17 Nov 2006 |
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Information law, bigamy and other matters "CONGRATULATIONS, my brother" "Did I win any lottery?" "Bring your hand" "What is it?" "Bring your hand first" "Please yourself." "Congratulations." "Be careful, You are squeezing my fingers. Take it easy." "The Freedom of Information Bill has been passed into law at last" "Oh that. Yeah, it is certainly worth celebrating, Bu there is one more step. The President has to assent to it. He has 30 days," "I have no fears about that. The President is well-informed about development issues, don't forget that he is the founder of the Africa Leadership Forum which has done a lot of work on issues such as this. He knows the importance of the law." "But you must recall that he had objected to certain parts of it before now." "I don't see a problem still. With a Freedom of Information Law, Nigeria will be a more open society. The Official Secrets Act will die, all other laws on the basis of which government officials have turned Nigeria into a closed society, into a secret society where anything can be done, and classified as official secrets, will also die. It means that anybody at all can have access to information, the war against corruption will be easier." "Don't be too sure about the Official Secrets Act and such laws as the Statistics Act, the Privileges and Immunities Act, sections of the Evidence Act...They may not just die like that" "Oh it is straightforward. The principle is that later laws abrogate earlier laws, particularly when there are inconsistencies..." "No, that principle does not always apply. We have to check the law as passed, for it to have the effect that you seek, there must be a repealing clause in it, otherwise the Official Secrets Act and other remain existing law". "You are trying to dampen my enthusiasm". "I am only saying that it will be nice to read the full text of the law before jubilating. Let's get a copy and examine it together. Besides, the Senate and the House of Representatives would still have to harmonise their versions of the law before passing it to the President for his assent." "What I know is that the law will make investigative journalism easier. It will make government less secretive. Any government official who refuses to make information available on request, or who doctors official records will go to jail for three years! I like that" "The ultimate test is in the application. It will have to be backed up with the political will to turn this country into a more open society. You can have the law and it can be abused. And I guess that is why it contains certain exemption clauses on whether for example, national security is involved or a judicial process may be compromised." "Well, on that score, I agree with you. Any law can be abused as we have seen with the misapplication of Section 188 of the 1999 Constitution dealing with the removal from office of a Governor." "What has been demonstrated in that regard in Oyo, Ekiti, Anambra and now Plateau is simply that the law is truly an ass. You can ride it in any direction and still boast about the rule of law" "I dare say that lawyers have behaved very badly in all the cases of impeachment. The Inspector-General of Police is a lawyer; the Minister of Justice is a lawyer, the various state Chief Justices are lawyers; when you look at how they have all behaved, then you'd be disturbed about the role of the law and the judiciary in this society." "That of the Chief Justices in the states is terrible. When the judex descend into the arena of partisan politics, the end of justice is subverted. In Ekiti, Anambra and Plateau, their Lordships, the Chief Justices of the various states brought the judiciary into the fray." "If I may play the devil's advocate, I think the problem has to do with the role of the Chief Justice in the impeachment process. There is some ambiguity about this in the Constitution. Is he required to play an administrative role or a judicial role in setting up the investigation panel? This is not quite clear". "But it is. Otherwise the Chief Justice of Nigeria would not have had cause to protest as he did the other day, about corruption in the judiciary and executive recklessness." "The CJN should not complain, he should ensure that erring judges are disciplined." "That is the job of the National Judicial Council" "And is the CJN not the chairman?" "But you see, the thing that bothers me is the way lawyers try to confuse everybody. You will have some lawyers arguing this way, another set of lawyers will be heading in that other direction. For example, Chief Gani Fawehinmi has defended the process leading to the removal of Governor Dariye in Plateau, but other lawyers disagree with him." "With due respect, I also disagree with the learned SAN. Six lawmakers impeaching a Governor at 4. 30 am does not sound quite right to me." "Is it the number that you are quarrelling with or the time?" "Both. Everything in fact." "But the law does not indicate that a House of Assembly cannot sit at any time of the day?" "This is not just about the law; what of conventions? When lawmakers sit at a beer parlour to impeach a Governor, would you also defend that? In Anambra, the Governor was impeached at 5. 30 am; in Plateau also in the night; every evil that has been committed ion this country has been done under the cover of darkness." "Every?" "Most, if that will make you comfortable" "Because I know one evil that is committed in the night, whose product is always a thing of joy." "I am talking about coups for example. Even the court that annulled the June 12, 1993 Presidential election sat at night; when politicians want to subvert any worthy cause, they hatch and design their plots at night" "But that Dariye sef, I expected him to stay and fight it out. But he took to his heels" "If you were in his shoes, would have waited to be arrested and handcuffed like a common criminal? He is fighting forces that are very powerful. The way things are now, once you are not in the good books of Aso Villa, just start packing your bags, because it doesn't matter what the law says, the same law will be used to remove you from office." "In that case, I know one man who is very lucky to be in the good book in Aso Villa." "Who is that?" "The INEC Chairman. The President has announced that he will not remove him, despite the failures being recorded in the current voters registration exercise" "Don't count on that. The same Baba once praised Ayo Fayose to high heavens. But now he says Fayose was a "mistake." The same Baba was once described as Peter Obi's Godfather. See what has happened to Peter Obi. Baba praised Tafa Balogun too. He also once praised Chief Audu Ogbeh. In fact, if Baba praises you, you better don't get carried away." "But he has not praised Iwu, he only says he has no plans to remove him" "I guess because Iwu and INEC are doing Baba's bidding. Do you know anybody who has been registered since the exercise started?" "No. Well, may be one person" " I haven't met anyone who has been registered and I move around quite a bit. The danger is that many people will be disenfrachised." "Suppose INEC decides to create special centres for those persons who may not be registered at the end of the present exercise. I believe there is a possible remedy." "Special voting centres? Is this a JAMB exam?" "Spot the difference, if you can" "What does it matter? I am only worried that public confidence in the electoral process is being eroded." "By the way, who do you think will emerge as the Presidential candidate in the various parties? "Candidly, I don't want to waste my time guessing. Let's wait for the results of the party primaries, and then we can begin to analyse the candidates. Before Christmas, the picture will be clear enough." "Hen hen. There is this story about the Law Reform Commission proposing a new law to prohibit bigamy." "The Criminal Code already prohibits bigamy" "But you know it is a dead law. It has never been tested." "There are one or two old cases on it. But you may be right to say that it is a dead law more or less." "The proposed new law is meant to awaken it, to give it bite, to deal with all you adventurous men who just want to acquire women, even when you are already married." "So it is a law against polygamy. Is that what the Law reform Commission should start with. They are not looking at the Evidence Act, the Land Use Act, the Petroleum Act, the laws dealing with rape and abortion, inheritance rights, citizenship etc, they are dabbling into marital issues." "There are actually two sides to the new law. First it prohibits child marriages. If you marry any lady below the age of 18 years, you are looking at two years imprisonment." "I agree. We need to protect our young women, and reduce the risk of Vesico-Vaginal Fistula (VVF) which is on the increase in the country. If it is possible to send lecherous old men who want to renew themselves with young girls to jail, there will be greater sanity in society." "Then secondly, the proposed law insists on monogamous marriages and brings both customary law and Islamic law marriages within the purview of the law on bigamy. Once you are married, you cannot go and marry another woman otherwise you go to jail. Five years, please." "Does the law make any distinction between marriage under the Act and other forms of marriage?" "I don't think so." "So, they want to stop polygamy? And what about Moslems who are allowed to marry more than one wife, provided they can provide for them, and love them equally?." "Bigamy is bigamy, please." "I think this is population control through the back door. And they just want to punish women. So, if a man goes to jail for five years for contracting another marriage, what happens to his children? Would the state provide for the children, while the man is being punished for bringing them to the world illegally?" "There are no illegitimate children in Africa please, there can only be illegitimate wives" "Look, I think we have more important things to worry about in this country than bigamy. What is the point waking up a law that nobody will use? The lawyers that will handle the case are all guilty, the judges who will sentence you to jail are guilty; if anybody goes to a police station with a matter like that, I am not too sure that she will receive attention. Why make a law that is against the people's culture? I can tell you in fact that Moslems will simply disregard the law if it ever succeeds." "May be what the law reform commission should do is to throw the issue open for debate." "Don't bother. The truth is that you never really know how many wives a man has until he dies. There have been real life cases of drama at the graveside when other women showed up with children belonging to the deceased. And you know such children tend to resemble their fathers, one look at them you would know their source." "But is that good? I think we should support a law that seeks to raise the level of public and private morality." "May be the womenfolk should be advised not to get involved with another woman's husband" "May be married men should be advised to stay with their wives."
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