Insecurity, a threat to freedom of religion in Nigeria

"Religion is like a pair of shoes.... Find the one that fits for you, don't make me wear your shoes". George Callin "If a believer demands that i as a non believers believers believers, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect but my submission". Flemming Rose. Yesterday news broke that one Mrs Bridget Agbahime a christian was murdered for alleged blasphemy, she was said to have disallowed some muslims from performing ablution in front of her shop. This is a very sad and barbaric. It would not be the first time muslims kill people for alleged blasphemy. The question is does freedom of religion give right to commit murder? Does freedom of religion enshrined in section 38 Nigerian constitution give right to only one religion? Does freedom of religion give one the right to infringe on another person's freedom of religion? Why did they decide that of all places to perforn their religious ritual, it had to be in front of a christian's shop? If a christian should go to a muslim's shop and starts speaking in tongues, i am certain he wont live to tell the story. If it was a christian that killed a muslim, houses would be in flames by now. I dont intend to dwell on the war between christians and muslims because it has been that way since time immemorial, it will never end. My main concern is where were the security operatives when this woman was lynched? Is it that they were not aware or that they agreed to the murder or that they were scared for their own lives? Obviously, we have no security in this country, our security men are not adequately trained, they dont have the needed machinery and worst is there is no adequate compensation so nobody wants to die for nothing. It is not enough to arrest the suspects, they should be prosecuted and brought to book, an example should be set. People should know that life is sacrosant and their right stops where the other person's right begins. Our security men need to be encouraged, they need adequate training and machinery. Above all compensation to inspire them to do good work. There should also be an immediate response squad and a working number to contact them. We should be our brother's keeper. Live and let live, the world is big enough for all of us. I end with this quote by Thomas Jefferson: "The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

Senseless killings by herdsmen in Nigeria

The senseless massacre of innocent citizens by herdsmen is becoming very common in Nigeria, that is how boko haram started like a joke, till today it has not stopped. Who is arming these herdsmen, the herdsmen we knew growing up were very peaceful. Now, they destroy crops, kill farmers and even rape school children and women. As if Nigeria does not have enough problems, the country is broke, there is no electricity, pipeline vandalization on the increase, the remaining chibok girls are still missing, the price of things have sky rocketed and now people cant sleep peacefully at night, not for fear of robbers but fear of armed cattle herdsmen who just kill without mercy. One wonders, is this not boko haram in disguise? It is not enough to be armed with a gun, one needs to be trained in order to use those weapons. In advanced countries, cattle owners have ranches why is it different in Nigeria? The decision of Ekiti state government and Enugu state to bann cattle grazing on farmlands is a step in the right direction. Other states should follow suit, dont wait till your people are killed first. Bills should be passed into law and should be enforced. Any herdsman caught with arms should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.Everyone should be vigilant, you are your own best security, see something, say something , we can win this war, the right to live is our God given right. Enough is enough; a stich in time saves nine. I close with this igbo proverb by Eneke nti oba the bird " since the hunters have learnt to shoot without missing, the birds have learnt to fly without petching".

Annual Returns

It is very common to find that most registered companies do not pay their annual returns. The only time you hear a client talking about annual returns is probably when he wants to apply for a contract or about to make a business deal which requires an updated annual returns filing. Annual returns however is compulsory and if a company fails to pay it as at when due, it is charged an additional sum as penalty. Aside the fact tha payment of annual returns is compulsory, it also helps the reputation of a company because any company that wants to do business with your company and performs a search, part of the things it will check for is when last you paid your annual returns. Furthermore, to carry out any post incorporation filing for your company like change of directors, change of secretary, increase in share capital etc, one of the basic requirements is that the annual returns must be up to date. It is non negotiable. Requirements for Filing annual returns, Section 370- 377 CAMA. A) Duly completed annual return form. B) Audited financial statement signed by two directors and duly certified by a charterred accountant where necessary. C) Evidence of payment of FRC annual dues. D) payment of the annual return fees. Note : Annual returns shall be filed with the commission immediately after 42 days of the holding of the annual general meeting of the company for the year. All newly incorporated limited companies are entitled to a grace period of 18 months from the date of incorporation before they start paying annual returns to the commission.

You really should register your company!

“All humans are entrepreneurs not because they should start companies but because the will to create is encoded in human DNA”. Reid Hoffman[1].

“Your reputation is more important than your pay check, and your integrity is worth more than your career”[2].

“It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen”. Scott Belsky[3].

With the state of our economy and the  increasing rate of unemployment almost everyone has a business to make ends meet. The question is how many of these businesses are actually registered. Most people prefer to just start the business first then register later while some think registering a business is just for formality sake, yes, it may be a mere formality but there are a lot other reasons why you should register that business of yours as soon as possible.  

Legitimacy and authenticity: registering your business validates your business, it gives it authenticity and reputation. It gives customers the confidence to do business with you and shows them you are serious minded.

Tax identification number: when you register your own business, you are entitled to a tax identification number which enables you pay your tax as a good citizen.

Enforceability of contracts: when you register your business, then you can enforce any contract entered into with such business name. moreover, you cannot get a government contract if your business is not registered.

Unique identity: registering your business gives you the legal ownership of that name, it helps avoid duplicity of company name as no other person can do business with that name or a name similar to it, it becomes your brand, it differentiates you from competitors.

Have a corporate bank account: if you don’t register your business, you cannot own a corporate account. A corporate account as a business man gives you an edge over other competitors who are not registered because you can issue a cheque in the company name, customers and clients feel more comfortable paying money into the company account than personal account. Also a corporate account will make it easier to get bank credit and investment from investors.

Protects from personal liability: registering your business protects you from liability to an extent as you won’t personally liable for damages incurred by the registered business.

Continuity: registering your business ensures the business continues to exist long after you are no more.

 

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[1] Co founder LinkedIn

[2] Ryan Freitas, co founder about.me

[3] Behance co founder

IS THE PUNISHMENT TOO MUCH OR TOO LITTLE? #THEORIES OF CRIMINAL PUNISHMENT#

 

“A person who has been punished is not thereby simply less inclined to behave in a particular way; at best he learns how to avoid punishment.”[1]

“No punishment has ever possessed enough power of deterrence to prevent the commission of crimes. On the contrary, whatever the punishment, once a specific crime has appeared for the first time, its reappearance is more likely than its initial  emergence could ever have been.[2]

“Punishment  is not for revenge, but to lessen crime and reform the criminal[3]

Just yesterday, it was reported in the news that a financer of the dreaded book haram sect was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for his involvement  with the terrorist group.the question on many minds is whether 10 years imprisonment is a fair enough punishment for an offence of that magnitude.  

Section 13 of the Terrorism (Prevention) Act, 2011 provides inter alia;

 A person who knowingly-

(a) Solicits, receives, provides or possesses monetary or other property or;

(b) enters into or becomes involved in an arrangement as a result of which

money or other property is made available, or is to be made available, for

the purpose of terrorism or for a proscribed organization, commits an

offence under this Act and shall on conviction be liable to imprisonment for

a maximum term of 10 years.

Terrorism (Prevention)(Amendment) Act, 2013 provides that;

13(1) Any person or entity who, in or outside of Nigeria-

(a)   Solicits, acquires, provides, collects, receives, possesses or makes available funds, property or other services by any means to-

(i)             Terrorists, or

(ii)            Terrorist groups, directly or indirectly with the intention or knowledge or having reasonable grounds to believe that such funds, property will be used in full or in part in order to commit an offence under this Act or in breach of the provisions of this Act,

 

(b)   Possesses funds intending that it will be used or knowing that it will be used, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, for the purpose of committing or facilitating the commission of a terrorist act by terrorist or terrorist groups, commits an offence under this Act and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for life imprisonment.

 

 

There are three main theories of punishment which are; retribution, reformation and deterrence.

A.    RETRIBUTION: this is referred to as the theory of just deserts or fair deserts. Retribution is defined as severe punishment for something seriously wrong that someone has done.[4]This is simply punishing a person found guilty of an offence because he deserves it. This is usually achieved by considering the circumstances of the crime, the accused’s responsibility for the crime and deciding what punishment will be most deserving. This is more like vengeance. A kind of punishment thateverybody or most people will agree that it is fair and just; thus the name just or fair desert.

B.     REFORMATION:  the act of improving or changing somebody or something.[5] This theory thinks of punishment as something that would transform the offender and make him a better person thus preventing him from committing the offence again. For instance sending the person to a corrective facility or appealing to the person’s psyche such that he understands what he did was wrong and actually regret it.

C.     DETERRENCE: to deter is to make somebody decide not to do something or continue doing something especially by making them understand the difficulties and unpleasant results of their actions.[6] The deterrence theory comes in two forms, the individual deterrence and the general deterrence. While the individual deterrence targets the offender to make sure he doesn’t repeat the offence, the general deterrence discourages both the offender and the general public from committing the same offence. The punishment is such that a person planning to commit the same offence becomes scared and doesn’t go ahead because of the fate of the person already caught in the offence.

I close with the words of Thomas Szasz, “if he who breaks the law is not punished, he who obeys it is cheated. This and this alone is why law breakers ought to be punished; to authenticate as good, and to encourage as useful, law abiding behavior. The aim of criminal law cannot be correction or deterrence; it can only be the maintenance of legal order.”

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[1] B.F Skinner, Beyond Freedom and dignity.

[2] Hannah Arendt.

[3] Elizabeth Fry

[4] Oxford Advanced learners Dictionary

[5] Oxford advanced learners dictionary.

[6] Oxford advanced learners dictionary.

7 Okonkwo and Naish, criminal law in Nigeria.

8 Jurisprudence; J.M  Elegido.

Al-Mustapha: Can the ‘’Strike Force’’ creator still strike?

The date was Friday 12^th July 2013. Justice Rita Pemu of the Appeal court sitting in lagos and her all-female panel, brought to an end one of the most controversial and longest running murder cases in the history of the federal republic of Nigeria, when they unanimously discharge and acquitted Major Hamza al-Mustapha of the charge of conspiracy to murder Alhaja Kudirat Abiola in 1996.  Kudirat was the wife of the late chief M.K.O Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the annulled June 12, 1992 presidential election.

Well, you know or must have heard of the stories that shaped events from June 1992 to July 2013. The writer will deliberately not recount these events, solely because it is not the focus of this piece.

Please come with me.

What’s the big deal about al-Mustapha in the first place?  OK! He has been released, so what? What’s my own?

Now if, at some point, you have muttered or spoken aloud these questions, you have a companion. But the aftermaths may at most get you to think again, or at least frighten you. There is so much that concerns you.

Now this is why:

QUESTION 1: What’s the big deal about al-Mustapha?

Hamza al-mustapha, pet-named ‘’Alhaji’’ by his super-octogenarian grandmother, Fatima Hamza, was the Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late General Sani Abacha. Al-mustapha, who once boasted of having the ‘’licensed to kill’’, joined the Nigerian army some thirty years ago and was trained as an intelligence operative. He was involved in at least two investigations of coup attempts.  His conduct of interrogations brought him to the attention of his former boss, Sani Abacha, who thereafter gave him exceptional powers, considerably greater than those of officers who were nominally his superior.

‘’Al-mustapha, trained in Israel and Korea, established a number of small security outfits, including the deadly- dreaded ‘Strike Force’ whose recruits were from the military and other security organisations. Al-mustapha was said to be responsible for much of the torture, killing and wanton looting during Abacha’s rule…………..on the orders of Sani Abacha’s wife, Maryam, al-mustapha detained and tortured several women suspected to be Abacha’s girlfriends. As head of the State Security Service, SSS, al-mustapha was also said to be involved in drug trafficking, using diplomatic pouches to transport the drugs. His wife, an arab, co-ordinated a ring of traffickers in the Gulf states.

In October 1998,four months after the death of his boss, Sani Abacha, al-mustapha was charged with the murder of Kudirat Abiola and an attempt to murder Alex Ibru, publisher of the Guardian newspaper…………while imprisoned, he was charged with being involved in a plot to overthrow government. Allegedly he has conspired with others to shoot down the helicopter carrying president Olusegun Obasanjo using a surface-to-air missile that had been smuggled into the country from Benin Republic.’’

Al-mustapha once boasted of how he was perfectly in a position to take over the reins of leadership of Nigeria when Abacha died in 1998, but decided to ‘allow’ Abdusallami Abubarkar the honour.  He hasn’t forgotten.

Question 2: OK! He has been released, so what?

Al-mustapha is back, as the Washington Times puts it ‘’to haunt a nation wracked by sectarian violence and sectional politics’’.

Can this Hamza still wreck? Can he still strike? Does he still have the influence? Does he still have the Gulf states-Arab connection? Why does it matter?

Here is one man that has repeatedly yelled that men are after his life because he knows so much. From Abdusallami Abubarkar to Nuhu Ribadu, al-mustapha believes these men are not what, we the people, think they are. He knows something he hasn’t finished telling; some business not yet completed.

And now he is Out. Released.  Allowed.

To respond to the title of this piece: Can the ‘Strike Force’ creator still strike?

Yes, he can.

The question now is, where should he be placed such that his strikes are less damaging and not monumental like they were during the periods of 1993-1997?

The Nigerian army claims he has always been theirs; that they could have him.

A section of the political class has already rolled out his campaign posters for president and commander-in-chief!

And someone said the other day that the Nigerian Prison Service will find his 14years prison experience invaluable.

Now that we are here…..

Who decides where he goes; to a large extent himself. Who decides where he stays; to a large extent the people. Now this is interesting. Where would you rather have him stay? Your actions, your inactions, your silence are all decisions. It is important you note this: Whatever becomes of Hamza al-mustapha, you caused it.

-----Ogedegbe, Godwin   

@NOSADBG

AFRICAN JUJU AT WORK IN NIGERIA

“The police cannot protect the citizen at this stage of our development, and they cannot even protect themselves in many cases. It is up to the private citizen to protect himself and his family, and this is not only acceptable but mandatory”[1]

“I don’t think there is any reason on earth why people should have access to automatic and semiautomatic weapons unless they are in the military or in the police”[2]

The gruesome murder of over fifty (50) members of the Nigerian police force who were on a mission to arrest the chief priest of the ombatse shrine in Nassarawa State, Nigeria shas made the news for the past few days. We do not intend to get into details of the killings but there are so many unanswered questions which we would appreciate the answers; how is it possible that untrained natives were able to kill well trained and armed police men in their numbers with cutlasses? Ordinarily speaking, it is impossible. So we are left with no option to conclude that something beyond the ordinary happened and if that is the case, one can also suspect that whoever sent the police officers to that place had an idea that it was a difficult and almost an impossible task or how else can we explain sending over 100 officers made up of not just the police but members of the department of state services, members of the civil defence corps to capture just one man?

Why were these officers not warned of what they were going in for, since when did it become part of the duties of the police, civil defence and state security to capture native doctors? Why wasn’t the army involved in this operation since it was a joint operation? Why didn’t the police send back up when the people sent had not returned, they waited for 24 whole hours.

My main grieviance which provoked the writing of this article is that most people do not seem to care. If it was police that shot someone or aluu killings or the oga at the top interview, it will be all over the place, pictures will be all over the internet,  NGO’s will talk, there will be demonstrations and protests, artists will hit the studio fast, nollywood will shoot a movie. Agreed the Nigerian police doesn’t have a good record especially because it is synonymous with bribery and corruption and extra judicial killings. Most Nigerians don’t really care about the police, afterall its one of them that betrayed them, whether they die in their numbers or not, nobody cares, but the truth is they are human beings too with families and rights too, they didn’t deserve to die just like that. Also we must remember that it wasn’t only the police that reportedly died in that mission, members of the department of state services that  went on that mission have still not be found and are also presumed dead and only people closely related to them are making a fuss about it. It shouldn’t be so. An attack on the police or members of the force of any country is an attack on the whole nation.

Furthermore, we read reports that the members of the House of assembly are calling on the police not to seek revenge, as much as that is good, it is not enough, what are they compensating their families with? It shouldn’t just be the police alone that should compensate the families of the fallen heroes, the members of the House of assembly has way too much money, they can contribute just small from their plenty and compensate these families. It is only in Nigeria we hear families of slain police men on duty complaining many years later that they haven’t received the officer’s entitlements. If this is the case, what is the motivation for them to fight crime? Do we honestly think that if those officers knew they would meet their death that they would have embarked on that mission?

Now about this ombatse cult, It is still unbelievable that they have been in existence for over three years and the government of Nassarawa state kept quiet about it. Yet we have been trying to fight boko haram sect to no avail. Yet another sect is growing right at our back yard and it took the slaying with impunity of our officers for them to be made public. I still haven’t heard in the news that the chief priest of that shrine has been arrested.  Hmmm, a stitch in time saves nine. I call on the government, the Nigerian Police, the department of state services, the Nigerian civil Defence Corps, the Nigerian Army and all the powers that be to act fast, do the needful and put an end to this madness because it has already gone too far.

I end this article with this bible verse in Mark 3:27

“No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house.”

A word is enough for the wise.

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[1] Jeff Cooper

[2] John Howard