By Igbotako Nowinta
When the Nigerian Supreme Court refused to be a ‘prostitute’ to some attorneys who have sold their souls to the devil; attorneys who have risen to the zenith of their legal profession by submitting to the doctrine of anything goes, and in the process branding themselves unconsciously as legal monsters sucking the unpalatable blood money of desperate politicians, the apex court was frantically and deliberately washing off itself, the black paint that some of the greedy members of the judiciary, and unscrupulous politicians had poured on the sacred institution. Agreed that the Nigerian Judiciary has been invaded by legions of unprincipled and unpatriotic lawyers and judges in recent memory, agreed that the Judiciary is not a perfect entity given some of the most controversial judgments involving high profile political cases since the enthronement of democracy in 1999, the good news is that the Supreme Court has finally come to the point of salvaging itself from the most vexatious ridicule, imposed on it by political and legal merchants of darkness and confusion.
On Wednesday 26th of February, 2020, the Nigerian apex court, otherwise known as the ‘Supreme Court’, took an extraordinary decision by throwing away, through the next available window, within its premises in Abuja, the petition brought by David Lyon of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in Bayelsa State, seeking a ‘reversal’ of the February 13th, 2020 shocking judgment that nullified his Governorship Election.
In finally knocking off the governorship aspirations and prayers of David Lyon, the Supreme Court went ahead to punish the legal ‘luminaries’ that ‘dare’ to reintroduce the matter with a fine of N30 million.
In arriving at that timely, unsentimental and historic pronouncement, the Apex Court succeeded in bringing its seemingly battered reputation, integrity and name from the deepest pit of ridicule, shame and controversy.
Though, unfortunately for David Lyon he has been forced to share in the political crime and cross of his Deputy-Governor- elect, Biobarakuma Deji-Eremienyo, when he engaged in a most irregular presentation of his name according to documents he furnished to his party and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the 2019 Governorship Election in Bayelsa State.
The recent development at the Supreme Court has thrown up fundamental issues touching on the political class in Nigeria, and why Nigerian nation has refused to fly from the throes of underdevelopment, chaos and darkness.
Let me refresh our memory a bit! In 1986, General Ibrahim Babangida, having bulldozed his way to power earlier on August 27th, 1985, attempted to try the intelligence of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo by using Professor Samuel Cookey.
Samuel Cookey was hired by General Ibrahim Babangida in the name of a ‘Political Bureau’ to do some spade work which was meant to cajole Nigerians into embracing his political initiatives in 1986.
In looking for credible personalities to add color to Babangida’s selfish political games in 1986, Professor Samuel Cookey approached the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo seeking his rare political blessings.
The vintage Chief Awolowo disappointed General Babangida and his ‘errand Professor.’ On Friday February 28th, 1986, Chief Awolowo replied Professor Cookey.
Here are excerpts from the famous letter: ‘For something within me tells me, loud and clear, that we have embarked on a fruitless search… Unless God Himself imbues a vast majority of us with a revolutionary change of attitude to life and politics or, unless the dialectic processes which have been at work for some twenty years now, perforce, make us perceive the abominable filth that abounds in our society, to the end that an inexorable abhorrence of it will be quickened in our hearts and impel us to make drastic changes for the better.”
Some political actors tagged the late Chief Awolowo a ‘prophet of doom’ in 1986, for refusing to identify with Babangida’s parochial political agenda.
Until his death about a year later on May 27, 1987 at the age of 78 years, Chief Awolowo kept his distance from the Ibrahim Babangida’s demonic ‘Political Bureau’, even as his prophecy became a stunning reality in 1993, when the country was faced with an impending civil war, as a result of the satanic annulment of the June 12th 1993 Presidential Elections in Nigeria.
It will not be out of point to state that the tyranny and despotism that General Ibrahim Babangida and his co-traitors like General Sani Abacha and Abdussalami Abubakar went on to display from 1986 to 1999 proved perfectly that the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was a political prophet in a special class in Nigeria.
Now, looking at Pa Awolowo’s weighty words, it was clear then that the late sage was absolutely correct in his historic prophetic conclusions.
It was clear that having been ruthlessly denied the Presidency of Nigeria in 1979, and the untold political atrocities that the then authorities heaped on him, that Chief Obafemi Awolowo died regretting what became of Nigeria during Babangida’s heinous political treachery, that was unfolding then.
When the Nigerian Supreme Court refused to be a ‘prostitute’ to some attorneys who have sold their souls to the devil; attorneys who have risen to the zenith of their legal profession by submitting to the doctrine of anything goes, and in the process branding themselves unconsciously as legal monsters sucking the unpalatable blood money of desperate politicians, the apex court was frantically and deliberately washing off itself, the black paint that some of the greedy members of the judiciary, and unscrupulous politicians had poured on the sacred institution.
Agreed that the Nigerian Judiciary has been invaded by legions of unprincipled and unpatriotic lawyers and judges in recent memory, agreed that the Judiciary is not a perfect entity given some of the most controversial judgments involving high profile political cases since the enthronement of democracy in 1999, the good news is that the Supreme Court has finally come to the point of salvaging itself from the most vexatious ridicule, imposed on it by political and legal merchants of darkness and confusion.
In yanking off the toga of a ‘prostitute’ in the political firmament of Nigeria of today, the Nigerian Supreme Court has simply prevented a judicial crisis of an unimaginable proportion; nipping in the bud a despicable legal concoction soaked miserably with the tissues of demeaning and sickening technicalities.
In the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, a golden avenue to our democratic redemption was blocked, with his death in 1987.
Today, Nigeria is worse than when Chief Awolowo wrote that famous letter to Professor Samuel Cookey in 1986.The future of the country is hanging precipitously in the balance, with incredible menace of Fulani herdsmen and demonic ethnic/religious fanatism roaring without let in some quarters.
Most politicians that often benefit from the terrible atrocities in our midst are not ready to change; they behave as if the key to our national vault has been given to individuals who had just robbed a bank; they are powered by greed, avarice and cruelty, standing like rocks on the part of our progress.
Ironically, our enemies have eaten the fruits of our hard earned democracy, the seed of which we fought to plant during sixteen years of military barbarism in Nigeria.
The fact of the matter is that we as a people have been subjected to the cruelest betrayal in human history; Nigerian people have been utterly duped and cheated in the name of democratic governance.
Our survival lies in the construction of a new order, where a vast majority of us must be imbued with revolutionary change of attitudes to life and politics. We must bring about a mental paradigm shift, to stand at the forefront of the struggle against enemies of democratic sanity and progress.
Ultimately, we must define our national goals and mobilize to attain it; we must engage our national monsters and cripple their perennial template of deception, misrule, legendary parochial and selfish tendencies.
Nowinta Igbotako wrote: Where we are – A call for democratic revolution in Nigeria.
