Today's Quote

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

The "Jubril of Sudan" fiction was not even well woven!

CAO.

--

Chidi Anthony Opara is a "Life Time Achievement"Awardee Of Maritime Watch Newspaper(Nigeria), Registered Freight Forwarder, Professional Fellow Of Institute Of Information Managerment, Africa, Poet and Publisher of PublicInformationProjects

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

If you know the dynamics of World politics and modern information highway, you would know that the "Jubril of Sudan" narrative is a badly conceived fiction.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

An incumbent conceding defeat in Africa is a heroic act.

(c) Chidi Anthony Opara

#2018Quotes

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Why didn't our men/women of God foresee the recent loss of Nigerian soldiers!

CAO.

[Adeshina Afolayan]

The essence of religion, especially in its Pentecostal manifestation, is not "foreseeing". So, why should prophesying the death of the soldiers be another criticism of religions in Nigeria? 

Adeshina Afolayan, PhD
Department of Philosophy
University of Ibadan

+23480-3928-8429

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[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

"The essence of religion, especially in its Pentecostal manifestation, is not "foreseeing". So, why should prophesying the death of the soldiers be another criticism of religions in Nigeria?"(Adeshina Afolayan, PhD)

What is the essence of religion, "especially in its Pentecostal manifestation"?

If a preacher who claims to have been called by God and also claims to constantly hear from God cannot foresee and forestall(through prayers) future calamities, why then should people go to him/her for spiritual help?

Why do these preachers, especially the Pentecostalists publish predictions every new year?

Adeshina, do you sincerely believe in the viewpoint you expressed here or is this another manifestation of "I will never agree with him" syndrome?

CAO.

[Segun Ogungbemi]

The power to foresee the future or the power to make religious predictions depends on God willingness to use those who worship him. 

In the case of Nigeria, it appears God has given up on the country. It becomes compelling for the people to turn away from their sin and forsake their evil doings, if they want him to heal their land. 

The power to prophesy lies with God because he knows who he wants to send and when/where the person should go. 

Segun Ogungbemi. 

Sent from my iPhone 

[Xena Iris]

While it may be the case that "The essence of religion, especially in its Pentecostal manifestation, is not 'foreseeing'", in Nigeria there has emerged a market for prophecy, especially in the period of elections. The existence of this market for prophecy is made possible by entrepreneurs of prophecy who produce, distribute and market their prophecies to a hungry market in search of divine intention for themselves as well for the community. CAO's query is an important one: why and how is it that Nigerian Pentecostal prophets fail to foresee and positively intervene at critical moments in the nation's life such as the death of so many ordinary soldiers? Pentecostal prophets are in the main political prophets very much interested in foreseeing the outcome of elections and the political futures of election contestants but not in the difficult and often avoidable problems of ordinary people. The popularity of Pentecostal prophets and their products indicate that we cannot identify the "essence" of religion; in fact, it has no essence outside of how people perform and consume religion.

asonzeh

[Adeshina Afolayan]

Oga Asonzeh,

Thank you for weighing in. The first point i have in mind to make is what you ended with. I presumed that Oga Chidi's comment arose from his assumption that God lies at the heart of religion, without knowing that there are so many religions without the concept of God or any other Supreme Being. Even the idea of God is different from Islam to Christianity. It is from this perspective that he arrived at his expectation that the pastors ought to have "seen" the calamity. 

However, I like your take about religion and its performances. If prophecy, as you argued, should be seen as something that was established by the realities of postcoloniality as an entrepreneurial necessity, then that automatically undermines the basis of genuine prophecy. Thus, there could have been a "seeing" but it would not really be a seeing. Or, it would only have been a politically correct seeing. In fact, I could have predicted or "prophesy" the disaster myself, based on evidence of ill-preparedness.  

On the other hand, we can take a minimalist view of all religions as being concerned with the "care of the soul." This minimalist view has nothing to do with seeing or foreseeing of any sort. And it does not make religion less significant in human or national affairs. In fact, such a minimalist view makes for the possible emergence of good citizens out of the docile and spiritualized bodies of good Christians, Muslims, etc.  

Adeshina Afolayan, PhD
Department of Philosophy
University of Ibadan

+23480-3928-8429

[Abolaji Adekeye]

 Tongue in cheek is the way I perceive Chidi's post and he is right in more ways than one. These mountebanks masquerading as menagod are always up in our ears prophesying plane crashes, celebrity deaths and natural disasters and are quick to claim credit when any of these occurs in any part of the world. Self fulfilling prophecies is their game. 

So, yeah, why didn't our seers see the massacre of our soldiers?

They actually only see the color of money.

[Xena Iris]

My Dear Senior OgaProf A.A,

You know how much I hold my ideas about religion and its performances close to my vest. Prophecy is not about "seeing" but "speaking"! The prophet is NOT as much a seer of the future or hidden events as the mouthpiece of deity. In Nigeria, however, the religious entrepreneurial spirit of Pentecostalism has reformulated prophecy as seeing hidden or yet-to-happen events. Speaking the mind of God or deity does not necessary means revealing hidden truths or foretelling future events. In turning prophecy from speaking the words of deity to foretelling events, prophecy has evolved to become a substitute to the truth, certainty. Humans have the capacity to arrive at the truth without the assistance of deities. You are correct that considering the level of unpreparedness of our soldiers, it was quite easy for a rational conclusion that such a disaster was only waiting in the wings to befall the hapless men and women in uniform. But in our post-truth, postreason era, Nigerians would more easily believe a prophet making such claims than you arriving at the same conclusion by taking inventory of our official laziness in preparing for any and everything. 

On a different point, some religions do not have supreme deities, gods, or God, and so do not have prophets and hence, no prophecies. Some religions also do not have a belief in the existence of 'souls', which makes a minimalist view of religion as the "care for the soul" a little problematic. What religions share in common is "sacrifice", a violent practice of destroying something of value for the sake of being in good relationship with some other-worldly metasocial entities. But this minimalist view may be amenable to producing "good citizens" willing to invest in the common good but it is still a problem deciding what or who is a "good Christian/Muslim", etc. because, both Christianity and Islam, for example, are heterogeneous, making it more empirically nuanced to talk about Islams and Christianities, with diverse but coherent views of the world and what constitutes the 'good life'.

Our prophets make many of us intellectually lazy to think thoughts for ourselves and work to make decisions based on reasoned conclusions. Like CAO would frame it, is it not the case that Africans' notoriety or incurable religiosity (apologies to Mbiti and Parrinder), not a disservice to the continent today?

asonzeh

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

The danger of anchoring the quest for Biafra sovereignty on the "Jubril Of Sudan" fiction is that the critical influential international political establishment will never take the case for Biafra sovereignty serious!

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

The danger of anchoring campaigns on flimsy narratives is that, if such narratives are shot down, the campaigns go down with them!

The "Atiku cannot go to America" and "Jubril of Sudan" narratives on my mind!

(c) Chidi Anthony Opara

#2018Quotes

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

With Nigeria's inefficient security system, we may never know the rogue agencies that are financing the building of those mega churches and mosques and their negative influences on the citizenry!

CAO.

[Jean-Paul Turcaud]

Hello Chidi,

Did you get copy of my mail re. HORRORS OF VACCINATION EXPOSED ?

I sent copy to quite a few people of your group, indeed.  Further, there are great ideas therein to help Africa. 

Over to you.  JP 

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

The first king was not a prince.

(c) Chidi Anthony Opara

#2018Quotes

[Jean-Paul Turcaud]

Right,  most original kings where not Princes,  but master minds who grabbed the power.

In France, the original & perfectly invested with the attributes of superior intelligence & beauty were the Mérovingiens kings, whose particularity were the Blue Blood. 

Lo & behold,  the Egyptian kings (Pharaohs)  also claimed to be of Blue Blood, and hence practiced ritual incest to keep & maintain the lineage within the royalty ! 

e.g in fact Akenaton was rejected by his father to Persia in youth, and when he returned at the death of his father,  he married his mother from whom  he had a she -child, who was supposed to reign at his death, due to the death of Toutankamon. But events took a turn for worse.

Hope this brings some water to your mill.

Cheers 

Jean-Paul Turcaud 

Exploration geologist 

Australia mining pioneer 

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

"Hello Chidi,

Did you get copy of my mail re. HORRORS OF VACCINATION EXPOSED ?

I sent copy to quite a few people of your group, indeed. Further, there are great ideas therein to help Africa.

Over to you. JP"

JP,
Thanks for your interest in me. I either did not get the e-mail or may have deleted it in error (I delete quite a number daily)!

Please resend.

Warm regards,

CAO.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

When the high priest, Caiaphas insisted that Jesus Christ must be killed, was he acting according to God's direction?

CAO.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

“For me, a befitting burial is when you are sure I am dead, dig six-feet, wrap me in a mat, put me in the ground and cover it. I will not be celebrated when I die. I don’t want a funeral. Once I am dead, put me in the grave and go away. Don’t come on condolence visit. Don’t come for funeral ceremony. I don’t want it; is it of any use to me, a dead person?  You are just wasting your time and giving yourself trouble. If you invite the whole Nigeria it doesn’t mean anything to me. If you invite 10 people it doesn’t mean anything to me. If you fire 100 gunshots, it means nothing to me. People waste energy and sometimes money; sometimes they borrow or sell things to give somebody what they call a befitting burial. I don’t need it.”

-Dr. Dozie Ikedife

[Adeshina Afolayan]

Now, this is a statement that ought to serve as the foundation tenet for a philosophy of funeral for any rational person. But as David Hume said decades ago, we deceive or delude ourselves if we think rationality defines us human. Dr Ikedife's statement just undercuts the stupidity of a "befitting burial" that constitutes a significant part of our religious and cultural lives. If the spirit has left the body (if indeed there is a spirit that leaves the body), what then is left? Why the hustle and bustle over a mere corpse? Why the extravagance? 

I have noticed that those aged parents here do not want you talking about the death of their parents, even though they labour under the crippling financial burden of their sandwich years, locked between responsibility to their immediate family and to their aged parents. And the reason is so simple: It isn't the affection they feel for those parents, but the enormous cost of burial. The useless corpse stays in the morgue for months while the family and siblings search the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Oceans, as well as the Sahara desert looking for money for burial. The when enough debts have been accumulated, a very expensive coffin is purchased, accompanied by even very expensive clothing and accessories for the corpse, followed by wining and dining. 

Dr Ikedife nails it! This statement should be laminated beautifully and served in class to the coming generation. It is so beautiful as a philosophical notice to rational human beings in a poverty-ridden economy that demands wisdom and not cultural correctness. 

This is what i keep telling my children...do not waste your hard-earned money on my corpse. Fund a library project. Donate to the orphanage. Endow a university chair. Do something enormously positive.  

 

Adeshina Afolayan, PhD
Department of Philosophy
University of Ibadan

+23480-3928-8429

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Ikedife's prescription is exactly how I want to be buried. I have said that severally both publicly and privately.

CAO.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

"We will make sure that the poor vulcanizer who needs power gets power."---Peter Obi(PDP Vice-presidential candidate, during the 2019 election debate).

[Adeshina Afolayan]

Of course, we are used to this kind of useless political promises. The question is how will they do it?

Adeshina Afolayan, PhD
Department of Philosophy
University of Ibadan

+23480-3928-8429

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Some persons have super brains and would be superb administrators, but are not articulate and so, would not do well in debates.

(c) Chidi Anthony Opara

#2018Quotes

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

There seem to be a serious lack of understanding of how poets can use modern technology to advance their craft! Social media is not different from the town squares of old, where poets render their compositions to the admiration of the townsfolk.

CAO

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Religion have always had close ties with those we like to call "sinners"; the slave traders, the Mafia, etc!

CAO.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

A zoo is the home of lesser animals! It is a farfetched description of where humans (even subhumans?) dwell, it is a pernicious propaganda!

(c)Chidi Anthony Opara

#2018Quotes

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

One day I would write a poem whose title would be; "If The System In Nigeria Were Working......."

CAO.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

The abolition of Osu and Ohu in Igboland at Nri(the acclaimed ancestral home of the Igbos) yesterday, 28th December, 2018 was a welcomed symbolic act!

CAO?

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

"The Washington crowd" (USA political establishment) is considering a Trump impeachment.

Fareed Zakari's "special report" on CNN titled "Presidents Under Fire" is to water the ground.

CAO.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

"Elections need not be do or die affair, and we should not approach that eventuality in a democracy with trepidation and mortal fear. Happily, a large number of presidential candidates have committed to peace, and peace we shall have"(President Buhari on 2019 New Year day speech).

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

A very refreshing quote from Brother Buhari !

Chidi,

Wishing you a productive new year !

Since you tend to have an iconoclastic view of the status quo and the -Najia-powers-that-be, I imagine that in an earlier incarnation in a certain place (the Hijaz) and time ( the 7^th century of the common era) with that particular bent of mind you could have been one of those who could have belonged to / attained to membership or narrowly escaped membership of “Muhammad's Dead Poets Society” about which there has been some babble in this forum.

Contemporaneously speaking there is no comparative “ Muhammadu Buhari's Dead Poets Society” ( thank GOD) because there is absolute freedom of speech and freedom, to babble, to dream, to think, to miss-think in today's Naija , so that at worst even the likes of non- poets and those who do not employ satire or are not satirists should be grateful to be alive to boast about their columns being no longer welcome in e.g. “Daily Trust” , true or false, due to “tremendous pressure” from below or from above , whatever the case, “above” of course not being synonymous with the Almighty...

Lo and behold, last night, shortly after dinner it was brought to my attention by some of those who know, that Rasulullah also had a poet by the name of Hassan Ibn Thabit. Maybe, it's good for ye lovers of poetry and other highly evolved or sophisticated beings to know this ?

And to beware : "All that glitters is not gold"

“The cloak and dagger dangles
Madams light the candles “ (Love Minus Zero/No Limit

It's wonders never cease . It's poetry versus some more of “there's nothing new under the sun” (reality / fantasy) as in this case: So called Muslim Imam was a MOSSAD agent.

Spoo Pee Doo

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

The only space the bourgeoisie is willing to share with the proletariat is heaven!

(c)Chidi Anthony Opara

#2019Quotes

[Ibrahim Abdullah]

Is this a poem?

Sent from my iPhone

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Ibrahim,
It is a "quotpoem".

CAO.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

It is a question
If this is an answer

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

It was an answer,
If
That was a question.

CAO.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Quid est veritas?

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." ( John Keats)

When did Chidi start or stop telling the truth?

Other interesting questions

and

answers

(A)

HASHEM called out to the man and said to him, “ Where are you?”

He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I am naked , so I hid”

And He said, “Who told you that you are naked? Have you eaten of the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?”

The man said, “ The woman whom you gave to be with me - she gave me of the tree and I ate”

( Bereishit/ Genesis 3 : 8 – 12 )

(B)

HASHEM said to Cain , “Where is Abel your brother?”

And he said, “ I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?” ( Bereishit / Genesis 4 : 9 – 10

( C)

Which historian, scientist, pastor, poet or priest can verify

(a) The answer to this question 

b) Text of the Statement by General Ojukwu on the Situation in Defeated Biafra'

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Cornelius,
To the question; "is Jesus(Christ) God? I would say that;

God has the capacity to infuse his essence into a human(manifest in human form)! "All things are possible with God".

To operate on earth, God must take a human form, which is the only form needed to operate with and amongst humans on planet earth.

Christ(I am not conversant with others), is the essence of God made manifest in the human body, what can be described as "godman".

The "virgin birth" angle may be an embellishment, but not an impossibility.

CAO.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Dear Chidi,

Hallelujah ! They have just discovered another earth !

A year ago ...

And I just discovered Matthew Chapter 23

Do you remember these lines ? :

“And you should, if you please, refuse

Till the conversion of the Jews.” ( To his coy mistress)

Amazing : Harvard Professor converts to Catholicism !

Hopefully, Jesus will be back soon. Please smile.

If the Almighty is capable of creating Chidi who is capable of creating a verse,

Surely, the same Almighty should be capable of creating of creating a multiverse

Through His only Begotten son, JESUS !

A few years ago I visited Jesus' beloved disciple whose basilica is at Ephesus. I sat down there and communed with him for about twenty minutes, but forgot to leave a stone when I left the site. Just fifty meters from his basilica is the house of Jesus' mother, venerated as the Blessed Virgin Mary …

Please don't think that you'll get any opposition from one who was baptised in Umuahia (full immersion) : I for one believe in the immaculate conception with every fibre of my being (since just a few weeks ago)

Before and after the Tower of Babel the word has always been one of the tools that poets and music people use to create. According to the Hebrew Faith, the Almighty (Himself the greatest poet) using the Lashon hakodesh (the Holy tongue) created everything by the twenty-two letters of the the Hebrew alphabet .The Hindus also regard Sanskrit as their holy language (Circa 1972 I phoned Dr. Carl Suneson, Professor of Sanskrit at Stockholm University and asked him about this (he was blind at the time) - he was of the opinion that Sanskrit developed just like any other language.According to al-Islam the believers will be speaking the pure Arabic tongue in paradise. I guess that likewise the Igbos ( Igbo) the Yorubas ( Yoruba ) and some of our kindred hope to be conversing in the heavenly Buckhingham Palace English up there.

The Gospel According to John Chapter 1 verses 1-16  for you to digest and take to heart : 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

God gave me a song

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Publishing army's impending move was irresponsible, so also was army invading the office of the publisher!

CAO.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

I hope that history is recording the names of those who helped Buhari back to power, those helping him to stay in power and those who want to keep him in power?  Posterity may not accept apologies.

(c) Chidi Anthony Opara

#2019Quotes

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

The Chief Justice of Nigeria case must be the fastest investigation in the history of world investigations.

The petition was received on the 9th of January, 2019 and by close of office on 10th January, 2019, arraignment notice has already been filed!

(C) Chidi Anthony Opara

[Ashafa Abdullahi]

PETITION ON SUSPECTED FINANCIAL CRIMES AND BREACHES OF THE CODE OF CONDUCT BUREAU REQUIREMENTS AGAINST HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE W. S. NKANU ONNOGHEN, GCON, THE CHIEF JUSTICE OF NIGERIA

We write to bring to your attention serious concerns bothering on flagrant violations of the law and the Constitution of Nigeria by the Honourable Mr. Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, the Chief Justice of Nigeria.

Specifically, we are distressed that facts on the ground indicate the leader of our country’s judicial branch is embroiled in suspected financial crimes and breaches of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act.

The particulars of our findings indicate that:

His Lordship Justice Walter Onnoghen is the owner of sundry accounts primarily funded through cash deposits made by himself, up to as recently as 10th August 2016 which appear to have been run in a manner inconsistent with financial transparency and the code of conduct for public officials.

To give specific examples, here are some instances of cash deposits by Justice Onnoghen:

Justice Onnoghen made five different cash deposits of $10,000 each on 8th March 2011 into Standard Chartered Bank Account 1062650;

On 7th June 2011, two separate cash deposits of $5000 each were made by Justice Walter Onnoghen, followed by four cash deposits of $10,000 each;

On 27th June 2011, Justice Onnoghen made another set of five separate cash deposits of $10,000 each and made four more cash deposits of $10,000 each on the following day, 28th June 2011;

Hon. Justice Walter Onnoghen did not declare his assets immediately after taking office, contrary to Section 15 (1) of Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act;

Hon. Justice Walter Onnoghen did not comply with the constitutional requirement for public servants to declare their assets every four years during their career;

The Code of Conduct Bureau Forms (Form CCB 1) of Hon. Justice Walter Onnoghen for 2014 and 2016 were dated and filed on the same day. The acknowledgement slip for Declarant SCN: 000014 was issued on 14th December 2016. The acknowledgement slip for Declarant SCN: 000015 was also issued on 14th December 2016, at which point Justice Onnoghen had become the Chief Justice of Nigeria.

The affidavit for SCN: 000014 was sworn to on 14th December 2016;

The affidavit for SCN: 000015 was sworn to on 14th December 2016;

Both forms were received on 14th December 2016 by one Awwal Usman Yakasai.

The discrepancy between Justice Walter Onnoghen’s two CCB forms that were filed on the same day is significant.

In filling the section on Details of Assets, particularly Cash, in Nigerian Banks, His Lordship as Declarant SCN: 000014 mentioned only two bank accounts:

Union Bank account number 0021464934 in Abuja, with balance of N9,536,407, as at 14th November 2014.

Union Bank account number 0012783291 in Calabar, with balance of N11, 456,311 as at 14th November 2014.

The sources of the funds in these accounts are stated as salaries, estacodes and allowances.

As Declarant SCN: 000015 His Lordship however lists seven bank accounts:

Standard Chartered account 00001062667, with balance of N3,221,807.05 as at 14th November 2016.

Standard Chartered account 00001062650, with balance of $164,804.82, as at 14th November 2016.

Standard Chartered account 5001062686, with balance of EUROS 55,154.56, as at 14th November 2016.

Standard Chartered Bank account 5001062679 with balance of GBP108,352.2, as at 14th November 2016.

Standard Chartered Bank account 5001062693 with balance of N8,131,195.27, as at 14th November 2016.

Union Bank account 00021464934 with balance of N23,261,568.89, as at 14th November 2016.

Union Bank account 0012783291 with balance of N14,695,029.12, as at 14th November 2016.

The foreign currency Standard Chartered Bank accounts that were declared by Declarant SCN: 000015 have been in existence since at least 2011.

Prior to 2016, His Lordship appears to have suppressed or otherwise concealed the existence of these multiple domiciliary accounts owned by him, as well as the substantial cash balances in them.

The Standard Chartered Bank dollar account 1062650 had a balance of $391,401.28 on 31st January 2011;

The Standard Chartered Bank Euro account 5001062686 had a balance of EURO 49,971.71 on 31st January 2011;

The Standard Chartered Bank pound sterling account 5001062679 had a balance of GBP23,409.66 on 28th February 2011.

It is curious that these domiciliary accounts were not declared in one of the two CCB Forms filed by Justice Onnoghen on the same day, 14th December 2016.

The Naira bank accounts in b (i) and b (v) above are also omitted in the CCB form of Declarant SCN: 000014.

It is our humble view that, with the foregoing, we have laid before you facts which support the assertion that Justice Walter Onnoghen may have committed a breach of the provisions of the Code of Conduct Bureau Act as follows:

Non-declaration of assets immediately after taking office in several capacities prior to becoming the Chief Justice of Nigeria contrary to section 15 of the Code of Conduct Bureau Act;

Non-declaration of assets immediately after taking office as the Chief Justice of Nigeria contrary to section 15 of the Code of Conduct Bureau Act;

55Non-declaration of assets at the statutory intervals after taking office throughout his career as a federal judicial officer contrary to section 15 of the Code of Conduct Bureau Act;

False declaration of asset, and in particular, concealment of significant and declarable assets in the form of sundry bank accounts and the balances therein, contrary to section 15 of the Code of Conduct Bureau Act;

Consequent to this information, it is our expectation and request that you will discharge the constitutional duty of your office and take the necessary lawful actions to uphold and enforce the law in this matter by involving sister agencies such as:

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) to conduct comprehensive statistical analysis of cash transactions on all the accounts for cases of suspicious transactions.

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) to determine whether Standard Chartered Bank has not breached statutory duties to the Nigerian State in favour of, or in connivance with, His Lordship on Suspicious Transactions Reporting (STR).

The Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), the Supreme Court of Nigeria and the National Judicial Council (NJC) to determine whether the disclosed financial transactions are justified by His Lordship’s lawful remuneration.

As ordinary citizens, motivated by a clear belief that there must be high standards in public life, we have acted to expose a possible criminal breach of our laws. We believe it is now your duty to act, and to do so promptly.

[Salimonu Kadiri]

​While the overeducated Nigerians worry about the speed at which the case of Chief Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen was investigated, the norm in the world is : Justice delayed, is justice denied.

​For us, majority illiterate Nigerians, what we want to know from the Chief Justice are : what were the sources of the US dollars he deposited into his Standard Chartered Bank (Nig.) Ltd account nr. 1062650 in the following manners - five different cash deposits of $10,000 each ($50,000 total) on 8 March 2011; two separate cash deposits of $5,000 each ($10,000 total) followed by four cash deposits of $10,000 each ($40, 000 total), all on 7 June 2011; another set of five separate cash deposits of $10,000 each ($50,000 total) on 27 June 2011; and four more cash deposits of $10,000 each ($40,000 total) on 28 June 2011?

​And why did he fail to declare them as required by the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act?

​S. Kadiri

---

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Skickat: den 12 januari 2019 20:52
Till: USA African Dialogue Series
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[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Salimonu Kadiri,
I know that you would not normally, by any stretch of imagination refer to me as one of "the overeducated Nigerians".

Let me nevertheless, inform you that the accused person's statement was dated 11-1-2019, while the "charge sheet" was dated 10-1-2019.

This means that the charges were written before the statement was obtained.

Does procedure matter in the dispensation of Justice and/or in anything else?

CAO.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

In any case, Salimonu Kadiri, the answers you seek in the questions you posed, can only be gotten through painstaking investigations and such investigations take time!

CAO.

[Gbolahan Gbadamosi]

Chidi,

Did you mix up the dates or are they correct as stated? It does not seem to confirm the point you are trying to make, does it?

Gbolahan Gbadamosi


GG's Handheld Device

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

GG,
I can confirm that the petition was received on 9-1-2019, the CJN's statement dated 11-1-2019 and the "charge sheet" dated 10-1-2019.

My point being that the whole thing was premeditated.

CAO.

[Salimonu Kadiri]

​Chidi Anthony Okpara, what painstaking investigations that will take time are you visualizing when bank accounts with dates of deposits of foreign and naira currencies denominations in Chief Justice Onnoghen's name are available?

​S. Kadiri

---

Från: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> för Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM <chidi...@gmail.com>

Skickat: den 13 januari 2019 12:44
Till: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Ämne: SV: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote

 

In any case, Salimonu Kadiri, the answers you seek in the questions you posed, can only be gotten through painstaking investigations and such investigations take time!

CAO.

[Salimonu Kadiri]

​Chidi Anthony Okpara,

​As you know, we have Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in Nigeria, created with the intention to solve both real and imaginary economic and industrial problems confronting our country and her citizens. Similar socio-economic and industrial problems confronting our dear country have been solved by countries with extreme bad climate and lack of natural resources when compared to Nigeria. Educationally, our MDAs have been, and are still, manned by Nigerians whose education are far more superior than the problems they are, employed, appointed, selected and heavily remunerated to solve. Take for instances the failures of our crude oil refineries and power generation and distribution to produce required results. So, my beloved Chidi, as long as you are not employed in any MDA in Nigeria, you must be rest assured that the term *overeducated* does not include you. The term refers to people who claim possession of knowledge to produce what Nigerians need and have been given the opportunity to demonstrate their expertise but they have failed.

​The six-count charge against Chief Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen was signed by Musa Ibrahim Usman (Esq) and Fatima Danjuma Ali (Esq) of the CCB on 11 January 2019, the same date Justice Onnoghen appeared before the CCB to explain his stance on the allegation against him. That the charge was signed the same day he appeared before the CCB does not in anyway constitute procedural defect. In fact, Chief Justice Onnoghen's statement is of secondary importance in the case when his Asset declarations defer significantly from his Bank accounts. As we have seen, he only tried to explain why he failed to declare his assets initially but not why he left out ownership of foreign currency accounts from his asset declarations. 

S. Kadiri   

---

Från: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> för Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM <chidi...@gmail.com>

Skickat: den 13 januari 2019 11:10

Till: USA Africa Dialogue Series

Ämne: SV: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote

 

[Ashafa Abdullahi]

Kadiri, you are right. This is why Nigeria may never overcome corruption. Every matter is viewed through a Partisan lens.

How can a learned jurist claimed that he forgot to declare the following assets to the CCB;

$391,401.28 USD 

€49,971 .71 EURO

£23,409.66 GBP?

55. Houses

It's not even the question of depositing & how he got the monies. Some folks already believe this is political witch-hunt against the CJN. 

Would the learned jurist have forgotten to include those assets in his Last Will and Testament? 

The excuse of amnesia is a very weak one. No rational person will buy it. It's political because many said it's so. 

I read from the wall of another judge who opined as follows:

"I received several messages with case laws on Watsapp claiming the CJN can’t be prosecuted without passing through NJC. Two of the cases that caught my attention is Nganjiwa v FRN and the notorious case of Hon Justice Erelu Habib, CJ Kwara. I will like to draw the attention of my colleagues in the temple and our facebook/watsapp learning friends that Judicial misconduct is clear different from what the CJN is facing, no one is accusing him of judicial misconduct, but non declaration of his asset which is a constitutional provision under the 5th Schedule of the 1999 CFRN. Going further, the supremacy of the constitution in S:1 (1) and especially (3) where it is said that any other law that is inconsistent to the provision of the constitution shall to the extent of its inconsistency be null and void and the constitution shall prevail. S:11 (1) (2) of the 5th schedule made it clear as to when a public official should declare his assets, and and false statement shall be deemed a breach of the code. S:12 of the schedule made it clear where such allegation of breach will be taken to, it never mentioned NJC but CCB. The Schedule also established the CCT and gave it powers under S:18, thus listing the punishment it can impose under 18: (2). Part II of the schedule, particularly no. 5 listed the CJN, JSC, P&JCA, and all other judicial Officers including staff of the court among public officers for the purpose of the code of conduct. It is therefore invariably clear and even more clearer that any violation of the CC by the CJN can be taken straight to the CCB. But if we insist that it must not be the case, then we might be inviting the National Assembly to also claim that any allegation against any of its members will go through the Ethics committee before the court. Furthermore, the NJC has the CJN as it’s Chairman, this for the principle of justice to apply, he will still have to recuse himself because he can’t be a judge in his own case “Nemo judex in causa sua”. Let me say, discipline and removal of judicial officers is not a new something in the world, though the only thing strange is that of a Supreme Court Justice. In 1805, the US House of Representative successfully impeached Justice Samuel Chase of the US SC on allegation of partisanship which was laid by POTUS Jefferson, though it was later upturned by the Senate after a vote of 18/16 which did not give clear 2/3 majority for him to be impeached by the Senate, it remained the only successful attempt at the removal of a SC Justice in the US. We hope to continue evolving democratically. What is currently happening is part of the term “DEMOCRACY”.

[Chukwuma Opata]

No Nigerian in his right senses would support a breach of due process.
The case is very sensitive, especially given the timing; very close to
the national elections. The other question is: why did it take
government long to find his "faults"?

On 12/01/2019, Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM <chidi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The Chief Justice of Nigeria case must be the fastest investigation in the
> history of world investigations.
>
> The petition was received on the 9th of January, 2019 and by close of
> office on 10th January, 2019, arraignment notice has already been filed!
>
> (C) Chidi Anthony Opara
>
> #2019Quotes
>
>
> --

> *Chidi Anthony Opara <http://www.chidianthonyopara.blogspot.com> is a "Life

> Time Achievement"Awardee Of Maritime Watch Newspaper(Nigeria), Registered
> Freight Forwarder, Professional Fellow Of Institute Of Information
> Managerment, Africa, Poet

> <https://www.google.com.ng/?gws_rd=cr&ei=PwmjUpuuFObw0gWMiIHgCQ#q=chidi+anthony+opara+poems>
> and
> Publisher of PublicInformationProjects
> <http://www.publicinformationprojects.blogspot.com>*

>
> --
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--

Dr Christian Chukwuma Opata,
Department of History and International Studies,
Room 205, Block B,
Faculty of Arts Twin Complex,
University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

[Ashafa Abdullahi]

From the NBA Chairman, Akure Branch:

RE: ARRAIGNMENT OF HIS LORDSHIP, HON. JUSTICE WALTER SAMUEL ONNOGHEN, CJN: 

LET THE LAW BE THE GUIDE.

Divergent reactions have greeted the news filtering in that the the Chief Justice of Nigeria, His Lorsship, Hon. Justice Walter Samuel Onnoghen will be arraigned before the Code of Conduct Bureau on Monday 14th January. Surprisingly, these reactions, coming from lawyers, are not based on law as it is. Most opinions and condemnations being voiced out are based on emotions, sentiments, political affiliation and all you can think of but law.

The starting point is to examine the proposed charge(s) against His Lordship. From reports made available, the CJN is alleged to have maintained foreign accounts and domiciliary accounts in foreign currency; His Lordship is alleged to have failed to declare his assets in violation of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers. 

The second step is to examine the provisions of the law as it relates to the allegation about to be turned charges against His Lordship, the Hon. CJN.

Now, Schedule V, Part 1, of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended provides in paragraph 11 thereof as follows:

 11.1. "Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, every public officer shall within three months after the coming into force of this Code of Conduct or immediately after taking office and thereafter -

a. at the end of every four years; and

b. at the end of his term of office, submit to the Code of Conduct Bureau a written declaration of all his properties, assets, and liabilities and those of his unmarried children under the age of eighteen years.

11.2. Any statement in such declaration that is found to be false by any authority or person authorised in that behalf to verify it shall be deemed to be a breach of this Code."

The same law provides that no public officer shall maintain any foreign account.

The third step is to enquire whether these constitutional provisions apply to the Chief Justice of the Federation and the answer can only be found in the law.

Schedule V part ii of the 1999 Constitution as amended provides for the categories of persons recognised by law as public officers. These includes

5. "Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justices of the Supreme Court, President and Justices of the Court of Appeal, all other judicial officers and all staff of courts of law."

It is thus without much ado that one can safely submit that the Chief Justice of Nigeria, His Lordship Hon. Justice Walter Samuel Onnoghen is a Public Officer. His Lordship is also bound by the provisions of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers as contained in the Constitution of the Federal Republic.

The fourth step is to examine the law as to what step could be taken by the Federal Government, through the Attorney General of the Federation when there is a breach or an alleged breach of any of these provisions. 

Paragraph 12 of part 1 if the fifth schedule to the 1999 constitution provides:

12. "Any allegation that a public officer has committed a breach of or has not complied with the provisions of this Code shall be made to the Code of Conduct Bureau."

Now what is the AGF proposing to do? Nothing but complying with the law. Then why the hullabaloo? Those who oppose the step being taken by the Federal Government have advanced basically three arguments. First, they claim that independence of the judiciary is paramount. They have however forgotten to differentiate between the person of Mr. Hon. Justice Walter Samuel Onnoghen as a Nigerian who is not above the law and who could commit offence: a Nigerian who is not immuned and who is not better than many others His Lordship had tried and sentenced. The proponents of independence of the judiciary have failed, whether by commission or ommission, to see that the office of the CJN is what is meant by judicial independence and not the person in the office. They have refused to appreciate the necessity of subjecting every person to equal treatment before the law, knowing that failure to so do portends great risk to our commonwealth.

The second reason being put forward by defenders of His Lordship, Hon. Justice Walter Samuel Onnoghen CJN is that the timing of the arraignment is suspect. According to them, the proposed charge is akin to an attempt by the ruling political party to compromise Election Petitions. This argument, every trained legal mind who agree, is fallacious. An offence can only be reported and tried when discovered. The CJN must be prepared to face and stand trial. And the burden is on His Lordship to prove his innocence as Paragraph 11.3, Part 1 of Schedule V of the 1999 Constitution deems a defendants guilty until contrary is proved.

11.3. "Any property or assets acquired by a public officer after any declaration required under this Constitution and which is not fairly attributable to income, gift, or loan approved by this Code shall be deemed to have been acquired in breach of this Code unless the contrary is proved.

Admittedly, the premise upon which the third argument is based is true but the conclusion drawn therefrom is false. The premise of the argument is that the Federal Government cannot remove the CJN without following due process, that is through the JSC. Yes, that is the law and it has received judicial backing in the case of NGANJIWA v. FRN,  However, the conclusion drawn  by anti-prosecution of Hon. Justice Walter Samuel Onnoghen CJN is fallacious. Hon. Justice Walter Samuel Onnoghen CJN cannot be removed except by recommendations of the National Judicial Service Commission. His Lordship can however be prosecuted by the Code of Conduct Bureau and a conviction by the Bureau can be a basis for NJC's recommendation for removal.

Let us allow the rule of law and not the law of rulers. Hon. Justice Walter Samuel Onnoghen is just another Nigerian who should subject himself to laws that govern all Nigerians. 

Ola Dan Olawale Esq.,

Chairman,

NBA, Akure Branch.

*Me:   Nothing to add*

[Ibukunolu A Babajide]

Dear Salimonu Kadiri,

I in 99% of your posts, I agree with you.  On this one I want to disagree with you on three grounds:

1.  Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal has been turned into a body used to witch-hunt opponents;

2.  Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu escaped; Senate President Bukola Saraki escaped; and Walter Onnonghen too must escape from its witch-hunting clutches; and

3.  From the President down to the messengers in the Executive, Legislative and Judicial arms of government should be subjected to the same standards, they will ALL fail the test.

"R v Sussex Justices, Ex parte McCarthy ([1924] 1 KB 256, [1923] All ER Rep 233) is a leading English case on the impartiality and recusal of judges. It is famous for its precedence in establishing the principle that the mere appearance of bias is sufficient to overturn a judicial decision. It also brought into common parlance the oft-quoted aphorism "Not only must Justice be done; it must also be seen to be done."

The appearance of justice is equally as important as justice itself.  Because this man will head the ultimate Election Petition process the Attorney-General Mallami unwisely wants to use this as a way to get rid of him.  He is a lightweight lawyer without requisite experience.  Instead he has exposed himself and the incompetent cabal in the government.  This stupidity will strengthen the position of the CJN and weaken the position of the President.

It is an OWN GOAL from an incompetent AGF.  I am a staunch APC supporter but this one is an unforgivable gaff.

Cheers.

IBK

_________________________

Ibukunolu Alao Babajide (IBK)

(+2348061276622) / ibk...@gmail.com

AN ENGLISH NURSERY RHYME

The law locks up the man or woman

Who steals the goose from off the common

But leaves the greater villain loose

Who steals the common from off the goose

 

The law demands that we atone

When we take things that we do not own

But leaves the lords and ladies fine

Who take things that are yours and mine

 

The poor and wretched don’t escape

If they conspire the law to break

This must be so but they endure

Those who conspire to make the law

 

The law locks up the man or woman

Who steals the goose from off the common

And geese will still a common lack

Till they go and steal it back

 -        Anonymous (circa 1764)

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

People,
The trial is not going to happen, it is political, it is dead on arrival.

CAO.

[Ibukunolu A Babajide]

Dear Abdulahi Ashaffa,

Turn the same searchlight and at the same speed against ALL members of the FEC - Federal Executive Council and all the Senior officers of the House of Representatives and the Senate!  This selective attack on the symbol of the Judiciary for rain drops of corruption when there is a sea of corruption in the Presidency and the Legislature is HOW NOT to fight corruption!

It is a total faux pax and it will boomerang against the President and his Attorney-General.  It may even cost the President his re-election.

Cheers.

IBK

_________________________

Ibukunolu Alao Babajide (IBK)

(+2348061276622) / ibk...@gmail.com

AN ENGLISH NURSERY RHYME

The law locks up the man or woman

Who steals the goose from off the common

But leaves the greater villain loose

Who steals the common from off the goose

 

The law demands that we atone

When we take things that we do not own

But leaves the lords and ladies fine

Who take things that are yours and mine

 

The poor and wretched don’t escape

If they conspire the law to break

This must be so but they endure

Those who conspire to make the law

 

The law locks up the man or woman

Who steals the goose from off the common

And geese will still a common lack

Till they go and steal it back

 -        Anonymous (circa 1764)

[Salimonu Kadiri]

​Your Lordship, Ibukunolu A. Babajide,

​How much I wish that all Nigeria's treasury looters, illicit wealth acquirers, robbers and other criminals are arrested, tried and sentenced  the same day. As your Lordship knows, no country in the world has ever succeeded in performing the feat to arrest and prosecute all its criminals in one day.That is why, dispensation of justice is always selective and your Lordship in his wisdom, I suppose, will never set a criminal free because there are other criminals yet to be arrested and prosecuted.

​Your Lordship asserted, "Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal has been turned into a body used to witch-hunt opponents." Although, your Lordship did not tell who has turned the CCB and CCT into witch-hunting opponents, your Lordship mentioned in item two (2) that former Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu and current Senate President, Bukola Saraki have escaped CCP and CCT witch-hunting, which caused you to assume that Chief Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen must also escape from his witch hunters. If I am permitted as a layman to reason with your Lordship, I will submit that the unnamed power that is deploying the CCB and CCT to witch-hunt opponents must be able to direct the CCT to convict the trapped opponents of the unnamed power. However, the evidence before the whole world was that the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) which tried Tinubu actually exonerated him from all the charges brought against him. Similarly, Senator Bukola Saraki got all the charges against him quashed by the CCT but the prosecutor appealed to the Court of Appeal where some of the charges were referred to the CCT for retrial. Both Saraki and the prosecutor appealed to the Supreme Court. While Saraki's lawyer submitted that the three charges referred to the CCT be quashed, the prosecutor asked that all original charges at the CCT be resuscitated. The Supreme Court which granted the Prayer of Senator Bukola Saraki considered the charge of false declaration of assets against him as mere gossiping. And what was mere gossiping?

​By his own admission in his asset declaration after becoming the Governor of Kwara State in 2003, Saraki had N51.5 million, 2.9 million pounds sterling and $400,000 US dollars in his domiciliary accounts, in Nigeria. He owned properties in Nigeria worth more than 2.2 trillion naira. He also owned eight properties in London - all purchased around the same time in 2003 and worth more than $12.6 million US dollars. He had 15 automobiles (bought between 1997 and 2002) ranging from Ferrari to Mercedes Benzes with four of the vehicles being bullet-proof and all valued at more than N263 million. Before he became Governor  in 2003, Saraki was worth N10.2 billion. Saraki had no factory and had never manufactured any products for sales. Those were what the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, dismissed as mere gossiping. We now know that the Supreme Court judgment in favour of Saraki's false declaration of assets was a shield against the false declaration of assets and illicit acquisition of foreign currencies by Chief Justice Onnoghen. Back to the root of my reasoning with your Lordship, neither Tinubu nor Saraki was convicted by the CCT, the same CCT your Lordship claimed is acting under the directives of the power that be against its opponents. May I remark here that Bukola Saraki was still a member of the APC, the same political party that controls the Presidency, when his trial at CCT began and finished. So whose opponent was Saraki?

​The impression I gain from your third point is that since neither the Presidency, from the President down to the messanger, nor the legislature or the judiciary will pass corruption or theft test, Nigerians should just give up and accept their fates as enforced on us by our national plunderers. Of all the three arms of government in Nigeria, only the Judiciary contains professional people with legal education. The power of judges to adjudicate over cases makes them the promoters of peace and progress in the society. The saying that 'the judiciary is the last hope of common man' will be meaningless if Justice is auctioned by Judges to the highest bidder and thereby eroding the principle of 'equality of all citizens before the law.' Viewed from the aforesaid, your Lordship will agree with me that the Judiciary stands highest to curb any criminal behaviours of the Executive, the Legislature, politicians and public servants. But that can only be done by corruption-free judiciary. Our experience in Nigeria, is that Judicial officers connive to share with national treasury looters the proceeds of lootings. The larger the amount of money stolen the bigger the share of court registrars, lawyers and judges. It is officially known that Nigeria is the only country in the world where people can go to court to obtain perpetual injunctions from Judges against being arrested, interrogated, detained and prosecuted in court for corruption and theft. Should the prosecutor appeal against such perpetual injunction, the registrar of the Court of Appeal would see to it that the Appel is never listed for hearing, e. g., the former Governor of River State, Peter Odili's, perpetual injunction which the EFCC appealed against since 2007 is yet to be listed for hearing as of date. Where the prosecutor succeeds in arraigning a looter in court, the usual practice for the Judge is to adjourn the case sine die after granting bail to the looter. By this patern of behaviour, cases of corrupt enrichment involving public officials are still pending in Nigerian courts, twelve years after commencements. Chief Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Ennoghen has been exposed to own heavily fat accounts in foreign currencies e. g. Euros, Dollars and Pound Sterlings in Nigeria, which he deposited in person. He is obliged to tell Nigerians the sources of those foreign currencies including his fat naira account deposits. Or is he Chief Justice of Bureau de Change? 

Not unexpected, the crime of false declaration of assets and criminally concealing illicit acquisition of foreign currencies by Chief Justice Ennoghen have been ethnically coloured by five South-South governors. They claimed that the charge against Chief Justice Onnoghen is an attempt to marginalize the people of the South-South even though the foreign currencies and millions of naira in his accounts belong personally to Chief Justice Ennoghen and the people of South-South have no share in the monies. They faulted the trial of the Chief Justice thus, "Under Section 158 (1) of the 1999 Constitution, the National Judicial Council (NJC) has ample power to deal exhaustively with matters pertaining to allegations of misconduct and discipline of Judicial Officers." Thereafter, they cited cases of FGN vs Justice Sylvester Ngwuta of the Supreme court and Justice Ngajinwa vs FGN  in which it was stated that those Judges could not be charged to court without the consent of the NJC. What the South-South failed to recognize is that the judgments have been appealed against at the Supreme Court where Chief Justice Ennoghen is presiding as the head. Now we know why there have been delays in listing the cases for hearing and conclusions. I underlined the word misconduct to emphasize that the power of NJC, under Section 158 (1) is limited to administrative discipline of Judicial Officers and does not cover criminal matters. The power of NJC to discipline any Judicial officer is not different for what obtains in the Federal Civil Service Commission whose power is to discipline any erring civil servant administratively. The claim by the South-South Governors implies, for example, that if Chief Justice Onnoghen should drink alcohol and drive his car over a foot path to kill a person, the police can never arrest and charge him to court for the criminal offence unless the case is first reported to the NJC for administrative discipline and recommendation. The courts are inferring immunity on their bench members contrary to section 308 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria which provides immunity only to the President, Vice President, Governors and Deputy Governors of the States in Nigeria. No section of the Nigerian Constitution or law stipulates that a judicial officer cannot be tried in any court of law whatsoever unless the matter in question, even if it is criminal in nature, had first been investigated and completely treated by the National Judicial Council. In Europe and the USA, from where we borrowed our system of government and democracy, Chief Justice Walter Samuel Onnoghen would have resigned quietly because of the heavy evidence about his criminal behaviour concerning failure to declare his assets and illicit acquisition of foreign currencies. No professional words' twister, otherwise known as SAN in Nigeria, can change the implicating documentary evidence against him. 

S. Kadiri        

---

Från: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> för Ibukunolu A Babajide <ibk...@gmail.com>
Skickat: den 14 januari 2019 12:25
Till: USAAfricaDialogue
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote

 

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Any medical treatment that could render one incapable of speaking one's native language in which one was hitherto fluent in, that medical treatment must have damaged  that person's mental capacity to be President.

(c) Chidi Anthony Opara

#2019Quotes

--

Chidi Anthony Opara is a "Life Time Achievement" Awardee, Registered Freight Forwarder, Professional Fellow Of Institute Of Information Managerment, Africa, Poet and Publisher of PublicInformationProjects

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Is Nigeria cursed? We have two major Presidential candidates, one is not smart enough to be President, while the other is too smart to be President. The others only want to add "former Presidential candidate" to their résumés

CAO.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

"The joke about INEC would seem real.  The INEC was asked if the Commission was ready for the election and if it expects the election to be free, fair and credible.  The INEC man is reported as saying in response, “we are ready with everything including the results!”  God save Nigeria!" (Olusegun Obasanjo).

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

"Former President Obasanjo is a courageous patriot and statesman who tells truth to power when he is convinced leaders are going wrong" (Muhammadu Buhari on March 4th, 2015).

[Ibukunolu A Babajide]

My brother Salimonu Kadiri,

Thank you for your illuminating response to me.  Please note that I am not a Judge and I do not have such an exalted position yet.  I am very grateful to you for the hard work and research that went into your response to me.

God bless you.

Cheers.

IBK

_________________________

Ibukunolu Alao Babajide (IBK)

(+2348061276622) / ibk...@gmail.com

AN ENGLISH NURSERY RHYME

The law locks up the man or woman

Who steals the goose from off the common

But leaves the greater villain loose

Who steals the common from off the goose

 

The law demands that we atone

When we take things that we do not own

But leaves the lords and ladies fine

Who take things that are yours and mine

 

The poor and wretched don’t escape

If they conspire the law to break

This must be so but they endure

Those who conspire to make the law

 

The law locks up the man or woman

Who steals the goose from off the common

And geese will still a common lack

Till they go and steal it back

 -        Anonymous (circa 1764)

[Salimonu Kadiri]

​My dear brother IBK,

​I am happy that you do not feel offended by me for humorously addressing you as your Lordship when you are not a Judge. As human beings, we are not perfect. We all make mistakes even though we often wish not to make a fatal one.

​Have a nice day.

​S. Kadiri

---

Från: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> för Ibukunolu A Babajide <ibk...@gmail.com>

Skickat: den 25 januari 2019 16:05

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Hello Buharists! Morality is subjective!

CAO.

--

Chidi Anthony Opara is a "Life Time Achievement" Awardee, Registered Freight Forwarder, Professional Fellow Of Institute Of Information Managerment, Africa, Poet and Publisher of PublicInformationProjects

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Democracy is anchored on the rule of law(due process), while Theocracy is anchored on morality. Nigeria is a democracy.

(c) Chidi Anthony Opara

#2019Quotes

[Ashafa Abdullahi]

Though not the best of examples, Vladimir Putin says:

 "To successfully fight corruption in a corrupt system, you don't follow due process, you only follow the necessary process."

[Adeshina Afolayan]

Are democracy and morality mutually exclusive? Can a theocracy not deploy the rule of law? Is democracy essentially just procedural? If not, then how accurate is it to consider Nigeria a democracy?

Who procedural democracy epp?

That's a Nigerian popular culture slang for "What has procedural democracy enabled or empowered anyone to achieve?"

Adeshina Afolayan, PhD
Department of Philosophy
University of Ibadan

+23480-3928-8429

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Ashafa,
Would you want to be ruled with the system with which Putin rules?

CAO.

[Ibukunolu A Babajide]

Chidi,

You make a distinction without a difference!

Everything is anchored on morality.  Law, Democracy, Rule of Law, and Theocracy!  Once the moral underpinning falls, there is anarchy and society falls.  Democracy is a moral alternative to autocracy!  Law upholds moral rules and when you start making immoral laws, law loses its role in society,  Rule of law is the discipline to do what is morally right and correct by law.

Because morality is at the base of all, any self-respecting Judge caught in an immoral act loses the moral right to sit in judgement over others.  He should honorably resign!

Cheers.

IBK

_________________________

Ibukunolu Alao Babajide (IBK)

(+2348061276622) / ibk...@gmail.com

AN ENGLISH NURSERY RHYME

The law locks up the man or woman

Who steals the goose from off the common

But leaves the greater villain loose

Who steals the common from off the goose

 

The law demands that we atone

When we take things that we do not own

But leaves the lords and ladies fine

Who take things that are yours and mine

 

The poor and wretched don’t escape

If they conspire the law to break

This must be so but they endure

Those who conspire to make the law

 

The law locks up the man or woman

Who steals the goose from off the common

And geese will still a common lack

Till they go and steal it back

 -        Anonymous (circa 1764)

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

".....any self-respecting Judge caught in an immoral act loses the moral right to sit in judgement over others. He should honorably resign!"(IBK).

IBK,
The Judge in question has not been "caught". He can only be said to have been "caught", if found guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction(you are supposed to be telling me this).

Preliminary background check on Buhari's CJN however, revealed worst!

CAO.

[Samuel Zalanga]

In the past and present, laws reflect the social structure of a society essentially. Even when the language the laws are written in is neutral, the social structure of the society affects their application e.g. the New Deal or GI bill in the US. Laws in all religions tend to initially reflect such power relations too although forces of social struggle have compeled them to change over time. Any discussion of law in the abstract can be misleading, even though useful for initial conceptual understanding. That is why Rienhold Niebuhr argued in "Moral Man and Immoral Society" that without balance of power in society,  there will be no justice. Maybe some lawyers look at the law just in the abstract but it is important to also understand the social structure of society before just elevating the rule of law over and above society. The idea of the rule of law itself came into existence as part of class struggle. Prior to such social struggles, the same societies that championed the rule of law today created societies where some human beings were treated as fractions of a full human being. 

Often the victims in all such discussion on the rule of law even in the US are the ordinary persons whose interests are highly ignored by the US Congress because those who control the system are "masters of the universe" or those called the "movers and shakers" of the world. Decisions made behind the scenes reflect their interests but there is a well-organized and huge public relations campaign even at the scholarly level to persuade the underprivileged that their interests have super-priority in the public sphere or scheme of things. At the current rate the rule of law is attending to those we might call "the wretched of the earth,"  I wonder when they will be treated as persons who have their own ends and not a means to other people's ends.

 Indeed, in many places of worship, those attending the worship are just a means to other people's ends. As Kathryn Tanner argues in "The New Spirit of Capitslism" finance - driven capitalism, where ever it exists has a logic that requires it to discipline all institutions, people, cultures, and the law to conform to its needs of super-profit levels of return, which is the main driving force instead of satisfying genuine human needs. In doing this, many humans are treated as means to other people's  ends. From this perspective just talking about the rule of law in abstraction ignores how the system has bourgeoisified us to take for granted an exploitative global regime of accummulation that has rendered fragile the dignity of many humans if not creating conditioms for the disappalearance of the human or making a caricature of the human as some scholars say we started as homo sapiens, then became homo faber,  and now homo economicus is presumably the standard human being who fits the current incarnation of the dog eat dog world. 

I am somewhat tired of high sounding words or concepts that never truly translate to improve the life chances of those at the bottom of the pyramid. The pace is too slow.

Samuel

[Harrow, Kenneth]

i really like samuel's argument here. in the spirit of debate, i wonder if we couldn't argue that class is overdetermining everything here. the notion of law in greece and rome might not be attributed simply to class. the laws erected in mesopotamia, ditto; the laws in pre-colonial africa, ditto. i guess we have to decide on how law is defined, but the earlier attempts to link them to divine commandments or natural law might be read as reflecting more than simply class dominance.

can't we say as class divisions arose, along with other social factors, notions of social value also changed. anything to avoid direct determinism.

i'm thinking that the real strength in your argument, samuel, has to be based on social changes since the nation state became dominant, and is even more the case as we get closer to the present day when your warnings about global order ring true.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

---

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Samuel Zalanga <szal...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2019 1:50:58 PM
To: USAAfricaDialogue
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote

 

[Ibukunolu A Babajide]

Chidi,

Do not swim in shark infested waters.  The man was confronted and he admitted his fault.  That is being "caught" and being caught is what sets off the process, conviction is what ends it.  Take this to the Bank as I prosecuted at the highest level of international criminal law.  If you are not convinced, please Google my name and confirm.

Every Judge must have a moral basis to sit as one.  Onnoghen should have resigned.  Kemi adeosun resigned.  Why is he sitting tight.  When Mike Ozekhome used the Interpretation Act to depose Salami, it was music to your ears.  Now that your bent CJN is being deposed with the same measure and precedent set by your PDP Goodluck Jonathan you scream like a banshee!

Nigeria will be clean of kleptocrats whether you like it or not.

BTW - what do you say about your distinction without a difference?  MORALITY is the foundation of all justice systems.

Cheers.

IBK

_________________________

Ibukunolu Alao Babajide (IBK)

(+2348061276622) / ibk...@gmail.com

AN ENGLISH NURSERY RHYME

The law locks up the man or woman

Who steals the goose from off the common

But leaves the greater villain loose

Who steals the common from off the goose

 

The law demands that we atone

When we take things that we do not own

But leaves the lords and ladies fine

Who take things that are yours and mine

 

The poor and wretched don’t escape

If they conspire the law to break

This must be so but they endure

Those who conspire to make the law

 

The law locks up the man or woman

Who steals the goose from off the common

And geese will still a common lack

Till they go and steal it back

 -        Anonymous (circa 1764)

[Salimonu Kadiri]

​The Judge was caught in a criminal act of failing to declare his assets according to the Code of Conduct Bureau. He has admitted in writing that he forgot to declare his assets consisting huge amount of money in his various bank accounts in Nigeria that are in US dollars, Euro and Naira.

​Following your logic, a man who has admitted beheading another person has not been caught with the crime of murder until a court of competent jurisdiction has pronounced him guilty. Thus, murder by your own logic is not in the perpetrated action (chopping off another person's head) but in the pronouncement of a Judge. Regrettably, it is your kind of logic which has led to the epidemy of abuse of judicial power in Nigeria whereby murderers, treasury looters and other criminals are pronounced not guilty by bribed judges. It is the era of cash and carry judgment.

​You may be correct in assuming that Buhari's appointed acting CJN is worse than the suspended CJN but assumption is the lowest level of knowledge. In the name of justice we need to be confronted with documentary evidence of false or failed declaration of assets by the acting CJN before declaring him a criminal. He may be worse than the suspended CJN but there is no evidence to buttress that assumption and, in fact, it is not intelligent to exonerate the suspended CJN of criminal trespass of CCB Act with the assumption that there are other Judges who are guilty of similar crime but yet to be caught and arraigned.

S. Kadiri 

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Skickat: den 28 januari 2019 17:31

Till: USA Africa Dialogue Series

Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote

 

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Salimoni Kadiri,
What does the CCT act say about omissions in assets declaration and corrections?

CAO.

[Salimonu Kadiri]

​No amount of circumlocutions will turn failure to declare assets to omissions in declaration of assets, more so, when the culprit in question excused his failure to declare his assets to forgetfulness.

​S. Kadiri

---

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Skickat: den 29 januari 2019 21:22

Till: USA Africa Dialogue Series

Ämne: SV: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote

 

Salimoni Kadiri,
What does the CCT act say about omissions in assets declaration and corrections?

CAO.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

IBK,

[Mobolaji Aluko]

Salimonu Kadiri:

In Nigeria's checks-and-balances presidential system:

(1) The President can be impeached by the National Assembly, and then removed by adequate vote margin.  Unless the President physically shuts down the Nass building, he cannot prevent the legislators from initiating such an impeachment move.    His own cabinet can also initiate his removal, under certain unusual disability circumstances.  The "victimized" President can appeal to the Judiciary to claim abuse of process, but he is unlikely to prevail. 

(2).  The Senate President and the Speaker of the House can be impeached by special investigating committee of their peers, and then removed by an adequate vote margin.  There is nothing these two Legislature  leaders can do  - including not convening Senate or House sittings -  to prevent their removal if their peers are determined to do the removal act.   They can appeal to the Judiciary to claim abuse of process, but they are  unlikely to prevail.

(3). The case of the CJN is totally different.  Only the NJC which he chairs can discipline him, and if he refuses to call an NJC meeting whereat he sets up a panel to investigate - after hopefully stepping aside for the duration - the nation is stuck.   But enter Section 231(4) of the Nigerian Constitution, which empowers the President, who, if he determines that the CJN "for any reason" - presumably moral reasons - cannot discharge his duties, he can be suspended:

QUOTE 

 231 (4) If the office of Chief Justice of Nigeria is vacant or if the person holding the office is for any reason unable to perform the functions of the office, then until a person has been appointed to and has assumed the functions of that office, or until the person holding has resumed those functions, the President shall appoint the most senior Justice of the Supreme Court to perform those functions.

UNQUOTE

The President did not even need a CCT order to do the suspension, but he went an extra judicial mile to get that order, now triggering a set of events in which now the NJC is investigating ting both the CJN and the Acting CJN that replaced him due to four petitions before it.  That is how it should be. 

As to the innocence or guilt of the CJN, he is presumed innocent until proven guilty, but unless he is protecting his wife's vault of currencies, he does look very guilty if indeed he admitted forgetfulness and oversight in declaring such.   He should have suspended himself to let the NJC investigation commence promptly, or else simply resign. 

Those who claim that since he confessed in written form to ownership of undeclared assets, there is a CCB law that frees him from responsibility are quite interesting.  Certainly, at the bottom of every crime is  forgetfulness - even of the existence of the violated law itself.    One can imagine that the original ibtendment of the law is the firgeting for example a dormant account with one or two hundred naira in them, not the ownership of an island in  the Caribbean, three yachts in Malta, and 100 houses at Asokoro.  Haba... That is the classic case if forgetting the elephant in the the room. 

Finally,  the elite cacophony in support of the CJN  is frightening, with the NBA for example going on a two-day strike for a man most eminently qualified to defend himself. Even Senate President Saraki unilaterally filed a case against the Presidency before the Supreme Court for interpretation of the situation.  

One hopes that the present situation will lead to another attempt to clean up the Augean stable of our messed-up Judiciary, whose reputation even among themselves for corruption is legendary.  An opportunity was lost last time around when a meek effort was done to prove the financial dealings of some lesser judges. We should not let this opportunity slip again. 

And there you have it. 

Bolaji Aluko 

On Tuesday, January 29, 2019, Salimonu Kadiri <ogunl...@hotmail.com> wrote:

​The Judge was caught in a criminal act of failing to declare his assets according to the Code of Conduct Bureau. He has admitted in writing that he forgot to declare his assets consisting huge amount of money in his various bank accounts in Nigeria that are in US dollars, Euro and Naira.

​Following your logic, a man who has admitted beheading another person has not been caught with the crime of murder until a court of competent jurisdiction has pronounced him guilty. Thus, murder by your own logic is not in the perpetrated action (chopping off another person's head) but in the pronouncement of a Judge. Regrettably, it is your kind of logic which has led to the epidemy of abuse of judicial power in Nigeria whereby murderers, treasury looters and other criminals are pronounced not guilty by bribed judges. It is the era of cash and carry judgment.

​You may be correct in assuming that Buhari's appointed acting CJN is worse than the suspended CJN but assumption is the lowest level of knowledge. In the name of justice we need to be confronted with documentary evidence of false or failed declaration of assets by the acting CJN before declaring him a criminal. He may be worse than the suspended CJN but there is no evidence to buttress that assumption and, in fact, it is not intelligent to exonerate the suspended CJN of criminal trespass of CCB Act with the assumption that there are other Judges who are guilty of similar crime but yet to be caught and arraigned.

S. Kadiri 

---

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Skickat: den 28 januari 2019 17:31
Till: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote

".....any self-respecting Judge caught in an immoral act loses the moral right to sit in judgement over others.  He should honorably resign!"(IBK).

IBK,
The Judge in question has not been "caught". He can only be said to have been "caught", if found guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction(you are supposed to be telling me this).

Preliminary background check on Buhari's CJN however, revealed worst!

CAO.

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[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Salimoni Kadiri,
Simplicity does not apply in all circumstances. Sometimes, there should be places for inductive and deductive reasoning in our intellectual lifes.

This should always be kept in mind when dishing out all those your analyses!

CAO.

[Ibukunolu A Babajide]

Prof. Bolaji Aluko (my favourite intellectual and public commentator Egbon),

I miss you a lot.  I thank corrupt Walter Onnonghen for bringing you back to my radar.  You have as always done a yeoman's legal job but please look at this point.  There is no exclusive jurisdiction in the Supreme Court for a case filed by the Senate.  That is reserved for a case between the Federation and a State or between two or more states between themselves.  See below:

" 232. (1) The Supreme Court shall, to the exclusion of any other court, have original jurisdiction in any dispute between the Federation and a state or between states if and in so far as that dispute involves any question (whether of law or fact) on which the existence or extent of a legal right depends. (2) In addition to the jurisdiction conferred upon it by subsection (1) of this section, the Supreme Court shall have such original jurisdiction as may be conferred upon it by any Act of the National Assembly. Provided that no original jurisdiction shall be conferred upon the Supreme Court with respect to any criminal matter. 233. (1) The Supreme Court shall have jurisdiction, to the exclusion of any other court of law in Nigeria, to hear and determine appeals from the Court of Appeal. (2) An appeal shall lie form decisions of the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court as of right in the following cases - (a) where the ground of appeal involves questions of law alone, decisions in any civil or criminal proceedings before the Court of Appeal; (b) decisions in any civil or criminal proceedings on questions as to the interpretation or application of this constitution, (c) decisions in any civil or criminal proceedings on questions as to whether any of the provisions of Chapter IV of this Constitution has been, is being or is likely to be, contravened in relation to any person; (d) decisions in any criminal proceedings in which any person has been sentenced to death by the Court of Appeal or in which the Court of Appeal has affirmed a sentence of death imposed by any other court; (e) decisions on any question - (i) whether any person has been validly elected to the office of President or Vice-President under this Constitution, (ii) whether the term of office of office of President or Vice-President has ceased, (iii) whether the office of President or Vice-President has become vacant; and (c) such other cases as may be an Act of the National Assembly. ( "

Bukola Saraki is a corrupt buffoon and a joker.  He was getting away with fleecing Kwara, but now that he is on the national stage he is being taught a lesson by the bigger thieves in PDP where he could not clinch their primaries or APC where he was not allowed the unlimited access to steal state funds that he is used to!

Buhari will win and all these thieves (those who stole in the past and have developed a culture of stealing and corrupting the judiciary and the corrupted judges) will run away from Nigeria.

Cheers.

IBK

IBK

_________________________

Ibukunolu Alao Babajide (IBK)

(+2348061276622) / ibk...@gmail.com

AN ENGLISH NURSERY RHYME

The law locks up the man or woman

Who steals the goose from off the common

But leaves the greater villain loose

Who steals the common from off the goose

 

The law demands that we atone

When we take things that we do not own

But leaves the lords and ladies fine

Who take things that are yours and mine

 

The poor and wretched don’t escape

If they conspire the law to break

This must be so but they endure

Those who conspire to make the law

 

The law locks up the man or woman

Who steals the goose from off the common

And geese will still a common lack

Till they go and steal it back

 -        Anonymous (circa 1764)

On Wed, 30 Jan 2019 at 14:54, Mobolaji Aluko <alu...@gmail.com> wrote:

Salimonu Kadiri:

In Nigeria's checks-and-balances presidential system:

(1) The President can be impeached by the National Assembly, and then removed by adequate vote margin.  Unless the President physically shuts down the Nass building, he cannot prevent the legislators from initiating such an impeachment move.    His own cabinet can also initiate his removal, under certain unusual disability circumstances.  The "victimized" President can appeal to the Judiciary to claim abuse of process, but he is unlikely to prevail. 

(2).  The Senate President and the Speaker of the House can be impeached by special investigating committee of their peers, and then removed by an adequate vote margin.  There is nothing these two Legislature  leaders can do  - including not convening Senate or House sittings -  to prevent their removal if their peers are determined to do the removal act.   They can appeal to the Judiciary to claim abuse of process, but they are  unlikely to prevail.

(3). The case of the CJN is totally different.  Only the NJC which he chairs can discipline him, and if he refuses to call an NJC meeting whereat he sets up a panel to investigate - after hopefully stepping aside for the duration - the nation is stuck.   But enter Section 231(4) of the Nigerian Constitution, which empowers the President, who, if he determines that the CJN "for any reason" - presumably moral reasons - cannot discharge his duties, he can be suspended:

QUOTE 

 231 (4) If the office of Chief Justice of Nigeria is vacant or if the person holding the office is for any reason unable to perform the functions of the office, then until a person has been appointed to and has assumed the functions of that office, or until the person holding has resumed those functions, the President shall appoint the most senior Justice of the Supreme Court to perform those functions.

UNQUOTE

The President did not even need a CCT order to do the suspension, but he went an extra judicial mile to get that order, now triggering a set of events in which now the NJC is investigating ting both the CJN and the Acting CJN that replaced him due to four petitions before it.  That is how it should be. 

As to the innocence or guilt of the CJN, he is presumed innocent until proven guilty, but unless he is protecting his wife's vault of currencies, he does look very guilty if indeed he admitted forgetfulness and oversight in declaring such.   He should have suspended himself to let the NJC investigation commence promptly, or else simply resign. 

Those who claim that since he confessed in written form to ownership of undeclared assets, there is a CCB law that frees him from responsibility are quite interesting.  Certainly, at the bottom of every crime is  forgetfulness - even of the existence of the violated law itself.    One can imagine that the original ibtendment of the law is the firgeting for example a dormant account with one or two hundred naira in them, not the ownership of an island in  the Caribbean, three yachts in Malta, and 100 houses at Asokoro.  Haba... That is the classic case if forgetting the elephant in the the room. 

Finally,  the elite cacophony in support of the CJN  is frightening, with the NBA for example going on a two-day strike for a man most eminently qualified to defend himself. Even Senate President Saraki unilaterally filed a case against the Presidency before the Supreme Court for interpretation of the situation.  

One hopes that the present situation will lead to another attempt to clean up the Augean stable of our messed-up Judiciary, whose reputation even among themselves for corruption is legendary.  An opportunity was lost last time around when a meek effort was done to prove the financial dealings of some lesser judges. We should not let this opportunity slip again. 

And there you have it. 

Bolaji Aluko 

On Tuesday, January 29, 2019, Salimonu Kadiri <ogunl...@hotmail.com> wrote:

​The Judge was caught in a criminal act of failing to declare his assets according to the Code of Conduct Bureau. He has admitted in writing that he forgot to declare his assets consisting huge amount of money in his various bank accounts in Nigeria that are in US dollars, Euro and Naira.

​Following your logic, a man who has admitted beheading another person has not been caught with the crime of murder until a court of competent jurisdiction has pronounced him guilty. Thus, murder by your own logic is not in the perpetrated action (chopping off another person's head) but in the pronouncement of a Judge. Regrettably, it is your kind of logic which has led to the epidemy of abuse of judicial power in Nigeria whereby murderers, treasury looters and other criminals are pronounced not guilty by bribed judges. It is the era of cash and carry judgment.

​You may be correct in assuming that Buhari's appointed acting CJN is worse than the suspended CJN but assumption is the lowest level of knowledge. In the name of justice we need to be confronted with documentary evidence of false or failed declaration of assets by the acting CJN before declaring him a criminal. He may be worse than the suspended CJN but there is no evidence to buttress that assumption and, in fact, it is not intelligent to exonerate the suspended CJN of criminal trespass of CCB Act with the assumption that there are other Judges who are guilty of similar crime but yet to be caught and arraigned.

S. Kadiri 

---

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Skickat: den 28 januari 2019 17:31
Till: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote

".....any self-respecting Judge caught in an immoral act loses the moral right to sit in judgement over others.  He should honorably resign!"(IBK).

IBK,
The Judge in question has not been "caught". He can only be said to have been "caught", if found guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction(you are supposed to be telling me this).

Preliminary background check on Buhari's CJN however, revealed worst!

CAO.

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[Salimonu Kadiri]

​Chidi Anthony Opara,

​I am pleased to inform you that it is the inductive and deductive reasoning which you mentioned that enabled me to decipher that the undeclared millions of US dollar, thousands of euro and billions of naira traced to the personal accounts of Chief Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, which he claimed to have forgotten to declare in defiance of CBB Act was an incontrovertible evidence that the Chief priest in the temple of law had parlayed his sacred stool to judgment racketeering. Those who are not diplomatic will certainly exclaim that Chief Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen have been selling justice to the highest bidder in his court in order to acquire such enormous amount of undeclared wealth. 

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Skickat: den 30 januari 2019 08:37

Till: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Ämne: SV: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Salimoni Kadiri,
What manner of inductive and deductive reasoning would allow one person to be an accuser, a prosecutor and a judge in a case?

What manner of inductive and deductive reasoning would in one breathe declare a Bola Tinubu innocent until proven guilty and another person guilty until proven innocent.

Does it ever occur to you and your reasoning partners that there could be another side of a coin? Haba!

CAO.

[Mobolaji Aluko]

My People:

I receive support from someone better trained in Law than myself.  In fact, I ain't trained at all,  but that has never stopped me from pretending to be ! 

Bolaji Aluko 

Having a belly laugh

Quote 

On Onnoghen's issue Aare M. A. PhD Political Science, PhD Law, LLB, MHR writes

I am an apostle of legislative independence and autonomy in all ramifications. I studied it, taught it, fought for it and worked hard to make it real. I'm still doing these and will continue to do so. You all know where I stood and remain on this matter of separation of powers. While I do not subscribe to reckless executive powers, I don't equally give in to indolence, connivance or docility on the part of other arms of government in a period of great constitutional crisis like this. 

Let us examine the scenario: Yes, the legislature (Senate) must approve a removal by a two-thirds majority votes, but where the Senate failed, refused or neglected to activate the process despite admission of error by the CJN, what happens? There, indeed, lies a lacuna, a serious one for that matter. What I expected my learned brothers, including the SANs and the NBA leadership, to have done was to advise the CJN to step aside in order not to offend the key principle of fair hearing (Nemo dat judex in causa sua - don't be a judge in your own cause).

CJN Onnoghen was, perhaps, conscious of that when he admitted errors in his assets declaration form but was prompted to hang on by peer and ethnic group pressures. He also failed to heed the warnings to step aside as a face saving strategy. His inaction and the actions of his backers were suggestive of wanting to drag the entire judiciary into the mud with him. In a situation where the legislature could not act and my learned senior brothers were unwilling to safe the judicial institution from the current travails, the doctrine of necessity could be invoked to prevent a constitutional cul de sac, by temporarily easing out the CJN to allow for proper investigation that may or may not indict him. The President as the "appointor" of the CJN under Section 231(1) has the power to appoint an acting CJN under Section 231(4) for a limited period not exceeding three months as provided under Section 231(5). This same principle governs the appointment and removal of the PCA (President of the Court of Appeal) appointed under Section 238(1) as applied in the earlier case of Isa Ayo Salami under the Jonathan administration. 

The argument that the President ought to have waited for a recommendation from the NJC cannot be sustained in the instant case. By Schedule 3E, par 13(a)&(b), the FJSC can recommend removal of CJN to NJC, and the latter can by Schedule 3I, par 21(a)&(b) recommend the removal of the CJN. Unfortunately, the FJSC and the NJC are each headed by CJN, the accused person. This scenario wasn't entirely unforseen; I painted it vividly and warned against an NJC that was virtually turning into a monster as far back as 2014 in my POLITICS AND LAW: ANATOMY OF THE SIAMESE TWINS (Unilorin Inaugural Lecture). The issue of whether the Senate could activate the removal process itself is neither here nor there. What is certain is that the Senate as presently constituted could and, indeed, did not act!

In the circumstances, there was a constitutional vacuum, which could not be allowed to linger ad infinitum. The doctrine of necessity requires that someone must step in to do the needful. The onus fell on the President, the primus inter pares among the principalities of government, to break the logjam, as he did when he seized the opportunity of a CCT order to suspend (not remove) the CJN to prevent an infringement of the constitutional doctrine of Nemo Dat Judex in Causa Sua (you cannot be a judge in your own cause)! What he did is permitted by logic and our constitutional law.

By Prof. Rt. Hon. Aare Mojeed

Unquote

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

"The case of the CJN is totally different. Only the NJC which he chairs can discipline him, and if he refuses to call an NJC meeting whereat he sets up a panel to investigate - after hopefully stepping aside for the duration - the nation is stuck. But enter Section 231(4) of the Nigerian Constitution, which empowers the President, who, if he determines that the CJN "for any reason" - presumably moral reasons - cannot discharge his duties, he can be suspended".

Laws are not sacrosanct. When laws are tested and found not to be for the peace and progress of the society, they are resisted(disobeyed)and changed.

During the time of slave trade, buying and selling of blacks was lawful, so also the discrimination against blacks in the apartheid era South Africa, but these were bad laws, which were resisted(disobeyed)and changed.

Anyway, the drafters of the legislation under reference did not envisage the emergence of a highly nepotistic President who would remove highly placed officials from other ethnic groups on mere allegations to pave way for people from his ethnic group, while ignoring allegations against people from his ethnic group.

CAO.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

"Those who are in the PDP today are cleaner because they are not running from prosecution, those who have a bad record have moved on to the APC" (Peter Obi).

[Salimonu Kadiri]

​Welcome back Bolaji. We all know that there are three arms in the presidential system of government in Nigeria (separation of powers). If each arm of government should act according to the spirit of the Constitution and the laws, there would be no problem. Evidently today, the National Assembly is constituted in disregard of the letters of the Constitution prohibiting carpet crossing. The most important arm of the government as I see it is the Judiciary which if it has been adjudicating strictly over cases according to the laws, neither the Executive nor the legislature would have been able to mess up the system. Alas, the judiciary is the last hope of treasury looters in Nigeria and it is the cemetery of common Nigerians.

S. Kadiri  

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[Salimonu Kadiri]

​Laws are not sacrosanct. When laws are tested and found not to be for the peace and progress of the society they are resisted (disobeyed) and changed - Chidi Anthony Opara.

​Laws are never enacted to be tested but to be applied. It is during application that it can be adjudged as either good or bad. If a law is found not to serve the purpose for which it was enacted, it is repealed. However, all laws must be obeyed until they are repealed or changed. A law is like a dry fish which you cannot bend at will and if you try, you will break it into pieces. Breaking the law to suit your personal interest is an invitation to anarchy. Whatever opinion you may have about the CCT, it is the only initial instance to try public officials that have contravened CCB Act. The CJN cannot chose which Court should try him for the crime he admitted to have committed even though he attributed the crime to his temporary affliction with Alzheimer. If your stand is that the law can be disobeyed before it is changed, then it must be sensible for the President who enjoys constitutional immunity to disobey the law and not the Chief Justice that lacks protection from prosecution while in office unless he is a BÓLÈKÁJÀ Chief Justice.

​Anyway, the drafters of the legislation under reference did not envisage the emergence of highly nepotistic President who would remove highly placed officials from other ethnic groups on mere allegations to pave way for people from his ethnic group, while ignoring allegations against people from his ethnic group - Chidi Anthony Opara.

​Section 231 (4) of the constitution that empowers the President to suspend the CJN if the occasion arises is now said by Chidi Anthony Opara to have been applied by the President in a nepotistic manner against a CJN who belongs to an ethnic group different from the President. ​I don't know which ethnic group Chief Justice Onnogen belongs in the South-South and what language he speaks. However, in his affidavit dated 14 December 2016, he admitted to ownership of a Union Bank account No. 0021464934 in Abuja with a balance of 9million, 536 thousand and 407 naira as at 14 November 2014. In Calabar branch of Union Bank he had account number 0012783291 containing a balance of 11 million, 456 thousand, and 311 naira as at 14 November 2014. He stated the sources of the funds in the accounts as salaries, estacodes and allowances. All along Chief Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen concealed from the CCB in his declaration that he had several accounts in Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) namely, a domiciliary account No. 50010626686 in euro, a domiciliary account No. 5001062679 in pound sterling and a domiciliary account No.0001062650 in US dollars. Besides, he had an e-saver savings account in naira and a naira account which are all maintained with SCB (Nig.) Ltd., in Abuja. A scrutiny of Chief Justice Onnoghen's domiciliary dollar account No.0001062650 at the SCB revealed the following : On five different occasions on 8 March 2011 Onnoghen deposited in person $10,000 on each occasion ($50,000 total); two separate cash deposits of $5,000 each (total $10,000) followed by four different cash deposits of $10,000 each (total $40,000) on 7 June 2011; another set of five separate cash deposits of $10,000 each (total $50,000) on 27 June 2011; and on 28 June 2011 at different occasions, four deposits of $10,000 each (total $40,000) was made into the account. Please note that 2011 was an election year with subsequent election petitions. Chief Justice Onnoghen said he forgot to declare his robust euro, dollar, pounds sterling and naira accounts at the SCB which was the cause of CCB arraigning him before the CCT. The foreign currencies as well as naira accounts do not speak any of the ethnic languages in Nigeria. Moreover, Chief Justice Onnoghen did not amass the aforementioned currencies for his ethnic group and in reality his ethnic group was not aware that he has ammassed such a huge cash wealth. Are you, Chidi Anthony Opara telling readers that President Buhari should not have suspended Chief Justice Onnoghen in accordance with Section 231(4) of the Constitution because the latter is from another tribe in Nigeria and when his tribe has never sent him to acquire unexplained wealth and declare false assets?

​Rule 1(3) of the Code of Conduct for Nigerian Judicial Officers states : A Judicial Officer should respect and comply with the laws of the land and should conduct himself at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the Judiciary. Chief Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen has acted in disregard of Rule1 (3) of the Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers perhaps in adherence to your idea that a law that does not serve ones interest, especially the pecuniary one, should be disobeyed. His disregard for CCB Act and its consequence has nothing to do with his ethnic origin. Onnoghen rides Mercedes but he is not of the same tribe as the makers of Mercedes Benz Cars. We, Nigerians should stop deploying ethnicity to excuse and justify wrongdoings. 

​S. Kadiri

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[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

"My philosophy was simple. For elections to be credible, I as a leader, must value the process more than the product of the process. And the citizens must have confidence in the electoral body" (Former President Goodluck  Jonathan).

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Atiku may win, not because he is a saint, but because Buhari has made sainthood a disadvantage in elections in Nigeria.

CAO.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

One day, the "Supreme leader" would be stoned by his followers.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

The boundaries of nations are seamless. If there is anarchy in a part of the world, it affects other parts in many ways, hence, the unreasonableness of Nasir El Rufai's warning.

[Salimonu Kadiri]

​As long as the U.S. is still investigating Russian interference in its 2016 presidential elections, Nasir El-Rufai must be a true son of Nigeria to warn foreigners from interfering in the internal affairs of Nigeria. Why did EU, UK and U.S. link the suspension of criminally indicted Chief Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen to the forthcoming Presidential elections? Is Chief Justice Onnoghen a member of PDP who has vouched to overturn the victory of the APC at the polls in favour of PDP through Black market judgment? Did US not accuse the Nigerian judiciary of being corrupt with impunity in 2012? http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/us-nigerian-judiciary-corrupt-with-impunity/116562/  

​S. Kadiri

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[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Salimoni Kadiri,
Most times, the trajectory of your reasoning amuses me.

Does the United States of America depend on loans and grants from Russia to survive, like the situation in Nigeria?

Do you sincerely believe that these countries that grant your country loans and grants(at your requests), without which, your country would not survive, should not intervene/interfere, if they believe that your country is about to slide into anarchy?

CAO.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

"They(troublemakers, election riggers, others) are responsible first to their God, second to their conscience, third to the laws of Nigeria, fourth to the court of public opinion in Nigeria and then finally international law and the rest of us,” (USA Ambassador in Nigeria)

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Do you "invent" what is already there? We should move from known(current technology) to unknown. What is the point "inventing" aeroplane as it was 100 years ago, for example?

CAO.

[Ibukunolu. A. Babajide]

CAO,

Which anarchy are you sliding into? So because USA does not collect grants from Russia it has a say against interference but because NIGERIA gets grants USA and others should interfere?

Please check the trajectory of your own reasoning first.

No self respecting sovereign country allows interference in her elections! That is trite logic. That is if you embrace logic as much as you romance poetry!

Cheers.

IBK

Sent from IBK’s iPhone X Max

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

"So because USA does not collect grants from Russia it has a say against interference but because NIGERIA gets grants USA and others should interfere?"(IBK).

Exactly!

CAO.

[Ibukunolu A Babajide]

Quote the part about self respecting sovereign state. You are always clever by half. I am not surprised. It may be in your genes?

Cheers. 

IBK