THE NATION TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2012
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LAW COVER CONT’D INDUCTION OF NEW MEMBERS BY THE CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF ARBITRATORS (UK) NIGERIA BRANCH AT THE CITY HALL, LAGOS
LAW AND PUBLIC POWER
with gabriel AMALU email:gabrielamalu1@yahoo.com
Jonathan in the belly of a fish
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•From left: Akin Momodu,Paulin Thamos and Rilwan Umar
•President, Chartered Institute of Abitrators Chief Funke Adekoya (SAN) in hand shake with Prince Obi Orizu after his induction as a Fellow of the institute
•Chairman NBA Lagos Taiwo Taiwo (left) and former Commissioner, Legal Services, INEC, M. A. Abubakar, at the last NBA NEC meeting in Kaduna
Musdapher’s 100 days •Continued on page 29
But sound arguments are one thing, reality is another. Some of the statements and directives he has issued have no force of law as they are not contained in any statute. “They are merely advisory. It is clear that those advisory opinions of a highly respected Justice such as the CJN are incapable of dealing with the rot in the country and the judiciary. He also has not yet explained satisfactorily,
his role in the Sokoto debacle. “I am of the view that in spite of his efforts, his tenure is unlikely to bring significant changes.” Abayomi Akin Omoyinmi sad the CJN has done fairly well, but that since he did not have sufficient time to play with, he should focus on laying a foundation for the reformation of the judiciary. “I really do feel that Justice Musdapher has done fairly well considering the time he took over. And he has displayed the inten-
tion to do better, but he may not have the time on his side to effectively do a comprehensive reform because the process of reform is gradual and must be precise. “He should focus on encouraging the proposal to jump-start the recommendation that each state should have its own Court of Appeal so that cases will be dispensed with within reasonable time.
HIS column rested for three weeks, to give me an opportunity to rest, after a hectic year. With an increased responsibility as a Rotary Club’s President, and my law practice in tow, I was badly in need of a break if I was not to end up in the hospital. So if you are a regular reader of this column, it is good to be back. While I was away, a lot happened in the whirlpool of the exercise of public power, and I will try to cover some ground. The raison d’etat for my modest effort remains the same. It is as advocated by M. N. Venkatachaliah in his article: Rule of Law: Protecting the Weak against the Strong, wherein he said: “The principal preoccupation of Rule of Law is to discipline public power and set standards for the conduct of public men in their exercise of governmental powers.” At times like we are in, there is the need to go spiritual. No doubt, Nigeria is on the boil, and President Jonathan is at the epicenter of the various eruptions of volcanic proportions. So I recall that in the Bible, when Prophet Jonah attempted to shirk his responsibilities, his ship was ravaged by a mighty tempest. But as the ship was about to capsize, some efforts were made before Jonah was eventually thrown overboard. The New King James version reported the story thus: “The marines were afraid; and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, and laid down, and was fast asleep.” When the tempest persisted, they said: “come, let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us”. When the lot fell on Jonah, and they asked him: “what shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us”. Knowing that his actions were responsible for the lot of the marines and the ship; he replied: “pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.” The story ended happily, because the Lord had prepared a fish to swallow Jonah, and habour him for three days, to force him eventually to obey God’s dictate, to go to Nineveh to warn them to amend their ways or they shall perish. Jonah did and the people of Nineveh hearkened to God’s warning and were spared. I must confess that I am not a Bible scholar, but I can not help but see some similarities between President Jonathan and the biblical Jonah; the Ship and Nigeria; and the Ninevenians and Nigerians. Let’s test some. President Jonathan told Nigerians during his campaign that he had a call to transform Nigeria. Coming from a very humble background, he reminded us that having experienced gross poverty; he was determined to breathe fresh air into our national space. Like Prophet Jonah, while keeping his status as President, he is now afraid to confront the Nigerian monsters, and his reluctance is endangering the nation. So the Nigerian ship is at present accosted by an unprecedented tempest. The buffeting monsters include the Book Haram bombers and other armed insurgency; the unprecedented corruption in the public sector; the edification of corruption, through national awards and recognitions; and the conspiracy by the ruling elite to celebrate their unconscionable hold on power in a grand orchestra on the graves of the poor, the ignorant and the diseased. Like the marines did, the Nigerian Bar Association has consulted and the lot has fallen on Jonathan, and they have asked that he should be impeached. That option can be avoided if President Jonathan confronts the real monsters, instead of the mere escapism of trying to raise more money for sharing, from the poor. Above all, Nigerians like Ninevenians of that era are at a cross road in their lives; again unfortunately similar to the 1966 crisis. We must either change the way we run our country, or it would be destroyed. Like the Biblical Jonah, President Jonathan has limited knowledge about the outcome of avoiding his responsibilities and the predicted destruction. His risky decision to end only one part of the Nigerian rent economy which produced him in the first place, through hike in fuel price, also reminds me of the antics in the television cartoon, Tom and Jerry. Most times Tom would be set a trap to consume Jerry, without knowing that the same trap will eventually take him out. While in an egalitarian economy that we pretentiously profess, the removal of fuel subsidy can be pursued with altruism, when the state can not rein in its corrupting tendencies; to do so in our present socio economic state without first curbing the appetite of the ruling elite to gulp whatever wealth the nation creates is like entrusting a basket to hold some water. I guess that Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, whom I co-celebrated in the book, Service Above Self, do not realise that her best effort, without political responsibility, would only amass more wealth for the ongoing bazaar. In my humble view, the Presidency and the other political fat cats must lead by example in any austerity programme. General Buhari is right on the suggested road map: quickly curb all the avoidable waste in governance, and I add, throw overboard the elite’s glorification of our stolen commonwealth, and immediately bring to book, the bandits that have castrated our dear country. To hope to ride the storm without an elaborate sacrifice on the part of the political elite is a wishful thinking.