15 quotes found
"Democracy, according to Ross Feingold , is considered the most legitimate form of government because the power of choice rests with the people. “But when this power dynamic is altered and citizens lose their influence, the legitimacy of the system is threatened”. That is where we are in Nigeria today because the choices made by citizens with their ballots are being increasingly rendered useless. And this threat to ‘the legitimacy on the system’ is coming from our courts, including the highest court in the country whose decisions are not only final but affect those of lower courts."
"Yesterday, the Supreme Court put a final seal on the gubernatorial election by dismissing the review application of Mr David Lyon. The ruling APC candidate had won the election in the state before the recent Supreme Court judgement that due to multiple certificates (with different names) presented by his deputy, the votes accorded him be voided and his defeated PDP opponent be declared winner. That, of course, is pleasing to the PDP leaders who have been carrying their pot bellies from one embassy to another in an ill-advised campaign against the Supreme Court. Sadly, it has also led to a more sinister decision by a number of APC hoodlums to lay siege to the home of a supreme court Justice. But whichever way we look at the ugly developments, it is very disturbing that the integrity of judgements coming from our courts is being openly questioned. More worrying is that in Nigeria today, neither those who cast the ballots nor those who count them decide the outcome of a democratic process. The decision as to who represents the people is now with Judges."
"At the end, it is very clear that while the political parties must wean themselves of bad behaviour in the conduct of their primaries to nominate candidates for elections, both the Constitution and the Electoral Act would have to be amended. We cannot continue with a situation in which Judges will veto the choices of the electorate on the basis of technicalities. If this democracy is to survive, it is imperative that the judiciary as an institution and judges as individuals are not only impartial to those who appear before them but also that the wider public have the confidence that cases affecting their well-being will be decided fairly and in accordance with the law."
"Women are full of themselves, they always say men are frightened or intimidated by their financial success but the issue is COMPATIBILITY."
"I believe that if people had more information, access and easy to understand information, especially as Nigerians, we will make better conscious choices with our health."
"The title of this book tells the reader the reason for publishing it…. The aim is, as it were, to prepare the reader to seek to answer the question which constitutes the main title of the book"
"I was taught that Mungo Park discovered River Niger; that it was the Lander Brothers who discovered what is today the Niger Delta….But the River Niger existed long before Mungo Park saw it!!! How then could he have discovered what already existed? Mungo Park did not discover the River Niger! He was the first European to see what he described as the Majestic Niger to write about it. And because he wrote about it, it became part of human history. The River Niger acquired an identity which it did not have before"
"there are ministers who have never read any history of the country over whose affairs they now preside"
"Nigeria has not, thus far, evolved a national political culture. There really is nothing which the holder of political office is forbidden to do! A minister forced to resign from office for corruption can win a landslide victory at a subsequent election. He can, when he dies, receive a state funeral! A military officer found to have abused his office as a governor and consequently stripped of his rank, can contest and win elections as a civilian governor and subsequently becomes an appointee of a Federal Military Government. An executive President can be removed from office by the military because of the corruption of his regime; and yet be absolved of all blame for the corruption of that regime. Hail Nigeria, Africa’s giant!"
"Indeed our people expect that if their son is a minister, he should steal enough to distribute to them! If he is caught, they know that nothing will happen to him any way – so are they all thieves"
"The point that has to be made is that nowhere in the world has democracy been installed as a way of life and a system of government without some people, some groups, paying a price for it. Ask Beko Ransome-Kuti. Ask Gani Fawehinmi. Ask the members of the Committee for Democracy (CD). Democracy will not become a way of life in Nigeria until more and more people are ready to pay a price"
"Nigeria is [a] multi-ethnic nation – a common wealth of separate nations almost"
"My path to studying law was not as straightforward. I actually studied Law by mistake. And that is easily the best mistake I have ever made."
"I find both law teaching and practice to be equally stimulating and fulfilling"
"work on every genre of literature from fiction to poetry, non-fiction and drama. I do work more on some than the others. My dominant focus, for instance, is mostly fiction and poetry. Recently though, I compiled a non-fiction anthology called Blessed Body: The Secret Lives of LGBT Nigerians. Of all the genres, I enjoy poetry the most. It gives me a space to condense my words and say a lot in a very limited space. It challenges me to utilize figures of speech, imagery and mood to capture my thought and ideas. I also like non-fiction because there is urgency about it. It almost feels as if I am documenting narratives live, as they happen. At the moment, I am working on a critical paper about how films/documentaries can be used as an effective tool of activism for the African LGBTQ activist. Additionally, I am editing and polishing my second collection of poetry collection entitled Brutal Bliss."