In his play, “The Tragedy of Hamlet”, William Shakespeare wrote; “God has given you one face, and you make yourself another”
Shakespeare highlights the duplicity of pretenders, as noted in the quote above.1 Similarly, Aristotle, one of history’s greatest thinkers, addressed the nature of pretenders in his ethical writings, stating, “The least deviation from truth will be multiplied later.” He emphasised the importance of authenticity, warning that pretence can lead to significant consequences.2This concept resonates in Nigeria, where the elites appear caught in duplicity. At the same time, ordinary people suffer from poverty, subjugation, and a lack of awareness regarding their rights. Many are unaware of their fundamental rights as citizens, further exacerbating their sufferings.
Nigerians at all levels are very selfish, self-centred people. Shame on our Nigerian Police, DSS, military and other security agencies, and even the lawyers, whether from public or private Bar, for our complicity in the issues of turning a blind eye to the plight of ordinary men in Nigerian society. The current thorny issue concerns the so-called treason charges against minors before the Federal High Court Abuja.
The Judges in the Federal High Court, politicians, lawyers, Police, DSS, Correctional Service Centres, clerics, governors, president and other stakeholders have the eyes and the conscience to detect right from wrong when minors from their respective constituencies were arrested by the police and other security agencies and handed them over to the Police Headquarters in Abuja for whatever reason known to them.
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In the eyes of Nigerian elites, self-preservation comes first, and we are all complicit and not ready to see and act truthfully with courage and fear of God. It is not within the writer’s contemplation that people who commit crimes should not face justice, No! far from that, but there shall be decorum, decency, fairness, and equality between citizens, and no discrimination between white-collar crimes and other crimes in terms of treatment. There should be no disparity or preferential treatment between crimes committed by people in society.
Nigerian government is unable to fight and defeat corruption effectively, banditry in the North-West, Biafra’s Mondays’ Sit-at-home in South Eastern Nigeria, as well as other kidnappings and criminal activities in the South West and the South-South regions of Nigeria. The Buhari Government and now Tinubu government may pretend to be fighting these menaces, yet all the terrorist and criminal acts remained unabated. We dare to arrest, detain and “prosecute” (to only God knows how long) Nigerian protesters, even if they are adults. Still, the Nigerian military cannot defeat ragtag bandits and other criminals in Nigeria. The sooner we realise and accept our collective failures, the better.
We may argue the legality and the rest of the purported charge of treason against these minors and even the adults amongst them. Still, the fact remains that these individuals and the children are sons of nobodies, and that is why the politicians, lawyers, the judiciary, police and correctional services centre officers remained adamant. Just imagine if my son or yours (as elites) is either delinquent or happened to be at the wrong place and at the wrong time, including the son of the police prosecutor(s) who shamelessly addressed the press asserting the fact that he is prosecuting treasonable offences of an attempt to topple a democratically elected government of Nigeria. Would we be arguing how we try to put things into the so-called legal perspective, whether we research or not? One thing is clear; we lack empathy and compassion. These are not just values but the foundation of a just society.
We are slowly drifting into a failed nation, yet, we are still deceiving ourselves with falsity and impudence. It is apparent, as expressed by respected legal luminaries such as Chief J.B Daudu, SAN, who expressed fear as to the possibility that the offences alleged could have only been offences such as breach of public peace, unlawful assembly and common offences of theft under penal codes of the respective states where the offences were alleged to have been committed. However, because of the usual impunity of Nigerian police and other security agencies, the defendants were taken and detained in FCT, under the guise of treasonable offences within the jurisdiction and competence of the Federal High Court.
Also, Mr J.B. Daudu, SAN, submitted that the Attorney General of the Federation has no locus to charge the minors and the defendants for offences committed within their respective states;4this will be an argument for another time. However, the one million dollar question is, “Why were they not charged before Federal High Courts in the respective states where they were alleged to have committed the offences, such as Kaduna and Kano, where there are two (2) and three (3) resident Federal High Court judges, respectively”?
Nigerian institutions, leaders and most clerics always concern themselves with ensuring they do not provoke the anger of the self-aggrandised and serving interest of state governors and the president as against justice, fair play and national interest because these two sets of persons hold people’s resources in their hands. But there will be a time when we will pay dearly for our silence and complicity. But there may still be time for us to change this narrative.
The judges and lawyers ready to do what the state governors and the president wants at all costs must have a rethink for the nation’s future and our peaceful living in Nigeria. Nigeria is a country where courts resolve political cases with all seriousness and speed and decide to ignore the rights of ordinary Nigerians to be tried fairly and with dispatch. A country whose system and the judiciary give preference and attention to political and election-related cases over and above the fundamental human rights of people to be tried fairly, with dignity and all the swiftness required is heading to doom.
Surprisingly, the prosecutor of the purported treason charges against the #Endbadgovernance minors had the audacity on national TV to say that the boys were not minors but adults who did not want democracy to thrive in Nigeria, and wanted to end the democratic government in Nigeria!5 So what? What has democracy done to Nigeria? Apart from squalor, hardship, corruption, and chauvinism etc.? It is a fundamental right to express oneself. I do not like the Nigerian type of Western liberal democracy and I stress and affirm that Western liberal democracy is not and has not yielded any positive result for Nigeria and Nigerians from 1979 – 2024.
But it only serves the interest of the selfish demagogic politicians who add no value to the country but corruptly and unjustly drain its resources; the Western liberal democracy has woefully failed in Africa.6 I challenge anybody to contradict me that the Chinese or Russian type of democracy has not done better for their national development than what liberal democracy does to the national development of almost all African countries, particularly Nigeria.7
We may recall, whether we like it or not, the Borno State’s Boko Haram insurgency and its multiplier effects on the whole Nation for almost 5 years were ignited first by injustice and the taking of the law into the hands of some policemen in Borno State Command when in July 2009, they extra judicially killed Mohammad Yusuf (Ex-leader of Boko Haram terrorists) after the Nigerian military captured and handed him over to the Nigerian police for interrogation and possible prosecution in law court. Up till now, there has been no legal account or repercussion for the failure of the police to follow due process in the execution of the leader of Boko Haram. If care is not taken, this is what will also happen to the arrest, detention and arraignment of these dehumanised and malnourished minors over a phantom charge of treason. I believe what aggravated the ordeal of these minors is that they are of Northern extraction, whose politicians are cowards and cannot speak out for their people against injustice in order not to be accused of opposing the Federal Government or be refused juicy positions in the National Assembly and the Tinubu Government. Alas! Except for Senator Ali Ndume!
It is time for the Nigerian judiciary to be more responsive, rise to its responsibilities, and ensure it curtails the excesses of the Nigerian security agencies and the Nigerian police in particular. The rule of law and equality before the law should be the watchword of the Nigerian judiciary, not just to please governments in power, whether federal or state. I stand to be contradicted; none of the state’s judiciaries have the guts to give judgments against state governors when the state government is seriously interested in a matter. Recently, there have been states where the state governments demolished property worth billions of Naira. Still, the state’s judiciary could not live to its sacred duty and give respite to the victims of unlawful demolitions by at least granting interim restraining orders pending hearing the substantive matter, as many applications had been turned down, not basing reasons for refusal on any sound judicial and equitable basis.
It may interest the reader to note that, in the same related land cases in the state, because of unnecessary apprehension of some of the judges in that particular state, a High Court judge refused to grant an ex parte order to serve the governor of that state with the court processes by substituted means through the office of the State Attorney General, and instead, the court directed that the governor be served personally. How and which governor of a state in Nigeria could be served personally with any court process? However, the same applications exparte made before the Federal High Court in the same state were granted, and even judgements against the state government were given. The state government was ordered to pay billions of naira for the breach of the rights of the Applicants as compensation. Had that state’s judiciary summoned courage with fear of God and treated the state government and the applicants equally before it, the wealth created in the state and the property worth billions of Naira would not have been lost, and the public fund would have been spared from being paid as judgment debts and compensations. 9 Judges should be fearless and free from any consideration other than fear of God and justice upon which they took the oath of office under the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to do and treat every person and authority in Nigeria equally without fear or favour. Are all Nigerian judges fearless and uphold the scale of justice evenly when hearing and determining cases where the State or Federal Government has a serious interest in the matter(s)? I will unequivocally answer with a capital NO! Even where some readers disagree with the submission or opinion expressed by the writer in this write-up, the conscience of any judge complicit would whisper the truth into his mind to prick it.
The judiciary in Nigeria has a responsibility to check and change itself for the betterment of this country by taking bold steps, just the way in July 2024, the Nigerian Supreme Court took giant strides with its decision in the case of AG of Federation V AG Abia State & Ors,10 which forced all the state governors to conduct at least a sham and incredible local government elections at least to access federal allocations of local governments in their respective states. I finally salute those courageous judges, lawyers, and security personnel who uphold equity and justice for all and sundry, regardless of whose case is before their courts.
It is pertinent to also applaud the social media and the pressmen despite their shortcomings and their initial complicit in keeping mum over the issue before the defendants “dramatised” and employed self-help tactics, which drew the attention of the nation. Nevertheless, the journalist must be commended for doing a good job which made shameless politicians, lawyers and other clergymen jump over the issue and suddenly begun to use it as a propaganda or political tool to attack the federal government instead of looking inwards for our nonchalant attitudes to the problems and plights of common men in the country.
These hypocritical pretences led us to where we are now in Nigeria. The origin of the banditry in Nigeria was a result of alleged neglect and injustice meted out to them in connivance between the local police, magistrates, Area/Sharia court judges and local chiefs who usurped and sold grazing lands and colonial cattle routes, making their livelihood and survival impossible. However, Nigerian leaders and government seem not to have learned lessons from history, but time and posterity will judge us as a nation that succeeds or fails!
I will end this write-up by saying that whether we take or dismiss this piece of my write-up earnestly, the truth must be told, and it will surely manifest itself one day!
Prof. Nasiru Adamu Aliyu, SAN, wrote from the Dept. of Public Law, Bayero University, Kano (nasiraliyu@gmail.com)
