Author: Our Correspondent

By Owei Lakemfa.

AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, sparked off quite a controversy when he rejected the historical truth that there was slavery in his country. The truth is that slavery was a way of life in that beautiful continent. But there are denials because the perpetrators did not regard the indigenous Australians, referred to as the Aborigines, as human beings. In fact, some Austro-British scientists until 1940 claimed the indigenes who lived in the Tasmanian part of Australia, were the last link between man and monkeys.

The Australians officially treated the Tasmanians not only as animals of burden, but also regarded them as game, hunting them down. The usual method was to attack and corner them, kill and mutilate all the men, turn the women to concubines and the children to slaves. When the Tasmanians began self-defence to stay alive, Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur in 1820 ordered all Tasmanians to give up their ancestral lands to Europeans. The government then set up armed “patrol teams” of thousands of soldiers, policemen and prisoners with the authority to hunt down and kill all the locals. Only one Tasmanian was left alive in 1876, that is 234 years after the first Briton, Abel Janszoon Tasman set foot on the island.

The survivor, a lady generally called Truganini (the invaders never learnt the real name of their victims), died on May 8, 1876. She had witnessed other Tasmanians being used for scientific experiments and had made a wish to be buried at sea. But after her death, the Australians displayed her skeleton in a museum until 1940 when pressure forced the government to remove it. It was not until 1976, the centenary of her death, was her skeleton cremated and the ashes scattered at sea in accordance with her dying wish. Other Aborigines suffered a not- too dissimilar fate as they were hunted and murdered.

The British migrants poisoned the Aborigines water sources, killed them at will and subjected them to legally-sanctioned forced labour with no payment. They also introduced one of the earliest cases of biological warfare. For instance, the Aborigines had no resistance to small pox which was brought by the migrants. However, small pox had a vaccine; but the Whites saw the disease as a way of eliminating the indigenes; so they refused to allow them access to the vaccine. Eventually, small pox wiped out about 70 percent of the Aborigines. A more sinister case was the deliberate introduction of syphilis into the Aboriginal population to reduce their population. This had been used by American Whites against the indigenous Indians.

The Aborigines were so depopulated that from being 100 per cent of the population in 1787, they became 3.3 per cent by 2016. In contrast, Europeans make up 70 per cent of the population. This figure excludes non-European Whites. Actually, as part of its rabid racism, the Australian government passed its ‘White Australia Policy’ under the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 which barred non-European migration. This racist practice still subsists. In 2001, Australia rounded up hundreds of non-White boat people and paid Nauru to detain them. This programme survived until 2009.
Then in 2013, it struck a similar deal with Papua New Guinea to indefinitely detain Australian asylum seekers. Some 850 such victims were held until at least 2016These inhuman policies are part of the Australian inheritance.

The famous British naturalist, geologist and biologist, Charles Darwin, after visiting Australia in the 19th Century, wrote in his book, The Voyage of the Beagle, that: “Wherever the European has trod, death seems to pursue the aboriginal.” Prime Minister Morrison’s denial of slavery in Australia can be due to a culture of some people seeking to rewrite history by denying the truth such as the Holocaust. On the other hand, it could be the old Australian culture of not regarding the Aborigines as human beings. Can anybody argue that beasts of burden are enslaved?

His false claims were deliberate, assertive and declarative: “My forefathers and foremothers were on the First and Second Fleets (of convict settlers). It was a pretty brutal place, but there was no slavery in Australia.” Since he knew he was lying, Morrison added mockingly: “I’ve always said we’ve got to be honest about our history”. He is also known for his deniability of reality such as the nexus between the Australian wild fires, weather and climate change.

In a sense, his denial of slavery might make sense in the contest that what the Aborigines experienced was worse than slavery and colonialism. They were subjected to dehumanisation, depersonalisation, slavery, colonialism and dispossession of their ancestral lands, legal theft of their children and unacknowledged genocide.

One of the most horrifying policies of Australia which endured until 1970, was that of the government and the church forcibly taking children of Aborigines from their parents, families and communities in the warped belief that the indigenous people were unfit to be parents. These evil abductions were backed by acts of parliament. It was not until 2008 the Australian government apologised to the parents and these children who became known as the Stolen Generation.

It was not until 1967, Australia formally recognised the Aborigines as human beings that should be counted during census. It was also that 1967 all Aborigines of age irrespective of gender, had the right to vote. It was on September 18, 1973, that it became illegal for White Australians to kill Aborigines. It was in 1993 under The Native Title Act that the Aborigines were granted land rights.

But why were a large percentage of the European immigrants to Australia so brutal and inhuman? It has to do with their origins. Britain shipped its worst criminals to Australia. These were prisoners who had seven years to life imprisonment for crimes like highway robbery, burglary, prostitution and military crimes. Also included were political prisoners from Scotland and Ireland. Mary Ward, an 11-year- old was the youngest convict sent to Australia. Part of the conditions for sending the convicts was that upon completing their terms or being granted pardon, they would settle in Australia.

There was another category of migrants: the poor, the wretched of the British earth and the desperate. For a fare of ten pounds, this group was transported to Australia in chartered ships, especially the P&O and Orient Line. They became known as the Ten Pound Poms (Immigrants in local parlance). A combination of these groups of immigrants, who have no homes to return to, was deadly and could only produce the type of society humanity witnessed in Australia.

Prime Minister Morrison, despite his half-hearted apology on the slavery issue, is a true son of his ex-convict forefathers and foremothers. For the sake of humanity, Australia has to be transformed beyond its origins.

BY ADESORO AUSTEN

Because Architect Amos Olatunde Ojo, is an established hater of interlocking goals that would not generate desired results, he has risen to be one of the promising leaders amongst the few, who are currently manning the sensitive leadership plane in Nigeria’s nascent democratic space today.

Talking about ‘leaders and leadership’ in Nigeria, it is one of the key issues posing a huge challenge to accelerated sustainable development.

This fact is germaine in the sense that, since the country’s independence on October 1st, 1960, visionary, examplary and focused ‘leaders and leadership’ have been in short supply.
The resultant effect is a precarious situation, where a chunk of our leaders, out of lack of required leadership skills, prowess or acumen have simply failed to deliver proactively and progressively, in their various Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government.

Flowing from the above, the country is worst for it, as stagnation and retardation have made sustainable development a mirage, as international best practices are not being brought to bear in several of the nation’s aspirations to meet up with pragmatic Millennium Development Goals.
That was the reason there were wild jubilations in many quarters, when the name of Architect Amos Olatunde Ojo was the number one, in a list of appointments of high level management staff, recently announced for the National Assembly.

It is not out of place to state that, in spite of the determined efforts of some interested parties, who had wanted to stop Architect Ojo at all cost, from getting the position of the Acting Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA), the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC), having looked into the books properly, seeing that he is a man of high level professional calling, character and ideas, went ahead to chose him.

In chosen Architect Amos Olatunde Ojo, the Executive Chairman of National Assembly Service Commission (NASC), Engineer Ahmed Kadi Amshi and his team has indeed succeeded in sending a strong signal that the current Acting Clerk, is a towering personalization of inherent and acquired leadership; a man of monumental sense of service and modesty.

This point must be mentioned here: given the manner which his rivals waged a relentless battle, to smear and paint him black, before his emergence, as the number one Chief on the bureacratic setting in the National Assembly, shows that he is a dogged and resilient fighter.

In Ilobu Secondary Commercial School Ilobu, Osun State, Amos as a young man had fixed his eyes on a definite goal of making his life a success by resorting to the only route available to the path of extraordinary leaders.
From 1978 to 1993, Amos unrestrainedly position himself via hardwork, deliberate studies, austere disposition to come top as the best graduating student.

For the Acting Clerk, a spirit of enterprise has been an inherent quality and this was
manifested when he found himself at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, where
he aquitted himself excellently with a degree in Architecture between 1985 and 1990.

Because Architect Ojo had long cherished the principle of hard work and elastic commitments to studies in his primary school days, it was not difficult for him to continue his education, at the same Obafemi Awolowo University; and he succesfully earned his Master’s degree in Architecture in 1992.

With an inquisitive and audacious mind,the young Architect pursued his architectural ambition.The ardour of Architect Ojo’s commitment was phenomenal and his output prodigious as can be seen in the design and supervision of the following projects; UBA PLC Building, Ilesa, Osun State; Niger Insurance Headquarters Building, Lagos (12 floor skyscrapers); Ogun State Cultural Centre, Abeokuta, Ogun State to mention just a few.
His proficiency in his chosen career has led to the design, supervision and construction of some landmark projects within the National Assembly Complex, in Abuja, such as the National Assembly Office Complex, phase 3 part 1 and 2.
As an Architect, Amos Olatunde Ojo has displayed a healthy grasp of details, insight and astute orientation. The calm intelligence, inner resources of character and boundless energy aided his meteoric rise to the position of Permanent Secretary, Department of Procurement, Estate and Works, before his classic elevation into the highest ladder of his career.

From what we have seen about his professional antecedence and prowess, this man is laced with great vision; his nature has always been to think deeply about questions and to proffer solutions.

It is clear that Architect Amos Ojo has had great opportunity and aquitted himself most stupendously with dexterity before he became an employee of the National Assembly.
Therefore, the National Assembly’s bureacratic network today, is lucky to have such an uncommon leader, who is endowed with a rare leadership qualities of steadfastness, sacrifice and ingenuity.

The entire community of the National Assembly will soon see that Architect Amos Olatunde Ojo is absolutely committed to the satisfaction of their pragmatic needs and aspirations, and the advancement of mutual understanding and peace in the nation’s highest legislative body.

As a demonstration of his unique greatness and outstanding achievements as an Architect, he has made history, as the first ever Ilobu indigene, to attain the position of Permanent Secretary at the federal level in Nigeria.

No doubt, Architect Amos Olatunde Ojo’s Clerkship of the National Assembly is taking the cause of the National Assembly to the zenith of peace, progress and stability.

ADESORO is a journalist,Legislative scholar and a Public Analyst.

By Maxwell Oniru

A group under the auspices of League of Abuja Young Lawyers, LAYL, yesterday,  called on the Justice Ayo Isa Salami, led presidential panel probing suspended acting Chairman of the EFCC,  Ibrahim Magu, to sanction his counsel, Barrister Wahab Shittu, over allegations bordering on conflict of interest. 

The group President, Barrister Nwoko Clems, yesterday, told journalists in Abuja that Wahab Shittu as a prosecutor to the Economic and financial crimes Commission, EFCC, can not continue to be appearing on before of Magu,  before the panel as his personal lawyer. 

Barrister Nwoko,  further called on the chairman of the panel, to immediately, ex- communicate Shittu as result of conflict of interest in the ongoing probe. 

Mr. Wahab Shittu, had declared that his client will no longer condone allegations levelled against him.

Shittu said this in a statement on sunday titled, ‘Re: Magu faces questions over assets declaration- Fresh Propaganda Against Our Client Prejudicial to Panel Proceedings’.

The statement was in reaction to media reports that Magu was facing fresh investigation for failing to declare his assets before the Code of Conduct Bureau as required by law.

The lawyer said they were shocked by several false and defamatory imputations not arising from the proceedings of the panel.

He said, “Take notice that our client can no longer fold his hands in the face of these sustained malicious attacks to prejudge him in the public space. Our client will henceforth, point by point reply to all false allegations orchestrated against him in the public space on a daily basis as well as present his comprehensive defence for the world to see. This is without prejudice to the willingness of our client to defend himself in the ongoing proceedings at the Presidential Investigation Panel.”

Shittu said funds recovered from indebted oil marketers on behalf of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation were not misappropriated by the commission.

The lawyer said, “The truth of the matter is that, well over N329bn recovered by the EFCC under our client’s watch was remitted directly into NNPC dedicated accounts via REMITTA under a special arrangement endorsed by the NNPC, the EFCC and the affected NNPC indebted marketers.

“By virtue of the said special arrangement, the NNPC had requested formally the EFCC to recover the said amount from the affected oil marketers who were expected to pay such funds directly to NNPC while the NNPC in turn confirmed receipt of such payments to EFCC.

“Therefore, the EFCC never took custody of any of the recovered funds and so, the question of misappropriation of such funds by EFCC or our client could not have arisen as falsely published. This can be independently verified both at the NNPC and the EFCC records.”

Shittu said the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company LTD, a subsidiary of NNPC had in a letter dated August 17, 2017 with reference number PPMC/MD/254, actually commended the EFCC under Magu’s watch.

He said the issue of NNPC recovered funds had never featured in the proceedings of the panel and Magu had not been confronted with such allegations.

On the issue of asset declaration, the lawyer said it was orchestrated falsehood.

“Our client has never been confronted with any such allegations purportedly arising from the panel’s proceedings. The story attributed to the panel which has become a recurring decimal is a dangerous attempt to discredit the work of the honourable panel,” he said.

On allegations that Magu failed to properly explain the rationale for exclusion of culprits in the alleged misapplication of N3bn at the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the lawyer said his client never shielded anyone from probe or prosecution.

The statement further stated, “Our client has been unfairly accused of failure to properly explain the rationale for excluding some culprits in the alleged misappropriation of N3bn at the FIRS. This is falsehood from the pit of hell.

 Investigations were painstakingly conducted by EFCC under our client’s watch.

“The matter has since been referred for prosecution. Charges have been prepared ahead of arraignment in court. Therefore, the question of complicity by our client does not arise. Our client did not give any express or implied directive that anyone indicted be excluded from the legal process.”

Shittu said one Peter Hena, Head of the FIRS Support Services Group, who allegedly authorised the illegal payment, is one of those listed to be arraigned in court of competent jurisdiction.