Nigeria: Our drool of flaws

A fantasy at best

Late last night I posted a cryptic tweet about a perception of the rule of law in Nigeria.

The 'rule of law' fantasy we so espouse in Nigeria is a leap of faith from our flat-earth reality to an undiscovered circumnavigation dread.

— Akin Akíntáyọ̀ (@forakin) January 11, 2016

In the Presidential Media Chat conducted recently, President Muhammad Buhari appeared to express strident and incalcitrant views towards the continued detention of Nnamdi Kanu and Sambo Dasuki against presumed rulings of the courts.

Suddenly, we all became constitutional experts on the matter of the 'rule of law' and implicitly the 'separation of powers'. Follow the links for definitions.

The executive in the person of the president could not be seen to be sacrilegiously disobeying court orders infringing on the rights of citizens and thereby arbitrarily instituting a seemingly extrajudicial process.

The underlying issue

President Buhari having been at the head of the armed forces and of the generation that fought to defend the integrity and entity of Nigeria could not have concealed his anger and the sense of betrayal if as a foot soldier he was sent into battle ill-equipped as the actions of Sambo Dasuki portrayed when he diverted moneys for arms to fight Boko Haram to currying political favours for the ruling party or the sense of duty he had when Nigeria faced secession in the Civil War and we had Nnamdi Kanu soliciting weapons to fight a war for a new Biafra in Nigeria.

Blog - Nigeria: A view on #DasukiGate

As an ex-soldier what Sambo Dasuki did was beyond a civil infraction, it was criminal in the extreme and if he were still in the military, a court martial will have been instigated and guilt will have led to execution.

If at any time Dasuki would have wanted a reckoning of his military service regardless of government dispensation, it goes without saying that the one of his disservice to the military must be addressed with equal vehemence.

A martyr to stupidity

Nnamdi Kanu could well have advocated for a Biafra movement by civil and democratic means, but once he started soliciting for weapons for his cause to buttress his telegraphed incitements by radio, he had crossed the line from having a civil case to threatening the integrity of Nigeria.

His effrontery of leaving his vituperative armchair of comfort in the UK to visit Nigeria for whatever purpose was as much the stupidity of sticking your head in the gaping mouth of a hungry lion. He was not going to sashay around Nigeria with his propaganda given free rein and the means to equip his followers with arms to create a new front beside what we face in the north east with Boko Haram.

If he seeks martyrdom, he will assuredly die for nothing, but having cast himself as a seeming enemy combatant and a possible threat to Nigeria's peaceful existence, he invariably forfeited his rights to roam free. His UK citizenship is by naturalisation, it does not excuse him from sanction if he has violated Nigerian law and he consequently entered Nigerian territory.

If either man is aggrieved by their treatment, they must exhaust the judicial process and I have as yet not seen a Supreme Court ruling that the executive has ignored.

No law on which to rule

On the matter of the fight against corruption, despite having the EFCC and the heft of the state behind it, most of the highest profile indicted have literally run rings round the system.

The EFCC has never been able to land any big whales, only small fry have seen the full force of the law.

Money is so awash in the system and most big fish have been able to buy the justice they want rather than face the justice that is right, just and fair.

They troop an embarrassment of SANs into court and either by intimidation or unbelievable sophistry obtain the most incredibly atrocious rulings that leaves everyone stunned.

Case in point is Peter Odili's perpetual injunction where the defendant had not even conclusively proven his case. John Yakubu Yusuf who stole NGN 32.8 billion from the police pension fund and was handed a two year sentence or the option of a NGN 250,000 fine. James Ibori who resisted arrest with a militia in Nigeria and only came a cropper in Dubai at the behest of the British, it is like we have no law on which to rule that the prospect of a rule of law in Nigeria is a fallacy. We have institutionalised the immunity for impunity, if you have the means to buy it.

Reading - [Circumstances Under Which A Defendant Can Be Granted An Injunction Against The Plaintiff In A Case.]

An egregious judiciary run amok

There is no doubt that our judiciary is in need of radical reform, much as the process of legal redress needs scrutiny, whether by purge or by re-education, the criminal justice system in Nigeria is crippled by procedure and maimed by excess of influence of power and money.

There is a need to win battles within the greater wars and somehow, the Dasuki impasse is yielding interesting dividends, a method to the madness of the tail wagging the dog, because people who took money are fessing up without prompting.

It would appear an extrajudicial process of denying Dasuki bail and freedom is putting the fear of God and a semblance of conscience into the heart of thieves, it is a better result than we have ever been able to get without international assistance or from our courts.

Maybe there is hope

Fix the system and then use and test the system, however, before we get bogged down with a messed up system and a moribund war against corruption towards our aspirations of a Utopian rule of law, the burden of responsibility is on the government to pursue its aims to a satisfactory conclusion.

Those who have sinned, be prepared to far unusual justice and rue the law, those who haven't have nothing to fear, the expectation of the rule of law and they must continue to pursue their Nigerian dreams in hope, in peace and in all the determination they have to hand and heart.

Four years of shock and awe

The Iraqi government marked this inauspicious day with another hanging.

We stop and think about the evil that has been visited upon this country in pursuit of a goal that was built of false pretences (WMD) and the establishment of a dream that barely works in countries of the Coalition (Democracy).

The use of force to impose order and peace where the government is doing nothing to heal and reconcile; offering sacrifices of evil men with callous revenge in the hope that vengeance would assuage the insurgency is unhelpful and the continued occupation that only fuels the determination of those who wreak such horrific tragedies leaves us with a gambling hand and not an assured outcome.

In all, it has been shock and awe since the 20^th of March 2003, the shocking numbers of the dead and the awful ferocity of violence that makes the tyranny of Saddam Hussein's regime look like their world at peace.

The presence or absence of our troops in Iraq is unlikely to result in any triumphant parade of the occupation forces; the shame of misadventure latches itself to the history that would be written of the belligerent leaders whose determination beclouded judgement in the face of stiff opposition and flawed ideologies.

I pray that peace might come upon Iraq, but it would require more than men to see this happen in our lifetime.

Another black day is marked with more Shock and Awe, the rapid dominance of death, carnage, violence, sorrow, despair and despondency in the life an everyday person who just happens to live in Baghdad.

Hello Hamid, it's George - see you in 5 minutes

Welcoming surprises

Easy communications serve a purpose of informing and arranging for visits and events.

Many a time when I was in Nigeria, we had guests arrive out of the blue; we joyously exchanged greetings and feted them with food and drinks as they stayed on for hours on end – that however, is the community spirit of friendship and camaraderie.

As for the more professional Nigerian, arrangements were made a foretime usually through the office communications network because mass telecommunications never thrived until mobile telephony pervaded the market in the last few years.

All different in London

However, moving from Nigeria to the UK, one’s time is pre-occupied with goals, purpose and the arduous rigour of survival, that unplanned and unannounced visits are just not on.

This comes as a surprise to people who have just arrived from Nigeria who retain the convivial and miscellany; but the re-education is brutal and swift – we all learn how to live in the West. What a life!

Hamid, it’s George

Then, just imagine the shock Hamid Karzai had yesterday when a very important guest dropped in on him out of the blue.

At least, we all knew that he told the world that he was off to India and then to Pakistan; I suppose Afghani soothsayers might have prognosticated that Hamid should expect a surprise on the First of March.

Afghanistan is now Bush Democracy – the people voted and elected who the American expected to be elected – as opposed to a real democracy – the Palestinians electing who they want, albeit Hamas who the American considers terrorists.

Afghanis pulled it off

Seeing the elaborate preparations that go into planning state visits, the Afghanis must have had to cobble together a good few of their scarce resources to welcome the liberator.

I could not help but notice the quality of the red carpet that lead up to the news conference lecterns. That might sound frivolous, with all protocol thrown away; low-flying helicopters and security so tight that the visit had to be unannounced – this democracy has a long road to travel.

One can wager that Afghanistan is only second to Iraq in everyday violence and carnage, even though they are both occupied with superpower troops.

Alas! Guns and overwhelming firepower can only do so much. The Nemesis - Osama bin Laden is probably hiding in the West wing, because they cannot seem to find him anywhere else and nobody is looking back home.

Unannounced inspection

I can remember when I was in boarding school; every once in a while there was a surprise inspection which included a complete search of all the premises as we were gathered in some other location answering the roll call.

Fear, terror, anxiety written on our faces as hearts pounded like a new Tora-bora event; just in case the house master discovered something seriously out-of-order or rule-breaking.

Then, I think of the protectors of the President as he arrives secretly in Afghanistan, then the Afghani president is told; multiply that with the embarrassment of having guests arrive in Nigeria when you have completely run out of drinks – I think the Afghanis handled it well.

The one question that remains is when any important political figure would be able to announce well ahead of time that they are visiting Afghanistan of even Iraq; that concern is however, moot; the people who live there suffer a lot more.

Afghanistan is what it has become, but Iraq is what we made it.