Jan 192013
 




This column is not for the faint-hearted.  The line here is bold and brass,
and this surely is the place where we call succubus by name.   Dare you to
read on; or would you go the extra mile and step forward to be counted.

Away from Body and/or Mind
Now if in the last several months you have been away from Nigeria, temporarily vacated your sense of surroundings, or both, would it not be pardonable to wonder what the hullabaloo in the press and the country has been about? Much ado about Salami, you may think.
But is it just Salami? Or could there be much untold behind the torpid appearance of the beast before us? Perhaps a short exercise in time travel may be instructive, first to discover the provenance of the caricature before we try to analyse and/or understand it. Follow me; starting from the first to the last:

  1. The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) attempts to promote the President of the Court of Appeal (PCA) to the Supreme Court.
  2. The latter cries foul, protests publicly, and goes to court with a sworn affidavit, alleging high-level gross misconduct.
  3. Panels are constituted by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and the National Judicial Council (NJC).
  4. The former and the latter reach opposing and irreconcilable conclusions.
  5. The NBA indicts the CJN for misconduct and overreaching the limits of his office
  6. The NJC indicts the PCA for perjury and recommends his immediate suspension, and subsequent dismissal.
  7. The President of Nigeria concurs with the NJC, authorising the suspension.
  8. Nigeria is agog!

But why? The matters at hand are not beyond the comprehension of even laypersons in our society, the issues can be analysed by any reasonably educated and logical mind. Let us examine the tealeaves, beginning with the one on top.

 

 Posted by at 12:20 pm