Scotland vs Nigeria investigated by police over match-fixing claims

Scotland's friendly against Nigeria in London on Wednesday night is being investigated by police after claims that attempts have been made to fix the match.

National Crime Agency officers, who investigate serious and organised crime, have tipped off world governing body FIFA over possible attempts to rig the fixture.

There is no suggestion of Gordon Strachan's Scotland players being involved in any potential scam. Neither is there a threat to Nigeria’s pre-World Cup warm up at Fulham’s Craven Cottage, where 10,000 Tartan Army footsoldiers are expected to be following their team.

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Friendly fire: Scotland, with (from left) Leigh Griffiths, Scott Brown, Charlie Mulgrew and Ikechi Anya in their ranks, trained at Harrlington on Tuesday ahead of Wednesday night's friendly against Nigeria

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On the ball: Gordon Strachan will look to continue his impressive run as Scotland boss

However, SFA head of security Peter McLaughlin has been in touch with National Crime Agency for the last three days after the agency – Britain’s equivalent of the FBI – received general intelligence concerning the London clash.

The SFA declined to comment but confirmed they are aware of the matter. Neither would the National Crime Agency offer a public comment.

But a spokesman said: 'The NCA will from time to time provide operational detail necessary for public reassurance purposes. It does not routinely confirm or deny the existence of specific operations or provide ongoing commentary on operational activity.'

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Putting in a shift: Coach Stuart McCall puts Steven Naismith through his paces ahead of the Nigeria match

From Garamba to Sambisa Forests, By Olusegun Adeniyi

Located in the Democratic Republic of Congo and established in 1938, the Garamba National Park was in 1980 designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. But what most people across the globe easily remember about the park is the 2008 US-supported “Operation Lightning Thunder”, an unsuccessful attempt by the Uganda Peoples Defence Force (UPDF) to capture or kill Mr. Joseph Kony, the Ugandan rebel leader who could easily be described as the number one terrorist in Africa. Dubbed by the media as the “Garamba Offensive”, the operation was led by the Uganda Army (with logistics provided by the United States military) who pursued Kony whose men had massacre several people, including 14 soldiers. At the end, they failed to get him even though the operation succeeded in freeing hundreds of children from his captivity.
Against the background that in October 1996 Kony’s LRA also abducted 139 female students from St. Mary’s College Boarding School, Apac district in Uganda, I am beginning to wonder if Boko Haram is not reading from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) manual. Therefore, as the United States, France, China, United Kingdom, Canada and Israel join our country in the efforts to rescue the more than 200 female students abducted from Chibok, Borno State by Boko Haram insurgents, there are lessons to learn from the activities of the Kony-led LRA in Uganda.
In the last few days, I have been drawing interesting parallels between the LRA and Boko Haram and other terror affiliates whose men kill in the name of religion as I read again “The Wizard of the Nile: The Hunt for Africa’s Most Wanted”, autographed for me by the author, Matthew Green, about four years ago.Green, a British journalist who had spent five years as the Central Africa correspondent for Reuters, was in Nigeria between 2007 and 2009, reporting for the Financial Times of London before leaving to become their South Asia Security Correspondent, where he is now covering Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In the introduction to the very revealing book, Green had written: “From our crow’s nest in Nairobi, the conflict looked like a classic tale of pointless savagery. The rebels had massacred villagers, mutilated hundreds of people and abducted thousands of children—all for the sake of one man’s ambition to rule according to his warped reading of the Bible.”
For those who may not be familiar with the LRA, it is not too different from Boko Haram except that the former claims to draw inspiration from the Bible while the latter claims to draw its own from the Quran. In the narrative of a dramatic encounter, Green reveals the mindset of the LRA leader: “I would like to declare today clearly why we are fighting,” (Joseph) Kony went on, reverting back to Acholi (his native language). “Of course our political agenda has already been explained. We are fighting for God’s Ten Commandments; we are fighting for God’s power. If you look at the Ten Commandments, are they bad? We are fighting for God’s rule because God’s rule is eternal…”
Given what they cite as raison d’etre for their actions, one can easily conclude that both Kony, (who was for a long while the lord of the Garamba forest) and Abubakar Shekau (who has become the lord of the manor at Sambisa Forest), seem to be operating from the same template. One, both of them are fighting what they consider holy wars in the bid to impose a theocracy in their respective countries in the name of their Gods. Two, they both consider abduction of young girls for deployment as sex slaves as no more than fair games. Three, there is a sectional undertones to their narratives or so it is perceived. While Kony hails from the largely agrarian northern region of Uganda whose people are generally opposed to incumbent President Yoweri Museveni, Shekau also comes from the North of Nigeria where many political leaders feel short-changed that a southerner in President Goodluck Jonathan is currently occupying Aso Rock against the principle of zoning enshrined by the ruling Peoples Democratic party (PDP).
Four, the international community had/have to intervene in both countries following humanitarian calamities involving women and children. Five, the people of the region where both hail from suffer the collateral damage of their murderous activities. (A conversation between Green and his guide, a young man named Moses who comes from the Northern region like Kony buttresses this point: “People were forcibly taken to camps—they did not want to go”, Moses said. “But the soldiers burned their houses, all their crops were slashed down, they beat people. We Northerners, we are not given any respect, we are just like slaves...the civilians and the government don’t trust each other now, the rebels come and tell the civilians: ‘you are supporting the government’. And the government tells them: ‘you are supporting the rebels—they are your children’. So we end up being caught in the middle.”)
Six, both the LRA and Boko Haram had/have sympathisers within the establishments who provide them with intelligence information either on government’s intentions, plans or troop deployments and strength. (President Jonathan has, for instance, said in the past that Boko Haram has sympathisers within the executive, Judiciary, legislature and the security agencies. In the case of Uganda, Lt. Col. Arop, a LRA senior commander captured during the Garamba offensive, said Kony addressed the rebels two days before the operation, urging them to prepare for a UPDF imminent attack). Eight, both the LRA and Boko Haram avoided/avoid sustained direct confrontation with the respective militaries. They are always divided in small formations which are extremely mobile and hard to detect until they strike their soft targets, mostly defenceless villagers. This makes it very difficult for the national armies to defeat them easily. Nine, both extremists are transnational in operations and have external support. Ten, foreign mercenaries are members of the terror machines of both the Boko Haram and the LRA.

Russia, China sign deal to bypass U.S. dollar

In a symbolic blow to U.S. global financial hegemony, Russia and China took a small step toward undercutting the domination of the U.S. dollar as the international reserve currency on Tuesday when Russia’s second biggest financial institution, VTB, signed a deal with the Bank of China to bypass the dollar and pay each other in domestic currencies.
The so-called Agreement on Cooperation — signed in the presence of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is on a visit to Shanghai — could be followed by a long-awaited announcement this week of a massive natural gas deal 10 years in the making.
“Our countries have done a huge job to reach a new historic landmark,” Putin said on Tuesday, making note of the $100 billion in annual trade that has been achieved between the two countries.
Demand for the dollar, which has long served as a safe and reliable reserve currency in international transactions, has allowed the U.S. to borrow almost unlimited cash and spend well beyond its means, which some economists say has afforded the United States an outsize influence on world affairs.
But the BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, a bloc of the world’s five major emerging economies — have long sought to diminish their dependence on the dollar as a means of reshaping the world financial and geopolitical order. In the absence of a viable alternative, however, replacing it has proved difficult.
For its part, “China sees the dominance of the dollar in international trade transactions as a remnant of American global dominance, which they hope to overthrow in the years ahead,” said Michael Klare, a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College. “This is a small step in that direction, to reduce the primacy of the dollar in international trade.”
Some have been tempted to view Tuesday's deal in the context of Putin's showdown with the West over the crisis in Ukraine. After the U.S. and Europe imposed sanctions on Moscow for its annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, Putin may have finally made good on promised retaliation against what he views as Western hegemony in Russia's near abroad.

Man Who Sent Poisoned Letters To Obama Gets 25 Years In Prison

 
A Mississippi man who pleaded guilty to sending letters dusted with the poison ricin to President Barack Obama and other officials was sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison.
James Everett Dutschke was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock in Aberdeen after telling the judge May 13 that he had changed his mind about wanting to withdraw his guilty plea in the case. He also was sentenced to five years of supervised release and remains in federal custody.
Dutschke waived his right to appeal. He wasn't fined or ordered to pay restitution because he doesn't have enough money, federal prosecutor Chad Lamar said.
Unlike last week, Dutschke said little and allowed his lawyer to do the talking, Lamar said.
The 42-year-old Tupelo resident sent the letters to Obama, Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker and Mississippi judge Sadie Holland in what prosecutors have said was an elaborate plot to frame a rival, Paul Kevin Curtis. Poisoned letters addressed to Obama and Wicker were intercepted before delivery, but one letter reached Holland. She was not harmed.
Aycock had already signaled that she intended to accept the original plea, and Lamar said that Aycock found the outcome to be balanced.
"She found our agreement to be a fair sentence and one that represented the severity of the crime committed," Lamar said after the hearing.

Christian in Sudan sentenced to death for faith

 
Hours after a Sudanese court sentenced his pregnant wife to death when she refused to recant her Christian faith, her husband told CNN he feels helpless.

"I'm so frustrated. I don't know what to do," Daniel Wani told CNN on Thursday. "I'm just praying."

This week a Khartoum court convicted his wife, Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, 27, of apostasy, or the renunciation of faith.

Ibrahim is Christian, her husband said. But the court considers her to be Muslim.

The court also convicted her of adultery and sentenced her to 100 lashes because her marriage to a Christian man is considered void under Sharia law.

The court gave her until Thursday to recant her Christian faith -- something she refused to do, according to her lawyer.

During Thursday's sentencing hearing, a sheikh told the court "how dangerous a crime like this is to Islam and the Islamic community," said attorney Mohamed Jar Elnabi, who's representing Ibrahim.

"I am a Christian," Ibrahim fired back, "and I will remain a Christian."

Her legal team says it plans to appeal the verdict, which drew swift condemnation from human rights organizations around the world.

In the meantime, Ibrahim, who is eight months' pregnant, remains in prison with her 20-month-old son.

"She is very strong and very firm. She is very clear that she is a Christian and that she will get out one day," Elnabi told CNN from Sudan.

Ibrahim was born to a Sudanese Muslim father and an Ethiopian Orthodox mother. Her father left when she was 6 years old, and Ibrahim was raised by her mother as a Christian.

However, because her father was Muslim, the courts considered her to be the same, which would mean her marriage to a non-Muslim man is void.

The case, her lawyer said, started after Ibrahim's brother filed a complaint against her, alleging that she had gone missing for several years and that her family was shocked to find she had married a Christian man.

The court's ruling leaves a family divided, with Ibrahim behind bars and her husband struggling to survive, Elnabi said.

Police blocked Wani from entering the courtroom on Thursday, Elnabi said. Lawyers appealed to the judge, but he refused, Elnabi said.

Wani uses a wheelchair and "totally depends on her for all details of his life," Elnabi said.

"He cannot live without her," said the lawyer.

The couple's son is having a difficult time in prison.

"He is very affected from being trapped inside a prison from such a young age," Elnabi said. "He is always getting sick due to lack of hygiene and bugs."

Ibrahim is having a difficult pregnancy, the lawyer said. A request to send her to a private hospital was denied "due to security measures."

There also is the question of the timing of a potential execution.

In past cases involving pregnant or nursing women, the Sudanese government waited until the mother weaned her child before executing any sentence, said Christian Solidarity Worldwide spokeswoman Kiri Kankhwende.

Christian woman could face death for her faith in Sudan

 
A Christian woman in Sudan reportedly has until Thursday to either recant her faith or face a possible sentence of death.

Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, 27, was convicted by a Khartoum court this week of apostasy, or the renunciation of faith, Amnesty International said Wednesday, a day before the expected ruling. The court considers her to be Muslim.

According to the rights group, she was also convicted of adultery because her marriage to a Christian man was considered void under Sharia law.

"The fact that a woman could be sentenced to death for her religious choice, and to flogging for being married to a man of an allegedly different religion, is abhorrent and should never be even considered," Manar Idriss, Amnesty International's Sudan researcher, said in a statement.

"'Adultery' and 'apostasy' are acts which should not be considered crimes at all, let alone meet the international standard of 'most serious crimes' in relation to the death penalty. It is flagrant breach of international human rights law," the researcher said.

Ibrahim is eight months pregnant and currently in custody with her 20-month-old son, according to Amnesty International, which considers her a prisoner of conscience.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide, another rights group, described Ibrahim's case as follows:

She was born to a Sudanese Muslim father and an Ethiopian Orthodox mother. Her father left when she was 6 years old, and Ibrahim was raised by her mother as a Christian.

Wole Soyinka: “We must respond to those who feel they have a divine right to mess up our lives” – Magnus Taylor

Wole Soyinka is 80 this year and has long inhabited that illustrious pantheon of African literary greats, the Godfather of whom was the late Chinua Achebe. But Soyinka achieved something that his contemporary, Achebe (whose frail health in later years made him seem like a much older man), never did: in 1986 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, the citation reading: “[he] in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence.”
With his resplendent, silver afro giving him the most iconic profile in Nigeria, when Soyinka talks, and he does so in long, gravelly sentences, you listen. And whilst his most famous dramatic works may be substantially metaphysical in theme, his current outlook seems more forcefully political. Or perhaps this is a product of what his admirers and questioners most want to talk about: how do we solve the ‘problem(s)’ of Nigeria? When, in reality, Wole might prefer to ponder the mysteries of the universe, the audience the RAS’ ‘Africa Writes’ lecture last night brought him firmly back down to earth.
And the problem-du-jour in Nigeria is currently quite clear: the case of the 300 school girls kidnapped by the islamist group Boko Haram from a small town in the country’s northeastern Borno state. The imaginative #BringBackOurGirls campaign has galvanized a previously ambivalent international community to pay attention to a conflict that was formerly viewed as a parochial ‘Nigerian problem’.  One gets the feeling that even in Nigeria the insurgency in its poor northern regions has been viewed as something that could be effectively contained and had little impact on the oil-rich southern states.

Why Nigeria has not defeated Boko Haram - Andrew Walker

Exactly a year after Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan declared a "state of emergency" in north-eastern Nigeria, it seems to have had little effect in curbing the Islamist insurgency.

Attacks by the Boko Haram group that provoked the move included an assault on a military barracks, detonating a bomb at a bus station in the northern city of Kano and the kidnap of a French family, including four children, which grabbed the world's attention.
The declaration would bring "extraordinary measures" to bear against the insurgents in order to "restore normalcy" to the region, the president said.
"The troops have orders to carry out all necessary actions within the ambit of their rules of engagement to put an end to the impunity of insurgents and terrorists," President Jonathan said.

Obese man lost so much weight in Thailand border guards refused to believe he was same person

Slim: Ross before and after

 

 

Ross Connor spent £6,000 to join a year-long kick boxing camp in Phuket and by the time he wanted to go home he was 13st - but was detained at the airport

 

A 21st man shed so much weight in Thailand that border guards refused to let him fly home as he looked so unlike official photos taken of him on arrival.
Ross Connor, 33, spent £6,000 to join a year-long kick boxing camp in Phuket and by the time he wanted to go home he was 13st .
He was detained at the airport until he showed officers photos that documented his fitness regime.
Ross, of Peterborough, Cambs, said: “It was a worrying moment.
“I knew I’d lost a lot of weight, but I never expected they wouldn’t let me on the plane.
“But when they showed me the image taken on my arrival, even I had trouble recognising myself.
“After all my hard work, I thought I wasn’t going to get home to show my family the result of my year of training.”
Ross started suffering breathing problems and had trouble walking after gorging daily on takeaways.
In March last year he decided enough was enough and joined the Muay Thai boxing camp on the paradise island of Phuket.
For the next 12 months he worked out four hours a day in the blistering heat and humidity - losing eight stone.

SOURCE: www.mirror.co.uk/

CBN orders banks to destroy cards trapped in ATMs

The Central Bank of Nigeria has directed Deposit Money Banks to henceforth destroy Automated Teller Machine cards trapped in their ATM terminals.


The CBN also gave banks 24 hours to reverse debit entries arising from failed transaction attributable to system-related issues.

The directives were contained in a 14-page ‘Guidelines for card issuance and usage in Nigeria’ released by the Banking and Payment System Department of the CBN on Tuesday.

The CBN guidelines read, “Any trapped card in the ATM shall be rendered unusable (by perforation) by the acquirer and returned to the issuer on the next working day.

“All debit entries arising from failed transactions attributable to system-related issues must be auto-reversed. Where auto reversal is not feasible, manual reversal must be carried out within 24 hours.”

“The security of the payment card shall be the responsibility of the issuer and the losses incurred on account of breach of security or failure of the security mechanism shall be borne by the issuer, except the issuer establishes security breach on the part of the card holder.”

Consequently, banks are to ensure ATM cards are issued from card schemes that have demonstrable fraud management systems.

A Well-Kept Secret- Breastfeeding's Benefits to Mothers-Alicia Dermer,

Very few people are unaware of the benefits of breastfeeding for babies, but the many benefits to the mother are often overlooked or even unknown. From the effect of oxytocin on the uterus to the warm emotional gains, breastfeeding gives a mother many reasons to be pleased with her choice. These documented effects are outlined in this excerpt from Breastfeeding Annual International 2001, a recently published anthology which was edited by Dia Michels, co-author of the classic breastfeeding advocacy book, Milk, Money, and Madness. Both books are available from LLLI.
One of the best-kept secrets about breastfeeding is that it's as healthy for mothers as for babies. Not only does lactation continue the natural physiologic process begun with conception and pregnancy, but it provides many short and long-term health benefits. These issues are rarely emphasized in prenatal counseling by health care professionals and all but ignored in popular parenting literature. Let's look at all the benefits breastfeeding provides mothers and speculate as to why so few are finding out about them.

Physiologic Effects of Breastfeeding

Immediately after birth, the repeated suckling of the baby releases oxytocin from the mother's pituitary gland. This hormone not only signals the breasts to release milk to the baby (this is known as the milk ejection reflex, or "let-down"), but simultaneously produces contractions in the uterus. The resulting contractions prevent postpartum hemorrhage and promote uterine involution (the return to a nonpregnant state).
Bottle-feeding mothers frequently receive synthetic oxytocin at birth through an intravenous line, but for the next few days, while they are at highest risk of postpartum hemorrhage, they are on their own. As long as a mother breastfeeds without substituting formula, foods, or pacifiers for feedings at the breast, the return of her menstrual periods is delayed (Lawrence and Lawrence 1999). Unlike bottle-feeding mothers, who typically get their periods back within six to eight weeks, breastfeeding mothers can often stay amenorrheic for several months. This condition has the important benefit of conserving iron in the mother's body and often provides natural spacing of pregnancies.
The amount of iron a mother's body uses in milk production is much less than the amount she would lose from menstrual bleeding. The net effect is a decreased risk of iron-deficiency anemia in the breastfeeding mother as compared with her formula-feeding counterpart. The longer the mother nurses and keeps her periods at bay, the stronger this effect (Institute of Medicine 1991).
As for fertility, the lactational amenorrhea method (LAM) is a well-documented contraceptive method, with 98 to 99 percent prevention of pregnancy in the first six months. The natural child-spacing achieved through LAM ensures the optimal survival of each child, and the physical recovery of the mother between pregnancies. In contrast, the bottle-feeding mother needs to start contraception within six weeks of the birth (Kennedy 1989).

The Real Africa-David Brooks

In 2005, Binyavanga Wainaina published a brilliantly sarcastic essay in Granta called “How to Write About Africa,” advising people on how to sound spiritual and compassionate while writing a book about the continent.

“Always use the word ‘Africa’ or ‘Darkness’ or ‘Safari’ in your title,” Wainaina advised. “Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel Prize. An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these. If you must include an African, make sure you get one in Masai or Zulu or Dogon dress.”

Wainaina had other tips: The people in said book should be depicted as hungry, suffering, simple or dead. The children should have distended bellies and flies on their faces. The animals, on the other hand, should be depicted as wise and filled with family values. Elephants are caring and good feminists. So are gorillas. Be sure to show how profoundly you are moved by the continent and its woes, and how much it has penetrated your soul. End with a quote from Nelson Mandela involving rainbows. Because you care.

There’s been something similarly distorted to some of the social media reactions to the Boko Haram atrocities over the past week. It’s great that the kidnappings and the massacres are finally arousing the world’s indignation. But sometimes the implication of the conversation has been this: Africa is this dark and lawless place where monstrous things are bound to happen. Those poor people need our help.

Nigeria: Shekau takes BH further down Al Qaeda path – By Jacob Zenn

 
After four years of incessant Boko Haram violence in northern Nigeria and an estimated 8,000 deaths, Nigerians are now protesting what they see as an ineffectual government response to the insurgency. International media is now also paying greater attention to the growing humanitarian crisis in the Nigeria-Niger-Cameroon-Chad border axis. The cause of the latest outrage in Nigeria is Boko Haram’s kidnapping of 230 girls from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno State and the bombing of a motor park outside of Abuja that killed nearly 100 bystanders. Just today there has been another bombing in Abuja, latest reports indicate that 19 people have been killed.
Both the mass-kidnapping and the first of the motor park bombings occurred within a 24-hour span on April 14-15 and were highly foreseeable—and likely preventable.
In video statements since 2013, Boko Haram’s religious leader, Abubakar Shekau, has warned that ‘infidel’ women would become his “slaves” and that he would “sell them in the market.” According to Boko Haram, the girls in Chibok are “infidels” whether or not they are Muslim because they receive Western education – which Boko Haram considers apostasy – instead of Boko Haram-sanctioned Islamic Salafist education. Boko Haram founder Muhammed Yusuf preached that the only “pure” scholars that Muslims should follow are al-Qaeda, the Taliban and Usama bin Laden.
Boko Haram further believes that ‘infidels’ must pay a tax imposed on non-Muslims under Muslim rule, which is called jizyah in the Qur’an, to Boko Haram for protection. But because the girls in Chibok did not pay the tax, Boko Haram is entitled to forcibly marry them as compensation or – as Shekau promised – sell them. Boko Haram already sold several girls as ‘brides’ to Boko Haram members across the border in Cameroon for $12.
Shekau rose to become the second most important imam in Boko Haram before Nigerian security forces killed Muhammed Yusuf in 2009 and was recognized as being a charismatic—albeit chaotic— speaker on Islam. He manipulated the Islamic history of the Borno Empire, which spanned northeastern Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Sudan and Libya, to rally followers to embrace jihad against the Nigerian government and resurrect Borno’s supremacy. It also helps that Shekau speaks Hausa (the lingua franca of northern Nigeria), Kanuri (the native language in Borno), classical Arabic (the language of the Qur’an) and English (the language of Nigeria’s elites). This suggests Shekau himself is a product of ‘Boko’, which roughly translates as ‘Western education’ in Hausa (‘haram’ means ‘forbidden’ to Muslims).
Since Boko Haram became an underground jihadist group after Yusuf’s death, Shekau likely took his cue from al-Qaeda, which Boko Haram contacted as early as 2004, and may have literally read scripts that al-Qaeda provided to him for sermons he taped from his various hideouts. Shekau typically pledges allegiance to al-Qaeda and its affiliates and threatens America in the introductions to his sermons, often with a script in hand, before chaotically “damning” all Christians, politicians and

THE MAN : JUSTICE CHUKWUDIFU AKUNNE OPUTA

 
IT was the late African oral historian and philosopher, Hampate Ba, who once said: “When an old man dies in Africa, a whole library is lost”. This age-long saying can well be used to describe the repository computation of Justice Chukwudifu Akunne Oputa’s knowledge base. A human library of some sort. This iconic jurist, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, is well known for his intellectual robustness and unusual display of knowledge of the law.

While he was at the apex court, he was regarded and addressed as the Socrates and Lord Denning by his colleagues, as well as those who admire him and his judgments he delivered while he was on the Bench. Most of his pronouncements at the Supreme Court were indeed branded as legal and judicial activism by many distinguished legal minds.

With his first degree in Economics, his second in History before delving into law, and with a thorough grounding in Literature and traditional lore, Oputa unarguably is a rare repository of sort and indeed a living human heritage. His passion for law, and by extension, the rule of law and constitutionality, is exemplary and worthy of emulation. It is his belief that justice should be made functional and relevant to the ordinary man, an advocacy he has repeatedly admonished his colleagues still on the Bench to continue to interpret the constitution and other relevant laws liberally for the benefit of all. In many of his seminal articles and books, he preached that the country should sustain the democracy it has earned, adding that democracy, which is anchored on peace and peace in turn, is the by-product of justice and fair-play.

To prove this point, he authored several articles and books to concretise his ideas. Some of the titles of his works include: “Towards Justiciability of the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy in Nigeria”, Legal and Judicial Activism in an Emergent Democracy: The last hope for the common man”, and Democracy: The Judiciary and the New Challenges”; Modern Bar Advocacy (1973); The Law and the Twin Pillars of Justice (1981); and Human Rights in the political and legal culture of Nigeria (1988); just to mention but a few.