Point One

Eternal vigilance, as they say, is the price of liberty. And so, it is welcome when stakeholders in any project raise the red flag – even if presumptuously – on any concern they suspect could shortchange an objective outcome desired from that project. Doing this helps to deflect insidious schemes that could be contemplated, or perhaps already under way, to compromise the integrity of the said project. But such red flags must be fact or evidence based to be truly helpful. The impending 2019 general election in Nigeria is doubtless a major national project that requires diligent stake-in by everyone to ensure its success. And lately, the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum mounted an advocacy about alleged duplicity in the national register of voters, which the group accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of midwifing and for which it canvassed a change in the body’s leadership. According to the forum, INEC has been registering foreigners, ...

Whenever it is parochial interest that motivates an agent of the law into wielding the law, as in a desperate act of self-preservation or affirmation, there is always a thin crossover line from the rule of law to the rule of force, which is only a short stop from the rule of lawlessness. That crossover line is most times blurred. And this dynamics hold true for executive agents of the law as for legislative or judicial agents. Nigeria’s national lawmakers went for broke last week, throwing in the gauntlet before the Muhammadu Buhari presidency over alleged threats to the country’s fragile democracy. The two chambers of the National Assembly hunkered down in an unprecedented closed joint session – the first time since the return of democracy in 1999 that the Senate and House of Representatives got together on any matter other than receiving the budget from the Executive arm or hosting a visiting foreign dignitary. Tuesday’s meeting was a panic button by the legisl...