Any alternatives to gas generated power?

As we struggle towards the vision of 6000 megawatts of power for 140 million people by the end of 2009, (South Africa produces more than 43,000 megawatts of electricity for a third of our population), a few weeks ago we lost over 700 megawatts of power due to disruption in gas supplies.

The importance of gas to the implementation of our power strategy is not in debate and neither is the recent news about the progress being made with our Gas Master Plan even though it focused only briefly on plans to make Nigeria the world’s second largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) producer after Qatar by 2011. Most of the article in question, published in Business Day online on March 24 2009, focused on the benefits to our power plans and all the power stations expected to spring up along the route of the gas transmission lines.

However, what should be in debate is how long we intend to ignore the possibility of using other sources of energy. Our gas problems are not going to be solved in the near future, especially with the oil producers’ reluctance to stop flaring and the extremely lucrative export market for gas. If our gas problems are not solved, then most likely our power problems will not be solved either. So what should we be doing?
We should be seriously considering alternative energy sources to address climate change and working on updating the 2003 National Energy Policy (NEP).We should also be figuring out how to make money from renewable energy or energy conservation either through carbon credits or other devices. This is what is happening everywhere else in the world and just like we thought we were immune to the global economic recession, we probably think we are immune to climate change and declining world oil reserves.

As usual policy and regulation are in abundance; apart from the 2003 NEP we also have a Renewable Energy Master Plan (2005), a Renewable Energy Action Plan (2006) and the Renewable Energy Policy (2006). We have several energy and environmental agencies that should be concerned with driving policy and plans on renewable energy, one because it is a cleaner source of energy and will do less harm to our environment and two because we should not be entirely dependent on fossil fuel for energy. However we have little to show for it.

Germany, a country not known for its sunshine, is in the forefront of solar energy generation, mainly through the use of legislation. A few years ago the German government passed the Renewable Energy Act to boost the switch to renewable energy sources. The renewable energy sector was aided especially by the provison that required businesses to buy energy generated from renewable sources first before buying energy from non-renewable sources. People who produce energy in their own homes have a guarantee by the government that they can sell their 'product' at fixed prices for a period of 20 years. As if that was not enough, last year, the German town of Marburg made history by becoming the first city in Germany to require solar power for newly built or renovated buildings. The aim is to encourage the use of solar thermal systems to displace the use of non-renewable energy sources for heating.

According to research, Nigeria has an annual average daily sunshine of 6.25 hours, and a feasibility study carried out in 2004 found out that on solar energy is the most efficient and economical way to electrify villages in this region. Indeed, solar photovoltaic technologies are allegedly currently being used for small-scale power supply in some rural electrification programs of some States of the federation. So my question is: must our power generation plans be solely hinged on hydrocarbons? Can the Ministry of Power say ‘I am going to diversify our power generation so that we are not 100% dependent on gas’, or does this have to be part of the nation’s energy policy?

To start, the NEP definitely acknowledges that we should work on generating more electricity through renewable sources of energy ‘in order to conserve our fossil fuels’. However it does not say what agency or organisation should be responsible for driving this development of alternative energy sources. Unfortunately, the eighty nine paged policy document does not set out clearly what agency or agencies are responsible for driving or implementing the policy. The mandate of the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN), established in 1988, is for the strategic planning and co-ordination of national policies in the field of Energy and does not include generating and distributing energy, so we find a convenient vacuum which allows everyone to abdicate responsibility.

A major problem, the curse of oil, is that it is just easier to rely on oil and gas for energy and we prefer not to plan for the future or think of alternatives to the way we live. Britain is talking about profound changes to the way they build - with ‘new homes built of mud or straw’ as one vision of the future to futher the Government's declared quest for zero carbon homes by 2016. Even America, notorious for energy inefficiencies and constantly derided for their fuel guzzling cars, recently passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) with Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Provisions to provide tax incentives and over $16B to support renewable energy programs.

If the mandate of our Ministry of Power is to simply ‘generate electricity’ as opposed to ‘generate electricity through the use of hydrocarbons’, then we need a power plan that takes into consideration alternatives which do not require gas. There are also simple energy policy changes to be introduced such as banning 60 to 100watt bulbs in favour of 20 to 40 watt bulbs to save energy and providing incentives to new buildings which are built to conserve energy. It is not ‘backwardness’ that resulted in the mud huts and beautiful works of mud based architecture all around West Africa – these structures are built for our hot climate to ensure insulation against the heat. Now, on the altar of sophistication and progress we build with expensive cement and concrete and all our houses, offices, hotels, schools have to be powered with air conditioners and fans. Ironically, in a country where energy is so sorely lacking, we are inefficient and wasteful with the little we have and no one but the cement and generator companies are benefitting from this.

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A Tribute to Readers: For and Against

Personally, there is no better accolade for me as a writer than readers who not only spend their time reading what I write but who also take time to respond and share their views. So many people from within and outside Nigeria have written about one Pedestrian Lawyer article or another and after six months of writing this column, I have no better way of saying thanks to the readers who make it worth while than giving up the page to some of their thoughts, albeit with a little editing.

RE: CONSTITUTIONALLY GUARANTEED DISCRIMINATION (for)

“It is quite true and an undisputable fact that our legislators at state and national level have displayed all kinds of reluctance towards legislative proposals that have to do with discrimination against women and women empowerment. Unfortunately, the judiciary and the law enforcement agents have not displayed enough commitment to the existing sketchy laws for protection of women. We hear cases of rape, child prostitution, and young girls forced into marriage and most times the culprits of these inhuman crimes are found freely walking our streets with the clear zeal to commit more of such offences.

It is very painful, the way and manner most men, and some women, due to their cultural beliefs, react to write-ups on protection of the rights of women such as yours. You hear things like: ‘These women have started again’, ‘these women should better go back to the kitchen where they belong’, ‘these women think they can be equal to men’, ‘they better stay where God placed them’. Misconceptions such as these are made by even people who are supposed to know better. Imagine in a family where the parents were faced with financial challenges and had to decide to withdraw some of the children from school. The first thing the head of the family (father) said was that all the girls would remain at home while the boys, as the future bread-winners of the family, would continue. This is despite the fact that the girls are doing better in their academics than their brothers. I think our legislators and people in government think this way too.

Finally, I want to assure you that all the campaign, protest and write-ups on the protection of the right of women such as yours will not go down the drain. It will impact on the way we think. Several people and families have witnessed one type of disaster or the other due to the failure to uphold the rights of their womenfolk; and some have changed for good.”
Umar Abubakar


“A friend and I read your article "Constitutionally Guaranteed Discrimination" last Tuesday in This Day. I am an American male and she is a Nigerian female. We both found the content of the article disturbing although viewing it from different perspectives. The callousness and smug hypocrisy of bureaucrats in Nigeria is scary. For a Nigerian male in power to dismiss the problem because they say it doesn't exist indicates that the issue of discrimination and abuse will not be solved easily or soon. We both applaud your exposure of these officials and beg you to continue to publicize the issue until it is brought under control.”
Ag & Ti

Thanks Umar, Ag & Ti for sharing your thoughts, please do everything in your personal lives to address whatever wrongs you can against women, children and all the disempowered.

RE: CONSTITUTIONALLY GUARANTEED DISCRIMINATION (against)
“Dear Ayisha,I read your article in today’s Thisday newspaper about section 26 of the 1999 Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria. You said it is discriminatory against women. I totally disagree with you.
Sometimes these laws are made for specific reasons and there is nothing inequitable about it.For example, in the UK, If an unmarried British woman gives birth to a child and the Father is Not British the Child born has British citizenship but if an unmarried British Man has a child from a woman who is not British the child does not have British citizenship.
Also, a British man cannot simply apply for a British passport without the consent of the British Mother, the passport officials will want to verify the documents of the British mother before issuing the passport.
Should the British men start writing that the laws are biased?” Abraham Zika

Dear Abraham, I think you’ve answered your own question. Isn’t it possible that this particular protection for women has been granted to address a situation where women are historically disadvantaged?

RE: ARE OUR LEGISLATOR’S SERIOUS? (for)
“Good day Ayisha,
I find your editorial as to whether our Legislature are serious very interesting, although I must confess I have always overlooked your column until two weeks ago and I regretted that because against my erroneous presumption I find them very concise. “Them” because a review of your past write-up reveals consistency. Please keep this up. I will like to ask you if there is something within the sphere of law that an ordinary citizen like myself can do to challenge the irresponsible decision of our Legislature. It is one thing for you to write about it and it is another for us to read it but it is altogether a different thing to take it up with them, I believe it is our duty as citizens to demand good governance from our leaders and the lack of it is due to our individual selfish desires, in some countries there would have been a peaceful protest against such a sabotage on our future, union leaders and workers from different field would have marched to the street - the recent AIG bonus decision in the US is a good example- to challenge them. But while selfish ambitions pervade the society those of us not yet infected and still sober can pursue the mission of injecting some sanity into our society, but how do we go about it without violating the law?

Personally I am getting tired of just reading about the atrocities of our leaders and doing nothing and I wish the likes of Gani Fawehinmi still have health on their side-although the old man has paid his dues and whether we like it or not we owe him and his ilk a lot – he would at least know how to go about it within the confines of the law, since any unlawful approach to correcting the Legislature would only exacerbate the situation. That I am a graduate and a working class citizen of this country with few months to three decade of existence and I know nothing about our basic law tells you a lot about our woes in this country. But for how long shall we continue to lament our woes? I think it is time for us to raise our voice and cry out against bad governance until every one gets caught in the frenzy of demand for good governance otherwise these avarice-ridden politician turn Legislature will not only destroy our future but when they have finished they will start selling us into slavery once again, but come to think of it Ayisha are we not indirectly their slaves already? We toil till we become worn out, pay our tax all along and what do we get in return? Please Ayisha let me know if there is anything that can be done.
John Onibiyo

Thanks John. Apart from being happy with your response, you made me feel a bit sad that all I am doing is ‘writing’…but that is my method for trying to precipitate change, to share and try to precipitate outrage or action. Please act.
PS not surprisingly, there were no contributions ‘against’ the article ‘Are our legislators’ serious?’

Published April 14 2009

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Electoral Reforms: are the problems legal or social?

As usual the more we hear the less we understand. Apart from the ongoing intrigue in the power sector, nowhere is this statement more apt than with the proposed electoral reforms. In the last couple of weeks the media has been rife with news about the Uwais Report. As the story unfolded, we learnt that in addition to the Uwais Electoral Reform Committee (ERC) set up in 2007 to propose ways for credible elections, there was a nine-member Shettima Mustapha Committee appointed to draft the Government’s White Paper* on the report. And then, the White Paper was reviewed by the three-man Michael Aondoakaa Review Committee. I remember thinking there were one too many cooks with ladles in the broth and that all these reports on reports and reviews on reports is one of the reasons it has taken so long to hear the recommendations on electoral reform and will be the same reason why most of the substance will be lost in translation. Unsurprisingly, the general consensus (apart from those in PDP-land where independent thinking is frowned upon) is that most of the recommendations which would bring about the critical positive change to the electoral system have been dropped in favour of other recommendations.

The one jettisoned recommendation which has precipitated the harshest criticism is the recommendation that the Chairman of INEC be appointed by the Nigerian Judicial Council (NJC). At the first briefing on the issue, the reason for the rejection of this recommendation was “to avoid a situation where the President loses ‘control’ over the electoral commission”. Isn’t that conflicting? Why should the President who might himself be up for re-election want to be able to control the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Committee?

In another briefing, the Minister of Information provided another reason for the reluctance to give up control of the appointment of the executives of INEC: to avoid undermining the principle of the separation of powers by asking the judiciary (NJC) to perform a function of the executive (making executive appointments). Technically, the Chairman of INEC’s role is an executive role and it makes sense that the reporting lines are to the chief executive of the country but the sensitivity of the role and Nigeria’s track record where election fraud is concerned, demands some independence from this same executive. Besides, the separation of powers excuse is weak because there are few if any political structures which adhere to a strict separation of powers, not even in the United States where their Constitution is largely influenced by the writings of Montesquieu one of the foremost supporters of the doctrine. Britain, our birth mother, prides itself in its unwritten Constitution where there is actually little separation between the arms of government and their elections have not seemed to suffer for this.

According to Iwu in a lecture delivered at NIPPS, Kuru a few weeks ago, reforms on the electoral process in Nigeria have been ongoing such as the establishment of the Independent National Electoral Commission Fund under Sections 3 & 4 of the 2006 Electoral Act and the establishment of the Electoral Institute to facilitate capacity building and professionalism in the Commission. I’ll let you be the judge of the impact of these reforms.

Iwu goes on to say that there are only four outstanding areas of electoral reform requiring constitutional amendment: the mode of appointment of Chairman and members of the Commission; funding of the Commission; adjudication of post-election disputes before the sweating-in of declared winners and the introduction of a system of proportional representation. From the details which we now know, the Uwais Report made recommendation on the first and the third and both recommendations were dropped. Campaign financing and the funding of INEC are both critical issues and it says something about how serious we are about tackling election reform because regardless of who appoints the Chairman and Commissioners of INEC – he who pays the piper calls the tune. But these are all technicalities on what should or should not be in the Electoral Act as the enabling law for INEC.

Which brings me to the next question: is the problem with our election process and system because of the gaps in the legal framework or because of our psyche? As much as I hate to admit it, underlying Iwu’s self serving position on this issue, there is some truth. He says ‘the greatest corrosive damage to the electoral process in the land is wrought more by the self-serving and contemptuous conduct of few members of the political elite - the deep pockets - than any other factor. ” The expectations we have that electoral reforms will miraculously and dramatically change our elections for the better are not realistic; law is not magic. Instead we need people with the right psyche executing the law and accepting the law. Not what we have now, where laws are only for law students or the masses who do not have the money or the arrogance to circumvent the law.


If for arguments sake the Federal Executive Council had accepted the recommendation of the Uwais Report that the NJC appoint the Chairman and Commissioners of INEC, what would this do on its own as a part of legislation? Not much really because there is no assurance that the NJC or even the appointees of the NJC are incorruptible, so we end up back where we started.

In the United States, the country we seem most aligned to in terms of political structure, the President appoints the Chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Maybe in addition to the consultations with the general public on expectations for electoral reform, the Uwais ERC should have looked at the FEC and how it maintains its independence from the same President which appoints its executives. My guess is that the answer lies somewhere within law and society: campaign and election financing and simply, the type of men (or women) who go into service for their country.

*white paper is the term for documents issued by government which lay out policy or proposed action, on a topic of current concern

Published March 24 2009

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Constitutionally Guaranteed Discrimination

That the fairer sex, weaker sex, whatever you want to call the female sex has struggled (and is still struggling) for centuries, for equality and/or parity with men is not news. Over time this struggle has broken many barriers across different societies in different countries, some more than others and some not at all. What was news to me last week was finding out that Section 26 of the 1999 Constitution institutionalizes gender discrimination against women. Paradoxical for a country which makes a lot of noise about the promotion of women and totally contradictory to the right to freedom from discrimination in Section 42 of the Constitution which says, in totally inelegant and confusing text, that no Nigerian should benefit or be disadvantaged solely because of their ethnic origin, their sex, their religion or their opinion.

The effect of the provision on naturalization and citizenship in Section 26 of the 1999 Constitution is discriminatory against women because it means that when Nigerian women marry foreigners, their husbands cannot become naturalized Nigerians but when Nigerian men marry foreigners, they can transfer their nationality to their wives. Why is this different treatment necessary?

Unfortunately, when it comes to the enforcing the general fundamental human rights of women - whether it is their right to liberty, freedom of expression, or even ownership rights, the Nigerian woman is already sometimes disadvantaged by social, cultural and religious norms and laws. Yet our law makers and executive seem blind to this as they blithely sign up to different conventions which they have no intention of adhering to and attending forums where they cannot report any meaningful progress in making the lives of women better.

For example, Nigeria is a party to the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW Convention) yet as of July 2008, the international CEDAW Committee expressed ‘deep concern at the persistent failure by Nigeria to enact a law to ensure that CEDAW is enforceable’. In 2005 our National Assembly refused to adopt the provisions of the CEDAW Convention when they rejected a draft bill. In a country where we all know laws are not really adhered to, for our predominantly male National Assembly to refuse to even ‘capture’ these protections and rights on paper is a clear indication of the real position on improving the lives of Nigerian women.

Most recently at the 9th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Nigerian delegation was positively laughed at for saying our domestic violence laws were adequate – this in a country where, according to a 2003 demographic and health survey, 64.5 per cent of Nigerian women consider it normal to be beaten by their husbands and where only one Nigerian state has a law in place to address violence against women.

What do we get instead? We get a smokescreen of activity with an entire ministry dedicated to women ‘affairs’ as well as a national centre for women development (NCWD)…what exactly are their mandates? In Section 2 of the National Commission for Women Decree 1992 (which was later upgraded into a full fledged Federal Ministry for Women’s Affairs and Social Development), there are ten objectives for the Commission for Women and the first one pretty much says it all: ‘to promote the welfare of women in general’.

What did ‘promoting the welfare of women’ mean when the Commission was first set up and what does it mean now, seventeen years later? It is safe to wager that it still means the same thing; meaning[A1] the welfare of the Nigerian woman has not improved despite all the talk and all the show. We are still struggling to get a handle on the discrimination of the female child when it comes to education, the bad treatment of widows, the selling of young girls into prostitution, sex with under aged girls leading to VVF and employment discrimination; the list is endless.
What is scary is that while a multitude of nongovernmental organizations is focused on quietly redressing these issues without the support of a legal framework, our Federal and State legislators and executives, are slowly eroding even the little rights women have with laws addressed at controlling how women clothe themselves. If our Constitution itself discriminates against women, how many laws are out there with provisions which are unfair and which continue to subtly reinforce in our minds, and the minds of our children, that women are second class citizens?

How many private and public organizations are, like the Central Bank of Nigeria happily enforcing adverse discriminatory rules against women such as that women are not entitled to certain benefits which their male colleagues enjoy because they are, as women, not deemed ‘head’s of their household’. What if their husbands are dead? What if their husbands are terminally ill and have not worked for years? What if their husbands are just ner’ do wells who have abandoned the family or just do not provide enough for their families? In such situations must a female executive in such a place air her private issues in order to get benefits which should be her right?

Theoretically, Nigeria is serious about improving the welfare of women – along with the Ministry and NCWD, every Federal and State first lady has a pet project aimed at improving the welfare of women and/or children. We even have a National Committee on the Reform of Discriminatory Laws Against Women…so what are they all really doing? Blame it on poor or erratic internet service but all efforts to find meaningful news on the past achievements of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs failed. I did find a story about a children’s party hosted by the Ministry at the start of this year as well as details of the Minister of Women’s Affairs visit to the women’s development centre to assess its facilities. Is it possible for the Minister and the new Director General of the NCWD to give us a list of the things they intend to achieve at the end of each year? We are stakeholders and just as we expect companies in which we hold shares to meet the targets set and publicized in annual general meetings or offer prospectuses, we should expect government and its agencies to be accountable to us.

We all have a responsibility, to ourselves and to future generations to ensure that for a start, we have the legal framework to improve the welfare of women. The members of the legal profession, including the Ministry of Justice and the Law Reform Commission have all been incredibly lax about challenging laws which erode the fundamental human rights of women. Where lawyers come across provisions of law which are contrary to such rights, they need to flag it and publicise it. Where lawyers are advising clients on employment contracts or drafting regulations – they need to be vigilant and ensure women are being treated fairly and the Ministry of Justice which gets to see most bills have the perfect opportunity to act as a check to ensure nothing contrary or discriminatory passes through – it has to be a joint effort.
But first, Section 26 of the 1999 Constitution needs to be amended immediately, either as part of the constitutional review process or as something driven by the Federal Ministry of Women’s Affairs, the National Commission on Human Rights or the Law Reform Commission because what this section does apart from magnifying the serious legal issues within our Constitution, is it makes a mockery of every halfhearted Nigerian initiative to make the lives of women better.

Published March 31 2009

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Are Our Legislators Serious?

Lately the papers have been filled with stories about our federal legislators – the dead in the water/lame duck committee report on FCT a.k.a. the probe on El-Rufai; or the power probe with which this set of legislators started off their four year tenure with a loud bang only for the report to sit languishing without it so much as being circulated for review. That is on top of the 2.3billion Naira car scandal, the plans to impeach Dimeji Bankole and the disgraceful infighting between the House of Representatives and the Senate over superiority in the National Assembly.

Last year the President assented to only five laws. Yes, not too long ago in another article about the Legislators I said the number of laws did not matter but the quality, and I still stand by those words; if these five laws were real laws which would make some meaningful lasting contribution to Nigeria and Nigerians, then we could all over look the number. But when these five include amendments to existing acts and other insignificant laws such as the ‘Certain Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders (Salaries and Allowances e.t.c., (Amendment) Bill 2008’, then we have to hold that number up in shame.
Now not only are the legislature complicit in ‘missing budget-gate’ but apparently they have made unfavourable changes to the budget proposal submitted by the executive arm.

A little background.

Considering that the 2008 budget was finalised in November 2008, just in time to expire with the year, plans for the 2009 budget started relatively well with the President submitting the budget proposal to the National Assembly on December 2 2008. By 18 December 2009, one of the papers reported: ‘Senate Passes N3.049 Trillion 2009 Budget’. It seemed we were learning from the past and striving to improve, great.
January, February…silence. Then we hear the budget is missing and this starts to raise some interesting questions such as ‘what exactly is the process for passing budgets’? We know the President submits the proposal and this is considered by the legislature as an Appropriation Bill. However, once passed by the legislature, does it proceed like all other bills to the President for his assent or is there a different process for the nation’s budget? Maybe this is where the gap lies because this is where the trail for the 2009 budget went cold.
It is now March and thankfully, the budget has been found but to put it mildly, the executive are concerned about the changes made by the legislature. To quote a member of the executive council “what the National Assembly did to the 2009 budget was not far from sabotage".

Apparently not only did they slash the budget for crucial sectors such as power and gas, in direct conflict with the President’s seven point agenda, but they increased their own budget by 57% and allocated funds to non existent organizations including N250 million to an anonymous council.

Is there any citizen of Nigeria who thinks it makes sense for the National Assembly to spend 111.3 Billion Naira while the allocation for power transmission is a paltry N800 million? Each of our 109 Senators gets 28 million naira a year while the 360 Representatives get 22 million respectively. Yet they only work three days a week i.e., Tuesday to Thursday and even then only from about 10am until 2pm. Mondays and Fridays are supposedly for them to ‘visit’ their constituents and for this they even get an allowance. The Standard Papers – the Constitution of the Senate and the House – provide for five working days from 9am to 5pm, just like the civil service but these rules have since been relaxed... like everything else when it comes to accountability and responsibility.

Section 59 of the 1999 Constitution says that where within thirty days after the presentation of the Appropriation Bill, the President fails to signify his assent OR withholds his assent, then the Appropriation Bill can be presented to the National Assembly sitting at a joint meeting and passed into law by a two thirds majority. Now the key is: if there was no record of the bill being sent to the President for his assent, how would we know when the thirty days was up? This means during that period where those who should know, but did not know where the 2009 Appropriation Bill was, had the legislature wished to, it could arguably have approved the Appropriation Bill without giving the President the chance to do so.

In the United States, which we model our constitution and government on, there is a traditional ceremony surrounding the annual approval of the United States budget. The majority leaders along with minority leaders march from Capitol Hill to the White House to formally present the budget for the signature of the President. This ceremony is important not because it enables us to avoid situations where no one remembers the budget being sent or received, but more for the people to see their government at work and provide transparency to the democratic process. The Chief of Staff of the President also receives a copy and while this ceremony does not mean there are no issues or compromises to be made between the legislature and the executive, it serves as a milestone in what is sometimes a three to six month process and a marker for the checks and balances against possible abuse.

Unfortunately, because of the years of military rule, the legislature in Nigeria is the least developed arm of government – always the first to be disbanded after a coup, while the judiciary and executive soldier on. This no doubt has impacted on the development of our own traditions, but since we borrow so much already, why not borrow a similar tradition to support the budgetary process? It would be most heartening for Nigerians to know that the legislature is working for and not against us…otherwise we can always start to exercise Section 69 of the Constitution and recall our legislators, with this track record it should not be hard to justify.

Published March 17 2009

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CV Writing Tips for Lawyers

When it comes to job hunting, the list of instructions, tips, and advice for writing the perfect resume or curriculum vitae, a.k.a, CV is endless and often times, conflicting. More is better, less is better. Get in all your experiences; leave out experiences which are not applicable for the role. Never mention ‘references available upon request’ because this is assumed; however, your references might speak volumes for you. Although it seems like the secret to successfully job hunting is that there is no secret, there is no formula and it is all so random and maybe even unfair, there are some things which are expected from seekers in the legal job market.

When your CV first hits the desk or email inbox of a prospective employer – this becomes a mirror through which the reader begins to see the outlines and details of your face. As a faceless new or old esquire your CV represents you and everything interesting and good about it is directly reflected on you and everything that is dull and sloppy (mistakes and grammatical errors) becomes your face. A strong face will result in the prospective employer setting up an interview while a weak face will ensure that you unfortunately, remain literally, faceless.

Capturing Attention – Write a Strong CV

Emphasize your best features first

To get from being a mere name on a page to an interview several things act as a magnet, especially for lawyers. For law graduates fresh out of school, the majority of law firm partners said the key things which get their interest are the school and the grade. The more prestigious the school and the higher the distinction of the law degree, the more likely you will be interviewed. However when you can barely remember the names of your tutors at law school, your academic pedigree takes backstage to the ranking of the organizations you have worked for.

If you cannot claim royalty by virtue of either academic or work experience, what blend of skills, knowledge and achievements gives you a unique advantage over other law graduates? Find a way of starting with something interesting to make you stand out from the other 2,000 applicants. Whatever you do though, please do not start with a mission or objective statement; the predominant view is that this is unnecessary and somehow, gauche.

2. Be precise

Now brevity is not something commonly associated with members of the learned profession but this is one time, along with at least twenty other times I can think of where being verbose does not pay. If it is true that humans can only focus for about eight seconds without any lapse in attention – you might want to remember this when the temptation to describe the key learning points from every transaction becomes overwhelmingly strong.

3. Pay attention to detail

In other words, make sure the CV looks professional. While a pleasing presentation can earn you additional points, even high academic credentials will not help if your CV looks and reads like you could not be bothered. Ensure there are absolutely no typographical errors since your CV is the initial contact and you know what they say about first impressions. Yes, they also say don’t judge a book by its cover but be sure that if there was a spelling mistake on the cover of a book, few people would be able to restrain themselves from judging. Every last detail from the font style and size to the alignment of the document is important.

However a great CV is not the goal. It has secured an interview with someone who thinks you would make a good addition to their organisation. What next: how do you deliver on the promise your CV has garnered?

A Winning Interview

Prepare, prepare, prepare – even for the unknown. Along with all the generally acknowledged best practices of interviewing such as being on time, taking care with your appearance, being on time, researching the firm or organization and being on time, there are a few specific things lawyers should do to prepare for an interview.

Get ready to share the reasons why you studied law and what you would consider your areas of preference or expertise. And if you have an LLM or PHD in law and you are not interviewing with an academic institution, be prepared to explain why instead of academia you are interested in practice.
be up-to-date with legal news – in other words, keep your finger on the pulse with Thisday’s Lawyer. However it is not enough to know about the proposed revisions to the Land Use Act or that the Uwais Report recommends amending the Nigerian Electoral Act – be ready to share your opinion on the legal implications.
Experienced lawyers will often be expected to share examples of how they have successfully exhibited the core skills of a lawyer: drafting, negotiating, reviewing, questioning, analysing and advising. The best way to do this is with professional and personal anecdotes which illustrate these strengths - story telling is a useful form of sharing information.

Watch your body language, it is extremely important. The arms crossed at the elbows in front of the body denotes defensiveness and while confidence is great, the fully relaxed, almost lying down with hands linked behind the head and legs stretched out in front is apparently arrogant. Just relax, and if you are sitting behind a desk, keep your arms lightly on your laps or on the table in front of you. Where there is no table, to hide behind, again keep hands on the arm rests if available and feet firmly plated on the floor or crossed at the ankles to the side of the chair.

A few weeks ago, at the inauguration of the planning committee of the proposed national employment summit, it was reported that the World Bank has put Nigeria’s unemployed at 40 million. It is anyone’s guess how many of the unemployed are lawyers. No pressure.

Published March 3 2009

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Much Ado About Power

Anyone ever notice that the synonyms for ‘development’ include ‘crumbling’, ‘aging’ and ‘declining’? Ironic, because that is exactly what Nigeria is doing – forever ‘developing’ and going nowhere. As if anyone was in doubt, the country director of the World Bank in Nigeria, Mr Ono Ruhl recently confirmed that Nigeria would not achieve Vision 2020 (i.e., the mirage of being one of the twenty biggest economies in the world by 2020) unless we diversified in favour of the productive sector.

However, to be productive we need power and in the last couple of years, months, weeks the power sector has been embroiled in all manners of intrigues, probes and confusion…needless to say, no actual work is going on in the Nigerian power sector. Recently the new Minister of Power was reported as saying 6000mw of power was achievable by 2009. In the same publication, the MD of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) said we would not be able to achieve that much power by 2010. Now the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) is embroiled with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission allegedly for fraud. Never a dull moment in our power sector; except in our houses powered by candles.

So what is the issue with power? In addition to freeloaders, intrigue, politics and corruption, an article in Thisday on February 16 2009 says gas shortage and financing are key issues. PHCN supposedly needs at least 1,617mmcf of gas per day from the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), but only gets 490mmcf. If we want to increase our power production we will need even more gas. NGC blames the shortfall in supply on the oil producing companies and the lack of infrastructure. Apparently, apart from decaying and vandalised pipelines, NGC has not been able to persuade communities to act as hosts to additional pipelines – hard to believe in a country where people where bulldozed out of their homes and property in order to maintain a master plan.
Gas supplies are low for a number of reasons. First, more than 50% of the gas (associated gas because it is released as a result of the production of crude oil) that could be produced for use in Nigeria is flared. This is despite the fact that we enacted an Associated Gas Re-Injection Act as early as 1979 to prohibit flaring and ensure that oil companies either tap this gas for use or re-inject it into the earth because flaring is extremely bad for the environment. Section 3 of the Act set the deadline for flaring as January 1 1984; the latest deadline is now December 2009. Second: cash. NGC, as a subsidiary of NNPC, gets gas at a discounted price, which is not competitive especially when the oil producers can get more money in real time from the open market. When crude oil prices rise, gas prices rise too; think of the margins the oil producers would have lost if they supplied the gas to NGC. Third, the costs of implementing the Re-Injection Act are high. Shell alone, estimates that it would cost her $1.85 billion to completely stop flaring; therefore even with the fines imposed for flaring, it is still cheaper for her to keep flaring. Four: NNPC financing. We conveniently forget that NNPC is a partner to the oil producers, so if the costs associated with not flaring are high, NNPC shares in this cost as well.

Last year NNPC was allegedly only allocated a quarter of what it required for its projects – tragic considering other ministries supposedly had to return their unspent budgets. Five is security in the oil producing regions: as long as the crude oil production of Nigeria remains almost halved due to threats and attacks, gas, flared or tapped will also remain halved.
So what has all this got to do with law? Everything. We have a thirty year old law which we have not been able to implement; raising issues about the un-enforceability of laws and the role of law.

What do you do when there is a law which no one is obeying and why does the rule of law seem inapplicable here? What is the role of the law in this particular regard? Jurisprudential theory (and common sense) says you cannot force people to do things by law or by merely prohibiting. Looking at all the facts and the interrelationships between all the issues is it possible that the right incentives backed by law can halt gas flaring and produce more gas for our power turbines? Along with unattractively low electricity tariffs, another reason not to invest in power in Nigeria is the unavailability or high cost of gas. As opposed to simply and ineffectively prohibiting, the role of the law should be to set out the rules regarding gas production as well as the relationship between all the parties. Unfortunately our laws merely prescribe without going into details and our agreements are not binding, even for ourselves.

Right on cue, Thisday, February 17 2009 reported that the Federal Government has taken urgent steps in collaboration with the oil producers to provide adequate gas for power i.e., 1.2 billion cubic feet of gas (bcft) to the domestic market by the end of 2009. According to the article, ‘the President is concerned with the apparent disregard of the Domestic Gas Supply obligations approved by the government’ in April 2008 – this from the same President who casually and without backing by law extended the deadline for the gas flaring from January 2009 to December 2009.

The MD of PHCN is purportedly not entitled to a generator in his official residence, but the catch is PHCN ensures he always has light (ask those who live on his street). How can he begin to understand the abject misery in which most Nigerians live daily if he always has power? There should be a law making it illegal for the Minster of Power, the MD of PHCN and the Chairman of NERC to have power and/or a generator when the rest of the country suffers. How enforceable would that law be?

Published February 24 2009

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