A Treacherous, Shenanigan Government – A case study of Nigeria's Presidential Jihad and Emerging Issues in her Polity! -By Oluwatoye Olosunde

There was a Country (2012), a classic written by legendary author, Chinua Achebe, chronicles a first-hand experience of the Nigerian civil war. Birthed by an ‘unnecessary’ coup on the military regime in 1966 and series of reprisal attacks after, a new state of Biafra was on the verge of delivery.

It is approximately 50 years — at the time of writing — since the civil war was ‘successfully’ prosecuted; yet, we are witnessing the beginning of a chain of murder, slaughter and helpless denigration of the judiciary in broad daylight, like a reality TV show. A coup on the judiciary, aimed at one of the nation’s foremost activist and client to a legal luminary par excellence clearly relives the telling story in Achebe’s theme, “Things fall apart, the center cannot hold, mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”.

A step after the other, year on year, justice is fast becoming a fiction — a thing of the past — in the country. Studying law in the country is seemingly a waste of time. Practicing it is a mere joke! The checks and balance they are trained to serve is a scam, only existing in a lifeless stack of papers referred to as constitution. When a presiding judge of a respected court in Nigeria flees her seat at gunpoint, wig falling off and almost tripping over in a Tom-vs-Jerry-esque fashion, it sums up the useless state of the wig and gown profession in the nation.

In Nigeria today, there is only one arm of government in reality — the Executive. All other arms either arrived Dead on Appointment or Docile on Election. In the height of many problems plaguing the nation, the buhadist-controlled DSS now storm a sitting court room — supposed as the seat of justice and recourse for the helpless, and the caliphate of the judiciary — to bundle an unarmed, nonthreatening, freed man after many alleged attempts to assassinate and maim him failed.

Without a doubt, this government is up to something hideous to many Nigerians. With such rascally behaviour of the DSS boys, who are constitutionally disallowed to make arrests but gather Intel for and protect the president, this government is positioning itself to remain in power for another 7 and a half years (if not more). Unchallenged abuse of power, utter disrespect of the law and disabuse of government resources funded by taxpayers has become the decorum under the regime. An unofficial report confirms that this Herodian government has statistically flouted over 40 court rulings since wrestling power from the ‘power to the people’ rascals.

With such vile and ‘jack-bauering’ attitude from the executive, Abacha’s supreme reign may well be a starter and likened to John the Baptist’s heralding and forerunning of a greater Messiah — a name many sycophants accrue to the man in power. Nigeria may well be on it’s way to becoming a nest of lawlessness and disorder. It is more shaming of the executive institution to think its heir to the throne is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and Professor of Law. Let every masses know that this system is a failed one. Their representatives in the legislative chambers are only barking dogs flanked by a toothless jury.

To make a point, it can be argued that Nigeria is not the most suicidal nation to come from, compared with others. But for a country as large as it and holding bragging rights as the giant of Africa, please spare me that debate and say no more. Chukwumerije Dike, in his proverbial hand writing on the wall, titled his 2017 Nigerian Economic Summit poem “The wall and the Bridge”, clearly highlighting the consequences of an epidemic systemic failure. “This is the truth until we accept it. Our nation would stumble on its broken feet. The same things that bind us drives us apart. For the wall and the bridge are both in the heart” he concludes. An old adage says, when a dog refuses to heed the warning whistles of the hunter, the gods are not to blame if it perishes.