Thursday, November 1, 2018

Nigeria's 2019 General Elections: Testing INEC's Ability to Abide by the Rules.


Professor Mahmood Yakubu
Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
Abuja, FCT.

Dear Professor Yakubu,

NEED FOR CONSISTENCY AND EVEN-HANDEDNESS IN APPLYING THE PROVISIONS OF THE ELECTORAL ACT AND GUIDELINES RELATING TO POLITICAL PARTY PRIMARIES AND ENSURING THAT PARTIES THAT DO NOT CONDUCT PRIMARIES TO SELECT THEIR CANDIDATES ARE NOT ALLOWED TO FIELD CANDIDATES SURREPTITIOUSLY (S)ELECTED FOR INEC ELECTIONS.
RE: PURPORTED (S)ELECTION BY THE IMO STATE CHAPTER OF THE ALL PROGRESSIVE GRAND ALLIANCE (APGA) OF A GOVERNORSHIP CANDIDATE FOR THE 2019 GUBERNATORIAL ELECTIONS.

Having observed the efforts the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) under your Chairmanship is making towards ensuring a free and fair electoral process which conforms with tenets of democratic governance; and efforts by INEC at ensuring compliance with the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended); and the various guidelines towards ensuring that the wishes of the electorate are established  -  particularly as reflected in the extra measures INEC has adopted after the Ekiti and Osun State gubernatorial elections respectively; we are sufficiently motivated to draw your attention the situation in the Imo State chapter of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), in the belief that INEC will make appropriate pronouncements and adequate arrangements to ensure that due process and compliance with relevant statutes is adhered to.

As would likely be well known to your gooodself, Section 87 of the Electoral Act explicitly provides for any candidate for any elections to be organized by INEC to emerge from a Primary Process to which INEC was duly notified and invited; which INEC monitored; and which INEC acknowledges as meeting with laid down criteria.

Under your watch, and with a view to ensure transparency, compliance with due processes and minimizing (and ultimately eliminating) anti-democratic dictatorial tendencies in Nigerian Political Parties, INEC has repeatedly cautioned political parties to ensure that they comply with laws and guidelines geared towards institutionalizing and internalizing democratic culture within the parties.

Lack of Primary elections to select gubernatorial candidate:
In furtherance of and compliance with the provisions of the said Section 87 of the Electoral Act and the extant INEC Guidelines on Political Party Primaries, following the failure of the Zamfara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to hold its Governorship Primaries before the end of the period prescribed by INEC for such purpose, INEC had duly, and rightly I must intone, informed the said Political Party, APC, that it was precluded from fielding a candidate for the Governorship elections in Zamfara State for the 2019 gubernatorial elections.

Similar to what transpired with the Zamfara State Chapter of the APC, there was no governorship primaries conducted by the Imo State Chapter of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA). To the astonishment, chagrin and protestation of other gubernatorial aspirants of APGA, the name of one of the gubernatorial aspirants in APGA was surreptitiously churned out as the ‘(s)elected candidate’. It is therefore pertinent, in view of the need to maintain consistency and even-handedness in fulfilling INEC’s role as the regulator of political party activities and unbiased umpire, for the pronouncement and declarations made by INEC over the absence of INEC observed and approved primaries for the Zamfara State APC gubernatorial position, be also made with regards to the absence of INEC observed and approved primaries for Imo State APGA gubernatorial position.
 
Motivation for Call
Deepening the democratic space by adherence to established laws and due processes, and ensuring equal and equitable treatment and access for stakeholders in the political and electioneering remains key motivational factors that influence our Firms intervention in the political process.

Sequel to the appointment of your immediate predecessor in office, Professor Attahiru Jega, we had in pursuit of our belief that extant provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 had been violated by the appointment of an individual who was not qualified to be INEC Chairman to the office of INEC Chairman, initiated processes, firstly by communication with the Office of the Senate of the Federal Republic and subsequently via litigation in suit No: FHC/L/CS/862/2010 (Ezekwesiri Eluchie Vs. President of the Federal republic & 2 Others). We were vindicated when Constitutional Amendment, which expunged the requirement for the INEC Chairman to be a registered member of a political party, was effected.  

The clear double-standards in INEC’s pronouncements regarding the lack of gubernatorial primaries Zamfara State Chapter of the APC and a similar lack of gubernatorial primaries Imo State Chapter of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) provides our Firm with one more opportunity to use the instrumentality of the law to right wrongs, ensure Justice and adherence to due process.

Call to disallow Imo State Chapter of APGA to present a candidate for the 2019 Imo State gubernatorial elections:
Dear Professor Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in furtherance of our hope that you mean well for the Nigerian electoral system and aspire to leave a legacy of propriety, uprightness and justice in the regulation of political parties and management of the electoral process, we have taken the extra effort to, in addition to presenting the similarities of the lack of gubernatorial primaries in Zamfara State APC and Imo State APGA Chapters, also allowed you a glimpse at our basic motivation for this communication.  We thus call upon your goodself, and INEC, to do the needful and right thing in the circumstances – notify the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) that in view of their not having conducted a Primary election to select their candidate for the gubernatorial elections within the period set by INEC for such elections, the party (APGA) will not be allowed to field a candidate for the 2019 Gubernatorial elections in Imo State.  

Conclusion
What we have requested of your goodself and INEC is squarely within the powers of INEC to make. In the unfortunate event that you choose not to positively adhere to our call, we shall be at liberty to explore other means available within the scope of legalities and Nigerian laws, including recourse to litigation, to ensure that the spirit and intendments of the Electoral Act are complied with and met.

Please remain assured of our high regards.

Your truly,
For: Eze Eluchie & Associates



Eze Eluchie, Esq.
Solicitor.  


Pix: INEC ChairmanProfessor Mahmood Yakubu 



Monday, October 22, 2018

The Blood of Biafrans Inc.: Using the Blood of Her Martyrs as a Tool to Fleece a People.


by Eze Eluchie,

Over half a century after the formal end of the Nigeria-Biafra Civil War (the Biafra Genocide) during which over 2 million people, mostly of the Igbo nation were killed, the term ‘Biafra’, following from the collective devastation, losses suffered in human and material developmental terms, retains deep emotional connotations to the Igbo peoples of South Eastern Nigeria.

Palpable and sustained acts of exclusion, deprivation and deliberate physical underdevelopment of the region by the central government in the Nigerian federation has served to push the ordinarily resilient and resourceful Igbo youth to the cozy embrace of smart alecs who are ever willing to, without any genuine thoughts for the peoples welfare or ‘liberation’ beyond individual self-aggrandizement, feast on the sense of ‘marginalization’ to reap bountiful pecuniary and egoistic harvests.

Smart Alecs:
With tens of millions of energetic and creative youths, disillusioned with the inequitable and unjust Nigerian system to feast upon, it did not take too long for characters that, to all intents and purposes are no different from con-artists, to cash in for the kill – to seek to enrich themselves, using the emotions and pains suffered and felt by the peoples of South Eastern Nigeria during the Biafra Genocide as bait.

Oddly enough, when the leadership of these supposedly ‘Biafra actualization’ organizations are confronted to provide basic specifics of their agitation, such as (i) What really is the territorial area of the proposed ‘Biafra’?; (ii) Will the proposed ‘Biafra’ be a secular, religious or ethnic entity?; (iii) What efforts are being made to ensure genuine grassroots ownership of the agitation process?; the response is often combative accusations of ‘sabotage’. What the leadership of these organizations have in abundance is: smart ways to raise easy cash from the millions who are endeared to the concept of Biafra, the belief in freedoms, liberty and egalitarian spirit – ideals quite distant from the Nigeria of today.

Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB)
Firstly, an amorphous organization, the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) created by a supposedly India-trained Lawyer, Ralph Uwazuruike, comes on board - without any discernible plan or chart towards ‘actualizing’ its purpose. With unemployment rates in the 80% to 85% range and the streets of urban and rural communities in the South East region clogged with illions of youths, “stay-at-home” orders and rallies to ‘actualize the State of Biafra’ clearly proved a very popular tool for mobilization – MASSOB wasted no time in honing in on this. Under Uwazuruike’s ‘leadership’, MASSOB unleashed such scams products as: (1) the sales of Biafra International Travel Passports; (2) production and sale of Biafra currencies; (3) production and sale of Republic of Biafra Identity Cards; amongst other paraphernalia. Despite raking in millions of Dollars from the sale of the above items, the leadership of Uwazuruike’s ASSSOB failed to tell their hapless followers that they (the MASSOB leadership) traversed the globe in their Nigeria International Travel Passports, retained truck loads of Nigeria’s currency, the Naira, with which they acquired massive estates and lived very luxurious lifestyles above the dreams of millions of their followers; and had valid Nigerian Identity Cards with which they navigated various bureaucratic hurdles of existence in Nigeria.

One major expository fraud of the Uwazuruike MASSOB was when they pranked the now late war-time leader of the Biafra Republic, Ikemba Odimegwu Ojukwu, to visit Washington DC., USA, to ‘open’ the Biafra House’ in the United States. Upon his arrival in the United States, Ikemba Ojukwu was led to a multi-storey office complex located at No. 1717 K Street, Suite 600, Washington DC 20036, USA., where a ‘ribbon cutting’ ceremony was lavishly celebrated, with the Rising Sun Biafra Flag majestically swaying with the winds atop a flag post on the premises. As lavish and emotional prayers were said at the venue, Ojukwu was palpably close to tears, believing that he was in the midst of persons who had any iota of genuineness and integrity. Alas, at the end of the events, as the Ikemba Ojukwu entourage were still a few blocks away from the ‘Biafra House’, the flag Ojukwu had heroically saluted, was lowered (and has never been raised till this date) – the MASSOB folks, whilst fooling the late Biafran leader that they had acquired a building, had merely paid per the hour on a premises that had conference and virtual office facilities for hire. Cold as Death. If they could do this to Ikemba Odiegwu Ojukwu, these characters

Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB)
Piqued at not being able to access what he deemed a commensurate part of the loot MASSOB had succeeded in fleecing their membership and believers in the ‘Biafra cause’, a young, then unemployed loquacious charismatic youth, Nnamdi Kanu, who had manned MASSOB’s efforts at enlarging their constituents via use of online social media facilities opted to break out and create a separate outfit – the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, with the Radio Biafra London (RBL) as its main thrust.

Coasting on the wings of the immense reach of RBL’s internet-based mediu, the inability of most of its listenership to discern between empty boasts laced with outright lies and spiced with abusive vomits on the one hand, and practicality and reality on the other, IPOB’s popularity amongst Igbo youths exponentially soared. Mazi Kanu was able to amass a cult-like followership for himself within a period of less than 2 years. Cashing in on the Kanu-mania, plots to fleece the hapless youths disenchanted with the Nigerian situation were immediately rolled out. Such fairy tale ideas as (a) the need for arms purchases for a ‘Biafra guerrilla force; (b) the need to purchase radio transmitting equipment to rival those of the British BBC; (c) the need to raise and sustain a Biafra Secret Service and other bureaucratic establishments; amongst others fables, as spurious as they are and sound, proved to be money-spinning tales for the IPOB leader.
 
Donations rolled in, in the millions of Dollars from all over the world, as some Igbo’s who fell for the scam had genuinely thought that a ‘saviour had come’ – some actually equated Mazi Kanu to the Jewish exodus inspiration and leader, Moses.

Using its propaganda outlet, the Radio Biafra London, ludicrous stories were bandied about of support for IPOB and ‘Biafra independence’ from such world leaders as Donald Trump, Benjamin Natenyahu, Angela Merkel and so on. News was likewise disseminated that several international organizations such as the United Nations, the Africa Union, and the West African regional body, ECOWAS, had already reserved space for the ‘Biafra Flag’ and a delegation from IPOB in their meetings. These lies, ridiculous and laughable as they were, proved infectious. Repeated and garnished with rumours, the lies attained a life of their own and further embellished the invisibility and deity status of the IPOB leader.

As the dates for the commencement of ‘guerrilla warfare’ and the BBC-like broadcasts passed and became elusive, the major donors towards the IPOB cause, who were in real terms, victims of a sophisticated scam, began to demand for refunds. It was at the stage that the Federal Government effected the arrest of Mazi Kanu. The arrest of Nnamdi Kanu, inadvertently proved to be the IPOB leaders saving grace from the clutches of those who he had fleeced of huge sums.

Inept State Interventions.
As with the case of MASSOBs Uwazuruike, the arrest by State authorities, prolonged extra-judicial detentions, failure to abide by due process and the rule of law in prosecuting suspects and palpable partiality in the treatment of persons merely congregating in pursuit of the universally enshrined and accepted right to self-actualization on the one hand and extremist Islamist terrorists on the other (with the former unfortunately harshly maltreated whilst the later are accorded red carpet-like papering by Nigeria State operators), swiftly and justifiably, transformed detainees associated with the clamour for Biafra (no matter how uncoordinated and farfetched such clamour is) to super-hero status in the perception of most Igbo’s.

Unprofessional and grotesque response by Nigeria State security and military operatives which led to more extra-judicial killings, maiming and destruction of properties in diverse locations in Igbo land, such as in Aba, Owerri, Onitsha and elsewhere, served to galvanize and strengthen support for what is supposed to be ‘the Biafra cause’. This inadvertently or indirectly, made characters who ordinarily, after extracting huge financial benefits to themselves, would have simply faded with the winds, continue to remain in circulation, albeit with less sway.

Post-incarceration period.
In an odd twist of faith, after the originators of the twin identified organizations which were able to commercialize the concept of Biafra for self aggrandizement have had a prolonged encounter in the custody of the Nigerian government and its notoriously sleazy approach at addressing issues, the said originators seemingly capitulate and adopt stance that were hitherto at variance with the ideals they had previously projected and expressed a willingness to ‘pay the ultimate price’ for. In the case of Ralph Uwazuruike, soon after his prolonged ‘incarceration’, he came out a “new person”, willing to enter into alliance with such characters as the Chief security Officer and henchman to Nigeria’s brutal dictator, General Sani Abacha, Major Al-Mustapha, and profess lines and positions that were clearly at variance with the views of the an overwhelming majority of Igbo’s.

In the case of Mazi Kanu, after an absence of several months from public glare, when all manners of theories were ventilated on how the Nigerian State might have eliminated the once loquacious IPOB leader, Kanu, in a most suspect manner deftly reappeared in public supposedly via a radio broadcast on his RBL. Ironically, in the broadcast supposedly made by Mazi Kanu’s, listeners were baffled that the IPOB leader who appeared incapable of making any sentence without raining abuses and ethno-religious invectives on Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, appeared quite civil and respectful in his statements, as though very concerned not to hurt President Buhari. Rather Mazi Kanu opted to, against the widespread accepted desire of the Igbo peoples to use the democratic opportunities created by the forthcoming general elections to make their views known on the direction of Nigeria, urged the members of his IPOB (who are all Igbo’s) to boycott the 209 general elections – a boycott that will strengthen the existing status quo in Nigeria.

Going forward:
Like MASSOBs Uwazuruike before him, IPOBs Kanu is clearly, with his continuing opting to take positions at variance with the generality of the Igbo nation since his interaction with the Nigerian State, on a path that will consign him to the side lines as the ever pragmatic Igbo’s continue in their legitimate quest for self-actualization, self-determination and general wellbeing within a restructured and renegotiated Nigeria.

Vigilance is urged, to ensure that going forward, the victims and descendants of victims of the Biafra Genocide, will not allow opportunists to exploit their grief and lack of closure for pecuniary gains.  

There are countless peoples of the South East region and others interested in the cause of Justice, Accountability for international cries, Ensuring Closure over past acts of ass atrocities, Equality, Self-determination and Self-actualization, who are assiduously working towards the lofty goals itemized above – these peoples, comprised of ordinary folks, activists, professionals and peoples from all works of life, are conscious of the fact that there are established diverse procedures and protocols to attain desired quests, and will continue on these paths till desired goals are attained. The immediate victims and descendants of victims of the Biafra genocide should thus be at liberty to engage and interrogate future agitations to ascertain the genuineness and goodfaith of such quests – and not merely be used, fleeced and duped, as has thus far been the case.

The era for those who feast on the blood of martyrs, trampling on the graves of the victims of a most atrocious episode in our history, the Biafra Genocide, for pecuniary gains, must not be allowed to continue. 


Picturea: {Pix 1} MASSOB leader, Ralph Uwazuruike, alongside now deceased war-time leader of the Biafra Republic, Ikemba Odimegwu Ojukwu at the ‘opening of ‘Biafra House’ in Washington DC; {Pix 2} IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, receiving obeisance from his members.
  


Thursday, September 13, 2018

Chinese Loans to Nigeria: Need to ascertain the validity of loans supposedly advanced to the Federal Republic of Nigeria by the Peoples Republic of China.


by Eze Eluchie,


Your Excellency, President Xi Jinping,
The General Secretary of the Communist Party of China
c/o Embassy of China to Nigeria
Abuja.

Dear Sir,

CHINESE LOANS TO NIGERIA: NEED TO ASCERTAIN THE VALIDITY OF LOANS SUPPOSEDLY ADVANCED TO THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA BY THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA.

Firstly, kindly accept our heartfelt congratulations on the firm and masterly manner you have steered the affairs of your country, leading her to enviable heights amongst nations. Your unique achievements which have now served to position The People’s Republic as a global leader and lead advocate for Free Trade, International Commerce, shared prosperity and multilateralism, particularly in the face of increasing introspective stance of the United States, is most commendable.

Likewise, your leadership role in striving to create alternate structures for global commerce and international engagement, and increasing financial, military and technical resources available to diverse entities and countries across the world, increasingly solidifies China’s position as a rising constant in global affairs.

It is with regards to the item mentioned in the preceding paragraph, “making financial.....resources available to diverse entities and countries”, with particular reference to financial assistance and loans purportedly accorded the Federal Republic of Nigeria, that we now have cause to engage in this correspondence with your Office.  

There has been a noticeable spike in the reports and numbers of Loans and financial facilities advanced from your Government and Chinese financial institutions, ostensibly to the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The loans and Financial facilities announced to have been accorded the current Muhammadu Buhari-led government in the course of the past three years has been unprecedented in the annals of Nigeria’s history and probably attaining unmanageable proportions, leading to serious concerns being raised in informed circles in Nigeria regarding the utility, authenticity and legal status of such loans and facilities.

As Your Excellency may well be aware, or have been informed by the Embassy of China in Nigeria, there are peculiar Constitutional and administrative prerequisites which serve to accord validity and legality to and authenticate any agreements (inclusive of agreements according Nigeria international loans and financial facilities) entered into (or purported to have been entered into) on behalf of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. When such prerequisites are absent, agreements purported to have been entered into with the Federal Republic of Nigeria are non-committal and not worth the paper they are written on.

I will like to bring to your notice the fact that Section 12 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), clearly stipulates that for any treaty entered into by officials of the Nigerian State to be valid and obligate the Nigerian state, such treaty must be ratified and domesticated by Nigeria’s National Assembly. Sections 80 – 83 of the same Constitution also outlaws any withdrawal of funds from Nigeria’s national treasury without prior authorization from the national Assembly – inclusive of repayments for and servicing of financial facilities earlier advanced..

A combination of the twin provisions of the Nigerian Constitution highlighted above absolves the Government and peoples of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from obligations and liabilities of whatsoever treaties entered into by any individual or entities whatsoever (inclusive of any present occupant of the Office of President of the Federal Republic), purporting to act for the Nigerian State. The Federal Republic of Nigeria cannot be held liable or obligated for Loans and or financial facilities and any other commitments or covenants purportedly entered into on Nigeria’s behalf which said agreements/treaties were not ratified and domesticated by the Nigerian National Assembly.

The caveats being raised here are particularly germane when the increasing agitation for holistic restructuring and renegotiation of Nigeria and the skewed and opaque manner with which the loans and financial facilities sourced from The Peoples Republic are deployed, are factored in. 

Let it be clearly pointed out at this juncture that this is not a call to cease all bilateral relationships and developmental collaborations and exchanges with the Federal Republic of Nigeria, rather it is a call for increased diligence and adherence to due processes towards ensuring that in reality when agreements are intended to be entered into with the Federal Republic, it is indeed the Federal Republic that is a party in such agreement and not merely some smart alecs (in both China and Nigeria) who are lining their pockets whilst purporting to enter into non-existent, non-binding bogus loan agreements and financial dealings. With knowledge of your governments swift and resolute stance against corruption by officials, we have no doubt that issues raised here will be accorded the urgent attention they deserve.

Let it also not be mistaken that this correspondence, in any way, serves to encourage disinterest in or does not welcome Chinese investments in Nigeria and across Africa in line with the noise orchestrated by some reactionary forces who have themselves bled Nigeria and the African continent dry for quite awhile – all investment which profit the domestic population are welcome.

Remain assured of our high regards.
For: Alert Citizenry.


Eze Eluchie, Esq.


.

Picture: The Nigerian and Chinese Presidents, Muhammadu Buhari and President Xi Jinping.