Emmanuel Eno

[Emmanuel Eno @el_neshema]

@mrfestusogun Congratulations Sir

[Ogundipe, Esq. @The_Ogundipe]

I wanted to process and obtain a birth certificate for my child. I went to NPC office. The moment I parked outside, a man sitting among the people outside accosted me. I do not know whether he works there or he's a tout looking for a quick fix.

He asked me what I wanted, I told him. "Shey you know that the normal fee is 25k. Anything you now want to add to it for us".

I didn't have any problem with paying, but I did a quick search on my phone and saw clearly that issuance of birth certificates is free. I told him that I would not pay 25k and I also won't add anything.

I called one of the numbers on the website and while I was waiting to be attended to, one of the messages being played to my ears is that obtaining birth certificate is free and that I should not pay anything to anyone.

A woman picked my call. She was very helpful and polite. She made me realise that I could actually do it online.

I commenced the process and realised that the child needed to get NIN. Searches showed that we could not do that from our home. We went searching for a centre and saw one. A NIN was obtained. It was paid for.

I returned online to continue what I started. On the same website that said obtaining a birth certificate is free, I was asked to pay a little above #5,000 to proceed. I didn't mind. After all, that would have a receipt and get to the government.

After my payment, the next stage required me to enter the certificate number on my own birth certificate. Mine was issued in 1996, almost a decade after my birth. I drew it out and entered the certificate number on it. It didn't work. I tried again. It still didn't work. I started inputting other numbers on the certificate, none worked.

I took a pause and did some searches. I realised that my certificate was of the "old school" era and I would need to apply for a reissuance, which comes with a certificate number that the modern system recognises. Okay.

I proceeded. I was asked to pay a little above #3,000. I did. I was asked to input my NIN, I did. Then I was asked to take a picture. The process took more than 40 minutes for me to get a picture approved by the system. What it eventually picked as useful was my tired and frustrated face. Guess what? In the same process, I got to another stage that required me to take another live photo and update. The stress started again. I got one that the system accepted after 14 trials. Of course, I had a picture in the database over a decade ago, and I consider the repeated requirement superfluous.

After that, I underwent another long and tedious process of typing in details of my parents. For a second, it felt like I was the child who never had a birth certificate. When I was done, I got a message telling me that I'd have to wait for the reissuance because the system has a lot of requests to process.

Essentially, I had to drop the processing of my child's birth certificate and face the reissuance of mine (which was neither lost nor destroyed), because without it, I could not process my child's.

Why does an entity echo and re-echo free birth certificate on its call lines and website, while doing the exact opposite? This is not about the money. It is about a citizen's right to accurate information from his government and its appendages.

Why is a birth certificate suddenly "invalid" because it was issued before the introduction of whatever? If another government introduces another platform, do I get to do this again? And why am I paying for a reissuance? I did not misplace or destroy it.

Why do we have to enter every damn detail about us and upload our photo everytime, even on platforms that already collected those data, times without number in the past?

When my birth certificate is reissued (if it is ever reissued), only Christ knows what I will go through when I return to the tiring site to continue the process for my child's.

[Pat Utomi @UtomiPat]

The APCs fear of competing ideas is evident in the incorporation of the judiciary, capture of the Legislature and unleashing of miscreants in social media to insult those they are incapable of engaging in rational public conversation

[Rinu Oduala 🔥🔫 @SavvyRinu]

APC has gone mad and it is Nigerians’ fault.

[Emmanuel Eno @el_neshema]

@savndaniel You're most welcome, Sir

[Emmanuel Eno @el_neshema]

@Kamoli__ You're welcome

[Emmanuel Eno @el_neshema]

@FemiThePrize You're welcome, Sir

[Emmanuel Eno @el_neshema]

@bestiehisoka You're welcome, Sir

[Emmanuel Eno @el_neshema]

@Freyy_is Coincidentally, I read that Chapter of Proverbs today and that verse drew my attention.

[AGBO OBINNAYA @AgboObinnaya]

Whenever I say that Chief Gani Fawehinmi suffered persecution as a human rights lawyer, it was not just at the hands of the military.

Even some of his colleagues in the legal profession came after him.

Let me tell you one of the most remarkable stories in Nigerian legal history.

On March 23, 1981, the West Africa Magazine published one of its editions.

On page 621 of the magazine was a photograph of Chief Gani Fawehinmi, dressed in his lawyer's wig and gown while holding a thick legal book.

The caption beneath the photograph read:

"A New Book on Nigerian Constitution: Titled Nigerian Constitutional Law Report 1981 Volume One, edited by Chief Gani Fawehinmi, the famous, reputable and controversial Nigerian lawyer."

That simple caption immediately became a problem.

The Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Richard Akinjide, SAN, alongside other respected legal minds, frowned at the publication.

They accused Gani Fawehinmi of advertising himself through the magazine, something they believed was against the ethics of the legal profession.

A query was issued to him, directing him to explain within 14 days why disciplinary action should not be taken against him.

But before the 14 days even expired, Gani Fawehinmi was already charged and dragged before the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) for alleged professional misconduct.

What happened next was even more shocking.

When the LPDC convened to hear the matter, the same Attorney-General of the Federation who initiated the investigation was the one presiding as the Chairman of the Committee.

As if that was not enough, three other members of the LPDC were members of the National Executive Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), an association that had already publicly condemned Fawehinmi's actions.

In other words, the people accusing him were also the people preparing to judge him.

The moment Gani Fawehinmi realized that he would be facing a panel made up of his accusers and critics, he immediately withdrew.

Instead, he approached the court to challenge the composition of the Committee.

His argument was straightforward.

He maintained that the composition of the panel violated his constitutional right to fair hearing under Section 33 of the 1979 Constitution.

He reminded the court that fair hearing rests on two timeless principles of natural justice:

Nemo judex in causa sua: no one should be a judge in his own case.

And Audi alteram partem: hear both sides before reaching a decision.

He persuaded the court that if the Attorney-General and the other members were allowed to sit in judgment over him, justice would become impossible because the outcome had already been predetermined.

On the other hand, the LPDC and the Attorney-General argued that the Committee was merely an administrative body and was therefore not strictly bound by the fair hearing provisions under Section 33(1) of the 1979 Constitution.

The battle eventually reached the Supreme Court.

In a landmark judgment delivered through Justice Anthony Nnaemezie Aniagolu, the Supreme Court agreed with Gani Fawehinmi.

The Court held that once an administrative body is empowered to determine issues affecting a person's livelihood, professional status, or civil rights, it must observe the principles of natural justice and guarantee fair hearing.

The Supreme Court went further to strongly criticize the Legal Practitioners Act of 1975 for creating a system where the Attorney-General could simultaneously be the accuser, the prosecutor, and the judge.

The Court prohibited the Panel from proceeding with the trial.

That was how Chief Gani Fawehinmi escaped those disciplinary measures.

The impact of that judgment did not end there.

The National Assembly later amended the Legal Practitioners Act, removing the Attorney-General of the Federation as Chairman of the LPDC.

[Emmanuel Eno @el_neshema]

@dayve_s Congratulations David. Indeed this is God's design.

[Emmanuel Eno @el_neshema]

@ComradeHamzy Congratulations Sir, I'm certain you'll strike gold soon.

[Emmanuel Eno @el_neshema]

@livingasannie_ Trailblazer ✊🏾

[Emmanuel Eno @el_neshema]

@nehemiahdan19 Thank you for trailblazing Nehemiah and congratulations on your call to the Bar

[Emmanuel Eno @el_neshema]

@EsqthatInspires Congratulations Fola on your call to the Nigerian Bar.

[Emmanuel Eno @el_neshema]

@AdeyeyeJoshua4 Hey, congratulations Joshua on your call to the Nigerian Bar.

[Emmanuel Eno @el_neshema]

@OshatimiDavid Congratulations David on your call to the Nigerian Bar and moreso for acing the Bar Examination

[Emmanuel Eno @el_neshema]

@_thedamilola Congratulations Dami on attaining this professional feat.

[Emmanuel Eno @el_neshema]

@KikiowoAyorinde Congratulations Sir.

[Emmanuel Eno @el_neshema]

@Bolubillions_ Congratulations Miss on your call to the Nigerian Bar