News
Isienyi: Travails of lawmaker, as metaphor of Soludo’s Anambra!
By Sunny Igboanugo
Maduabuchi Bernard Udemezue, member representing Ayamelum Constituency in the Anambra State House of Assembly, was on Tuesday, August 26, 2025, suspended by his colleagues for reason of “unparliamentary conduct, inciting comments on social media, and abuse of legislative privileges.”
If anyone is surprised about this development, such a person must either be living in a cave, quite detached from human existence, or has become so tired of hearing the overwhelmingly bad vibes from Nigeria and decided to opt out of hearing more – if only to maintain some sanity.
In other words the person must have decided to block everything or deleted everything Nigeria completely not to understand the way we roll here. Otherwise, even a political imbecile knows the fate that awaits the lawmaker even before the hammer. Even Udemezue must have been aware of the impending fate. It would be surprising if he is not and more so if he is not prepared for the sure outcome. Nothing else could been the result of his audacious, if not “reckless” outings in recent times. It is akin to political hara-kiri.
The attempt to nail the fiery lawmaker, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), came via the report of the Committee on Rules, Business, Ethics and Privileges, which found him guilty of anti-parliamentary conducts following a motion of urgent public importance moved Tony Muobike and seconded by Jude Ngobili. The motion specifically accused him of using his social media platforms to make inciting comments capable of disturbing public peace and bringing disrespect to the Assembly.
Apart from the three-month suspension slammed on him during which he would barred from accessing any part of the Assembly complex, Udemezue was ordered to apologise to Somtochukwu Nkem Udeze, Speaker, and members of the House, both on his social media handles and through a written apology to them within five working days from Tuesday.
“That Hon. Bernard Udemezue should be subjected to various special sessions, training and or workshop on right parliamentary ethics, practice and duties. Members should conduct themselves properly as being guided by the Standing orders of the House, especially in public places. The social media space is not and cannot be an approved means or approach to conducting legislative business especially for a Legislator.”
Sounds familiar? Certainly! But valid as the reasons adduced for this step might look in the face of his utterances and particularly for allegedly snubbing the House by not appearing before them, anyone who believes the members acted independently must either be hollow, mischievous or living in denial.
The real reason for targeting him is that the lawmaker trod the forbidden path. Confronting the executive, no matter how slight it may seem, is the highest form of political sin anyone, particularly a legislator would commit in Nigeria. That was exactly what Udemezue, more of deliberately than inadvertently because, according to him, the governor drew a line in the sand for him and his colleagues on their boundaries from the outset.
Besides, he did not just speak passively, he drove his knife through the heart rather than the skin. In fact, anyone who wants to know the real issues bothering many Anambra people and their complaints regarding their state should listen to that outing in the social media. It covered quite a bunch, ranging from massive corruption, incompetence, impunity, nepotism, neglect to the outright belittling the Assembly and its members.
But in all the darts he threw, the greatest was his narrative on the murder of Justice Azuka, the lawmaker representing Onitsha North 1 constituency whose corpse was discovered at the Second Niger Bridge area on January 29th 2023, more than a month after he was abducted by his supposed assailants on December 24, the previous year.
He started with the question – “who killed Azuka?” It was a rhetorical question he posed his traducers. Then he went ahead to answer it. “The people that killed Azuka are those suspects who were arrested and later escaped from police. Have you told Ndi-Anambra the story of how they escaped?
Fleshing up his narratives, he told the world how on December 22, 2024, the slain lawmaker had come to Awka, the Anambra State capital to collect his rice allocation for the year’s Christmas and was never seen again.
Hear him: “I know who killed Azuka. Who killed Azuka are those suspects, who were arrested and later escaped from police custody. Have you told Ndi-Anambra how they managed to escape – the story of how they escaped – have you told Ndi-Anambra in details? Azuka came to Awka, 6.30 pm. He called me that he came to take his Christmas rice.
“On the 22nd of December, 2024, I was with Azuka late night and we were discussing something. He was the bridge that we needed to impeach the governor. We wanted to impeach him and we needed just one person. And we co-opted Azuka. We met on 22nd of December. On the 24th of December, you sent a message that the governor brought rice and the House members should come and take rice. Azuka came.
“Before he came, he didn’t call me. But when he came he called me and I said, why didn’t you tell me you were coming, I would have told you what was obtainable for you and what you were coming to take was one unit of 25kg of rice. I don’t know how you’re going to share it to your constituency. Maybe your constituents will come with small cups and you share it in grains to them. He then collected the rice from the House – one unit of 25kg of rice – for Christmas and not Easter or New Year but Almighty Christmas.
“What did you want our constituents to say to us? What did you want our constituents to do with us during Christmas. A person will visit Honourable and Honourable will not give him one bag of rice. That was your plan – to set us up against Ndi-Anambra. He collected the one bag of rice, he didn’t get home anymore!”
What could be more revealing, if not more damning? He had gone ahead to narrate how the members were denied their basic entitlements, declaring that but for his audacious move of coming to the Assembly with keke (tricycle), and the embarrassment it caused, the governor would not have considered giving them official vehicles.
He added: “Look at what they gave you. Do you have escorts for your protection? Why don’t you have escorts? The governor said we cannot afford to feed our escorts even if the state paid for us. Do you have aides? You making noise, do you have PAs? Is there a provision for you to have PAs as House member, is there a provision for you to have a driver?
“On the first meeting we had with the governor, what he told us was that we cannot impeach him, that he was the one who appointed the Chief Judge of the state. That if we try to impeach him, he will set up a committee and that committee will be set by him and he will appoint ‘Glamour’ as the head of the committee and we can now imagine the report he will bring if Glamour is the head of the committee. Glamour is the Chief of Protocol to the governor.
“He stripped us of our powers on the first day of meeting with him. He didn’t even call us to tell us this alone, he called all his commissioners to embarrass us before them. I left the hall. I was the only one that left the hall. All of you were there at the Golden Tulip. Your governor told you that you can’t impeach him, you can’t move motions. What then are you doing?
“How can you function? Everyday, motion of commendation. Did I come to the House of Assembly to do motion of commendation? The only thing we’re allowed to do, was motion of commendation. Motions are useless in the House, because we’re not allowed to move motions of request. We’re not allowed to move motions that reflect what our people need.
“You want me to move motions of commendation. What am I commending the governor for. I’m not from Aguata, I’m not Nnewi, I’m from Anyemelum. What has he done for me commend? I cannot move motions of commendation for the governor, he did nothing for my people. Let’s go on a debate. Let’s go on a debate.
“The roads you claim you’re doing, at what cost? You brought a scandalous budget to us that you wanted to do roads. You said it was because you wanted to give us stone-base with guarantee of minimum of 25 years lifespan. Ndi-Anambra, you all can confirm if these roads we’re seen that as they’re constructing they are collapsing, they’re mending – are they the roads you told us? Your roads have not lasted 25 months, they’ve collapsed. Shamefully!
“How far Dubai-Taiwan. Mr. Governor, you’re not trying! You no dey try. I’ll tell you what you don’t know. You said you wanted Digital Taxation. That we should no longer give money to Agberos by hand. Do you remember at your early stage, when you were newly elected. You brought my uncle all the way from Australia.
“You brought Christian Madubuko, a very bright human being. He came and said the answer is Digital taxation. Let them be using POS so that all the revenues will be coming to a single account. He gave that idea thinking you were sincere. But when he introduced that idea, before two weeks, didn’t you remove him? Didn’t you remove him as Director of Revenue?”
Now, with all these revelations, the only answer the House and its leadership has is to slam the lawmaker with suspension. That is their response to the highly critical issues he raised, which is at the heart of not only the current parlous situation in the state, but more so to the very survival of the people.
If anything, is it not surprising that till date, no credible explanation has been given about the case of Azuka? How far has the state gone in prosecuting his killers that are still in custody? How far with the re-arrest of those that have escaped? It is now more than six months when the entire state rolled out the drums to celebrate the feat of the arrest of the so-called culprits and Anambra people were promised that a new dawn had arrived.
How many people have gone the way of Azuka since those euphoric moments? These are the begging question. But then, you know that for the governor, the man sycophants call “Oluatuegwu” is busy basking in the drenching showers of praise-singers who tell him that he is the best next thing that happened since scientists discovered the cure for malaria to bother about the continuous drenching of the land with the blood of many more Azukas. What a tragedy!
Igboanugo is the Director, Media and Publicity, John Chuma Nwosu Governorship Campaign Council for the African Democratic Congress (ADC)
Justice Centus Nweze was one of the seven S’Court justices that gave the judgement sacking Emeka Ihedioha and pronouncing Hope Uzodinma Governor of Imo State on January 14, 2020.
He later recanted when Ihedioha returned to the same court and declared that Uzodinma was no longer fit and proper to be governor – the only one out of the seven to hold a different view out of the seven-man panel in a dissenting judgement.
These were his exact words on March 3, 2020, with which he emphasised his position after disavowing his earlier position, to capture the impact and import of that event: “The decision of Nigeria’s Supreme Court on the Imo governorship election is wrong and will continue to haunt our (Nigeria’s) electoral jurisprudence for a long time to come.”
But, on Monday, February 6, 2023, Nweze himself, was to lead the same Supreme Court to give another highly controversial judgement – one – legal purists considered no less impactful and damaging to Nigeria’s legal jurisprudence.
It was the 3-2 Supreme Court decision that paved the way for Ahmad Lawan, former Senate President, to return to the Senate, despite being supposedly barred by an existing law forbidding politicians to contest for two different positions in an election circle.
Recall that Lawan, was one of the candidates that contested for the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC), a few months earlier, which was eventually won by Bola Ahmed Tinubu, now President of Nigeria.
Many had practically laughed it off, dismissing him as a jester, when he returned with a fresh struggle for the Yobe North ticket for the Senate under the same APC.
But it turned out that the real joke was on these naysayer, who taunted, mocked and even pilloried the former Nigeria’s number three citizen, because in the end, he came out thumbing his chest and shinning his teeth in triumph.
Reason! On Monday, February 6, 2023, the Supreme Court practically wrenched the APC ticket from Bashir Machina, who had earlier picked it at the APC primaries months earlier and handed same over to Lawan.
Guess whom the mantle fell on to read the lead-judgement? The selfsame Nweze, who made the statement above. With two others in support, he went ahead to decapitate the decision of the Court of Appeal, which had earlier thrown into the thrash-can Lawan’s appeal to a Federal High Court decision slamming his claim to the ticket.
Interestingly, Lawan, seemed too ashamed to continue with the matter after the attempt at the appellate court collapsed. He had to hide under the umbrella of the APC, who appealed on his behalf to get the judgement at the apex court.
But you know what? On July 30, 2023, Centus Nweze, died! Just barely six months after the outing. He was just 64 – six years shy of age of retirement for Nigerian judges.
Now, the story. A little message-bearing-bird, squealed that the late eminent jurist didn’t die a happy man.
The establishment was said to have moved in to make him eat his words for stepping out of line in the Uzodinma case. The decision was supposed to be unanimous and giving a dissenting judgement was an affront – more like challenging the gods!
The Lawan outing was the height of teaching him a lesson on how to play ball next time. And play ball he did!
He was procured to read the lead judgement as a way to punish his impudence, underscore his vulnerability and prove where the real power laid.
An erudite scholar, judicial perfectionist and purist of the highest order, whose track record was known beyond the judicial circle, he not only became a wreck thereafter, and unable to live with his conscience, he apparently died a broken man.
Now, it is hard to authenticate this. Nweze is no longer alive to tell his story. But it all the same points as an indicator to the fact that a lot of water passes under the bridge in the nation’s high places, including the judiciary.
Were Nweze alive today, may be one day, in his memoir or other places, Nigeria could read the true story of what actually happened with Lawan, with powerful forces and with intimidation. But do we even need to go that far?
In which other country of the world has the homes of judges been burst open in the middle of the night – many still in their underpants or completely in their birthday suits?
In which other country, has the Chief Judge of the country suffered the fate meted out to Walter Onnoghen by the executive branch of government? Did we not see these with our own eyes?
Has Nigeria been the same ever since? So, if you looked around today and you didn’t find the Kayode Esos, Chukwudifu Oputas, Niki Tobis et al, who looked the military in the face and dispensed justice according to law, who do you blame?
Who is the culprit if the only people who you see are those who receive keys to mansions and sing lustfully – On Your Mandate We Shall Stand? Through where did water enter the coconut?
My name is Sunny Igboanugo, I’m The Tiny Voice!
After a groundswell of outraged from many Nigerians the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Friday, said it is putting forward the proposed nationwide voter revalidation exercise until after the 2027 general election.
Mohammed Haruna, spokesman of the commission, said in a statement, explained that the decision to shelve the move came from a meeting it held with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs).
Haruna, National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, said in the statement: “The proposed nationwide voter revalidation exercise was considered during the meeting, after which it resolved to postpone the exercise until after the 2027 General Election.”
Explaining the rationale for the exercise, which Joash Amopitan, INEC Chairman, said was initiated during the tenure of Mahmoud Yakubu, his predecessor, the commission, stressed that the exercise remained a “vital component” of its mandate to maintain a credible and up-to-date National Register of Voters.
The statement, added: “It is designed to verify and review existing voter records, ensure the accuracy of personal data, eliminate duplicate and ineligible entries, and strengthen the overall integrity of the voter register. The exercise also aims to provide an opportunity for registered voters to confirm their details and make necessary corrections where required.”
Reaffirming its commitment to delivering “free, fair, credible, and inclusive elections,” noting that the postponement is aimed at ensuring a smooth build-up to the 2027 polls, the commission said the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), it had initiated, would run from April 2026 to January 2027, alongside the ongoing deployment of technologies like BVAS and a hybrid results transmission system.
Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), will favour a situation where Nigerian courts will no longer leave the interpretation of their orders to either parties in a dispute or the public at large, rather than making them as direct and clear as possible.
Afam Osigwe, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), President of the body, told his host on Politics Today, a public affairs programme on Channels Television that courts must avoid the use of complex phrases in their rulings.
Against the backdrop of the diverse interpretations being adduced by parties, lawyers and Nigerians to the order of the Court of Appeal that parties to the legal dispute in the African Democratic Congress (ADC), should maintain status quo ante bellum, the NBA boss, explained that it resulted from the use of the Latin maxim rather than a clear and unambiguous order to prevent confusion and misinterpretation.
Hear him: “I think, considering the confusion that is arising in our body polity in recent times, our courts should not make orders using such Latin maxims like status quo ante bellum or pendente lite.
“The court should make clear orders as to what it means so that there is no ambiguity. It (status quo ante bellum) creates confusion. We have rendered it almost meaningless.
“It has been stripped of any clear meaning, so our courts should avoid using such phrases and instead specify what orders they are making so that nobody will be left in doubt, and no administrative body will have to interpret it and try to give its own decision on it.”
Stressing on the use of the Latin phrase that means the situation as it existed before the war, the NBA president further stated that vague court orders often led to multiple interpretations, with different parties claiming victory.
“I see situations where people go away rejoicing that the order was in their favour, thereby giving room for mischief or for anybody to interpret it the way they want.
“Where a court has chosen to make an order, it should state clearly what it has set out to do and not hide behind any Latin maxims,” Osigwe added.
Arguing that while such expressions might not pose challenges in other jurisdictions, where laws were not deliberately disfigured, the Nigerian peculiar environment had made them not only confusing but difficult to apply in resolution of disputes.
Centus Nweze (JSC): Death of legal purist, irony of Nigerian judiciary
After public outcries, INEC recants, shelves voter-revalidation move
Stop using Latin phrases, make clear, unambiguous orders – NBA tells courts
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