Edo with the federal government. This will definitely bring dividends of democracy to the people.

From the foregoing,  it is obvious that the choices before Edo people are clear. We must choose to form a new government that puts the people first and not encumber them with more than they can bear. Edo people have a unique chance to choose a new path that will usher in prosperity, jobs, food security, quality education, and healthcare, among others. 

Itua is a media practitioner, scholar, and writer. He sent in this piece from Abuja