A female corps member was decamped last week from the NYSC orientation camp in Gombe for her failure to abide by the stipulated camp dress code and ethics and some people have been clamouring that it infringes on her fundamental right of religion since her choice to wear that attire was based on her religious background. 

The religious corps member who was decamped for wearing a long pleated skirt in the Gombe state orientation camp has become an internet sensation and has also caused mixed reactions as to whether her not being permitted to wear whatever her religion permits her on the grounds of her religious sentiment does not conflict with her fundamental right to choose and belong to any religion of her choice as guaranteed by s.38 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended). 

People should understand how this fundamental human rights as provided in S. 33 up till S. 44 of the constitution really work; it is never an open cheque. Its provisions have their restrictions and limitations. The cliche that your right stops when another’s right starts is absolutely correct. 

For instance, because you have the fundamental right of movement does not give you the right to trespass into another man’s property or walk into where you should not walk into in the purported exercise of your right, if you do that you are an offender and the law will come against you. 

The decamped religious fanatic lady’s right to her choice of religion stops immediately she gets into the NYSC orientation camp gate and she must drop her religious sentiments at the gate and be ready to comply with the rules and regulations guiding the camp which one of it is complying with the standard and approved dress code. 

Rules are to be obeyed, constituted authorities are to be respected. Anybody in disobedience of constituted laws of the land or organisation is a sinner. These are not my words but the words of the holy book (the Bible) which is the handbook of rules and corrections for the Christians and the believers of Jesus Christ. 

The Bible for instance says in Romans 13v1-7: 

“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience”. 

Subsequently, 1 Peter 2:13-17 also says; “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honour everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the emperor”. 

Moreover, Hebrew 13vs 17 aptly put: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you”. 

I can go on and on in quoting the scriptures and different sections of the Bible which had already admonished those that believe in it to obey constituted authorities and rules including the NYSC bye-laws, dress code, rules, and regulations, and if you go in disobedience due to your Christianity religious sentiments then you are already a sinner who is also ignorant of what your Bible says. 

Schedule 2, S.1 (2) of The National Youth Service Corps Bye-laws (reprinted in the year 2000) provides that failure to wear the uniform provided for any particular activity in the orientation camp is an offence and the penalty is that the corps member should be informed to go and wear the appropriate uniform, if he or she then fails to obey the individual will be asked to leave the camp. 

This is not the first time religious sentiment is having a huge clash with the stipulated rules of an organization. Remember in December 2017 when one Ms. Amasa Firdaus, a Muslim faithful missed her chance of getting called to the Nigerian Bar that year due to her religious sentiments of trying to dress in her Hijab for the call to bar ceremony which was totally unacceptable then. 

Organizational rules can be amended to accommodate religious sentiments and cultural differences just like the Nigeria Police Force recently amended its dress code to accommodate some cultural differences and religious sentiments for the female police officer and also the Body of Benchers amended some of the calls to bar dress code to accommodate some religious fanatics like Ms. Amasa Firdaus which allowed her to get called to the Nigeria Bar the following year but not until the rules are amended, you can either choose to stay away from the organization since it is not mandatory or you are forced to participate or join, and if you must join or participate you must be ready to comply with their rules and regulations guiding that institution. 

Rules are not just made to be strict on man or to limit an individual’s freedom but rules are made to instil a sense of discipline, ensure conformity and achieve uniformity. In the NYSC orientation camp, if anybody could be allowed to wear whatever he or she likes based on any reason then there won’t be uniformity, and everywhere will be disorganized and disoriented.

Stanley Alieke, ESQ

Lead Counsel; Stanley Alieke & Co. 

[email protected] 

Source saharareporters

So, it has almost been confirmed! The Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari will probably leave office a notorious failure and in disgrace. He had vehemently prayed, hoped, and rejected the notion that his reign as the fifth democratically elected president of Nigeria would end in failure. He must have seen the handwriting on the wall because we did not even realise how much he feared failure – until he told us that the bandits and terrorists were trying to disgrace him, but that he would not let it happen. 

Well, the former General of the Nigerian Army who is now the president is being beaten black and blue on all fronts by the bandits and terrorists. They are still killing, burning, and raping for fun. And each time they commit these atrocities, they mock the Nigerian people and their president. It is as if they are saying, “Catch me if you can. Na who born you?” The successes of these wicked and malevolent harbingers of violence and death are without prejudice to the brave and heroic efforts of our soldiers, policemen, and DSS officials who gave their lives in the various theatres of death in the country to keep us free. 

And we are not even talking about the man who pretends that he is the executive governor and chief security officer of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, who some ‘uncouth’ and ‘unkind’ people call ‘Hell Rufai.’ His state, especially Southern Kaduna has become the epicentre of murders and mayhem. And this is most strange because he was the one who told us how they negotiated with the killers in the past with bags of money, begging them to stop killing innocent people. 

And the other man, the information minister, Joseph Goebbels – sorry, Lai Mohammed just said a few days ago that Nigeria is safer today than in the past. If he has any conscience, let him get into the grave with the over 84 innocent victims of the recent Southern Kaduna killings that took place about a week ago and see how the dead will react to his outlandish claims. 

Besides, by now, the experience should teach those in government that any statement or boast about how the government is dealing with or has dealt with Boko Haram usually results in punitive action from the terrorists. At various times, when the president, information minister Lai Mohammed, former chief of army staff, Tukur Buratai, all infamously claimed that the government had technically defeated Boko Haram, they responded in ‘spectacular,’ brazen and despicable manners in which many Nigerians were killed. The recent train terrorist attack on passengers on the Abuja-Kaduna rail line follows the same pattern, after the claim by Goebbel – sorry, Lai Muhammed that Nigeria is now safer.

If the terrorists, herdsmen, kidnappers, and bandits end up truly disgracing President Muhammadu Buhari (I pray that they don’t succeed oo), it will not be the only failure that he will face. I fear that more calamitous judgements await him in other areas. While insecurity has brought him much shame, the economy has demystified him, and corruption has emerged as absolute king and now walks with unparalleled swagger in Nigeria under his administration. 

And it is amid these absolute failures, we hear the pot calling the kettle black. APC is telling Nigerians how bad PDP is. El-Rufai told us not too long ago not to make the mistake of going back to where we were under the PDP. And as he did so, Lai Mohammed reminded us that the PDP is a demolition gang and that Nigerians will never allow them back to power. Lastly, President Muhammadu Buhari promised that the PDP will never be allowed to put their dirty hands on Nigeria again. 

Hypocrisy sometimes has no boundaries and limits. That the PDP was notoriously bad is not a matter of debate. That is why they were booted out of power. That Nigerians once considered them as armed robbers was not a matter of dispute – until they ran into the APC and realised that the PDP were pickpockets while the APC were the armed robbers. And we will not contest Lai Mohammed’s description of the PDP as a demolition gang. They are! But that will make the APC the very definition of landmines, rocket launchers and explosives. 

As for President Muhammadu Buhari’s expletives on PDP having dirty hands. It is true! But what do we do about the filthy hands and bodies of the APC? They are completely mired in filth. Lastly, El-Rufai should not give Nigerians the option of going back to the past because Nigerians will prefer to go back to the PDP period of the low exchange rate, lower fuel and diesel prices, lower cost of food items, lower inflation, over 7 per cent growth in GDP, etc. They will prefer to go back to Egypt of the PDP rather than the hell that is the APC promised land. 

But is there really a great difference between both? No! Can we expect salvation from any of them? No! It took the PDP 16 years to cause serious damage to the Nigerian economy. It has taken the APC just seven years to equal and surpass the damage that the PDP wrought on our country. The outcome of the APC ascension to political power at the centre has relatively deodorised the PDP’s years of corruption and made them look more saintly than the APC whose nefariousness, propaganda, and villainous exercise of power are unmatched. 

We are not stupid! We know about the hunger of yesterday but prefer it to the starvation of today. We were hungry under the PDP, but are dying of starvation under the APC. We know about the dozens of innocent Nigerians killed under the Goodluck Jonathan administration but remember the hundreds killed under Buhari. We know about the corruption that walked on two legs under the PDP but we have now realised that under the APC, corruption is walking on all four. 

At least the PDP had the grace to acknowledge their failures and ask for forgiveness, even if Nigerians were not impressed, did not forgive, and viewed the apology as shedding crocodile tears. APC, on the other hand, in the fullness of self-righteous indignation and falsehood, after seven years in power continues to blame the party that left power seven years ago for their own failures. 

Karma is indeed a b–tch, and nemesis has a long memory. And these two entities of retribution and punishment are hot on the heels of the president and the APC for making claims of virtues that they never possessed. Now, ignominy and disgrace are staring them in the face.

It’s the way life rolls.

Source saharareporters

They say “there’s no honour among thieves.” I didn’t believe it until I saw the curtain rise at noon, Saturday, March 26, 2022, at Eagles Square, Abuja at the All Professional Convicts (APC) carnival of thieves. It showcases the bumbling of crooks, spiced with humorous whims, romance, and masquerades.

The carnival was full of delicate charming style. The thieves put up no impressionistic choreography. They don’t have to rely on tricks. There’s no display of farce and fantasy. This is comedy alive. A real show of true adventures of real big-time thieves. 

There’s nothing unsure or fake about the man who emerged as the new national leader of the confederate of thieves. He is a true certified thief! He projects an innocence that is both amusing and ironic. He and his band of thieves are off to a good start to establish a permanent repertoire of looting in the next general elections and beyond.

The new national leader of thieves is under the microscope for N15 billion fraud. Another thief was elected the national scribe of the party. In 2016, he was arrested for N1.3 billion allegedly gotten from money earmarked for national security. He was also the primary suspect in the coldblooded murder of Bola Ige, the former Attorney General and Minister of Justice.

Addressing the gathering, the new national leader of thieves said: “APC will steal more money in the next four or eight years.” 

“Let’s rise early and loot the looted and the re-looted national treasury,” he appeals to his brethren of thieves. “The time has come for us to show our brigandage and brinksmanship to take Nigeria back to the Stone Age. The time has come for us to be unpatriotic in words and deeds. The time has come for us to affirm the destruction of the people by its elected people. So, help us, God!”

The carnival boasts of 7,586 delegates made up of scumbags, sociopaths, kleptomaniacs, lowlifes, shameless but proud thieves. As the Butcher of Aso Rock regales in his power, majesty, stupor, flashing his trademark sick smiles, the All Professional Convicts have come to cement their lifestyle of thievery. 

[email protected]

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“As long as my Ikenga is active, I can wrestle in the land of the spirits” – Igbo proverb. 

In pre-colonial Nigeria, the Igbo administrative unit was some sort of a quasi-democratic republican system of government. It was a system deeply rooted in the people and guaranteed equality among its citizens, as opposed to a feudal system where a king lorded over his subjects in an empire.

The Igbo society at the time could be described as acephalous, operating a system devoid of centralization. Village by village rule fostered participatory democracy based on strong traditional values and beliefs. Every member potentially could contribute to discussions and help in arriving at the final decision. Every village had an Age-Grade system as well as Elders Council that carried out executive, legislative and judicial functions. That was how the people were organized and it also informed the process of maintaining law and order.

Unfortunately, that pleasant Igbo traditional administrative system of old, which provided a safeguard against unwholesome behavior and helped popularize the concept of being our brother’s keeper (“onye aghana nwanne ya”), is no more. It died when the colonialists abolished what they met on the ground and imposed an alien structure that had no basis in Igbo people’s philosophy of life. The ultimate failure of that imposed structure and lack of a homegrown alternative led to rabid individualism and materialism that is perpetually self-serving and seeks to continually work against the common good. In place of the Age-Grade system and Council of Elders is the political class, ever ready to sell the people and mortgage their future on a whim. Today, Ndigbo is floating in the middle of the ocean, aboard a rudderless ship.

The crack in Igbo values that started with the arrival of the colonialists soon widened after independence. But it was not until after the Nigeria-Biafra war that everything unraveled. The people became so impoverished that almost every action defaulted to survival mode. Ensuring that the source of wealth is legitimate and noble quickly took a back seat to the projection and celebration of the good life. Dodgy characters who, otherwise, should hide their faces in shame, became role models and thought leaders. We became a society of “anything goes.”

Today, Ndigbo have in positions of power the mercantile class whose stock-in-trade is emptying the public purse while feeding their insatiable greed. They engage in such acts so brazenly, believing that as long as they are able to stay in the good books of their masters, they have nothing to worry about. In their reckoning, everyday people don’t count. The fallout of this selfish and purposeless leadership is that the South-East geo-political zone has come under siege and buffeted mercilessly on all fronts by garden-variety criminal elements committing all forms of atrocities including inexplicable heinous murders. Undoubtedly, the region has become an ungoverned and ungovernable space.

Regrettably, the South-East is faced with unpardonable neglect; its once vibrant cities are virtually abandoned. Job opportunities are lacking to the extent that many of our young people leave the region as soon as they are done with their education. Those who stay are forced to become career criminals, just to meet up their basic human needs. Sadly, some of these young people are now willing tools in the hands of evil men and women and increasingly are being indoctrinated by fringe elements with nefarious agendas. Things must change before the situation becomes unsalvageable.

Among other things, a big part of the challenge has to do with the absence of a region-focused media coverage, such that will beam a searchlight on the activities of government and public office holders in a way that promotes accountability and good governance. Eternal vigilance, it’s been said, is the price of liberty. Although the South-East is not lacking in media entrepreneurs, financial challenges have forced many news organizations to go cap in hand, soliciting for government assistance and by so doing have become more or less propaganda vehicles that pander to the whims of political office holders sponsoring them and, therefore, unable to go against pernicious influences.

“A good newspaper,” Arthur Miller once said, “is a nation talking to itself.” It has been long since the Igbo nation spoke to itself through free and independent media. And as Thomas Jefferson said, “If I had to choose between government without newspapers, and newspapers without government, I wouldn’t hesitate to choose the latter.” We have functioned for so long in the South-East with governments without newspapers, good newspapers. 

Ikengaonline is here to fill that void. It will maintain a healthy distance from the State and those in positions of public trust. It hopes to carry on in a way that will foster media independence while empowering citizens with fact-based information. 

Ikengaonline will focus on the five southeast states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo. The aim is to draw attention to the challenges facing the southeast, give voice to the citizens of the zone and highlight many issues that are underreported and misreported in the media. 

The southeast has been punching way below its weight since Nigeria’s return to democratic governance in 1999 and it is not hard to notice the correlation between lack of accountability and poor governance and the deteriorating security situation in the zone.

According to Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, “Good Governance cannot remain merely a philosophy. Concrete steps have to be taken for realizing its goals.” 

Ikenga is the right hand’s alter ego; a horned totem that speaks to the value placed on one’s right hand. In Igbo mythology, the right hand represents the agency and ability to enforce one’s will upon the universe around them. Ikenga means being in control of your fate as you are bestowed with an all-powerful right hand that God used in creating the universe. Ikenga is the spirit of industry, enterprise, agency, victory in action, inner power, and achievement.

It’s time to bring back our values as we take our destiny into our own hands. 

It’s time to salvage the South-East to help it fulfill its potential. This is exactly what Ikengaonline hopes to achieve. 

We are grateful to The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for supporting this initiative through the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ).

Dr Chido Onumah (@conumah) and Dr Osmund Agbo (@osyagbo) wrote on behalf of the management of Ikengaonline. 

Source saharareporters