Godwin Ezeemo: My Faith In Justice Is Unshaken

Mr. Godwin Ezeemo

Godwin Chukwunaenye Ezeemo is the Chairman of Orient Group of Companies and presently a gubernatorial aspirant for Anambra State under the platform of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Orient Group has a chain of companies with interests in various sectors of the economy spanning publishing, farming, ICT and freight forwarding.

Recently, one of the companies within the group, Orient Export UK, was involved in an alleged export of environmental wastes in the United Kingdom and was appropriately prosecuted and fined as a corporate entity. The company has paid all the legal fines though,  pending the determination of an appeal entered by the company on the grounds that justice was not properly served in that matter.

On June 7, 2013, during the burial of former deputy governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chudi Nwike, at Ogbunike, Mr. Godwin Ezeemo, who spoke to a group of journalists, laid bare all the facts concerning the e waste matter involving one of his companies. He clearly reaffirmed his commitment to the rule of law and his unflinching faith in the efficacy of the judicial system as the last hope of the common man. Excerpts:

Sir, one of the companies within your group of companies, alongside other companies, was recently charged with and convicted of shipping e wastes out of the United Kingdom to various parts of the world. Did you not know that shipping e waste out of UK was an offence?

Thank you very much for raising this e waste issue. At least it confirms to me that you are on top of your job in making sure that Nigerians who aspire to lead the rest of us are kept under close watch by the fourth estate of the realm. I was, however, going to call a press conference to address this matter, but since you have raised it here, I will offer my responses immediately. I believe in transparency. I believe in, live and stand for justice and will always respect and promote the law no matter my position in life or society. I also believe that everything happens for a reason and such reasons always turn out to be for the best interest of society and man in general.

I strongly believe that a system built on justice for all regardless of anyone's status in society thrives. Good governance and respect for the rights of others are the catalyst that encourages the thriving of such a system and restores the hope of the ordinary man in justice.

Recently, I was inadvertently exposed to the British system of justice and marvelled at the efficiency and timeliness of the process of finding justice which helps to order and organize society. While away from the UK, one of the companies that I have directorship was alleged to have been in breach of environmental law and accused of shipping wastes. The waste in question are second-hand televisions, computers and monitors, iron and kettles and others of the same genre which are reusable in many parts of the world and not classified as wastes. These items in the last 40 years constitute articles of trade for Nigerians from all over the world. Presently, these second-hand goods are still being imported, cleared by customs and sold in Nigeria hence the large volume of containers of used electronics which are regularly shipped to Nigeria and other parts of the world. These are commonly sold in various markets and warehouses in Nigeria including Alaba International Market and remain genuine business which many Nigerian traders rely on for a living and citizens for sustenance.

Why was your name mentioned as a beneficiary of that illicit trade?

The very peculiar and most interesting aspect of the case is that I was not in the UK and did not buy or intended to buy any such goods for my personal use or resale anywhere in the world. So there is no way I would have been directly linked with the offence. As far as we are concerned we acted within the limits of extant legal statutes within the wider jurisdiction of our area of operation.

The staff in the company who out of mere coincidence bears the same surname with me, though not my son as has been widely misrepresented by a section of the media, accepted and booked the goods for shipment in good faith. He was in line with the course of our legitimate business as freight forwarders when he accepted the goods from clients for shipping just like any other shipper. The company which I am a director was charged with the offence of shipping waste to Nigeria. This was a big surprise. Despite strong remonstrations by everyone accused of the offence, my company and every other person alleged to have breached the UK waste law was found guilty and fined.

If you are insisting that your company acted within the ambit of the law, why did you go ahead to pay the fine?

Yes, my company was fined and we promptly and respectfully paid the fine as ardent believers in the efficacy of the judicial system, but we are still pursuing our appeal against the judgment. It is clear that the offence was not considered a serious criminal offence as otherwise my company would have lost everything and shut down. I would have also been personally stripped of all personal assets in line with the United Kingdom's Proceeds of Crimes Act. But that did not happen. So this shows you that the said offence is not as serious as people would want to let you believe. We were only found guilty and fined because unknown to us and many other shippers, shipment of second-hand electrical goods out of the UK is classed a strict liability.

Being classed as a strict liability offence means that whether or not you intended to commit an offence, just being in close proximity to the place where the offence was committed or connected in any other way no matter how remote, which in my case concerned my position as a director of the company, you are simply guilty anyway. Do not also forget that such other people in the chain would ordinarily include even customs officials so long as they checked, cleared and passed the goods for export/shipping; the owners of the goods who sold and bought and loaded them into a container for shipping; the shipping line whose vessels carry or were to carry the goods, and many other third parties who like me had no beneficial interest in the goods.

You seem to have an unflinching faith in the UK judicial system. As someone aspiring to lead your people to the Promised Land, how would you redefine and redesign the state judicial system to reflect what obtains in the United Kingdom?  

This was quite an interesting eye opener and the outcome gave me the opportunity to see justice in process, progress and action. The timetable was clear, there was no delay or unnecessary unfounded applications aimed at delaying the proceedings. Everyone knew exactly what would happen at every stage and what to do. The case was considered and decided in accordance with set rules not minding the class or status of everyone named in the allegation. Such is the nature of justice in the UK.

What is quite striking is that although the UK considers as waste second-hand electrical goods of the type our customers instructed us to ship for them, European Law which takes precedence over domestic legislation appears to provide differently. Goods of the kind in question are not expressly considered wastes so long as they have second-hand value and can be utilized elsewhere. This gives me joy as I am able to pursue a further appeal against the domestic court's decision and obtain a declaration in accordance with European Law. Although this is a long process, I have every faith in the European justice system and would expect a translation of the directive which exonerates my company to be made once I have fully reconsidered my position. I believe that this is the beauty of justice which gives the common man hope and confidence in justice as the last bastion of the ordinary man and I believe in absolute transparency. 

It does not take much to have a replay of what happened over there in our local setting. What is just required is the will-power on the part of concerned authorities to insist on doing what is right at all times irrespective of who is involved. Our people are law abiding from time past, so what we really need is reorientation of our values which set us out originally as peace-loving and law-abiding people. If the leadership is very well focused on doing the right things, I have no doubt in my mind that the followership will do the right thing as well.

Nota Bene

The EU directive in relation to the matter is set out in the links below for further information:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/165850/ECJCaseLaw20090209.pdf.pdf

[20/06/2013 11:43:06] Lee: Shipment of Waste Directive, where he says 'not me, gov': http://eurlex.

europa.eu/LexUnServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32006R1013:EN:HTML

[20/06/2013 11:45:47] Lee: Simplest definition in the world! See Art (1)(1)(angel): http://eurlcx.

curopa.cu/LcxUriScn/LcxUriSciv.do?uri=OJ:L:2006:114:0009:OOQ9:ENT:PDF

Will Nigeria be reborn?

By Chuks OLUIGBO

“Are you a glass half full or half empty kind of guy?” a female acquaintance asked me the other day on Facebook chat. My answer: “Half full. I stay positive.” That answer stemmed from my firm belief that the last thing a man loses in life is hope. As often said, the day a man loses hope, he begins to die. So, on the basis of hope, I believe that Nigeria will rise again “from the ashes of yesteryears’ cremation”, to quote my friend Okwy Onyia in a poem entitled “Still I rise”.

But beyond the hope factor, I sincerely believe that it’s not over yet for Nigeria. Truth be told, the Nigerian situation – high level insecurity; unemployment; near absence of governance; completely broken down structure; dilapidated (and in many cases non-existent) infrastructure in many parts of the country; housing deficit running in the neighbourhood of 16-17 million; putrefying corruption in every department of the establishment; abject, absolute poverty of the greater majority in the midst of plenty all over the land – is indeed daunting, and it has led many, especially young Nigerians, to give up on their country. In my interaction with colleagues in the office some days back, I discovered that virtually everyone has lost hope on Nigeria. “Why do we need government in this country? Let everybody go back home. If there is an oil well at your backyard, it is automatically yours,” one of my colleagues screamed in anger. Another said he did not believe Nigeria would ever be peaceful until the country is split into as many parts as possible.

Similarly, months back when Anyim Pius Anyim, the secretary to the Federal Government, unveiled plans for Nigeria’s centenary celebration, BusinessDay did an editorial entitled “Nigeria: 100 years of amalgamation” in which it supported the celebration, but pointed out that beyond the euphoria of celebration is the need to engender greater unity among Nigerians. Not unexpectedly, all those who commented on the editorial on BusinessDay website condemned the planned celebration and instead called for immediate dissolution of what they saw as “an unholy wedlock”.

While these opinions may sound too extreme, it is clear that’s how bad it has got. Yet, I say Nigeria must be reborn. In spite of these apparently daunting challenges, I sincerely do not share the “Nigeria-must-break-up” theory. And this is not on the basis of the assumption that we have lived together as one nation (have we, really?) for a century. The truth is that Nigeria has within it both the potential to break up into different nations and to remain as one country. Where we end up depends on which of these potentials we decide to explore and exploit.

Nigeria is not yet a nation, as Wole Soyinka et al have maintained. At best it remains the “mere geographical expression” that the late Obafemi Awolowo called it many years ago. But Nigeria can be built into a nation. Unfortunately, I do not see much of nation-building going on in the country. The elected politicians are still more interested in lining their pockets and returning themselves in the next round of elections, by hook or by crook, their abysmal performance in office notwithstanding. But we can actually come together in a roundtable and begin to decide how to live. The deafening calls for a sovereign national conference have continued to hit brick walls. Nor is anybody paying heed to the suggestion in many quarters that only true fiscal federalism will kill the tension in the country. And these are harsh realities that we must confront if we truly mean well for this country.

Yet, I see hope for Nigeria. I share the optimism of RW Johnson of Good Governance Africa in a 2012 article “Nigeria: Lessons from the America experience” that Nigeria will rise again. Nigeria’s situation, he says, is uncannily similar to that of the USA in the decades after its civil war, the age of the “Robber Barons”, men like Mellon, Carnegie, Pierpont Morgan, and John D. Rockefeller – “a man made so rich by Big Oil that he could openly boast of having bought three-quarters of all the state legislatures”. There were rampant corruption, crooked elections, puppet politicians, political jobbery, and poverty in the South which seemed to breed ignorance, religious extremism, and terrorist movements like the Ku Klux Klan.

But America did get out of that mess – somehow. “In the North and West,” writes Johnson, “a new middle class arose – small-town teachers, lawyers, journalists and other professionals – that resented the dominance of the great plutocrats, hated the corruption of the big city machines, wanted to see fair elections and a re-assertion of America’s founding values, with a general cleaning-up of the system. As this group grew – the Progressives, they were called – politicians began to emerge who answered to this constituency, men like Robert La Follette, who was elected as the Progressive governor of Wisconsin, and Theodore Roosevelt, the Progressive governor of New York. Roosevelt showed his mettle by cleaning up New York and vanquishing the most powerful machine of all, Tammany Hall. Soon he was on the presidential ticket, and in 1901-1908 he set about doing on the national level what he had done in New York. He asserted the power of the presidency and the constitution over all other forces, quickly became the most popular president since Washington, brought the great plutocrats to heel by breaking up their trusts and brought in reforming legislation at every level. His example was followed by both his Republican and Democrat successors, Taft and Wilson. By 1920 America had been transformed. Of course, there were still powerful corporations and corruption never disappeared, but things could never be the same again – and by 1932 Roosevelt’s nephew, Franklin, had been elected president with a promise to continue much of the Progressive impulse.”

But more importantly, Johnson further writes, “We feel tolerably sure that Nigeria will follow America’s path; that, first, there will be progressive governors in a few of Nigeria’s states and that, as they demonstrate what they can do there, we should see a growing possibility that one of them will become Nigeria’s president and will do for Nigeria something of what Theodore Roosevelt did for America.”

Already, this seems to be happening in Nigeria, though in pockets. First, there is a growing new middle class which is beginning to demand cleaner and more accountable governance. The January 2012 “Occupy Nigeria” movement is a standout example. This is accentuated by a new consciousness propelled by the rise of the social media which is making the generality of the people, particularly the mobile youths, ask hitherto-unthought-of questions about how their country is governed. Second, a few state governors have proved themselves worthy of greater assignments – Babatunde Fashola is a shining example.

But the tempo of this emerging development must be sustained if Nigeria is to leapfrog into the next decade.