The great scholar, Prof. Falola, I greet you sir. So do all pan-Africanists worldwide.
Your place is assured in time and space when Africa's final glory story is told or chronicled after the present long night.
As an erudite intellectual, you continue to boost/rekindle our belief and hope in Pan-Africanism as the ideology of the black race for its
rapid socio-economic development and unity, to defeat destructively fanatical ethno-religious hatred, divisions and wars.
I am an Isoko (Niger Delta) and not from Nigeria's Southeast but i fully agree with your patriotic recognition of the mass murder(s) of the
Igbo before and during the country's civil war.
The question I have for S.Kadiri, Abdulkadir Bolaji Abdulkadir PhD and their ilk is this: What if the inept weak then President G.Jonathan
had called for the extra-judicial killing of ballot snatchers? Would you not have raised the alarm?
Let's stand for propriety and the truth at all times in the interest of our people.
The two troublesome corrupt parties (APC and PDP) and their presidential candidates that some of you worship today and are ready to
forsake their friends as well as die and kill for, will surely pass away but Nigeria and Africa will remain.
ETO
--------------------------------------------
On Wed, 2/20/19, Toyin Falola <
toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - No Killing: Lives are Sacrosanct
To: "
usaafric...@googlegroups.com" <
usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, February 20, 2019, 1:58 PM
Dear Professor Ashafa:
I don’t think that you and I
should endorse this line of thinking that there is a
constitutional justification for the statement by President
Buhari that a ballot snatcher should be killed. Even his
political
ally, like Tinubu, said Buhari did not make such a
statement although it is document on television. It is a
dangerous slope that we do not want as a country, a
community and people. You cannot say that the police and
army should kill someone because of ballot
box snatching. That it qualifies as an insurrection, in the
silly legalistic argument below, is stretching imagination
back to the primitive age.
The statements credited to the
governor of Kaduna where you live in terms of body bags, if
correct, in a decent society, rises to the level of
impeachment. If the governor of the State of Texas where I
live
says the same thing, he is gone within 24 hours.
Our country has witnessed so much
violence, including the massive killing of innocent Igbo
people in the 1960s, that you, I, and others must not say
anything, think anything, justify anything that a single
Nigeria should lose his life. If people really want to
kill, they should kill all the politicians and close all the
prisons, and you will see the end of Boko Haram!
No killing, please.
Best
Moderator
Toyin
Falola
Department
of History
The
University of Texas at Austin
104
Inner Campus Drive
Austin,
TX 78712-0220
USA
512
475 7224
512
475 7222 (fax)
http://sites.utexas.edu/yoruba-studies-review/
http://www.toyinfalola.com
http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa
http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs
http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
From: dialogue
<
usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of
Ashafa Abdullahi <
abas...@gmail.com>
Reply-To: dialogue
<
usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, February 20, 2019 at 6:47 AM
To: dialogue
<
usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - PRESS
STATEMENT BUHARI’S GAFFE ON BALLOT BOX SNATCHING: CISLAC
DEMANDS IMMEDIATE RETRACTION
The Constitutionality of
President Buhari's Declaration:
By Abdulkadir Bolaji
Abdulkadir PhD
There has been criticisms,
comments and tensions since d declaration of the President,
warning ballot box snatchers with a threat to
life.
I have decided to look at
this from constitutional stand point because the
constitution remains the Supreme law of the land and as
such, all other laws including the electoral law are
secondary to the constitution.
Some have argued that the
declaration by the president is a threat to life and as such
a violation of the right to life guaranteed in section 33 of
the constitution.
It should be noted that no
right is absolute. Every right is a privilege because the
constitution itself has stipulated circumstances when a
person could not alleged a violation of his or her
rights.
While it is true that the
electoral law has stipulated punishments for electoral
malpractices, this stipulations cannot overuse the express
exceptions stipulated in section 33 of the constitution. In
fact, depending on the nature of the
case, the exceptions in section 33 supersedes the provision
of the electoral law.
The fundamental question
now is whether ballot box snatching falls under the umbrella
of exceptions mentioned in section 33 of the constitution?
There are three exceptions stipulated in section 33 when the
right to life could be justifiably
violated. They are:
1. For d defence of any
person from unlawful violence or defense of property
2. In order to effect a
lawful arrest or to prevent the escape of a person lawfully
detained
3. For the purpose of
suppressing a riot, insurrection or mutiny
Looking at the above
exceptions, it is very clear that the life of a ballot box
snatchers could be lawfully violated under paragraph 2 and 3
above.
First, snatching of a
ballot is an offence under the electoral law. Thus, a ballot
box snatcher is exposing his life to risk because by
paragrahy 2 above, a security agent is under duty to prevent
snatching of ballot box and in the process
of arresting an offender in that case, a snatcher may be
killed without violating the right to life
Also, by paragraph 3
above, snatching of ballot box could amount to an act of
insurrection. An act of Insurrection includes, revolt,
uprising, disobedience to express authority and much more.
Therefore, snatching of ballot box is an act
of uprising capable of truncating our nascent
democracy
In conclusion, the
declaration by the president is just a warning telling
Nigerians that your right to life could justifiably be
inflicted within the framework of the Nigerian
Constitution?
Lastly, my questions to u
are:
Do u have intention of
snatching a ballot box? If no, why worrying?
Do u have intention of
snatching a ballot box? If yes, be worried.
On Wed, Feb 20, 2019,
02:02 Salimonu Kadiri <
ogunl...@hotmail.com
wrote:
Auwal
Musa,
The problem with
us, Nigerians, is that when we want to be mischievous, we
pretend to have only an eye which can see only in one
direction. You have cited Section 128 of the electoral Act
but
what of Section 32 (2) (a-c) of the Constitution of
Nigeria. Here it is : A person shall not be
regarded as having been deprived of his/her life in
contravention of this section, if he/she dies as a result of
the use, to such extent and in such circumstances as are
permitted by law, of such force as is reasonably
necessary. (a) For the defence
of any person from unlawful violence or for the defence of
property. (b) In order to effect a lawful arrest or to
prevent the escape of a person lawfully detained. (c) For
the purpose of suppressing a riot, insurrection or
mutiny. In view of the above-cited
part of the Nigerian Constitution, ballot box snatchers are
armed in order to execute their nefarious actions and as
such should be dealt with according to Section 32 (2)(a-c)
of the Constitution which in law is superior to the
Electoral Act. Therefore, CISLAC
should apologise to Buhari for attributing his adherence to
the Constitution as Gaffe.
I suspect that
CISLAC is organising ballot box snatching on election day
which is why they are worried that ballot box snatchers
would be shot on sight as ordered by the President. The
simple
logic is, if you don't want to be shot, don't
snatch ballot box and snatch ballot box and be shot. If I am
not a shy person, I would have advised Nigeria's
shit-hole liberals that when next armed robbers come to
visit them, they should throw banana to repel
them.
S.
Kadiri
Från:
usaafric...@googlegroups.com
<
usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
för Auwal Musa <
rafsanj...@gmail.com>
Skickat: den 19 februari 2019 16:50
Till: Onyekachi Eke; Abubakar Jimoh;
rafsa...@cislacnigeria.net
Ämne: USA Africa Dialogue Series - PRESS STATEMENT
BUHARI’S GAFFE ON BALLOT BOX SNATCHING: CISLAC DEMANDS
IMMEDIATE RETRACTION
PRESS
STATEMENT
BUHARI’S GAFFE ON BALLOT BOX
SNATCHING: CISLAC DEMANDS IMMEDIATE
RETRACTION.
The Civil
Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) expresses shock
and worry at the recent undemocratic and ill-thought
response by President Muhammadu Buhari, which has the
potential of emboldening
trigger-happy security agents to take the law into their
hands.
We are
surprised at such statement that could be a ‘potential
execution order’ from the President, not minding the
present uncertainty that dominates the tension-soaked
political atmosphere in
the country.
We are
concerned that the order, if not retracted, has the
potential of breeding extra judicial killings, civil
disobedience or disrupt law and order and gross killing of
innocent Nigerians who
would be taking part in the rescheduled February
23rd, 2019 polls.
While we work
to uphold democracy and good governance in the country, we
are at liberty to remind the President that the primary
purpose of government is to promote, protect and secure
human rights and fundamental freedom as contained in the
Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action.
We must
reiterate the importance of Right to Life as a fundamental
part of human rights. Citizens must be alive to pursue its
justiciability.
We are
not unaware that Section 128 of the Electoral Act states
that “any person who at an election acts
or incites others to act in
a disorderly manner commits an offence and is liable on
conviction to a maximum fine of N500,000.00 or imprisonment
for a term of 12 months or both” and
specifically states that anyone who destroys, or snatches
election material is liable to
imprisonment for 24 months. Nowhere is capital punishment
prescribed as a penalty for any electoral offence in
Nigeria.
With the
elections having been postponed by a week, to allow the
Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) to sort out
logistics and other issues it claimed made them not go ahead
with the elections
as scheduled for February 16, 2019, we expect nothing but
statesman-like attitude from the President, with sincere
commitment to ensure the process is free, fair, credible and
non-violent. The statement was indeed un-presidential and
not good for the evolution
of our peaceful democratic process.
We also
recall that the Executive Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam
Nasiru El-Rufai, had in a statement, recently threatened
international observers who ‘interfere’ with the 2019
elections with
“death and bagging them in body bags.” This shows a
scant respect for human rights. Such utterances, actions and
comments are unfortunate, particularly coming from those
considered to be statesmen. Despite the extra-judicial
killings pervading the space in
the build up to the elections, CISLAC strongly believes
that the inflammatory statements coming from political gate
keepers can truncate our fragile democracy.
In
compliance with the directives from Mr. President, the
Nigerian Army had issued a statement vowing to obey the
directives of the president. Such matching order to
the military to deal ruthlessly
with those attempting to disrupt the polls is jungle
justice and can truncate our already challenged democratic
process and thereby set a bad precedent.
CISLAC,
therefore, calls on security agencies to respect the rule of
law and not take laws into their hands as they will take
responsibility for any action.
To add to
this, every known law in our democratic norms does not
permit the armed forces anywhere near the parameters of the
polling units / points. In fact, armed bearing police
officers are not
allowed any where close to the poll. It is therefore an
anomaly for any security agent to comply with any illegal
directive.
We must
remind security agencies that such directive is not bigger
than the oath to protect and defend the citizens of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria. Global security norms have
moved from regime
protection to human security. It is therefore imperative
for the President to immediately retract, withdraw and
apologize to Nigerians for such statement.
CISLAC
remains committed in supporting a peaceful and non-violent
election. commitment to a stable democracy and
democratic process has reinforced our support to the
electoral body in conducting
a free, fair and credible election.
We urge
Nigerians to come out en masse to exercise their civic
responsibility in a peaceful and non-violent manner.
Auwal Ibrahim Musa
(Rafsanjani)
Executive Director
--
Auwal
Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani)
Executive
Director
Civil
Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC)
Head
of Transparency International (Nigeria)
Amnesty
International (Nigeria)Board Chairman
No.
16, House 3, P.O.W. Mafemi Crescent, Off Solomon Lar
way,
Utako
District, Abuja-Nigeria.
Website:
www.cislacnigeria.net
Email:
rafsa...@cislacnigeria.net,
rafsanj...@gmail.com,
rafsanj...@aol.com,
cis...@cislacnigeria.net,
auwal.ra...@amnesty.org.ng
GSM:
+234-8033844646,
+234-8052370333
Global
Office:230
Park Avenue 3rd
floor West Spaces Helmsley Building
Between
Lexington& Vanderbilt New York NY10169
USA
.Cellphone
:+1202651142
UK
Cellphone:
+447983698981
CISLAC
HAS UN ECOSOC CONSULTATIVE STATUS
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