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Chidi Odinkalu
@ChidiOdinkalu
, 8 tweets, 3 min read Read on Twitter
On an interesting day for #Nigeria's judiciary, it's useful to recall the experience of Bangladesh's 1st non-Muslim Chief Justice, Surendra Kumar Sinha. In July 2017, CJ Sinha presided in a case over the constitutionality of the 16th Amendment
#WhenPoliticiansHuntJudges
#Thread
The 16th Amendment was an effort by the ruling Awami League of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed to ransack Bangladesh's judiciary, sacking judges at will under an artifice of protecting the integrity of the Bench from judicial incapacity or mis-conduct
dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/cou…
A 7-person Supreme Crt panel led by Chief Justice Sinha struck down the amendment in a 799-page judgment on 3 July 2017, holding that neither individual Judges nor the judiciary is nor shd be accountable to the Executive
branch because that is inimical to judicial independence
The Prime Minister of Bangladesh was persuaded to take the judgment as a personal affront from the Chief Justice. Swiftly, they announced that Chief Justice Sinha was ill. On 2 Oct 2017, Justices of the Supreme Crt who had sat with CJ Sinha, informed govt that he was ill
On 3 Oct 2017, Bangladesh's Law Minister, Anisul Huq, told the media that the CJ was going on a month's leave as he had cancer. He later also showed to the media what he claimed was copy of the CJ's "letter" informing the President of his "medical" leave
thedailystar.net/frontpage/cj-s…
Quickly, the President, Abdul Hamid, consented to Chief Justice Sinha's reported plan to go abroad for "cancer" treatment after the Prime Minister & Law Minister respectively signed the relevant order, which is mandatory for any government official travelling abroad
On the evening of 13 Oct 2017, the Govt of Bangladesh put Chief Justice Sinha on a Singapore Airlines flight from Dhaka to Australia. Before boarding the flt, he put out a statement in Bengali denying he was unwell & saying: "I am not sick, I am not fleeing, I am fully well."
In this way Bangladesh's Chief Justice, Sinha, was exiled first to Australia. From there, he was re-located still into exile in New Jersey in the USA where he still lives - all this, because he cared to be a judge.
#WhenPoliticiansHuntJudges
aljazeera.com/news/2018/09/b…
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Chidi Odinkalu
@ChidiOdinkalu
Yesterday was a terrible day for civic freedoms & constitutional expression in #Nigeria. The "conviction" of IG Wala on charges of criminal defamation, unlawful assembly & incitement was almost certainly designed to chill civic freedoms. Here's why & how
premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines…
The allegation is that Mr. Wala made false allegations against the chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Abdullahi Mukhtar. Assuming this to be the case, this is easily redressed through proceedings in civil not #CriminalDefamation
#CriminalDefamation was invented by colonialists to knee-cap the anti-colonial struggles. It has been struck down as unconstitutional in most African countries, including most recently, Sierra Leone, Lesotho, Gambia. #Nigeria can't do worse
cpj.org/2018/05/lesoth…
Read 8 tweets
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Chidi Odinkalu
@ChidiOdinkalu
Tomorrow, in Addis-Ababa, the Peace & Security Council (PSC) of @_AfricanUnion meets in emergency on the situation in Sudan under. Nigeria will chair it. It's the 1st meeting of any policy organ of the #AU on the epochal situation unfolding in Khartoum
dailytrust.com.ng/nigeria-assume…
Sudan matters to the stability of Africa in a way that arguably no other country does. It is a complex, big, fragile country with borders to the most complex & fragile regions of the continent. The potential for regional stability contagion are huge if Sudan is distressed
Sudan is critical to stability in the #Sahel, North Africa, the #GulfOfAden, the #NileBasin, the #GreatLakes, East Africa; the Horn of Africa, Central Africa & #WestAfrica. There's no other #African country whose wellbeing can so ripple through the continent like Sudan.
Read 8 tweets
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Chidi Odinkalu
@ChidiOdinkalu
Digital fraud has become a major industry in crime globally with guarantees of anonymity making it very difficult to prevent, detect & redress. Even by the standards of the Ether, some of the manifestations are truly breath-taking. Here's a story that dramatizes the point....
Paul Arisa was born in 1989. He graduated from Federal Government College (FGC) Ohafia in Abia State, #Nigeria, in 2007. He later went to Abia State University where he graduated with a degree in Estate Management. He had a promising future ahead of him.
Smetime in 2011, however, the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) diagnosed Mr. Arisa wth Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a rare form of cancer. He was treated for the ailment there with chemotherapy & appeared initially appeared to make some progress
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Nimrod
@GhenhisKhan
Since the @OfficialAPCNg Govt came into power, they have coordinated attacks at destroying institutions that make up Govt. From bastardizing the security arms of Govt to harassing the @nassnigeria and then recently the #Judiciary . Let’s take a look at some of the instances
2016:

Adeniyi Ademola (Federal High Court, Abuja)
Nnamdi Dimgba (Federal High Court, Abuja)
Sylvester Ngwuta (Supreme Court)
John Okoro (Supreme Court)
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A. I. Umezulike (Enugu state Chief Judge)
Muazu Pindiga, (Gombe State judge)
Justice Samia (Sokoto State Judge)
Justice Mohammed Liman (Rivers State Judge)
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SBM Intelligence
@sbmintelligence
1/ The country’s profile got bleaker this week for a host of reasons - impetuous regulatory behaviour, refugees left out in the cold, a needless rise in public recurrent spending and an unshackled rogue police squad.
2/ Nothing illustrates #Nigeria’s dysfunction as much as the minimum wage palaver. The ₦27,000 ($75) or even ₦30,000 ($83) is not much – those that earn it will hover around the poverty line.
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SBM Intelligence
@sbmintelligence
1/ #Nigeria's judiciary is under the spotlight yet again, for decidedly unsavoury reasons.
2/ Barring any drastic change of plans, the CJN, Honourable Justice Walter #Onnoghen will be arraigned by @CCBNigeria this morning on 6 counts of alleged false asset declarations.
3/ The charge, based on a petition to @CCBNigeria by a self-styled anti-corruption group led by @cpcnatpubsec, a former official of @MBuhari’s defunct political party, CPC, alleges that #Onnoghen maintains multiple undeclared foreign-denominated accounts.
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SBM Intelligence
@sbmintelligence
In a week where the North East got yet another military commander, we got a better look at overburdened infrastructure.

Elsewhere, as MTN gears up to enter the banks’ turf, concern over Nigeria's food import practices conjures a picture of a recently painted but creaking house.
The @MTNGroup's announcement is a positive for #Nigeria's economy as it substantiates previous comments by MTN that it has no plans to exit Nigeria despite its spat with @cenbank over alleged illegal fund repatriation.
The announcement ties into @MTNGroup’s strategy to become the biggest provider of mobile financial services in #Africa.

The telecoms-led drive to provide mobile money services will introduce a new interesting chapter in #Nigeria’s financial services sector.
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Subomi
@subomiplumptre
I've just read FIXING HEALTHCARE IN #NIGERIA by
Dr. Ola Brown, @NaijaFlyingDr. I'd like to share my take-aways in this thread. Please read and RETWEET. #FixNigerianHealthcare drive.google.com/file/d/1fo7Efm…
In her book, @NaijaFlyingDr provides a simple guide to policy decisions that should provide better healthcare to ALL Nigerians. #FixNigerianHealthcare
First, the book presents the bad news and some frightening stats that should precipitate a state of emergency, if we had brain in #Nigeria. #FixNigerianHealthcare
Read 18 tweets
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((( Usama Hasan )))
@drusamahasan
Some of the core drivers of the religio-political violence in #Nigeria are failures to harmonise religious, political & civic impulses. I will try to summarise and discuss some of them here. #NotAnotherNigerian @QuilliamOrg
1. #Nigeria is a civic state, with much devout religious practice, mainly Christian and Muslim. Religious loyalty should not undermine civic loyalty, but sometimes does. Eg should Muslims be concerned about the 'ummah' & Christians about fellow believers only? #NotAnotherNigerian
2. The #Nigerian state apparatus, including the legal system, is heavily influenced by Britain. The Muslim areas used to have traditional Sharia, and were part of the Sokoto Caliphate. Sharia always had many interpretations: many of these were civic in nature. #NotAnotherNigerian
Read 15 tweets

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