At last, Attorney General Abubakar Malami took a wise step last Tuesday in “ordering” the State Security Service (SSS) to comply with court orders by releasing from custody Colonel Sambo Dasuki and Mr. Omoyele Sowore. Well, it is better late than never, as they say.
But it could have been a wiser thing to do if the chief law officer of the federation had elected to “comply with court orders,” (to use his exact words) , some months or even years ago especially in the Dasuki case.
It is certainly less than wise that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari chose to obey the law only after it had needlessly inflicting upon itself enormous public relations disaster, as Dr. Reuben Abati, aptly put it on this page some weeks ago.
Strident voices from within and without have risen unison to warm against Nigerian’s descent into authoritarianism and an egregious assault on human freedom.
For instance, not a few observers of the Nigerian scene must have noted that just a few days before Malami took action, a group of American legislators had addressed to him a strongly worded petition. In respect of the Sowore case, the congressmen said: “We are deeply concerned that established legal procedure and the rule of law are not being followed in his case.”
More significantly was that, regardless of what Malami may say now, internal pressures are mounting against the tendency towards authoritarian rule. A groundswell of opinions is already building against reckless disobedience of court orders and official lawlessness. Even from otherwise reticent quarters, warnings are issued against a “recipe for anarchy” which the assault on the rule of law squarely represents.
It is commendable that forces of genuine democracy are awake to see the reality that “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”
Unwittingly, human rights abuse has been added to the list of the nation’s challenges which include mass poverty, insecurity and youth joblessness.
The tangible problems of bad roads and bridges along with epileptic power supply and physical insecurity may not actually define the administration in democratic terms. Instead what Buhari does or fails to do in the intangible realms of human freedom and national integration might be the ultimate defining factors.
After all, some of the monumental bridges and roads in Nigeria were constructed during military dictatorship. So roads, bridges and boreholes are not necessarily “dividends” of democracy. It is the respect for human freedom that is the real dividend of democracy.
To read the direction of the Buhari administration in these terms is, at least, consistent with liberal democratic ethos. The public sphere is suffused with liberal thinking on the implication of curtailment of human freedom under any guise.
For those who might like to discount the question of freedom in the race for development; when such a logic prevailed in the past it had tragic consequences. This is possibly why the Yale historian, Professor Timothy Snyder asserts that : “History does not repeat itself, but it does instruct… History can familiarize, and it can warn.” A lot of admonition against attack on freedom is embodied in his On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century.
Up till his demise, eminent economist, Professor Sam Aluko, told anyone who cared to listen to him that there was a sound logic to economic management under the maximum ruler, General Sani Abacha. Some even refer to some efforts of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) under the leadership of General Buhari. While economic historians may continue to debate Aluko’s proposition, there is, however, no argument that the regime of General Abacha was largely defined by the grand assault on human freedom and the shrinking of the democratic space.
It is precisely because of the centrality of freedom to development that those strategising for the Buhari administration should take seriously the mounting opposition to abuse of human rights and disrespect for the rule of law. This should be of interest particularly to the economic advisers of the administration as they think about holistic development for the country.
In fact, the 1998 Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, Amartya Sen, actually equates development with freedom in his work, Development as Freedom. According to Sen, development efforts mean “the removal of various types of unfreedoms that leave people with little choice and little opportunity of exercising their reasoned agency.” Among the limiting factors to freedom identified by Sen are ‘poverty as well as tyranny, poor economic opportunities as well as systematic social deprivation, neglect of public facilities as well as intolerance or over activity of repressive states.”
While federal security agents descend heavily on protesters, some state governments charge their critics with terrorism and all kinds of crimes in the book.
Under a previous administration, Buhari himself and his running mate in a presidential election, the late Senator Chuba Okadigbo, led a public protest against alleged electoral manipulation. The sensibilities of decent people were assaulted when the police teargassed the protesters. The protesters went to court and the court upheld the constitutional rights of citizens to protest. The court said the police should protect the protesters rather than molest them. The court indeed affirmed the proposition of the legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, that human rights constitute a “property” of the people and not a “dash.”
It is, therefore, one of the huge ironies of Nigeria’s political history that the police harass citizens asserting their democratic rights to protest under Buhari’s watch.
The president has proclaimed his conversion to liberal democracy. He should prove the skeptics wrong by making strict adherence to the rule of law a central part of his agenda.
Depending on the competence in economic management he may be ultimately vindicated on the huge loans to build roads, railways and bridges at the objective level.
However, what is happening at the more subjective realm may actually define his administration in a more enduring way. This includes his disposition to human freedom, fostering national unity and strengthening the moral fabric of the society.
It is time the president began to ponder how his administration would be defined when all would be history even on January 1, 2024.
Credit: Kayode Komolafe, Thisday