Boobytraps in Nigeria’s Constitution
Lekan Sote
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What if you were told that the 1999 Constitution is a boobytrap packaged to guarantee that government fails to deliver the promises of its Section 14(b), which pretends to declare that “The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government?”
In other words, governments in Nigeria, be they at the federal, state, or local level, are designed, ab initio, not to deliver to the citizens of Nigeria good governance, described by some as dividends of democracy.
The how, which is embedded in the Nigerian Constitution, reminds one of Karl Marx, the German political thinker and exponent of communism, who argued, in his seminal book, “The Communist Manifesto”, that the contradictions within a capitalist economy will eventually destroy it.
Though the crisis that has bedevilled capitalism has not completely overwhelmed it, communism and socialism, its doppelganger that he, Frederick Engels, Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin prescribed, seem to be the victims of the grim prediction.
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, of Lenin and Stalin, and Communist China, of probably venerable Chairman Mao, have turned coat and become capitalist economies, in nearly every material particular, like the North American and Western European capitalist countries that they once derided.
But that is a story for another day. The focus now is the abysmal and sorry existentialist state that the drafters of the Nigerian Constitution put Nigerians into, either by deliberate mischief or out of sheer ignorance of the script of disaster that they were writing for their country.
The 1999 Constitution has decidedly put Nigerians at a disadvantage and at the mercy of state actors who cannot be held accountable to the people, who have no choice but to accept their fate in the hands of their oppressors.
Take a good look at the ouster clause in Section 6(6)(c) of the Constitution. This cop out is the most shameful license that allows Nigerian governments and state actors to completely avoid making commitments and taking responsibility for governance without suffering legal repercussions.
This clause provides as follows: “The judicial powers vested (in the judiciary) shall not… extend to any action or proceedings relating to any authority or person, or as to whether any law or any judicial decision is in conformity with the fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy… in Chapter II of this Constitution.”
A certain Ekene Aninze, Esq, has helped to put this confusing mumbo-jumbo in clearer lexicon. He says, “Yes, those things we drafted in Chapter II are what government should do for the people, but if government fails to do those things, do not bring the matter before the courts because the courts will not hear you!” Chineke!
Chapter II is an inventory of fundamental obligations of the government to the people, and it includes, inter alia, “national integration… harnessing the resources of the nation and promoting national prosperity… (promoting) the ideals of Freedom, Equality and Justice… (and ensuring) that there are equal and adequate educational opportunities at all levels”.
Other objectives of Chapter II are the “promotion and protection of the national interest… protecting and improving the environment and safeguarding the water, air and land, forest and wild life of Nigeria… (and) protecting, preserving and promoting the Nigerian cultures which enhance human dignity”.
Though the Preamble of the Constitution falsely claims that “We the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Having firmly and solemnly resolved… To provide for a Constitution for the purposes of promoting good government and welfare of all persons in our country…” it turns around to withdraw the obligation it promised to the people.
To home in this perfidious perfidy (please pardon the tautology), the irresponsible and sneaky drafters of the Constitution travelled almost to the end of the document to innocuously insert Section 308, a big whopper ouster clause that guarantees that state actors will be utterly irresponsible, unanswerable and unaccountable to no one.
This will ensure that Section 22 of the Constitution, which provides that “The press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in Chapter II and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the Government to the people”, cannot be an armour against the bluster of good governance that the constitution promises.
In very plain and simple language, Section 308(1), that is manifestly titled “Restrictions on legal proceedings”, says, “Notwithstanding anything in the contrary in this Constitution… (a) no civil or criminal proceeding shall be instituted or continued against a person to whom this section applies during his period in office”.
“(b) A person to whom the section applies shall not be arrested or imprisoned during that period either in pursuance of the process of any court or otherwise, and (c) no process of any court requiring or compelling the appearance of a person to whom this section applies shall be applied for or issued.”
To be sure of the beneficiaries, Section 308(3) provides that “This section shall apply to a person holding the office of president or vice president, governor or deputy governor, and the reference in this section to ‘period of office’ is a reference to the period during which the person holding such office is required to perform the functions of the office.”
In any case, by the time an errant elected public officer leaves office, he would have amassed so much financial wealth that he can buy the judiciary to overlook his demeanour. If that fails, the Nigerian culture that prescribes deference to any “big man” in the society kicks in, and the scoundrel is worshipped instead of being ostracised.
Interestingly, too, unelected public officials, like ministers, state commissioners, board chairmen, board members, and senior civil servants, have inherited this privilege offered by the ouster clause written into the Constitution.
They too act with the same degree of indolence, a sense of entitlement, and wilfully failing to deliver good governance to the people, with the thought that the commonwealth of Nigerians belongs to their private estate.
The Nigerian Constitution, which could easily pass for an “Irresponsibility Act”, provides those who have captured the state to loot the resources of the people of Nigeria. They know that the worst that can happen to them is no more than a slap on the wrist.
Nigerians have witnessed, ad nauseam, uncountable cases of former and serving state actors who were accused of stealing public funds, going into the facilities of anti-corruption agencies as if they were going into a resort, and often coming back with their loot intact.
There are suggestions that those of their number who got jail terms after investigations and prosecutions probably declined to play ball and share part of their loot with corrupt operatives of some of the anti-graft agencies.
The way some of the returnees from the anti-graft agencies flaunt their ill-got wealth gives the impression that this opinion might be true. The disdain with which the political elite hold the people is evident in the attempt of a former minister who was seeking to run for governor of his state while facing serious allegations of larceny and graft.
These scoundrels usually get away with such disdain for the Nigerian people, especially because the judicial system of Nigeria is almost crap.
X:@lekansote1, lekansote.com
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