IMPUNITY: THE BANE OF THE NIGERIAN FEDERATION.,Prince S.E.A. Ọmọ́ṣébí Ẹ́gbọdọ̀fọ̀
+2348037199056
(A Gubernatorial Hopeful for Ondo State 2024 on the platform of Labour Party).
By Ayekooto
There should be consequences for breaking the law. The essence of the law is to help create an atmosphere of peace, tranquility, discipline and order in the society. Laws exist to help the people create a society of their dreams.
Therefore, breaking those laws is tantamount to creating another society that is different from the one envisaged by the people. Lawbreakers are enemies of the society because they hinder the emergence of the ideal state of living the society plans for itself. This is the reason the society must appropriately sanction commission of crimes. When people are allowed to get away with commission of crimes, a culture of impunity is established in the society.
A society that allows crimes to go unchallenged and unpunished in its midst is invariably conferring immunity from prosecution on criminals. Such a society will be bedeviled with crime infestation, insecurity, chaos, disorderliness, lack of functionality and corporate health. There will be signs that the society is sick.
Assassination, murder, robbery, kidnapping, rape, trespass, fraud, perjury, defamation of character, stealing, shoplifting, illegal possession of firearms, insurrection, mutiny, cyberstalking, cyberbullying, knifing, forgery, abduction, misrepresentation, espionage, treason, are examples of acts that the laws of most human societies prohibit. Engaging in what the society prohibits is lawbreaking.
A society is the sum total of its laws. That is, a society is a function of what it permits as legal as well as what it prohibits as illegal. For instance, certain sexual orientations that used to be unacceptable in the Western nations of the world half a century ago have not only been legalised, but they now define the morality of those sovereign nations. On the other hand, in nations such as Saudi Arabia, Omar, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Ghana, Nigeria, and most other African independent nations, gayism is generally unacceptable, and legislated against. So, the laws are the instruments by which nation-builders paint the kind of societies they dream of on the canvas of time.
A nation that has no adequate body of laws to guide and regulate engagements and activities of those living within it - citizens, visitors and legal residents - has no bright future. Equally true is the fact that a nation whose law enforcement institutions are weak, unreliable and compromised is not better than the one lacking in good framework of statues.
The major challenge of the Nigerian federation is the huge disconnection and dichotomy between what obtains in reality and the expected outcomes envisaged by the drafters of our laws and Constitution. Almost all our institutions - the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Navy, the Nigerian Airforce, Directorate of State Services (DSS), EFCC, Nigerian National Petroleum Limited, INEC, National Assembly, Presidency, the Supreme Court, Appeal Courts, High Courts, Magistrate Courts, State High Courts, Customary Courts, State Executive Councils, State Houses of Assembly, Local Government Councils, and others - differ extensively in operation from the letters and spirit of the laws from which they derive their legitimacy. It is disheartening and tragic that these institutions and organs of state are not fulfilling the purposes of their creation and existence in the main.
The above sad reality is responsible for the multi-dimensional chaos and dyfunctional state of the Nigerian nation. If we must achieve our formidable potentials as a people with a common destiny, we must begin to insist on doing things right. Things are done right when they are done in accordance with the laws, stipulations, procedures and policies put in place to guide them.
The power to govern the entire Federal Republic of Nigeria, or any part of it should be acquired in line with the agreed processes and procedures. When this is not the case, then the government that comes to power lacks legitimacy. It may run its course, but it is illegal, unconstitutional and illegitimate. There is an urgent need to ensure that seekers of electoral mandate and governmental power in Nigeria do so according to the laws of the land.
In the light of the above, Tinubu's government, if he is permitted by the judiciary to ascend the Aso Rock Throne on Monday 29 May, 2023, and those of many state governors as well as local council chairpersons across the land are no different from government of criminals like Agunyi Ironsi, Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Mohammed, Olusegun Obasanjo, Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, Ernest Shonekan, Sani Abacha and Abdusalaami Abubakar who governed our nation illegally!
Aso Rock, Governors' Lodges and other official residences of members of the Executive Arm of government in Nigeria should not be allowed to be the ultimate trophies of criminals who aren't interested in societies where laws and order are supreme, respected and followed. For now, Nigeria is a jungle, where might is right. It is like the kingdom of wild animals where the strongest do as they please. We need a society of law and order. I am afraid, Muhammadu Buhari's second coming might not be the nation's divorce from the era of illegalities, impunities, criminalities and arbitrariness. But for how long are we going to be circumnavigating and rigmaroling on the same cycle? When will Nigeria's wilderness experience end? When we the Giant of Africa step into the Promised Land of fulfilment of her innate greatness? Those of you who participated in the subversion of the electoral will of the people of Nigeria in the 2023 Elections, "unah no do well at all at all!"
Thank you.
Prince S.E.A. Ọmọ́ṣébí Ẹ́gbọdọ̀fọ̀
+2348037199056
(A Gubernatorial Hopeful for Ondo State 2024 on the platform of Labour Party)
Friday 28 April, 2023
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