30TH OF MAY, 2021
BY: CHIEF MIKE OZEKHOME, SAN, OFR, FCIArb, LL.M, Ph. D, LL.D
\INTRODUCTION
President Muhammadu Buhari has obviously been ill-advised on the well
thought out Southern Governors’ stance against open grazing by the
Attorney-General whose views were made known only two days ago.
Buhari, with all humility, is quite wrong to say the Southern Governors’
stance is an act of questionable legality. If the Federal Government feels
strong and sure about its puritanical, but legally flawed stance, I challenge
the Federal Government to challenge the Governors’ resolutions by suing
all the State Governors of Nigeria, through invocation of the original
jurisdiction of the Supreme Court under section 232(1) of the 1999
Constitution. The action will fail miserably.
I am ready, able and willing to defend such states probono. I can state
categorically that neither the president’s views, nor those of the Attorney
General, are anchored on any provisions of the Constitution.
The Constitution is the fons et origo, the grundnorm, the Oba, Eze, Oghie
and Emir of our laws. Other laws must bow to the supremacy of this
National identity card of a country; for such other laws or FG’s resistance
are but mere warrant Chiefs, Daudus, Bales and Ukpi Drummers within the
Constitution ‘s sacred domain.
The Governors have been given powers by the same Constitution in
sections 5(2), 11(2), 14(2)(b), 176(2) and 215(4) of the 1999 Constitution to
act as the Chief Security Officers of their various states to provide their
citizens with welfare and security, which the Constitution says are the
primary purpose of government.
The Houses of Assembly of the states have equally been given powers by
section 4(7) of the same Constitution to make laws for the peace, order and good government in their states. In accordance with hallowed principles
and practice of federalism and democracy, the Southern Governors do not
require any permission from, or approval by, the FG for them to govern
their states and protect their citizens, in the same way a boarding house
pupil must first seek his Headmaster-s permission to visit his parents
outside the school.
Mr. President’s statement, churned out, as usual, by his SSA on Media and
Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu, to the effect that that the Governors were
politicking with serious security issues and attempting a show of power, is
therefore most unfortunate, embarrassing, derisive ethnocentric, insensate
and insensitive to the memory of dead and dying Nigerians.
These are thousands of innocent Nigerians savagely and brutally mauled
down in cold blood, either in their own homes, farms, or on the streets and
alleys, by these rampaging pastoralists.
The President appears undisturbed and unperturbed that Nigerians,
especially in the South, have their wives, mothers and daughters violently
violated and raped by these marauding AK-47 riffles-wielding expansionists
that wear the fake toga of herdsmen. What has the Government done
about it? Nothing.
It usually customarily wrings its hands in pretended helplessness and
washes them off every loss of life like Pontius Pilate in the Bible. This is so
despicable! It is so abhorrent and shameful! Only yesterday, 124 people
were slaughtered in just three states, with 100 of them being children,
women and the elderly in Benue State alone.
Nigerians have become weary of mourning. The Governors are tired of
being Chief mourners, undertakers and elegy poets of their citizens. And
Buhari is saying they must shut up and worship on the blood-sucking alter
of Nigeria’s so called unity, indivisibility and indissolubility? We are living a
lie of a contraption called a country that has since been reduced to a big
scam and a one-chance dilapidated vehicle on a drudgery journey to no
destination. I challenge the Federal Government to go to the Supreme Court and challenge the states. By this, I hereby alter my earlier stance that
the states should sue the Federal Government. No.
It is the complaining and fretting FG that should take that step if
uncomfortable with the Southern Governors’ communiqué. The states
should go ahead and enforce the anti-grazing laws in their respective
domains, using their neighbourhood and vigilante security outfits since (andI can bet on this), the FG will never lend its centrally -commanded PoliceForce to aid the states.
It is so easy to predict this clueless Government from the negative. For
empashis, we are operating a Federal system of government, not a unitary
system. The Federal Government cannot therefore dictate to states like a
slave owner to his purchased slaves.
It is an aberration. Freedom of movement and right of some Nigerians to
associate certainly end where other Nigerians’ rights begin. These freedom
and right do not permit or licence particular business merchants ( that is
what nomadic cow rearers are) to carry deadly AK-47 rifles and maim and
kill other innocent Nigerians in their homes, rape their mothers, wives and
daughters in their houses. Such must be evil freedoms and rights.
Nigerians of a particular ethnic group do not have any right to freely graze
their cattle on other people’s lands and thereby destroy their farm produce.
It is this archaic and odious tribialistic, prebendalistic, sectionalistic and
nepotic mindset that has made Buhari bring Nigeria down to her knees and
to a despicable state of nadir, where she now wobbles, fumbles and
tumbles. Have you ever heard any Southerner complain about all the
currency changers and Bureau de Change (BDCs) operators across every
nook and cranny of Nigeria, even though everyone knows that over 95 % of
the business is controlled by Northerners? No!
NOW THIS
DO YOU KNOW WHY?
Because they are not violent. They ply their trade peacefully, even if
illegally and illegitimately. By the way, have you ever heard any
Government raid or touch any of these special breed of Nigerians? I have
personally never heard. This is because we live in a country that is
governed by two different sets of laws- one for the highly revered
Northerners; the other for the highly despised Southerners. No Nation
grows that way.
The last time I checked, the freedom of movement guaranteed for
Nigerians is not sacrosanct as it can be derogated from by the clear
provisions of section 45, through enactment of a law that is “reasonably
justifiable in a democratic society in the interest of defence, public
safety, public order, public morality or public health”; or for “the
purpose of protecting the rights and freedom of other persons”.
The last time I checked also, section 41 of the same Constitution is meant
for full-blooded human beings; not cows, goats and sheep. That is why
section 41 of the Constitution starts by saying “every citizen of Nigeria is
entitled to move freely throughout Nigeria and to reside in any part
thereof…” ‘Citizen’ is defined as “an inhabitant of a particular town or city”; “a person who is at home in any country”; “one entitled to the rights and
privileges of a freeman”. Other synonyms of citizen are civilian, national,
inhabitant, resident, voter, settler and dweller. I checked very painstakingly
and carefully, using different dictionaries, thesaurus, Black Law’s Dictionary and even Wikipedia, but I couldn’t and didn’t see where cows, goats and sheep were mentioned or regarded as ‘citizens’ of Nigeria or elsewhere.
AND THIS
The Constitution that gives the freedom of movement to “every citizen of
Nigeria” also didn’t provide that such a citizen must be accompanied by
cows, goats and sheep before he can exercise it.
So, where is the Buhari Government getting its vibes from? I do not know.
Or, do you? Fellow Nigerians, the last time I checked also, we have not
been told that Buhari has successfully moved the NASS to amend and alter
our country’s name, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, to FULANI
REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, or NIGERIAN REPUBLIC OF THE FULANIS, or
FULANISED REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, or THE REPUBLIC OF FULANIS,
or FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF THE NORTH, or NORTHERN REPUBLIC , or
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NORTHERN NIGERIA, or REPUBLIC OF
NORTHERN NIGERIA, or NORTHERN NIGERIAN REPUBLIC, or
REPUBLIC OF NORTHERN NIGERIA AND OTHER TERRITORIES, or
ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, or FEDERATION OF ISLAM AND
OTHERS. So, what is going on here? I can no longer understand. Or can
you?
Nigeria, we hail thee.
THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK
“We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage
where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens
may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of
human history, the stage of rule by brute force”. (Ayn Rand).
“The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the
hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible
empire has been set up above the forms of democracy”. (Woodrow
Wilson).
LAST LINE
Fellow Nigerians, synergise with me every week, to put our heads together
on how to retool Nigeria. Right here on “The Nigerian Project”, by Chief
Mike A. A. Ozekhome, SAN, OFR, FCIArb, LL.M, Ph. D, LL.D.
