Our Compromise Of Yesterday -By Johnson O. Esezoobo

Barrister Johnson O. Esezoobo

I have never believed that in any community of people where there are lawyers and Judges,  things can get so bad as they are now in contemporary Nigeria.

This video clip captures the economic and social maladies of my country, Nigeria, where from my poor background, we might not have food to eat to go to bed, than just corn, but we would sleep so deeply that mama would need extra effort to wake us up to go to farm on Saturday morning.

For those of us who still ask the question, ‘How did we get here’?, reflect on this post. When a wrong thing is allowed at any level of Government or in society generally, it soon multiplies, festers and becomes the norm by which everybody lives. But then, a wrong thing cannot become right merely because everybody is living by it.

Today, everybody is crying President Tinubu over the state insecurity and poverty in the Country because Tinubu is the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, as such the buck ends at his table. That is an error of judgment. We are all culpable, particularly those of us who have been in  government and were in a position to advise against and correct certain irregularities that characterise government in Nigeria and prevent others but failed to do so. 

Among these can be listed quite a good number of lawyers and Judges including Professor Yemi Osinbajo SAN, who later became Vice President of Nigeria and Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN, who later became Governor of Lagos State. 

The list also includes Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN and the Supreme Court of Nigeria, when it compromised the law in the cases of Fawehinmi v IGP [2000] 7 NWLR (Pt. 665) 511,  Fawehinmi v IGP [2002] 7NWLR (Pt.767) 606 and AG, Lagos State v AGF [2004] 18 NWLR (Pt.904) 1. The poor judgments of the apex Court in these cases, as in several others,  compromised the destiny of Nigeria. And with the unfolding events when everyone is tending towards one political direction, it is difficult to state with any certainty the direction the Country is going. Even mechanical objects like the vehicles we drive still require a wheel alignment and wheel balancing for the four to move in the same direction. 

That human beings of different ages and learning, and exposure, can be thinking in the same direction so however that we are afraid of a one -party State insecurity and 21st century Nigeria is an aberration of inexplicable degree. That in a 21st century Nigeria with increased learning in various fields of endeavour, we still cannot trust that with a professor of law, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, as Chairman of INEC there can be a free and fair election, then there is something wrong with us. 

We need to examine ourselves and stop blaming somebody else. For example,  if President Bola Ahmed Tinubu can see through everything he wants amongst all of odd, perhaps as a master strategist, that he is called like Babangida in his time as Maradona, it is not because he is so brilliant as to outwit everybody. Rather, it is because the rest of around him have failed to play our part necessary to safeguard the integrity of law and prevent the irregularities that plague us. In other words, there is a compromise somewhere. 

If, a man of lesser or no learning will  accept an inducement of a bag of rice to vote a particular candidate, corruption, and I as a lawyer or Judge would accept an envelope to perform my own ‘duty’, including perfecting rigging of an election, what is the difference between me and the other who accepted a bag of rice? We are all the same. Indeed, in rating, I am more culpable.

For example, what manner of discipline does President Bola Ahmed Tinubu expect under a system that permits him to appoint Nyesom Wike of PDP a minister in his cabinet in the absence of a coalition between his ruling APC and PDP?

In the days of Shagari, Paul Unongo of NPP was appointed into NPN Government because there was a coalition between the parties. In Obasanjo’s time, Bola Ige SAN of AC or so was appointed into PDP Government because there was a coalition between the parties. Against all these,  it can safely be said that appointing Nyesom Wike to play the role he has been playing unchecked because it suits Mr. President is totally compromise the corporate interest of Nigeria.

Similarly, what manner of discipline does is expected under a system that prohibits corruption and yet will allow ex-governors Yahyah Bello and Okowa to pick tickets for the Senate because forgiving their sins‘ favours the political interest of the President? Does the President have the right or power to waive the investigation and prosecution of an ex-governor for the crime of corruption? Does such an attitude not compromise our state policy under the Constitution? Where are our lawyers and Judges?

Again, what manner of discipline where sitting State Governors take money belonging to their States to sponsor the President’s re-election? Over the years, I have tried to impress that Governors have no right to treat State funds as their personal money. It obviously amounts to stealing for a sitting Governor to take State money not appropriated by the State House of Assembly for any defined purpose. If as I argued earlier, it amounts to NBA receiving stolen property to take N300M from Governor Fubara of Rivers State, what definition do we give to the President accepting N800billion from some State Governors to sponsor his re-election? I leave this question to  my learned friends to ponder over.

During the tenure of Adams Oshiomhole as Governor of Edo State, he reportedly doled out N2 million to a widow he reportedly treated oppressively. I wrote him a letter to refund that money to the State and if he so cared about the welfare of widows, not just one widow, he should get a Bill passed by the House of Assembly into law for widows grants. The law should set out criteria for eligibility for the grant. 

I wrote a similar letter to the House of Assembly to get the Governor to refund the money and do as above proposed to no avail. Similarly,  it amounts to and act of reckless spending of State money for a Governor to appropriate State money for irrelevant and useless things. This was the point pressed in the case of Esezoobo v General Buhari. Here, the President proposed a budget of N400 million for purchase of new vehicles for former Presidents and Vice Presidents. Why give money to or buy vehicles for, wealthy people who don’t need them or can afford them while the poor are there unable to afford health care and school fees for children? So, I went to Court. And as usual, the Attorney General of the Federation was defending before Justice Tsoho as he then was. But suddenly, the file disappeared along the line, implying there must be something ominous.

Thus, if we truly want to answer the question, How did we get here? or still, *Who did us?, we should first look inward.Nobody wants to consider that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not the problem but the compromise that we all for selfish reasons, made yesterday towards putting in place the system by which we have all lived, and which saw Bola Ahmed Tinubu to power. 

The short point is that our compromise of yesterday is our today’s undoing. If we want to come out of it, we must all agree to come back to the drawing board and let everyone live his part.  It is then that God will help us.

Johnson Odion Esezoobo, a lawyer can be reached via +234 803 320 0595