Nigeria; Looking Beyond Animal Farm As A Fable -By Similoluwa Daramola

“The court system cannot be maintained without the willingness of parties to abide by the findings and orders of a competent court, until reversed on appeal. This presupposes that no party and no court of subordinate or even co-ordinate jurisdiction can say: I do not like the order made and I will not obey it…and that posture has to be condemned in the strongest of terms if we are not to say goodbye to the rule of law”

–  Justice Chukwudifu  Oputa, JSC of the blessed memory, in Governor of Lagos State v Ojukwu (1986) 1 NWLR pt. 18 p. 641

With the recent unravelling episodes in the Nigerian political stage, arousing curiosities on the state of mind of George Orwell while writing his book, Animal Farm, will not be far-fetched in relation to the attitude of Nigeria to the tenets of the rule of law. George Orwell, indeed, while engaging his literary mind looked beyond his book as a fable. He was predicting a society after the fall of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic. He was perhaps thinking Nigeria, which is not impossible, since literature is itself life and a prediction of things to come.

A.V. Dicey while propounding the Rule of Law envisaged an ideal society beyond the State of Nature which Thomas Hobbes foresaw in the absence of the machinery of the law. The entirety of the rule of law is to ensure that the law prevails even if the heavens fall.  The Nigerian political journey has been one characterised by struggles and painful phases. It was the phase of colonialism, military coup, political tussles, civil war, military intervention tainted with the institutionalisation of corruption at its peak, despotism, and tyranny. All these phases impeded the growth and stability of Nigeria all along until the birth of democracy. The birth of democracy ushered into the hearts and minds of Nigerians great expectations considering the new millennium. Twenty years down memory lane, Nigeria still has scenes during its pre-democratic period playing again.

The saga which occurred in Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu’s court recently spoke a lot about the state of the rule of law in Nigeria. Because while a court was sitting, the officers of the Department of State Services, re-arrested a fellow a competent jurisdiction had granted bail the previous day. Whether or not they chased the judge deliberately is a reflection of their administrative highhandedness because during my undergraduate days, we were taught to regard the court as a hallowed temple of justice in all aspects.  Hence, conduct capable of defiling the temple should be shunned. It sounded so asinine for an arrest to have been effected in that manner for someone who was on bail. The whole world watched the scene and now synonyms such as arbitrariness, tyranny, despotism, autocracy, and banana republic can be associated with Nigeria. It was a melancholic feeling on December 10, 2019 when the world commemorated the International Human Rights Day because Nigeria has yet to come to terms with the contemporary realities of the rule of law part of which respect for human rights and obedience to court orders are inclusive of.

For a court to flee while sitting is simply an allusion to the character of Mr Jones, a farmer in Animal Farm, who was driven out of the farm by the animals. Following the chase of Mr Jones, a brutish and autocratic reign became the order of the day through Napoleon.

Nigeria has a chequered history of dictatorship under the military, of which the narratives of retrospective laws and brutal arrests, killings, and execution were recorded.  Certain decided court cases such as Lakanmi & Anor v Attorney General Western State (1971) UILR 201, Re: Mohammed Olayori (1969) All NLR 773, and Amakiri v Iwowari (1974) 1 RSLR 5 only ring bells of the sojourn of Nigeria during the military. It is only sad to see such episodes play again. It is an affront on the president, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) whose body language we cannot explain on this issue. Silence cannot be quoted but in law, silence is tantamount to acquiescence.  Buhari has yet to address Nigerians on this matter. It must be reiterated as a matter of expediency that Nigeria is not a banana republic where the whims and caprices of a few persons can be carried out under the auspices of governance. The apology of the DSS is only a reminder of the same apology that was demanded of the police by the court for the wrongful arrest of Dele Giwa in Dele Giwa v Inspector General of Police Unrep. Suit No. M/44/83 of July 30, 1984. The same issues that have been confronting Nigeria for about 50 years still persist and which can be tagged as the major impediment to our national development.

The role of the government in Omoyele Sowore’s case appears to be more political than objective. I am of the opinion that Nigeria has a thousand and more issues to meddle with rather than play a political role. The recent plan to establish a transportation university in Daura, Buhari’s home town, is to me a political game. The education sector under this regime is indeed a misfit because at this point, Nigeria should not be thinking of more tertiary institutions, but expanding and bolstering the already existing ones. In February, when I wrote an article concerning the constitutionality of the removal of the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, I never foresaw the degradation of the rule of law under this regime. It could have got better here but I cannot seem to comprehend what exactly the problem is. Perhaps, was this the next level agenda they promised us? My heartfelt empathy goes to Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, a professor of law, when under his watch, history is writing all the occurrences.

In the Animal Farm, the rule ‘all animals are equal but some are more equal than others’ prevailed but in Nigeria, symbolic of the arable farmland through the national flag, ‘all court orders are of equal importance and none is more superior to another’. No democratic government anywhere in the world has any right to select court decisions. But this is not the case with Nigeria.

At this point, Nigeria should be discussing key constitutional issues and implementation of laws and not prescribing a death penalty for hate speech. Each day, Nigeria comes up with a joke. Any government that fails to obey the tenets of the rule of law is a colossal failure. It is already becoming a recurring decimal for the Buhari regime to flout not just the court’s decisions but to also desecrate the temple of justice. It is painful to see all that we were taught for five years at the undergraduate level become a Mickey Mouse today.

One of the yardsticks for measuring the successes of any government is the ability to bring synergy among the arms of government. The judiciary is just as important as the executive and legislative arms and harmony should exist through respect for whatever happens within the chambers of the three arms for the sake of good governance and accountability. Punch has openly rebuked the impunity occurring under this regime and I am more than convinced at this point that if caution is not thrown to the wind, this Animal Farm may indeed become the biography of Nigeria.

Ms Daramola is a First Class law graduate of Bowen University, Iwo

0810-654-6397