WE are today taking a short excursion into Criminology. Confidence Game (con-game for short) depicts a crime situation where the person who should have reported the crime is part of it. For example, if you were to patronise a prostitute in a jurisdiction where prostitution was outlawed; and in the course of an argument, she stabbed you with a kitchen knife; you were on your own for, if you reported to the police, you would first have to explain what you were doing in a whore house. That is the exact nature of many aspects of life, particularly gambling.

THAT the country’s economy is currently experiencing a downturn, a situation largely precipitated by a reversal of oil fortunes, is no longer news. No thanks to decades of over-reliance on a monolithic economy and the utter relegation of agriculture, once the country’s cash cow.

CRISIS is not new to the Supreme Court in Nigeria. From inception, there has always been one crisis or the other, in that court.

Retired Colonel Hameed Ali, the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service, is a proud and stubborn man. His disdain for others and insufferable arrogance is not only vexatious to the spirit but also downright nauseating.

THE timely reaction of the Senate to the policy of the Nigeria Customs Service to compel all vehicle owners to pay appropriate duties has once again questioned the extent of the oversight powers of the National Assembly. In contributing to the interesting debate I shall examine the legal validity of the policy, the legal competence of the Senate to summon the Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC) to justify the policy and the legality of the directive that he should appear before the Senate in uniform.