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"Once you become involved with the freedoms that you have, you learn to love them. God bless the Founding Fathers!" said Republican James Jones, running for Congress in Bucks County, the only black candidate there. .."
Dear friends,
We've been hearing a lot about the Tea Party lately. I saw a television interview, about a week ago, where the organization's newly-elected president, an elderly British woman who came to the States some years back, talk about the aims of her group. Interestingly enough, the just mentioned Englishwoman seemed more proud of her native origin than being an "American".
Additionally, a quack named James Jones, an apparent incognegro, took the stage, at some point, during the Tea Party's recent Philadelphia rally. As one of my siblings and I have always maintained, "No matter how stupid some 'white' folks get, there is always, at least, one Black person who will join them, grinning all the while."
In any case, on the link below, one of North America's premier journalists, Annette John-Hall of the Philadelphia Inquirer, gives us an up close look at an afternoon with the "Teabaggers". Cheers!
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/20100420_Annette_John-Hall__Beyond_the_pale__tea_and_little_sympathy.html
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NICKi MATHIS
NICKi MATHIS
International Women In Jazz Festival Friday 23 April 6pm
Nicki in IWJ Chorus, 7:30 pm
St. Peter's Church, Lexington Av @ E. 54, NYC
Tickets $25 day; 2-day discount $45 212.560-7553 www.intenationalwomeninjazz.com
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"Ibori, Peter Odili, and Justice Buba"
by Okey Ndibe (okeyndibe@gmail.com)
A week ago today, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said it sought former Governor James Ibori (of Delta) to answer questions related to the alleged mismanagement of over N44 billion during his governorship tenure.
A day later, several newspapers and online forums reported that Justice I.N. Buba of the Federal High Court in Asaba had issued an injunction prohibiting Ibori’s arrest. In a report last Friday, NEXT stated that Buba had granted an “injunction restraining the EFCC and any other anti-crime agency ‘from arresting, harassing, intimidating, or attempting to arrest, harass, and/or intimidate the applicants (Mr. Ibori) in any manner whatsoever and howsoever.’”
My first reaction was one of incredulity. How could a judge – even if he earned his bench in Mars and practiced there – seek to permanently cuff the hands of law enforcement agents in order to detain them from doing their work? Would that not be a recipe for anarchy? Then my doubt gave way to recognition: Mr. Buba, I realized, had done it before.
He’s the man – lest we forget – who ordered that neither the EFCC nor other agents of the government should ever disturb the peace of Peter Odili, the former governor of Rivers State. At the time of this improbable reprieve, Odili – a medical doctor by training whose wife is a justice of the Court of Appeal – was the target of an ongoing investigation for corruption.
Today, Mr. Odili basks in the splendor of retirement in Abuja. A year ago or so, he treated himself to a lavish birthday party. His servile coterie flatters him with the title of “golden governor”; yet, Odili has been in no hurry to return and reside in the state where he allegedly gave surpassing leadership. In fact, since leaving office, he has been reluctant to make frequent trips to his home state.
Perhaps – just perhaps – Mr. Odili’s record as governor was clean, beyond reproach. Perhaps, he can easily account for every naira and asset that he owns. If so, why did he seek to be shielded from answering questions from investigators? Why did he go to extraordinary lengths to acquire immunity from investigation?
I am neither a lawyer nor a legal scholar, but my hunch is that few serious lawyers and students of the law would be proud of Justice Buba’s injunction prohibiting the questioning of Odili. The ruling, quite simply, doesn’t stand up to reason. It’s the kind of judgment that inspires cynical statements about the law and those who practice it.
This isn’t a case of Buba reviewing investigators’ evidence and concluding that it is too weak to warrant an ex-governor’s trial. Nor is it a case where a judge determined that investigators used illegal methods to incriminate an accused. No, Buba simply ruled that the very idea of investigating an ex-governor – one accused of fiddling with state funds – was not to be countenanced.
A nation that fosters the idea that some people are above the law cannot long hope to ward off the debilitating effect of pervasive lawlessness. Justice Buba’s gift of a permanent protective blanket to Odili represents such a grave threat to the notion of the rule of law that the Nigerian Bar Association should have strongly decried it. One wonders why Mrs. Waziri Farida, the current leader of the EFCC, did not retain lawyers to mount a vigorous appeal against Buba’s blunder of a verdict?
Taken to its logical conclusion, Buba’s verdict could only result in an absurdity. Imagine a situation where the leader of a feared armed robbery gang obtains a permanent injunction barring the police from ever arresting, detaining or questioning him – or other members of his group. What, then? Or where a serial rapist is granted a shield from interrogators. If an ex-governor, alleged to have betrayed the trust by corruptly enriching himself, must never be called to account, why should an accused armed robber or rapist be denied the same prerogatives?
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"Once you become involved with the freedoms that you have, you learn to love them. God bless the Founding Fathers!" said Republican James Jones, running for Congress in Bucks County, the only black candidate there. .."
