And Four Other Things…
WHAT THE EL
After a protest by some lawyers, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) on Thursday withdrew its invitation to Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, to speak at its annual conference. They said el-Rufai disobeys the courts. Ideally, this should be good for our democracy — that soft punishment can be meted out to politicians for their perceived misdeeds. However, I have no doubt in my mind that this is purely political and has little to do with the rule of law. Why? Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, whom we all know built his leadership ethos on pissing on the rule of law, will speak at the same conference. Are the “principled” petitioners not aware of this? Politics.
PASSPORT PALAVER
The presidential task force (PTF) has rolled out guidelines on the re-opening of Nigeria’s international airports, shut since March as the COVID-19 pandemic held the world by the throat. I agree with almost everything in the guidelines but I cannot understand why the international passport of anybody should be seized for 14 days! If I may ask, what is that supposed to achieve? For one, not everybody will visit Nigeria for 14 days. Some may not spend more than a few days. Why hold anybody’s passport at all? How does that combat the spread of the virus? Is this not an attempt to create another “chop-chop” for the immigration officials? Pointless.
CAMA CONFLICT
The amended Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) was recently signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari to wide applause. It was seen as business-friendly and a step in the right direction. But non-forprofit organisations, particularly churches, have kicked against certain provisions, especially the ones that put them under stricter control by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). Although I have not seen anything in the law that is peculiar to Nigeria or completely out of place, I would still recommend that the critics should engage with the lawmakers on the contentious areas rather than savage and condemn the entire legislation. Reasonable.
MALLEABLE MALIANS
Malians, apparently frustrated by the state of their country under President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, took to the streets on Wednesday to celebrate his ouster by the military, led by 25-year-old Colonel Assimi Goita. The ordinary people always think military coups are the ultimate solution to civilian misrule, but it always doesn’t take too long for them to realise that it is often a case of more of the same. The coup plotters said everything the people wanted to hear about corruption, insecurity and what not. And that brings the critical question: when a democratically elected president is misruling, should coups be the solution? Africans need to rethink their understanding of democracy. Fickle.