New Telegraph

How much freedom does Nigerians have? (1)

How much freedom does Nigerians have? Are Nigerians even free? Why pose this kind of questions when the answers seem to be straight forward and emphatic ‘yes’ to the second question by majority of Nigerians who will answer without giving it a thought. It is the first question that most people will pause to ponder.

But the answer to the second question as said earlier is ‘yes’ at the superficial level at which the throng of humanity operates. And indeed, not many people even in the academia have given these posers the deserved treatment it requires. The many academic treatises I have encountered concerned themselves with the fundamental rights entrenched in the Constitutions of Nigeria (1960/1963/1979/1999) where the Nigerian state listed the rights which Nigerians are entitled to, and can enforce whenever they are breached.

In the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, these rights are listed in chapter 4 with its provisions running from sections 33 to 44 while Section 45, perhaps, the most significant of those provision confers the state with the right in certain circumstances to derogate from those fundamental rights contained in sections 33 to 44 of the Constitution. Section 46 of the said constitution confers jurisdiction in the Federal and States’ High Courts to enforce those rights where there are complaints of their breaches.

This Section 46 also provides for legal aid for those impecunious enough not to afford legal services on their own. On the surface, these are beautiful provisions but the Igbo proverb warns that the cracking sounds in the masticating of kola nut especially the bitter kola does not represent pleasant taste to the consumer.

Back to the question: how much freedom does Nigerian have; and are Nigerians free indeed? I will join the throng of humanity at the superficial level to proclaim that Nigerians are as free as colonial subjects, and now as neo-colonial citizens but certainly not free as humans. They are a free as Nigerians created by Their Most Gracious Britannic Majesties, George V, George VI, and Queen Elizabeth II between 1914 and 1960.

As people conquered by the force of arms constituted under the laws of Great Britain as a colonial country. Under colonial rule there was nothing like rights embodied under any colonial laws except as provided under the Criminal Code and Penal Code Ordinances for Southern and Northern Nigeria which provided some kind of fair hearing in criminal and civil cases under common law of England. The entrenchment of the fundamental rights were incidental to the ethnic minorities’ agitation for creation of regions for them which the major tribes did not agree to, but the Willink Commission suggested the entrenchment of fundamental rights to assuage the fears of the minorities in remaining in Nigeria as then constituted under three regions and central governments. And the fundamental rights as entrenched in the said constitutions (1960/1963/1979/1999) have always retained that provision in Section 45 of the present 1999 Constitution with like tenor and effect.

Government can, in certain circumstances which according to this Section 45 are “reasonably justifiable in a democratic society” enact laws that derogate from these rights and the courts cannot invalidate such laws. Certain circumstances were tested under the 1960 Constitution when the Balewa Government proceeded against Chief Awolowo and his henchmen under the State of Emergency Declaration law and regulations that deprived them, their rights under similar provisions such as we have in Sections 37, 39, 40 and 41 which rights are rights to private life and family life; rights to freedom of expression and the press; rights to peaceful assembly and association and rights to freedom of movement.

So in effect the freedoms seemingly guaranteed to Nigerians under chapter 4 (Sections 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43 and 44) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria are empty shells, devoid of any substance. It was in realisation of this truth of the hollowness of the so-called “fundamental human rights” supposedly granted to Nigerians that the inimitable Fela Anikulapo Kuti in one of his classical renditions lambasted the Nigerian State for purporting to confer human rights on its nationals and citizens whereas, according to Fela, human rights are inalienable property of man which flow from birth into human family. According to Fela, how can a ‘State’ which according to him is an “animal’, an artificial creation made by man give (“dash”) man his property which are the so-called human rights? This essay is provoked by series of events and actions within a fortnight ago; some of these events and actions by some private persons and organisations and indeed by the government and its officials point to very fluid and unsettled situation in Nigeria. On July 28, 2020, the New Telegraph came with a screaming headline, “DSS: Highly-Placed persons plotting to destabilize Nigeria” and reading through the report, the Department of State Services claims it has “identified subversive and unscrupulous elements” and their sponsors determined to cause the breakdown of law and order in Nigeria and vowed to stop them.

The paper stated that the alarm was sequel to actions of some socio-cultural organisations (Ohanaeze, Afenifere, PANDEF and Middle Belt Forum) that in condemning the killings in Southern Kaduna of Kaduna State and had urged President Buhari to stop the killings.

Perhaps, the Presidency was not happy about that standpoint. Another explosive incident was the alleged “inciting” and “instigative” statement by Mr. Chidi Chukwuanyi, the national chairman of National Democratic Party that Nigeria needs a JJ Rawlings kind of revolution in Nigeria given the level of corruption. Nigeria Labour Congress had also warned the Federal Government that the escalating killings, violence may cause anarchy (New Telegraph, July 30) as former President Obasanjo had warned in his lecture: COVID-19: and Nigerians security issues: the way forward” at the Sobo Sowemino Annual Lecture at Abeokuta on Friday, June 26, 2020 that Nigeria is heading to the abyss unless it is restructured. And last week it was reported that the Fulani socio-cultural group, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore has set up its own security outfit (vigilante) to operate nationwide. And squaring up for action, the National Christian Elders Forum apparently tired by the killings in the country particularly in South Kaduna rose from its meeting on July 23, 2020 (Vanguard, 30/7/2020) to announce the setting up of Christian Trust Fund to provide” a coordinated and well-funded Christian response…

in 2020” and perhaps, thereafter. And to cap it all, the governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum threatened on July 31, 2020 that he will deploy the state’s “hunters” to defend the state and recapture Boko Harm held territories especially Baga since, according to him, the military cannot protect the state from insecurities and declared that “people have to take their destinies in their hands.” The above scenario of concatenated issues, incidents and events might have necessitated the DSS alarm which propelled the government to consider the alleged restriction of rights like the deregistration of some pressure groups.

Against all this buffeting national problems, and perhaps, acting in response to the alarm sounded by the DSS of an imminent destabilization of Nigeria by the so-called “highly placed” “subversive and unscrupulous elements,” the Federal Government may have taken action to check the threats posed by all this social forces.

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