I had a very brief but interesting discussion recently with Nigerian veteran legal luminary Alhaji Femi Okunnu in which I disagreed with his observation that the Prime Minister in a Parliamentary democracy is more powerful than the President in a presidential system of government. We could not conclude the discussion but events in the world at large this week seem to focus on our points of divergence in that discussion and that is what I want to dilate on today as that really influenced the choice of today’s topic. Let me first reel out the events before I treat them individually. The firsts is the ding dong battle in the British Parliament this week that bloodied the nose of the British PM Theresa May but failed to deliver the ultimate knock out blow to throw her out of office and out of power. The second is the arraignment of Nigeria’s CJN for malpractices on declaration of assets by the government in a move that is not only alarming but disturbing on the eve of the 2019 elections in which the judiciary headed by the CJN is expected to be the final arbiter on post election petitions and grievances.
The third is the clever strategy of US House of Representative Speaker Nancy Pelosi not to invite US President Donald Trump to the State of the Union Address on the grounds of security arising from the US President’s action of closing down government unless and until the House of Representatives allows him to have funds to build a border wall against Mexico on security grounds. Really I find the three topics very appetizing for some good analysis.
We go back to the turbulent scene this week on Brexit at the British Parliament. The first vote on the PM Brexit deal as proposed was a crushing defeat for the PM the worst for any government in ages. But it was a deal that was always like a still born baby or a casualty brought in dead for the British PM and the margin of loss over 200 votes reflected the dismal prospects for her deal. She was however not the only casualty. The second was the Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn who gloated over the deal defeat and called for a vote of confidence which also predictably failed for the simple reason that MPs, both for or against the deal, would rather fall on their swords than see Jeremy Corbyn emerge as the British PM at this point in time, Brexit or no Brexit. In addition Corbyn had underestimated the fear of MPs at this point in time to go back for a renewal of their mandates from hostile Constituents pissed off with politicians handling of the last referendum that gave birth to Brexit. Effectively then MPs on both sides of the divide on the PM’s deal buried the hatchet and dealt Corbyn’s No Confidence vote another defeat albeit with a much lower margin than the PM’s deal death.
The lesson here to me is that in a Parliamentary democracy, MPs run the show to show that Parliament is supreme and can intimidate both the cabinet and opposition to submission if the need arose as we saw this week. That to me makes accountability and transparency more readily and speedily available in the open debate and votes as displayed at the British Parliament over Brexit recently.
We go next to the tango between two arms of Nigeria’s presidential system of government, namely the executive and the judiciary over the arraignment of the CJN at the Code of Conduct Tribunal. On the surface this would look as a political ploy by the government to silence or intimidate the judiciary. But are judicial officers above the law? My answer is no and as the law says, those who come to equity must come with clean hands. Anyway the saying is also apt and relevant here that Caesar’s wife must be above reproach and Caesar’s wife is the arraigned CJN whose defence largely rests on ignorance or timing of the law. Yet as a legal juggernaut he should know that ignorance of the law is no excuse, especially in the inner recesses of our temple of justice where he presides.
It is pertinent to recall here that the executive took on the legislature when the Senate President was arraigned before the same tribunal for similar charges connected with declaration of assets. The Senate President was eventually cleared at the Supreme Court. Was that a case of those in glass houses throwing stones when they should not.? Anyway the senate president survived the ordeal and lived to fight another day. It is now the turn of the CJN to fend for himself with his well known legal erudition which got him to the pinnacle of his profession which also preaches very firmly that nobody is above the law. This trial promises to be the greatest rumble in the jungle in our temple of justice that will definitely keep our political system on tenterhooks as we face the all important 2019 elections. Nothing demonstrates the challenges of our presidential system and its delicate balance of power more than the trial of the CJN at the CCT. It is like the law itself is on trial in Nigeria in a bid to establish the rule of law in our fledgling democracy. It certainly is a situation that beggars description in terms of ethics and morality which is the basis of the law in any society, including Nigeria.
We end up with the Nancy Pelosi strategy to steal the thunder of Donald Trump over the State of THE Union Address which any US president looks forward to in delivering before a Joint Congress. Pelosi who has purview in inviting the president has cheekily suggested the president could do it from the White House because staff to provide security for the event have not been paid. Which is like Nancy Pelosi telling the American President – Play me foul – on security – and I play you tricky, and that is a quotation from the book Kidnapped by R L Stevenson that I read in secondary school. In plain terms the House Speaker is telling the US President that he does not have a monopoly of aggressive and disruptive political actions in his quest to keep his campaign promises and that what is good for the goose can be good for the gander. Which is vintage political tit for tat. Once again long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
