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President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, must have a compelling reason for pulling all the stops to make his 61st birthday the huge event it turned out to be last week. The celebration was mounted on the national stage, with sequenced steps in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, and Abuja, the Federal Capital.
As celebration of age-landmarks, otherwise referred to as jubilee, goes, 61 years is supposed to be nondescript. Ordinary. There is little or nothing about it that is reckoned as symbolic. A 61st birthday is, in normal times, just another day, except, it must be conceded, that in present-day Nigeria, no single day should be taken for granted. Surviving any day or week in the country has become a miracle of sorts, worth offering special thanksgiving for.
Then again, Nigeria remains rooted in the bottom of global life expectancy index. The latest of that detail, published by WorldData.info and World meter, both derived from United Nations Population division, has Nigeria bringing up the rear. While WorldData.info has Nigeria at number 123 position among 124 nations of the world in its life expectancy table, World meter has Nigeria in the 200th position out of the measured 201 countries. The giant of Africa has the distressing lot of coming only before Chad, another West African country, which occupies the last or 124th position in the WorldData.info publication.
According to the data, life expectancy for men in Nigeria is 52.3 years. For women it is 53.1 years. In Chad, it is 50.8 years for men and 51.5 for women. For the West African region, life expectancy is 55.57 years for men and 57.82 years for women. In Southern African region, there is a better standing, as life expectancy for men is 58.88 years and 64.5 years for women.
Consider these with life expectancy in Hong Kong, which is the highest in the world. Here, life expectancy for men stands at 83.2 years for men and 87.9 years for women. In Canada (No.11 in the WorldData.info index), it is 80.6 years for men and 84.7 years for women. In Western Europe it is 79 years for men and 84 years for women.
The life expectancy statistics for Nigeria definitely justifies anyone who clocks up to 60 years or 61 years or 61.5 years, throwing a party. It could not have been easy. Many must have gone.
Whatever reason informed Senator’s Akpabio’s celebration of his 61st birthday, the colloquium he mounted as part of the event made it worthwhile. Lifting the celebration beyond mere revelry and seeing in it a comely opportunity to examine aspects of Nigeria under the watch of the party and government he is a key leader of, are, thoughtful.
In choosing former president of the Nigerian Bar Association, Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, as the prime speaker at the colloquium, Akpabio also exhibited seriousness in what must have been a genuine desire for frank discussion. Agbakoba may not be a purist, uncompromising activist, at least not anymore, but he is not exactly a systems man. For one, he says his mind. At the Akpabio colloquium, he did just that and gained credit for himself for his candour. He gained credit for the colloquium also, making it, perhaps, the only public gathering so far, under the present dispensation, where some truth was told to the powers that be, to their face.
Agbakoba navigated his presentation fairly well. While he was largely pedagogic, he anchored his recommendations on clearly identified national needs, thereby making his delivery less didactic. He was, at times, gracious, overly so, to President Bola Tinubu, who was present and his government. When he needed to be scathing, he was rightly so, too. His verdict, for instance, that the present Supreme Court is the worst he has seen in his 45 years of legal practice, is not one that many will contest.
Interestingly, at about the time Agbakoba was expressing his disapproval of the present ways and character of the Supreme Court, the head of that court, the Chief Justice, Olukayode Ariwoola, who appointed his son a judge to the High Court not too long ago and also appointed his nephew to the Appeal Court, not too long ago, had reportedly proceeded to appoint his brother, the auditor of the National Judicial Council.
Agbakoba raised several salient points about where both the laws and governance processes in Nigeria are lagging. It was interesting watching Senator Akpabio taking copious note. The hope is that his notes will translate into practical steps to enhance the administrative structure and processes in the country. The devil is always with calculation for political survival.
One of the interesting suggestions made by the former NBA president has to do with the need to alter the law relating to election litigation. He is of the view that the election management body that conducts an election should be the prime defendant in any challenge of the quality and outcome of an election. Thinking about it now, with the insight Agbakoba provided, it appears anomalous that someone declared a winner in an election will be the prime entity being challenged to prove that he won or that a candidate who felt short-changed in an election will be asking another contender to answer for how and why he emerged victorious. The right entity to justify an election and the decision leading to the returns made, should be the institution that made the call. This indeed, is a different perspective worth looking into.
Olisa Agbakoba may have been prolific in his recommendations and proposals of areas of various sectors in need of reform and strengthening. Senator Akpabio may have done noble to provide a platform to interrogate once again, the problems of Nigeria. In the final analysis, the challenge is the will to do what is right. It always comes down to integrity in government and prime political leaders. Doing the right thing in steering the ship of state, or for that matter, in any aspect of public and private engagement, is not often a matter of the provisions of the law. It is more of an expression of integrity or otherwise, in individuals in leadership.
Agbakoba had done his best in pointing out several areas where the laws of the land need to be strengthened through alteration or reform. Akpabio not only provided a commendable platform for the discussion, he also took notes, copiously. Tinubu was all ears, as well. Now, what?
The senate president’s 61st birthday will be remarkably different and meaningful, if it ultimately delivers identifiable enhancement in the laws and disposition guiding various aspects of public life and activities in Nigeria, arising from his birthday colloquium.
