Monday, July 29, 2013

Everyday plays the way




 
This way may not be that way
But someday your way by play
A way that may pay for the ray
That your hardwork lay


Everyday is a day to say
What the day might play
Then you are portrayed as a playwright
When you write no play


Today may be the start of a relay
To more days with a pathway to
Success swayed by a pray’
like a runway made for a plane


Saturday, July 27, 2013

LAWS AGAINST FINANCIAL CRIME IN NIGERIA: The misfired shots

The Call:


In my opinion, the root tool to driving a nation towards achieving its immediate, medium and long term goals across the board of economic, social and political endeavours and activities is the laws guiding these angles of national existence and co-existence of people. 

In other words, the level of economic prosperity of a nation is no respecter of the natural and human resources prevalent in any country but the laws guiding the behaviours of people which significantly contributes to providing the pathway within which such laws fosters the nation’s prosperity. 

It is imperative to stress that the level of severity of the laws against crime, entailing the punishments and sanctions against perpetuators of all act of crimes, should be appropriately gauged in manner which posits that greater criminal offences attract greater punishments and vice-versa. Financial crime would be the focus of this work. 

Situations of such cases in this vein is what I term “misfired penalties” which would have two opposite instances discussed.

Misfired penalties: 

For stealing a ₦50,000 Sony Ericsson phone belonging to Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State, Nigeria, one 31-year-old Kelvin Ighodalo was in April, 2013 sentenced to 45-years imprisonment by an Osogbo High Court. But with this harsh punishment on Ighodalo, one would have had the mindset that the fight against stealing and corruption in Nigeria is indeed strong enough to muscle the economic terrorist off the face of the daily activities in the West African nation, especially those freely committed by the politicians and individuals at the top echelon across the various government parastatals, ministries and agencies. 

As against the Ighodalo 45 year imprisonment earlier sited is that by a onetime police top cop in 2005.  Having pleaded guilty to the corruption allegations to the tune of N12,861,570,098.00 (Twelve billion eight hundred and sixty one million, five hundred and seventy thousand ninety eight naira “only”) against him, Tafa Balagun, the then Inspector General of police was sentenced to six months imprisonment with a fine of ₦500,000.00. Isn’t the war against corruption, theft and stealing in Nigeria a comic in itself.  
These opposite and incomparable examples earlier stated, stresses the fact that in Nigeria, the level of punishments on acts of corruption is indirectly related with the severity of punishments against this enemy of economic posterity.

With similar cases subsequently stated in the course of this work, one would understand why the loophole fight against corruption in the country is nothing but a spur to its continuous occurrence, thus the higher the corruption act, the lower the penalties meted.

Another case is the sentence of a LASTMA (Lagos State Management Authority) official, one Mr. Andrew Bodukale, to four years imprisonment without the option of fine for accepting a bribe of N10,000.

On the other hand, a former official of the Police Pension Board, John Yakubu Yusufu, who had admitted to stealing N23bn from the coffers of the Nigeria Police Pension Fund between 2008 and 2011 was only given a two-year sentence on each of the three counts with an option of N750,000 fine, an amount the convict was shamefully made to pay in order to regain his freedom. Irrespective of both Bodukale and Yusufu’s being at 2 levels, state and federal, it is pertinent to note that the law against financial crime and stealing is indeed a losing battle which can steal be won, no wonder the Yusufu’s case was widely posited to be a “travesty of justice.”

Away from financial crime is kidnapping. The speed with which some states in Nigeria, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Enugu, Imo and Bayelsa passed new laws stipulating death penalty for the crime of kidnapping as far as I am concerned would be effective when such is passed against corruption too. A death penalty on corruption would lead to efficiency in the allocation of resources for the good of the society which would have a tripartite effect on the provision of social amenities/infrastructural facilities; employment opportunities and a massive drop in criminal activities notably kidnapping, armed robbery and a host of other “daredevil crimes”.
Ponder these…
At this juncture, it is pivotal to state that criminal activities are freely done because those in power and the “ogas at the top” are not living by example in fighting the criminal activities they/their clique commit, a cliché that must be understood.  In this vein, a cue should be taken from China which exemplifies why an efficient law against financial crime, as evident in the severity and harshness on punishments meted against its perpetuators is pivotal in efficiently allocating the resources of the state.
To you reading this that make laws (legislators), and would someday do, it is pivotal you note that the gravity of murder committed as a result of kidnapping and armed robbery etc, is nowhere compared to that committed by those in power and who call the shots across the various agencies and parastatals of government simply because stealing a nation’s wealth has instrumentally been the reason behind the abject poverty in the land which in itself have left to many going hungry, dying and of course left with the choice of taking up arms to be kidnappers, armed robbers etc.
If there is any law to be given the toughest and harshest penalty in Nigeria, it is the various acts of financial crime, especially those committed by those in power because the root to Nigeria being questionably unprosperous is hidden and rooted in the failing war against corruption.
No doubt, there is still time, though limited, for a revamp.   

N27bn fraud: Lawyers, activists condemn lenient sentence - January 29, 2013


Tunde Odesola “Man jailed 45 years for stealing Aregbesola’s phone”   April 30, 2013  <http://www.punchng.com/news/man-jailed-45-years-for-stealing-aregbesolas-phone/>

Kupoluy “On the pension thief sentence” February 17, 2013  <http://www.punchng.com/opinion/on-the-pension-thief-sentence/>

The Editorial Board “Applying the death penalty in Nigeria” June 28, 2013

<http://www.punchng.com/editorial/applying-the-death-penalty-in-nigeria/>

 


Monday, July 1, 2013

THE CONTENDERS RATING SCALE IN THE GERMAN BUNDESLIGA: Its Effectiveness at a Glance






Just Before the Season Began:

  
This work is centred on discussing the Contenders Rating Scale (CRS), http://taiwokehinde-mymind.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-20122013-football-season-contenders.html with respect to the German Bundesliga. The Contenders Rating Scale is a tool employed to mathematically have a projection of the teams to have a top 5 league placement in the major football leagues across Europe. 

But prior to this discuss, it is pivotal we briefly make mention of the remarkable 2012/13 Bundesliga season. 

 

The 2012/13 German Bundesliga had Bayern Munich reclaiming their place as the strongest team in the German top flight football division in an unprecedented fashion, having a goals difference of 80 and accumulating a total of 91 points in the possible 102 points in offering by the 34 matches played by every team. Prior to the 2012/13 victory of the Munich based team, the 2009/10 season was the last time they won the league as their dominance was displaced by a tenacious Borussia Dotmund which won the league in the 2010/11 and 2011/12, a season they had a double displacement of Bayern Munich in the league and the German cup, DFB Pokal. But these heartbreaks is one to be speedily forgotten by the Bayern Munich management, players and fans, as the 2012/13 season is indeed the most successful year to be achieved by any club in the German bundesliga. This is largely due to the treble clinching (German Bundesliga, DFB Pokal and UEFA Champions League) successes recorded by the Munich based club. 

 

The German Bundesliga Contenders Rating Scale was published on September 28, 2012 barely a month after the 2012/13 season kicked off. - http://taiwokehinde-mymind.blogspot.com/2012/09/v-behaviorurldefaultvmlo.html

 

By the Contenders Rating Scale (CRS) I mean the manner through which the selection of the teams expected to have a top 5 finish, in no particular order, in the major football leagues across Europe is made. The CRS further posits that of all 5 teams predicted, 4 would have a top 5 finish, but in some cases (especially the German bundesliga), 3 and not 4 of the 5 teams projected was anticipated to make the cut of top 5 season finish. 

 

Simply put, the Contenders Rating Scale is a mathematical approach to predicting the top 5 placed teams at the end of the football season.  

 

Through the CRS, it was projected that at least 3 of Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Schalke 04, Werder Bremen and Stuttgart. – http://taiwokehinde-mymind.blogspot.com/2012/09/v-behaviorurldefaultvmlo.html would have a top 5 finish.

 

Incidentally, of these 5 teams projected for a top 5 finish, only 3, thus Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04 made the cut, climaxing their league campaigns in 1st, 2nd and 4th place respectively. Whilst the aforesaid teams had a top 5 finish, the other teams projected, Werder Bremen and Stuttgart were unable to make the cut as they got displaced by Bayer Leverkusen and SC Freiburg whom finished in 3rd and 5th place respectively. 

 

Below is a tabular summary of the CRS’ effectiveness in the German Bundesliga...

 

 

 

(As earlier stressed, please note that prediction of the CSR is not in any particular order)

With this achieved, please check this blog in the last week of July for the 2013/14 GERMAN BUNDESLIGA  season top 5 predictions, courtesy the Contenders Rating Scale.

 

The End