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Friday Sermon: Palestine in Ebullition 2: A Call for Peace

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By Babatunde Jose

You shall do no injustice in judgment: you shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor. . . . nor shall you take a stand against the life of your neighbor: I am the Lord. . . . (Leviticus, 19:15-17)”

As Muslims, our heartfelt wish is for the anger and hatred on both sides to die down, for the bloodshed to stop, and for peace to come to both lands. We oppose both the radical Palestinians bombing of innocent Israelis and Israeli killing of innocent Palestinians.

But would the interlopers, do-gooders and Munafiqun allow genuine peace to reign? Chief among them is the ‘Great Satan’, United States of America. No doubt America is not an honest broker. With a flotilla of aircraft carriers, destroyers and other weapons of mass destruction dispatched to Israel, including the preparation of 2000 troops to be sent to Israel for operation; and a proposed $40 Billion in aid to Israel: Talking about peace or settlement is a transparent sham.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is therefore doomed, intractable, complicated, and deadlocked. Today, we seem to be turning tragedy into a calamity. Only on Tuesday, 500 people were killed in a bomb raid on a Baptist hospital in Gaza. The gory scenes from the genocidal reprisals in Gaza have been variously described as a massacre, slaughter, and bloodshed. It’s like the holocaust revisited.  Latest death toll stands at 3,860 Palestinians and at least 1,403 people killed in Israel since October 7.

Since the tragic turn of events, there has been much equivocation and doublespeak on the part of many interested parties that the whole issue has become mired in semantic confusion.

President Biden advocates that Israel should wipe out Hamas but at the same time should not make the mistake of leveling Gaza. How is that possible? He also said that Israel should keep space open for settlement with Palestinian. A recipe for Peace indeed!

The status quo is killing Israeli and Arab children, their mothers, fathers, and grandparents. It is a return to the primitive on both sides. It should be noted that even some Israeli media, including the editorial board of Haaretz, have the good sense to state the obvious: Benjamin Netanyahu’s government bears responsibility for this war. On the other hand, Hamas is unwittingly playing into the hands of Netanyahu at the expense of the Palestinian population. This is very gross.

Identifying the causes of conflict and stating them openly are, on the contrary, the first steps in resolving the problem. Unfortunately, the peace makers are shy of doing just that.

We hold these truths to be self-evident that all militarily occupied people have a right to resist their occupation, even militarily.

In view of the devastation of the land and people of Gaza, Hamas stands condemned for targeting Israeli civilians of any age or gender. Such targeting belies Hamas’ Islamic identity. Islam forbids the killing of innocent children and women, including elders.

Hamas succeeded unwittingly in giving a higher moral ground to Israel which has always stood condemned for its apartheid policy and in the process the excuse to ethnically cleanse Gaza of its citizens and bombing them to oblivion.

But we must condemn Israel’s indiscriminate killing of Palestinian children and women and men in Palestine.

There is talk in the western media of an unprovoked attack. What more provocation is needed than what Israel has done to the Palestinian people for 75 years.

Apart from the obnoxious policy of stealing of Palestinian lands, Israel stands condemned for its incursions into houses of worship in Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Despite a 93-year-old ruling on the ownership of the place. Except that today, Israel claims it does not recognize the International Court of Justice.

Western ‘do gooders’ also stand condemned for shedding crocodile tears when Israelis are killed but feel unconcerned when Israel kills, incarcerates Palestinian men, children, and women, evicting them from their homes and denying them all fundamental rights. Where were the British Prime Minister and EU leaders when Israel was killing, incarcerating and stealing the lands of the Palestinians?

There needs to be an end to this hypocrisy.  The US Secretary of State, the Secretary for Defense and the President, including the British Prime Minister all visited Israel to show solidarity. These were all empty shows that did not succeed in changing anything.

As the Israel-Hamas war intensifies amid growing anger across the Middle East, the region looks like it’s spiraling downwards in a familiar pattern.

Biden’s trip was thrown into disarray after a meeting in Jordan with Arab leaders was called off following an explosion at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City that killed hundreds.

That catastrophe sparked a firestorm of protest, with most of the Arab world — already seething over the death toll in Gaza — blaming Israel.

For the president, the promising diplomatic drive for a rapprochement between Israel and Saudi Arabia is on ice. One of Biden’s main objectives in visiting Israel was to deter Iran, Hezbollah, and other regional actors from entering the conflict. That might be a tall order as there have been tough talks from these quarters of grave consequence if Israel carries out its plan to level Gaza.

“Relations between Israelis and Palestinians backed by the wider Arab world are in a brutally ugly phase — a reminder that such deeply rooted conflicts never really go away.” — Karl Maier

The President was rebuffed by the Arab leaders he wanted to summit with. I wonder what he wanted to tell them. What a nerve.

That primary responsibility for the antecedent conditions that most of the world recognize as having led to this latest escalation – namely, the apartheid regime imposed on Palestinians – lies principally with the West, and the US, their duplicity, complicity, and connivance. They see Israel as a strategic geo-political bulwark, buffer, and insurance for the cheap oil they get from the region. This is rather unfortunate. If the push comes to shove, and the Arab countries are forced in sympathy to retaliate by engaging in another oil embargo as they did in 1973, the West will experience a Winter of hardship.

The injustice against the Palestinian nation has become so obvious that public opinion in the West is moving against Israel, even if leaders remain blind to this fact.

We are watching an occupied, oppressed people face annihilation by a nuclear state with the full backing of the western world. This is not – and has never been – an ‘equal fight’. Right now, it is a massacre on a scale we’ve never seen before.

6,000 bombs dropped in 6 days on a strip of land just 25 miles long and 7.5 miles wide at its widest point. Whole neighborhoods flattened. Families wiped out. Hospitals collapsing under the weight of the casualties. On a population of 2 million – half of them children. 70% of them are refugees. One Palestinian child has been killed every 15 minutes since Saturday 7th October.

And now, the forced displacement of 2 million people is tantamount to ethnic cleansing. The fact that it is impossible for that many to leave means that a genocide is in the making.

All the tragedy that has happened – and continues to happen – in Palestine is traceable to the application of the Zionist ideology by its leaders.

A political turn was given to Zionism by Theodor Herzl, who in 1897 convened the first Zionist Congress at Basel, Switzerland, which drew up the Basel program of the movement, stating that “Zionism strives to create for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by public law.” Hence, the famous Jewish phrase “Next year in Jerusalem”.

When the Ottoman government refused Herzl’s request for Palestinian autonomy, he found support in Great Britain. In 1903 the British government offered 6,000 square miles (15,500 square km) of uninhabited Uganda for settlement, but the Zionists held out for Palestine. And the rest they say is history.

Thus, 50 years after the first Zionist congress and 30 years after the Balfour Declaration, Zionism achieved its aim of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine, but at the same time, it became an armed camp surrounded by hostile Arab nations, and Palestinian organizations engaged in armed resistance. The status quo has not changed today.

Israel’s military occupation of Palestine remains at the core of this decades-long conflict which continues to impact the life of both peoples.

Throughout the world today, many intellectuals, politicians, and historians oppose Zionism. Various Christian and Jewish thinkers and authors condemn it, as do various academics in Israeli universities such as the late Israel Shahak or Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, who criticize Israeli violence directed against Palestinians and who maintain that peace can be achieved only when Israel forsakes its Zionist ideology.

Spiritually, it is a duty in the eyes of God to put an end to the fighting, which is dragging both sides deeper into unending violence.

Say: “O People of the Book! Let us rally to a common formula to be binding upon both us and you: . . . ..” (Quran, 3:64)

By using the principles of tolerance and moderation, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has caused so much bloodshed over the last 75 years, can be solved. In our view, establishing peace depends upon two conditions:

1.    Israel must immediately withdraw from all the territories it occupied during the 1967 war and end the resulting occupation. That is an obligation under international law, various U.N. Security Council resolutions, and mere justice itself. All of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip must be recognized as belonging to an independent State of Palestine.

2.    East Jerusalem, the site of significant places of worship belonging to three divinely revealed religions, must be administered by the Palestine authority. However, it must have a special status and be turned into a city of peace that all Jews, Christians, and Muslims can visit comfortably, in peace and well-being, and where they can worship in their own sanctuaries.

When these conditions are fulfilled, both Israelis and Palestinians will have recognized each other’s right to live, shared the land of Palestine, and solved the contentious question of Jerusalem’s status in a way that satisfies the adherents of these three religions.

Palestine has a very long history that spans several millennia that it is too long to recount in such a short essay, but suffice to say that until 1948, it was never a Jewish country, colony or protectorate. It came under Islamic caliphate in the late 7th Century, later under Ottoman rule and the British Mandate. It had its own currency, railway, postage stamps and other paraphernalia of a country until it was partitioned in November 29, 1947.

You shall not murder. . . . . . You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house (Land)… (Exodus, 20:13-17)

Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend

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DIAMED CENTRE: Kesington Adebutu is a Father in a million – Daughter, Abiola Olorede

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By Eric Elezuo

A United States and United Kingdom trained prolific doctor, Dr. Abiola Olorede, the first daughter of accomplished businessman and renowned philanthropist, Sir Kesington Adebukunola Adebutu, is not a run-off-the-mill medical practitioner. She knows her onions, her worth and the mandate she is programmed to fulfill.

She is the Chief Medical Director of the just opened DIAMED CENTRE, a fully equipped diagnostic and medical facility saved with the responsibility of catering to the medical needs of the Nigerian public.

The hospital, which was built and handed over to her by her philanthropic father, is located at Kuboye Street, in the heart of Lekki Island, Lagos.

In this brief chat, the achiever, who lived most of her educational life in Dublin, Poland, expressed her gratitude to a father like no other, and how she and her team intends to make the best of the facility and equipment to totally affect humanity for the better.

Excerpts:

CAN YOU TELL US THE IDEA BEHIND THIS GREAT PROJECT?

Thank you very much, my name is Abiola Olorede, I am a medical doctor by profession. I schooled in Dublin, worked in the United Kingdom and in United States of America. When I came back home to Nigeria after my education including postgraduate studies, I realized that one of the major challenges is that a lot of the diagnostic tools that we need to use for evident-base treatment of our patient were lacking. Since then, I have always had a dream that when i am able to afford it, I will like to have a place that Nigerians can go to as comparable as those round the world because, just as I have always spoken about it, every Nigerian should have any treatment obtainable anywhere in the world in their home country.

CAN I DEDUCE THEREFORE, THAT YOU INTEND TO STOP MEDICAL TOURISM BY ESTABLISHING THIS ALL INCLUSIVE MEDICAL CENTRE?

Hmmm…Intend to stop is a very big word. I am hoping by the service we would offer here, a lot of Nigerians will see it as comparable to anywhere in the world and would want to use it instead of going out of the country. So, a lot of people that go out of the country can benefit from world class treatment in Nigeria.

SO OUT OF ALL YOUR DAD’S PHILANTHROPIC GESTURES, HOW DOES THIS ONE MAKE YOU FEEL?

If you noticed, the Kensington Adebutu Foundation, KAF, as it is fondly referred to, has major pillars and that’s education and health. It does a lot of other projects no doubt. I know that in any society, if the people are not educated, it’s a big loss to the country, if you don’t have the healthy workers too, it’s a big loss. So this brings out much of my pride in the service of Nigeria.

AS A PROUD DAUGHTER, WHAT MORE COULD YOU SAY ABOUT YOUR FATHER?

First of all, I would like to thank him. I tell everybody that he is father in a million. He supported his children over the years, financially, and with wisdom. I’m going up to 60, and my father still supports me pursue my dreams; it’s very rare. I want to thank him from the bottom of my heart. He’s always there, so thank you dad, you are a wonderful dad.

CAN YOU JUST ANALYZE THE KIND OF EQUIPMENT WE HAVE HERE?

We have a lot of facilities that are available, we have 3D monogram, it gives better images, and it’s less painful when you do that. We also have 64 high CT scan, digital X-rays, a lab, Haematology, Dialysis department, Dental suite, Opthalmology and Physiotherapy. We have a fully functional Pharmacy; so it’s like a one stop shop.

We have a Cardiac Suite where you can do ECO and other tests. We engage patients morning to night, make them comfortable as they get their test done. We don’t want you to feel you are in a hospital premises; you come from home and get all your test done.

WHAT DO YOU PROMISE NIGERIANS USING THIS FACILITY?

I promise Nigerians is that only experts, who will give the right diagnosis will be engaged here so we can give world class treatment and service. We want to use evidence and innovations to manage patients. Those are our promises to Nigerians and others as an organization and God will help us deliver all these promises.

AND HOW AFFORDABLE IS IT TO PATRONISE THIS PLACE?

We would try to make it cost effective in as much as medical care is not cheap. I tell people that being healthy is cheaper that being sick and that’s true, and that’s what we hope to accomplish. It is difficult to maintain some of this machines, some of them are very expensive so we must be able to recoop cost to get and replace equipment when due.

Thank you doctor Abiola, you have been very helpful and I wish you well in the management of this facility to the best interest of Nigerians. God bless you ma.

The pleasure is mine

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The Independence of the Judiciary in a Democratic Dispensation (Pt. 4)

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By Mike Ozekhome

Introduction

In the last part of this intervention, we examined the abuse of ex-parte orders as part of our survey of the independence of the judiciary. We then moved on to political pressures exerted on the judiciary. We continues with this theme today and extend economic/fiscal pressures which undermines judicial independence. We shall also x-ray the intellectual dimensions of the judicial remit as well as the relevant legal codes for their appointment. Come with me.

 

POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE (continues)

The duty of maintaining a Judiciary that is free from political influence, an independent and impartial Judiciary in line with section 17(2)(e) of the 1999 Constitution, rests on the honourable men and women on the bench, the political class, the other two arms of government and all and sundry. An independent Judiciary that inspires confidence is a sine qua non for sustainable democracy. Judges have a special role to reject any attempt to undermine the independence of the Judiciary in this dispensation. It is sacred! The admonition of Hon. Justice (Prof.) A.F.D. Kuti in this wise is instructive.

“Of course, judges make laws by interpretations, as judges, by nature and training do not succumb to partisan considerations they are political, they should be abstinat a fabia. They must not allow themselves to be torn apart by any form of differences in our societies… The judges have a duty to chart an independent course and let it be known that the independence of (the) judiciary is of vital importance to the democratic process to maintain Human Rights Provisions and to maintain the non-adoption of sate Region… The Judiciary itself must be like Cinderella living in a glass house, above board like Caesar’s wife, also above suspicion”.

Economic/Fiscal Independence

It is a trite warfare strategy that the easiest way to weaken an army and overrun it is to cut off its supplies and starve it. Vital in the question of independence of the Judiciary is the issue of fiscal autonomy, and proper funding. As soon as we institutionalize the practice of judicial officers going cap in hand to beg for funds from the Executive, the idea of independence of the Judiciary has been trampled upon and blown into smithereens! Independence must involve economic ‘self-reliance’ and fiscal autonomy. By these, we mean that the Judiciary under this dispensation should always be able to have the funds due to it constitutionally falling directly to it without having to approach the Executive for any form of lobbying before funds can be released to it. The Constitution has substantially taken care of this area. It only remains for the frontiers of fiscal autonomy to be widened so that the Judiciary, (especially State Judiciaries) would be able to carry out capital projects so as to maintain befitting physical infrastructure for the Judicial institution. Agbakoba has argued that:

“Judicial Independence is meaningless if it is not accompanied by economic independence. Dishonest judicial staff has no credible claim to judicial independence. It is necessary to take steps to ensure that judges and magistrates can enjoy a professional status capable of guaranteeing them the required amount of professional independence coupled with an adequate remuneration package that can effectively isolate them from pecuniary pressures.”

In Nigeria and under this democratic dispensation, some jurisdictions have had to contend with dilapidated office buildings, inadequate supplies and regular power outages. Starvation of funds is a weapon used by the Executive, the keeper of the Federation purse, to achieve a balance of judicial power by giving judicial officials a sense of economic/fiscal dependency.

To stave off starvation of funds, many countries have had to increase budgetary allocations significantly in favour of the judiciary both to provide adequate physical facilities and to allow for the continuing education of judges, magistrate and their staff. In some cases, as in Madagascar, this new approach has resulted in the establishment of a school solely dedicated to the training of judicial personnel.

The poor state of fiscal ability of the Judiciary in Nigeria today aptly depicts the observation of the Federalist, Alexander Hamilton that:

“The Judiciary is beyond comparison the weakest of the three departments of power. It has no influence over either the sword or the purse; no discretion either of the strength or the wealth of the society; and can take no active resolution whatever. It may be said to have neither FORCE NOR WILL, but merely judgment.”

Although the salaries and recurrent expenditures of the Judiciary are constitutionally charged upon the Consolidated Revenue Fund, it does not appear that the Constitution specifically ensures the provision for the capital expenditure of the Judiciary. This is another ploy to still keep the Judiciary low and check its ferocity in holding the balance over government excesses. There are other pockets of ploys and half-truths.

It has, for example, been argued from the Bench that the concept of accountability has often been relied upon to justify restricting the administrative independence of the Judiciary. The Executive must, in this democratic dispensation, allow unfettered fiscal independence for the judiciary by freeing its funds from all restrictions so that judges do not have to continue to go to the Executive to seek for funds for capital projects and recurrent expenditure or extra budgetary expenses.

Judicial accountability, in fact, complements and reinforces judicial independence by creating the public confidence on which judicial independence ultimately depends. There is no gainsaying that the point is sometimes made that in relation to their judicial functions, judges are subject to a higher degree of accountability and transparency than any other public officers, or even with the present democratic dispensation, than indeed any holder of political office, be they ministers or special advisers or chairmen or members of parastatals.

It has also been argued from the Bench that financial independence of the Judiciary can only be guaranteed where the ‘order’ allows physical projection and administrative control of finances by officers accountable to the Judiciary.39 The notion of Independence of the Judiciary would remain mere rhetoric without complete fiscal autonomy for the Judiciary.

Intellectual Independence

This subhead is used here in a technical sense as an issue of judicial independence. But, it can best be described by the story in the Bible of Israel’s sojourn in the land of Egypt. A wicked king that hated the Hebrews and was afraid of their independence and prosperity had given an instruction to midwives in this manner,

“When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women….if it be a son, then ye shall kill him but it if be a daughter, then she shall live…Every son that is born ye shall case into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.”

Pharaoh preferred Hebrew females because he was afraid of male power in the event of war with the Hebrews. The same stratagem has been employed to destroy the intellectual vibrancy of the judiciary so as to weaken its independence. The calibre of judges that can stand their ground against assault on judicial independence are those imbued with high independent, incorruptible and analytical mind laced with profound intellectual fecundity. While the High Court Bench has a mixed multitude of judges, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court are filled with such high calibre of intellectually vibrant and independent-minded justices. This would explain why the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court have not only set impressive records of independent-mindedness and incorruptibility. Those two courts can hardly be faulted in the area of independence and absence of external influence. The problem of intellectual freedom mainly lies at the High Court Bench, and the lower benches.

Appointment

By virtue of section 250(3), 256(3) and 271(3) Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, a person shall not be qualified to hold office of Chief judge or a judge of the Federal High Court, Chief Judge or a judge of the High court of the Federal Capital Territory and a judge of a High Court of a state, respectively:

“Unless he is qualified to practise as legal practitioner in Nigeria and has been so qualified for a period of not less than ten years”.

We are not really concerned here about the procedure for appointment of High Court judges. What has threatened the system with collapse is the bare assumption in these constitutional provisions that tends to imply that once a person has spent ten years on earth since he/she was called to the Bar, the person automatically has all the intellectual capability to be appointed a judge.

More than anything else, judicial incompetence (encompassing law intellectually, law productively etc) has contributed to rob the Judiciary the necessary intellectual freedom it needs to assert and guard its independence. According to Schewart:

“The quality of justice….depends more upon the quality of the men who administer the law then on the content of the law they administer.”

In his keynote address at the recent Bar Conference at Enugu, Chief Afe Babalola, SAN, observed on the constitutional qualification for appointment as a judge as follows:

“This allows great latitude for the appointment of ‘any lawyer’ who has met the ten years requirement regardless of where he is prior to his appointment. This explains why a new wig from the Nigerian Law School who, immediately after his call (and probably Youth Service) went straight to work in a company, multinationals and the life without any experience whatsoever in practice could be and are being appointed as High Court Judge”.

At the swearing in of the new Senior Advocates of Nigeria on Monday, September 8, 2003, the Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Akin Olujinmi, SAN hinted that more stringent criteria for appointment of judges would be introduced. According to the Chief Law Officer of the Federation:

“We will propose that only those who can furnish evidence of contentious cases they handled in the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and the High Court within, say, three years preceding their application should be considered for appointment. By so doing, it will be possible to select only seasoned practitioners to occupy positions on the Bench.” (To be continued).

Thought for the Week

“I believe that an independent judiciary is the crown jewel of our constitutional republic. Brett Kavanaugh”. (Charles Evans Hughes).

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FG Dismisses Dangote Petroleum As Inferior, Says Refinery Not Yet Licenced, Not Completed

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