Fight Against The Paul Usoro Presidency Is An Illegal Fight For Selfish Gains, Vindictiveness, & Personal Vendetta. Count Me Out Of It!

To:     
           
Carol Ajie Esq.

From:
          
Sylvester Udemezue

Dear Learned Senior, from the message you sent out today, you
have left no one in doubt that you are fighting and attacking Paul
Usoro only because he “failed” to nominate you for an International
Bar Association (IBA) Council job, as you had requested. I begin by
reproducing your own words, as you wrote it, unedited:

“You know Abdul Rasheed Oladimeji aka Murray NBA immediate
past Chief of Staff.  He campaigned for AB Mahmoud SAN in 2016
to get elected. You know Murray now he cannot send one campaign
message without collecting millions from the presidential
candidate.  I don’t know all of Mahmoud SAN s sponsors but
Sanusi Fmr CBN Gov and AB were hands in gloves. Anyway Murray
worked hard on AB Mahmoud SAN s campaign and he won.  The
Muslims never quarrel with their King makers.  Why are
Christians always like that.  Not that I asked for a farthing.
Not that I asked to be President by proxy o.  Not that I gave
Usoros he and his wife any list to say these are my lawyers
patronize them.  All I said was IBA Council which is even a
none paying position.  IBA does not pay a dime to anyone
whoever they are you attend meetings all over the World with your
money. But you have to have expertise and knowledge of
international law and a solid IBA background. All I said was don’t
put a mediocre there.  A none paying office and he started
fighting me.  I told the Usoros please don’t fight this is not
a time for Christians to fight.  A more important election is
coming 2019 you should behave responsibly and they started behaving
like being “stupid’.  See where it landed them in the dock on
ten count money laundering charge a whole NBA Président. First
in NBA history.” (Per Carol Ajie).

When I saw the statement, I could not believe you wrote those
words. Hence, I forwarded the same to you for your confirmation,
which you promptly gave. Here is your message to me, confirming the
statement: “I am expressing my right. The constitution protects
it, you know.”

From the above statement, dear learned Senior and Georgetown
Scholar, you appear to be saying two major things, namely –

• That your campaign and mudslinging against the Paul Usoro are
  borne out of vindictiveness — i.e., because he did not give you the
  appointments or nominations you had sought. In other words, your
  desire and plan, which you’re working hard at, are solely to get
  back at Mr. Usoro to ventilate grudges which you hold against him
  as a result of the aforesaid. I see!
• That your efforts may have contributed or indeed led to the
  filing of a ten-count charge against Mr. Paul Usoro, SAN, at the
  Federal High Court. In other words, Paul Usoro could have escaped
  prosecution if he had heeded your request and nominated you to the
  IBA Council. Your words clearly confirm this. Says Carol Ajie:
  “I told the Usoros please don’t fight this is not a time for
  Christians to fight.  A more important election is coming 2019
  you should behave responsibly and they started behaving like being
  “stupid’.  See where it landed them in the dock on ten count
  money laundering charge a whole NBA President. First in NBA
  history.”

Anyway, this is not the focus of my current letter. I leave
Nigerian lawyers to use their tongue to count their
teeth; they are well enlightened, rational and
intellectually gifted. My focus now is the personal message you
sent to me today accusing me of “being paid by Paul Usoro to
write for him.” Below is your personal message to me:

“Sylvester, how much were you paid by the accused person
facing his trial to insult your intellectual superior. I didn’t
collect a dime from the Usoros and see how much I worked my hands
sore and you write after your candidate Ojukwu lost, you write for
the winner we labored for and collect rewards you don’t earn. Bye
now, read your lines, paid agent of Usoros.”

Dear respected Learned Senior, you allege I am paid to write for
rule of law – for Usoro to neither resign nor step aside? With the
greatest respect, dear Madam, that allegation of yours is real
laughable, funny and, you know, 100 per cent baseless. You know I
am beyond being bought. I cannot be bought over by anyone. I didn’t
know Usoro. And I didn’t support him during the NBA 2018 elections,
based on principle. I still don’t know Usoro. But I hate injustice
and oppression. I hate witch-hunt and backbiting. I hate
frivolities as well as any suppression of rule of law and due
process. Hence I started writing against those six evils. I do not
write for money, and I do not ask for nor accept money to write,
because NO one can pay my price. I do not write or ask for material
gains because I am content with what I have. Besides, I am neither
selfish, self-centered nor materialistic. All my writings are
swayed by Rule of Law, Due Process and sustenance of democratic
constitutionalism in our multi-faceted country. It all started in
2003! I write based on principle and nothing more; but more
importantly, I do not know how to insult people; so I do insult
anyone. Learned senior, I cannot approbate and reprobate at the
same time. I cannot be writing against insults and to condemn
mudslinging and at the same time writing to insult people. I
recognize and respect differences in opinions. I have urged all
lawyers to respect divergence in opinions. See my article titled,
On the Irresponsibility of Replying Critics & Divergent
Opinions with Insults & Mudslinging
(on-the-irresponsibility-of-replying-critics-divergent-opinions-with-insults-mudslinging-a-word-of-caution-by-sylvester-udemezue/)

Further, learned senior, several of my earlier writings have
been attested to by later court decisions in Nigeria. They’re
legion. But a few examples would help to enlighten us.

• I had in 2015 written severally against the call then for
  Bukola Saraki’s resignation on account of unproven corruption
  allegations filed against him at the Nigerian Code of Conduct
  Tribunal (CCT). I had then stood my ground on your
  OurCountryNigeria blog, contending that my position was more in
  consonance with the dictates of rule of law than that of those
  opposed to me. What happened thereafter? Dr. Saraki won all his
  cases up to the apex court, thus attesting to the justness and
  reasonableness of my stand. What if he had resigned and later got
  acquitted? Would there have been any opportunity for him to be
  reinstated? Your guess is as good as mine.
• I wrote in 2016 that Abuja, FCT constitutionally deserved to
  have at least one Federal Minister, as of right. Some of the very
  senior lawyers in this country had opposed my stand. I did not move
  because I believed I was with the rule of law. See my humble
  opinion on this: Why Nigeria Must Always Have a Minimum
  of Thirty-Seven (37) Ministers for the Government of the
  Federation (http://adviceafrica.blogspot.com/2016/07/why-nigeria-must-always-have-minimum-of.html)^[1]
  (See also
  (https://www.newsheadlines.com.ng/latest-sun-newspapers/2015/11/04/why-nigeria-must-always-have-37-ministers-1/)
  . What happened thereafter? In January 2018, the Court of Appeal
  confirmed FCT Abuja’s rights in this respect and ordered Nigeria to
  immediately appoint a Federal Minister from among Abuja indigenes.
  See this article: Between a Court of Appeal Judgment &
  the Claim by Abuja Indigenes on the Recent Earth Tremor in Abuja:
  Have Our Ancestors Assumed the Role of Enforcers of Rule of
  Law?
  (https://dnllegalandstyle.com/2018/between-a-court-of-appeal-judgment-the-claim-by-abuja-indigenes-on-the-recent-earth-tremor-in-abuja-have-our-ancestors-assumed-the-role-of-enforcers-of-rule-of-law-by-sylvester-udemezue/)
• Earlier, in September 2010, I had written against the position
  of Nigerian governors who had sought tenure elongation. I had then
  argued that they could not be allowed to have their
  cake and eat it at the same time.
  Please, read: Tenure Extension: Governors Cannot Eat
  Their Cake & Have It (https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/35262/tenure-extension-governors-cannot-eat-their-cake-have-it.html)^[2]
  or Nigeria: Governors Can’t Get Tenure
  Extension (https://allafrica.com/stories/201009230536.html)^[3]. What happened
  thereafter? The Supreme Court of Nigeria buttressed my point; told
  the governors the same thing I had told them; one cannot have
  one’s cake and it. See this: Supreme Court
  Judgement On Tenure Extension: Matters Arising
  (http://saharareporters.com/2012/01/28/supreme-court-judgement-tenure-extension-matters-arising^[4])

This list is not exhaustive. I could go on. Yet, I personally do
not know anyone among all the affected persons. And have never met
any one of them. I am not here to showcase myself, but to show you
I do not write for money, nor based on sentiments. I write for the
promotion of rule of law and due process. Besides, I do not
get angry when my candidate loses an election; neither would I get
upset when my candidate wins but fails to give me an IBA, NJC or
Benchers appointments. I have the spirit of sportsmanship, and I
support whoever emerges winner in a contest. Someone has to
lose! Besides, I know I am not the only lawyer in a Nigeria;
leaders appoint whomever they please. A fan or supporter ought to
not force himself or herself on the leaders. Hence, I do not write
to seek or court favour. I do not ask for IBA Council appointment,
nor for an NJC or BOB appointment. And if I were in your shoes, I
would not engage in this emotional, sloppy, unjustified and
unjustifiable denunciations and disparagements against a leader,
just because I was not given what I asked the leader for.

It is not a crime for you to have asked to be given IBA,
NJC or Benchers’ positions upon Paul Usoro’s ascension to the NBA
throne. But, with due respect, Ma, it is most unfair on Paul Usoro
for you to suddenly turn around and start badmouthing your own
“candidate.” Does it mean that you were supporting Paul Usoro
during NBA elections, only so you would turn around and try to pull
him down? Was your “support” for Paul Usoro during the 2018
elections, for personal gains? Was it all about what you had hoped
to benefit from his leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association? Are
you saying that you must pull him down for no reason other than
that he failed or refused to allow you to dictate to him or become
a political Godfather/Godmother to him? What an irony? Dear Madam,
think about this in your private, quiet time, as a true Christian!
 Permit me to draw your attention to these wise words by K.P.
Yohannan: “the most unhappy people in the world are
the ones who live only for themselves. All that they do, they do
only for their own sake. For these self- centered individuals, the
most precious things in the world is their ‘self.’ Like a cancer
that eats and destroys its own cells, the self-centered individual
is slowly dying inwardly. “

Learned Senior, from your own words, reproduced above, it
appears that you know very well that you are standing rule of law
upside-down, yet you fight on because you want to settle personal
scores with Mr. Usoro. It is so unfair because I know you on
OurCountryNigeria to be a woman of justice. What has happened? I
respect you a lot. I agree you’re a great activist. You’re doing
your best for the NBA. You’re an intellectual.  I agree with
all these, which is why I hold you in high regard. I truly admire
your doggedness. However, on this Usoro matter, you got it all
wrong; you have missed the point. You’re 100 per cent wrong, with
due respect. Yours, it is now obvious, is a fight for personal,
material gain. If as you said, you’re fighting Usoro only
because he didn’t nominate you for certain appointments, then, in
all honesty, you’re not fighting for the NBA, neither are you
fighting corruption. I am hence not surprised that you are not
happy. It is natural. Says Albeit Einstein,
“a life directed chiefly toward the fulfillment of
personal desires will sooner or later always lead to bitter
disappointment.”

I am happy that you have confessed about the reasons for your
campaign for Paul Usoro’s resignation over unproven allegations in
spite of the presumption of innocence provisions of the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended)
and the African Charter on Human & People’s Right (Ratification &
Enforcement) Act. I am happy that, from your own self-induced
confession and admission, all Nigerian lawyers now know those who
are behind the illegal, unconstitutional call for Paul Usoro to
stand down from a position into which he was overwhelmingly elected
by Nigerian lawyers. I am happy Nigerian Lawyers can now see
through the entire conspiratorial scheming and unjust shenanigans
and monkeyshines against the Paul Usoro NBA Presidency, where they
all are coming from and the real reasons they keep coming against
Paul Usoro. I am happy that Nigerian Lawyers now know it is an
egotistical, egocentric, and egoistic fight for personal gains or
vendetta. I am happy Nigerian Lawyers can now see why we have been
advocating, and why all hands must be on deck to ensure, that Paul
Usoro must never resign and thus succumb to cheap blackmail from
self-interested lawyers and vindictive partisan jobbers. Dear Paul
Usoro, Learned Silk, Sir, you now see more reasons to move ahead
with your sagacious leadership of the NBA, undistracted, undaunted
and unhindered. You must neither resign nor step aside. Rule of law
must prevail, as it did in Saraki’s case. I said it then. I am
saying it again. I was proven right then. I would by God’s Grace be
proven right in this one. So, in line with rule of law, I humbly
advise respected learned senior and elder, Carol Ajie Esq, and
indeed all those who feel, rightly or wrongly, that they have
personal scores to settle with Paul Usoro to secure the Hon
Attorney General’s (AGF’s) fiat and thereafter take their
grievances and cases before the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos
(the theatre of legal war) to take over prosecution from the EFCC
and serve as private prosecutors or persecutors or watching-brief
attorneys. With the support of Nigerian lawyers, the Paul Usoro
presidency of the NBA would terminate but not until August 2020
when Paul Usoro is scheduled to hand over to an elected president
from the West side of Nigeria. That is the point I am making. And
that is where I stand. The revelation by you that you’re only
engaged in personal vendetta has only encouraged me to maintain my
ground because I would never join in anything that patently or
latently illegal.

First, you removed me from your privately-owned YahooGroup
forum, OurCountryNigeria, on account only of the fact I hold a
different opinion. Now, you accuse me of writing for money or of
being paid to write. Regarding these, I take solace in the Bible
book of 1 Corinthians 13:4-7: “love is not
easily angered or resentful. It is not glad about injustice, but
rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, …, endures all things.”
Before her glorious death into martyrdom, Mother
Teresa had encouraged us to love all people, even though,
as she said, “people would remain unrealistic, illogical and
self-centered,” like we see today. With these immutable words in
mind, and in respect of your undeserved, frivolous and feeble
allegation against me, I would, like Thomas Hill
advised, “let angry words be answered with a kiss.”
  Besides, I am not unaware of Socrates’
declaration that when the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool
of the loser. I rest my case. God bless the Usoro presidency. God
bless and promote Nigeria lawyers and the NBA. Amen ?

Rest assured of my continued high regards.

Yours sincerely,

Sylvester Udemezue

(27/12/2018)

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