[ad_1]
As the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, dragged Federal Government to the Supreme Court to contest his continued detention at the custody of the Directorate of State Security (DSS) after seventeen months, Legal practitioner and former editor of the Nigerian Tribune, Dapo Ogunwusi, in this interview with IMOLEAYO OYEDEYI, examines the series of disobedience of Court orders by the President Muhammadu Buhari’s government and their implication on the country’s democratic dispensation.
Seventeen months after the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, had languished at the custody of the Directorate of State Security (DSS), the Court of Appeal in Abuja ordered his immediate release and exonerated him of all terrorism charges. But the DSS refused to release him for some days and the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mallam Abubakar Malami, afterwards filed a stay of execution of the judgement, which was subsequently granted. Now, the IPOB leader has dragged the government before the Supreme Court to set aside the ruling of the Appellate court. What do you make of this sir?
Ordinarily I feel that we live in a constructive dictatorship. You see, we have a regime at the apex that is only interested in paying lip service to the idea of law and order and demographic service. Sometimes, you wonder why they even bother to go to court at all, because they have already made up their mind on what they are going to do. They only expect the judges to rubber stamp the bidding. But, it’s not all judges that can be swayed to such frivolous manipulation and I know that Nigeria has a vast hold of credible individuals as judges.
It is not the first time Nigeria judges are standing up to dictatorship and it will not be the last time. Basically, I understand that the government, especially this Buhari’s government, has a clear aversion for what I call territorial agitation. Basically, they have the duty to hold Nigeria together in total disregard of what the law wants and what the law says and in total disregard of equity. If there is a vacancy today, before anybody knows, they would have filled it with people of northern extraction. I mean that much is known to everybody. And they only just throw crumbs once in a while to people down South just to out-sweet their own conscience, that’s if they did have any. And when you have all these matters being tabled on the altar of justice, you expect them to at least obey.
Unlike now, the military government was once taken to court and defeated trenchantly. And it obeyed the court’s ruling. But in the case of Buhari and his men, they don’t really bother what the people do or what the court does, because they believe nobody can stop them as they are in control of agencies. As such, they refuse court judgments that are unfavorable. The Attorney-General should resign for making the kinds of comments he has made so far in the face of a competent decision of the appropriate court in the land. It’s a big shame, but he is emboldened by the government’s capacity to manipulate everything and harass people anyhow into submission.
You will remember there was a time when the homes of judges were invaded and violated in the dead of the night by this same regime; it shows the kind of respect they have for the judiciary. I have no doubt that we live in a constructive dictatorship. We are only on the precipice of what I will call total dictatorship, which is the kind of avenue they put on top of what they have been doing. When there is any issue, they will say, let’s go to court, but they don’t listen to anything the court says as long as it violates their own self chosen red line. I mean, it’s a big shame on the Attorney-General and his office and I think he should resign without further ado. Look at when they appointed the head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the guy was not qualified, but they bent the law and all rules just to ensure that he became the head of EFCC. The rules were there and the laws that guide the EFCC appointment were there as well. They saw the laws, but still, they went to promote him overnight. Is that a democracy?
I think we should stop kidding ourselves but, I must say that this is very serious. It is usually a tendency being displayed by people of military extraction who later became democratic leaders in Nigeria. Obasanjo too has some kind of aversion to court orders and civil norm, although, it was not on the same scale, because he didn’t have the kind of tribal intransigent that this Buhari’s regime has put on itself, but he was also disdainful of some of the restrictions imposed by the rule of law. And, he felt he could do anything he wanted. But Buhari has done far worse than what Obasanjo did. It’s like there is a competition for who can impose the highest volume of wickedness on a heartless nation. It is a real tragedy.
Malami, in one of his past speeches, especially in the case of former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, said that the call for national security should always supersede the rule of law. And in defence of Kanu’s continued detention, he recently said the IPOB leader’s release threatens national security, what do you have to say to this?
He is fond of cracking such jokes and one should not get bothered by such careless comments and I will show you why. Where is Dasuki now? He is a free man and has he threatened national security? The answer is no. So, Malami didn’t know what he was talking about, there is nothing stopping the government from putting up a mechanism that will make it impossible for anybody to agitate around Kanu in a violent way, because Kanu has a right to ask for secession or re-negotiation of the membership of the Nigerian nation by his tribe, especially in the light of the Amalgamation Treaty, which says that this thing should be renegotiated after a hundred years. That hundred year’s mark expired in 2014; so, if people now stand up, because of injustice and ask for a renegotiation of the Nigerian nation, there shouldn’t be any objection to that.
The problem we have is that the government is very jittery; it knows that any recourse to equity will be against it and that is why they are so eager to impose what they call national security clause; it’s their own private coinage and terminology, because peace is not the absence of war, but the presence of justice. I mean, you are talking of national security when people are not free and are being kidnapped left, right and center, when Boko Haram has taken over the North0-East, when bandits have also taken over. Government watches in abandon and then you are now saying somebody who wants a legitimate objection for his people is threatening national security. If there is a violence, yes I agree with you that the government has a duty to prevent that kind of breakdown of law and order; but, what is Kanu being accused of? Leading an agitation for Biafra, that kind of agitation is legitimate, just like you have people also calling for Yoruba nation. It is the people who take up arms that the government should be worried about, not about basic agitation from people who feel concerned. So, it’s just a misdirection of aggression now that Kanu has been in jail. Come to think of it, has his continued detention stopped the aggression in the South-East? That is because they are looking the other way round.
What do you think will be the implication if successive governments in Nigeria continue to flagrantly disobey court orders and publicly try to justify it?
It will bring about total lawlessness and disorder, the kind of civil strife and threat to national security they say they want to prevent. So, they are inviting it themselves when there is no respect for the rule of law; the end products are only the disorder. So you can be sure that they are working from the backdoor towards what they say they are trying to prevent. The possible consequence of dictatorship on the people will be total calamity.
Tribune
[ad_2]
