NBA, FG and the Rule of Law
The New Year dispatch of the Nigerian Bar Association chastising the Buhari government for its persistent abuse of the rule of law is quite commendable. Yes, this government has been obstinately assaulting the rule of law through its misbehaviours and highhandedness and the NBA is right to demand strict adherence to rule of law in the New Year.
The NBA remarked: “In 2020, the Nigerian Bar Association will continue to speak for Nigerians. We will persist in holding governments to account, particularly as it relates to the promotion and protection of the rule of law and the delivery of democracy dividends to our people.
“2019 marked the year that removal of public officers through nebulous and reprehensible ex-parte orders of the Code of Conduct Tribunal gradually became the norm in our national life.
“It started with the removal of erstwhile Chief Justice of Nigeria, Honorable Mr. Justice Walter Onnoghen, GCON through a purported CCT ex-parte order in the first quarter of 2019 and, towards the end of the year, this abnormality was repeated with the removal from office of the Acting Registrar-General of the Corporate Affairs
Commission, Lady Azuka Azinge through a questionable ex-parte order.
“This is one ‘innovation’ in our national life that does not bode well for the security of tenure of our public officers. This new practice of tripping and removing our public officers through contrived CCT ex-parte orders corrodes confidence in the system. It not only assaults our collective sensibilities when CCT ex-parte orders are used to ease out public officers but erodes due process, a fundamental plank of the rule of law.”
In this New Year, the NBA and other civil society organisations must come together to fashion out proactive steps that will compel the Buhari government to respect this fundamental part of our constitution.
One of the campaign promises of President Muhammadu Buhari was that our refineries will work. It’s a shame that almost five years after his assumption of office, the refineries lay prostrate. The Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company, Port Harcourt Refining Company and Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company are gasping for breath. The latest report on the consolidated operations of the refineries showed that they were dormant for three consecutive months in 2019 - July, August and September - as they processed no drop of crude oil.
In terms of their consolidated financial performance, the facilities consistently posted losses for 13 straight months since September 2018. The highest single consolidated loss posted by the refineries during the 13-month period was recorded in June 2019, when the facilities lost N17.4bn. The four state-owned refineries posted a cumulative loss of N114.3 billion in the first 11 months of 2018. Just like his predecessor, Buhari has simply been funding inefficiency. The plants never operated optimally under former President Jonathan. Under Buhari, with all his showboating, they nosedived further, with performance at abysmal levels. As a result, huge state resources are expended annually on the importation of refined petroleum products by this crude-oil producing country called Nigeria.
Yearly, payments for petrol subsidy eat a large chunk of our budget because the imported products are sold at subsidized price. In December last year alone, N55.58 billion went into the payment of petrol subsidy by the federal government. N450 billion is set aside in budget 2020 for this incongruity called petrol subsidy payment. What a country. Just imagine what this colossal amount would do for the country’s dilapidated hospital, schools and roads. The refineries are not working; yet, billions of USD goes into turn around maintenance. It’s about time these money guzzling plants are sold. This is the only way forward for beloved Nigeria.