Between rule of law and amnesty

The second major issue of the Yar’adua’s initial promise is the rule of law mantra which we have since helped him and the government to corroborate as effective. I recall that in the April – June 2008 edition of the BBC Focus on Africa magazine where I wrote the cover on the one year in […]

The second major issue of the Yar’adua’s initial promise is the rule of law mantra which we have since helped him and the government to corroborate as effective. I recall that in the April – June 2008 edition of the BBC Focus on Africa magazine where I wrote the cover on the one year in office of the Yar’adua government, I did make it very clear that despite the slow start of the government, what Nigerians seemed to have appreciated in the government was the willingness of the president to at all times respect processes and procedures.

The government wasn’t as arbitrary as the one that installed it. There was some caution in the movement of the direction of state machine. Court orders, rulings and judgments were accepted while arbitrary clamping down on enemies of state was reduced drastically. The government didn’t have the infants terrible that were ready to break any barriers of law and reason just to satisfy the selfish aspirations of the president.

To some extent this style continued into the second year until the government began to get more inward and refused to avail the nation of what its thinking on major policy issues were. It also kept very close to its chest the true position of the president’s health, a matter which Nigerians I believe are still aggrieved about.

Governments are not run that way. A successful, domestic administration is not even run that way. We saw how Professor John Attah-Mills celebrated his one hundred days in office. We see how Barack Obama speaks to Americans on a weekly basis on radio, we see how other leaders across the world keep their constituencies and the world at large informed about what they are doing and what their thinking is on certain issues.

Those who call the shots on our behalf would rather keep quiet and allow us into limitless guessing and thus reducing the polity to mere rumor mill. This strategy in our view is against the principle of rule of law and negates the major essence of democracy which is the right of people to know both the thinking of their leaders and what they do.

Again, in its observance of rule of law, the government has missed a fundamental point by thinking that it can reduce the gravity of crime from theft, robbery, insurrection, rebellion and threat to national indepaendence and sovereignty to mere militancy. That is why the government was ill advised into granting amnesty to criminals who have held the rest of the nation to ransom for quite some time.

Does the president or those in government really consult with the varied stakeholders of the nation on some of these critical decisions that it is taking? In any case, we wait for what happens in October when the so-called militants would continue with their nefarious activities and we will see what next the government will do.

The president must at all time exhaust consultations and negotiations with critical stakeholders on any matter of urgent national importance such as the one that threatens the very survival of the nation. I am sure that if such consultations are held as at when due, the mistakes that appear visible would have been averted. The Niger Delta issue in my view is a critical situation that requires very principled stand and decisive action to deal with.

I believe that the government has missed the mark of rule of law by overlooking primary crime which if care is not taken will only mean postponing the dooms day, but certainly it will come if continuously unattended to. There is a wide gap between crime and its characteristics just as there exist no correlation between the amnesty granted by government and the crimes that those who are called militants are committing on a daily basis, but like I did say, let’s wait for October 4th first and see if there will be peace in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria. Rule of law equally means administering commensurate penalty for any infractions just as is the case with application of reward.