Dr. TUNJI BRAITHWAITE: A MAN OF MANY PARTS BUT GENERALLY HUMANE ON ALL PLAINS. A DOGGED REVOLUTIONARY, A HUMANIST AND HERO OF THE PEOPLE!

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, CACOL mourns the passage of Dr. Tunji Braithwaite; a Nationalist, a consistent and persistent fighter against all forms of oppression and repression, a supporter and motivator of our Coalition in the war against corruption. His passage represents a colossal loss to the activist and revolutionary community.

Dr. Tunji’s monumental contributions to the struggle for an egalitarian society are immeasurable and invaluable. He lived and died for the struggle to liberate the poor and oppressed in spite of his ‘privileged’ background.

As far back as 1978, he formed the National Advance Party, NAP, a political party with the mission of prioritizing the welfare of people in governance; he was of the ‘Awoist’ school of thought, an ardent and outspoken defender of the voiceless and the poor.

His passage is particularly painful for us in CACOL, for the roles he played in supporting actively the activities of our coalition including being the Chairman of our past 5 Annual General Meetings; intellectual support and guidance.

A strong advocate for the restructuring of Nigeria Federation, defender of women and human rights; Dr. Tunji dared and confronted the military with every ability he had, until the Khaki boys were kicked out of power and remained intolerable to civilian dictatorship afterwards, especially during the Olusegun Obasanjo regime; this informed his active participation in foiling the illegal and infamous third-term bid of the retired General.

As a humanist, his ideology was inextricably bounded with humane acts in personal, socio-political, economic and cultural relations. And his humanism was revolutionarily unrepentant and consistently against the sub-human experience Nigeria and Nigerians had been forcefully made to pass through for so long. He was persistently calling for a revolution, a system change that would rid Nigeria of ‘cockroaches and rats’ (a popular cliché of his that he regularly used to depict the rot, decay and corruption in the system).

Dr. Tunji was also a bridge builder that related with a broad section of virtually all active organisations, groups and participants in the struggle for liberation of the oppressed class. He was instrumental to the formation of Movement Of the People (MOP), led by Fela even though he was not a member, he participated in the collective struggle on other broad platforms like National Intervention Group (NIG), Nigerians United for Democracy (NUD) etc.

He thoroughly believed that only the oppressed could achieve their emancipation via struggle which informed the motto of the party he formed – ‘Our destiny is in our hands’. As revolutionary humanist he shunned irredentism and sectarianism keeping his focus of what he was convinced to be good for the vast majority.

The pains of his passage lies only in the reality that the Nigeria of his dream and the struggle to radically alter the subsisting and hitherto existing system, have neither been achieved nor consummated; the hope lies in the lessons we learnt from his contribution to the struggle, as they will continue to guide our actions in the struggle against the subsisting corrupt, oppressive and exploitative system.

Looking at the state of the nation as we celebrate the heroic passage of Dr, Braithwaite, we reiterate that Nigeria remains in a state of catastrophic equilibrium stemming from the systemic failure that has always been the bane and the clog in the wheel of progress of the nation and people; a state or situation, which Dr. Braithwaite was stoutly against till death.

It is no gainsaying to state that at the moment, Nigerians are groaning in pains under a situation where every aspect of the country’s body polity seems to be in quagmire and doldrums. The double dose of tragedy represented in the present crises in the energy and power sectors have taken majority of Nigerians to the peak of pains where life is steeply becoming more and more frustrating and hellish.

A critical and objective look at, and appraisal of the state of the Nigerian Nation at this moment reveals fogginess and confusion as the country remain in that situation where the poor ordinary working and toiling people which constitute the majority are writhing in pains almost on all plains; with a rich ruling class and their underbellies that are impervious to this reality and apparently does not ‘give a damn’.

More than 9 months after the inauguration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) led Federal government, it is pertinent to come to terms with what is real and what is fad or farce. The worst thing may not be so much about where we are coming from but much more about in which direction we are going, we dare say. And as things stand, Nigerians are more concerned with the direction the Nation is moving. And the only direction they want to go is that direction which will guarantee that the ordinary Nigerian can feed; have shelter, have access to gainful employment, education, good health care and security and to live in harmony, as simple as that, and it is for those reasons that government was instituted in the first place!

On our part, we believe the onus is on us (the oppressed poor and their organisations) to pick up the gauntlet; rededicated and recommit ourselves to the cause of the struggle as we unrepentantly continue to organise and mobilise for fundamental change in the system.

We call on and encourage all compatriots not to rest on their oars, as the struggle to liberate our country and people is a protracted one involving processes and stages. The struggle is not an event, we make bold to say! We must mobilize, organize and educate the masses to rise up against bad governance for our destiny lies in our hands.

We support the on-going anti-corruption war as we recognize corruption as a bane that has permeated almost every aspect of polity as country, a cankerworm that is deeply embedded and must be excised. The drive must continue and this is regardless of the class, social, ethnic, political or religious status of individuals or groups involved. Impunity must end!

Dr. Tunji Braithwaite, indeed was a rare kind and in a class of his own; comparable to Fela Kuti, Beko Ransome Kuti, Gani Fawehinmi, Alao Aka Bashorun etc. who were his ideological soul-mates and like them, he cannot die, for revolutionaries don’t die!

Viva Tunji Braithwaite!!

 

Debo Adeniran,

Executive Chairman, CACOL

08037194969

dadnig@yahoo.com

www.deboadeniran.com

 

 

 

 

 

Being the Valedictory Tribute to Dr. Tunji Braithwaite as delivered by Mr. Debo Adeniran, the Executive Chairman of Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, CACOL, at his Funeral Programmer, 24th-28th of April, 2016

CACOL CONDEMNS THE 108 LAND CRUISER JEEPS DISTRIBUTED AMONGST THE MEMBERS OF THE NIGERIAN SENATE

As recently reported, the distribution of the first batch of the 108 brand new Sport Utility Vehicles (Land Cruisers) by the Nigerian Senate to Senators that has naturally attracted deserved criticisms and resentful attention of right thinking citizens is an immoral and insensitive act that could only have emanated from the Nigerian Senate, a Senate that appears apparently to be hell-bent on achieving a record-breaking feat in the human history of corruption.

The Executive Chairman of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, CACOL, while corroborating the foregoing position of CACOL said that “the Nigerian Senate has severally demonstrated their greed and shamelessness via their lust for luxurious frivolities and insensitiveness to what the scale of preference should be at this trying time for Nigerians and Nigeria. Through immoral and bared-faced unethical means, the Senate, have cleverly legitimized their ineptitude in parliamentarianism by infecting the process with their vagaries, avarice and innate corrupt tendencies; this informs why at this point the Senate can contrive the idea of purchasing exotic jeeps when basic needs of the vast majority are not been paid any attention.”

“We have in Nigeria today, some Civil servants both at the State and Federal levels that have not been paid salaries for months now, there are doctors, lecturers and teachers threatening to embark on strike actions if their allowances are not paid and demands not met. The flipside and bad side of the story is that how come so-called representatives of people prioritize frivolities over very basic needs of the people they are supposed to be representing?”, asked Mr. Debo Adeniran, as he continued to lampoon the Senate in his reaction to the unwarranted purchase of 108 exotic jeeps by the body.

Furthermore, the Executive Chairman of CACOL said that “when the head of an institution is rotten, the whole body gets infected, the Head of the Senate have too much corrupt baggage that would inadvertently impact corruptly on every approval and decision to that comes out from that already desecrated Chambers. And this is why CACOL has been and is still insisting on the resignation of Dr. Bukola Saraki as President of the Senate on moral and ethical grounds. Nigerians need to insist on that necessity, and be pro-active about rejecting the toga of shame being foisted on Nigeria as a country within the comity of nations. That is the patriotic duty and a clarion call to all Nigerians to salvage our country. It is our country, let us take it back!”

Wale Salami

Media Coordinator, CACOL

080141121208

wale@thehumanitycentre.org

cacolc@yahoo.com,cacol@thehumanitycentre.org

April 21, 2016.

 

THE PRO-CORRUPTION BILL AGAINST THE ANTI-CORRUPTION WAR AND THE CODE OF CONDUCT BUREAU IS SHAMEFUL, IMMORAL AND RETROGRESSIVE! – CACOL

The process kicked-started by the Nigerian Senate to shield one of ‘their own’, the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki in the bid to frustrate the constitutional role of the CCB in the battle against corruption by amending the law setting up the Code of Conduct Bureau and the Code of Conduct Tribunal, with a view to whittling down the agencies’ powers must obviously be a script written from the dirtiest and most shameless part of the pith of hell. It is a move that resoundingly ranks the present Senate as the most shameless and inept Senate in the annals of Nigeria’s political history.

As recently reported, the Senate, passed for second reading, a bill for the amendment of the CCB and Tribunal Act barely 48 hours after its presentation, the pro-corruption bill and its sponsors claim that the CCB should be only vested with power to receive declarations by public officers made under paragraph 12 of Part 1 of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution and examine the declarations in accordance with the requirements of the code of conduct or any law.

“The blunt truth is that, the fact that this is coming up at a crucial point when the trial of the Senate President at the CCT is at a crescendo is no coincidence, for it is clear to the discerning that it is a conscious and orchestrated attempt to frustrate the judicial trial of Dr. Bukola Saraki, the Senate President over corruption charges. When you genuinely fight corruption, corruption and corrupt elements fights back viciously and shamelessly with bare-faced impunity and reckless abandon having been cornered and exposed!’’ said Mr Debo Adeniran, Executive Chairman of CACOL said in reaction to the pro-corruption bill.

“We all have been witnesses to all the ploys Saraki and his cohorts have deployed thus far to frustrate the many charges of corruption against the Senate President and his wife. We have seen so-called Distinguished Senators accompany their ‘comrade-in-arms’ whenever he appears at the CCT; hiring arguably the largest delegation of Senior Advocates Of Nigeria, SAN, to represent him in the history of the Nigerian Judicial process. Saraki have been running helter-skelter – from the High Court, to the Appeal and to the Supreme Court – to achieve the maneuvering of the judicial processes of his prosecutions over several corruption charges.’’ Mr. Adeniran added

 

CACOL calls on all right thinking Nigerians to come together to shoot down the diabolic pro-corruption bill. We must not allow the abnormal to become the normal in our society. We must reject the toga of disgrace being imposed on us collectively as a people by the incurably, profoundly and shamelessly corrupt elements in the corridors of power. One only needs to ask, why this bill is coming up at this point, to understand the self-serving intentions and interests at the background of the shameful plot.

“We reiterate that Saraki should resign as Senate President and Chairman of the National Assembly based on moral and ethical grounds for the several hitherto corruption allegations against him and the recent ‘blockbuster’ – the Panama Papers. He is only hanging on a string like someone ‘hiding behind a finger’’, he fails to realize that ‘there is no fist big enough to hide the sky (the truth)’! CACOL’s Executive Chairman concluded.

 

Wale Salami

Media Coordinator, CACOL

080141121208

wale@thehumanitycentre.org

cacolc@yahoo.com,cacol@thehumanitycentre.org

April 16, 2016.

 

SARAKI CROWNED ON A SHAKY THRONE; HE WILL BE DISGRACED! – CACOL

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, CACOL has called on Mr. Bukola Saraki to tow the path of honour by resigning as the President of the Nigerian Senate. This is following the latest revelations from the ‘Panama Papers’ leaks about assets confirmed to be proceeds of corruption belonging to the Saraki Dynasty.

The Executive Chairman of CACOL, Mr. Debo Adeniran, reacting to the ‘Panama Papers’ revelations said that “before becoming the Senate President, a position which he assumed via very controversial means; Sarakiwas known for running publicly-owned businesses bankrupt and someone with a poor reputation such as his, isn’t fit to be called or be elected as a Senator not even to talk of becoming theSenate President.With such a background and considering that he oscillates between sitting in the criminal suspects’ box in the Code of Conduct Tribunal as a criminal suspect and sitting as President of the Senate in the hallowed Chambers of the National Assembly as the President of the Senate doubling as the Chairman of the National Assembly, the situation becomes an aberration and makes Saraki a misfit to occupy a seat in the Nigerian Senate in the first place and unfit to continue to occupy the exalted position of the Senate Presidency.’’

Mr. Adeniran went further to say that ‘’the fact that Saraki lied about his declaration of assets is enoughproof for everyone that he is not a credible person, his impeachment processes should have started long before now, so it is better for him to resign now. Should he refuse to resign, the Senate must wield the big stick by commencing his impeachment process immediately. For it is absurd for someone who sits high at the throne of the law making guild in Nigeria to discredit himself so much in the eyes of the public and thereby tarnishing the image of the country among the comity of Nations.’’

CACOL is aware, and actually, it is public knowledge that the Saraki dynasty have been clinching on to power especially in Kwara state, power which the family have used to amass stupendous wealth over time.The Saraki family have been in government for so long and they have had unlimited access to government funds, properties and other assets, in Kwara state, since 1999 up to this present moment, all the governors have either come from the Saraki family or imposed by the Saraki family, leaving no chance for other people to be elected.’’

CACOL demands that the trail of Mr. Bukola Saraki at the Code of Conduct Tribunal must not be truncated under any guise; his case must be pursued to logical conclusions, his wife, Mrs. Toyin Saraki who has always been used as conduit to siphon public funds for the private use of the Sarakis must also be investigated and prosecuted.

In concluding, CACOL’s Chairman, said that “with revelations from the ‘Panama Papers’, the Federal Government and the anti-corruption agencies should swing into action with the view ofinvestigating, prosecuting and recovering ofthe loots whileapplying necessary punitive where culpability is established. And this is not just about Saraki; it must include all other Nigerians mentioned in the ‘leaks’ like Mr. David Mark and others.’’

Wale Salami

Media Coordinator, CACOL

080141121208

wale@thehumanitycentre.org

cacolc@yahoo.com,cacol@thehumanitycentre.org

April 6, 2016.

 

 

 

 

 

CACOL COMMENDS LAGOS STATE GOVERNMENT ON RESPECTING RIGHT TO MOVEMENT DURING ‘MONTHLY ENVIRONMENTAL SANITATION’ EXERCISE

The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, CACOL has commended the recent step by the Lagos State Government to stop the violation of the fundamental rights of people to movement during THE monthly Environmental Sanitation Exercise.

“This move is reflective of a signal that portray a ‘change’ in Lagos State, this is against the background of the fact that the immediate past government in the state appealed against a court ruling which logically quashed the obnoxious and unlawful restriction of people’s movement during sanitation exercise, contrary to what their fundamental human rights guarantee anywhere in the world.’’

Speaking through their Executive Chairman, Mr. Debo Adeniran, the Coalition said, “a lot of government policies infringe on the fundamental rights of people as enshrined and guaranteed in the Nigerian Constitution; the African Charter, the United Nations Charter of human rights and several other internationally binding treaties and instruments. We must move towards governing and developing without increasing the sufferings of the people and giving due regards for what constitute their fundamental human rights, including the socio-economic rights.’’

Mr. Adeniran, however hastened to add that, “this move should not translate into a dirtier Lagos but rather into a cleaner one because government must not fail in its’ obligation to keep the state, especially public places clean, inasmuch as people pay taxes, rates and levies as demanded. The government must not lose its capacity to implement its own laws without unwarranted coercion while citizenry must also be willing to play their role so that Lagos is kept clean.’’ He concluded.

Wale Salami

Media Coordinator, CACOL

080141121208

wale@thehumanitycentre.org

cacolc@yahoo.com,cacol@thehumanitycentre.org

April 1, 2016.

 

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT MUST ENSURE THAT RECOVERED LOOTS ARE NOT RE-LOOTED; AND DUE PUNITIVES MUST BE APPLIED FOR LOOTERS – CACOL

The Executive Chairman of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, CACOL, Mr, Debo Adeniran has called on the Federal government to ensure that loots recovered as the battle against corruption goes on are not re-looted and that all recovered loots are channelled back to the original projects or purposes for which they were meant for, in cases where the original projects have been fixed, such funds should be put in Treasury Single Account (TSA) and used for other important needs of the nation.

Mr. Adeniran said, ‘’it would a double tragedy if recovered funds/loots end-up getting re-looted by the incurably corrupt elements that are clearly still lurking around in very powerful positions in the present government. The processes involved in the recovery must be transparent and accountable.’’

To avoid this double tragedy, the CACOL Chairman said, ‘’we call on all Nigerians to monitor the processes of loot recovery to forestall any attempt for corruption to get back what it lost ‘at the roundabouts on the swings’; on our part as a Coalition, we shall vigilantly monitor these processes to ensure that the excruciating conditions of existence of the majority of Nigerians stemming largely from corrupt practices perpetrated by some elements in government are alleviated and the people are not made to suffer the elevations of their pains. If the funds get re-looted, then, all the anti-corruption efforts of the government and the people may just add up to plunging energy into a process that ends futility.’’

Mr.Adeniran added that ‘’beyond the recovery of loots, the Federal government and the anti-corruption agencies should ensure that convicted corruption criminals are dealt with punitively within the rule of the law. The anti-corruption drive must yield impactful results in terms of utilisation of recovered loots and in the achievement of convictions of corrupt elements; these will draw more popular support, credibility and confidence for the anti-corruption drive.’’

CACOL is suggesting life imprisonment for convicts that stole any amount above 1 billion naira, and they should be made to work diligently for their own upkeep via whatever skills they possess previously or has been able to learn behind the bars. ‘’They should be used as objects to educate the young, the youth and all when they go on excursion to the prisons, seeing former corrupt leaders in such situation will certainly serve to deter the potentially corrupt. Furthermore, whatever assets traced to such convicts should be deemed to be proceeds of corruption and confiscated by the Nigerian state.’’ The Executive Chairman of the Coalition concluded.

Wale Salami

Media Coordinator, CACOL

080141121208

wale@thehumanitycentre.org

cacolc@yahoo.com,cacol@thehumanitycentre.org

April 1, 2016.