By Hassan Gimba
Nigeria these days reminds me of the popular children’s novel back in the day, One Week One Trouble, written in 1972 by Anezionwu Nwankwo Okoro, a Nigerian writer and medical practitioner.
The protagonist, Wilson Tagbo, begins secondary school, but his flaws soon put him at odds with the school system, and no week passes without him landing in fresh trouble at the school.
In our country, these days hardly a week passes without the public space being thrown ‘one trouble’ that would have everyone huffing and puffing for a while before another issue comes up to push that one aside. Only in our case, sometimes the trouble does not wait for up to one week.
Before last week, it was the vexatious Supreme Court of Judgement ruling (President Jonathan just spoke the minds of most Nigerians about the capture of that arm of government). Then there was the Natasha bombshell.
Last week, there was the declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State and the role of the National Assembly; then there was the purported Natasha recall. What about the Corper who said ‘terrible’ alongside PBAT’s name, and some hell was let loose?
But you know what? I am not touching on any of them now, as there is the appropriate time for everything. In any case, we are just writing for the records, for posterity to vindicate us. Those we write to draw their attention to where things are going wrong hardly care a hoot.
And so, distinguished Senator Natasha Hadiza Akpoti-Uduaghan reported the Nigerian Senate President (SP) and the Red Chamber to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).
Founded in 1889 by Englishman William Randal Cremer and Frenchman Frédéric Passy when there were no established means for governments or parliaments to work together internationally, it was the first multilateral political organisation in the world.
Senator Natasha’s complaint to the IPU may not see us witnessing her traducer in the dock, sweating and defensively answering questions. However, we may learn one or two things from the IPU’s proceedings and expect repercussions that may not speak well for us.
For starters, Senator Akpoti was suspended despite a valid court order restraining the Senate from sitting over her case. Why do we not respect our courts? Have they been doing things that have eroded the respect they ought to have? Perhaps President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who admonished the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, to obey court orders, may have to tell the Senate leadership the same.
The Ethics Committee that reviewed her case did not hear her side of the story. Compare that with the IPU Speaker, who said they must hear “from the other side”.
Natasha went to the IPU because she felt she was denied a fair hearing, the kind IPU is giving “the other side.” She might also have assumed, rightly or wrongly, that she might not get justice from the nation’s judiciary for probably two reasons. One is how the Senate, not only its Ethics Committee, went ahead to sit and punish her despite a court order. The second may be because of fear being peddled in some quarters that some powerful politicians in the country are hell-bent on “capturing” (that is if they have not already “captured”) some members of the judiciary and manipulating.
But this frustration with the system not giving the weak a level playing ground and the perception that the law courts are no longer the last hope of the common man have conspired to place Nigerians in a situation of despair. And sadness.
We should not forget that a lack of opportunity to be heard, to be offered a level playing field, and to get justice will always make one look for alternatives. Once people believe they are marked, the instinct is to seek understanding and support elsewhere. Many activists found themselves in that situation after the June 12 debacle; they reported Nigeria to the international community, and we all saw how our country became a pariah nation.
The cry of a miscarriage of justice is not limited to the masses as before. Now, even powerful politicians, some governors, can feel it. A whole state can be emasculated to serve the interest of one man and some judges would back him with legal calisthenics! The Constitution is no longer the guiding light. Sadly, those with deep pockets now play the pipe that some judges dance to. That is why they are so confident in telling you: go to court, go to court.
But then, this new reality is pregnant with danger – danger for the country and danger for constitutional democracy.
But as more Nigerians become exasperated by unbridled injustice because of an emasculated justice delivery system, we will witness them seeking justice outside our shores, amounting to reporting the country to the world. An Igbo adage says that when family members fight during a meal, the neighbours will find out what the menu is.
Natasha’s reporting to the IPU should serve as a wake-up call for Nigeria to put its house in order. All institutions and individuals in the justice dispensation system must dispense justice and be seen to do so.
I came across a video clip where the SP was labouring to get the Senate to voice a vote that Natasha must apologise in writing before her suspension is reduced. He had to take the voice vote about thrice and hit the gavel on what he wanted, not what the voice votes indicated.
It was a pathetic show and showed how a just leader should not behave. A just leader gives those beneath him their rights and behaves fairly towards them. Vindictiveness does not have room in his heart, and he can go to the high heavens to pluck his subjects’ rights and bring them back to them on earth. When a “cantankerous” subject’s dues are about to slip away, a just leader pushes them back to that subject. Magnanimity, generosity, forgiveness, justice, and fairness are the hallmarks of great leaders. Do we have a semblance of this among those who call the shots in the three arms of government? Tell yourself the answer.
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To avoid washing our country’s dirty linen before the glare of the international community, save ourselves from global opprobrium, and stop endangering our hard-earned democracy, our leaders must imbibe the characteristics of great leaders.
Failure to do so would only see a growing number of Nigerians going the Natasha route. Our luck is that Donald Trump’s eyes are not on Nigeria. They are on Gaza, Greenland (the world’s largest island), Canada and the Panama Canal, and he wants to annex them. If not, he would have added us among those he wants to annex.
And they closed the schools…
What is it with us northerners that we seem hell-bent on looking for anyone who would deceive us? And it is as if we beg and pray to be deceived and love the feeling. If not, why are we seething and fighting for people who close secondary schools for students to “enjoy fasting”?
The governors who closed schools all fasted as students without being chased home because the governments were sincere and did not shirk the responsibility of feeding the students. No school calendar was changed because of Ramadan. We were fed suhur (dawn) and iftar (fast-breaking) meals. Now, the governors have budgeted billions to “feed” indigents because they know it cannot be traced. They know the amount spent feeding students can be estimated – even traced – because the students are defined and their numbers are known. What do the governors do? They send them home to their struggling parents – an indefinite hoi polloi – who they intend to feed with “billions”. Haba! Why did they not close tertiary institutions? Because it is not the government that feeds them! Please, Dan Arewa, wake up and smell the coffee!
Hassan Gimba, anipr, is the CEO/Publisher of Neptune Prime.
