Trial of citizen Sowore
BY Alex Enemanna
It was A.V Dicey who in his 1885 book titled ‘Introduction to the Study of Law of Constitution’ propounded the Rule of Law which has today become the backbone and critical ingredient in the practice of democracy around the globe. To him, it became important to have the various arms of government get their powers expressly and clearly defined to guard against the arbitrary use of state authority solely at the whims and caprices of the Executive. To this end, he foresaw a situation where legal duties and liability punishment of all citizens is determined by the regular law and not by any unguided and illogical official fiat, government decree or wide discretionary-powers.
Sadly, events around our country in the past week has revealed a situation where an arm of government has not only usurped the power and authority of others, but has openly and brazenly gang-raped whatever is left of the sanctity of our democracy and also desecrated the temple of justice with a reckless impunity.
The Gestapo abduction of Omoleye Sowore, the convener #RevolutionNow from the premises of a federal high court Abuja by men of DSS on Thursday following his arraignment over alleged treasonable felony by the federal government marked a new low in our democratic journey since the current administration came on board. A day before this toxic threat was unleashed on our democratic institution, the DSS had reluctantly complied to a court re-order directing it to release Sowore within 24 hours after illegally detaining him for weeks in flagrant disobedience to an earlier order for his release after meeting his bail condition.
To say that the DSS, an agency of the government charged with the responsibility of ensuring the safety and security of all Nigerians and their properties conducted themselves like a misguided group of street urchins and gangsters in the name of re-arresting a man granted bail by a court of competent jurisdiction would be putting it mildly. They exhibited lack of character, respect and honour for the sanctuary of justice from where they struggled hard to snuff life out of citizen Sowore whose only offence is demand for a Nigeria that works.
The DSS by their desperation to hound Sowore behind the bars brought Nigeria a wholesale global ridicule and shame in such a way that our citizens across the world became embarrassed by the colour of their passports. As an establishment of the law, the intoxication of barrel of gun is not enough to drive the agency into the hallucination that it is above the law that established it. Arrogating to itself the power to arrest, prosecute, convict and award punishment is not only a recipe for chaos and anarchy but a monstrous aberration to whatever principles of democracy are.
Admittedly, Sowore’s public utterances that pitched him against the state and its agents, in which he threatened to unleash his anger on the authorities over the dwindling fortunes and maladministration confronting the nation may not have met the best specimen of decency when x-rayed within his constitutional right to speech. However, the same zeal, grit and vicious antagonism with which he is being hounded, coupled with the untamed desperation to have him locked behind bars through the black market has not been deployed in tackling legion of problems that affect millions of Nigerians in their daily lives all over the country.
Ponderously, Sowore represents the voices of millions of Nigerians who on daily basis question the very reason for their Nigerianness. The rapid depletion that has unleashed its venomous fangs in virtually all areas of our national life has become increasingly disturbing. The mind-boggling level of poverty and hunger holding most Nigerian families by the jugular has not attracted the attention of the government enough to deploy the same energy and zeal with which it wants to convict Sowore and his co-defendant, Olawale Bakare.
A 2018 report by the World Poverty Clocks indicated that about 86.9 million Nigerians are living in extreme poverty, after overtaking India to become the home of most extreme poor people in the world. The Buhari-led government’s response to this new indicting record has always been “I will lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years” without any visible roadmap or a reason for any discerning mind to see sense in this fallacious pontification. With high expectation with which this government came to power, it is safe to say it has routinely shown to be an embodiment of disappointment to millions of Nigerians who misplaced their optimism in a government that prided itself of wielding the magic wand that will bring solution to myriads of challenges facing our country.
To an average Nigerian who is hungrier and possibly more depressed than yesterday, there is no visible change that has taken place in the country since past five years when this government has been in power. In infrastructure, a trip across the country through the land will expose the level of comatose staring at our roads, an issue the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has consistently downplayed. President Buhari himself has been the biggest benefactor of overseas medical trip at the expense of our common patrimony as against fixing the country’s healthcare system. At a time when the clamour for the patronage of locally made goods and services has gained more momentum than ever, leading to the closure of our borders with neighbouring countries, the president has not walked his talk by using any of the federal medical centres dotted across the country or even the villa clinic where billions of Naira is annually sunk.
Hardly is there a family in Nigeria that has not been affected by the skyrocketing mother and infant mortality in recent times. It is no more news that millions of our children die annually of acute malnutrition, starvation and killer diseases such as measles, polio and others which “smaller” countries around us have since overcome. No commensurate efforts have been made to put all these on check.
The vociferous attack on our democratic institution through series of contempt for which this government has ingloriously carved a niche for itself is very disturbing. For a president who had consistently anchored his hope on the judiciary aftermath 2003, 2007 and 2011 elections to watch while this vital organ of the government is being ridiculed smacks of subtle presidential endorsement. The continuous detention of the former National Security Adviser (NSA) Sambo Dasuki, the leader of Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) Sheikh Ibrahim Elzakzaky and his wife in a premeditated disobedience of orders of the court for their release must have A.V Dicey rolling in his grave in protest.
Undoubtedly, the president seems to be mired in his 1983-1985 brainchild – Decree 4 under which he clamped down on journalists and other dissenting voices during his iron fist rule as the military head of state. Nduka Irabor, Tunde Thompson and many others are sad memories of the obnoxious Decree. The commandeering and appropriation of powers constitutionally domiciled at the doorstep of judiciary casts huge aspersions on the president’s conversion as a democrat. The invasion of homes of Supreme Court judges in 2016 by DSS and the siege to National Assembly in 2018 by the same agency is a clear pointer that our democracy is in a fierce contestation for survival from those who do not mean well for our country.
Interestingly, the (mal)treatment of Sowore has unabashedly attracted Nigeria a deserving global condemnation as an emerging democracy and a country where issues of human right gain a very minimal prominence. A ranking member of the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Menendez recently frowned at the re-arrest of Sowore 24 hours after his release by the DSS. He was quoted to have said, “While we continue to seek immediate answers about Sowore’s treatment and conditions in jail, I will further be engaging directly with US Ambassador, Mary Beth Leonard in Abuja to raise this case at the highest level of the Nigerian government so that the Buhari administration gets the message that we are committed to defending Sowore’s rights and securing his release”. Talking about unguarded utterances, it is still fresh in the memory of Nigerians whose threats and actions led to the death over 1000 patriots in a post election conflict in 2011.
Paradoxically, at a time when the government should show more commitment to strengthening bilateral relations especially as the fight against terrorism lingers and the need to procure the needed military hardware to pursue the insurgency war, the government’s actions domestically against its citizens have continually jeopardized its relationship with the global community. More importantly, for a government that has fixation for borrowing, it is not an act of wisdom to ruin its relationship with the lender through undemocratic practices.
Lastly, President Buhari must give an ear to the passionate appeal by the distraught madam Esther Kehinde Sowore who has been deeply traumatized by the ordeals of her son and breadwinner since August 3, 2019 and allow the wheel of justice grind to its logical conclusion irrespective of how slow it may seem. To me, resorting to self-help amounts to gross abuse of power as nothing lasts forever, including power and influence. We must all stand before our Creator to give account.
Trial of citizen Sowore
BY Alex Enemanna
It was A.V Dicey who in his 1885 book titled ‘Introduction to the Study of Law of Constitution’ propounded the Rule of Law which has today become the backbone and critical ingredient in the practice of democracy around the globe. To him, it became important to have the various arms of government get their powers expressly and clearly defined to guard against the arbitrary use of state authority solely at the whims and caprices of the Executive. To this end, he foresaw a situation where legal duties and liability punishment of all citizens is determined by the regular law and not by any unguided and illogical official fiat, government decree or wide discretionary-powers.
Sadly, events around our country in the past week has revealed a situation where an arm of government has not only usurped the power and authority of others, but has openly and brazenly gang-raped whatever is left of the sanctity of our democracy and also desecrated the temple of justice with a reckless impunity.
The Gestapo abduction of Omoleye Sowore, the convener #RevolutionNow from the premises of a federal high court Abuja by men of DSS on Thursday following his arraignment over alleged treasonable felony by the federal government marked a new low in our democratic journey since the current administration came on board. A day before this toxic threat was unleashed on our democratic institution, the DSS had reluctantly complied to a court re-order directing it to release Sowore within 24 hours after illegally detaining him for weeks in flagrant disobedience to an earlier order for his release after meeting his bail condition.
To say that the DSS, an agency of the government charged with the responsibility of ensuring the safety and security of all Nigerians and their properties conducted themselves like a misguided group of street urchins and gangsters in the name of re-arresting a man granted bail by a court of competent jurisdiction would be putting it mildly. They exhibited lack of character, respect and honour for the sanctuary of justice from where they struggled hard to snuff life out of citizen Sowore whose only offence is demand for a Nigeria that works.
The DSS by their desperation to hound Sowore behind the bars brought Nigeria a wholesale global ridicule and shame in such a way that our citizens across the world became embarrassed by the colour of their passports. As an establishment of the law, the intoxication of barrel of gun is not enough to drive the agency into the hallucination that it is above the law that established it. Arrogating to itself the power to arrest, prosecute, convict and award punishment is not only a recipe for chaos and anarchy but a monstrous aberration to whatever principles of democracy are.
Admittedly, Sowore’s public utterances that pitched him against the state and its agents, in which he threatened to unleash his anger on the authorities over the dwindling fortunes and maladministration confronting the nation may not have met the best specimen of decency when x-rayed within his constitutional right to speech. However, the same zeal, grit and vicious antagonism with which he is being hounded, coupled with the untamed desperation to have him locked behind bars through the black market has not been deployed in tackling legion of problems that affect millions of Nigerians in their daily lives all over the country.
Ponderously, Sowore represents the voices of millions of Nigerians who on daily basis question the very reason for their Nigerianness. The rapid depletion that has unleashed its venomous fangs in virtually all areas of our national life has become increasingly disturbing. The mind-boggling level of poverty and hunger holding most Nigerian families by the jugular has not attracted the attention of the government enough to deploy the same energy and zeal with which it wants to convict Sowore and his co-defendant, Olawale Bakare.
A 2018 report by the World Poverty Clocks indicated that about 86.9 million Nigerians are living in extreme poverty, after overtaking India to become the home of most extreme poor people in the world. The Buhari-led government’s response to this new indicting record has always been “I will lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years” without any visible roadmap or a reason for any discerning mind to see sense in this fallacious pontification. With high expectation with which this government came to power, it is safe to say it has routinely shown to be an embodiment of disappointment to millions of Nigerians who misplaced their optimism in a government that prided itself of wielding the magic wand that will bring solution to myriads of challenges facing our country.
To an average Nigerian who is hungrier and possibly more depressed than yesterday, there is no visible change that has taken place in the country since past five years when this government has been in power. In infrastructure, a trip across the country through the land will expose the level of comatose staring at our roads, an issue the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has consistently downplayed. President Buhari himself has been the biggest benefactor of overseas medical trip at the expense of our common patrimony as against fixing the country’s healthcare system. At a time when the clamour for the patronage of locally made goods and services has gained more momentum than ever, leading to the closure of our borders with neighbouring countries, the president has not walked his talk by using any of the federal medical centres dotted across the country or even the villa clinic where billions of Naira is annually sunk.
Hardly is there a family in Nigeria that has not been affected by the skyrocketing mother and infant mortality in recent times. It is no more news that millions of our children die annually of acute malnutrition, starvation and killer diseases such as measles, polio and others which “smaller” countries around us have since overcome. No commensurate efforts have been made to put all these on check.
The vociferous attack on our democratic institution through series of contempt for which this government has ingloriously carved a niche for itself is very disturbing. For a president who had consistently anchored his hope on the judiciary aftermath 2003, 2007 and 2011 elections to watch while this vital organ of the government is being ridiculed smacks of subtle presidential endorsement. The continuous detention of the former National Security Adviser (NSA) Sambo Dasuki, the leader of Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) Sheikh Ibrahim Elzakzaky and his wife in a premeditated disobedience of orders of the court for their release must have A.V Dicey rolling in his grave in protest.
Undoubtedly, the president seems to be mired in his 1983-1985 brainchild – Decree 4 under which he clamped down on journalists and other dissenting voices during his iron fist rule as the military head of state. Nduka Irabor, Tunde Thompson and many others are sad memories of the obnoxious Decree. The commandeering and appropriation of powers constitutionally domiciled at the doorstep of judiciary casts huge aspersions on the president’s conversion as a democrat. The invasion of homes of Supreme Court judges in 2016 by DSS and the siege to National Assembly in 2018 by the same agency is a clear pointer that our democracy is in a fierce contestation for survival from those who do not mean well for our country.
Interestingly, the (mal)treatment of Sowore has unabashedly attracted Nigeria a deserving global condemnation as an emerging democracy and a country where issues of human right gain a very minimal prominence. A ranking member of the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Menendez recently frowned at the re-arrest of Sowore 24 hours after his release by the DSS. He was quoted to have said, “While we continue to seek immediate answers about Sowore’s treatment and conditions in jail, I will further be engaging directly with US Ambassador, Mary Beth Leonard in Abuja to raise this case at the highest level of the Nigerian government so that the Buhari administration gets the message that we are committed to defending Sowore’s rights and securing his release”. Talking about unguarded utterances, it is still fresh in the memory of Nigerians whose threats and actions led to the death over 1000 patriots in a post election conflict in 2011.
Paradoxically, at a time when the government should show more commitment to strengthening bilateral relations especially as the fight against terrorism lingers and the need to procure the needed military hardware to pursue the insurgency war, the government’s actions domestically against its citizens have continually jeopardized its relationship with the global community. More importantly, for a government that has fixation for borrowing, it is not an act of wisdom to ruin its relationship with the lender through undemocratic practices.
Lastly, President Buhari must give an ear to the passionate appeal by the distraught madam Esther Kehinde Sowore who has been deeply traumatized by the ordeals of her son and breadwinner since August 3, 2019 and allow the wheel of justice grind to its logical conclusion irrespective of how slow it may seem. To me, resorting to self-help amounts to gross abuse of power as nothing lasts forever, including power and influence. We must all stand before our Creator to give account.
