MR PRESIDENT, IT’S TIME TO BRING SLOK
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By: Aloy Ejimakor, Washington, DC
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Before I came into motherland Nigeria late in the week before last, I had a busy
schedule of sorts back in Washington DC. Busy in more sense than one. It was
supposed to be a mild social schedule of going from one Nigerian community event
to the other to enjoy some good wine and old-world comradeship with fellow
Nigerians from across North America, with some coming from as far as Halifax in
the far reaches of Canada. Well, from coming together to socialize, a plurality
of Nigerians that descended on Washington waxed true to type by taking the
opportunity to quickly founding an ad-hoc body that soon began to do some
serious appraisals of the state of the Nigerian Federation, and they so aptly
named it ‘One Nigerian Diaspora, One Nigeria’ or ONDON, for short. Amongst the
ranks were elements from the crème de la crème of the Nigerian Diaspora – from
members of the Organization of Nigerian Lawyers in Diaspora, to Executives of
the mother Union – the Organization of Nigerians in Diaspora, Nigerian
Professionals in North America, and so forth – mostly middle-of-the-roaders who
wouldn’t be caught dead consorting with any ideological or ethnic partisans.
So, it came to pass that the many ordinary Nigerian social gatherings slated to
occur in Washington DC inside the last months of 2007 soon graduated from the
usual social banter and a good dose of Nigerian music and cuisine to something
of a national patriotic chest-beating that included President Yar’Adua and
Chairman Iwu’s crucial visits to the US in the same period. Washington DC was
thus so hyped up with the Nigerian flavor that Usman Baraya, the acting Nigerian
Ambassador to the US called it the season of Nigeria and Nigerians in the US.
That so much captured it all.
President Yar’Adua (tentative, diplomatic and credible) was the first to come to
town. After him, entered Professor Maurice Iwu (self-assured, patriotic, and
primed to inform). For their different missions, both Yar’Adua and Iwu had
largely successful outings with Americans and the Nigerian Diaspora to varying
degrees. President Yar’Adua charmed George Bush and the White house with his
rule of law mantra, commitment to electoral reforms and a diplomatic sleight of
hand on Africom. On Africom, Bush was befuddled, and those that didn’t know
Yar’Adua well failed to appreciate the deft manner he handled Africom - with no
clear pointer to where Nigeria actually stood. On his part, Chairman Iwu made a
compelling case for the integrity of Nigeria’s electoral process with his
release of the 2007 general elections report, aided by intellectual and patient
engagement of his most unreasonable critics. His moral conviction and love of
Nigeria was touching.
But one thing (or more) was missing. Not with Iwu’s fine presentations – because
the man won hearts and minds and took the wind out of the sail of his critics.
It was instead with President Yar’Adua that Nigerians in Diaspora harbored some
regret that they did not have enough opportunity or proximity to ask him to
address some urgent national business – and that is to say: the business and
commercial interests of certain Nigerians significantly hurt by some Obasanjo-era
executive decisions that much of the Nigerian Diaspora understood to have been
politically motivated. Discussed alongside this issue is the logic advanced by
many that Obasanjo’s legacy (or even some peace and quiet in retirement) will
continue to suffer unless President Yar’Adua urgently and clearly addresses some
of the major questionable decisions carried over from the previous
administration. What is more is that such decisions, while they persist, are
seen to be a double whammy of sorts in the sense that they constitute both a
drag on bringing some closure to Obasanjo – so he can have peace, and the moral
burden such policy hangovers impose on a Yar’Adua that is supposed to be winning
Nigerians to his side.
From the many such decisions, the two that became constant refrains and stood
out like sore thumbs are the ones that had to do with revocation of Slok’s
license and credible reports that Obasanjo also revoked up to four oil blocks
hithertofore owned by Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, former governor of Abia State. Judging
by the professional caliber, ideological and geographical spread of my fellow
Nigerian Diaspora who gathered to discuss these issues among the many other
national issues of the day that were also within gun sight, I surmised that
something good will definitely come out of this. There was this general
agreement that Orji Kalu was specially marked out and dealt an unfair hand.
Throughout the discussions that spanned for hours on end, I noticed this
palpable feeling that the opinions rendered were mainly propelled by a common
human instinct to see immediate and total justice to a man (Orji) who has
suffered so much just for making bold to speak his mind. One gentleman from up
Northern Nigeria by name of Haruna captured it well when he just blurted out:
‘Guys, it’s time to bring Slok home and restore Orji’s oil blocks’. And another
jolly good fella hazarded: ‘or pay him some compensation for every buck he
lost’. It was admirable.
What made Orji’s case extremely compelling above the many others like it was the
sad fact that the man may have irretrievably lost his controlling investments in
Hallmark bank, and the Southgate, where he was said to also have substantial
interests. The general feeling amongst the many Diasporans gathered
preponderated so much in favor of making Orji Kalu whole again - to the extent
that some people even toyed with the quaint idea of encouraging Orji to explore
legal means of seeking recompense from the Nigerian government for all he may
have lost from the summary expulsion of Slok from Nigeria’s skies, unlawful
revocation of his oil blocks, and the unfair forcible closures of Hallmark and
Southgate. This postulate assumes that a political solution will remain unlikely
in the foreseeable future.
A few lawyers even suggested that action may properly lie in US courts because
the unique investment structure of Slok, for instance may sustain a colorable
claim of minimum contacts with the United States which is all that is required
for an aggressive and activist US federal court to assert long-arm personal
jurisdiction over foreign sovereigns when it comes to commercial activities. But
those who know Orji well maintained that he is too patriotic to attempt anything
that might make Nigeria vulnerable to some foreign court and the certain
diplomatic embarrassment that follows. This is not discounting the plain fact
that precedents are known to exist in every democracy touting adherence to the
precepts of rule of law where someone in Orji’s position had proceeded to court
and easily prevailed on an action for real and exemplary damages. Yet the
feeling amongst the Nigerian Diaspora gathered was that Orji is smart and
statesmanlike enough to look to President Yar’Adua’s well known goodwill for the
final redress that must someday soon come to Slok and other investments
interests of his that were similarly imperiled by executive fiat. It is seen to
be an easy political decision for President Yar’Adua because of two reasons: one
– no due process was present in the time-line of the decision that led to Slok’s
fall and the oil blocks to boot, in addition to the high political content and
drama that pervaded them all; and two – by credible accounts, these are amongst
some of the few decisions that Obasanjo is said to be now regretting. And that
Orji himself is not known to have pressured Yar’Adua in this wise even made his
case much more compelling and his mien as admirable as ever.
Other national issues that dominated discussions throughout the two-day
symposium included the place of Professor Maurice Iwu in the present scheme of
reforming Nigeria’s electoral systems and institutions. On this point, the
feeling was rife that Maurice Iwu deserves national gratitude for surmounting
monumental hurdles to deliver on an election that was so crucial to advancing
Nigerian democracy to the next level. And considering his evident mastery of the
traditional difficulties that had burdened Nigeria’s past elections,
participants resolved to encourage President Yar’Adua to consider Professor Iwu
an indispensable part of the nation’s current efforts at electoral reforms that
make sense. Ancillary to this was the hope that Alhaji Atiku and General Buhari
would, in the nearest future, see the ultimate wisdom in having their cases
withdrawn from the tribunal so that Nigeria will be free from the drag that
comes with protracted legal challenge of presidential poll results. Parallels
were drawn from the United States and India where politicians have understood
that such prolonged challenge to results of national elections, howsoever
justified, ultimately brings some incalculable harm to a nation’s standing in
the comity of nations. But most importantly, while applauding the Nigerian
judiciary for its independence, everyone present hoped that the election
tribunals hearing petitions across the country will not turn copy-cat by
frivolously nullifying elections that should ordinarily stand; and that the
Presidential Election Tribunal particularly will muster the requisite judicial
temperament to see beyond mere legalisms and understand that nullifying a
presidential election in a nation as volatile as Nigeria is no child’s play and
therefore should never arise unless on a strict proof of some egregious
misconduct that cannot be ignored in any circumstance. There is no evidence of
such a thing yet.
Back to Orji Kalu, Slok, and oil blocks, it was the final opinion of the
Nigerian Diaspora gathered that The Gambia where Slok holds sway is not known by
any credible accounts to be below par in her air safety regulations, and given
the exemplary performance of Slok in West Africa’s airspace industry, Nigeria
stands to benefit from calling the airline back home. The benefits are legion –
running the gamut from reducing the nation’s unemployment rates to adding value
to the private investment portfolio of Nigeria’s aviation industry. But more to
the auxiliary point of this essay, the Nigerian Diaspora feels very strongly
that Obasanjo should care more about his legacy by summoning his famous courage
to finally go to President Yar’Adua and encourage him to reverse some of
hard-nosed decisions he seemed to have taken in too much haste, undoubtedly as a
consequence of his understandable attempt to protect his political turf.
Aloy Ejimakor is of Law Group, Washington DC
alloylaw@yahoo.com
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