Federal lawmakers’ disdain for the judiciary

The Sun published my first commentary on the issue on Friday, July 4, 2014. More articles are expected, as we are poised to fight the battle for the rule of law to its logical conclusion; that is, until victory is achieved.Let me say from the outset that the judiciary enjoys the special privilege of being […]

The Sun published my first commentary on the issue on Friday, July 4, 2014. More articles are expected, as we are poised to fight the battle for the rule of law to its logical conclusion; that is, until victory is achieved.
Let me say from the outset that the judiciary enjoys the special privilege of being the only organ of government that has survived different dispensations and systems of government in Nigeria; be it colonial rule, military dictatorships or our peculiar cast of epileptic civilian administrations. The power of the judiciary derives from its time-tested role as the custodian of the Rule of Law. But it is the civil society groups that have, over the years, taken on the battle for social justice and the deepening of democracy.
Yet, in every land and clime, people recognize the judiciary as the last bastion of hope for the people against tyranny of all shades; be it monarchial, military dictatorship, colonial rule or other forms of repressive governance like fascism, communism and nazism. Deliberate refusal to respect the rule of law and order has always triggered violent change of the political order, all through the dark ages, to the present age. The evolution of modern nation-states is, therefore, predicated on the establishment of systemic jurisprudence upon which civilized, functional and progressive society is based. Every single attempt to circumvent the Rule of Law led to the collapse of our previous three Republics, and the coups that toppled the military dictatorships in-between. Given the predilection of our governing elites to exercise power without recourse to the rule of law, it is clear that they have not learnt the lessons of history.
Unless reason prevails, they are condemned to repeat it, and the tell-tale signs are there already, that the principal players of the 4th Republic are following the doomed road of their predecessors. Top functionaries of the present administration are competing with each other to ridicule judicial decisions and trample on the people’s rights.
It is a well-known fact that Jonathan Administration officials routinely reject invitations to appear before investigative panels of the National Assembly. They sometimes seek injunctive reliefs that are antithetical to democratic ethos and due process, when they are on the wrong side of the law. The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which in December 2012, deregistered 28 political parties based on its invocation of the provisions of the Electoral Act 2010 (As Amended), has ignored a court ruling secured by one of the deregistered parties, our beloved party Fresh Democratic Party, FRESH, which on July 29, 2013, voided the purported deregistration.
Efforts by our party to get INEC to comply included a protest letter written by one of our lawyers, Dr. Fred Agbaje and sent to the Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the National Human Rights Commission, INEC and the media. The only response we got was a terse reply by the Senate President, Hon. David Mark, that our case has been referred to the committee on Constitutional Review. I commend Dr. Mark for his kind reply.
Few days after this response, the Senate passed into law, a bill pending before it, to re-amend the Electoral Law 2010, by giving INEC additional powers to deregister parties that fail to win at least one seat in any of the elective offices. This is in spite of the subsisting court order given by Justice Kolawole, of High court 5, Abuja Division on July 29, 2014 aforesaid. The media, meanwhile, had kicked against this illegal action of the law makers. Just recently, on Sunday, June 22, 2014 to be precise, the SUN did a comprehensive editorial on the Retroactive enactment of the Electoral Law.
According to the paper, “Our view is that political parties should be allowed to exist or fizzle out naturally on their own without anybody deregistering them. Decreeing parties out of existence is delimiting. Moreover, the action infringes on the people’s right to freedom of association, which is enshrined in Section 40 of the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, which clearly states that “Every person shall be entitled to assemble freely and associate with other persons, and in particular he may form or belong to any political party, trade union or any other association for the protection of interests:…
We cannot, by any means allow this illegality to stand. Evil prevails when good men do nothing. Had the world not reacted loudly, the Chibok Girls’ crisis would have been forgotten completely. They may still be languishing in the Sambisa forest in the hands of the wicked Boko Haram insurgents, but at least, their plight is in the focus of the world. “The Bring Back Our Girls” hashtag has kept the Girls in the front burner of public discourse around the world.
People of conscience in this country must not allow the reign of impunity as demonstrated by INEC in this FRESH case, to go on unchallenged because it could set a very dangerous precedent. To say one is highly disappointed with the lawmakers’ connivance or abetting of an act of illegality is to put it mildly.
Rev. Okotie, a presidential aspirant, wrote from Lagos