Living In A Failed State (II)

By Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN

Rejoinder

ON this page last week, I discussed the increased state of
insecurity in Nigeria, following the mindless killing of a school
pupil and the abduction of 27 others in Kagara, Niger State, on
February 17, 2021, incessant killings by bandits and insurgents and
general criminal activities all over the land, symptomatic of a
failed state. It was like a prophecy foretold because exactly three
days after, on February 26, 2021, 317 girls, aged 12-17 years old,
were kidnapped by armed bandits who raided the Government Girls
Science Secondary School boarding school, at Jangebe, in Zamfara
State.

The location of the students remains largely unknown, amidst the
controversy of their so-called release. It has become more like
some kind of fiction, watching armed bandits, clerics and even
state government officials hobnobbing together in the wild, openly
discussing and negotiating ransom for the release of these innocent
children.

This of course, has sparked its own controversy, as to whether
we should embrace a selective approach in dealing with criminality
or adopt a holistic template that will help solve all the issues
once and for all. Given the trend presently, it is not difficult to
predict that these kidnappings and abductions will continue.

First, there is no sincerity on the part of the government, when
officials come to the public domain to claim that no ransom has
been paid for the release of the students, whereas as has happened
in times past, huge sums of money would have exchanged hands.
Second, the attitude of government to the issue of crime in one
location will certainly constitute a standard for measuring its
stand in other locations. Put succinctly, crime should be treated
and dealt with for what it is, even though I do agree with the view
that diplomacy is needed where human lives are involved.

The first part of this article generated some responses from
well-meaning Nigerians and I reproduce herewith, part of those
comments, for the benefit of those in authority and indeed all of
us.

Chris Adetayo

The Learned SAN, in my view, missed a fundamental philosophical
issue. The source of the Constitution he so copiously quoted, the
1999 Constitution, was given to the Nigerian people. It was not a
product of the Nigerian people. Many may consider this point moot,
but the fact that it was never a product of the people means that
those it saddles with offices know that they aren’t in office as a
fundamental choice of the people. And because they recognise this,
all the roles of their offices (security and welfare) as laid out
in the said Constitution are not seen as binding or obligatory. At
best, they are recommendations. Therein lays the fault line of our
nation.

Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN:

Chris Adetayo, I beg to disagree with you sir, with all due
respect. Once you agree to take the benefit and perquisites of an
office, you cannot turn around to reject the burdens that go with
it. A leader who accepts salaries and allowances attached to an
office, all paid from the same Constitution, cannot turn around to
cease from performing the responsibilities of that office sir.
Thus, any leader who is unable to perform his constitutional roles
should vacate office immediately and not sit and remain in office
to collect salaries and enjoy the allure of that office. Thank you
sir.

Emeka Oparah

Chris Adetayo, and so? I think the issue with the Constitution
is less with the letters than the intent (implementation or
adherence). The US Constitution is so permissive and flexible it’s
open to manipulation (as we recently saw) but the people are
committed to building the greatest economy and democracy in the
world.

Chris Adetayo

Emeka Oparah, the spirit of a Constitution is as important, if
not more important, than the letter therein. This has been proven
over and over again. A Constitution that was written in the dead of
night by dark forces and never subjected to the merest scrutiny and
which outlawed many fundamental rights and principles will hardly
birth a progressive nation. It’s my view, by the way.

Chris Adetayo

Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa SAN, I’m pretty sure you have argued
multiple times in court that one cannot build something on nothing.
That, basically, is my point.

Emeka Oparah

Chris Adetayo, that’s a conspiratorial view. With all its
imperfections, the 1999 Constitution can take Nigeria to great
heights if those guarding the landmarks are dedicated and sincere.
We need a new one though, to accommodate all the issues threatening
to tear the country apart.

Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN

Chris Adetayo, yes sir. In that case, the platform upon which
salaries and allowances are built and collected, should also
sustain the responsibilities and functions of the office.

Chris Adetayo

Emeka Oparah, that’s my point. We need a meeting one, developed
by the people to serve the people. The current one was not designed
for the purpose. It was designed to serve a few.

Temitope Ajayi

Chris Adetayo, is the issue of making a Constitution work about
who gave birth to the Constitution? Even if we have a new
Constitution today drafted by the ‘people’, will the Constitution
implement itself without the human beings to make the Constitution
deliver on objectives? Every nation and Constitution is a work
towards perfection. If half of what is contained in our current
Constitution in letter and spirit are done, our country will be a
bliss. It is not so much about a document but people running it.
After all Britain does not have a written Constitution till
date.

Chris Adetayo

Temitope Ajayi The spirit behind it is key. Britain has a
written Constitution. Don’t believe that elementary Government
lesson.

Temitope Ajayi

Chris Adetayo, Britain does not have a codified Constitution.
They only have laws that have been copied through acts of
parliament, judicial pronouncements and conventions. Meanwhile,
whatever spirit you referred to or mean, spirit is not reality and
spirit remains an abstract idea. What is important is the operator
of the Constitution not any letter or spirit.

Phil Smart

At the end of the day, association by groups, nationalities or
individuals, should be based on voluntary choice, and mutually
negotiated agreements and not on veiled economic parasitism, and
brazen institutionalised injustice. Where the latter prevails,
there will continue to be heightened tension and lack of progress,
which will remain inevitably explosive, until addressed by
transparent and competent reform or allowed to degenerate to
serious conflict, of international dimension.

There is a limit to perennial political manipulation, excessive
sectionalism, favouritism and nepotism, and the corruption that
lubricates it and motivates it. Nigeria is gradually reaching its
own limit. The truth is that the solution does not lie in the
present system, not even in another manipulated election in 2023…
Only restructuring can save Nigeria. Period.

The sooner we come together to work out an acceptable process
towards this, the better for this country.

Emeka Oparah

Phil Smart, it’s a privilege to agree with you totally on this
occasion. This restructuring you (we) are talking about.

Phil Smart

Emeka Oparah, water no get enemy, thanks for agreeing, our
situation is moving gradually from emergency, to catastrophe..

Those that persist in preserving a failed system, by force of
arms, should remember the last ENDSARS, where security was rendered
ineffective and even placed on the run, by the people.

If hardly schooled bandits, in the northern forests, are
acquiring high caliber machine guns, RPGS, armoured tanks and
anti-aircraft missiles, imagine what happens when the sophisticated
and globally connected resort to similar trajectory?? As they say,
a word is enough for the wise. Let me go and find my daily bread
Bro.

As a matter of extreme urgency, I do recommend to the President
to convene a national security summit, immediately. Thereafter, we
should set in motion an independent process of restructuring
Nigeria, as a way of rescuing it from failure. We surely cannot
continue in this fashion, with the horrendous number of killings,
deaths, kidnappings and abductions going on across the land. It is
the responsibility of those in authority to safeguard the lives and
property of the people, it is indeed the main reason for occupying
the seats of power. We cannot therefore say it beyond emphasis that
our people have lost faith in the capacity of government at various
levels, to discharge this sacred constitutional obligation.

In the case of Niger and Zamfara states, they were most probably
looking up to the Federal Government to rescue them from the
bandits, and expectedly so, since the resources of the nation are
all stacked in the federation account. Also, the entire security
network of Nigeria resides with the President, as the
Commander-in-Chief, which puts the buck on his table. It is the
President that we will continue to hold accountable in our demand
to have this nation restructured, in our quest for peace and
security and in our reasonable expectation of the fulfilment of his
campaign promises, for a better Nigeria. The President should
attend to this call urgently, because time is fast running out.

By Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN

Rejoinder

ON this page last week, I discussed the increased state of
insecurity in Nigeria, following the mindless killing of a school
pupil and the abduction of 27 others in Kagara, Niger State, on
February 17, 2021, incessant killings by bandits and insurgents and
general criminal activities all over the land, symptomatic of a
failed state. It was like a prophecy foretold because exactly three
days after, on February 26, 2021, 317 girls, aged 12-17 years old,
were kidnapped by armed bandits who raided the Government Girls
Science Secondary School boarding school, at Jangebe, in Zamfara
State.

The location of the students remains largely unknown, amidst the
controversy of their so-called release. It has become more like
some kind of fiction, watching armed bandits, clerics and even
state government officials hobnobbing together in the wild, openly
discussing and negotiating ransom for the release of these innocent
children.

This of course, has sparked its own controversy, as to whether
we should embrace a selective approach in dealing with criminality
or adopt a holistic template that will help solve all the issues
once and for all. Given the trend presently, it is not difficult to
predict that these kidnappings and abductions will continue.

First, there is no sincerity on the part of the government, when
officials come to the public domain to claim that no ransom has
been paid for the release of the students, whereas as has happened
in times past, huge sums of money would have exchanged hands.
Second, the attitude of government to the issue of crime in one
location will certainly constitute a standard for measuring its
stand in other locations. Put succinctly, crime should be treated
and dealt with for what it is, even though I do agree with the view
that diplomacy is needed where human lives are involved.

The first part of this article generated some responses from
well-meaning Nigerians and I reproduce herewith, part of those
comments, for the benefit of those in authority and indeed all of
us.

Chris Adetayo

The Learned SAN, in my view, missed a fundamental philosophical
issue. The source of the Constitution he so copiously quoted, the
1999 Constitution, was given to the Nigerian people. It was not a
product of the Nigerian people. Many may consider this point moot,
but the fact that it was never a product of the people means that
those it saddles with offices know that they aren’t in office as a
fundamental choice of the people. And because they recognise this,
all the roles of their offices (security and welfare) as laid out
in the said Constitution are not seen as binding or obligatory. At
best, they are recommendations. Therein lays the fault line of our
nation.

Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN:

Chris Adetayo, I beg to disagree with you sir, with all due
respect. Once you agree to take the benefit and perquisites of an
office, you cannot turn around to reject the burdens that go with
it. A leader who accepts salaries and allowances attached to an
office, all paid from the same Constitution, cannot turn around to
cease from performing the responsibilities of that office sir.
Thus, any leader who is unable to perform his constitutional roles
should vacate office immediately and not sit and remain in office
to collect salaries and enjoy the allure of that office. Thank you
sir.

Emeka Oparah

Chris Adetayo, and so? I think the issue with the Constitution
is less with the letters than the intent (implementation or
adherence). The US Constitution is so permissive and flexible it’s
open to manipulation (as we recently saw) but the people are
committed to building the greatest economy and democracy in the
world.

Chris Adetayo

Emeka Oparah, the spirit of a Constitution is as important, if
not more important, than the letter therein. This has been proven
over and over again. A Constitution that was written in the dead of
night by dark forces and never subjected to the merest scrutiny and
which outlawed many fundamental rights and principles will hardly
birth a progressive nation. It’s my view, by the way.

Chris Adetayo

Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa SAN, I’m pretty sure you have argued
multiple times in court that one cannot build something on nothing.
That, basically, is my point.

Emeka Oparah

Chris Adetayo, that’s a conspiratorial view. With all its
imperfections, the 1999 Constitution can take Nigeria to great
heights if those guarding the landmarks are dedicated and sincere.
We need a new one though, to accommodate all the issues threatening
to tear the country apart.

Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN

Chris Adetayo, yes sir. In that case, the platform upon which
salaries and allowances are built and collected, should also
sustain the responsibilities and functions of the office.

Chris Adetayo

Emeka Oparah, that’s my point. We need a meeting one, developed
by the people to serve the people. The current one was not designed
for the purpose. It was designed to serve a few.

Temitope Ajayi

Chris Adetayo, is the issue of making a Constitution work about
who gave birth to the Constitution? Even if we have a new
Constitution today drafted by the ‘people’, will the Constitution
implement itself without the human beings to make the Constitution
deliver on objectives? Every nation and Constitution is a work
towards perfection. If half of what is contained in our current
Constitution in letter and spirit are done, our country will be a
bliss. It is not so much about a document but people running it.
After all Britain does not have a written Constitution till
date.

Chris Adetayo

Temitope Ajayi The spirit behind it is key. Britain has a
written Constitution. Don’t believe that elementary Government
lesson.

Temitope Ajayi

Chris Adetayo, Britain does not have a codified Constitution.
They only have laws that have been copied through acts of
parliament, judicial pronouncements and conventions. Meanwhile,
whatever spirit you referred to or mean, spirit is not reality and
spirit remains an abstract idea. What is important is the operator
of the Constitution not any letter or spirit.

Phil Smart

At the end of the day, association by groups, nationalities or
individuals, should be based on voluntary choice, and mutually
negotiated agreements and not on veiled economic parasitism, and
brazen institutionalised injustice. Where the latter prevails,
there will continue to be heightened tension and lack of progress,
which will remain inevitably explosive, until addressed by
transparent and competent reform or allowed to degenerate to
serious conflict, of international dimension.

There is a limit to perennial political manipulation, excessive
sectionalism, favouritism and nepotism, and the corruption that
lubricates it and motivates it. Nigeria is gradually reaching its
own limit. The truth is that the solution does not lie in the
present system, not even in another manipulated election in 2023…
Only restructuring can save Nigeria. Period.

The sooner we come together to work out an acceptable process
towards this, the better for this country.

Emeka Oparah

Phil Smart, it’s a privilege to agree with you totally on this
occasion. This restructuring you (we) are talking about.

Phil Smart

Emeka Oparah, water no get enemy, thanks for agreeing, our
situation is moving gradually from emergency, to catastrophe..

Those that persist in preserving a failed system, by force of
arms, should remember the last ENDSARS, where security was rendered
ineffective and even placed on the run, by the people.

If hardly schooled bandits, in the northern forests, are
acquiring high caliber machine guns, RPGS, armoured tanks and
anti-aircraft missiles, imagine what happens when the sophisticated
and globally connected resort to similar trajectory?? As they say,
a word is enough for the wise. Let me go and find my daily bread
Bro.

As a matter of extreme urgency, I do recommend to the President
to convene a national security summit, immediately. Thereafter, we
should set in motion an independent process of restructuring
Nigeria, as a way of rescuing it from failure. We surely cannot
continue in this fashion, with the horrendous number of killings,
deaths, kidnappings and abductions going on across the land. It is
the responsibility of those in authority to safeguard the lives and
property of the people, it is indeed the main reason for occupying
the seats of power. We cannot therefore say it beyond emphasis that
our people have lost faith in the capacity of government at various
levels, to discharge this sacred constitutional obligation.

In the case of Niger and Zamfara states, they were most probably
looking up to the Federal Government to rescue them from the
bandits, and expectedly so, since the resources of the nation are
all stacked in the federation account. Also, the entire security
network of Nigeria resides with the President, as the
Commander-in-Chief, which puts the buck on his table. It is the
President that we will continue to hold accountable in our demand
to have this nation restructured, in our quest for peace and
security and in our reasonable expectation of the fulfilment of his
campaign promises, for a better Nigeria. The President should
attend to this call urgently, because time is fast running out.