By Ochereome Nnanna
WHEN Justice MudasiruOniyangi (who presides over an Abuja Federal High Court) adjourned the case sine die, little did he know that eyes were watching.

He probably thought this was going to be one of the long list of cases which were killed and buried in the “hallowed” temples of the Judiciary.

However, that action of his has created a national uproar because it came at a time when President Goodluck Jonathan was contemplating another National Identity Card scheme, for which the sum of N36 billion has already been approved. Exasperated Nigerians were just beginning to ask what became of the court case when Oniyangi’s bombshell descended.

Yes indeed, it was a bombshell. The story goes thus. In 2007, the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC, arraigned the former Minister of Internal Affairs, the now late Chief Sunday Afolabi and his former Minister of State in the same ministry, Alhaji Mohammed Shaata, for alleged fraud involving some £214 million (Pounds Sterling). While the case was in court, Afolabi died, and in accordance to the law, his name was struck off the charge sheet. But the case itself continued.

Four years after, Justice Oniyangi announced that on September 6, 2011, he would deliver the judgement. That day came, and Oniyangi pushed the judgement day to September 23, 2011, and later to October 7, 2011 saying the judgement was not ready.

Even at that, the court could not sit because Justice Oniyangi was nowhere to be found. He sent a note through an emissary to inform the court that the case had been adjourned sine die! In a layman’s language, the judgement day had been adjourned indefinitely. I remember when former President of the Senate, Chief Ken Nnamani, adjourned the Constitution Amendment Bill on May 16, 2006 after it failed to scale the second reading. That was the last the matter was ever heard of. Many Nigerians have justifiably interpreted Justice Oniyangi’s sine die postponement of the judgement as the termination of the case.

Tongues have been wagging ever since. What happens to the accused persons standing trial? What about the public funds they were alleged to have stolen, what happens to it? How can the Jonathan regime press forward with another national ID card scheme when the case and other questions surrounding the 2003 multi-billion naira programme have ended in a massive fraud which case has just been crudely terminated without any explanation by Justice Oniyangi?

The 2003 National ID Card scam is just another graphic example of how corruption has contributed to the heightening of the perception of failure of the Nigerian state. The scheme was meant to register all Nigerians of 18 years and above. Those who were not able to register (like this writer) were supposed to simply walk to the secretariat of their local council and register at their convenience after the deadline for registration expired. It was not long after the conclusion of the event that the story of the alleged theft of N1.830 billion of the money was made public.

If this scheme had succeeded as planned, this nation would not be in its current dilemma, where foreign nationals and foreign interests have exported the Al Qaeda network terrorism into Nigeria. Today, there are hundreds of thousands of foreigners from the Sahelian West Africa living illegally all over Nigeria.

The Boko Haram campaign of murder and terrorism in the North, as well as the unending midnight raids and killings in the Jos area are being driven mainly by paid foreign mercenaries with local assistance. If the 2003 National ID Card project had been a success we would be able to isolate these illegal foreigners and deport them to their countries to make our war on terrorists so much easier.

Nigeria has no choice but to conclude the aborted national identity card registration project. But we cannot move forward unless Justice Oniyangi is prevailed upon to announce his verdict on the case brought before it by the ICPC.

If Justice Oniyangi thinks the last has been heard of this case, then he has another thinking to do.

The National Judicial Council, NJC, needs to interview him with a view to finding out why he decided to adjourn that judgement indefinitely. If any unholy motive is discovered then he must be made an example of by the new regime of CJN Dahiru Musdapher that in this dispensation, irresponsible acts by Benchers will no longer be tolerated.

Wise words from Somalia

I CAME across a half-page interview published on the Saturday, October 8 issue of The Guardian in which one of the newspaper’s correspondents, Godwin Ijediogor, among a group of foreign visiting journalists to Somalia, interviewed the elected President of the war-torn country, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.

I decided to bring this quote to these pages because I have been unbending in my conviction that Al Qaeda-inspired Boko Haram do not qualify for negotiation or amnesty.

Somalia is wracked by a more advanced version of Boko Haram (in fact, it is from there that our local terrorists receive their macabre tuition). President Ahmed is on the same page with us. He seems to understand his enemies more than we appear to understand ours. So, let’s hear from him. Wherever you see Al Shabbab, say Boko Haram:

“The basis of Al Shabbab is not government system; they don’t believe in law and order. Their system is one of chaos and killing and they don’t have any agenda of taking part in the development of the country. For the Al Shabbab leadership, the question is whether they are ready to embrace peace and join the peace process.

Are they ready to come in a peaceful manner? Negotiating with Al Shabbab is not a problem to us, but unfortunately, the last word doesn’t come from them. They take orders from outside the country, particularly from Al Qaeda abroad. They don’t really have a say in what they cannot do; they can’t negotiate for themselves”.

Those who have ears let them hear.