Abraham Lincoln, one of the most revered American leaders of all times, said centuries ago that: “I walk slowly, but I never walk backward.” I’m not sure those who almost nailed former President Goodluck Jonathan of engaging in slow motion, ever read that quote.
At a time, Jonathan was christened: Clueless President, Papa Go-slow, etc. One of the people who ridiculed Jonathan with such derogatory tags was the then spokesman of the All Peoples Congress (APC) who has since been promoted.
I can just imagine what would happen now if someone were to call the sitting president such names. A particular smallish former minister with over-bloated self-image, who wrote a book about his sojourn in public service, took the joke too far by calling the man stupid.
Yet, Jonathan kept going. He started late; got distracted severally; and repeatedly got messed up by people he appointed into his administration. But he kept going. Many believe today that he was steadily heading somewhere glorious compared to what happened after he left office.
Many years after Lincoln’s death, one man who adores him so much, President Barack Obama, said: “If you are walking down the right path, and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually, you’ll make progress.” I wish our leaders take such advice to heart.
I really don’t understand why I started writing about Jonathan when I should actually focus on one year anniversary of the present administration. It could be because I do not want to get into trouble with All the President’s Men.
One great achievement of President Muhammadu Buhari in the last one year has been his ability to silence the voices of opposition by merely fighting corruption. This is not to say that everyone who should have raised a voice against his administration is corrupt.
Rather, the truth remains that you do not need to be corrupt to be branded as such. You do not need to be factually corrupt to be picked up and detained endlessly. Haven’t you noticed the silence from the camps of the opposition political parties; especially the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)?
Yes, most of those PDP big men have had their hands soiled in the last 16 years and deserve to face the law. My only fear is that not only the guilty are suffering; even the innocent ones who dare raised their voices are counted among.
The reason Governor Fayose is talking the way he does and still walks about freely is because of the constitutional immunity he enjoys. I have this feeling that somebody somewhere is waiting for him to leave office; and then he would be made to account for all his utterances.
The silence from those who should speak out is not only limited to the political class. Even the media – I mean the hitherto outspoken Nigerian media, the very institution that fought for democracy, has gone silent on many critical issues.
Editors now read the lips of the anti-corruption crusaders when it comes to which stories to publish and what headlines to cast. Most of them have been warned by their publishers not to put them in trouble by publishing stories that contradict government’s stand on corruption.
Criticising the government’s unconventional, or is it unconstitutional approach to fighting corruption has attracted little or no comments from the media because everybody is afraid of being counted among the corrupt ones.
It has become normal, in the last one year, for people to be arrested and detained for several weeks or months without being charged to court. It has become normal for big headlines to be cast announcing that a big man has been declared wanted as if he were on the run before.
It has become very normal for the anti-corruption agencies to disobey court orders demanding the release of over-detained accused persons; or have them charged to court since their detention without trial contradicts our laws.
Believe me; such orders do not make news any longer. It has become very normal for the anti-corruption agencies to move from court to court obtaining legal permission to detain suspects while they start looking for evidence that could be used to charge them to court.
My concern is that these activities have cast a dark shadow over the genuine effort of this administration in the war against corruption. I refuse to believe that it is the President that has authorised what is going on in the anti-corruption agencies: detention without trial.
A few hundred years ago, James Madison, one of the founding fathers of the American Constitution and the fourth U.S. President said: “I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” Here is such a case.
Winston Churchill also observed that: “the power of the executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist.”
As Nigerians celebrate one year of hunger and crushed hopes, and as we look forward to the future with inexhaustible hope, the President needs to take another look at this issue. Everybody is not a criminal; and no one is really a criminal until the courts say so.
Endless detention is in itself a crime because it violates our laws. Let every accused person be charged to court and not detained endlessly. That is what the law says; and we should respect our laws.
