Evaluating the new rule of law
From all indications and regimes, for all Nigeria and this generation of Nigerians, that historic moment is now. For one indisputable truth stands out about our chequered history – no government at whatever time, no matter its democratic character or benevolent predilection, has ever made the rule of law its cornerstone. And this is not […]
From all indications and regimes, for all Nigeria and this generation of Nigerians, that historic moment is now. For one indisputable truth stands out about our chequered history – no government at whatever time, no matter its democratic character or benevolent predilection, has ever made the rule of law its cornerstone.
And this is not without reason. Given the overwhelming national tendency for the anarchic, no government, and no Head of State, wishing to enjoy popular support and elongate its tenancy in power has seriously bothered to risk its all by insisting on a due process/rule of law regime. The closest thing to a rule-based Nigeria in our memory was between December 31st, 1983 – August 27th, 1985 when Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s military government introduced the War Against Indiscipline (WAI).
But this, negated, as it were, by the regime’s half-hearted measures and the draconian underpinnings of all military juntas, was met with a national uproar, not excluding his own immediate constituency. And on August 27th, 1985, he lost out in a palace coup that was nurtured by a conspiracy between the business aristocracy and the military.
The import of all this is that a government which insists on such novelties as national discipline, a rule-based culture, the work ethic, proper conduct etc risks alienating itself from the people and losing it all. And former Zambian President, Frederick Chiluba said recently at his trial, the presidency does not come cheap in Africa.
This explains why successive federal governments could launch with all fanfare such national campaigns as Operation Feed the Nation (OFN), Green Revolution (GR), War against Indiscipline (WAI), War against Indiscipline and Corruption (WAI – C) etc, but virtually not an all encompassing and every-sector-reaching revolution as the current globally acclaimed war against the culture of impunity and lawlessness.
Whatever people’s reservations or misgivings about the Yar’adua Presidency, this much can be said about it. Its advent on May 29, 2007 marked the inauguration of a practical, decided and purposeful campaign for a rule-based, law-anchored and due process-driven Nigeria. And the credit for this goes substantially to his able and fearless Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Mr. Michael Kaase Aondoakaa. It is Aondoakaa, a man so largely misunderstood and deliberately so, who rejected the subsisting Nixonian doctrine in Nigeria’s power circles that “If the President does it, that means it is not illegal.”
He insisted that given the overwhelming significance of the leadership factor, both in reality and in symbolism, it was important, perhaps for the first time in our history, for the President and the presidency to be leading, not merely by preachments and sermonizations, but by example and practice.
It is his blessing and luck that his principal, President Umaru Yar’adua, is a man who is not only steeped in the fine points of propriety, but whose public service record is a loud study in the due process regime. So it has been that today, as far as the rule of law regime is concerned, President Yar’adua’s government has no peer in our annals.
Preoccupation with Aondoakaa’s brutal frankness and/or his geographical roots may sometimes blind us to the reverberating highlights of his tenure as the nation’s chief law officer. A few reminders may refresh our memories.
Less than two weeks into office, the Anambra case came up. The apex court had sacked the newly sworn-in Anambra state governor, Dr. Andy Ubah. Under the previous government, a committee would have been set up to study the ruling, especially as Ubah was a darling of the out-gone power base. In fact, it was this closeness to power that inspired his larger than life image in the country, and which reflected disastrously on Anambra state during the Chris Ngige gubernatorial incumbency.
But Aondoakaa, the high priest of the new legal deal, wasted no time in giving his legal advice: the ruling must be obeyed. And so it was, despite the political dilemma of the President. It was, so to say, the first test of Yar’adua’s rule of law proclamations and he passed it.
We may not care to recognize it but it effectively and firmly secured the foundations of our democracy. As it is commonly said, you cannot make a first impression twice, so Aondoakaa’s noble first outing as Justice Minister endeared this government to the hearts of Nigerians in no small way. In no time, President Yar’adua’s popularity soared above that of his party, a party that had been in power for more than eight years, in just a few weeks!
And these admirable first outings paved way for the consolidation of the rule of law process in Ondo and Edo as elsewhere when the courts ruled and the government promptly obeyed. It was with this substructure that when the World Court ruled in favour of Cameroon on the Bakassi issue, it was easy for the government and the people to accept it, seeing, as it were, that the rule of law was becoming a culture. Bakasssi was properly handled, and Nigeria did not provoke a needless war with Cameroon and attract the punitive opprobrium of the international community. So Aondoakaa’s legal role may not be fully appreciated, but in more sober times when reason rules over sentiments, the truth would be told as to who the real patriots were.
Adebowale, a commentator on national issues, wrote in from No.6, Olorun Adaba St, Alimosho, Lagos