The Nation Newspaper

Tag: fascism

  • Fascism: executive or judicial?

    Since it is the season of high-wire emotions, we may as well start a no less explosive debate.  Which would you prefer: executive or judicial fascism?

    Since that rather novel “suspension” of January 25, the polity has been in a tizzy.  Some bawl fascism!  Others screech dictatorship! Yet, others hiss tyranny!

    President Muhammadu Buhari, clutching an “interim order” by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), had “suspended” embattled Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Samuel Onnoghen, as CJN and chairman of the National Judicial Council (NJC).

    In his place, he had sworn in Justice Ibrahim Tanko Mohammed, the next in line on the Supreme Court hierarchy, as acting CJN, pending the CCT trial of Justice Onnoghen, for alleged asset declaration infractions.

    The order’s exact wording, on the CJN: “It is hereby ordered as follows: That the defendant/respondent shall step aside as the CJN and chairman of NJC over allegation of contravening the provisions of the Code of Conduct and Tribunal Act CAP C15 Laws of the Federation 2004, pending the determination of the motion on notice, dated 10th January 2019.”

    And its directive to the president: “That the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall take all necessary measure to swear in the most senior Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria as acting CJN and chairman NJC in order to prevent a vacuum in the judicial arm of government, pending the determination of the motion on notice.”

    That is the legal anchor for the current high-wire drama: Onnoghen out, Mohammed in.

    But that is certainly a departure from the Constitutional provisions, which state the CJN could only be removed by the president, armed with a resolution backed by two-third majority of the Senate.

    Still, has CJN Onnoghen been removed?  No.  Stepping aside — even if pushed — cannot equate “removal”.  So, to confuse removal (final cessation), with suspension (temporary cessation), is nothing but conceptual fuzziness.

    Yet, what does the law say on suspending the CJN?  Virtually nothing, at least going by the Constitution.

    Well, the closest to that is the NJC convention, that almost automatically suspends any judge that has any case to answer.  That is a neat procedural window, to temporarily ease out a judge accused of any infraction, without necessarily losing his job before being found guilty; or blighting the majesty of his office.

    In this grim case, however, the accused judge (shame of shame!) is CJN, the chair of NJC — and from his camp would appear already some high-wire manoeuvres, not only to cling to office but also to sabotage justice.

    CJN Onnoghen indefinitely postponed NJC’s routine 88th meeting, fixed for January 15, for no specific reasons, because he allegedly feared NJC might suspend him.

    Also, on the procedural lane, a rash of courts have ruled  — including the National Industrial Court (NIC), that in this fray hardly has a locus, except the CJN is now an endangered Labour species! — that proceedings at CCT be stopped.  Judicial hand of Esau but voice of Jacob?

    The premise for these orders, for alleged procedural hiccups, is that the CJN is charged with “judicial misconduct”, in which case he is entitled to some NJC pre-sanction, to disrobe him, before facing justice in court.

    But there have been counter-voices that “forgetting” to declare your asset, as the CJN claimed he did, is easily linkable to high sleaze; which exits the window of routine “misconduct” to high financial crime.

    A judge, charged with crime, of stealing a goat or murdering his wife, for instance, they argue, loses the privilege of NJC “orderly room” pre-trial.

    But beyond arguments and counter-arguments, the media also reported that the CJN was poised to inaugurate vital adjudication tribunals, for the 2019 general elections.

    In other words, smudge, stink and all, His Lordship was going to pretend his reputation was intact; and public perception irrelevant.

    Had that happened, a blighted CJN, in public perception, if not court conviction, would have infected those tribunals with his perceived stench, no matter how immaculate the members of those tribunals are.  For that prime public evil, he would have pleaded “presumption of innocence”, which by the way is no crime, under our present prosecutorial legal system.

    But isn’t good, old honour, stepping aside to clear his name, far better — honour that presumably comes with his office, as even he is addressed “Honourable CJN”?

    That Justice Onnoghen would prefer to hang in there, to game the system as long as he possibly could, relying on procedural cant, just shows how low the judicial system has sunk.

    That goes back to the CCT order.

    To be sure, that order remains controversial, since the Constitution didn’t say exactly say how a CJN should be suspended.

    But perhaps as in the Njangiwa 11 December 2017 Court of Appeal verdict, which the technicality ensemble now codify as the regnant “law”, that must willy-nilly keep the CJN in office, maybe the CCT order should pass as “latest law”, to teach the CJN fresh tutorials in the harsh strictures of honour.  That cannot be bad for a redemption-needing Bench, can it?

    In realpolitik terms, however, it’s gaming and counter-gaming.  The arrogant SANs tried to game the system by propping up a CJN whose integrity has all but vamoosed.

    That would not only have further profaned the judiciary, it would have firmly founded judicial fascism, in which only crass procedural manipulations — never Justice — matter.

    But the president too has counter-gamed: to unhorse a damaged CJN; and put the dazed judiciary out of its misery.

    Grant those whose editorials thunder and howl against “dictatorship” and “fascism” their democratic bile.

    But like the deluded pro-Onnoghen SANs, it’s the tragedy of a media that prides its manipulative weapons over and above clear thinking for public good.

    As for the so-called “international community”, they should propel Onnoghen to the apex of their Bench, to underscore his excellent conduct.  That would appear far more convincing than mere diplomatic whining.

    If PMB’s push, to teach a recalcitrant CJN basic honour amounts to “fascism”, so be it.

    But better an executive fascism (to which you have putative checks); than judicial fascism (in which the ultimate check is irredeemably corrupted and destroyed).

    Still, all blare about “fascism” is scare-mongering from an evil class, that knows it’s about to be checkmated; and try to dress their private evil in public good.

    But even if it comes to that, blame no one but lawyers (basic and applied) who, in Achebe-speak, grow so powerful they challenge their chi (personal god) to a wrestling bout.

    It’s the classic pride that goes before a loud crash!

  • Balarabe Musa, PDP’s incompetence and APC’s fascism

    Balarabe Musa, PDP’s incompetence and APC’s fascism

    Former Kaduna State governor, Balarabe Musa, recently used piquant phrases to describe the character and operations of Nigeria’s two leading parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Mallam Musa, who is and also the chairman of the almost forgotten Peoples Redemption Party (PRP),  is undoubtedly an agitated and impatient idealist, but his characterisation of the two bungling and bumbling parties is unimpeachable. The progressive politician had mercilessly skewered the two parties last week while responding to reporters’ questions last week in Abuja. The PDP, he summed up, was incompetent; and the APC, he growled, was fascistic. Ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo had delivered a similar judgement on the two parties not too long ago; but Mallam Musa possessed better and ethical justification to reach the salient conclusions the entire country seems to be coming round to.

    “I will tell you they are complete failures,” said Mallam Musa of the parties. “If PDP was incompetent, APC is even worse. In the case of the PDP government, it was just incompetence, and you can negotiate with incompetents. But in the case of the APC, it is fascism and you know that you have no stand with a fascist who clears the obstacle by any means. This is what we are experiencing now. We have replaced incompetence with fascism.” The divisions between the two parties may however not be as neat as the former governor painted it. While the PDP was truly incompetent in office, especially judging from the reckless wastage of the country’s resources and the mindless stealing that undermined the economy under its 16 years leadership, the APC, on the other hand, is not just fascistic, it has managed so far to have combined that singular vice with a multiplicity of dubieties and incompetence.

    To dwell on the PDP, despite the telling effects of its incompetence and the bold relief in which that ineptitude is increasingly etched, is to flog a dead horse. It is sufficient to say that the party, which had boasted it would rule Nigeria for 60 years without explaining why it chose that silly and arbitrary figure, had no system in place to govern well, nor the men to champion its cause and promote the modest values it managed to conceive. It suffered a humiliating defeat in 2015, a consequence of its lack of discipline, dearth of values, and partisan pride. Unlike shortly after it lost the general elections, when some people wondered whether the country was not too hasty and sentimental in repudiating the PDP, only a few people now view the exposure of the kleptocracy that hobbled the nation without concluding that keeping the inept PDP in power for 16 years was both excessive and indefensibly generous.

    Mallam Musa was neutral in judging the two parties, though he will of course be unable to supplant any of them with his own fairly untested and nearly forgotten party should that thought ever cross his mind. There is nothing to show he thinks of any supplantation, however, for like every other Nigerian, he is realistic enough to know that to nurse a party to national prominence, if not invincibility, requires both financial and human resources of grandiose and intimidating proportions. His current frustrations in running the PRP, including getting justice for the party when it is assailed by conspiratorial busybodies and conniving jurists (see box below), is a testament to the abominable course politics has taken in the country.

    No one will question why Mallam Musa dismissed the PDP as incompetent. But given the unrestrained national excitement over President Muhammadu Buhari’s rejection of avarice, some Nigerians may cavil at the former Kaduna governor’s disparaging conclusions. But Mallam Musa is neither given to histrionics nor has he ever been accused of been flighty, irrational and tempestuous. His point of view may be disagreeable, and his ideological conviction considered inflexible, anachronistic and unworkable. But he is a logician of great accomplishment, an ethical politician of high standing, not by persuasion but by deep and genuine conviction. Such men rarely exaggerate or say something out of spite. If Mallam Musa says APC is fascistic, he is probably, if not unimpeachably, right.

    The former Kaduna governor did not elaborate on the fascism label; but he needn’t. The facts are clear for everyone to see, even to those mesmerised by the president’s unconvincing rationalisation of many of his draconian actions. Section 1 (1) of the 1999 constitution says: “This Constitution is supreme and its provisions shall have binding force on the authorities and persons throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” But repeatedly, the president and his cabinet have placed themselves above the constitution. Suspects are routinely detained for longer than the constitution mandates; and when regardless of the government’s umbrage the courts summon the courage to grant bail, sometimes as many times as possible for effect, the Buhari presidency ignores the courts, and accuses them of colluding with saboteurs and conniving at corruption. In the opinion of President Buhari, the outrage caused by the malfeasance of the suspects far outweigh the government’s disobedience of the courts.

    In other instances, the Buhari presidency goes beyond pursuing the media trial of suspects to outrightly disobeying the constitution by detaining suspects ad infinitum. In the popular case of the Shiite leader, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, the government not only approved of the massacre of more than 300 of his followers — men, women and children — and their hasty burial in two mass graves, the injured and almost blinded leader and his wife have had their constitutional rights suspended or even abrogated. There are many other cases, sometimes during security operations and anti-corruption war, when the government has backed its campaigns with autocratic, poorly conceived and unconstitutional measures. The country shudders to think what would happen to the liberties guaranteed the people by the constitution had the ruling APC been a united, pacesetting and ideological party fascinated by its own repressive tendencies.

    Mallam Musa does not of course indicate whether he thought the disunity in the APC significant enough as a factor in the party’s fascistic approach to governance. Nor is it clear to anyone whether the disunity had anything to do with any ideological struggle within the party. What seems clear is that a faction of the party has hijacked power, not on ideological grounds, but probably on sectional, cabalistic or even sectarian grounds. It is that faction’s brutal use of power, its abhorrent deployment of Machiavellian tactics, and its camorra-like methods that gall the judicious and emit the fascistic signals picked up by Mallam Musa and every Nigerian sensitive about the concepts of freedom and justice.

    The former Kaduna governor is right to say that Nigerians can indeed negotiate with an incompetent leader, for an incompetent leader is sometimes amenable to other views; but not so a fascist. A fascist is obsessed with his own point of view, believes himself to be infallible, is paranoid about other people’s objections and observations, hates to be proved wrong, and is overall messianic about his role and objectives in leadership. There is indeed no negotiating with a fascist. Mallam Musa sees the APC as a fascist party; it is unlikely he exaggerates. He must however hope that he does not become a Cassandra whose warnings are fated to be disbelieved, and that the current factionalism in the party does not give way to one supreme, fanatical faction with which neither man nor gods can reason.

  • Democracy feeds Turkey to fascism

    Democracy feeds Turkey to fascism

    From all indications, Turkey seems marooned at a dark crossroads today. A failed coup last Friday has  not only exposed the rump of military generals but also the darker side of a democracy entrusted to an intolerant hawk, Tayyip Recep Erdogan.

    Since triumphing over the putschists Saturday, the Turkish president has been acting in a manner that gives a new poignancy to the fascism German playwright tried to describe sarcastically several decades ago. Once a state loses confidence in the people, proposes the bard, it should then not hesitate to dissolve the citizenry.

    At the last count, no fewer than a record 50,000 persons have been summarily rounded up in a country of less than 80 million people.

    Addressing his nation Wednesday, President Erdogan did not sound in the conciliatory tone of someone intent on fixing the fissures the coup has inadvertently brought to light. In declaring a three-month emergency rule, he preferred the gloating words of a conqueror determined to in fact escalate the witch-hunt against the remaining opposition, real or imagined. For effects, he left no one in doubt that he is desirous of resurrecting the death penalty earlier abrogated in 2004 as part of a pre-condition for Turkey to be admitted into the European Union.

    Signs that all is still not well in Turkey despite the coup’s crash on Saturday were evident Tuesday. Even as officials were still counting the cost of the Friday/Saturday mayhem, a car bomb exploded in central Istanbul, killing 11 people instantly with many more badly injured. The following day, there was another lethal bombing in Mardin province. Predictably, the authorities quickly point a finger at an opposition party, PKK.

    And there precisely lies the peril to liberty in Turkey today and a clarion call on the rest of the world not to look away. Given the peculiar evolution of Turkey as a nation in which the military is more or less cast as the Praetorian Guard, there is no denying that the country truly needs a muscular president to scare adventurous generals away. But that sort of strength is not just about the weight of the biceps but more of the generosity of spirit. That is, the will to still accommodate, to tolerate those unwilling to view life through your own lens. A critical virtue obviously in deficit today. And what makes the prospects even more unthinkable is Erdogan’s bringing religion into an already toxic mix.

    Though Turkey is 99 percent Muslim (of the Sunni affiliation), her founding fathers were however generous enough to conceive a secular state with a view to removing any possible sectarian threat to her continued harmony and balance.

    But with his ascendancy in the last fifteen years, Erdogan has nudged his Justice and Development Party (AKP) to drag the nation more towards Islamist extremism. To further seduce the mullahs, he once described the EU as “a Christian club.” To the discomfort of moderate elements who would wish Turkey’s original architecture of secularism be preserved.

    At the boom of artillery fire last Friday in Turkey’s two key cities of Ankara and Istanbul, the initial interpretation was that a coup was underway. Happily, people’s power prevailed so dramatically that military’s otherwise awesome might was made to look so feeble. Though at a huge human toll: no fewer than 250 were killed and thousands suffering varying degrees of harm in a grim encounter that dragged from Friday dusk till Saturday morning.

    In one instance, we saw footage of a brave Turkish youth jumping on an armoured tank and punching the soldier on duty. In yet another was an epic reversal of role: a civilian was shown whipping the back of a group of subdued soldiers lying face down on the highway.

    But if as much as 50,000 could be linked to that coup as Erdogan’s action so far has suggested, then we honestly can no longer call that a putsch. What actually confronts Turkey today ought to be seen properly as an uprising, or what the Arabs call “intifada”. It is only a manifestation of deep fracture in the Turkey’s democracy as presently constituted. To pretend otherwise is to live in denial.

    Previously, allegations of coup plot were often parlayed to witch-hunt of Erdogan’s perceived opponents within and outside the military. But the current episode, apparently on account of its actuality, has broken past records. Already, a hundred of generals and admirals have been charged. Thousands of rank and file soldiers, said to have been tricked to the streets with the lie of “routine parade” by their superiors, would be made to face a scrutiny that potentially carries a death penalty.

    The growing casualty list also includes 1,577 university deans ordered to resign beside 21,000 teachers and 15,000 education ministry officials. Just as vocal journalists and independent media houses are being hunted down. Paranoid still, Erdogan has barred access to the WikiLeads website in continuation of his old tactic of crude censorship of the social media and manic obsession to control people’s minds. (Ironically, when guns started booming last Friday, it was the same social media Erdogan resorted to while in hiding to incite supporters to troop to the streets and confront the coupists.)

    By the time the purge is over, one then wonders how many people would be left in Turkey for Erdogan to rule over. It is for these reasons that those who have Erdogan’s ears like the United States (which leads the NATO to which Turkey belongs) must impress it on him that he cannot continue like this.

    It is reassuring that the US has so far not succumbed to Erdogan’s blackmail that his arch political opponent and American-based cleric, Fethullah Gulen, be extradited to Ankara to face trial over alleged involvement in the failed coup plot. Rather, Washington is insisting on strong proof of complicity before entertaining such request.

    In retrospect, the Turkish president has proved to be too intolerant and would not mind burying an entire town led by the illusion of tranquility, even if it is that of the graveyard. Memories of the Cizre massacre are still fresh. In the city of Cizre, hundreds of young people were burned to death in basements in what readily recalled the ghost of Hitler’s gas chamber against the Jews decades ago. So much that even the United Nation has called on the Turkish government to establish an independent commission of inquiry to investigate the killings.

    Through intimidation, Erdogan has stampeded the congress to pass obnoxious laws granting him sweeping powers to hunt down opposition elements, particularly those with sympathy for the long-suffering Kurds. Earlier, he fired the moderate AKP prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, who was critical of the proposed constitutional changes.

    But the budding fascist in Ankara needs to be made to understand that the peace of the graveyard is not sustainable. At best, he would have only succeeded in delaying a civil war.

  • President should halt drift into fascism

    SIR: We are beginning to see a gradual transition into fascism, selective justice and retrogressive clampdown on the opposition. This portends ominous sign for the nation. It is becoming clearer that President Jonathan is ready to muscle his way into the presidency for a second term in 2015. The opposition are being whipped to fall in line willy nilly.

    I believe that President Goodluck Jonathan has the constitutional right to contest for a second term in office. Similarly, the opposition has a right to field a presidential candidate against the President or any other PDP candidate in 2015. President Jonathan should allow his work to speak for or against him. Any student of politics will know that clamping down on the opposition can only achieve temporary relief. It rather attracts sympathy for the persecuted. Whichever way, all public officers will have to leave the office one day.

    During the Ekiti governorship election, APC governors were prevented by security forces from entering into Ekiti State while the Minister of Police Affairs and the Minister of State for Defence (PDP chieftains) were allowed in. The Akure airport was also shut to prevent the APC governors from flying into their bases and they were forced to travel by road. Some Ekiti State APC local leaders were detained during the election.

    Recently, President Jonathan welcomed former Governor Ali Modu Sheriff into the PDP with preferential treatment and opened Maiduguri airport for the landing of his private plane. The Maiduguri Airport had been shut for some time and was not made available for locals even for lesser hajj.

    Impeachment moves have been made and are still been made against opposition governors especially in states where the PDP controls the states houses of assemblies. Some have rumored that more states controlled by the opposition may go the same way.

    What our President needs to do is to endear himself into the hearts of the electorate. If the President had  dealt with sponsors of terrorism, the killings of our people with impunity would have stopped. He should deploy security forces to resolve our insecurity challenges and not use such for irrelevancies.  He should fight corruption and ensures transparency in governance. He should stop granting state pardons to corrupt elements who still have cases in courts to resolve. He should ensure that fake marketers who were paid billions of naira for fuel not imported are brought to book and the ill-gotten wealth retrieved into the public treasury. He should fight oil theft and substantially increase the earnings of the nation.

    The President should retrace his steps and not follow the path of executive recklessness.

     

    • Akinlolu Abdulazeez Adelaja,

    University of Ilorin.

  • Nyako’s impeachment:Nigeria is descending into fascism, says Tinubu

    Nyako’s impeachment:Nigeria is descending into fascism, says Tinubu

    National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, yesterday  lashed out at President  Goodluck Jonathan for encouraging fascism in the polity.

    Reviewing the events culminating in this week’s  impeachment of  Alhaji Murtala Nyako as governor of Adamawa State by the State Assembly, Tinubu  said the development is a setback for Nigeria’s democracy.

    “Under the constitution, a governor can only be impeached for ‘gross misconduct.’ For the PDP, Nyako’s crime was not the false allegations contained in the articles of impeachment. To them, his gross misconduct was leaving the reactionary PDP to join the progressive APC. His misdeed was to exercise his constitutional right of freedom of association and political expression by leaving their corrupt assemblage and joining the party that just may represent the best hope of rescuing Nigeria from its present descent into authoritarian darkness,” he said in a statement in Lagos.

    Continuing, Tinubu said: “Perhaps, Governor Nyako’s greatest sin is his temerity to speak truth to power albeit in a courageous way. On two different occasions, he gave an unvarnished insight into the Boko Haram menace and the insecurity engulfing Northern Nigeria.

    “At the Institute of Peace in Washington DC, this year when he visited with other Northern governors, he placed the blame for the Boko Haran insurgency on the Jonathan presidency. He then followed this up with a detailed letter to the forum of the Northern governors, in which he accused the Jonathan-led government of genocide against the North.

    “This rattled and unsettled the government. Repeated attempts to have Gov. Nyako withdraw his letter and apologize to the President failed. From the moment he wrote that letter, he became a marked man. The government savaged the governor through the media.

    “This kangaroo impeachment is government’s way of punishing Nyako. The plan is to use the contents of the letter he wrote to the Northern Governors as a basis to try him for treasonable felony and eventually sentence him to life imprisonment. Nyako’s frank, if rough-edged, letter concerning the security situation apparently infuriated the monarch of Aso Villa who has become so arrogant as to believe no opposition against him is justified, thus he has the liberty to impose his brand of injustice to crush those who oppose him.

    “Before our eyes and under Jonathan’s watch, Nigeria gradually descends into fascism. We must all act now before it consumes us al” Tinubu said.

    The former Lagos State governor also deplored  the President’s handling of the abduction of the Chibok girls by Boko Haram, especially his refusal to see the parents of the girls until  the recent visit to Nigeria of the Pakistani pupil activist, Malala.