Since the co-ordinated and forceful encounters between the State Security
\nServices (SSS) and the judiciary on October 9, many have dusted up legal
\ntomes, interpreting the National Security Agencies Act with
\ncharacteristically Nigerian gusto and parsing words from answer to
\nquestion.<\/p>\n
Typically for this season of digital information, there is a great deal of
\ninformation but very little knowledge. Anonymous WhatsApp broadcasts
\nbearing staple concatenations of our fantasy gossip have quickly become
\ncredible sources. What we know is that the SSS operations are
\ncontroversial within and beyond government.<\/p>\n
Around the country, many believe that the judiciary is corrupt and that
\nthe judges, an irresponsible legal elite who are the source of Nigeria\u2019s
\nproblems, are getting their deserved come-uppance. Senior Advocates of
\nNigeria \u2013 no less \u2013 have been reported as asking Nigeria\u2019s president to
\nfurlough the rule of law for some time. This, at last, is the overdue
\nradical surgery that the \u201cfight against corruption\u201d needs.<\/p>\n
It was Groucho Marx who wrote: \u201cHegel remarks somewhere that all great
\nworld-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot
\nto add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.\u201d Law books
\nmay excite the wordsmiths but history crystallises our pathology.<\/p>\n
To be sure, there\u2019s a lot about Nigeria, the judiciary and the legal
\nprofession that requires correcting. The current conversation on what is
\nhappening with the judiciary takes place \u2013 to borrow from Dr. Hakeem
\nBaba-Ahmed \u2013 between \u201ca generation weaned on a solid history of a proud
\nAfrican people and one which has read no history at all.\u201d After nearly
\nthree decades of military rule, Nigeria is mostly a country in hock to mob
\nmartial mentality created by an army that \u201ccaused a war and fought in it,
\nthen claimed credit for keeping the country united\u201d. The army has
\nconditioned the country to ape the worst of their instincts at the price
\nof collective failure in institution building.<\/p>\n
It began in 1966. Politicians were making incredible money in the face of
\nmisrule. Nigerians were genuinely angry and baying for blood. On January
\n15, Kaduna Nzeogwu declared that \u201cour enemies are the political
\nprofiteers, the swindlers, the men in high and low places that seek bribes
\nand demand 10 percent\u201d, accusing them of having \u201ccorrupted our society and
\nput the Nigerian political calendar back by their words and deeds.\u201d 50
\nyears from that memorable declamation, \u201c10 percenters\u201d morphed into \u201c100
\npercenters\u201d. How did that happen?<\/p>\n
Having led the coup, Kaduna Nzeogwu could not take power. General So, in 1970, General Yakubu Gowon, mistaking success in a battle for In 1974, Gowon told an incredulous nation that 1976 was no longer feasible Murtala Mohammed was tragically killed in February 1976, succeeded by In the end of 1983, General Muhammadu Buhari shoved aside Shagari because Meanwhile, 19 months into his regime, Buhari was overthrown by his then General Abacha took over thereafter de facto and, upon procuring his fait This tale could go on but my point should be evident. Without a sense of One final inflection point from history for those interested. In 1984, If 1984 was a tragic first time, 2016 could be the farcical encore. There Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, Interim Chair of the Section on Public Interest & Since the co-ordinated and forceful encounters between the State Security Services (SSS) and the judiciary on October 9, many have dusted up legal tomes, interpreting the National Security Agencies Act…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nAguiyi-Ironsi did. Six months later<\/span><\/span>, in July 1966, it was his blood that
\nwas the burnt offering for yet other soldiers bearing salvation.
\nThereafter, soldiers took the country into a heedless war and, after 30
\nmonths, said they had ended it and kept Nigeria together. With this, they
\nappear to have arrogated to themselves a right \u2013 in or out of uniform \u2013 to
\nrule and a mission to extinguish our collective demons.<\/p>\n
\nconquest in war, released a nine-point programme preceding what he
\nannounced would be his hand-over of power in 1976. Item 3 on that
\nprogramme was \u201ceradication\u201d of corruption.<\/p>\n
\nas handover date. Murtala Mohammed, who succeeded Gowon as Head Boy in
\nBarewa College, overthrew him in July 1975 complaining that Gowon was
\nguilty of inability to \u201cfulfil the legitimate expectations of our people.\u201d
\nThereafter, he went on a spree of purging everywhere including the courts.
\nTaslim Elias, then Chief Justice, was turfed out \u201cwith immediate effect\u201d.
\nIn his place, Murtala appointed Sir Darnley Alexander, a naturalised
\nNigerian, who loved a bit of a beverage and was a happy man. Super
\nPermanent Secretary, Phillip Asiodu was fired \u2013 amongst over 150 senior
\npublic officials relieved of their positions \u2013 because his Grade II
\nteacher wife reportedly had over $10 million in asset. Nigerians were
\necstatic!<\/p>\n
\nGeneral Olusegun Obasanjo. By 1979, when General Obasanjo handed over
\npower to civilians, the view was settled that Murtala\u2019s purge had worsened
\ncorruption, not solved it. So, when Obasanjo handed over in 1979, his
\nsuccessor, Shehu Shagari, felt the need to launch an \u201cEthical Revolution\u201d
\nto attack corruption.<\/p>\n
\n\u2013 you guessed it! \u2013 corruption ostensibly got worse under Shagari.
\nBuhari\u2019s War against Indiscipline (WAI) replaced \u201cEthical Revolution\u201d.
\nSoldiers flogged Nigerians to their hearts\u2019 delight; made us all frog jump
\nand thread mud on our bellies at their whim because we were all supposedly
\ncorrupt and undisciplined. How these indignities were supposed to wean us
\nof corruption wasn\u2019t immediately evident. Tribunals were set up to try the
\ncorrupt. They sentenced many politicians to decades or hundreds of years
\nin prison. Less than five years later<\/span><\/span>, the same politicians were in
\ncontrol of President Babangida\u2019s endless transition programme.<\/p>\n
\nChief of Army Staff, General Babangida (IBB), who accused his erstwhile
\nboss of corrupting and abusing the security agencies, especially the then
\nNigeria Security Organisation (NSO). Babangida initiated a review of
\nsecurity agencies at the end of which, in 1986, he promulgated as a
\nmilitary decree the National Security Agencies Act, creating, among
\nothers, the SSS. We are now fighting over its powers. By the time IBB
\nstepped aside in 1993, Oxford University\u2019s Ike Okonta wrote memorably that
\nhe had \u201ccorrupted democracy and democratised corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n
\naccompli in November 1993, promised swift transition to civil rule but
\nhung on and desired to use corruption to make himself civilian president.
\nBy the time the country returned to democracy in 1999, President Obasanjo
\ntold us it would \u201cnot be business as usual.\u201d But not quite three years
\nlater, he was using the lamentable Justice Egbo-Egbo to sack governors at
\nnight and frustrate procedures by day. Shortly thereafter, Obasanjo was
\nplying the National Assembly with billions in cash to change the
\nconstitution and give him a prohibited life presidency. The rest of the
\nstory is current affairs.<\/p>\n
\nhistory, Nigerians are always desperate to get suckered by the next strong
\nman promising to fight corruption in even more inventive ways. We are
\nnever short of enthusiastic \u201cpatriots\u201d who want to see \u201celites\u201d \u2013 the
\nhated big men and their mistresses \u2013 put down in disgrace. It\u2019s all part
\nof what Lawrence Summers has recently described as the \u201cRenaissance of
\npopulist authoritarianism.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nmost Nigerians believed President Shagari\u2019s Minister of Commerce, Alhaji
\nUmaru Dikko, was virulently corrupt. Dikko was in exile in Britain. The
\ntask of bringing him to justice needed a scalpel, not a hammer. General
\nBuhari, as military Head of State then, decided to have him abducted from
\nexile. This was flagrantly unlawful. It failed. That foreclosed the chance
\nof ever bringing Umaru Dikko to justice.<\/p>\n
\nis never a right way to do a wrong thing but there is sometimes a wrong
\nway to do the right thing. When that happens, the damage can be lasting.<\/p>\n
\nDevelopment Law (SPIDEL), Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), writes in his
\npersonal capacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"