The attention of the
International Law Association (Nigeria) Committee on Justice and Human Rights
(CJHR) has been drawn to a statement credited to Muslims Rights Concern (MURIC) and published on
Premium Times online platform. However well-intentioned the statement might be,
it is in most parts a careless display of very disturbing credentials that
should not escape condemnation by any individual or organisation that means
well for both the Buhari government and the Nigerian People. We are constrained to highlight and respond
to the general preference of MURIC for chaos and executive tyranny to the rule
of law.
Part of their statement reads:
“The
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) frowns at any attempt to make a mockery of the
rule of law. It is a flagrant abuse of the principles of democracy to talk of
human rights in defense of those who diverted huge funds earmarked for the
purchase of arms. It is only in Nigeria that self-confessed criminals are
indulged under the guise of democracy and the rule of law. How can anyone be
talking of the rule of law now when the same rule of law gave those who stole
N33 billion police pension fund a pat in the back and asked them to pay N750,000
only! The rule of law guaranteed the freedom of a dictator’s son who laundered
N446 billion. The rule of law gave everlasting immunity to a former governor of
Rivers State who stole $500 million. The list is endless”.
On a preliminary
note, it is essential to make absolutely clear, that the CJHR has no sympathy
whatsoever for any individual or group of persons, who partook (however remote
in time) in the looting of the commonwealth of the Nigerian people, thereby
condemning a vast majority of the population to perpetual penury and the unborn
generation to international Shylocks, from whom the plunderers borrowed in the
name of the Nigerian people only to convert the loans to their private use. Such individuals or groups should be tried and if convicted,
stripped of every material gain and honours that were incidental to their
privileged societal positions; they should be made to pay for every benefit
they freely received while in office, the consideration for such benefits –
selfless service to the nation – having failed.
It is also our considered view
that the Federal Government of Government should take immediate steps towards
overhauling the entire criminal justice system to make it less amenable to the
subtle invasions and evasions of high profile suspects in the guise of
human rights enforcement. However, we believe that the path of the law must
remain sacrosanct and be carefully followed in strict adherence to the Nigerian
Constitution.
Having made that point, we
consider it very reckless for any individual or organisation that claims to
support the fight against corruption to advocate, with so much fervency, the
overthrow of the rule of law on the basis of some half-truths. The rule of law
is a process and not the result of a process. The thoughts of humans are
fallible and judges are human. There is no legal system where judges do not err
in law and sometimes in integrity. Such errors are not the grounds for
assessing the rule of law, which is better assessed in processes, not in the
substantive decision of any particular judge. Rather than demonstrate the
failure of the rule of law, it was rather the failure to follow the rule of law
that created the examples cited by MURIC. MURIC should ask the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the then Attorney General of the Federation what
stopped them from appealing the so-called “everlasting immunity to a former
governor”. Did the rule of law stop the EFCC from appealing? Did it stop the
trial of “a dictator’s son”? If the Government have realised that the criminal
justice system is no longer fit for purpose, they have the prerogative to intervene
by law, not by subterfuge or intimidation.
The importance of the rule of
law in a democratic setting cannot be overemphasised: it is the rule of law
that made it possible for the sitting President who was defeated in the last
election to hand over to the present government; it is the rule of law that
ensured that a new government is in place by means of a smooth process; it is
the rule of law that makes it possible for those who plundered the public
treasury to be punished; and, importantly, it is the same rule of law that prescribes
the processes and competences for punishing offenders and governing the
Nigerian State. Failure to adhere to the prescribed processes and competences
will only jeopardize the fight against corruption; it will provide excuses for
nations that are hosting looted funds and applying them to their economic
benefits, not to repatriate the funds to, or extradite offenders to Nigeria. If
as MURIC advocates, the executive takes over the competence of the judiciary,
the Nigerian criminal justice system would overtly be portrayed to the whole
world as one in which domestic remedies guaranteeing fair criminals trial are
grossly lacking. Having decided to charge the accused persons to court as
against trial by ordeal, prosecution as against persecution, the government
should be encouraged to follow through with the processes and challenges of
fair trials by affording the courts the benefits of judicial independence.
Interestingly, MURIC
hastily made reference to Guantanamo Bay without appreciating the fact that beyond
detaining accused persons indefinitely and engendering resentment
towards the U.S, the Bay hardly achieved any useful purpose. MURIC failed to
state that the Bay is not located on U.S soil and that the activities that occurred at the Bay could not have been
possible if it was on U.S soil. They failed to point to any law in Nigeria that
empowers the executive to wilfully refuse to release an accused person who has
been properly admitted to bail by a competent court. It should interest MURIC
to know that of the 780 individuals that were detained at the Bay, more than
80% were released without charge at great integrity and financial costs to the US.
Is that the path MURIC wants the Buhari government to tread? We suppose not! Perhaps,
now is the opportune time for MURIC to request the Nigerian government to
acquire Guantanamo Bay from the U.S for the purpose of detaining Nigerians,
since the U.S no longer has much need of it. Today, it is looters; it serves
them right, we may all say. What about tomorrow? Will it not be the perceived
enemies of the government? Give
overzealous government agents an inch of human rights violation, they take a mile.
The rule of law does not
only restrain the wicked, it guides the righteous away from falling into
temptation and thereby stepping into the snare of the wicked. President Buhari
must therefore allow himself to be properly guided by the rule of law, not only
in the fight against corruption, but in every of his conduct as the popularly
elected President of our great nation, the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The fight against
corruption and all forms of criminality is a collective fight to which all
Nigerians should and must be committed, may the anti-rule of law advocates not
divide us.
Dr. Amos Enabulele,
Chair, CJHR
Midrand, South Africa, 16 December 2015 - The Department of Political Affairs of the African Union (AU) in collaboration with the African Court on Human and People’s Right based in Arusha organised a brainstorming meeting on 16-18 December 2015 in Midrand, South Africa, to exchange view on the theme of the upcoming year: “Human Rights in Africa with a particular focus on women” generally refered to as “Project 2016”, the Draft African Union Transitional Justice Policy Framework; and the meeting of the Human Rights and Transitional Justice Cluster of the African Governance Architecture (AGA).