Deji
Adeyanju writes on last night’s assault on the judiciary by the
Muhammadu Buhari government. He insists that the clampdown carried out
by the country’s secret police is in line with the disdain in which the
president holds the legal profession.
In its latest act of dictatorship and disrespect for the rule of law, the Department of State Security Services, DSS, raided the homes of several judges of the Federal High Court and Justices of the Supreme Court in the early hours of Saturday, October 8, 2016.
In one swoop, raided the homes of
Justices Walter Onnoghen and Sylvanus Ngwuta of the Supreme Court as
well as the homes of Justices Adebiyi Ademola, Muazu Pindiga, and Nnamdi
Dimgba of the Federal High Court.
DSS agents spent time breaking down the
gate of Justice Dimgba’s house with a sledgehammer before beating his
brother to pulp when they could not find him. At this time, Justices
Ademola and Pindiga have been arrested and detained.
This is new addition to a long list of
actions that show that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari
has no respect for the rule of law, the principles of separation of
powers, and is only interested in using the apparatus of state to harass
real and perceived enemies.
Many will recall the disdain with which
President Buhari has spoken about the judiciary and the legal profession
in Nigeria. On January 31, 2016 at a meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
he told an astounded audience that the judiciary was his “main headache”
in achieving some of his plans. To buttress his point, he cited how the
judiciary ruled against him in his previous bids to become President.
Many will also recall that prior to that
comment, on August 13, 2015 at the opening ceremony of the 55th General
Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA,
President Buhari had advocated that lawyers should not represent people
accused of corruption. This is in spite of the provisions of the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that guarantees all
accused people the right to be represented by a lawyer of their
choosing.
Many will further recall that on July
18, 2016 the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption (PACAC)
organised a conference where speaker after speaker took turns to take
umbrage against the judiciary. At the end of that event, PACAC (a body
unrecognized by the constitution of this country) gave out sentencing
guidelines it had developed to judges.
These acts of intimidation and
harassment come on the heels of other such actions that started with the
invasion of the Akwa Ibom State Government House in September 2015 by
DSS and have gone on to include:
• the arrest & detention of online journalists and bloggers;
• the mass murder of more than 1000 Shiite Muslims;
• the continuous extra-judicial murder of Nigerian citizens in the South East;
• the continued detention of several people despite Courts ordering their release;
• the violation of the principles of separation of powers as enshrined in our Constitution, and
• the constant refusal to obey orders of Courts.
• the mass murder of more than 1000 Shiite Muslims;
• the continuous extra-judicial murder of Nigerian citizens in the South East;
• the continued detention of several people despite Courts ordering their release;
• the violation of the principles of separation of powers as enshrined in our Constitution, and
• the constant refusal to obey orders of Courts.
It was predicted before the presidential
elections that President Buhari lacked the democratic values to be a
democratically elected President of Nigeria. He has continuously lived
up to his reputation as a despotic, dictatorial leader who views respect
for the rule not as the foundation of the existence of a democratic
society but as a irritation to be dispensed with by whatever means
necessary.
The events of last night mirror the abduction of Justice Benedict Kiwanuka – the then chief justice of Uganda – by the despotic Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada of Uganda.
Members of the bench are not above the
law and must abide by its provisions at all times. However, our
Constitution and other laws provide that erring Judges are to be
disciplined within the framework provided by the National Judicial
Commission not through gestapo style abductions in the middle of the
night.
It is particularly worrisome that these
events are taking place when Yemi Osinbajo, a law professor and Senior
Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), is the vice president of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria.
These actions are reprehensible, and all
well meaning Nigerians – irrespective of tribe, religion or political
leanings – must come together to condemn them in their totality before
they completely erode the very fabric of our democracy.
God bless Nigeria.
Deji Adeyanju is director of Social
Media of the People’s Democratic Party. He is also a former aide at the
Presidency. He tweets from @adeyanjudeji.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
0 comments:
Post a Comment