Last week, the Department of State Services created some embarrassment for Nigeria with the show of shame it displayed at the Federal High Court in Lagos State. And sadly, it was obvious that the DSS had the blessing of President Bola Tinubu, because there was no statement from the presidency condemning that act, neither was there any announcement meting out punishment for the leadership of the DSS.
The Central Bank Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, was in court over the case brought against him by the DSS. Shortly after Tinubu’s inauguration, Emefiele was suspended as the CBN governor and then arrested. Curiously, rather than charge him for some serious offence regarding his tenure as the governor of the CBN, he was charged for the possession of a gun that was allegedly found in his residence the day the DSS arrested him, making people to wonder if the Tinubu administration had nothing against Emefiele before the secret police went to effect his arrest.
On Tuesday when the court sat over his case, it granted him bail because his alleged offence was bailable. However, the court placed him in the care of the Nigerian Correctional Service, which used to be called the Nigerian Prison Service, pending his fulfilment of his bail conditions. This did not go down well with the DSS, which wanted to keep him in its care. As the court session ended and efforts were on to take Emefiele out by the NCoS, some hooded members of the DSS swooped on members of the NCoS. They manhandled the operatives of the NCoS while those within the premises of the court, including journalists, booed them and videoed them with their cameras and phone cameras. The DSS men were not deterred. They pressed on until they eventually got Emefiele and whisked him away.
On Thursday, an Abuja High Court rejected an application by the DSS seeking to detain Emefiele for another 14 days. Yet the DSS has not released him.
Acts like this are captured on camera and news stories and published both online and in hard copies. People all over the world see them and make their conclusions that Nigeria is a lawless country or a dictatorship. Interestingly, these are the people the presidency is making efforts to convince to invest in Nigeria. He has already travelled to some countries purportedly to woo foreign investors to invest in Nigeria. One wonders how foreign leaders who have seen such acts of impunity and lawlessness will be keen to invest their funds in Nigeria.
Investors are not Santa Claus. Investment means putting funds into a business with the hope of getting profits. If an administration does not obey the pronouncements of its country’s law courts, how can it respect the funds of an expatriate? What gives individuals and organisations the confidence to invest in truly democratic countries is that they are sure that laws and policies of such countries are clear and are respected by whoever is in power. They are confident that if there is a dispute and they decide to sue the government, the court would dispense judgment impartially. And if the judgment is against the government, the same government will respect that pronouncement. This is why when people feel oppressed in most parts of the world, they usually seek refuge in Western democracies.
The actions of the DSS on Emefiele give the impression that the Tinubu administration does not seem to be pursuing justice against Emefiele but vendetta. It has been a curious form of power show exhibited by most past presidents. For example, when Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua came into office in 2007, the current National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, was removed as Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. It did not stop there. He was demoted by two ranks. Then he was eventually sacked from the police. He fled the country. The former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, was also targeted. He also fled the country. Both men did not return to Nigeria until after the death of Yar’Adua and the assumption of office of Dr Goodluck Jonathan in 2010.
A similar thing occurred under the presidency of Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.). Upon Buhari’s assumption of office in 2015, the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), was arrested and detained. Despite various court rulings, Buhari refused to release him. It was alleged that Buhari was getting his pound of flesh against Dasuki for his participation in the coup of August 1985 that ousted him. Buhari also kept the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, incarcerated from 2021 until the end of his administration in May 2023 despite the various court rulings against his detention.
Similarly, it is being alleged that Tinubu is punishing Emefiele for his action of changing the design of the naira and making naira scarce during the campaign period for the 2023 elections, an action which is insinuated to have been embarked upon to weaken the presidential bid of Tinubu. Among the key presidential candidates, only Tinubu (and his aides) complained about the naira redesign, accusing Emefiele of economic sabotage before the election. Some governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress even went to court to get an order of the court reversing the announcement made by the CBN on the non-acceptance of the old naira notes after a certain date. Ironically, even though Buhari confirmed verbally that he endorsed the monetary policy taken by Emefiele, Tinubu has completely looked away from Buhari and made Emefiele the fall guy.
What runs through all this is the issue of personalising governance and mixing up justice with vendetta. There is a queer attitude of all Nigerian security agencies about justice. They all seem to derive some joy in locking people up as long as possible, even without any court sentence. They play all kinds of tricks and give all kinds of excuses to keep people in detention. One can see that they are more concerned about “teaching their victims a lesson” than with bringing such people to justice.
Justice seeks to use the law to decide the fate of an accused person, while vendetta seeks to punish an accused person for personal reasons. Justice makes people cautious about their actions. It also makes people regret their wrong actions. But vendetta completely takes away attention from the issue at stake and turns the accused person into a victim of power show. No positive lessons are learnt from it. Conversely, victims may become thick-skinned and avoid doing the right thing in future, because of their belief that doing the right thing does not pay.
Nigerian leaders must realise that nations are not built to the personalisation of governance and justice. They have to draw a line between what they want and what the country wants. There is a reason the symbol of justice is blindfolded. Laws are laws and must be respected, no matter how they run against the desires of the leaders. It is by respecting the constitution and court judgments that a country can make both her citizens and foreigners have confidence in her. It’s only when citizens and foreigners have confidence in a country that they can invest in such a country and rest assured that their investment is safe.
Credit: Azuka Onwuka