By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
The best value sincere friends and associates of the Attorney General of
the Federation (AGF), Mr. Abubakar Malami, can inject in his career now
would be to ensure that he schools himself to always speak sparingly and
recognise the need to regularly deploy more time and effort to benefit
from informed legal inputs before responding to very serious issues. The
office he occupies is such an important and strategic one whose
submissions on legal controversies Nigerians can confidently rely upon.
It is always very disheartening whenever his interventions on very
weighty national affairs are easily faulted by Nigerians, including even
street traders and roadside mechanics.
When the 17 Southern governors met in Asaba on May 11, 2021, and
announced a ban on open grazing behind which gun-wielding Fulani
herdsmen had for several years now hidden to commit various atrocities
like brutal rapes of women and daughters, wanton destructions of crops,
maiming or killing of farmers and the invasion and razing of
communities, AGF Malami had rushed out to describe the governors’
resolution as “unconstitutional” and “dangerous.”
On _Channels TV_, Malami pronounced: “It is about constitutionality
within the context of the freedoms expressed in our constitution…For
example, it is as good as saying, perhaps, maybe, the northern governors
coming together to say they prohibit spare parts trading in the
north.”
The magisterial carriage with which this obviously very pedestrian and
preposterous intervention was delivered must have deepened the
astonishment of many Nigerians. How can a “learned gentleman” (least
of all the AGF) compare violent herdsmen who appear to derive hideous
animation from wantonly destroying farmlands and visiting their owners
with diverse destructions and violations to motor spare parts traders
who peacefully hire shops from their owners, pay taxes to government and
undertake their business in ways that do not inflict any harm on anyone?
It was such a horrendous faux pas from which Nigerians of diverse social
and educational rankings quickly formulated a cocktail of jokes and
hashtags to entertain and relieve themselves of the tension and stress
lavishly donated to them by the severe hardship and crippling insecurity
choking the country.
Ondo State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, himself a Senior Advocate of
Nigeria (SAN), could not hide his embarrassment:
“It is most unfortunate that the AGF is unable to distill issues as
expected of a Senior Advocate. Nothing can be more disconcerting. This
outburst should, ordinarily, not elicit response from reasonable people
who know the distinction between a legitimate business that is not in
any way injurious and a certain predilection for anarchy,” Akeredolu
lamented in a statement he personally signed.
If Malami had reaped any useful lessons from Akeredolu’s rebuke, he
has proved quite incapable of ensuring their proper utilisation. His
shoddy handling of the “interception” and “re-arrest” of Mr.
Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) has
further compounded the country’s image crisis and diminishment. At the
press conference he addressed about forty-eight hours after Kanu was
bundled back to the country, the AGF was unable to see the need to
explain to Nigerians the legal and diplomatic processes followed by the
government to bring back the IPOB leader. Nigerians were then left to
feast on the speculations and rumours the pathetic absence of proper
explanation had engendered.
Matters were made worse with the swift denial of the Kenyan Government
of any form of involvement in Kanu’s “re-arrest.”
At a press conference in Abuja, the Kenya High Commissioner to Nigeria,
Dr. Wilfred Machage, fumed: “I want to address this allegation by
denying that Kenya was involved in the alleged arrest in Kenya and
extradition to Nigeria of Mr. Kanu. To us therefore, these allegations
are fictional, imaginary and deliberately concocted to fuel antagonistic
feelings among certain section of the Nigerian people. We are also
disturbed, dismayed and astonished by the unfortunate statement on the
alleged arrest in Kenya which was carried in the dailies. The government
of Kenya is particularly appalled by the spurious, derogatory and
libelous mention of the name of our dear President on this matter.”
Sadly, AGF Malami did not appear to have appreciated the damage
Kenya’s rebuttal had wreaked on the image of his office and that of
Nigeria. Following this was the revelation by Kanu’s lawyer, Ifeanyi
Ejiofor, that Kanu had confirmed to his legal team that he “was
tortured, maltreated and mercilessly beaten” in Kenya.
Ejiofor said on _Arise TV: “_After spending eight days in their
illegal custody,” the Kenyans “now beckoned to the Nigerian
government. Kanu was lifeless and unconscious by the time they were
bringing him to Nigeria.”
Now despite this astounding claim by the Kanu camp and denial of any
involvement by the Kenyan Government, it is demoralising that till now,
only Malami and, perhaps, the few people that collaborated in this
odious and internationally embarrassing enterprise can give a coherent
narration of the exact legal and diplomatic process (if any) followed by
Nigeria to bring Kanu back, since, the AGF has not told us that the IPOB
leader was arrested in Nigeria.
If indeed Kanu was arrested in Kenya and the Kenyan Government is
furiously denying any form of collaboration with Nigeria in the so
called “extradition,” does it mean then that Nigerian security
officials had sneaked into Kenya and collaborated with some criminal
elements in the country to kidnap Kanu and bundle him back to Nigeria?
What exactly happened? Why is it taking the AGF’s office too long to
recognise the importance of being very transparent about this matter?
This would readily remind Nigerians of the case of late Umar Dikko
during the military dictatorship of this same General Muhammadu Buhari
in 1984 who was allegedly kidnapped in the United Kingdom and crated as
a “diplomatic baggage.” The attempt to bring Dikko to Nigeria in a
crate was, however, foiled by the British security agencies. Although
Nigeria and their alleged Israeli collaborators never admitted to any
involvement, the incident badly affected diplomatic relations between
Nigeria and Britain at that time and the people who transported Dikko to
the airport were jailed in the UK.
No doubt, this matter is now beyond Nnamdi Kanu. No matter the nature
of the offense any Nigerian had committed and the need to bring him to
justice, should that justify the deployment of crude, illegal methods
and the breaching of international laws to do that? Such actions can
only further diminish and de-market the country before the civilised
world and attract unsavoury consequences.
Now, is this the kind of accomplishment an attorney-general and Senior
Advocate ought to be seen unabashedly celebrating? By the time Kanu’s
lawyers fulfill their promise to drag Nigeria and Kenya to the
International Criminal Court (ICC) over the matter, what picture will
Nigeria assume before the rest of the world? Already the British press
is feasting on the story and painting very ugly pictures about Nigeria
due to this incident.
So disgusted with the whole process, and in absence of any coherent
explanation by the AGF, a Nigerian serving as the Minister of Justice
and Solicitor-General of Alberta, Canada, Mr. Kelechi Madu, had to
declare that if indeed it was true that Kanu was “abducted in Kenya
with the active collaboration of the Kenyan government led by President
Uhuru Kenyatta,” then “Nigeria and Kenya violated international
law and the rule of law that is supreme in their respective
countries.” He went on to underline his doubts about the qualification
of Malami for the post of AGF.
Responding to Mr. Madu’s assertions, Malami pronounced: “It is
important to educate the likes of Kelechi Madu that both Nigeria (his
country of birth) and Canada (where he claims to be practising law) are
signatories to the Multinational Treaty Agreement where, among others,
fugitive fleeing justice in nations with the similar agreement could be
brought back to face justice.”
Now, I do not wish to bother myself with the insults that crept into the
exchange, but the AGF must be willing to admit that he has not helped
Nigeria’s image by failing to explain a very significant point,
namely, whether the “Multinational Treaty Agreement” he cited
authorises a country to sneak into any other country and abduct an
alleged “fugitive fleeing justice”?
Are there no legal and diplomatic processes that are usually followed
for the extradition of accused people and why should the Nigerian people
not be fully briefed on that? Is Malami not embarrassed that Kenya has
quickly distanced herself from the obvious legal and diplomatic mess she
and Nigeria had, probably, created? Or was Kanu arrested in nameless
country?
One would have expected that before raining abuses on Madu, Malami
should have first clearly explained the processes Nigeria had deployed
to undertake the extradition so that Madu would see how wrong he was in
attacking Malami? How does telling us that Madu is only an
attorney-general of a province in Canada help our quest for correct and
detailed information? And how exactly did the extract exuberantly quoted
by the AGF from the Canadian laws explain this “interception” and
“extradition” mess his office appears to have plunged Nigeria into?
Well, Malami should hasten to benefit himself with the information that
Alberta, a province of about 680,000 square kilometers of land has about
387 billion dollars GDP. Reports say that “Alberta’s per capita of
$78,155 is the highest of any state or province in North America” How
does this make Malami’s debt-ridden country, with per capita of US$2,
083 (for 2020) and choking with excruciating hardship and boundless
insecurity better than the Canadian province he is trying to despise?
Should any person who values his self-respect even be proud to introduce
himself as part of the current regime in Nigeria under which life has
been unspeakably devalued?
_*Ejinkeonye, a Nigerian journalist, is the author of “Nigeria: Why
Looting May Not Stop” (__scruples2006@yahoo.com__) _