Act Of Illegality: When Rule Of Law Becomes Triumphant By Abdulrasheed Ibrahim

Some recent incidents have again shown that Rule of Law will always triumph against any act of illegality if appropriate steps are taken in the court of law to checkmate such act exercise by those in authority. I once said it that a court of law is like a wheel chair,if you don’t move it, it will not move itself which is the reason why every motion you see in court always begins with the words “TAKE NOTICE THAT THIS HONOURABLE COURT WILL BE MOVED…”.Any person that decides to sleep on his rights snoring will not be waken up by the court. Professor Dicey who seemed to propound the theory of the Rule of Law had this to say in his “The Law of the Constitution”:

“With us, every official, from the prime minister down to the constable or a collector of taxes, is under the same responsibility for every act done without legal justification as any other citizen. The Reports abound with cases in which officials have been brought before the courts, and made, in their personal capacity liable to punishment, or to the payment of damages for acts done in their official character but in excess of their lawful authority.”

If you have been privileged to the read the book titled: A RIGHT HONOURABLE GENTLEMAN written by Trevor Clark, a white man, which is the most comprehensive and authoritative biography of the one and only Prime Minister of Nigeria, Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa who was assassinated in the 1966 military coup, you will agree with me that a politician in the like of our late Prime Minister still remains very rare till date. Balewa once told Sir Ademola Adetokubo, the first indigenous Chief Justice of Nigeria that: “CJ, if I do anything wrong and I am brought before you, deal with me; and if necessary send me to jail..”. When the Supreme Court presided over by Ademola gave judgment against Balewa’s Government in the case of DOHERTY Vs TAFAWA BALEWA & OTHERS, Balewa told the CJN when they later met that:

“I am glad you have put us in our place; this is what we deserved.If I do anything wrong, do not hesitate to deal with me.”

The late Nigerian literary giant, Professor Chinua Achebe was right when he said: “The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness of its leaders to rise to the challenge of personal example, which is the hallmark of true leadership”. Sir Adetokunbo Ademola in his assessment of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa said:
“To me, he displayed his transparent honesty, understanding and cooperation after the General Election of 1964, and the crisis which followed when he agreed and persuaded his Party to agree, to form a National Government. Again to refer to one of his frequent saying to me… ‘If this people do not want me any more , all they need do is to give me about two hours notice, and this is enough for me to pack my few belongings and leave’,Unfortunately ,he was not given that chance : he meant everything he said.”

Some people may ask: why bringing Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa into this? This has become necessary in order to distinguish between the politicians of the old good days and the contemporary politicians so that those who want to learn from history will learn good lessons and behave very well so that the historians will always put them on the positive side of history. Are contemporary politicians and leaders living by example as did by the likes of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa? Do they have respect for the law and those put in charge of its interpretation?

It was the failure of Governor Yahya Bello of Kogi State to learn from what happened in Kwara State during the reign of Dr. Bukola Saraki as Governor when he illegally removed Hon. Justice Raliat Habeeb Elelu as the Chief Judge of that State, that resulted in the rugg being pulled off his (Yahya Bello) foot by a Kogi State High Court that he has no power to remove the Chief Judge of his State. Governor Yahya Bello is not a good example of the new concept being promoted as “Not too young to run”. He wanted to play Shylock seeking for pound of flesh as in the Williams Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice”. It was reported that Hon. Justice Ajana, the Chief Judge of Kogi State whom Bello wanted to remove in collaboration the House of Assembly had refused to do the bid of the Governor who wanted a bail not to be granted to Senator Dino Melaye.Why must a Governor wants to punish a Chief Judge for not carrying out the Governor’s hidden agenda? Does it make any sense for any Governor to interfere with Judges while performing their judicial duties? The position of the court that Governor Yahyah Bello and his state House of Assembly have no power to remove the Chief Judge or any judge at all without the input of the National Judicial Council (NJC) is a settled law as in the case of Hon. Justice Raliat Habeeb Elelu Vs Kwara State Government.Anytime something like this happens, one continues to wonder whether some Attorneys- General are not doing their jobs, or are their bosses not taking their legal advice?

Like Governor Yahya Bello of Kogi State, Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has equally gotten his own share of court judgment nullifying his attempt to be issuing licenses to preachers in the state. His act has been said to illegal and in breach of fundamental rights as guaranteed by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. While there may be the need to caution clerics or preachers generally irrespective of their religious affiliation on the way they go about propagating their faiths to the people. The clerics must exercise great restraint in the cause of their propagation so as not to infringe on the rights of the other people.The instructions enjoin by various religious scriptures inviting people to come and reason together or preaching to people with wisdom and in beautiful manners must be strictly adhered to by the propagators of their faiths.Dialogue towards understanding one and another is equally important in such propagation. Any attempt by government to regulate this must be done in accordance with the existing law. Any unlawful regulation if challenges in the court of law will be thrown over board and as such the Rule of law becomes triumphant.

This brings us to the recent face-off between the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) and the African Independent Television (AIT) which led to the closure of the television station.Any objective viewer of the AIT will agree that most times the television station over do things which even undermines its claims of being the first Independent television station in Africa.AIT can not be said to be the only television owned by a prominent politician, but when it come to the real business of broadcasting and dissemination of information, a serious Radio or Television should not behave as if it was a media organ of a particular political party by trying to distort history and reality as well as trying to be the arch-enemy of the other political parties . AIT was eventually closed down by the NBC on the ground that the television station had transgressed its limit despite several warnings given it. The court subsequently ordered the immediate re-opening of the station. Many people showed great sympathy and solidarity to the AIT because the NBC had refused to follow the due process of law.It was not enough for NBC to say that it had served many warning letters or invited AIT to meetings and as such went ahead to close down the television station without a valid order of the court. This was nothing but taking law into once hands. Hon. Justice Elias, a late former CJN once warned against this kind of attitudes in the case of Ajao Vs. Ashiru (1973) 8 NSCC 525 when he said :

“…The courts will frown upon any manifestation of arbitrary power assumed by anyone over the life or the property of another even if that other is suspected of having breached some law or regulation. People must never take the law into their own hands by attempting to enforce what they consider to be their right or entitlement…”

Those who deliberately go against the spirit of the Rule of Law will always do that at their own peril except the victims of such illegality refuse to seek redress as prescribed by the law.There is now a very big lesson for people particularly the politicians to learn from what had happened in Rivers State and Zamfara State where the Supreme Court sacked all those elected under the platform of All Progressive Congress (APC) in the just concluded 2019 General Elections for their refusal to follow the due process as laid down by the law.When people think that they are bigger than the law, they will learn to respect the law whenever the law descends heavily on them.That is the essence of the assertion that nobody is above the law. Our contemporary politicians will need to learn from the great Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa who was the first Prime Minister of Nigeria during the first republic.He was a great respecter of law as shown above.

MORSI: ANOTHER MARTYR OF DEMOCRACY IN AFRICA

As if the angel of death was waiting for us in Africa to finish celebrating the June 12 in honour of Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, a great martyr of democracy not only in Nigeria but in Africa, there came on 17th June 2019 the sad news of the death of the first elected President in Egypt, Dr. Mohammed Morsi. Morsi was ousted in a coup by the military junta led by Abdulfattah El-Sisi. Morsi was put in solitary confinement and at the same time facing trial for what they called espionage. El-Sisi later converted himself to the President of that country and was sworn in on 8th June 2014. By the new theory recently propounded by El-Sisi, he is going to remain in power till 2030. By this theory El-Sisi is expected to be in office for 16 years the same period that will be spent by two termers American Presidents. Does this is not justify the question I recently asked on this platform that: What sort of democracy in Africa?

There is no doubt that what has happened in Egypt since El-Sisi assumed power was worse than what he accused Morsi whom he betrayed of. El-Sisi and his gang actually schemed the death of Morsi because if not so why was a duly elected President so treated? Is it the best practice in the civilized world to put such a personality in a cage while standing trial before a serious court of law? Why were his family, lawyers and relatives denied regular access to him? Why must a person that history of failing health be disallowed access to his doctor and medication? Was El-Sisi comfortable seeing his former boss in such terrible conditions before he later fell down while addressing the court and died? These are food for thoughts for El-Sisi and his gang.They need to go back to history to see what eventually happened to those who brutally seized power from their predecessors.If they have conscience, let them reflect on how Samuel Doe of Liberia came to power and how he ended up. Those who refuse to learn from history, will surely become victims of history

There are great lessons for African politicians to learn from what has happened in Egypt if they really want to learn. In African politics, those in opposition hardly accept defeat, rather than allowing the winning party to be in power to exhaust its terms in office while they go back to the drawing board, if they fail in court to set aside the victory ,to map out strategies on how to win the next elections, the opposition will connive with the enemies of the democracy to hatch coup to bring the ruling party down.At the end of the day when the enemies of democracy succeeded in bringing down the ruling government and assumed power,the opposition will eventually be put at the receiving end.What has today become the fate of those oppositions that worked together with the El-Sisi and his gang to bring down the democratically elected government of Mohammed Morsi particularly now that El-Sisi has decided to remain in power till 2030? Is El-Sisi the only best candidate in Egypt to rule the country till 2030? Are other opposition leaders interested in the Presidency of Egypt going on recess or leave till 2030 when the El-Sisi is expected to step down if he has no further hidden agenda as known of many African dictators? Has Egypt not returned to the dictatorship era similar to that of Hosni Mubarak? Those opposition leaders should ask themselves, how many times have the oppositions in the United States of America (USA) or United Kingdom (UK) conspired with the military to hatch coup to bring down the democratically elected government or the ruling party?

Although they have conspired and succeeded in killing President Mohammed Morsi, history will be kind to him and continue to remember him to borrow from the words of a great Nigerian historian and Journalist ,Mr. Dare Babarinsa in this article titled : “For Morsi , a fate worse than death” :

“In more than 3000 years of history ,Morsi was the first person to be freely elected ruler of Egypt…Here was a man betrayed by his closest advisers and military commanders who were not satisfied with just toppling him from power.They were bent on destroying him and his followers…”

Since the conspirators have succeeded in stage-managing the murder of President Muhammed Morsi in the same fashion those in Williams Shakespeare “Julius Ceaser” carried on their own conspiracy against Julius Ceaser in Rome, let the Abdulfattah El-Sisi and his gang remain in power until the world comes to an end if they have the capacity to do that. May Allah bless and accept the soul of President Mohammed Morsi, another martyr of democracy in Africa.

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23rd June 2019