By: Obong Akpaekong
When I was in secondary school, I read a literature book titled Animal Farm, authored by George Orwell. The 1945 book was a satirical work on the harsh and hypocritical regime of Russia’s Stalin. Orwell’s Animal Farm was inhabited by animals, who enacted seven commandments (laws) to guide their conduct and prevent them from behaving like humans and doing evil things like them.
The laws were: Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. No animal shall wear clothes. No animal shall sleep on a bed. No animal shall drink alcohol. No animal shall kill any other animal. All animals are equal.
The commandments were to safeguard the natural outlook of Animalism. The owner of the farm was a harsh human, which made the animals summarize the commandments into the maxim “Four legs good, two legs bad.” Unfortunately, in the course of time, three of the animals: Napoleon, head of the animals and two pigs by the name of Snowball and Squealer faulted the commandments by behaving like humans – sleeping on the bed; drinking alcohol and killing other animals.
Promptly but secretly, they changed three of the commandments to clear themselves of accusations of law-breaking. These were: No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets. No animal shall drink alcohol to excess. No animal shall kill any other animal without cause. The commandments were replaced by the maxims “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”, and “Four legs good, two legs better” because the three pigs became more human than animals.
The action was an allusion to the Soviet government’s revising of history in order to exercise control of the people’s beliefs about themselves and their society. Orwell demonstrated how simply political dogma can be turned into malleable propaganda. The excesses of the pigs in leadership – Napoleon, Snowball and Squealer – could not be curbed by anyone or anything including the original and revised laws of the farm. Animals that protested the lawlessness of Napoleon and company were taught the difficult lesson that “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.”
Back in our school, I remember that based on our encounter with the characters in Orwell’s book, we (students) adapted a maxim “Napoleon is always right” as an easy way to criticize our senior prefect, teacher, house master and even school principal whenever we thought that any of them did something wrong.
It is the attitude of the Nigerian government that reminded me of the animal fable. The government of the land takes certain actions that simply place it in the eyes of the people, above the laws of the land. A case in point is the October 13 judgement of the Court of Appeal in Umuahia, presided over by Justice Jummai Sankey, which discharged and acquitted Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPoB, of crimes he was accused of and was abducted by Nigerian security forces in Kenya and brought to stand trial in Nigeria.
Except for a few people in the corridors of power, Nigerians and the global community expressed their outrage by the unlawful extradition but to no avail. Those who knew it, had cried out that the action of the security agents violated Kanu’s fundamental rights under Article 12(4), those of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, as well as those of chapter IV of the Nigerian Constitution. The Appeal Court sided with the outraged population when it condemned the manner which Kanu was abducted and discharged him of crimes he was standing trial including treason, tresonable felony and terrorism.
It happened that rather than let Kanu off the hook, the prison authorities continued holding him. Rather than release him from incarceration, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government filed an appeal against his release at the Supreme Court. Going to the Supreme Court was in this case a simple act of disregard and disobedience of the Appeal Court verdict and anointed to doing everything under the sun to ensure that the IPoB leader does not walk the streets of the nation as a free man.
In another development, the Federal High Court in Umuahia, Abia State, on October 26 asked the federal government to award Kanu N500 million damages and also return him to status quo. The judgment was sought by Kanu’s lawyer in March for the violation of his human rights. Only God knows whether the Federal government will acknowledge the judgment, let alone pay him the damages.
In the past, there was judgment on the ill- treatment of the journalist Agba Jalingo, who faced trumped-up charges of treason. He was awarded N30 million as compensation by the ECOWAS Court in Abuja. The judgment was obtained by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP. The group laments that the judgment was not honoured. The same court ordered the Federal government on November 19, 2009 to provide free and quality education to all Nigerian children without any discrimination. That was not done. Instead the government opted to provide free meals to select children in select schools of select states of the country.
Earlier on February 26, 2016, Justice Mohammed Idris ordered the Federal government to publish details of stolen funds recovered by successive governments since the return of democracy in 1999. The order has not been obeyed. On July 5, 2017, Justice Hadiza Rabiu Shagari ordered the Buhari government to tell Nigerians about the loot it allegedly recovered from corrupt Nigerians with details of amounts involved. To date, the federal government has not done that.
On November 26, 2019, Justice Ogunyoyinbo ordered the Federal government to challenge the legality of state’s pensions laws permitting former governors, who are now serving ministers and National Assembly members to collect such pensions, and to recover pensions already collected by them. There has been no response to this four years after.
There was also the 2018 judgment by Justice Mohammed Idris, where the Federal government was ordered to prosecute senior lawmakers suspected of padding and stealing N481 billion from the 2016 budget. The Federal government ignored the order. Many Nigerian contractors have the habit of collecting payment for jobs and abandoning such jobs.
On July 4, 2019 Justice Obiozor ordered the Federal government to publish names of companies and contractors who collected money for electricity projects but failed to execute them. There has been no action. Majority of the cases I have cited above are public oriented and were filed in court and won by SERAP. Notably, the Federal government ignored those judgments and did not even care to appeal any.
There was this case filed by Vigeo Power Limited in Abuja before Justice Emeka Nwite where the court granted orders restraining the defendants in the suit from taking over the management of the company BEDC. The court order also directed the directors appointed by BPE from parading themselves as directors of the company pending the determination of the motion on notice.
According to the Sun newspaper of August 25, the Federal government observed the order in the breach as it deplored force through the Police to takeover the BEDC and eject the board representatives of Vigeo Power Limited, said to hold 60 per cent shares of the company.
The flouting of court judgments is contrary to the provisions of Section 287 of Nigerian Constitution, which has imposed a binding obligation on all, including the nation’s three tiers of government to comply. It does not do the government and people of Nigeria any good. Instead, it weakens the rule of law and makes the nation’s legal system vulnerable, disrespected and disdained.
The three arms of government in any nation are supposed to have equal powers. As it is now, the executive arm in Nigeria is by far more powerful than the other two arms of legislature and judiciary. The case of the judiciary has even been made worse by the fact that its personnel are appointed by the executive.
I suggest that the judges in our courts equally pass through the election process. This way, they will owe their allegiance only to the people. I cannot imagine how I will feel if as a judge in the court of law, I give a judgment and it is not obeyed.
Back to the issue of release of IPoB leader Nnamdi Kalu, my guess is that if the Supreme Court verdict will favour him, the Federal government will rather than release him, seek for a court higher than it to file a fresh appeal. I hope there are legal procedures that will stop it from going to The Hague.
Akpaekong is a veteran journalist, publisher and clergy.
