'Lagos,Lagos, Where Are Thy (High Court) Judges? By Adesina Ogunlana

Vol.13.No3  (12-11-12)

A saying may be popular, perhaps very popular; that however does not validate its veracity. A maxim may have spawned from time immemorial, and be quite memorable, but those realities cannot vouch for its truth content.

I gave an example. When you ask people, what is it that does not succumb to change, the invariable answer is “only change does not change” or “only change is permanent” or “no condition is permanent?”

The answer is popular and universal but so so wrong. After all there is one other THING that does not change, and in fact cannot change.

And, ladies and gentlemen, I respectfully mention HIS name, God…………. Oyigiyigi Eledumare, Atererekariaye 

God does not change. His ways are immutable. In the days of yore, He spoke to people and people heard HIS voice.

I tell you the Good Lord still speaks to people, or situations and some other people are privileged or very fortunate to be given the right of spectating and others the liberty of reportage.

This columnist falls to the last category and so I must my duty do. A few days ego, some geckos who monitor the skyscape, and are known as either “Open Heavens Geckos (OHG)” or “Inter-galaxy Geckos (IGG)” bore witness to the following fabulous lines.

According to my “OHG”  or “IGG” reporters, Lagos State (hereinafter referred to as Lagos) was in deep slumber in the night of 5^th November 2012 when a voice, the voice, that voice in a melodious but penetrating boom enquired- : “Lagos, Lagos, where are thy Judges?”

Now Lagos was a heavy sleeper. Her legs sprawled on the Mainland, the torso rested on the Lagoon while her head nestled on the Atlantic. She stirred but did not immediately come out of the stupor of her slumber.

THE VOICE: (booming deeper) Lagos, Lagos, I say where are thy Judges?

LAGOS: (jumping up in numbed puzzle and frozen fright) “Good morning Sir. Good morning Lord of Lords.

THE VOICE: Lagos! Lagos! Lagos! Where are thy Judges?

LAGOS: (now up-standing and quaking) My Lord, Lord of Lords, the Owner of the Day of Judgement, they are in Gabon sir, sorry they are in Gambia sir, ah, so sorry sir, they are in Canada sir.

THE VOICE: All your judges are not in Nigeria? Why, why, speak, for I your Lord heareth!

LAGOS: (now a bit calmer and less afraid) My Lord, Lord of Lords my judges went on a training course, so that they can know more and do their job better.

THE VOICE: Really? Are they student-judges? Are they newly appointed judges?

LAGOS: (her fear returning) No my Lord but, but judges are better off with continuous education.

THE VOICE: Were you not supposed, to appoint the wise as judges in the first place?

LAGOS: Yes my Lord.

THE VOICE: Did you?

LAGOS: Em, em, em,em, Not all of them are wise my Lord but I had to appoint those others because, because, em, em, em, because…

THE VOICE: Because of what? You mean you fear and give respect to the wishes of mortals above my commands that only the wise and the just should be appointed judges over their fellow men? By the way how many judges did you take to EUROPE for “more education?

LAGOS: Em, em, about fifty Sir

THE VOICE:  How many are their teachers?

LAGOS: The Chief Judge said they are just about six, my Lord.

THE VOICE:  Lagos! Lagos! You mean you took 50 students to meet 6 teachers, in a foreign land. Would it not have been much easier, cheaper and better to bring 6 teachers to meet 50 students here?

LAGOS: (shaking uncontrollably?) My Lord, My Lord.

THE VOICE: The students you took to meet teachers, is it not true that you will pay them “estacode” “disturbance allowance” “out-of-station allowance,” yet they went to receive knowledge?

LAGOS: Ah My Lord, My Lord.

THE VOICE: Lagos! Lagos! Is this trip of ‘special students’ to the foreign land not costing you up to 150 million naira?

LAGOS: Ah My Lord, My Lord

THE VOICE: In a state like yours where poverty is grinding for many of your people, is this the best way to spend the money and the sweat of your people?

LAGOS:  My Lord, My Lord

THE VOICE: Lagos! Lagos! I ask you - this special trip of special students is it really a journey in search of education or an avenue for a jamboree or a junket?

LAGOS: My Lord, My Lord

THE VOICE: (In a thundering, roar) Stop Milording me! I am the Lord and I am no respecter of persons. I am slow to anger but sure to punish all injustice, all inequalities.

The groans and the cries of the multitude of the poor in your midst have reached my ears. You help the rich to get richer and make the poor, poorer. You increase the comfort of the rich but you make the poor to shed more tears.

I am the God of Justice. I am the God of Justice. I am the God of Justice.

LAGOS: (terrified to stupefaction, lay prostrate on the ground, in a faint).

'Gateway to What' By Adesina Ogunlana

The average or do we say ‘normal’ human being, naturally craves the good life. Now, what is the good life? The answer, you get, I guess will differ from various respondents. Certainly the Epicurean’s understanding of the Good Life will hardly match the Stoic’s talk less the Socratic’s or the Cynic’s.

However I think I can reasonably speak for the class of the people slapped about, trod upon and generally stigmatized as ‘the common man.’ After all, I am and have always been a member of the much said pilloried class.

 

The common man’s idea of the G.L is the one that easily assures him of a constant gratification of his appetites and the attendent vain glories and vanities. The common man wants to have the satisfaction of salacious meals, thrilling kindling, rippling riches that provide beyond basic necessaries of life but luxuries that flatter the ego, warm the cockles, swell the pride and make man mistake mere terra firma for the clime celestial.

In ages past, where might more brazenly spoke, the good life could be acquired by brutal force and brutish might. But no longer, except you are a king-pin in a banana republic or a king-kong in a rapidly fading state.

In these times, you need more subtlety than brawn to succeed at getting the good life. In Nigeria there are many sensible ways of getting the good life such as becoming:

a high level politician and national or state or local government ‘cake-minder.’

a ‘yahoo-yahoo’ wonder specialist.

a prosperity minister and miracle worker.

a mega-bank owner.

a repentant militant turned oil-pipe ‘protector.’

 

All the above options are good but offer a lot of stress. There are, I tell you, less stressful ways of getting the good life, at least in obodo Nigeria.

I tell you one - try and become a high court judge in Lagos State. You just try and you will see what will become of your purse in a short-while. You may be a struggling private legal practitioner now, struggling to pay your cribbed office rent, struggling to pay staff salaries, struggling to maintain your car, struggling to maintain your children in school, struggling to develop a property. In short, struggling to keep afloat.

You may be a miserable state counsel now, don’t mind those big and deceptive titles they add to your ‘state counselship,’ “Rat na Rat.” As far I know  the only titles worth their ring in the Ministry of Justice belong to the Generals, to wit, the Atannije-General and the Solisuitor-General.

As a state counsel we all know your life of civil service salary struggles. Your struggling may even be more active than that of the private legal practitioner. It’s generally a life of “patch and watch” except for those who know how to fraudulently add 2 to 2 in order to get 2000.

You may be a Chief Magistrate now, the poor Lords and Duchesses of the well known lower Bench. The lower Bench, everybody knows, is occupied by the “poor cousins” in the Judiciary.

When the “rich cousins” a.k.a “high court judges” gobble caviar and swill champagne you only exist on “asoro elepo rederede” (Yam Pottage) and your imbibation is limited to Zobo!  But whatever your condition, should you manage to become a judge of the Lagos State Bench, your purse will suffer or rather enjoy the density of obesity. Almost immediately.

These are part of the goodies that will cling to you evermore:

Minimum of 1.5 million naira monthly salary.

Ownership of stately jeeps, (no Tokunbos) and changeable every four years by the government.

Yearly allocation of between 10 – 20 million naira under many “ welfare package headings.”

Ownership (not tenant ship) of at least of a choice home in a choice location (worth no less than #150 million naira).

Stewarded Life of drivers, secretaries, orderlies, assistants and sundry man-Fridays and girl-Saturdays.

Job-security, except you become extremely stupid, reckless and without a functional God-parent.

Life is so good on the Lagos Bench now that wise lawyers don’t strive to become Silks again. Silks? Silks banza, they say. Why go for brass when gold is there for the plucking, especially if you are not just a Lagos lawyer but a Lagosian Lagos lawyer!

Curiously, despite the heavy perks and mouth-watering benefits attached to having a place on the Lagos Bench, I for one, cannot see a dramatic improvement in the quality of service delivery on the part of judges. I cannot perceive, except in a minority of our judicial potentates a keen and glaring commitment to sparkling industry and roaring productivity commensurate to the rich blessings of their employment. The inevitable conclusion is that judicial appointment in Lagos state is only so: a gate-way for many appointees to hedonism and self-aggrandizement and not for consummate and public-spirited service. Sad? Tragic!

 

'There They Go Again" By Adesina Ogunlana

I was one of several lawyers who went dutifully to Honourable Justice Gbajabiamila’s court on Wednesday the 3^rd October 2012. For we and our clients had business there. In my case my client was one of eight persons who have been facing trial for the past ten years for armed robbery. Thus for a whole decade his home has been the Maximum place, Kirikiri Lagos.

At about 9.40 am, the Registrar of the court and the only functionary of this particular temple of justice that was visibly existing in the court, cleared his sub-judicial throat and made the portentous statement:

“Gentlemen of the Bar. The court will not be sitting. The judge is dealing with N.J.C returns. Please listen as I call the cases for today and take dates.” The response from the Bar and gallery included the following: hisses, sighs of resignation, sheer indifference, fulminations, shock and bitterness. I personally felt cheated, humiliated and ill-used, considering that I had vaulted all the way from Isolo to the Mainland and shunned some early morning labours of love in a bid to make the court in time. It had been four months since we last came to the court and had high hopes that the trial of the matter would continue today.

Alas, worse was to come. When it was our turn to take dates, I told the Registrar that there was no need to get new dates since we had two more trial dates already fixed. But when I enquired whether the court would sit on the next given date which was just two days away (Friday 5^th October) the Vice-regal replied with a poignant and pregnant rebuke, “Am I the Judge?”

After a few minutes of waiting, I decided to seek the answer from the honourable judge himself, who should be in chambers, ostensibly very busy dealing with “NJC returns.” At the expense of holding his court.

So with a few other lawyers in the matter in tow, we made the short pilgrimage to the judge’s chambers. To see a judge, you need to pass through his secretaries and other staff. However we discovered to our chagrin that at 10.05a.m on this wonderful day, the office of the judge’s staff was firmly locked. The great men and women were yet to come to work.

We looked out for the judge, but the judex was certainly far away from the court. In the light of the foregoing, I beg to pose the following questions:

1.     Is it right or proper for “NJC returns” to supersede court sittings for the judge or magistrate?

2.     Where is the judge expected to be on a work day, when not sick or on an outside official engagement: home, office, church/mosque/shrine or any other place?

3.     Should judges deal with NJC returns at home or in the office?

4.     Why is it that the long period of vacation and the two or three weeks of indeterminable nature after the end of vacation are not enough for a judge to have dealt with NJC  returns?

5.     How fair is to lawyers, witnesses and litigants alike to make them come to court from all directions of the wind only to learn in the very court that the court will not sit, especially these days that most counsel file their processes with their phone numbers and e-mail addresses stated thereon?

 

Whether Lagos judicial authorities like to hear it or not, there is a clear culture of judicial impunity and inefficiency rampant in the system. For example only about a quarter of the fifty-five or so judges can be counted upon to be punctual in court or commence sittings within twenty minutes of an hour after 9.00a.m. Many others sit just when they like, if they sit at all.

At the dinner rounding up the New Legal Year, I thought I heard the Chief Judge tell lawyers present to feel free and enjoy the atmosphere they had the good luck of sharing with judges because “as from Monday, they will be at work and making Orders.”

But what I witnessed at the Justice Gbajabiamila court on Wednesday the 3^rd October 2012 was far from the picture of brisk industry, and bristling efficiency “Aunty Ayo” painted of our judges. And, that’s a pity. An unacceptable pity.

'As you lay your bed' By Adesina Ogunlana

The English may say “as you lay your bed, so you lie on it”. In the same wise an African will declare “as you pound your yam, so you eat it”.

 These proverbs and many others like that express the certainty of the nexus between cause and effect. The wise sayings invariably tell Man that he is wholly responsible for the consequences of his actions, and nobody or nothing else. Man however by nature hates to indict himself in adverse situations. “Others” are wrongly held responsible. Others like “government” “police” “destiny” etc.

Look at the N.B.A. Our N.B.A. The out-going J.B Daudu regime is certainly the most unpopular administration since at least 1998, no thanks to the leadership style and perspective of the head of that administration-Joseph Daudu.

 

Personally I wonder why the man retained his first and middle names. His surname Daudu seems apt for his personality trait. For Daudu is lordly. Daudu’s first name is Joseph. Joseph? No, for the Biblical Joseph the gifted dreamer and the wizard administrator differed greatly in temperament and achievements than our conceited Daudu. Herod the pitiless, murderous tyrant of the Bible is more like it. As for Daudu’s middle name of Bodunrin which can be translated rightly as the “festival kid,” I think “Bonaparte” the imperial and overtly ambitious emperor of France should fit in here.

Really I think Mr. J.B. Daudu, whose imperial presidency of the N.B.A is fast expiring should be called  H.B Daudu or Herod Bonaparte Daudu in full. Although full of wisdom in his own eyes and the eyes of a few loyalists and bootlickers, H.B Daudu is seriously disliked in the N.B.A. He would be remembered for concentrating virtually all powers and management of the association in his hands, for favouritism to his wife and child in the N.B.A, for taking the Haliburton case, for stubbornly and foolishly waging and losing the war of overhauling the N.B.A constitution, of increasing Annual Conference Fees by about 500%, for foolhardy insistence and maneuvers to have the Delegates Election hold at Boko Haram infested Kaduna, etc.

As far as many members of the NBA are concerned, especially NEC members who are much more informed than the general “laity,” the Daudu  years 2010 – 2012 were largely unpalatable. The question is-: who to blame? There is none to blame other than the electorate. H. B Daudu did not rig his way into power in 2010. In fact he won fair and square and roundly defeated J.K Gadzama SAN.

Majority of those who are now complaining about Daudu’s pig-headed tyranny borne upon abominable and insufferable intellectual conceit, voted recklessly for the power monster. The vanguard of his electoral support were the irredentist conclavist dinosaurs of the West, the Egbe Amofin and their troop soldiers all who suspended their faculties of critical thinking and appraisal because of shameful, unprogressive primitivism of tribal loyalties.

We told all who cared to listen that J.B Daudu was not suited for the job of N.B.A President but would they listen? As a candidate, the man was wooden taciturn, not accessible, wouldn’t greet and worse, would not readily even acknowledge greetings from   the electorate, so full of himself was he, like one of those vain Greek gods up on Mount Olympus. Now another chance is here for voters to determine the leadership of the N.B.A for the next two years.

My advice to every one, especially tribal irredentists is “SHINE YOUR EYES! Shine your eyes “well well” to avoid yesterday’s MISTAKE and not to lament on the morrow.

   

'Kaduna yes, Abuja, No!' By Adesina Ogunlana

My Dear President,

          I am sorry I have to go straight to the point of why I am sending this message to you. I ask, most respectfully, “Is it true that the Delegates Election Conference of our dear NBA is no longer taking place in Kaduna but in Abuja”?

          I need and urgently too, to hear from you on this score? Dozens, of lawyers have told me that in your imperial wisdom and humbled opinion, you have shifted the Delegates Election Conference from Kaduna to Abuja since about two weeks ago.

          Sir, when it comes to you, I am not moved by numbers, for we now know that “you are the god of the NBA” courtesy of the flatterer Master of Ceremony at the Inauguration Ceremony of the Ikere Ekiti Branch just last week.

          Now since you are a god of the N.B.A, you like Napoleon Bonaparte, are worth more than forty-thousand ordinary lawyers.

          You would recall that since a mere four months ago, many voices have cried out against having the 2012 elections in your Kaduna state base. In fact there was this self-styled Dame in our Association who took the trouble of writing a lengthy article against such a venture and who also took the greater trouble of getting the article published in many national newspapers.

          Of course you were sager than to accord any worth to the rantings of a mere woman. In April 2012, we all were at the N.E.C meeting of the Association at Lokoja, Kogi state and expectedly the issue of where to hold the elections came up again.

          I clearly remember that you allowed only four people to speak on the matter (whether or not the Elections venue should shift from Kaduna). The worthy four were:- Lanke Odogiyan-the chairman of the Electoral Committee 2012, Mrs. Priscilla Kuye, Mr. Olisa Agbakoba, Mr. Yusuf Ali.

          Expectedly all the men in the list above spoke sense. Eminent sense. They all said the election venue should stay in Kaduna. That there was no danger in Kaduna. That there was no real danger. That the state Government and security forces were on top of the situation.

The most touching of all the speakers was Lanke Prince Odogiyan who told the NEC that a man of God had assured him that God had assured the man of God that no bomb would explode on lawyers in Kaduna during the Delegates Election. It was the only female in the list, Mrs. Priscilla Kuye who departed from sense in her submission. She, relying on hard facts and figures, said that Kaduna would not be safe for lawyers to hold any functions.

          Of course, you did not leave sense for nonsense. The sense was what the three wise-men: Lanke Odogiyan, Yusuf Ali and Olisa Agbakoba had opined, to wit, that the election should hold in Kaduna.

          You suspected and rightly so that my Branch, the Tigers of Ikeja and the most progressive of all the now 99 branches of the N.B.A would not speak agreeable sense on the matter, hence you stuck to your tradition of not recognizing us at the meeting for recognition.

          You will recall that during the morning break I walked up to where your divinity was seated and enquired thus: “Ha ha, Egbon, a no wo, na wo sibe e tie le pewa” (haba, elder brither, inspite of our repeated raise of hands you refused to give us a chance to talk).

          You reply (delivered with a merry smile) was direct, frank but most unfortunate. You said “Haa, Ikeja, ke wada mi lagbo nu” (I have to do that, lest you guys from Ikeja spoil my game plan).

          So your game-plan and clear intention was to hold the Election in Kaduna and you with the aid of your wise-men had your way in Lokoja.

          Of course stupid, dim-witted people like me thought that Kaduna was and still remains seriously unsafe and that it is hugely irresponsible of any responsible leader of lawyers to provoke the deadliness of the blood thirsty, soul-snatching and death-dealing Boko-Haram group with the presence of thousands of well-fed products and end-results of Western education, on their own very turf.

          You however stuck to your guns and equally wise people like you were preparing for Kaduna, ostensibly to meet their makers in July.

          Much later the news came that the Almighty J. B. Daudu, the god of NBA had agreed to take away the elections from Kaduna to Abuja.

          Sir is this true? Can it be true?

          If it’s true, then you have terribly disappointed me and hundreds of your numerous supporters. You have made a name of your RIGIDITY, FIRMNESS OF PURPOSE AND OMINISCIENCE.

          Oh how are the gargantuan fallen and the pillars of the celebrated ORACLE OF KADUNA CRUMBLE?

          A leader must be consistent to the end. This is my grouse with you. You who never changes, what has come over you now? I was so sure of your infallible sense of (mis)indgement that I believed that you would change the election venue, only, to better and safer places like Maiduguri, Bauchi and Damaturu.

          Why should a brave general like you now run to Abuja? Is it because of the few crackers the BH people exploded recently that sent you panicking?

          You ought to know, such explosives are not capable of detonation in any gathering of lawyers. Even before they are thrown, a clever N.B.A president would have secured an injunction against BH and other possible death-merchants not to attack any lawyer in Kaduna between 16^th -18^th July 2012.

          By your decision to move us from Kaduna to Abuja, I know you must have disappointed your three wise-men:- Agbakoba, Yusuf Ali and Lanke Odogiyan.

          By the way, may I suggest another disagreeable sense to you - Abuja is not really a safe alternative, why not come down West or go East for the elections?

 

'The African Condition' By Adesina Ogunlana

Men love mysteries or do I say mystery maketh men. As a specie, man is inordinately fascinated with the mysterious. Could be that way, because we are curious creatures always wanting to know everything about everything. I suspect our curiosity is tied to our security in that we feel or think our security is heavily dependent on the knowledge of and possible mastery of our environment.

What is that man does not want to know? A man not only wants to know all that can be known about his past, his present and his future, but whether and how his future can affect his past or when, where and how his present can be affected by his future? Are you confused here? If you ask me, to define what mystery is, I will simply give you our unbeatable definition to wit “Mystery is what is mysterious to man”.

Are you confused again or merely bemused?

A mystery is what Man does not know or cannot readily figure wit. When Man is in that state of mental bafflement he now substitutes facts with the suppositions (oft times fallacious) of his own inventions and ideas. Friends, this is how legends, myths and superstitious are born. So let’s have another definition of mystery, according to the Squib’s Dictionary of words-“A mystery is the product of the imagination of man, in a state of solid ignorance”.

So much, if not all, of superstition is hogwash. Baloney. But men are in love with superstition, much as they are captivated with mysteries. Of course superstition gives birth to taboos! Now this is serious.

Consider. Taboos (dos and don’ts of every culture, usually prohibitive of certain behavior with a guarantee of mystic sanctions or punishment for the taboo breaker) is the child of superstition. Superstition herself is mothered by mysteries, which in turn is fathered by ignorance which in turn is parented by Limited Knowledge. Wow!

So, Limited Knowledge is the great, great Grandfather. Ignorance is the Great grandfather. Mystery is the Grandfather. Superstition is the father. Taboo is the son. You need to ask whether taboo is the last of the generations of Limited knowledge, in other words does Taboo have any off-spring(s)? The answer is yes. But I will not disclose that worthy’s identity. Today.

Whether alone or in company, man sprouts superstitions. There is a superstition about everything and everywhere. We have superstitions, so many, that there are superstitions about superstitions! There is a superstition about numbers. There are so called lucky numbers as well as unlucky numbers. Unlucky numbers are believed to be not only harbingers of evil, but are, also treasurers of calamities. One of such numbers is 13. I have read it up somewhere that there are many cities or towns in Europe where street numbers do not include the number 13. Instead of having the dreaded number, the affected address will be styled 12A.

But is 13 really an unlucky number? I don’t think so, after all numbers, indeed numeracy is just one of those social inventions of main to cope with the challenges of living in society and making meaning out of lives.

Interestingly, Inmidun Akande J. the immediate past Chief Judge of Lagos State, was the 13^TH CHIEF JUDGE OF LAGOS STATE.

She came to the ‘judicial throne’ in September 2009 and left June 10 2012 making a total of 1004 days. Her tenure was epochal and outstandingly successful in seriously whittling down the overbearing influence of the Executive arm of government over the finances and developmental projects of the Lagos State Judiciary.

No matter what any one may say, the truth remains that under her watch, the Judiciary was more of a partner in power than ever before.

There was no abnormal incidents such as mass deaths or regular demise or uncommon dearth of prosperity.

And it could be said of her, that she did more for her staff, than all the Chief Judge’s before her in the last fifteen years. So what’s unlucky about her being the 13^th Chief Judge of Lagos. She came in pomp and left with greater pomp.

So are you still saying No 13 is an unlucky number? Bah!

'What is Democracy' By Adesina Ogunlana

The enthusiasts of Democracy as a political mechanism in the human society say it is the best form of political systems.

There are so many other cracies known to men, and you all know them, or at least some of them. There is ‘Theo-cracy’. Simply put ,it is the rule of the gods. Or better put, the rule of the gods through some special people who have the unique ability or capacity to hear, even see and interact with the invisibles of heaven. Of course in this kind of indirect celestial rule, some form of “wuruwuru” can’t be avoided. Even the best type of priestly rule is not above suspicion and resentment. That was why the Israelites of old sacked Prophet Samuel.

Another well known ‘cracy; is kingocracy, less arcanely known as MONARCHY. Under this craze, society is governed by a Rex or Regina who claims that his lineage or bloodline is ordained by that most unknown of beings, popularly known among men as GOD. Of course this is another fat lie on God but then God, is used to persecution from his own creatures. So if a fool comes to the man created throne, the royal claim is that God in his infinite wisdom is the installer of the fool. Ditto for a murderer, rapist, sadist, tyrant, drunkard etc.

The ways of the Lord, one is assured, is actually beyond the ken of men. You are further told that opposing kings, (and even 419 self-seeking, money-mongering clerics these days) is opposing the ALMIGHTY himself.

There is yet another cracy. This one is called PLUTO-CRACY. This is the rule of the society by men of means. By means, I mean money, ‘kudi’, ‘ego’, ‘owo’, alias apekanuko, kunkushi. I do not mean African means a.k.a Juju. Perhaps this is the most honest of crazes. This rule of society by the rich, the so called men of timber and caliber. In truth and in deed, is it not men and women of means, the moneyed ones who rule in any society. And is it not reasonably so?

One rich man is the equal of a thousand, even million paupers or peasants. Money is the most popular language in the world. Without money you are a dunce. Without the Lord kunkushi, you are dead!

After trying so many cracies, men finally settled for DEMOCRACY claiming it is the best form of rule. They tout it to be the rule of men, for men by men. They say it is practical egalitarianism. They say it is devoid of mysticism. They say it avoids or breaks down hegemonistic rule. They say it ensures or promotes accountability.

In reality however, Democracy necessarily brings out the worst in men, because Democracy makes people JOSTLE for power. And when the competitive spirit is kindled in the breast of men, only very few will not act as beasts.

In the quest for power in Democracy, the bid to acquire or capture community power, men will do anything. By anything, I mean anything, no matter how vile. Treachery, corruption, mudslinging capsizing of values, destruction of friendship, soul sale to Satan etc are the hallmarks of democracy.

Thus if democracy is truly the best form of government among human beings, then it is crystal clear that human beings are very terrible indeed.

'Question and Answer' By Adesina Ogunlana

QUESTION AND ANSWER

 

QUESTION: WHY IS J.B. DAODU S.A.N, N.B.A PRESIDENT INSISTENT THAT THE 2012 ANNUAL CONFERENCE MUST HOLD IN KADUNA, THE HOT-BED OF THE (MASS) MURDEROUS BOKO-HARAM GROUP?

Please choose any one of the following possible answers and give reasons for your option.

(A) Because Daodu has a secret agreement to provide at least two thousand lawyers to the Boko Haram for random slaughter.

(B) Because Daodu himself is a member of the Boko Haram sect.

(c) Because Daodu knows that Nigerian Lawyers are no ordinary humans who can be killed injured or maimed by misguided terrorists.

(d) Because Daodu believes that it is wrong and cowardly for the N.B.A to change her conference venue because of Boko Haram which has never attacked or killed a single lawyer.

(e) Because J. B. Daodu knows that the Nigerian Army, Police Navy, Airforce, Immigration, Civil Defence etc are very capable of protecting all the 12,000 lawyers or so that would come for the conference from any terrorist attack.

(f) Because J. B. Daodu knows just like President Jonathan, that by July 2012, the BOKO HARAM MENACE would have been over.

(g) Because J. B. Daodu is just like our national leaders perpetually out of sync with the realities and wishes of their followers.