Opinion: How we are losing the #ChildNotBride debate to Senator Yerima

Game, Set and Match to Yerima

We are swiftly losing the plot and the battle in the debate with regards to putting up our girls for marriage as espoused and promoted by Senator Sani Yerima.

In all the media appearances that the veritable ex-governor and Sharia law advocate has attended, he has literally wiped the floor clean with all his inquisitors demonstrating a thorough grasp of the constitutional issues that allow him the pleasures he enjoys without moral reflection because he believes he is in the right.

Meanwhile with our moral indignation, passion and disdain of the man and his views, we have deployed emotion, celebrity and ignorance against a well-prepared, media-savvy, knowledgeable and formidable force of personality who once again has successfully run rings round us.

Building an unassailable profile

Sani Yerima is a problem, a developing problem with a growing followership, media profile and international recognition; the little leaven of yeast he was years ago has slowly but surely leavened the whole dough, like the little venom of a poisonous snake has fully paralysed us in debate with neurotoxins presenting death.

We are never going to win this debate if we continue to entertain Senator Sani Yerima as the clown, more so, where we must tackle him requires proper intellectual engagement of people who have studied and understood the core legal, religious and socio-economic matters that underpin what makes these practices thrive without sanction.

Atrocious figureheads ruining the plot

This is no time to roll out figurehead celebrities oblivious of data and facts debating and contributing like airheads, adding fuel to the odious glare that is giving Senator Yerima the courage to state his case on the international media without apology.

Without doubt, the man is smart, he also has amazing political nous because what he has successfully done is make his own personal interpretation of issues the core and contention of the debate; once we have absented ourselves from the core objectives to toe this line, well walked by him and less known by us, we have basically lost before the first word is spoken.

The pimping media

The media also have to excoriated about how this debate has been derailed from giving more prominence to the protection of the rights of the child from entering adulthood long before they are due just because some men have found a propensity to satisfy their evil lusts with the innocence of kids.

Yes, the media, the houses and the personalities, for ratings and involvement latching onto the notoriety of the reprehensible have not furthered the debate for the cause of humanity and what is right, but have become voyeurs of comment and counter-comment, happily thinking they are providing a platform for debate when they are no better than pimps providing board for prostitute and punter to meet.

Respect the man

We will only begin to tackle Senator Yerima properly, when we humbly respect that he is knowledgeable, informed, equipped, savvy, smart and intelligent, it means we also have polish up our act by ensuring we match each of these qualities with people who have superior intellect on all the matters constitutional, religious and otherwise – we have many, prominent of whom is Maryam Uwais who gave a well-written submission on this matter here.

Senator Yerima and Constitutional Review – Maryam Uwais

We will never be equipped for the heavy lifting of radical change in national consciousness which some people term the reorientation of the citizenry, and in my view that will take generations of re-schooling, if we have not been exercised in lesser issues like Child Marriage, Female Genital Mutilation, Maternal Mortality, Rights of the Woman and the Child, Education, Health to greater social and infrastructure issues as Power, Resource Management, Corruption or even Homosexuality - We have to work with the discreet, and individual parts of the sum to make the whole product, the whole is too unwieldy to tackle, it is a leviathan of a problem.

This David is beating us fair and square

There is much to do, but we have to start with the basic sketches, pencil marks, brush strokes and composition before we get the big picture of where we want Nigeria to be.

The Big Picture is not a screenprint, it will be slow and painstaking, one generation working with the next and preparing the one after to take over reinforcing and building on the foundations laid down now; it is not a chicken or egg matter, but a chicken and egg coexistence because the future we so desire might not come to light until the lifetime time of the grand-chick, just as dreams of our fathers before might only be realised in the lifetimes of our grandchildren, we have to build continuity into the struggle and survival of humanity for the good, the better and the best.

One final note of warning, “Those who treat their adversaries with derision are soon humiliated in the theatre of battle. Think Goliath and David.” It goes without saying that Senator Yerima is playing the part of David too well for the Goliath of our disdain to realise that the stone of Islam in the sling of the Senator’s good aim is the death of Goliath and the end of our side of the story or the protection of girls who should not be brides.

Related reading

Nigeria: Senator Yerima's Child Is a Bride on Friday the 6th of September 2013

Nigeria: On Child Marriage, The Perception Drives the Debate

Nigeria: Senator's teenage marriage is lawful though reprehensible

Nigeria: Senator's defiance makes Sharia Law untenable

The case for State law over religious guidance

Nigeria: On Child Marriage, The Perception Drives the Debate

Between numbers and mumblers

A few weeks ago, we read about a survey conducted for the Royal Statistical Society and King’s College London by Ipsos MORI and it pertained to how public perception differed from the reality of issues and statistics with regards to crime, benefit fraud and immigration in the UK.

What made this survey all the more pertinent was when a country is hit by economic problems combined with a right-of-centre government, it is easy to play on public perception to formulate policy thereby giving the impression that serious issues of the day are being tackled with the prospect of radical and useful change, whereas nothing could be farther from the truth.

The perils of perception

In the survey, official statistics suggested only 0.6% teenage girls got pregnant in a year, whilst the public thought it was closer to 16%, in the process, the government ministers have rolled out ideas about making it harder for the girls to find welfare support for accommodation and other needs.

Benefit fraud statistically amounts to £0.70 of every £100 but with all the coverage of that minuscule criminality, the public have be led to believe it is £24 of every £100 spent and with that the government have been able to roll out sweeping benefit changes that seem to satisfy the public view but yields very little in savings on the whole.

Formulating policy on perception

In that survey, there are 10 indices where the public perception has grossly over- or under-estimated the reality for crime, religion (this FactCheck on the UK having a Muslim majority by 2050 makes interesting reading), for voting and any other issue that allows the government to roll out lop-sided policies pandering to sentiment, perception and populism with the public being none the wiser.

It colours our views of Europe in terms of the currency, the regulations and the justice system much as an exhaustive debate cannot be had on serious policy issues once they are hijacked by statistics plucked out of the air to push a programme and sound bites that make great headlines allowing for agenda-setting platforms amongst other things.

For the politician it is useful as much as it is perilous for the public, but the fundamental is that perception begins to matter regardless of the truth of the situation and it is unlikely that the truth of the situation will gain critical mass no matter how much the knowledgeable and the influential attempt to make this known – the urban myth has more currency than the real numbers.

The reading from the reality

I have found that the issue of public perception against academic interpretation is pervasive and universal, like for instance, in the United State, the matter of the 2^nd Amendment to the US Constitution which I cover here; the simple English reading will suggest the right to bear arms is a function of a well-regulated militia with the view of securing a free state but the debate and perception has been argued and it has radically changed to mean the individual’s right to own arms and by absurd extension, anyone can constitute a well-regulated militia of one. More on that on Wikipedia.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Perception matters

It got to a point where I jocularly suggested, someone just chose the 4-letter words in the amendment and made a constitutional law out of it.

However, the point is, people perception weighs heavily on the politics and the policies of the day that it cannot be ignored even if the reality as posited by the academics and other experts suggest otherwise, they can pooh-pooh all they like but it is perception that gets the crowd, fills the streets and excites the mob, the good knowledge, if there is anything like that will only reside with a minority and that expert cohort will do well to recognise the fundamental difference between public perception and academic interpretation giving due consideration to both.

Legalising Child Marriage

Which brings me to the #ChildNotBride Twitter hashtag that invaded the Nigerian Twitterverse recently. The Nigerian Senate were making constitutional amendments that pertained to the renunciation of citizenship, in Section 29 of the Nigerian Constitution when a muddle of senate procedures coupled with a religiously charged disavowal led by a man notorious for marrying under aged girls turned the whole focus to child marriage and basically, the rest is history.

By academic and expert interpretation and the broad spectrum of opinions covered by the links I will provide below, this section is quite particular and has no bearing on constitutionally legitimising Child Marriage in Nigeria, the subsection has been in the constitution since 1999, but with the actors, the procedures and the wording of the subsection being expunged – Section 29 (4)(b) any woman who is married shall be deemed to be of full age. – Public perception has overtaken the issue and it has become a cause that needs to be addressed.

Misguided outcry over the girl child – Egghead Odewale – The Nigerian Telegraph – Covers the extant laws covering the protections of the child.

Now That Your Ten Year Old Girl Is Of Marriageable Age | An Appraisal by Ayo Sogunro – Paints a scenario for granting rights to the married.

“Senator Yerima and Constitutional Review” By Maryam Uwais – Tackles more underlying issues to do with culture, religion and opportunity.

Still on Child Bride: The big yawn, By Cheta Nwanze – How lethargy sets in on our campaigns.

Senator Yerima and the marriage age controversy – Tolu Ogunlesi – It is a controversy.

#ChildNotBride: The Real Issues. – Dr. Henry Olamiju – Why it is a cause we should all take up.

An urgent need for review

The jumble of laws, acts, codes and statutes that give and take protection to and from the Nigerian child needs to be streamlined to effectively provide universal human rights fully protected to ensure the child has every opportunity to reach their full potential rather than be sacrificed on the altar of accepted beliefs that are somewhat inimical to development.

The commentators above have done well to paint out the broadest scenarios to cover most of the interpretations this subsection might extend to unwittingly and consequentially; it is also important that we address the core issue of child marriage separate from the personalities involved, that a clear delineation be made to ensure the secularity of the state and that those with an ulterior agenda are not allowed usurp the debate with religious blackmail which in this case is what seems to have happened.

The Senate has offered to revisit the clause and hopefully it would be to refine all the related provisions exhaustively to protect the girl-child from marriage, abuse and exploitation whilst radically addressing the educational crisis that has over 10 million children of school age out of mainstream education in Nigeria.

Perception matters, Always

When I addressed this matter 3 years ago, it was evident that whilst it was morally reprehensible the said Senator had broken no laws, but his religious stance made his position untenable and it formed the basis for my argument that we need a strict and clear separation of religion from the State with the view to making civil law and the Constitution the supreme text to which all Nigerians find equality and must be answerable to such that no one ends up being or acting above the law.

In all, as I have been wont to say on Twitter, Perception matters, Always – it is immaterial if people got it right or wrong; if the public perception is that child marriage has been legalised, then anyone who has the power needs to act to rid us of that perception – it is perilous but it is not without precedence, as it stands, because of public perception, Section 29(4)(b) constitutionally legalises child marriage, fix it and address it with the utmost alacrity.

Nigeria: The need to manage the Emperors of State

Emperors of State

Executive governors of states in the Federal Republic of Nigeria appear to have untrammelled fiat almost equivalent to absolute monarchies of old within their fiefdoms.

I do not intend to cover that particular matter but they are also granted immunity from prosecution which has the somewhat unintended consequence of many acting with impunity as they project the personification of absolute power that corrupts absolutely.

Thankfully, they only have that megalomania for the tenure of their offices before they become ordinary citizens again. Usually, to forestall a wholesale jettisoning of the things they put in place they would most likely attempt to interfere with the succession process with the hope of putting in a stooge that will for gratitude or other allegiances be their marionettes in power.

Deficiencies in governance

One thing is evident with our system of democracy, there are no strong institutions that make for ensuring that the governor acts within the sometimes grey areas of the law, the state legislatures tend to be overly partisan and factional rather than work as a moderating chamber more representative of the people and the powers the governor exerts are sometimes unreasonable that they will almost always be reviewed and the acts rescinded.

In many states where the new governors have been elected especially where the successor has come from another party or there have been differences within the same party that the erstwhile governor has not been able to influence the succession process the states have been in radical flux.

Basically, it is like the new governor is on a crusade to expunged every act and idea of their predecessor which all fall within the spectrum of atrocious through commendable to excellent, you rarely find areas where these governors attempt to build on the previous successes and take the state forward.

Consequences of the lack of continuity

Obviously, each governor has their own agenda and manifesto; it is their prerogative to act and hopefully in the best interests of fairness, justice, of the people and of the state rather that follow through their personal animosities in a show of sheer pettiness masquerading as leadership.

However, other things suffer if the system is not built to manage the acts of the executive governors at their most powerful and guarantee continuity after they have left. In fact, it feeds a vicious circle of counter-productive measures that give a lie to our democratic experiment.

On the matters of contracts, land ownership, business confidence, long-term enabling environments for development and growth the looming uncertainties that are generated by the musical chairs of quadrennial elections mean many projects not completed within the tenure might get abandoned and other thriving initiatives might be jettisoned.

Examples of breakdown

Worse still will be actions the old governor took for their own benefit when the new broom puts the old person in their place as is now happening in Ogun State - the once promising potentate at the advent of office who by the end of his term was probably the worst thing that ever happened to Ogun State who for his power-drunk egregious and megalomaniacal excesses plundered the state and appropriated lands that are now subjects of dispute.

If the new governors do not do well to spell out their intentions, many might read their actions as an all-out vendetta especially when one read the placards of student protesters whose university was downgraded to an institute of education amongst other things happening there and all around the country.

Constitutional review

There is a need to review the powers the executive governors had and what they can do, the state legislatures need to rise to the challenge of being better moderating influences on the governors whilst ensuring that the ideas and projects put in place have every prospect of continuity no matter who sits in the governor’s house.

Our constitution after almost 13 years of use is in need of radical amendments and subtle refinement to make our democracy more representative whilst also making leadership more responsive and accountable to the electorate.

Most importantly, there is a need to redress the matter of public service with more emphasis on the service over just having a public – these changes must happen soon, if we are to have a more enduring union and the hope that the best minds do vie for office and bring forth the change that Nigeria so badly needs.

References

The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria – State Executive

Amosun, Daniel trade words over church land | Vanguard Nigeria News

Tai Solarin Varsity students protest merger | The Nation

Nigeria: Yar'Adua cannot resign because of 2015

Party politics influence

Somehow I am disappointed that contemporaneous circumstances are beclouding the ability of people to see the reality of why we have the phantom of a comatose President Umaru Yar’Adua lurking the Acting President Goodluck Jonathan’s corridors of influence.

It goes without saying that party politics in Nigeria has a way of supplanting due process and offers the ruling party the opportunity to become the machinery of state.

Just like we had in the Second Republic [1], the ruling party was the National Party of Nigeria and chieftains in the party seemed to have a higher public profile than the elected executives, face of the government then was Chief A. M. A. Akinloye the chairman of NPN whilst the President, Shehu Shagari was the figurehead façade of rampant kleptocracy.

The snouts in the trough

Now, in the Fourth Republic [2], the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has progressively dominated all the levels of government with the patronage that allows for the abuse and misuse of power.

Worse still, the PDP operates a constitution that relegates the Nigerian Constitution to a subsection of their procedures and rules of engagement – that has become so evident with the saga surrounding the departure from the public space of the President Yar’Adua due to suspected ill health.

In order to appease the conflicting egos and forces of influence in the ruling party they arranged that executive power would alternate between the Christian South and the Muslim North, neither the North nor South is exclusively Muslim or Christian but that is the accepted view of Nigerians.

8 for us and 8 for them

A Christian Southerner held power for 2 terms adding up to 8 years with his Muslim Northerner running mate and from May 2007 a Muslim Northerner with his Christian Southerner running was selected to run the country and approved to take power through one of the most widely rigged elections ever in Nigeria.

The little detail in this matter was that the Muslim Northerner had a pre-existing illness which probably has been exacerbated by the burden of office and forced him out of public view since November 2009.

We now have an Acting President who was the running mate and a Christian Southerner as well as a conundrum that leaves the ruling party in a quandary.

Resignation leaves them with 7

Their perverse constitution requires for power to be vested in the North until 2015 which is the two terms of 4 years each starting from 2007, but if the seemingly incapacitated substantive President were to resign the ruling party would have a Christian Southerner in charge, albeit for just a year because they do not intend the Southerner to run in 2011.

By 2015, the Northerners would only have had 7 years with their snouts to the trough, the Southerners would want their candidate for 2015 and the clamour would be around fulfilling the 8 years with the Northerners running for 11 years and all the mess that would be a right old mess.

For that supposedly obscure reason, the ruling party would rather have a comatose Northern President lurking in the background of the Acting President until the next elections in 2011 than risk the trough-sharing opportunities they have projected for the future.

The issue is in 2015

That way, the 2-term 8 year power sharing arrangement of the pre-eminent constitution of the ruling party is kept without much regard for the Nigerian Constitution or Nigerians.

It is the reason why the entire clamour around the presence or absence of President Yar’Adua must stop and we should start to bolster the authority of Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, thereby, forcing the hand of the ruling party to bow to the inevitable.

The issue today is not about the health of the President or 2011, it is really about the consequences actions of today might have on 2015 – that is where the problem really is – in 2015.

Sources

Nigerian Second Republic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nigerian Fourth Republic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nigeria: No new states precursor to abolishing them

Asexual cell division

Nigeria in some cases is very much like some organism that undergoes asexual reproduction by cell division and this refers to the state and states of Nigeria [1].

There was a time when Nigeria consisted of just 3 regions, when I was in childhood it had 12 states, by the time I left Nigeria it had 21 and today it has 36 states.

All these states are still within the same land area that has been called Nigeria for about 50 years.

Pools of federal character

I wrote a blog last year on the President’s prerogative in choosing his cabinet and opined that we had too many pools but too few talent pools [2], a point that AfricanLoft [3] showcased to a wider community.

Written into the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria [4] is the concept of Federal Character governed by a Federal Character Commission, the purpose of which it is to promote national unity by seeking uniform representation in federal appointments made under the auspices of the President.

This is defined under Section 318 (1) as “federal character of Nigeria” refers to the distinctive desire of the peoples of Nigeria to promote national unity, foster national loyalty and give every citizen of Nigeria a sense of belonging to the nation as expressed in section 14 (3) and (4) of this constitution;

Those two sub-sections read as follows –

Section 14 (3) The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few State or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies.

Section 14 (4) The composition of the Government of a State, a local government council, or any of the agencies of such Government or council, and the conduct of the affairs of the Government or council or such agencies shall be carried out in such manner as to recognise the diversity of the people within its area of authority and the need to promote a sense of belonging and loyalty among all the people of the Federation.

Supreme Court Sector Selections

This is fair enough in general sense, but is there a trade-off between representation to fulfil the federal character and the available competent personnel to serve the country?

This became a matter of interest to me when I read that two new justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria had been sworn in [5], one of them a lady, making two ladies on the highest bench but reading further into the article whilst we were not told where the new justices hailed from we were informed the departing justices came from North-Central and South-West sectors of the country.

There are now 17 judges on the Supreme Court of Nigeria [6], the number must not exceed 21 and it would be difficult to apply a full federal character posture on appointments to this court from 36 states so there is a variation of the federal character paradigm to the selection process which gives one some concern.

I would hope that judges appointed to the Supreme Court of Nigeria are there for their acute legal minds, ability to interpret the constitution with gravitas and level-headedness without necessarily having to fulfil political quotas of tribal, state or regional representation – the courts cannot afford appointments that are not chiefly by merit.

Competing for influence

However, in an excerpted piece from a book by Rotimi Suberu titled Federalism and Ethnic Conflict in Nigeria [7], he states whist supporting the need for the federal character principle that “the “federal character” principles in the Nigerian constitution also serve as a Rorschach test [8] for the national family’s dysfunction.

The principles are interpreted as a mandate for the central government to represent and aid all groups. However laudable and necessary the principles are for a multi-ethnic nation ... efforts to implement them have cultivated resentment between winners and losers competing for slots in governmental institutions”.

Quite an interesting insight he gives to the issue of federal character and how it works or does not work in the context of Nigeria.

Abolish states

However, coming back round to the core of the topic about states and representation in Nigerian, Admiral Mike Akhigbe who was de facto vice President after the death of the despotic General Sani Abacha suggested states be abolished [9] and be subsumed under wider geopolitical zones with the state structures becoming more like larger local government councils.

Suggesting six geo-political zones he states that there are too many resource sapping administrative units in the country that impact of economic development, he opined that states as they are weaken the federal structure of Nigeria.

Saying that there should be more to improve the well being of the Nigerian people rather than creating new political administrative units.

I think those views need to be fleshed out more and given a bigger forum for debate, the creation of new political administrative units creates a divisive “cake sharing” fixation where states and groups are more keen on grabbing a larger slice of federal disbursements than expanding the size of the nation’s output as Mr. Suberu writes.

Thoughts for Nigeria at 50

It no doubt fuels conflict rather than cohesion and it should become part of the agenda for what should Nigeria be doing when it clocks 50.

This whole idea of subsuming states to create broader talent pools of representation to allow for real quality to help in the development of Nigeria cannot be bad, but we have an uphill task against vested self-serving interests who require fiefdoms from where to exercise power and peddle undue influence.

However, this is a seed sown and we shall water it until it germinates, grows and bears fruit, I expect to find much mileage in this – meanwhile – No New States!

Sources

[1] States of Nigeria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[2] Nigeria: Removing influence from selecting the cabinet [akin.blog-city.com]

[3] Nigeria: “Too many pools very few talent pools” | AfricanLoft

[4] Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

[5] allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Kutigi Swears in New Female Supreme Court Justice

[6] Supreme Court of Nigeria, Abuja

[7] Federalism and Ethnic Conflict in Nigeria. By Rotimi N. Suberu. Washington, D.C.: Institute of Peace Press, 2001. ISBN-10: 1929223285 ISBN-13: 978-1929223282 - Amazon

[8] Rorschach inkblot test - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[9] The Sun News On-line: States should be abolished — Akhigbe

24 self-serving presidential aspirants

Uphold the law without flying out

Two recent comments left on my blog about the situation in Nigeria concerning the fly outs for health checkups and the antics of the Independent National Electoral Commission leave me in such great indignation, I hope I find words to express myself with clarity.

The whole matter centres what all those contestants are doing in the light of these developments, none took advantage of the fact that getting treatment for breathlessness or a knee injury abroad simply highlighted the fact that we had a health system no one was proud of and hence the opportunity to do something about it.

It made Nigeria an international laughing stock, almost irredeemable slight as an oil-rich country that could pay to fly out its stinking rich ruling class but not address ever-present social and development issues that could propel Nigeria further than we have ever dreamt possible. Our shame and they who seek to lead stood dumb.

The silence of the ambitious

However, the most grating one is how these self-serving, selfish, inordinately ambitious, indifferent and unconcerned contestants can even deign to offer themselves to lead talk less of serve when they cannot rise up against the abuse of process, the egregious impugning of the rule of law and the flagrant misinterpretation of the constitution.

The 24 eligible candidates who can for now contest the presidential elections in Nigeria are so ensconced in their comfort zones, having not been disqualified or made ineligible, a seeming injustice meted against a stronger contestant is best left unsung lest their personal ambitions be thwarted by the possible success of this contestant who to date has successively won 11 court battles challenging his ability to run.

If they cannot be bothered about this, how on earth can they sincerely be bothered to ensure that Nigeria is properly run and it begins to achieve like it should have or should be working towards when we celebrate the 50^th year of independence?

Dishonourable and disgraceful

These are no people of honour and neither should they be offered the privilege to rule in Nigeria, if before they have attained power they cannot raise their voices in protest against unconstitutional activities, how can they when in power swear an oath to protect the same?

Fearful people who have no principles left in their sinews, such that the fear of being tarred with the instruments of vindictiveness that the Presidency had converted the EFCC and INEC into leaves them forgetful of the fact that they would be powerless to rule if they are beholden to organs that terrorise and castigate personalities to achieve ends inimical to the development of Nigeria.

Instruments of presidential vindictiveness

I do hear that the EFCC and INEC are now being made more independent of the machinations of the presidency, I cannot say however that the damage that has been done to their reputations can be recovered and made right so soon. Reference.

However, one thing is clear; these 24 candidates which include intellectuals, former military leaders, ones with delusions of grandeur and unproven criminals do not deserve to be presented to the country for election.

A case to postpone elections

If Atiku Abubakar does eventually get his name onto the ballots, there is a possibility that he might but to only some places in Nigeria, a pre-rigged election looms and this must not be taken lightly, the leaving president must not in anyway be absolved of complicity to stealing the opportunity to choose from his fellow countrymen.

If however, the election would need to be postponed to ensure that justice and fairness is served, then both the sitting president and his vice president should and must resign their commissions at the end of this term and a constitutional precedent that allows the Senate President to be caretaker leader/President for 3 months must ensue, where none of those who had been in power can influence the will of the people till elections take place in probably June or July 2007.

American Congress failing the American People

Red face from reps page

Three pieces of news coming out of America appear to show how so different that land is and it so fills me with amazement that people find such comfort in that place.

Probably 10 years ago, the by-line would have been – Rep pages page’s pager … or something along those lines if the tabloids ever got into the salacious side of a sad story of child sexual abuse.

Apparently, for a few years, a Republican Congressman has found the pastime of sending sexually explicit messages to pages – students who get the opportunity to walk the corridors of power as messengers and assistants.

The youngest of who might have been 16, now, for a man in power and authority having membership of the caucus on missing and exploited children it was wrong to abuse his position in that way and it was wrong to subject the young men to such illicit and lewd communication.

Culpability in inaction

If Congressman Foley considered his actions a form of mentoring young men into understanding sex, well, one can only speculate; however, the Republican leadership of the Congress who appeared to have known about this for a while now seem to be feigning innocence as the whole affair has suddenly consumed the fire of their campaign hardly six weeks to the mid-term elections.

It reminds one of the inaction that accompanied sexual abuse claims within the Catholic Church, alas, lessons are not being learnt.

The converse of this is, the young man was 16, quite well past puberty and in Europe would have been more sexually aware, intelligent or active rather than being utterly sexually naïve as one can almost expect of Americans of that age.

There would be some mileage in this thing before the elections turf out a few more Republicans, meanwhile, Mr Foley has demonstrated a classic, accepted guilt, gone for rehabilitation for alcoholism and behavioural problems – it is unlikely the birch would be introduced to teach bad boy – Mr Foley – a useful lesson.

Sadly, the abused child might only be able to afford a comforting ice-cream from mummy and daddy before the media circus helps to ruin the young man’s self esteem for life.

Gambling on a fools gambit

Then, as usually, the warped argument about online gambling leading to addiction, debt and enticement of children has lead to a bad law being promulgated to ban financial institutions like banks and credit card companies from processing payments for participating in online gambling.

This is America where gambling is extremely big business Las Vegas is the bastion of wanton decadence and gambling like no other place on earth and somehow people who go there cannot play the same games from home. Absurd.

Well, the greater reason is, the clout of these casinos as lobbyists and sponsors of politicians has prevent Internet upstarts from establishing online gambling businesses, it is also amusing that having raped indigenous American Indians of wealth and land, they are allowed to build humongous gambling empires in their reservations as a sop for past injustices, part of what lead to the Abramoff scandal.

It is the taxes, stupid

More so, Americans being able to gamble in a global market from the comfort of their homes in a $12 billion business registered offshore, the federal and state governments get not taxes or revenues from these organisations lodged in tax havens all around the world.

No online gambling dollars lining the campaign funds or hospitality troughs of politicians is a cause to fight for and nip the financial transactions in the bud and let it all get more sinister, go underground and less regulated – because the American Congress has been elected to protect the American People from things they as adults should have the sense to know to want to do or abstain from.

The thing about children getting addicted to gambling does not wash, you need a credit card to join an online gambling facility and you can only get a credit card at a certain age – the same credit card can be used to register on porn sites, but I see no Congressman seeking to ban financial transactions to porn sites except those of the fundamentalist and Puritan kind.

Those who want to gamble would gamble in anyway they want; regulation is the better use of law not prohibition, just as drug addicts or alcoholics cannot be legislated out of existence. This is one rather bad law, it might hurt the online gambling businesses for a while, but it would not cure the 50% trade that comes from America from their addiction if they are already hooked.

Suicide gunners and schools

Utterly depressed, repressed or disturbed people with access to guns and ammunition that have been seized from the cold dead hands of Charles Heston have visited schools and shot people, already, thrice this week in America.

OK! We did have one occasion in Dunblane in Scotland where a crazed loner shot 16 children with their teacher before killing himself, one well-adjusted and successful kid from that school is Andrew Murray the rising tennis star – thank God for that – I could almost assume such a recovery might be difficult in America, but that would be both facetious and cynical.

However, it appears people do not want to singularly and quietly commit suicide anymore because their insignificant and uneventful lives might not even make the village rag, so they walk off into a nearby school, take children hostage, run the airwaves for a few hours, appear to negotiate and then shoot up innocent people and then themselves.

I am tempted to say that suicide bombers have a cause and these people have no cause, no purpose and no souls – why use innocent blood to give some publicity or credence to your suicide? This applies to all “suiciders” (a Bushism) all around the world.

A gun law is needed

If there is a case of the Congress to settle on, it is the getting of guns off the streets and reducing the availability of guns to just anyone, the warped interpretation of the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is a problem.

It is still my belief that what it means is; the right to bear arms is only justified as part of a well regulated militia – basically, if you are not in the forces, that right does not exist except when you can called up to defend the state – it does not say you cannot own a gun, but it is not a right to hold one, just as you can own a car, but that does not become a right to have a car.

If there is any need for a new study too, it is that about finding out why these people choose vulnerable people to experience their gruesome deaths when they could find an isolated barn and do the deed if they so wish to end their lives.

How many more headline grabbing shootouts of kids in schools like Columbine do we need before the guns are grabbed out of living and dead hands and burnt out of existence?

Do you read this, the way I do?

“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” Second Amendment

Keeping moral convictions out of the US Constitution

The props are falling in the wind

This is a time when one could be tempted to feel sorry for Mr Bush, but then that would be utterly feeble-minded.

The architect in the person of Mr. Karl Rove would sure find something to assuage the pain and galvanise the troops for the November elections.

This empathetic irrational rush comes from ideas that got scuttled in the House and the Senate yesterday.

I had written about 6 weeks ago about the divisive and galvanising issues that the President has recently be using as a ploy to manipulate moral convictions into constitutional law.

The three issues are as I stated then

1. Outlaw all stem cell research (ambivalent support)

2. Constitutionally outlaw abortion (supported but can split the less fundamental conservatives)

3. Constitutionally ban gay marriage (widespread support)

The Legislature defies the Executive

Yesterday the Senate approved stem cell research although with 4 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto. The President might well exercise the veto and if reason does prevail in the Senate, they might just muster more than the 4 votes needed to close this issue once and for all.

In the same day, the House of Representatives rejected the constitutional amendment which would have banned gay marriage, also with a majority 47 votes short of two-thirds – however, this debate would for a while no more see congressional rancour.

Interestingly, when the Senate voted on this issue, just over 5 weeks ago, it was a knife-edge vote of 49-48 against constitutional interference.

The constitution is not the Bible

This is not to ignore the fact that there is still widespread support for propping up heterosexual unions and discouraging homosexual unions – the issue at hand is, that desire does not belong in a constitution, especially not in one that a democracy depends on.

The moment moral and ethical convictions become constitution staple, we are not on some smooth sailing venture to the growth of civil moral rectitude, and rather it invites a downward spiral that catches the Puritans where it hurts most – embarrassment.

We have seen it times before in the “Back to Basics” program of the Tories and other anti-sleaze ideas that make some politicos assume a more saintly image than others only to be revealed and merely mortal and grossly fallible.

Abortion is settled in law

The final contentious issue is abortion, it appears the Supreme Court would not be obliging on this matter regardless of the conservative slant they have and 5 out of the judges publicly back Roe v. Wade.

The seminal Jane Roe v. Henry Wade of 1973 more or less sees a constitutional right related to the choice of abortion if requested subject to gestation terms and medical supervision amongst other sex education issues.

Beyond all this, Mr Bush can still make the wolf howls and Catherine wheels that would gather his congregations, but this fight would be in the consciences of the people not in the tussle between the Judiciary, the Legislature and the Executive – that is democracy.