Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu Words Announcing Nigeria's 1st Military Coup

Radio broadcast by Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu – announcing Nigeria’s first military coup on Radio Nigeria, Kaduna on January 15, 1966 ON SEPTEMBER 30, 20107:26 PMIN FEATURESBY VANGUARD FacebookTwitterEmailWhatsAppPinterestShare

IN the name of the Supreme Council of the Revolution of the Nigerian Armed  Forces, I declare martial law over the Northern Provinces of Nigeria. 

The Constitution is suspended and the regional government and elected assemblies are hereby dissolved. All political, cultural, tribal and trade union activities, together with all demonstrations and unauthorised gatherings, excluding religious worship, are banned until further notice. 

The aim of the Revolutionary Council is to establish a strong united and prosperous nation, free from corruption and internal strife. Our method of  achieving this is strictly military but we have no doubt that every Nigerian  will give us maximum cooperation by assisting the regime and not disturbing the  peace during the slight changes that are taking place. 

I am to assure all  foreigners living and working in this part of Nigeria that their rights will  continue to be respected. All treaty obligations previously entered into with  any foreign nation will be respected and we hope that such nations will respect our country’s territorial integrity and will avoid taking sides with enemies of  the revolution and enemies of the people. 

My dear countrymen, you will hear, and probably see a lot being done by certain  bodies charged by the Supreme Council with the duties of national integration,  supreme justice, general security and property recovery. As an interim measure  all permanent secretaries, corporation chairmen and senior heads of departments  are allowed to make decisions until the new organs are functioning, so long as  such decisions are not contrary to the aims and wishes of the Supreme Council. No Minister or Parliamentary Secretary possesses administrative or other forms  of control over any Ministry, even if they are not considered too dangerous to  be arrested. 

This is not a time for long speech-making and so let me acquaint you with ten  proclamations in the Extraordinary Orders of the Day which the Supreme Council  has promulgated. These will be modified as the situation improves. 

You are hereby warned that looting, arson, homosexuality, rape, embezzlement,  bribery or corruption, obstruction of the revolution, sabotage, subversion, false alarms and assistance to foreign invaders, are all offences punishable by  death sentence. 

Demonstrations and unauthorised assembly, non-cooperation with  revolutionary troops are punishable in grave manner up to death. 

Refusal or  neglect to perform normal duties or any task that may of necessity be ordered by local military commanders in support of the change will be punishable by a sentence imposed by the local military commander. 

Spying, harmful or injurious publications, and broadcasts of troop movements or actions, will be punished by any suitable sentence deemed fit by the local military commander. 

Shouting of slogans, loitering and rowdy behaviour will be rectified by any sentence of  incarceration, or any more severe punishment deemed fit by the local military commander. 

Doubtful loyalty will be penalised by imprisonment or any more severe sentence. Illegal possession or carrying of firearms, smuggling or trying to  escape with documents, valuables, including money or other assets vital to the  running of any establishment will be punished by death sentence. 

Wavering or  sitting on the fence and failing to declare open loyalty with the revolution will be regarded as an act of hostility punishable by any sentence deemed  suitable by the local military commander. 

Tearing down an order of the day or proclamation or other authorised notices will be penalised by death. 

This is the end of the Extraordinary Order of the Day which you will soon begin  to see displayed in public. My dear countrymen, no citizen should have anything  to fear, so long as that citizen is law abiding and if that citizen has  religiously obeyed the native laws of the country and those set down in every heart and conscience since 1st October, 1960. 

Our enemies are the political profiteers, the swindlers, the men in high and low  places that seek bribes and demand 10 percent; those that seek to keep the  country divided permanently so that they can remain in office as ministers or  VIPs at least, the tribalists, the nepotists, those that make the country look big for nothing before international circles, those that have corrupted our society and put the Nigerian political calendar back by their words and deeds. 

Like good soldiers we are not promising anything miraculous or spectacular. But  what we do promise every law abiding citizen is freedom from fear and all forms  of oppression, freedom from general inefficiency and freedom to live and strive  in every field of human endeavour, both nationally and internationally. 

We  promise that you will no more be ashamed to say that you are a Nigerian. I leave you with a message of good wishes and ask for your support at all times, so that our land, watered by the Niger and Benue, between the sandy wastes and gulf of guinea, washed in salt by the mighty Atlantic, shall not detract Nigeria from gaining sway in any great aspect of international endeavour. 

My dear countrymen, this is the end of this speech. I wish you all good luck and I hope you will cooperate to the fullest in this job which we have set for ourselves of establishing a prosperous nation and achieving solidarity.

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/09/radio-broadcast-by-major-chukwuma-kaduna-nzeogwu-%E2%80%93-announcing-nigeria%E2%80%99s-first-military-coup-on-radio-nigeria-kaduna-on-january-15-1966/

Northern governors frustrating basic education for Almajiris – Ex-UBEC chief

By

Iheoma Nnabugwu

 -

November 3, 2019

Governors of 19 Northern States are responsible for frustrating the integration of the Almajiri schools with basic education.

Former Executive Secretary of Universal Basic Education (UBEC), Prof. Ahmed Modibbo, made the allegation at the weekend.

He stated this at a lecture with the theme “Before the ban on the Almajiri system of education in Nigeria” organised by by the Centre for Historical Documentation and Research of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State.

The administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan had in an attempt to address the problems of the Almajiris in the region, spent billions for construction of more than 100 model schools purposely for the integration of the system with basic education.

However the schools are said to be rotting away and unused since they were constructed years ago.

Modibbo alleged the projects were abandoned by state governments because they wanted to be given cash to construct the schools.

According to him: “The state governors left the schools unoccupied, abandoned and vandalised because most state governments refused to even take them over, not to talk of fulfilling their own obligations contained in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the federal government.

“The state governments were not happy with the decision of the federal government to undertake the project through UBEC and the Eduction Tax Fund (ETF), as they wanted the money to be given to them so that they could nominate contractors for the project.

“That episode was the last in the history of woeful failures to address the challenge of mainstreaming the Islamic system of education thereby catering for the multitude of mainly children of the poor in the Northern region who often migrate far from their homes following their itinerant malams and surviving on charity.”

Recalling the genesis of the Almajiri phenomenon in the north, Modibbo, a professor of history, said it was an off-shoot of the quest for Islamic education from the 8th century which continued to flourish through numerous Qur’anic schools.

He said Qur’anic teachers of that time were sustained by “Zakat” and other forms of taxes, managed by the religious authority, such that by 1900, there was an estimated 250,000 pupils in 20,000 schools in the region.

He said the system witnessed a “final blow” when the colonial administration halted support to Islamic education in 1922 following the establishment of the first teacher training college in Katsina.

“Since then, there were several initiatives to address the challenges of the Islamic system of education, beginning with the 1962 special committee set up by the Premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello, who visited Egypt, Sudan and Libya to study their models and submitted recommendations in a report, but was short-lived, denied of government funding in the turmoil of 1966-68.

“Unfortunately, we missed an opportunity to establish a system that would provide not only manpower but scholars of high standing comparable to those in other parts of the world where the system worked well. “Today they stand shoulders high in producing scholars through such systems. Ours was subverted, truncated, left to rot, to decay and bastardised.” Modibbo said.

He lamented that northern political leaders, with the exception of those eliminated in the tragic military coup of 1966, “are squarely responsible for the failure to have a fully integrated Qur’anic system of education with basic education.”

He however expressed the hope that with the comprehensive blueprint and draft plan of action, introduced by UBEC in 2017, the implementation of the Almajiri Quranic education project would succeed.

Modibbo also called for the full and strict implementation of the UBE Act, introduction of School Time Marshals and catering for welfare of the children.

He further advocated that the National Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), be allowed to monitor the utilisation of federal funds released to states and other agencies of government for the implementation of basic education.

The event which was chaired by Mallam Adamu Fika, Chairman Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), was attended by representatives of some of the governors.

CULLED FROM www.today.ng 

Peter Obi calls for Revolution

https://www.today.ng/news/politics/peter-obi-calls-revolution-demands-free-fair-elections-kogi-bayelsa-263557

Peter Obi calls for revolution, demands free and fair elections in Kogi, Bayelsa

By

Olusola Adeoye

 -

November 15, 2019

Vice Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the 2019 elections, Peter Obi, has said that only a revolution will save Nigeria and launch her into the league of countries towing the paths of development. Obi made the submission while speaking at Baze University, Abuja, on Wednesday.

The former Anambra State Governor, who spoke on the theme, “The Role of Young Nigerians in the Development of Sub-Saharan Africa”, said that young Nigerians must be made to understand that nations that are doing well today went through revolution and that, that is what Nigeria needs to drive development within sub-Saharan Africa.

Explaining the nature of the revolution he is advocating, Obi said it was “not the old type of revolution understood in terms of guns and cudgels, but the type of revolution that sees digital camera displacing manual ones; electric cars threatening to displace fuel-driven cars; knowledge economy displacing baggage economy; industries displacing manual production, among others.”

Obi advised the youth to remain committed to positive ideals. He reminded them that one of the problems of Nigeria is the celebration of impunity, whereby Nigerians clap and dance with those destroying the country because of their ability to part with stolen money.

In another development, Obi has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the police, as well as other security agencies and organisations that are directly or remotely involved in the conduct of election to see the elections holding tomorrow (Saturday) in Kogi and Bayelsa states as opportunities to redeem the bartered image of Nigeria as a country incapable of conducting free and fair elections.

He gave the advice Thursday during the 7th anniversary lecture of News Express at held at Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.

Recalling the gains Nigeria recorded from the conduct of elections during the immediate past Goodluck Jonathan Administration, Obi said that it restored the hope of Nigerians on elections as a means of freely expressing their franchise as against what he called the “return to kangaroo elections marred by violence and all that was vile” as recorded during the last election.

He insisted that free and fair conduct of Saturday’s elections would restore hope to the country, adding: “Besides, it would also encourage well-meaning Nigerians to join in the future elections.”

Concluding, Obi, who was the Guest Speaker at the event, said: “As has become the norm in many countries, the issue of electoral malpractice is becoming a thing of the past. As the giant of Africa, Nigeria ought to be showing example to other African countries by encouraging free and fair election and allowing candidates with the highest vote cast to emerge winners.”

CULLED FROM: www.today.ng 

Emerging civilian dictatorship

The Emerging Civilian Dictatorship By Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN

BY BRIDGET EDOKWE · NOVEMBER 12, 2019

The ship of State in Nigeria seems to be sliding, steeply into the abyss, without any captain available or alive to steer it for rescue. And this should be a grave cause for concern for all lovers of democracy and the rule of law. I fear now that there may indeed be a hidden agenda within the corridors of power, which is being unveiled to the people of Nigeria in stages. I can feel dictatorship in the air somehow. Please let me explain it more in some details.

MEANING OF DICTATORSHIP

A dictator is a political leader who rules over a country with absolute and unlimited power or one who circumvents extant rules, regulations and laws, against the common good. Countries ruled by dictators are called dictatorships. First applied to magistrates of the ancient Roman Republic who were granted extraordinary powers temporarily to deal with emergencies, modern dictators from Adolf Hitler to Kim Jong-un, are considered some of the most ruthless and dangerous rulers in history. The closest we have had in Nigeria was the period of the self-proclaimed maximum ruler, General Sani Abacha. A civilian dictator on the other hand, is one who rose to power through deceit, holding complete and absolute power over the armed forces, is in control of the legislators, has no regard for the judiciary, has gagged the media and does not tolerate any form of opposition.

THE STYLE OF DICTATORS

Dictators typically use military force or political deceit to gain power, which they maintain through terror, coercion, and the elimination of basic civil liberties. Often charismatic by nature, dictators tend to employ technique of bombastic mass propaganda to stir cult-like feelings of support and nationalism among the people. While dictators may hold strong political views and be supported by organized political movements, they are motivated only by personal ambition or greed to hold on to power, by all means and at all costs. They usually employ a common slogan, to gain mass appeal, creating a false sense of revolution, such as anti-corruption or the like. They crave absolute power for a limited time, allegedly to deal with social or political emergencies.

As the prevalence of monarchies declined during the 19th and 20th centuries, dictatorships and constitutional democracies became the predominant forms of government worldwide. Similarly, the role and methods of dictators changed over time. During the 19th century, various dictators came to power in Latin American countries as they became independent of Spain. These dictators, like Antonio López de Santa Anna in Mexico and Juan Manuel de Rosas in Argentina, typically raised private armies to take power from weak new national governments.

Characterized by Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany and Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union, the totalitarian and fascist dictators who rose to power during the first half of the 20th century were significantly different from the authoritarian rulers of postcolonial Latin America. These modern dictators tended to be charismatic individuals who rallied the people to support the ideology of a single political party like the Nazi or communist parties. Using fear and propaganda to stifle public dissent, they harnessed modern technology to direct their country’s economy to build ever-more-powerful military forces.

After World War II, the weakened governments of several countries in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa fell to Soviet-style communist dictators. Some of these dictators posed as hastily “elected” presidents or prime ministers who established autocratic single-party rule by quashing all opposition. Others simply used brute force to establish military dictatorships. Marked by the collapse of the Soviet Union itself in 1991, most of these communist dictatorships had fallen by the end of the 20th century.

Throughout history, even some fully constitutional governments have temporarily granted their executives extraordinary dictator-like powers during times of crisis. The dictatorships of Adolph Hitler in Germany and Benito Mussolini in Italy began under proclamations of emergency rule. During World War II, both the United States and Great Britain granted their executives extensive extra-constitutional emergency powers that were terminated with the declaration of peace. Africa in particular, has now become notorious for breeding civilian dictators, who hold on to power for decades, some even in very debilitating health conditions, rallying the people to suspend or amend their constitutions, in order to perpetuate themselves in office, even in old age and apparent senility.

THE PRACTICE OF CIVILIAN DICTATORSHIP IN NIGERIA

In 1979, General Olusegun Obasanjo handed over power to Nigeria’s first democratically elected government. The parade ending 13 years of military rule was organized by a young colonel, Abdusalam Abubakar. The elected administration was ousted in 1983, in a coup led by General Muhammadu Buhari, and the military remained in charge until 1999, when Abubakar, who by then had taken the reins, stood down in favor of Obasanjo, who had run for president as a civilian, but retained his military style of governance. Buhari himself won Nigeria’s most recent election (as a civilian) after several years of contest and he is said to be running the country through an unelected cabal, which has succeeded in circumventing all constituted authorities.

With a complacent National Assembly, which was reported recently to have passed a tax bill that it never read or saw, with the re-introduction of the social media regulation bill and the emergence of tin gods in various spheres of power, we are gradually settling down for maximum rule. Let us examine the current position of things in Nigeria.

DISREGARD FOR THE CONSTITUTION

The President informed Nigerians through the media that he was proceeding on a private visit to Saudi Arabia and thereafter to London. It is neither a vacation nor a holiday. The procedure established by the Constitution to deal with the absence of the President is for him to transmit a letter to the National Assembly, the latter being the elected representatives of the people, officially informing them of his absence. This is meant to avoid confusion and power vacuum. Up till this moment, no such letter has been transmitted to the National Assembly.

Very recently, it was reported that the Inspector-General of Police embarked upon the recruitment and promotion of policemen and women, contrary to the clear provisions of the Constitution which vests such powers on the Police Service Commission. This has virtually led to the collapse of that institution, which in law should be responsible for law and order. Several other examples abound.

CENSORSHIP AND GENERAL ATTACK ON THE MEDIA

There is a growing clamour by the executive for strict regulation of the media, for censorship and general control of media space. This usually emanates from a culture of intolerance for dissent, especially in the face of unpopular policies of government. With the trending fear of a third term agenda by the President, the general aim would seem to be to capture the media as tool for propagating the hidden agenda.

LACK OF JUDICIAL AUTONOMY AND INDEPENDENCE

The judiciary in Nigeria is firmly under the grip of the executive, which controls its funding, appointment and even removal. With the experiences of the immediate past Chief Judge of Kebbi State, who was locked out of her office and prevented from delivering a judgment, to the travails of the Chief Judge of Cross-River State, who was locked out of his official quarters and unceremoniously removed from his statutory position as Chairman of the State Judicial Service Commission, we are currently experiencing a style of imposing fear and terror upon the judiciary, as a way of cowing judges into submitting to the whims and caprices of the executive. All these coming on the heels of the removal of the erstwhile Chief Justice of Nigeria, there has now emerged a powerful executive, clothed with absolute powers beyond review by the courts. The power is real, potent and very dangerous indeed.

A FLAWED ELECTORAL SYSTEM

A people disenchanted with any style of governance can rally round and speak with the voice of rejection with their votes during the election. The conclusion of most election observers for the last (2019) general elections in Nigeria is that the electoral system was flawed and compromised virtually in all the States of the Federation. In most cases, the votes of the people could not determine the eventual winner, thus making the leader unaccountable and beyond control.

A close monitoring of the outcome of various election petitions in the tribunals and even on appeal, show a pattern of maintaining the status quo, without any major upset, from the governorship elections to the presidential. With such confidence of victory at the polls, a leader is likely to be tempted to disregard peoples’ power as expressed through the ballot, to become a ruler unto himself.

A CAPTIVE LEGISLATURE
There is no gain saying that the present National Assembly and indeed the Houses of Assembly of all the States are under the control, dominion and supervision of the executive arm of government. The idea of separation of powers supported by the robust doctrine of checks and balances, are meant to prevent absolutism in governance, especially on the part of the executive, which has control of funds, is in charge of law enforcement agencies and is directly responsible for the formulation and execution of government policies. It is the arm of government that deserves strict control and supervision, by the other arms, but that has not been the case.

As things are presently, the National Assembly is nothing but a weeping institution, whose leadership is unable to enforce its resolutions, lacks the will power to exercise its statutory powers over executive agencies and other functionaries of government. It is even encouraging executive dictatorship by inserting an ouster clause in a recent law it passed in favour of AMCON.

With the media in the kitty, the judiciary under firm grip, the legislature willing and compliant, the opposition in shambles, the labour unions only existing for wages and emoluments, with civil societies and human rights groups dead and buried, we now seem to be approaching that period that we all dread to talk about, civilian dictatorship. May this never be the lot of Nigeria, at least not in our lifetime.

CULLED FROM barristerng.com

Buhari and His Old Tricks

With the arrest of a prominent journalist, Nigeria’s Buhari is up to his old tricks

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, with Russian President Vladimir Putin behind him, on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa Summit and Economic Forum in Sochi, Russia, on Oct. 23. (Pool New/Reuters)

By

Jason Rezaian 

Global Opinions writer

November 12, 2019 at 12:00 p.m. GMT+1

Political strongmen would have you believe they’re tough as nails, but they always turn out to have very thin skin.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari likes to call himself a “converted democrat.” At least that’s what he said during his 2015 presidential run, when he was attempting to re-brand himself as a reformer after a long career built on repression.

Yet dictatorial habits have proved hard to give up. When Buhari ran for president in 2015, it was with the promise of a Nigeria free from the political repression and silencing of dissent that were hallmarks of his tenure as head of state from 1983 to 1985.

Since his reelection earlier this year, matters have only gotten worse for journalists in Nigeria. Perhaps the most outrageous case involves Omoyele Sowore, a prominent journalist and political activist who remains in prison in Abuja, the Nigerian capital — even after a judge last week ordered that he be released on bail. He is being cited, among other things, for “cyberstalking” the president — a bizarre accusation, unless you consider reporting and political commentary a form of predatory behavior. It would seem that Buhari does.“Across the board, journalists were worried about an escalation of anti-press patterns in a possible second Buhari term,” says Jonathan Rozen, senior Africa researcher at the Committee to Protect Journalists. “Unfortunately, they’ve been proven right.”

In a Nov. 7 statement, Femi Felana, Sowore’s lawyer, said that, although bail conditions were “stringent,” his client had met them all. “But in utter contempt of the orders of Justice Ojukwu, the State Security Service has refused to release Sowore.”

Sowore, the founder of the New York-based website Sahara Reporters, is being charged with seven felony counts, including treason and the “cyberstalking” of Buhari. Whatever that means. “In Nigeria, we see repeated attacks against journalists and the use of alleged cyber crimes to silence them,” Rozen told me.Sowore created Sahara Reporters — which is devoted to political coverage of Nigeria — in 2006. His aim was to bring greater transparency to Nigerian politics. The website is credited with breaking many stories of financial corruption by the state, which is what landed Sowore behind bars this time around. In a media landscape known for being vibrant if heavily influenced by political elites, Sahara Reporters has become one of the key sources for news that exposes official wrongdoing.

Sowore came to the United States in the late 1990s. Before leaving Nigeria, he’d been detained on eight separate occasions for his political activities. After arriving here, he completed a graduate program at Columbia University.

“It is not so much a problem of freedom of speech,” Sowore told the New York Times in 2011, “but freedom after speech. You can say a lot of things in Nigeria, but the question is: Will you still be a free person? Will you still be alive after you freely express yourself?”This year he returned to run against Buhari in the election. He did not win and instead ended up in prison for being a vocal critic of the state and its policies.

“My husband is not the only journalist in this situation. It’s always the same thing. They’ve taken others for speaking out against corruption,” Opeyemi Sowore, the jailed journalist’s wife, told me. “It’s a disturbing trend when journalists and others who are trying to make the country better are silenced through detention.”

The judge in the case this month set bail at more than $550,000, with additional conditions, barring Omoyele Sowore from speaking to the press, participating in rallies at other political events and barring him from leaving the capital, Abuja.

Sowore was originally set to be released last Wednesday, but his website reported that agents of Nigeria’s secret police blocked court bailiffs from following through on the judge’s order.His wife and their two children, a 12-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son, who live in the New York area and are all U.S.-born citizens, have not heard from the journalist since August when Opeyemi Sowore did a radio interview here in the United States.

All indications are that Sowore has been held in solitary confinement during the entire period of his detention, which has now passed the three-month mark.

“Since the State Security Service is not above the law of the land, we shall embark on appropriate legal measures to ensure compliance with the court orders,” Falana said.

Nigerian authorities should immediately release Sowore.

CULLED from Washington Post

Impunity Takes Root

By

 Unini Chioma

 -

November 10, 2019

https://thenigerialawyer.com/impunity-takes-root/

ON November 2, President Muhammadu Buhari began a private visit to the United Kingdom that is expected to end on November 17. The visit has been criticised, essentially because the president did not transmit any letter informing the National Assembly of his more than two-week visit to the UK, nor did he hand over power to the vice president. The presidency explained that the visit did not meet the 21 days threshold or the annual leave provision to demand transmitting a letter to the legislature and empowering the vice president to act. Opinion has remained divided on the matter, though the balance of argument seems to favour those who insist the president broke the law.

The presidency was obviously careful not to mention holiday as the reason for the president’s visit to the UK, and state officials were even more reluctant to insinuate whether the visit might be connected with the president’s health. All of them appear tired of speculations and recriminations over the president’s physical condition. The Buhari presidency, it is now abundantly clear, has become adept at presenting the public with faits accomplis as a means of deflecting or defanging criticisms. Does the presidency anticipate that Nigerians would have reservations over the so-called private visit? Why, the answer is to simply embark on the visit, announce it to the public matter of fact, and gloat that it is constitutional. Voila! They did this when they unilaterally dipped their hands into the country’s coffers in 2018, took a billion dollars from the excess crude account without authorisation, clothed the illegality with the noble purpose of fighting insurgency, and imbued it with a self-righteous but indefensible urgency.

Having measured the country’s literacy level and the low voltage courage of the citizenry, the Buhari presidency and a number of ministries and agencies, particularly the security agencies, have become more brazen in violating the constitution and the rights of citizens. The president is already in the UK. Of course officials know that there is nothing like private visit in the constitution; there is absolutely no mention of it. Not in the well-known Section 145, and not iin any other place. But they know that such an infraction, or even many infractions taken in combination, cannot earn him impeachment. Apart from the fearfulness of Nigeria’s ingratiating National Assembly, ponderous ethnic and religious configurations ensure that impeachment would be unsuccessful and even backfire.

The argument over whether the president could sign a bill in the UK is futile. Nigerians know clearly that the president was simply trying to clothe the illegality he had inspired with some trappings of officialdom. No CEO gets up from his desk, and without taking permission from the Board of Directors, simply abandons office and declares he is proceeding on a private visit. Every organisation has rules and regulations, just like the country has a constitution. If the Buhari presidency decides to repeatedly violate the constitution, it is not because the president and his aides don’t know the provisions of the constitution. It is simply because, overall, they have sized up the country and decided that their lack of leadership discipline means nothing to anybody. Their contempt for the law is palpable.

Having seen how brutally and contemptuously Aso Villa treats the law and the constitution, and having understood how the government tramples on the rights of the people, including particularly free speech, many state governments and agencies are following hard on the heels of the federal government. The Army simply got up one morning and declared that its officers had brainstormed over insecurity in the country and had taken the unprecedented step of demanding, between November 1 and December 23, that Nigerians would be required to produce their identity cards on demand by soldiers. They were not shamed by that inglorious measure. In fact they argued triumphantly that they were already implementing that measure in the Northeast. Even if it looked like military rule, they didn’t care. It did not matter to them that their plan was not debated and approved by the federal cabinet, nor did it strike them that it was an army thing rather than a military programme which requires the participation of the navy, air force, Department of State Service, civil defence and the police. It didn’t even occur to them that a programme of such magnitude should be announced by either the Internal Affairs ministry, the presidency, Defence ministry, or a spokesman for the joint chiefs.

Impunity has begun to take root gradually, and democracy is being lost inch by inch. It began with the presidency which should set the nation’s democratic tone, but which has instead begun to inspire dictatorship; now the cancer is spreading malevolently. The Customs, rather than the Internal Affairs ministry, also got up and announced border closures, and having done a benefit analysis instead of a cost-benefit analysis, has convinced the federal government to extend the period of the closure to next January. Flush with excitement, if not a sense of victory, the same Customs has again announced that no petrol dispensing stations would be supplied fuel within a 20kkm radius of Nigeria’s borders. Where are the calculations of the costs and benefits? And who should announce such far-reaching policies? Somehow, these knee-jerk policies, anchored on nationalist fervour, remind many Nigerians of fascism, in particular the Nazi variety.

But worse has happened. Go to Cross River State where a journalist and publisher of the Cross River Watch, Agba Jalingo was whisked away from Lagos in August over the publication of a report alleging a N500m financial malfeasance against the governor. The Cross River State government simply dispensed with the constitution, got the police to storm Lagos and arrest Mr Jalingo, kept the journalist in jail for 34 days before even charging him in court. A conniving judiciary in Calabar perpetrated unspeakable constitutional atrocities in the process. Worse, Mr Jalingo is now charged with terrorism, treasonable felony and attempt to topple the Cross River State government. Even prosecution witnesses were unashamedly and unprecedentedly granted anonymity to testify. Treason? Well, who needs the constitution? After all, the federal government itself casually hurls treason charges at its critics.

Taking a cue from the ongoing and continuing madness, policemen from Kwara State also stormed Lagos in October and hauled Adebowale Adekoya of the News Digest into detention over a story on alleged hemp smoking in an agro-allied firm owned by former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) acting governor, Sarah Alade. Libel laws take time and, in the opinion of some of these top Nigerians, do not punish journalists enough. The DSS had also in 2016 arrested Jones Abiri, publisher of the Bayelsa State-based Weekly Source, kept him for about two years without trial, and eventually released him in 2018, only to re-arrest him early this year and charge him with acts of terrorism. And almost as if Nigerian officials and security agencies know where to charge their quarries with obscene crimes, they have found a kindred spirit in Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu who sets outrageous bail conditions for suspects.

Impunity is fuelling the spirit of authoritarianism in many parts of Nigeria, and state governments and security agencies are being seduced by federal-style impunity. Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, has cottoned onto that spirit, and the police and other security agencies are robbing Nigerian youths of the pleasures and freedoms of growing up in Nigeria. The proselytising and unprofessional security men, in the name of combating cultism and Internet fraud, now specialise in humiliating, depriving, alienating and criminalising Nigerian youths whom they unlawfully disallow from wearing certain hairstyles, clothes and dresses. Nigerians cannot now even make calls or receive calls while transiting myriads of disruptive and often extortionate checkpoints. The paranoia, repression, ignorance and impunity are unexampled.

But it is not only the youths who are being robbed of their future, the government and its security agencies are doing enormous damage to the spirit of the country in politics, business and culture. Soon the tyranny, if the vituperations of the Information minister, Lai Mohammed, are anything to go by, will be extended through stringent social media regulations, as if the ruling APC will be in office for eternity and stand no risk of falling into their own traps sometime in the future. Impunity is taking dangerous root in Nigeria. It is time to campaign against it and stop the descent into chaos and retrogression if democracy, already terribly wounded, is not to be lost altogether. The presidency is too steeped in authoritarian culture to be of any help in entrenching democracy, and the self-deprecating National Assembly is too scared of its own shadows to halt the precarious decline. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which is inexplicably waiting for their footloose presidential candidate in the last presidential poll, Atiku Abubakar, is too weak and sundered to pack enough punch in the impending combat.

In equal measure, students’ unions are balkanised and denuded of culture, a voice, and any noble virtue; and civil society groups are often available for hire on both sides of the clumsy divide polluting the society. Who is left but a few voices that won’t bow to the national idol, as the space for freedom shrinks ignominiously? The government of the day does not understand democracy, and no amount of sermonising and persuasion will get them to recant their authoritarian proclivities. And with ignorance writ very large among the citizenry, the prognosis is indeed dire. But perhaps perceptive Nigerians will keep hope alive that once they become enlightened, the people will eventually kick against their oppressors and demand democratic governance and the full protection given them without conditions by the country’s imperfect and besieged constitution.

Idowu Akinlotan