LEGISLATIVE TERRRORISM

By

Prof. Mike Ikhariale

In the aftermath of the September 11 2001 attacks on certain key symbols of the American society by people allegedly associated with the bearded ‘guest’ of the Taliban almajiris theocratic regime in Afghanistan, Osama bin Ladin, many people have began to have a much clearer perception of terrorism and about those who trade in it. The business of terrorists is only to create panic and pandemonium through unexpected bizarre acts of vandalism, barbarism, anarchy and mayhem. In doing this, no thought is spared for decency, legalism, morality or human dignity. To the practitioners of this evil trade, the more horrible the outcome, the most effective their mission.

This piece is certainly not about the bin Ladens of this world or in the world to come for that matter, but about another set of terrorists that are threatening the stability and future viability of my dear country, Nigeria. After all, no one group or people has the monopoly over terrorism because any one who can deliberately inflict confusion and disaster on the society is, for all intents and purposes, a terrorist just as it is accepted that terrorism itself takes different forms and coloration. And the earlier we know about them and prepare for their misdeeds and perhaps ‘smoke them out of their holes’, the better for the nation. Our terrorists, for the purpose of this discussion, strangely enough, do not sleep in caves nor wear, as a matter of choice, khaki drills or tattered turbans. They do not fight for any noble causes beyond those, which concern their selfish material interests. These danger men that our radar is focused on have camouflaged themselves in expensive agbadas (designer parachutes) and they have devised deceptive aliases and psychologically mesmerizing decoys as "honorable", "distinguished" and similar titles reserved only for demigods. They feed fat and live well on the people’s sweat, not minding if the same masses are starving to death. Anyone who has been around since the inauguration of the new republic should have guessed that I have in mind members of the National Assembly that have in the last two years visited on the Nigerian nation uncountable acts of horror and political rascality, the brand which for lack of better expression we have chosen to describe as "legislative terrorism".

The National Assembly, comprising the Senate and the House of Representatives, has been the most noticeable singular threat to the ‘nascent’ democracy so far. I have in previous essays drew attention to the unfortunate fact that this otherwise most important department in our representative democracy, based on the doctrine of separation powers, has by a curious twist of fate become a den for the most vociferous anti-democratic Abacha faithfuls who would rather have the late General back in power than to give democracy a chance in the country. It is on record that, at least, one of them had actually stormed the hallowed chambers of the Assembly with a loaded gun previously. The point has been proved to be more than correct, over and over again: these men are terrorists of a very sophisticated hue, legislative terrorists at that! It is no secret that if Abacha did not die these men and women would have been his backbone in the nefarious scheme to turn Nigeria into Mobutu’s Congo. It is therefore of little significance to them that, by way of divine intervention, such was not to be as they successfully hijacked the surviving segment of that transmutation process while pretending to be running a democracy. No doubt, there are many truly respectable and patriotic members in there who probably mean well for the nation. The bad ones among them could in fact be in the minority but they are always able to intimidate and cajole the majority to their side making it seems as evil always win in Nigeria. So, we are dealing with a truly basket case, through and through.

Whatever doubt we had in this regard quickly vanished away as these legislators began at the very inception of the new political order to prove the fact that leopards do not shed their skins so easily. First, they mischievously ambushed the transparency and good governance agenda of the Obasanjo presidency by abusing their legislative privileges by fixing economically debilitating salaries and crazy largesse for themselves; they wanted furniture priced in their millions, exotic cars, expensive and totally needless overseas jamborees reminiscent of vandals. These acts of legislative indiscretion, in an economy at its nadir, unwittingly sewed the seeds for the eventual ruination by putting in motion a runaway inflation following devastating demands for upward review of wages across the land which also discouraged productivity at the same time. They pointed the way to the unmitigated corruption under the ignoble ghana-must-go philosophy that subsequently engulfed the land like an epidemic. Needless to say that those initial selfish steps of the lawmakers completely derailed whatever economic policy the Obasanjo regime had articulated and the man lost the momentum thereafter. We are today witnesses to the rot that has become the national economy as a result of those irresponsible acts. The national currency, the hapless Naira, is in direct consequence now lying prostrate, gasping for breath. We now, as a result, contending with unprecedented levels of insecurity, poverty, ethnic and sectarian violence, communal frustration and wholesale panic everywhere. If this is not terrorism, someone should please tell me what it is.

As a strong believer in the philosophy of separation powers for the safeguard of the liberties of the citizens, I was left completely stunned by the way and manner these legislators deployed time-honored constitutional principles for the sole purpose of frustrating the progress of the nation as petty ego-motivated squabbles and needless assault on the other branches of government became the order of the day. I never imagined that a juristic devise that has worked so marvelously all over the world would be so rudely counterfeited in Nigeria after so many years of dictatorial perdition. Nigeria’s federal legislators have violated the fundamental principles upon which our state system is established and as boldly enshrined in the constitution. They have by their warped sense of self importance, for example, degraded the office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria from its constitutional third position within the trinity of separation of powers, well below that of ordinary legislators who do not share in the sovereign powers of the federation as contained in Chapter Two of the 1999 constitution which they falsely swore to uphold! Is Nigeria jinxed, if so, are the legislators the appointed instrumentality for the ultimate apocalyptic outcome?

Those who wrote the constitution were not mad. Even if we now think so, the best thing to do would be to amend the document or in the alternative, write another one. Until that is done, it ought to be clear to all and sundry that the sovereign power of the federation is shared between the legislature (note, NOT legislators!), the Executive and the Judiciary by sections 4, 5 and 6 of the constitution, respectively. The legitimate alter egos of these departments are the President, the Senate president and the Chief Justice of the Federation, in that order. For the avoidance of doubt the Senate and the House of Assembly are just two chambers of the same Legislature under section 5 of the same constitution. But as terrorists, our lawmakers have anarchically stood logic on its head, upside down, and went ahead to mutilate this sacrosanct constitutional order of precedence. I have heard from some idiots, in a land richly populated by great constitutional minds like Rotimi Williams, B. O Nwabueze, Itse Sagay, Gani Fawehimi, M. Yakubu, Olisa Agbakoba, and many others, that they decided to demote the Judicial branch because, in their warped thinking, it is not an elected office! Do we need to tell theses constitutional terrorists that the donee of the Judicial Power, within the context of the constitution, is the People in their sovereign wisdom and capacity, and not the electorate whose mandate needs periodical renewal for validity? The People, the legitimate repository of our national sovereignty, remain superior to the electorate, which is only a segment of the population. Can the part be greater than the whole or an agent more powerful than his principal/master? If this is not terrorism, please let someone tell me what is.

The proverbial last straw that may break the back of our democratic camel is the new Electoral Bill. This would be the legislative equivalence of a terrorist attack. Embedded in that legislative initiative is the very bomb that could terminate the same dispensation eventually. Why individuals who were elected into offices to serve the people would turn around, ultra vires, to impose their evil will on the commonwealth is too deep for any rational being to fathom in a hurry. In one fell swoop; these legislators have thrown the constitution out of the window, as they schemed to deny Nigerians their constitutional rights to participate in the governance of their fatherland. First, they want to legislatively rig out popular politicians by inserting the obnoxious clause that those who have held gubernatorial offices twice, even if such tenures were outside the parameters of the present constitution, cannot run again. Before now, the senate had contrived the satanic idea that the presidential election be held first before the other lesser offices with the veiled hope to reap from the resulting bandwagon effect, and by a fiat, extended the life of the local governments from three to four years by implication supplanting the mandate of the councilors as given by the voters with their own preferences, forgetting that such mentality has always been the bane of our succession politics. Then, they maliciously ignored the fact that citizenship and nationality in Nigeria are based on the legal principle of juis sarguine under which blood relationship, as against the place of birth, juis soli, takes precedence over the location of birth or other criteria in Nigerian citizenship jurisprudence when they sought to edge out Nigerians with multiple citizenship, something which the constitution itself endorses positively.

Unlike the situation in some other jurisdictions, an individual, even if born outside of Nigeria, is constitutionally classified as a citizen of Nigeria by birth if, among other things, either of his parents is a citizen of Nigeria by birth. Accordingly, a child born abroad by Nigerian parents, for example, is by virtue of section 25(1)(c) of the 1999 constitution a Nigeria citizen. In other words, he does not need to perform any immigration rituals to be so recognized as such if and when he sets his foot on Nigerian soil. Giving our culture, sociology and general attitude to life, such a result should be understandable to any true Nigerian. On the vexed question of dual citizenship and the election, no Nigerian who is a citizen by birth can forfeit his citizenship rights even if he holds a thousand other citizenship elsewhere. That much is the law under section 28 (1) of the Constitution. Therefore, if the constitution says that a Nigerian citizen can vote and be voted for, no legislative mago-mago can change or derogate from that entitlement. It should therefore be very simple to understand why we are saying that the steps so far taken by the legislators on the matter remains within the province of terrorism.

I do not hold the citizenship of any other country beyond that of Nigeria and I may never do so. But those who have done so for whatever reason and motive deserve the protection of the law as it is today. That situation might change tomorrow if the constitution is subsequently amended. Our contention is that such is not the case yet. For my daily bread, I have taught constitutional law in Nigeria and elsewhere for several years now. This would be the most outlandish argument I have ever heard on that subject! To deny a Nigerian his constitutional rights to contest election just because he holds the citizenship of another country is a proposition fit only for the marines! Pointedly, this is denying Nigerians their rights of citizenship, the highest punishment known to law. Even in the extreme case when the state executes adjudicated criminals by way of capital punishment, they cannot be striped of their citizenship. They take their citizenship to their graves. If that is true of duly convicted and condemned criminals why would law-abiding citizens suffer more? I hope those concerned will take up the challenge of fighting this unconventional assault on their rights as seriously as this matter deserves. It is like a blood parent purportedly denouncing or denying the offspring. Even before the DNA technology, it was always acknowledged as a biological impossibility to do so and the law merely followed suit. The only reason the legislators could be fashioning all these shenanigans, we all know, is just to ensure that no quality opposition comes their ways in the next election as many of them are aware that they do not deserve to be there in a true democracy. Their objectives are therefore obvious but the constitution stipulates otherwise. In the civic obligation to participate in the governance of Nigeria, all hands should be on deck. As they say, let the eagle fly and let the egret fly too: if one says no to the other, let his wings break! Why on earth some people would be raking up troubles where there should be none continues to baffle me. Is this not deliberately asking for confusion and commotion in the fashion of terrorists? If this is not a case of legislative terrorism, then nothing else will be.

Our lawmakers must be reminded that legislative power under our constitution is not sovereign. Neither do they enjoy such anarchic immunities. They do not have the power to make the sort of law that would ‘turn a man into a woman’. What we have chosen for ourselves in Nigeria is a constitutional democracy and certainly not a legislative tyranny. Any one coming into the nation’s political arena must be prepared to play by the rules under which the constitution, rather than individuals and institutions, is supreme. Our constitution created a limited government and the legislature is only a part of that limited system. The logic is that if the government is limited, any branch of it would only be left with a much smaller power. Neither was it the anticipation of the constitution that lawmakers should make any law that only suits their fancy. Accordingly, there are substantive and procedural as well as conceptual limitations, on the powers of the National Assembly to make laws for the country. They cannot do what the constitution forbids or indeed do what the constitution permits outside of the procedures set out by the same covenant for doing so. Neither can they enact laws that would by their effects be found to be repugnant to our republican ideology. To do otherwise is to embark on the same path with those who we have chosen to call terrorists, anarchists and lawless people.

It is our submission, therefore, that these legislative acts of mindless terrorism being inflicted on the nation cannot stand. Something must give way. The choice before us is obvious: cave in now or the nation is doomed later. Whatever may be President Obasanjo’s constraints, political preferences and interests, he must come clean on these issues and let the whole world know exactly those that are threatening our young and fledging democracy. This is the time for all those who truly love Nigeria to rise up and speak out against this looming danger. And for this purpose, Nigerians must rise up and stand shoulder to shoulder with president, if he accepts his high obligations to defend the constitution in accordance with his oath of office, especially with regard to the ominous Electoral Bill. The interest of the nation must prevail over the limited selfish schemes of a few irresponsible individuals. This is a task that must be done if the nation is to be saved from the danger currently being actively contrived by our ‘honorables’. President Olusegun Obasanjo must refuse his accent to those obnoxious laws and proceed to actively ally himself with patriotic Nigerians in the noble battle against those pushing for those obnoxious legislations, and in that way, he may successfully expose and nullify the hidden plot to make him Nigeria’s Gorbachev and, perhaps, etch his own name on the nation’s Hall of Heroes which is presently virtually empty, if not desolate.

Long live Nigeria!

Massachusetts, USA

November 2001