Uromi ghost roams Nigeria; Judicial reform, and Natasha’s organic crowd

Nigeria is almost always in a mourning mood. Wanton and heart-wrenching killings and atrocities happen every day. What makes the difference is the one the government decides to respond to. Uromi is one such case!

The nation’s judiciary has descended below the abyss in the eyes of many right-thinking citizens. Everyone is chanting reform, reform, reform. But who will bell the cat?

The embattled Kogi Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, tried to prove that her real constituents still love her against contrary opinion.

In Nigeria, politics stings like an adder, and the victims are quite many.

To be upfront, no killing is more heinous than the other. Every act of killing a human being must attract the necessary punishment according to the laws of our country. There must be no sacred cows.

The recent unfortunate killings in Uromi, Edo State, have been condemned by everyone with a human heart.

The killings simply mirrored the animalistic level people have descended into in Nigeria and the complicity of those who should prevent such occurrences but rather fetch the fuel to aggravate such inferno.

The Uromi people are living in fear. Many of their people have been killed and kidnapped. For some years now, going to Uromi has been a dangerous voyage.

Uromi has, for a long time, turned into a dreaded town. Once it is 6pm, it is no longer safe to ply the Uromi road. The people no longer go to their farms for fear of being killed. The police in Edo State are aware that killers have long invaded the community and the environs.

Reports had it that on many occasions, policemen chase these invaders into the bushes in the community, where they disappear into thin air.

The preponderance of killings and kidnappings in Uromi and other communities along that corridor may have given rise to the formation of the vigilance group for self-help.

Perhaps the attack that had been visited on the Uromi people may have been the reason the vigilantes could not believe the travellers were innocent hunters.

But the question is, why were ‘the hunters’ travelling with arms and ammunition from Port Harcourt without the military and police identifying these people at checkpoints? We thought, and traditionally too, that hunters only carry Dane guns and operate largely in the bush and not on the road!

The Bokkos people of Plateau State have suffered repeated killings by elements that invade their communities at will. The people have cried out to state and federal governments until there are no more tears left in their tear glands.

A young man, Sunday Jackson, from the Dong community of Adamawa State, was sentenced to death for killing a herdsman that attacked him on his farm. He tried to defend himself from being killed by an invading herdsman.

Many women and their daughters have been raped while their husbands and fathers, respectively, were killed in their own homes by invaders, yet no justice has been procured for such victims.

In some parts of Delta State, residents live in fear. Farmers have also deserted their farmland. A man who had a large expanse of land for large-scale farming was kidnapped three times on his farm.

He used to produce pineapples in a large quantity; today, he has abandoned farming in a country where food insecurity has become a menace.

Benue State is also reeling from this bloodletting activity of herdsmen.

On Tuesday, Benue youths protested sustained killings by herdsmen in their communities. They took over major roads in Otukpo Local Government Area and the environs, urging the government to stop the senseless killings that have been going on for years without the perpetrators being brought to book.

It was the inability or refusal of the last administration of Muhammadu Buhari to halt and probe the killings that pitted the then Federal Government against the Benue State government under then Governor Samuel Ortom.

Some local governments in the state have continued to bury their loved ones mowed down in unprovoked attacks by herdsmen. Agatu Ado, Okpokwu, Otukpo and Ogbadigbo Local Government Areas, all in Benue South, have been under sustained herdsmen attacks. Many people have been killed and property worth several million naira destroyed.

Senate Minority Leader and Benue South Senatorial District representative Abba Moro expressed deep concern Tuesday over the rising insecurity in the region.

“Senator Moro is greatly worried about the increasing insecurity in Otukpo and strongly condemns the recent killings and kidnappings. The perpetrators are doing a great disservice to Otukpo, which is the headquarters of the Idoma nation.

“He calls on the government at all levels and security agencies to fulfil their constitutional duties by tracking down those responsible and preventing further attacks,” a statement by his media adviser, Emmanuel John, stated.

Moro also reaffirmed the rights of Nigerians to live freely without fear, urging security agencies to prioritise the safety of citizens.

These attacks are not hidden; they are all over the media space, but the government at all levels has continued to look the other way.

Why would the government react only when people resort to self-defence? Politics must not trump governance to the point that the government continues to encourage senseless killings by alleged killer-herdsmen.

There are allegations that when reports are lodged with the police at their stations, the cases are not usually acted upon. Even when they get to the court, nothing reasonable is done. The alleged killers are let off the hook.

It is not just about Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State visiting his Kano State counterpart to douse tension; in the wake of the Uromi killings, what is the government saying about the unprovoked killings across the country?

A number of states across the country are experiencing these unprovoked attacks on a regular basis. The Catholic Church remains the single religious group that has lost more clerics than any other to this orgy of killings in the country.

Until the government and its agencies begin to be unbiased in dealing with those who carry out unprovoked killings in Nigeria, people will continue to protect themselves in crude ways, more so when they are observably helpless.

Every Nigerian with a conscience attests to the fact that something is wrong with the nation’s judiciary. Did the rot start today? No. But things are getting worse as the rot is eating deeper and deeper.

Even those at the helm of affairs at the judiciary and other arms of government that fingers are being pointed at as being responsible for judicial rascality in the country have said times without number that the judiciary needs urgent retooling.

But the questions are: Who will bell the cat? Are they speaking tongue-in Cheek?

Everyone seems to delight in kicking the empty can down the road; nobody is cerebrally wired or courageous enough to pick up the can and trash it in the bin.

The judiciary in Nigeria has come under severe criticism from eminent Nigerians following the controversies that trailed some judgements across the country and the actions of some judicial officers which have brought the once-respected third arm of government into opprobrium.

The judiciary is increasingly seen as a tool for political manipulation and no longer as the last hope of the common man. It has also been flared for meddling in election disputes by deciding the eventual winner, not minding the choice and will of the electorate.

Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), at a recent event “expressed deep concern” over persistent allegations of corruption, judicial delays, and bias that continue to plague the country’s judiciary.

The CJN said: “Despite our collective efforts, challenges persist; allegations of corruption, delays in the dispensation of justice, and perceptions of bias or inefficiency remain issues of concern.

“The onus is, therefore, on us to confront these challenges head-on and reaffirm our commitment to judicial excellence. Without public confidence, the judiciary’s moral authority is diminished, and its ability to discharge its constitutional mandate is impaired.”

Many informed citizens, including lawyers, have expressed shock at the level of miscarriage of justice and outright descent into “anything goes” in the judiciary.

Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, a human rights activist, lawyer, professor and former chairman of Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), has been unrelenting in calling out the judiciary and raising the alarm that Nigeria was heading to doom.

In a series of social media posts, Odinkalu has alleged that the Supreme Court has become deeply compromised, claiming it now operates with an urgency to “send the country into perdition.”

Comparing what was obtainable under Chief Justice of Nigeria Mohammed Lawal Uwais and what goes on now, the erudite lawyer said, “The judiciary then had the independence and authority to repeatedly save Nigeria from peril,” a contrast to what he described today as a weakened institution vulnerable to political interference.

Goodluck Jonathan, former president, a few days ago, lamented the state of the judiciary, noting that no serious investor will bring his money into a country where the judiciary is compromised.

“No serious investor will bring their money into a country where the judiciary is compromised, where government officials can dictate court judgements,” he said.

“In Nigeria today, key actors—from the executive to the legislature and judiciary—know the right course of action, yet they refuse to take it. They are merely pretending to be asleep,” he said. Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president, recently warned that courts were being used as a tool to deny justice rather than uphold it.

“You will say, ‘go to court’, when you know that you can’t get justice,” he said.

By the same token, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, the Archbishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese and a member of the Justice Uwais Electoral Reform panel, said that the Nigerian judiciary has become entangled in politics.

Olumide Akpata, a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), decried the state of the judiciary, saying: “The country is under judiciary capture. When I was a statutory member of the National Judicial Council (NJC) (the body saddled with the responsibilities of recruiting and disciplining erring judges in Nigeria), I found out that politicians were desperate to pocket the judiciary. It is deliberate and intentional. And it is achieving results for them. Embarrassingly, there are now incessant conflicting ex parte orders from courts of coordinate jurisdiction.

“Many Nigerians see this as a cankerworm affecting the judiciary. Stories of millions of dollars now fly around, especially in political cases. Sadly, some politicians now use the court as a shield, and the highest political bidders are recklessly granted favourable orders.”

In what seemed like a way to gag Odinkalu, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, a few days ago, called on the Body of Benchers (BoB) to take disciplinary action against the professor, accusing him of degrading the legal profession through public criticism.

He said: “We have instilled so much fear in our judges and justices that they can’t freely associate. If a judge is going to a mosque or church and sees someone they know, they hesitate to interact because they fear being accused. If they shake hands with someone, people will allege bribery, and a petition will be written claiming the judge was seen shaking someone’s hand.”

Observers believe that Nigerians, in a democracy, have the right to hold the feet of public officers to the fire, despite contrary opinion.

In what seemed a test of her popularity in her constituency, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan insisted on visiting her people despite the state government’s efforts to frustrate the “homecoming” visit.

Natasha has been swimming against the heavy storm in the last few months following some disagreements at the Senate.

She was suspended for six months for “violating Sections 6.1 and 6.2 of the Senate rules.” The senator representing the Kogi Central Senatorial District had accused the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, of sexual harassment and maltreatment because she refused to give in.

The “Natashagate” has given rise to opposing camps – those for her and those against her. There have been some pockets of protests at the National Assembly by the opposing groups.

But Natasha strongly believes that some elements are renting a willing crowd to rant against her.

One of the reasons she insisted on the visit to her constituency was to pooh-pooh the notion that her constituents were trying to recall her.

She tried to prove that it was the opposition and the ruling party in Kogi that were responsible for the recall gambit.

A few weeks ago, some individuals were at the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to submit a petition for her recall. They tried to create an impression that all the good things the senator had done for them were a ruse.

When she announced her intention to go see the constituents eye to eye for a Sallah rally, the powers that be in the state began to reel out the reasons why she must not come to the state.

They tried to declare her a persona non grata in her own state.

But she beat them at their own game, as she chose a chartered flight rather than a long convoy of hefty automobiles.

She touched down to a tumultuous welcome by a jubilant organic, not rented, crowd.

Perhaps it was her announcement of the visit that attracted the state government’s attention. Next time, she should do well to heed the time-tested aphorism: “Teach yourself not to announce good news until everything is sealed. Premature announcements attract evil spirits.”

But there must be a limit to petty politics in Nigeria. It oozes putrid odour.