Do you watch TV news or read the papers or the many news blogs that populate the Internet? Have you been following the drama going on in Kano, Rivers or even Kogi?
I worry for the Nigerian Judiciary. The rate at which our lordships are allowing Nigerian politicians to push them around and destroy their sacred calling, is frightening. The amount of forum shopping going on is dizzying. Lately, I have read about many court decisions that have neither rhyme nor reason. You cannot but see the judges desperately searching for some technicalities to reach pre-set decisions. They are working from the answers to the questions. Sad… sad…sad.
For those of us unlearned people, looking from the outside, it is beginning to appear like every state governor has his own set of judges that does his bidding and the big people in Abuja have their own sets of judges that do their biddings and a football game of “do me, I do you” is being played. In this game, there is no off-side rule. You can put the ball in the net with your bare hands and your supporters will shout, “Goal!” There is no VAR check of any kind. There are no rules. There are no ethics.
Can anybody see that the game being played can be renamed “Mutual Destruction”?
If you read Saturday Breakfast regularly, you would have noticed that I have repeatedly written that I am a rule of law person. I verily believe that if we are ever going to leave a country worth its name, to our children, our judges must sit up and be courageous. They have to take the lead. But…, how can our judges sit up and be courageous when they have become part of this funny game in which one team has 11 players and the opposing team has 15 and the referee is on the take?
There was a time in Nigeria when you went to a court and you were reasonably assured that the man before whom your case had been brought, though an imperfect being, was going to look at the facts and the law and deliver judgment that makes sense. Is that time gone?
Let me state here that I do not believe that it is every judge that is soiled but are we not fast coming to the point when we completely lose faith even in the good judges and the courts? What then happens? My brother, it is either the courts or the cutlass!
I have written before about Pa Jacob, the lanky willy old man in my village, who once took a look around him, could not comprehend what was going on with the world and in a moment of utter astonishment and disillusionment exploded with the statement, “the world has burst its tube and its tire!”, a statement that has remained famous in my village and places around it till this day.
When Pa Jacob of blessed memory made his profound statement, a sizeable loaf of bread was sold for one shilling, and you could cook a good pot of soup for three shillings. You could travel anywhere in the country by air, by road or by train. It would not cross your mind that anyone would ever dream of kidnapping, abducting or bombing you.
Let me give less than ten thousand hard earned naira to my people at home to make one pot of soup today. The reaction will tell you all you need to know: “Are we sure that this man understands what is going on in the market?!”. What I am sure of is that in most homes, a raging argument is going on daily about rising costs and dwindling incomes. The bread winner in the family is repeatedly being asked to produce more money. I beg you, where does the more money come from? From the stagnant or disappearing income? Please, tell me, how much is our monthly national minimum wage? How many pots of soup can it cook?
If Pa Jacob were alive today, how would the old man have reacted to a bomb exploding on our brand-new Chinese built rail line with innocent travelling Nigerians terrorized, slaughtered or taken away by young crazy boys asking for the kind of money their parents did not make all the days of their lives?
How would Pa Jacob have reacted to our many “Executive” Governors, “Distinguished” Senators, “Honourable” members and the lot who go about showing off like they own the world and would own it forever? Of course, you know the group that demands brand new jets and bullet proof limousines when most of their citizens cannot eke out one decent meal a day?
What would Pa Jacob have said about the once very powerful Yahaya Bello said to be on the run and in hiding from the law? How would Pa Jacob have reacted to what appears to be the very precarious political situation of Nasir El Rufai, the same man who many claim to be the brain trust that coordinated the northern support that made Bola Ahmed Tinubu President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria?
Seriously, what would Pa Jacob have said about our dear Willie Obiano who woke up on March 17 2022 with power and immunity? You will recall that on the afternoon of the same March 17, Obiano handed over to his successor, Chukwuma Soludo. In the twinkle of an eye, the power disappeared and the immunity vanished! How else could any God-fearing man of the Nigerian security services have had the temerity to arrest Willie Obiano at a Nigerian airport that same March 17 and show videos of him in captivity wearing some dreary shorts and tee-shirt and drinking not champagne but water?
One thing I am sure of is that Pa Jacob would have laughed at the vanity of our “Excellencies”, “Executive Governors”, “Distinguished Senators”, “Honourable Members”, “Honourable Ministers and Commissioners”, “Our Lords, Spiritual and Temporal”, etc., who are posing and going about behaving like they own the world and will own it forever and who are presently engaged in Nigeria’s game of mutual destruction.
My brothers, power is transient. Here today, gone tomorrow.
