“It is shameful for African leaders to seek exit from ICC. In my view, these leaders want to have all the freedom to oppress their poor people without anyone asking them a question .I think there is no shortcut to maturity and in my view, Africa should be recolonized because African are still under slavery .Look at how those African leaders change constitutions in their favour so that they can be life presidents. They are greedy and do not care about common people. When I saw them gang against ICC yet they can’t even find an amicable solution for the ongoing quandary in Burundi, I thought to myself these people lack discipline and humane heart. They can’t lead by example. The only thing they are interested in is accumulating wealth from poor tax payers. Before they think of exiting from ICC, they should first restore peace in Burundi and other war-torn countries rather than gathering like hyenas with the aim of finishing the poor people.” I doubt if there is any patron of the social media who did not come across this Trump’s verbal missile against African leaders. I have not come across any rebuttal against this missile by any African leader. Although many of them may not be comfortable with this home truth, but the fact still remains that what Trump had said is the reality in Africa. In recent American history, have not seen an American leader that speaks his mind like Donald Trump. You may decide to agree or disagree with him but you cannot ignore him. Most problems being faced by Africans are caused by their leaders. If African leaders have discharged their responsibilities as expected of them and live up to expectation , why must they be afraid of the International Criminal Court (ICC)? If you are well familiar with the history of Africa, you will not easily forget the African dictators like late Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo whose son Gnassingbe Faure is now in power; late Mobutu Sese Seko of the Democratic Republic of Congo which he renamed Zaire when he was in power. Mobutu who was reputed for being richer than his country. Blaisé Campaore who overthrew and killed his friend Thomas Sankara, ruled Burkina Faso for 27 years and was still not satisfied. He conspired with his country’s legislators to amend the constitution to allow him to be in power till 2020 but his country people revolted against this and he fled the country. In Gambia, Yahya Jammeh after being in power for decades and lost election was reluctant to relinquish power just like Laurent Gbagbo in the Ivory Coast. Zimbabwe people will not forget Robert Mugabe in hurry. Idris Deby of Chad will now remain in office as president till 2033 while Paul Biya has taken the 7th oath of office. Africa is a continent where you will find in abundance leaders who have been Presidents of their countries for decades and are still not ready to relinquish power. When we talk about dictators in Africa , that does not mean that Africa did not have its share of good leadership. In the class of good African leaders ,you will find people like Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Nnamid Azikwe, Ahmadu Bello, Tafawa Balewa and Obafemi Awolowo of Nigeria. These were people that fought for the independence of their respective countries and served their countries selflessly but unfortunate their tenure in governments were short-lived as a result of successive military coups that greeted many post independent African countries. Most of those military regimes did not help matters but rather complicated issues. The military leaders that did not transform themselves to civilian rulers put in place puppet civilian regimes that could not stand the test of time. Most politicians that were products of this purported democracy were extremely corrupt. They engaged in capital flight of their countries’ resources to foreign countries. The African democracy was characterized by Godfatherism and election rigging that got into power those who ought not to have anything doing at the corridors of power as they were only concerned about their personal interest rather than that of the generality of the people. In Nigeria, when the Second Republic was sacked and sent packing by a military regime, many politicians were arraigned before a military tribunal who sent them to various jail terms for various offences including breach of public trust and self enrichment. Even under the civil regimes, many politicians have equally being sentenced to various terms of imprisonment while other are still facing various charges before the courts. One continues to wonder, why must a politician who is duly elected to power and entrust with the commonwealth of the people for their benefit will turn round to abuse the trust. One is seriously baffled when story is read about the likes former American President, Barrack Obama retiring to a rented apartment after serving his country in such high position. Can such thing happen in Africa? Despite the fact that Africa is blessed with abundant human and natural resources, many African leaders have failed to use those resources to the advantage of the African people. The resources that should have been used to develop Africa have either been abandoned or misused by the African leaders. In Nigeria for instance, nature blesses the country with wide area of land that are very useful for agriculture. Before the discovery of oil in Nigeria, various regional governments were deeply involved in the agriculture with which they developed the regions. In the North under Sir Ahmadu Bello, groundnut and cotton were used to build pyramid which were exported out of the country to earn revenue to develop the region. While Cocoa was a very good business in the Western Region under Chief Obafemi Awolowo, palm fruit ( kernel ) thrived well as a business in the Eastern Region under Dr. Nnamid Azikwe. The earning from those agricultural produce were used to develop infrastructures in those regions. But what do we have today in this part of the African continent? We have Governors who are not interested in building agriculturally on the legacy of the past leaders in their areas. We have Governors who are only interested in going to Abuja to share the money earned from the oil income. The failure of the most Governors to meet the demand of the labour on the minimum wage of Thirty Thousand Naira (N30,000) is informed by their inability to look inward and partner among themselves on how to tap from the resources they are blessed with from their various regions. Imagine what would have happened if most states had borrowed a leaf from the kind of partnership that came into being between Lagos and Kebbi States to come up with the LAKE RICE. Other states should have gone into partnership to produce other things that would be of benefit to their respective people. Some time I keep wondering that with the rate at which local people around Ejigbo and Iwo in Osun State manually produce red oil in abundance from palm kernel, would the government of that state not have done well if it establishes a big oil mill or industry in that area and recruit the local people to work therein. If Osun state cannot do that, should another state not have taken that initiative? The other day when the idea of ranching was suggested, some Governors in the east, when on air to say that they would not give out land for ranching in their area, but I was of the view that it should have been an opportunity for them to negotiate their terms on accommodating ranching in area if the hosting governors have a deep thought on setting up of dairy or allied industries the area to the advantage of their people in terms of job creation. It will be of good benefit to all if states can think along the line of partnering where necessary whereas a state that is financially buoyant can partner with the one that has no financial capability to enter into joint venture. While I do not agree with Donald Trump that Africa should be recolonized as the Europe had already sufficiently exploited the Africa to its advantage as narrated by Walter Rodney in his book titled: “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” , the favour the likes of America can to do to Africa and its people is to continue to expose those corrupt African leaders and repatriate whatever fund they stolen back to the Africa. Many African leaders rather than being deeply involved in the development of their various countries are the ones involved in what brings backwardness to their countries. Those African leaders that are found involving in the killing of innocent people in their countries must be made to face the International Criminal Court for their crime against humanity just like the way Charles Taylor of Liberia was made to face the music. REMARKABLE PRONOUNCEMENT ON CONFESSIONAL STATEMENT “It is now too late to question the rule whether voluntariness or otherwise of a confession must be decided by the judge before its admissions, even where the judge is sitting without a jury, since the courts of this country have applied that rule for many years; but we see no reason to extend the scope of the rule to cases where a confessions is challenged, not because it is alleged that it is not voluntary, but because it is alleged that the accused never made it at all. We are of opinion, that in such a case the question whether the accused made the confessions is a matter to be decided by the judge in his fact finding capacity at the conclusion of the case, and that the alleged confession can properly be admitted as part of the evidence when it is tendered by the prosecution.” Per HUBBARD, Ag. FJ (as he then was) in The Queen Vs. Igwe (1960) NSCC Vol. 1 Pg. 39 Lines 35-45 THE SETTLED PRINCIPLE OF LAW On what amount to valid arraignment in criminal trial “In a valid arraignment of an accused person the following requirements must be satisfied failing which any subsequent trial and conviction of him will be a nullity. The requirements are: (a) The accused person must be present in court unfettered unless there is a compelling reason to the contrary; (b) The charge must be read over to the accused in the language he understands; (c) The charge should be explained to the accused to satisfaction of the court; (d) In the course of the explanation, technical language must be avoided; (e) After requirements (a) to (d) above have been satisfied, the accused will then be called upon to plead instantly to the charge. It is now settled law that all the above requirements must co-exist and must be satisfied because they are mandatory.” See DIBIE Vs. STATE (2004) 14 NWLR (Pt. 893) Pg. 276 Paras D-G For more Settled Principles of Law and Remarkable Pronouncements from our Supreme Court Jurists from 1956-2016, obtain or order for your copies of LAW PRACTICE KIT and LEGAL LUMINARIES. Call or text 08055476823, 08164683735 or email:rasheedibraheem68@yahoo.com. Your library is incomplete without these books.]]>
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