ENDLESS DRAWING OF DUD AGENDA INTO THE DOLDRUMS: Lesson from Rodrigo Duterte
By 'Tunji Ajayi
I exceptionally liked a subject while in school. It is Law & Procedure of Meetings which relates to proper conduct of company and public meetings. Every meeting has an agenda which comprises important issues to discuss at that meeting and have resolutions which often form part of legal instruments to administer the company. A very popular decided case is the National Dwelling Society v Sykes (1894) which clearly spells out the duties and powers of the Chairman of a meeting. One of his key functions is to “preserve law and order” at the meeting and to guide members appropriately. Consequently, it stands to reason that the Chairman himself should appreciate and respect law and order guiding the meeting, lest his superintending over the meeting appears hypocritical and all his pronouncements become unworthy of being taken serious. His exemplary conducts would further ensure peace and orderliness in that meeting.
My anecdotal allusion above suggests that a meeting, viz a congregation of people, is a miniature of a larger society, viz, a country which also requires law and order to function and make progress. Thus, it is also presided over by a “Chairman”, but hereinafter constitutionally referred to as Mr. President in our democratic setting. If the President is decisive, protects, obeys and preserves the law of the land, his aides naturally replicate his sterling examples. On the other hand, if he prevaricates, or quibbles in preserving law and order, the country literally drifts into a jungle where every oddity thrives, typical of an interregnum where no government is put in place. Where he shuns decisiveness but double-speaks, his lieutenants lose directions unsure of the exact path to follow. Since a man that does not stand for something on principle falls for anything on impulse. If the leadership is not a stickler to specific principles, the larger followership falls for anything too. Then established law and order are made tenuous in his domain; while like in one of Fela’s albums everything turns Upside-Down. In his “Upside Down” which was released in 1976, the music maestro surmised that he had been to many countries around the world where everything in their society is well organized. But in many African nations - where Nigeria professes to be a leader and the Giant, communication, agric, electricity, governance, etc are disorganized, while “everything is upside down pátápátá,”- that is, totally.
Just like in public meeting which, subject to few exceptions, is legally defined as an assembly of two or more people for a lawful purpose (Sharp v Dawes, 1876), a nation also must have her agenda spelling out clearly what it plans to achieve within a given period of time. However, making plans without putting law and order in proper perspective will always result in everything turning “upside down”. Having gone for good, the suffocating Year 2021 will be followed by a yearly ritual. So, expectedly the preoccupation of every arm of government now involves setting an agenda for social and economic development in the new year 2022. But the truth is that no appreciable progress ever emerges under the atmosphere of fear and insecurity. Of what essence are infrastructures being provided in a society that is under the constantly watchful eyes and siege of untamed criminals with destructive inclinations? Few months back, the newly installed Kaduna-Abuja rail line was bombed! Other axis was vandalized by criminals too. That shows the supreme essence of law and order to engender internal security of lives and properties.
There is no sane society that prioritizes any issue over and above security of citizens’ lives and property. No dead man benefits from infrastructural provision, no matter how novel or functional. Indeed, the entire humanity when under apprehension and intense fear of death is reduced to a “walking shadow” viz “homo mortis” – dead but walking skeleton. Thus, humanity survives and thrives on law and order, peace, justice and equanimity.
But how can a nation pursue and achieve what is spelt out in her agenda unless the leadership ensures the preservation of law and order. Indeed, peaceful pursuance of national agenda is inexorably tied to existence of law and order. If hundreds of human lives are inordinately and criminally snuffed out every week in the past 10 years, what genuine efforts have been made to stem the tide? The national police obviously have become so ineffective and seem overwhelmed. Yet, the Federal Government still opposes the establishment of state police. If the monumental fatality and calamity are not natural, but are caused by fellow humans under whatever guise, how many offenders have been apprehended and adequately punished to deter such criminalities, which thrive when there is hope of escaping punishments?
In an edition of Vanguard Newspaper of March 1, 2021 was a horrendous report entitled: “Killing Fields” to which the Nigerian space has evidently now become. The report said a whopping 1,525 humans were killed within only the first 6 weeks of year 2021. Citing the Nigerian Security Trackers (NST), which is a Council on Foreign Relations’ Africa programme, and whose data is based on weekly surveys of Nigerian and international media, it was reported that “the 1,525 death figure, which is conservative covers only reported cases arising from the Boko-Haram insurgency, banditry, herdsmen crises, kidnapping, communal and cult clashes, armed robbery and brutality of security agents among others.” The horrendous and frightening report states that many security breaches were not even reported, neither was the number of abducted victims who died in captivity of kidnappers, which was difficult to tell, was captured. It puts the conservative number of those in various kidnappers’ dens across the country at over 5,000. It states further that about 3,188 lives were lost between January and December 2019 according to Global Right figures; while 348 were killed in violent attacks across Nigeria in December 2020, as reported by Nigeria Mourns - a non-governmental organization. The report states: “Nigeria is the 3rd country amongst most impacted by terrorism, going by the global terrorism index of 2020 after Afghanistan and Libya. No single part of the country is immune from these disastrous deaths.” Aside from the government’s resettlement policy of “repented” bandits and insurgents which we hear daily, Nigerians are yet to see a definite programme for the trial and conviction of those who waged deadly war against the nation and humanity to deter other criminals.
A Nigerian newspaper, Premium Times, reported the Permanent Secretary (Special Services) Office of the Secretary to Government of Federation, Amina Shamaki to have stated that from January to July 2019, about 330 attacks were recorded, resulting to the deaths of about 1,460 civilians.” Shamaki added that “application of the Carrot & Stick approach is an effective strategy that enabled criminals willing to embrace peace to do so while repentant ones are identified and isolated for appropriate actions by the security agencies.” The truth, however, is that while many Nigerians have only seen “Carrots” being given, they are yet to see the “Stick” being applied? In a society that appreciates law and order as bastion of development, conscious trials by special courts of jurisdiction ought to have begun, of those who put the nation and lawful citizens under such horrendous siege for over a decade now, during which time hundreds of thousands of lives were slaughtered and many citizens displaced.
On the contrary, we are often treated to examples and hackneyed cliché by our eloquent government spokespersons that criminality is not only peculiar to Nigeria. This is ostensibly to justify their claims that Nigeria too cannot be immune from terrorism and violent crimes in this modern age. The “argumentum ad baculum” is often referred to as “argument to the cudgel” because it is a fallacious argument that merely seeks to force the acceptance of a conclusion without examining the validity and more superior value of truth in a contrary opinion. In other words, the government spokespersons are apt to lean on the alibi that terrorism is now a trend worldwide. However, they hardly talk about prompt and stiff punishments applied in other parts of the world. Consequently, anyone who complains about the Nigerian situation is maligned as being unpatriotic or stigmatized as government’s opposition. But the truth is that in many other climes where law and order is fully enshrined, criminals apprehended are not pampered but deterred by adequate and immediate punishments. Many have died in hundreds of thousands. But how many alleged bandits, rapists, kidnappers and insurgents have been apprehended, duly tried and punished publicly to deter others with similar clandestine plans in Nigeria? Consequently, where law and order are made tenuous and ineffective, setting agenda for development becomes ineffectual and expectation of good results remains a mirage. This is more so when the central government is often accused of ethnic bias even on issue of criminality of high magnitude. Thus, the witty words of Oliver Goldsmith, an English poet seem a truism in Nigeria where her laws “ . . . will grind only the poor, while the rich will rule the law.” The effect is such that we have good-laws-made-weak. Succinctly put, any society that turns timid in applying stringent but appropriate laws to stem the tide of criminalities can never grow, regardless of the agenda it sets periodically. Delay defeats equity. It smacks of foot-dragging and official quibbling that the Federal Government could not “officially classify bandits, kidnappers and cattle rustlers as terrorists” since November 26, 2021 when an Abuja High Court declared them as such. While explaining the slowness, Mr. Abubakar Malami the Attorney General and Minister of Justice of the Federation was reported to have said on January 4, 2022 that the government in a bid to “follow international best practices” was still in the process of gazetting the court ruling. On the contrary, the IPOB declaration of September 20, 2017 as terrorist group by the Court was gazetted and signed by the AGF on the same day, entitled Terrorism (Prevention) Proscription Order Notice 2017, Volume 104 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Official Gazette.
It takes a determined Lee Kuan Yew to be in the vanguard on advocacy for meritocracy and real anti-corruption war and the establishment of law and order, which transformed Singapore to a developed nation within a single generation, and a Nelson Mandela to liberate and transform South Africa, putting it on a strong footing. Sincere and honest leadership transforms a nation. Justice-buying, VIPism, ethnic and religious bigotry, applying legal technicalities to enable criminals escape punishments etc are aberrant to societal growth and development. Perhaps, we need to learn a good lesson from Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte. His zero-tolerance for narcotic trade, genocidal killings, brigandage, nepotism and vandalism is legendary. While questioned on his zero-tolerance for criminalities and quick response to national issues, hear him: “You know, before a nation can really be developed or become a viable place to do business, you have to establish first law and order.” Any national leader must adhere rigidly to lofty principles and ideals without quibbling and latching on subterfuge. Any nation that sacrifices ideal principles for expediency or primordial interest of her leader does so at the nation’s peril.
Like William Pitt, a British statesman once said, “Where law ends tyranny begins.” If a nation is not bold enough to declare what is wrong unjust, it will in her garb of timidity, official quibbling and foot-dragging make what is wrong become just gradually. Let our dithering leaders learn from English writer, William Watson’s pungent but altruistic advice: “Let justice be done, though the heaven falls.” Verbum Satis Sapienti
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**Tunji Ajayi, a creative writer, author, biographer and audiovisual documentary producer writes from LC-Studio Communications, Nigeria (+2348033203115, +2348162124412) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tunji.ajayi.946
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