Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, was on Friday, August 23, 2024, inaugurated as the 19^th Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) – Nigeria Judicial Council (NJC) record. She is the 18^th Nigerian to occupy the position, down from Justice Adetokunbo Ademola, who took the first shot, as the first Nigerian from 1958 to 1972, having taken over from Justice Stafford Foster Sutton, a Briton, the first Nigerian CJN, who occupied it between 1955 to 1958. She is also the second woman to occupy the position after Justice Mariam Aloma-Muktar – 2012-2014.

Apparently to underscore how important the assignment was, President Bola Tinubu, who jetted out to France in his new Presidential aircraft on Monday, August 19, had to return to the country to perform the swearing-in ceremony, at the State House, Abuja, before hundreds of eyes from the Nigerian judiciary and millions of Nigerians watching the event.

Armed with Masters degree in law, from the London School of Economic and Political Science in November 1983, Kekere-Ekun, was pulled out in December 1989. From private practice where she was a lawyer from 1985 to 1989, she moved to the bench, beginning as a Senior Magistrate Grade II, in the Lagos State Judiciary in December 1989, and later appointed a judge of the High Court of Lagos State on July 19, 1996.

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There, she served as Chairman, Robbery and Firearms Tribunal, Zone II, Ikeja, Lagos, from November 1996 to May 1999, from where she was elevated to the Court of Appeal on 22nd September 2004, serving in various divisions of the court and as presiding justice of two divisions of the court (Makurdi & Akure) in 2021 and 2023, respectively. She finally made it to the Supreme Court of Nigeria as the fifth female justice of the court, on Monday, July 8, 2013.

What this means is that the new CJN is not bereft. She has history behind her and plenty of experience to boot – experience picked up both in the classrooms, where she was equipped with adequate knowledge, and in practice, where she honed it for the past 39 years. It then means what comes out of her office as the head of the judiciary, henceforth, is deliberate. Her actions and deliverables cannot be a function of inexperience or lack of knowledge.

Why do we emphasise on this? Simple! The Nigerian judiciary she is taking over is in complete tatters – a mess – desolate, dishevelled and disgraced. Incidentally, she is part of that awful history, and in some cases, directly responsible for why many Nigerians turn away their faces and cover their nostrils at the very mention of that arm of government, especially in the years of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Not that other arms of government – the executive and the legislature are better in any way. But the emphasis on the judiciary is because of its superintending powers over the other two. The judiciary, apart from possessing the power of life and death, so to speak, also has the power of redemption, not only to tame other powers, but to heal the society.

Till the end of humanity, long after the bodies of the present generation must have completely decayed and manured the earth, the name of Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, would always be mentioned as the lead-judge that delivered that notorious judgement, which made Hope Uzodimma the Governor of Imo State on January 14, 2020, catapulting him from the number four to the first position in the original rating by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

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Now, it does not matter, neither does it redeem the situation, whether the erudite jurist delivered the judgement according to law as it is, which many in the legal profession, could argue is The Justice. What matters more is how much justice has been done and is seen to have been done to the society. In other words, how much did that particular outing, satisfy the three-way traffic concept of justice – justice to the accused, justice to the accuser and justice to the society, so poignantly made by the late Chukwudifu Oputat, Justice of the Supreme Court (JSC), as he then was?

Put differently, how did that judgement satisfy the dictum in law that justice must not only be done, but seen to have been done? That was the contentious issue in the Imo case and many other cases in the Nigerian judicial system in recent years, particularly in the APC years and more particularly in last year’s general elections and even in the latest cases – Imo, Kogi, Bayelsa, governorship election cases that were decided by the apex court on Friday, the same day the new CJN was inaugurated.

Even non-lawyers, these days, have come to terms with the fact that law in itself has two components – the letters of the law and the spirit of the law. But over the recent years, the Nigerian courts seem to have concentrated on the former and completely ignored the latter. Court verdicts taper more on technicalities to cushion nagging questions, rather than answer them.

That is why the pronouncements of the courts, particularly the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) and the Supreme Court in the last presidential election cases, have at the best, remained suspicious, while at the worst, totally dismissed as horrifying. It is because neither the original court nor the apex court, answered the basic questions, based on the actual winner of the election, based on examination of figures, but merely relied on technicalities in deciding the cases.

That is why we find it gratifying that the new CJN is thinking about restoring judicial integrity as one of her priorities. What is more? The adverse public feeling about the judiciary, would have been mitigated if it is coming from ordinary members of the society not counted as “learned.” But when such is coming from as high as Musa Dattijo Muhammad (JSC), who, in fact retired as second in command to Kayode Ariwoola, the immediate past CJN, it is no longer a function of ignorance.

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Now that Kekere-Ekun, has vowed to take up the matter, we recommend that she visits that classic treatise of October 27, 2023, where the retired erudite jurist, in his valedictory address, all but agreed with the public perception that the judiciary is oozing the stench of corruption, sleaze, and mismanagement.

“Well, my expectation is that we will take the judiciary to higher heights. The reputation that it has, we will improve it. We will make sure that people have more confidence in the judiciary. I believe that it’s not a one man job, we all have to be on board. And because we all see where the areas are that need improvement, I believe that there will be cooperation, because we all want to see a better judiciary.

“A better judiciary is for the benefit of the entire nation. Whatever the shortcomings that we see today, we’re all members of the society. So if you want to see improvement, let the improvement start with each and every one of us and our approach to justice. Let us also have faith in the system.” These were her words after taking her oath of office on Friday.

What could more comforting. Some people have actually claimed that her appointment is to continue where her predecessors left and complete what they left behind. Nigerians will be waiting to see where the wind blows. Luckily for her, the Nigerian Senate is a rubber-stamp institution. So, nobody expects any sort of hiccups regarding her confirmation.

But, as William Shakespeare, once wrote – the purest treasures mortal times afford, is a spotless reputation. The misgivings about her previous outings could actually be excused by the argument that she was under some hierarchical leash in the apex court and could therefore be beholding to some powers therein. Now, she has no such constraints. She is now in charge. It is left to her to swim or sink. Her decision! We wish her luck.

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“To those who have taken undue advantage of this situation to threaten any section of this country, be warned: The law will catch up with you. There is no place for ethnic bigotry or such threats in the Nigeria we seek to build.  Our democracy progresses when the constitutional rights of every Nigerian are respected and protected.

“Our law enforcement agencies should continue to ensure the full protection of lives and properties of innocent citizens in a responsible manner.  My vision for our country is one of a just and prosperous nation where each person may enjoy the peace, freedom, and meaningful livelihood that only democratic good governance can provide – one that is open, transparent and accountable to the Nigerian people.”

These were the exact words with which President Bola Tinubu, reacted to the heightened ethnic threats directed against Ndigbo in Lagos, led by the Lagospedia, a group using the hashtag – #Igbo-Must-Go, in his nationwide broadcast on Sunday, August 4, 2024. It was part of the President’s official clapback to the 10-day nationwide protests against his government to call attention to the biting hunger in the land occasioned by what the promoters link to the bad policies the administration has been churning out since its advent on May 29, 2023.

From the outset, we, at WhirlwindNews.com.ng, finds the President’s declaration as outrightly pretentious and utterly hypocritical. At best, it is an uncanny attempt to hoodwink the people or a gambit to whitewash a sordid situation. In other words, the President is clearly playing to the gallery, an art, which he seems to have perfected in his well-strung political history that has eventually landed him at Nigeria’s number one job.

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This ignoble campaign against Ndigbo did not just happen. It is the outcome of a progressive political strategy, which has gained a lot of verve in recent years, particularly since Tinubu found new political alliance outside his hitherto Igbo friends. As Governor of Lagos State, Tinubu had pitched his tent with Ndigbo as chummy political bedfellows.

He not only brought them in as part of his government, but as true allies in many of his other engagements, including his war with the Federal Government of President Olusegun Obasanjo. That he survived as the only governor that returned for a second term in 2023 on the platform of Alliance for Democracy (AD), was partly against the backdrop of this alliance.

So, what changed? His alliance with Buhari! That relationship changed everything. The formation of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was hinged on one central philosophy – anti-Igbo. It was clear to every discerning observer that there was nothing for the Igbo in the party.

Two factors could have led to it – Buhari’s anti-Igbo sentiments, founded on the issues that led to the civil war and even after. Remember that Femi Fani-Kayode, had revealed how the former President allegedly told him that he would never forgive Ndigbo for killing Northern leaders. Should that be true, then it would have followed and accounted for why his APC government adopted the marginalisation of the South East as a state policy.

The second factor, could also be the prevailing feeling in certain quarters that the subsisting administration of then President Goodluck Jonathan, was more or less a high-decked Igbo government to the advantage of others, based on the strategic offices their people occupied and the fact of the massive support the former President enjoyed from the South East zone.

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But whatever it was, the fact of this sentiment, and somewhat retaliation, was evident in the distribution of the APC offices where the key positions were farmed out to the other zones to the exclusion of the South East. Even when the late Ogbonnaya Onu, then National Chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and Rochas Okorocha, Governor of Imo State elected on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), donated their structures to the party, it did not change anything.

So, it emerged that out of all the key positions in the party – National Chairman, National Secretary and even National Publicity Secretary, all went to different zones, leaving the South East with only such mundane and insipid offices as National Organising Secretary and National Treasurer.

It was even more apparent in official government structure   – President, Vice President, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Justice of the Federation (CJN), Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF). The South East, the third leg of the Nigerian tripod never came close to any of these positions in Buhari’s eight years in office.

It is obvious that the plate has not changed as Tinubu, Buhari’s successor, appears bent on sustaining it. In fact, the highest position of the Igbo today is lowly Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives. Imagine! Even under Buhari, the South East even managed to get a better deal at a point in Deputy Senate President.

So, the current campaign in Lagos, is girded with shield and armour from higher, very powerful quarters – as powerful as the Presidency – right before Tinubu’s nose. Therefore, if any, the measures to tackle it must start from the President himself. No more no less! No one should therefore be deceived.

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Nobody should  really be surprised about the life and death bent the tendency has now assumed. For the APC and the government it controls since 2015, what this means is that the very day Ndigbo cease to be the fall-guy during elections, the APC government will come to an abrupt end. It is that simple.

Even a political imbecile knows that APC is finished in Lagos as it were. The party has withdrawn all its deposits with the people. What is left is a huge deficit. It is so, more out of the peoples’ weariness with the party rather than performance. In other words, even if the government in power lines the entire street with gold in terms of performance, the party will still lose in any free and fair election. People are simply tired of seeing the same face daily.

This much was demonstrated in the 2023 presidential election. In the February 25 poll, this message was delivered to the party in clear terms when it scored less than 15 per cent of the votes. Forget what was officially recorded to them by the electoral umpire. That dismal outing was actually not a verdict against President Bola Tinubu, its candidate as it was for the weariness of the people towards the party.

Now, the phenomenon of hitherto popular political parties losing elections is not peculiar. It is indeed normal. That is why in the US, the Democrats would be in power for a period only for the Republicans to take over. The UK has just had their own change of guards a few weeks ago, when Rishi Sunak, of the Conservative Party, had to give way to Kier Starmer of the Labour Party.

The African National Congress (ANC), had to reach out to the Democratic Alliance (DA), its sworn enemy recently, after losing its hitherto comfortable parliamentary majority to form a coalition government, as a result of the gradual, but steady loss of the vice grip on voters in South Africa over the years. Reason? Same weariness of the people. In Ghana, Nigeria’s West African neighbours, it is usually a relay race between the New Peoples Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

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However, the difference is that in Nigeria, the government in power never allows this natural change in the feeling of the people to occur. They see it as an affront that their authority to rule forever is either questioned or threatened. That is the sin of Ndigbo in Lagos. They are seen as the tool through which this obvious change will occur at Alausa and the strategy is to put them down to ensure that it does not happen. Who is the culprit? Simple – APC!

That the intensity of the campaign against Ndigbo reached its fever-pitch in the 2023 governorship election after the massive trouncing of Tinubu in the presidential race is therefore not surprising. Even if the APC is aware that the number of Igbo people in Lagos could not have conduced that shameful outcome, its members know enough not to place the blame where it really belongs, but have to create an imaginary enemy – Ndigbo as the fall-guy.

The late Lateef Jakande, never had to pass that route because he was sure that he could afford to go to sleep and even snore on the day of election and still wake up to claim victory despite the huge presence of the same Ndigbo in Lagos. Why? The momentum was with him! His time was even during the most intense political rivalry between Nnamdi Azikiwe an Igbo and Obafemi Awolowo, a Yoruba. Besides, the Baba Kekere, as he was known, had a different mindset altogether.

Apart from weaning himself of itchy fingers in government, which is one of the greatest flaws of the new helmsmen today and using the resources of the state to work for the people, he also knew how to apply himself to his enemy territory and seduce them. Jakande, it was, who actually described Lagos as a no-man’s land – a positive indicator to attract more people and the concomitant investment to develop the state.

To prove the veracity of his mindset, Igbo people won the Jakande low-cost houses he built, just like their Yoruba counterparts, Igbo children enjoyed full free education with the Yoruba, Alaba Market, a vast area of land were allocated to Ndigbo to do their trading, just as Alaba Rago was given to the Hausa people as market for their animals. Nobody ever heard that Ndigbo ever wanted to take over Yoruba land or were disrespecting the Yoruba culture, whatever that means.

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What have we been saying? Tinubu was merely being clever by half by that declaration. He not only knows the truth about the anti-Igbo campaign, he knows the culprits. One of them is Bayo Onanuga, who he sees every day. Even if he does not know the faces behind the Lagospedia group, he has the tool to fish them out quickly.

Fredrick Nwajagu, the embattled Ezeigbo of Ajao Estate, was picked up in a matter of hours and charged with treason by the authorities in the same Lagos. Yet, all he did was threatening to invite the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB)  – not to attack anybody – but to protect Igbo properties in Lagos. Certainly, that offence could not be compared to the damage of a probable genocide on a group of people as the recent threat indicates.

This is also true of the government of Babajide Sanwo-Olu. Last week, Obafemi Hamzat, his deputy, was on television denying knowledge of the patrons of the evil campaign and even swore that he was not aware of the variant provided by Onanuga, which was everywhere in the social media immediately after the onslaught against Ndigbo in Lagos during the March 18 governorship election.

Might well be that he is not even aware of how to get to Ketu from Alausa. But whatever happens, the agelong message present in the no-condition-is-permanent inscription on the back of the gwongworo truck remains quite germane. Some 20 years ago, Tinubu and many of those dishing out hemlock to Ndigbo were fugitives running away from Sani Abacha, Nigeria’s erstwhile military despot. Today, they are on the same seat. Tomorrow, nobody knows who would be there.

Igbo people have lost assets worth billions of naira since this onslaught. On the heels of the governorship election, Akere motor parts market went up in flames. Some other markets have also suffered similar fate. Choice edifices belonging to Ndigbo have been pulled down under one guise or the other under official cover. To say that Ndigbo have really suffered under the APC government in Lagos is a huge understatement.

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Our position! Ndigbo must never be under any illusion that their battle is against the Yoruba. It is completely an APC onslaught. It is their strategy. They should remember that their progenitors were here before the present actors. Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu, had built the Apapa Wharf long before Sanwo-Olu was born. Ndigbo had interacted with the Yoruba and done business with them even before amalgamation of the Nigerian North and South more than 100 years ago.

What they are facing now is just a phase, which must come to an end at a point no matter how long it lasts. For the APC and their goons, stopping a change is akin to standing on the way of a moving train. It is an impossible act. Their attempt to hold on to power forever and by other means is futile. It will come to an end one day and the true owners will regain it. Those true owners are not going to be Ndigbo, but the people of Lagos.

In this regard, if Ndigbo must leave Lagos, it will be by their own accord and not by cajolement. Bode George, elder stateman perhaps captured the true message when he described Lagos as a melting pot of the Nigerian polity, just like New York is to the US. A guest on The Morning Show, a breakfast programm on Arise News Television, he had wondered how a man from Ogun State would be threatening Ndigbo to leave Lagos.

What this means is to further strengthen the point that the Igbo-must-go threat is not a Yoruba affair. It is a project the real patrons must take ownership of. If it bears repeating, we say so unequivocally. A government that is worse than Buhari’s in terms of nepotism, particularly against Ndigbo cannot turn around and disassociate itself from their current ordeals. Tinubu has given Ndigbo more than a raw deal. Let the redemption begin from the Presidential Villa.

When the mother goat is chewing the cod the kids are watching the movement of its jaws. The Igbo haters know where they derive their powers. To effect the desired change, Tinubu not only knows where to look to fish out the culprits, he knows what to do thereafter! Nobody is deceived. Anything else is not only buck-passing, but hypocrisy!

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Last week, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was heavily assailed for displaying the most brazing show of nepotism, one of the major characteristics that have shaped his government since coming into power on May 29, 2023, when he came out with a record 16 appointments, almost all them coming from the South West, from where he hails.

Yes, a record, because by that brazen and outrageous action, he simply concerned the pedigree of his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari to the dustbin of history. Not even the former President was that audacious even with his proclivity for brushing aside the feelings of Nigeria with some unique haughty and cavalier attitude.

Out of the lot, six of the positions were shared between North East, North West and North Central, while the South West, took the remaining 10. South East and South South, were completely left out. Were this particular outing only a clear show of impunity – you can go to hell posture, which has equally marked the Federal Government under Tinubu – it would have been more endurable. But it underscored the President’s brazen rape of the Constitution of Nigeria, particularly the Federal Character principle, one of its basic foundations.

To be sure, Section 14 (3) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, which captures the Federal Character principles clearly says: The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the Federal Character of Nigeria and to promote National Unity and also command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few state or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in the government or any of its agencies – meaning that no part of the country, section, group, be it ethnic, geographical or religious, should be allowed to dominate the other part. Period.

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So, from where did Tinubu derive the powers to make 16 clear appointments in Nigeria without any of them going to the South East, or South South, particularly when the country presents a six-region structure? Clearly none! The only available reason is impunity – a terribly licentious mindset, tapering towards effrontery, if not impudence.

But, were it just a case of impunity, it would not have presented the massive danger Nigeria is clearly fast galloping towards. But it is clearly not. The parlous situation has taken a more dangerous dimension. The situation has become quite eerier, ominous and threatening with the introduction of that ruinous phenomenon – despotism.

The events of this week with regards to Ali Ndume, former Chief Whip of the Senate is the measuring tape that clearly indicates so. The wise ones of old would advise the blacksmith confused about the shape of a metal gong to study the tail of kite. The onslaught against the Senator, is a clear case of intolerance, the manure for despotism, the springboard for dictatorship, the monster that destroys both humans and nations.

What was the offence of the Borno Senator that would warrant his being stripped of his position as a principal officer of the Senate? Answer! He carried out his duty as the Chief Whip of the Senate, by squealing on a clear impending danger he saw for his All Progressive Congress (APC), and its government and Nigeria to boot.

From his account, while appearing as a guest of Prime Time, a public affairs programme on Arise News Television, he had narrated how he tried to gain access to the President, to alert him of massive discontent of Nigerians, who have reached the nadir of poverty that the only option available to them would be to react in such a manner that could not only implode the country but possesses the capacity of a cataclysmic eruption that could imperil not only the government, but the country as whole.

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Imagine the reply he got from the gatekeepers at the Presidency, who denied him access? He was told that the complaints were coming from members of the opposition. Yes! That was the response. Imagine someone saying at this period in Nigeria, where citizens are about to eat each other that the deafening rumble of empty stomachs are mere indications of the opposition agitation. Just imagine! The Senator  must have attempted again and again and met the same closed doors, before deciding to go public.

So, when he described such gatekeepers and those they were obviously serving as khakistocrats and kleptocrats, who could fault him? Only such degenerate characters could conjure such uncaring, hard-hearted, callous mentality, as to give the obtuse and insipid dismissal of what constitutes a clear danger to a nation.

Now, what did he get in return for his efforts? For crying out and for pointing out at the clear danger, his comeuppance was bullying from his party, his colleagues at the Senate, and who knows who else? Surely, if night is certain to beget the day, it is clear that the last may not have been heard of his current ordeal.

But, should Nigerians keep silent at a time like this? Should compatriots stand hands akimbo and watch these evil elements lead the President to boldly either break the law of the land so blatantly as with his clear acts of nepotism or ignore the danger signal of an impending calamity? Have citizens become so complacent that all they now do is to support their jaws with their hands in utter helplessness? Have they been so reduced as to hide themselves in their individual cocoons, and be concerned to bemoaning, bewailing and lamenting the present state of affairs in private? Certainly no!

That was the bold statement, Ndume made last week. By alerting the nation that the President has been caged at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, by an irresponsible cabal – a syndicate that perpetrates its actions in darkness, the Senator from Borno South, has released the battle-cry. The rest is for Nigerians to act in such a manner as to rouse Tinubu to the dangers he is being dragged.

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Ndume, was very clear about the motive of these dangerous elements. They are a group of vested interests – fifth columnists with a clear agenda – to pillage the Nigerian commonwealth and despoil the national till – no more no less. Incidentally, because the stake is so high, they will do everything to fight back. What happened at the Senate on Wednesday, was just a tip of the iceberg of their capacity to fight back.

On the heals of Ndume’s ordeal, Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the February 25, 2023 election, also spoke out on Thursday, calling the nation to alertness about Tinubu’s steady transmutation towards despotism, and warning of the dangers to not only the democratic structure of Nigeria, but to the welfare of the citizens, as a result.

Only a political imbecile would guess the dangers a society could plunge into in the hands of dictators. The world is replete with examples of them and how their degenerations not only began, but were sustained. Those alarming signals are quite evident in the same manner things are obviously playing out in Nigeria today. It is usually a function of evil advisers putting fears into their patrons of imaginary enemies lurking around, either seeking to harm them or take away their powers.

For that reason, such patrons simply flip overboard and commit every imaginable act to protect themselves and their positions. As they sink deeper into the morass of insecurity propelled by the continuous fear-mongering amplification of the evil voices around them, they become more vulnerable and more vicious in their bid to contain their enemies until they eventually end up annihilating both themselves and the ground they labour hard to protect.

Indeed, anybody that knows the Tinubu as governor of Lagos State, would just be as worried as Ndume, because it is obvious that the imagery of the jovial, open-hearted, go-go democrat is being replaced by something quite sinister. The fact that he could make 16 clear appointments in a country like Nigeria and deliberately leave out the areas he did indicates a bad omen. Tinubu of old would never have committed such political hara-kiri. That he did suggests that either he has been inebriated by the force of absolute power, which according to Lord John Acton, the 19th century English bishop, corrupts absolutely, or he truly under the control of the evil forces Ndume spoke about. Either way, the situation calls for rescue.

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