US Supreme Court Says Money = Speech

Could things get any worse for the Obama administration? With all the atrocities which have taken place and continue to take place in the US Congress regarding the amount of money spent by lobbyists to influence policy - how can the Supreme Court make this decision? This is icing on the cake after Scott Brown in Massachusetts and the rickety Health Care Reform bill.

As expected, Harvard Law School Professor, Larry Lessig, founder of Change Congress is livid. He says:

"The Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FECallows corporations and unions to pour unprecedented amounts of money into elections. From this moment on, when Congress acts, we won't be able to know whether it was because of reason or judgment... or only because of the need for campaign money. The system is broken, and we need to act."

For more on the implication of the decision click on the link attached.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=30&article_id=111149

Read more...

What will it take to get proportional representation in Nigeria?

As I listened in on the discussions of a committee of Harvard Law School students planning for an African Law conference in April 2010, I was surprised to hear that apparently there are some who are of the view that law plays little or no role in development. I volunteered that it would be interesting to have a debate about that. But I kept thinking about the role of law to ‘develop’ a society, community or country or even the role of law in influencing and changing culture – such as the way Mary Slessor’s work in Nigeria made it illegal to murder twins. The way we now practically worship twins and multiple births, and pray ‘ibeji’ and ‘ibeta’ for brides, no one would guess that less than one hundred years ago we rejected this as a blessing.

Nigeria does badly in many indices: our democracy and press under the Freedom House list; our corruption under Transparency International, the ease of doing business by the World Bank, our ability to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, our literacy rates, our infant mortality, our maternal mortality, on and on ad infinitum.

When asked what holds us back many people say corruption, however, and not in any way to trivialize corruption, politics in the United States is highly corrupt (it is just effectively isolated from the provision of basic services and development policies) and there are other parts of the world such as South Africa and Italy, where there is corruption, but things still work and they are not lagging behind on almost every development index.

There are other things that hold us back, including our laws. What the laws say, what they are about (National Assembly do we really need: HB. 182 A Bill for an Act to Establish the National Institute of Nigerian Philosophers and to Make Provisions for Determining the Standard of Knowledge and Skill to Be Attained by Persons Seeking to Become Professional Philosophers and for Other Connected Purposes?) and whether the laws are practical and enforceable and if there is the will to ever enforce them.

As we prepare for the 2011 elections and discuss the changes to our Constitution and the Electoral Act one thing that keeps coming up is having a system of proportional representation – for women, the physically challenged and other unrepresented minorities. Think of a better more realistic version of ‘federal character’ where we would make sure that our legislature actually reflects the ‘Nigerian character’ – which is almost 50% women. Today, women make up only 7.0% of the House of Representatives (hardly representative) and 8.3% in the Senate, making us 116^th out of 136 on yet another index. (http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm).

To put this in perspective we are only a few points above Somalia in terms of women representation in parliament and below, the Congo and Sao Tome & Principe. Two out of the first three countries in the world with the highest female representation are African: Rwanda has overtaken Sweden as number one with 56.3% and 34.6% in its lower and upper house respectively and South Africa is third highest in the world with 44.5% and 29.6% respectively.

Apparently, part of the Uwais Report on electoral reform, which to my knowledge has never been made public in its entirety, recommends that we adopt the proportional representation system which is designed to ensure that the legislative body reflects the voting strength of the electorate. However, the recommendation is not to amend the constitution but to amend the Electoral Act to force parties to reserve 30% of their seats for women (and 2% for those with physical disabilities), without prejudice to the right to also compete for representation outside this reserved seats- so that arguably, women could have more than 30% representation. This is the election law quota option.

There are two other avenues to using law to improve female representation. One is with constitutional quotas – where the constitution expressly reserves seats for women in the national law making body, as is the case in Burkina Faso, Uganda and Rwanda. After the genocide in Rwanda, women’s participation in the drafting of the new constitution resulted in a provision which reserves 24 out of 80 in the lower house and 6 out of 20 in the Senate. This means 30% of the seats is firmly held for women and they can vie for more.

The other is through political parties which is the system used in South Africa, where after years of apartheid, the ANC reserves 50% of its candidate lists for women and now they are ahead of us on this and many development curves, even though we arguably have more experience as a democracy give or take a few coups. In the political parties quota system, the political parties adopt internal laws which reserve a certain percentage of positions for female candidates – and with the ANC being the most popular party, this has resulted in increased women representation across the country.

It is widely acknowledged amongst development specialists that the inclusion of women, who usually make up half or more of the population, in decision making and their involvement in public and private enterprise improves the development indices of a country. This is the major thesis behind the push to educate females, provide financial independence through micro financing and provide platforms for greater participation.

The practice of proportional representation is not without its drawbacks. In Pakistan, where local government reform mandates 33% representation of women, most of the women elected, when interviewed, confessed to being mere proxies for husbands, male relatives, heads of clans or even landlords and forced to vote based on instructions from these people. And there are rich countries like the United States with only 10% female representation or some, like Nepal, with high female participation who continue to struggle with development.

Proponents of proportional representation are not saying that increased women representation will lead to immediate improvement in our physical, mental and cultural development. It took Sweden thirty years of practicing proportional representation to get where they are – but today Sweden has one of the best standards of living in the world according to the Human Development Report and some of the reasons are their high levels of education, democracy, income and public health.

Nigeria has nothing to lose if we legally adopt proportional representation in any one of the three available options. The same way we now see value in multiple births is the same way we will see the value in increased participation of women in governance.

Read more...

Can we decentralize Power generation?

I read with glee that last week between 5000 -10,000 people in Lagos marched to the Lagos State Secretariat to peacefully protest the crippling lack of power in Nigeria. Just a few months ago, angry youth in Zaria had protested about electricity as well. Hopefully the manufacturing sector and private businesses will join in the clamour for something to be done about the disgraceful lack of power in the blind giant of Africa.

I read with gloom that another $4.6 billion as been allegedly spent on power generation this year – this in addition to the controversial $16B which we are told is really $3.6 billion, spent by the Obasanjo administration on the same power sector.

And yet, by all indications it is doubtful if we will get as much as 4000 megawatts by the end of 2009.

As I pointed out in a previous article – ‘PHCN get rid of your freeloaders’; apart from the all pervading selfish interests of a few Nigerians, the problem lies with the Electric Power Sector Reform Act 2005 (the ‘EPSR Act’), the 1999 Constitution and the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

States have a right under the Section 14 of the Concurrent List of the 1999 Constitution to generate electricity for areas not covered by the national grid but Section 63(1) of the EPSR Act deliberately restricts this right by requiring State power projects to be licensed by NERC.

Why? Why is it so important for the Federal Government to maintain control over State production of electricity? Why did the Obasanjo administration scuttle the efforts of Lagos State to independently power the State? Could it be because if States take control of power generation it will become glaring to Nigerians that the lack of power that we suffer from is not for lack of solutions but for lack of will?

We know that the Federal Government does not have a monopoly over the process of power generation, so why do the executives act like it does? The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the Bonny Utility Company funded with only $5million dollars in 2001 by Shell, Total, Eni and NNPC has managed to provide its customers with power 95% of the time. According to the article: “clients get power free of charge, up to a certain limit…and now has over 8000 paying customers. The revenue from paying customers covers half of the company’s costs and has created previously impossible public service and commercial opportunities, including a doubling of operations at a hospital”. Since 2005, a similar arrangement is supposedly benefiting the forty thousand people who live in Onelga, in Delta State and more and more of these independent power projects are being executed – badly when government is involved and successfully when managed privately.

The crux: decentralize power generation in Nigeria. As the National Assembly gears up to finally tackle the issue of constitutional reform, at the top of their list should be to give States more constitutional powers. The Federal Government has had close to fifty years to get power (and many other things) right and has failed.

Instead of the ridiculous collaborative arrangement where the Federal Government, States and Local Governments are to contribute billions of dollars from their Excess Crude allocations revenue accounts to the rehabilitation of existing power plants and new power projects under the National Integrated Power Programme (NIPP), why don’t the States get a chance to manage power generation instead of the constant excuses we get from the FG, its Ministry of Power, PHCN and most recently, NERC? Are the States and Local Governments also going to be involved in awarding the contracts and appointing the people who are going to be responsible for executing the projects?

One of the reasons for federalism is to aid development, yet our Constitution has helped to cripple the States so that they are ineffective. From all indications, one of the main issues for consideration for the constitutional review is the creation of more states. Arguably at least one reason why the clamour for more States is so loud is because people are frustrated with the lack of development and think that if every hamlet was a capital and every chief a governor, development will magically appear. What we need is States with more powers – ironically since we model ourselves on the American presidential system, why are we not considering the United States Constitution, which gives the States a lot more power and independence than our States have?

Competition within the States and most critically, at least for now, within the power sector is absolutely vital for the development of Nigeria and Pastor Sam Adeyemi, the organizer of the protests in Lagos sums it up nicely: "We call on the Federal Government to break the monopoly of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria and allow private investors and state governments to generate and distribute electricity. The strategy that worked for telecommunications should be made to work for power supply."

If we amend the Constitution to allow States to generate electricity, we can also simultaneously privatize PHCN and reduce the bureaucracies of having NERC and a Federal Ministry of Power. The difference under this scenario is that Nigerians will not be held to ransom if the usual privatisation process results in the NITEL or petroleum refinery scenarios.

Like anything there are disadvantages to providing the States with more power but the benefits outweigh the risks and at this point in our history, shouldn’t we be ready to try something different? I can predict the naysayers who will talk about uneven development but this is just an excuse for mediocrity – our development is uneven, both within and outside the country. If competition between the States and within the power sector will result in more electricity for consumers, most Nigerians will support this – after all, the majority of us are not benefiting from the inefficiencies of our power sector.

Read more...

Creativity in Communication - Dora borrow a page

'Tings Dey Happen' is a story about the Niger Delta oil politics - and is set to be performed in Lagos, Calabar, Abuja, Jos and Bauchi. Ironically, it is not being sponsored by our re-branding and miscommunication guru in the Ministry of Information but by the US State Department. So much for being in control of our content.

Please go and see it and let me know what you think - I am hoping it will come and show in Boston.

To find out more Google 'Dan Hoyle + Tings dey happen'

Read more...

Are our child custody laws up-to-date?

When Asabe left her husband for her father’s house with her eighteen-month-old son, she did not realize that leaving her marriage meant she would have to give up her baby. One late afternoon, a few days after she left, her mother –in –law came to visit. After the usual pleasantries, and as she held her grandson in her arms, Asabe’s mother in law informed her that it was okay for her to leave her husband, but she could not take their son away. She walked out the door with the baby and it was many years before Asabe would see her son again.

In March, hidden away on the pages of a little known newspaper was a story of a Nigerian woman who died while struggling to retain physical possession of her four-year-old son. According to eyewitnesses, the child cried as both parents tugged at him, until the father won with one final push and walked away with the child and the woman’s life. This couple had four children, two had died and the husband had possession of the third.

How many women in Nigeria have illegally lost possession of their children just because their marriages have ended either by them or for them? How many of these cases are ever reported? And in how many of these cases, even when civil and customary laws dictate that these children are better of with their mothers, does the social structure support this?

The Matrimonial Causes Act 1970 is applicable to all child custody cases including children borne out of civil, customary and Islamic marriages and provides that in all custody matters, ‘the interests of the child shall be paramount’. This predominance of the child’s right is also echoed in the Children’s Right Act 2003, but how do we decide in a patriarchal society what the ‘interest of the child’ is, especially when that child is a minor? This becomes even harder when the Matrimonial Act is silent on what the interests of a child are, does not define the word ‘minor’ nor take into consideration the special treatment that minors need.

So who gets custody of the child where both parents are fit, willing and capable?

In Nigerian case law, we see judgments where the courts try to make the interest of the child paramount, however, what is in the best interest is sometimes subjective and personalised. In Odogwu v. Odogwu, Justice Belgore, JSC (as he then was) said, ‘the welfare of the child is not in material provisions of the home such as…food and air conditioners…it is psychologically detrimental to his (the child) welfare and ultimate happiness and psychological development if maternal care, is denied him’. In this case each time the father, who had illegally abducted the children, was asked by the lower courts to return the children, he would use the legal process to stall by filing for a stay of execution. The problems with going the legal route in child custody cases are; the time it takes, the inability of most women to afford the cost and the unenforceability of judgement. So most women just walk away with no recourse to justice or equity.

Islamic jurisprudence is more detailed in custody issues because the injunctions are relatively clear with several categories for determining minors. However, and this is a big however, the clarity ends when the different schools of interpretation are taken into consideration. Under Maliki Islamic jurisprudence, which is what majority of Nigerian Muslims adhere to, children under the age of puberty stay with their mother. In fact, female children stay with their mother until the time of the child’s marriage while male children stay with their mothers until puberty. Going further in attesting to the importance of the mother in a child’s life, even when a Muslim woman cannot be granted custody, seven variations of custody lie with her family before the father’s family comes into the equation – again something that rarely happens. Again the subjectivity of man comes into play in the male led Sharia courts, so that the reputation of these courts is that the Alkalis are often unwilling to apply the law of the Quran ‘against’ our patriarchal culture.

Apart from the culture of patriarchy, the other reasons why women lose possession of their children is because they are economically disempowered and lack access to information about their rights under either customary (Islamic) or civil law.

Unfortunately there is little under Igbo and Yoruba customary law that supports a mother’s right to her children. Amongst the Yoruba the children belong with the father and custody will usually be granted to him. According to research, within a certain group of the Yoruba, the paternal grandmother names the children, setting the stage for ‘ownership’ of the children. Ironically, in a society where all the failings of a child are ‘blamed’ on the mother, a tacit admission of the importance of the role, our society insists on separating young children from their mothers.

With thirty seven ‘ministries of women’s affairs’ and countless non governmental organisations all focused on promoting the welfare of women and children, information on child custody issues and where to go for help and advice is sadly lacking. Baobab, a women’s human rights organization, has some relevant information but this is hidden inside annual reports and there is no information on the website on the legal position on child custody. Collating custody cases and judgments is the ideal place for law, data and public policy to merge; with the judiciary and NGOs’ feeding the information into the ministries and the ministries using this data to ensure the right policy is implemented.

As usual, the Nigerian legal and political system is not set up to protect the rights of women and children. We missed the opportunity to use the Children Rights Act to close the gaps in the Matrimonial Causes Act. Now women, not only in the judiciary and legal profession, must begin taking collective and individual responsibility for protecting one of the most fundamental rights of a child – the right to a mother’s love.

Read more...

Using 'law' to prevent change

Recent debate in the media, following Dr. Chudi Nwike’s report on corruption in the civil service masks a deeper malaise. There are several things wrong with our civil service and corruption is only one of them.

Imagine you have just been appointed a minister. Nigeria is lucky to have you, a technocrat from the private sector with the relevant experience for that particular ministry. You start full of lofty but realistic plans; maybe you have even written a couple of papers on reforming this sector or worked as a consultant providing expertise to governments at home and abroad. Six months later nothing has happened. One year later still nothing has happened. Why?

Many things happen to people when they assume leadership positions but one particular and consistent thing which ensues to most well meaning Ministers in Nigeria is the ‘civil service’. Apparently a common tactic of civil servants to destabilise a new minister is to bombard them with useless information and all sorts of imaginary or exaggerated emergencies. Of course when you start running around trying to douse phantom fires and get a grip on the convoluted rules and procedures, you begin to loose focus of your goal. All this while, the most relevant information is kept from you by these career civil servants who are supposed to be there to provide administrative support in the implementation of the Ministry’s strategy.

For too long we have presumed that leadership was the major problem in Nigeria. Fortunately, a Presidency characterised by an absence of leadership is allowing us to focus on where our problems lie. We, the ‘followership’ are a clog in the wheel of development. Everyone knows a civil servant – our fathers, mothers, siblings and friends are all in the civil service…and these are the same people who are holding us back.
This problem, of course, is something we should be well acquainted with from the Udoji Commission’s recommendations in 1974, to the Onosode Report of 1981, to the Dotun Phillips-led work in 1988 and, more recently with the public service reform work of el-Rufai, we have been repeatedly told that the federal and state civil service is fundamentally politicized, corrupt, demoralized, inefficient and pays scant regard to notions of service delivery.
The common factor over the years, as soldiers come and soldiers go; PDP comes and NPN goes, is a woeful civil service remarkably resistant to change.


The Civil Service

Civil servants are traditionally considered as neutral bastions of administrative efficiency meant to provide support to governments. The idea is to maintain a level of permanence and expertise in any political system so that despite the changes in government or government ideology, stability in implementation remains. All over the world however, the civil service has become the butt of jokes about mediocrity and the use of bureaucracy in the worst sense of the word to obstinately resist change.

As bad as the civil service is generally considered to be, Nigeria must have one of the worst in the world. There are several things wrong with our civil service and corruption is only one of them. In 2005, as el-Rufai attempted to kick start the reform of the public service using the FCT Ministry as a pilot case he listed the problems of the civil service as: poor service delivery, bloated service with duplication of functions, manual processes, poor compensation, inadequate skills and absence of training. I think we can add another one: attitudinal and functional bankruptcy.

Because only attitudinal and functional bankruptcy would explain the years of civil servants systematically scuttling all attempts to make things work in Nigeria. Every time a discussion about civil service reform starts, the civil service preservation army begins its tactical manoeuvres to ensure things stay the same. They constantly raise concerns over Murtala Mohammed’s attempts in the 70s to whittle the civil service: it resulted in the corruption we see today because those who were compulsorily retired were not prepared. In other words, civil servants now help themselves to public funds because they can be retired at any time. While this may to some extent be true, a more systemic problem exists: the rules that guide civil service operation often serve to entrench the dysfunction that prevails. One case in point: the civil service rules make it almost impossible to fire a civil servant even when a minister finds the person incompetent or deliberately obstructive.

According to a member of the service ‘civil servants cannot be sacked’. ‘First the person needs to have at least four queries (which obviously cannot all happen within a week). After four queries, the issue goes to the Head of Service for an investigative and hearing process which can take months and even then the civil servant does not leave the service but is redeployed to another ministry and…even worse, you have no say on who replaces the civil servant you have just managed to get rid off.’ Section 171 of the 1999 Constitution specifically provides that only the President can appoint or remove civil servants ranking from permanent secretaries and above. An anecdote which might be more indicative to emphasise what is wrong with the civil service as opposed to being the truth is that a head chef in the staff canteen of one of the ministries which moved to Abuja was left behind in Lagos. Despite years of doing nothing in Lagos, he gradually rose to the grade of a director and was then posted to the Ministry of Justice…hopefully to the canteen.

Conclusion

The reason why a strong and efficient civil service is so important is because when we have a bad government or ‘no government’ as it seems like in the case of our current Servant Sleeper, then the business of managing the day to day governance of the country will continue. Ironically, these masters of self preservation have set up another civil service agency: the Bureau of Public Service Reform with an impressive website and a long list of achievements including the establishment of EFCC, ICPC, and budget and financial management reform. However the review of the Service in 2002 posted on the BPSR website, indicates that some of the issues were: (i) an aging population with 60% at 40 years old and above; (ii) 70% of the staff are unskilled (iii) a prevalence of “ghost” workers and (iv) 60% of Federal Government spending deployed to servicing this bureaucracy.

None of the listed achievements of reform so far have tackled these issues and Section 171(3) of the Constitution compounds the problem by insisting that the Head of the Civil Service must be appointed from the civil service pool. If over 70% of the civil servants are unskilled then what are the probabilities that the Head of Service will be fit for purpose?

While we struggle to get good leaders elected we also need to work harder to ensure these leaders have the support they need to succeed. We need to totally overhaul our civil service and rewrite the rules that underpin it.

Read more...

How can we use the law to create change?

John F. Kennedy said ‘those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable’. If Nigerians continue to be passive about changing the affairs of State, change will come violently.

A few weeks ago the youth in Zaria protested the fact that they had not had electricity for weeks and what started as a peaceful protest turned violent. According to news reports, their anger and frustration spilled over to their conditions in Sabon Gari Local Council and they attacked the convoy of Governor Sambo of Kaduna State who was there to commission some projects.

Earlier, in May, the citizens of Borno State showed their displeasure at the governance of their State by throwing stones and sand at the Governor’s father who is alleged to be a strong influence on him.

Now we are embroiled in a full scale war in the Niger Delta which has been a long time coming, with years of litigation, Oil Mineral Producing Area Development Commission (OMPADEC), petitions, executions, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), protests, the vandalisation of pipelines and oil producing equipment, kidnappings, Ministry of the Niger Delta, murders and now the end…after all it cannot get worse than this. Or can it?

For over six months, the Pedestrian Lawyer has tracked some of the atrocities done in the name of law, by lawyers, law makers and law enforcers and the impact on Nigeria’s socio – economic and political pulse. Slowly a consistent pattern has emerged from the response. Many readers say, “Thanks for the information, entertaining as well as enlightening but now what? What would you like us to do?” Good question but no one answer. Law is not magic…law cannot change the way people behave and create change but people can use the law to change the way people behave and create change.

I think if things are going to change in Nigeria, then the leadership has to change. If the leadership is going to change in Nigeria then the quality of those who participate in elections and serve in public office has to change. If the quality of those who participate in elections is going to improve then the electoral process has to improve. For the electoral process to improve we have to have people in the executive and legislature who have the will to make changes to the electoral law and process. If we are going to have executives and legislators with the will and decency to make the necessary changes to our electoral law and process then we have to have the right people in these positions of leadership…which brings us back where I started: for leadership to change, the quality of those who participate in elections has to improve.

So my response, to those who want to know what we can do, is: if you think you have what it takes and mean well, then run for political office. 2011 is around the corner and our newspapers are filled with reports of the preparations of those who currently have the controls of the bus and are driving the country closer to a precipice to retain their hold on the steering wheel.

The first step in the journey to gain some control over our country is to register a political party under the provisions of the 2006 Electoral Act.

First incorporate a limited company in the name of the political party and register the party at the Independent Nigerian Electoral Commission (INEC) at least six months before elections. Since we do not have the 2011 election timetable, register at the latest by June 2010. Upon submission of all the documentation and fees required you will receive a letter of acknowledgement; keep it safe. If thirty days after you submitted the registration application you have not been registered by INEC, Section 78(3) says if the party meets all the conditions of the 1999 Constitution (Sections 221-229) and the Electoral Act, then the party shall be considered as registered. This is tricky – look out for INEC using this presumption to trip you up later. Some of the constitutionally provided conditions to party registration include adhering to federal character in the composition of the party officials and having the head quarters of the party in Abuja. If INEC refuses to register the party, party promoters have only thirty days from the receipt of the letter of notification to challenge the decision in court.

Avoid those who come late in the game to preach consolidation of resources because a potential landmine could be a merger with another party which INEC must approve and must be notified of at least six months before elections.

Once registered there are other rules for political parties to adhere to such as not holding funds or assets outside Nigeria and providing INEC with records of election expenses and twenty one days notice of any party conventions for either the election of party officials or the nomination of candidates.

On party financing it is interesting that the Electoral Act recommends the maximum amount to be spent by candidates in the elections: five hundred million naira for presidential elections, one hundred million for gubernatorial elections, twenty million for Senators and ten million for members of the House of Representatives. No wonder politics is a duel to the death in Nigeria, anyone who has ‘invested’ this much in winning an election will want to secure the investment and ensure it yields competitive dividends. Parties are also supposed to refuse anonymous donations and disclose donations of one million naira and above.

Once registered, you can start campaigning, raising campaign funds and trying to raise the awareness of your constituents and your target audience. A million and one underdog stories abound, most recently and amazingly, the story of Obama.

A sad truth is that getting involved in elections is risky, especially if you want to do it the right way; without political godfathers and dancing in shrines. Apart from possible financial ruin, mental and physical upheaval and the strain it will place on your relationship with family and friends, there is the very real danger of paying the ultimate price as Funsho Williams and many other Nigerians have done.

However, the alternative which is to do nothing but keep grumbling to ourselves and prepare our children for a future outside their country is not acceptable. Why? Because all those risks and dangers listed above are already being lived by those in the Niger Delta. Because the violence we fear for getting involved, might still probably come because we did not get involved.

Despite Ekiti and the lip service being paid to electoral reform by the current government, I feel encouraged by the judiciary to think the 2011 elections could be the start of the change we all want. If the judicial renaissance and independence we have witnessed over the last two years, starting with the Supreme Court decisions in the Ladoja impeachment case and Amaechi vs. PDP, continues, then there is hope. But this hope lies not only with the judiciary but with believing individuals who start this journey and who must continue to the identified destination. The Supreme Court judgement would not have been possible if Amaechi had given up his mandate and knowing Nigeria, the pressure must have been immense for him to do so. We have to keep working within the law and the processes which guide us and then, only then can we truly understand the limitations, appreciate the weaknesses and then make the changes that we need before change is forced on us.

Read more...