Keeping mute as we slide into dictatorship

During the campaigns for the 2015 elections, and following concerns that he was an unrepentant dictator, General Mohammed Buhari was at pains to convince Nigerians and the international community that he was a changed man and that he would now govern strictly according to the rule of law and that there will be no draconian measures or abridgement of the rights of citizens. Nigerians took at his word, but no sooner had he come to power than he began to confirm the statement that ‘a leopard never changes its spot‘. Since his ascension to the presidency, there has been a gradual slide towards impunity, disrespect for the rule of law and dictatorship all in the guise of fighting corruption and insecurity in the country.

It all began with the arrest and detention of the former National Security Adviser – Sambo Dasuki and the self-declared leader of the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu. Despite court rulings granting both of them bails, the president blatantly refused to release them. At a media chat last year, the president rationalised their continued detention even against court judgements. Speaking matter-of-factly, the president said: “If you see the atrocities these people committed against this country, we can’t allow them to jump bail.”

On Tuesday, October 4 2016, the court of the Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS) court declared the arrest and detention of Dasuki unlawful, arbitrary and a violation of local and international rights to liberty. The court also held that both the initial arrest and the further arrest and detention of Mr Dasuki by the government even after he was granted bail by a court of law in Nigeria amounts to a mockery of democracy and the rule of law. It therefore ordered the immediate release of Dasuki and ordered the federal government to pay a sum of N15 million as damages to Mr Dasuki. Notwithstanding, the government has continued to disobey the courts by holding him in detention.

Before then, on December 12, 2015, the military took the law into its hands and massacred over 347 members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) who allegedly blocked the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai. Besides, the killings, the rampaging soldiers went on to destroy the house of the leader of the sect, which serves as the sect’s headquarters, brutalising and arresting the leader, Sheik Ibrahim Yaqoub El-Zakzaky and his wife, Zeenatudeen. There were unconfirmed reports that the Sheik has gone blind as a result of the brutalisation he suffered in the hands of the army. But the rumours could not be confirmed since the government has refused to release him on bail as many courts have ordered and have continued to hold him incommunicado. Interesting, the courts, on December 2, 2016, ordered the immediate and conditional release of the Sheikh and his wife while awarding them N25 million each for their unlawful incarceration. But how does the government care?

In the case of Nnamdi Kanu, after prevaricating, the government eventually released him last month. But it came late. By arresting and detaining him even against several court judgements, the government has unwittingly turned the hitherto unknown quantity into a Biafran hero and the rallying point for those with a Biafran secessionist agenda. Coupled with the president’s freudian slip of receiving only 5% vote support from the region and the obvious marginalisation of the region in federal appointments and projects, it was not surprising that the 50th anniversary of Biafran Hero’s Remembrance Day and the sit at home order by the IPOB leader was such a huge success.

Then, on October 7, 2016, the DSS in an audacious and extra-legal move, raided the homes of some senior judges in Abuja, Port Harcourt, Gombe, Kano, Enugu and Sokoto, in its word, to “gather evidence of corruption” against them. To be sure, the judiciary, as an independent arm of government, has a constitutionally guaranteed and viable instrument for the investigating, reprimanding and disciplining erring judges. But the DSS disregarded those and carried out its raid without warrants. Still the Chief Justice of the federation was compelled to suspend the judges pending when they could clear their names. But only two of the judges involved have been charged to court eight months after. The rest are yet to be charged but remain suspended. Of the two charged, the court, after listening to the prosecution argument against Justice Adeniyi Ademola and his wife, did not even find it necessary to invite the judge to enter his defence as it dismissed for the case as the state could not establish a prima facie case against the defendants and had provided no iota of evidence to prove that the defendants were guilty of the charges levelled against them.

Surprisingly, Nigerians are very relaxed and even approving of the actions of the administration, all in the name of being tough on corruption. That has empowered the government and its agencies to adopt more Gestapo tactics in dealing with critics, opponents or allegedly corrupt persons. Even a critical organisation like the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has remained silent on these abuses and deviations from the law until recently.

Of course, many Nigerians do not see the danger in a democratically elected government gradually becoming a dictatorship. Neither did Germans under the Nazis. But the eternal words of Martin Niemoller rings true even today:

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

CHRISTOPHER AKOR