INTRODUCTION

Current issues are a pot pouri – they cascade in by the minute.

The corona virus (COVID-19) has forever changed the face of the world in how we dream, plan, interact, sleep, eat, celebrate, mourn, work, play, worship, travel and do things generally. February 14 – Valentine; March 14 – Quarantine. Welcome to a new world of vaccination, mark of the beast, Bill Gates, microchip, et al. Let me, today, take on headlong some of these issues.

AKINJIDE; AWO V. SHAGARI – REACTIONS

Undoubtedly, this piece on Chief Richard Akinjide and his place in history, especially his creative interpretation of what constituted 12 2/3 of 19, will continue to resonate and reverberate off, across the land. Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, ever cerebral, fecund and deep thinking, called me up. He praised my “very brilliant and well-researched write-up”, but wondered why and how I agreed with the often bandied theory that the Atanda Fatayi Williams-led Supreme Court in the 1979 AWO V. SHAGARI case, warned that the case should never be cited as judicial precedent. I told him that all my research did not show it; hence I carefully caveated that it was made “obiter”. We both laughed. I did so advisedly because I was not present in court on September 26, 1979, when the judgment was delivered. I was then a final year law student at the University of Ife (now OAU). So, I felt the admonition may probably have been made verbally, not in writing. I thank you, egbon.

An “obiter” statement or remark is one made casually, and unexpectedly, as an aside, and by the way. It does not form part of the main body of the judgment or issue under discourse. Such a statement is also said to have been made “per incuriam”, i.e., unguardedly, inadvertently, unexpectedly, negligently, anyhow or inattentively. I have carefully read the entire judgments of Fatayi Williams (CJN), Gabriel Ayo Irikefe, Chukwuweinke Idigbe, Mohammed Bello, Andrew Otutu Obaseki, Kayode Eso and Lawal Uwais. I have not been able to find where such a damning obiter was made, whether as forming part of the ratio decidendi or per incuriam. This means that the theory that the Supreme Court allegedly warned that the judgment should not be used as a precedent, is an historical farce; not backed by facts or record.

I have seen the truth. As Suzy Kassem once said, “truth can only be seen by those with truth”. Indeed, I agree that “the most dangerous of all falsehoods is a slightly distorted truth” (Georg Christoph Lichtenberg). Aysha Tryan once lamented about “how difficult it has become to decipher the truth from the fictitious, to trust one’s own eyes over the art of image distortion”. We must not allow falsegood prevail perpetually over truth, simply because Aeschylus once famously declared that “in war, truth is the first casualty”. This is because as rightly pointed out by Usman Dan Fodiyo (1754 – 1816), “conscience is an open wound: only truth can heal it”. This historical falsehood should not be entertained or tolerated henceforth.

I take it that the 12 2/3 saga and the historical mistruth and revisionism are simply because, according to the 19th century, German Philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, “all truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident”. Henceforth, I hereby declare, with all humility, that the 1979 AWO V SHAGARI suit is “self-evident”. The whole world must know that the Supreme Court of Nigeria NEVER EVER declared that the AWO V SHAGARI case should never be used as a precedent.

ADISA AKINLOYE V. ADISA ADEOYE

An avid reader and political analyst, Lanre Adeoye, sent me an sms, pointing out some typographical and contextual errors in my write up on Akinkide in the Sun newspaper of Wednesday, 29th March, 2020. I thank him immensely. The issue he raised about Adisa Akinloye and Adisa Adeoye, two outstanding political titans in the then Western Region, will now be addressed.

Chief Adisa Adeoye died at 97 on November 16, 2015. He was a renowned lawyer, politician and a foremost Nationalist. He was Minister of Home Affairs and Information in the old Western Region. He later served as Commissioner for Lands and Housing in the old Western state. He was widely acknowledged as successor to famous Adegoke Adelabu (“penkelemisi” – “peculiar mess”) as opposition leader in the old Western Regional House of Assembly. His landslide victory in the Western Region Parliamentary election (winning all but one of the available seats) served as a catalyst that catapulted many Western Region politicians to regional and national limelight. Being detribalised, he cultivated personal friendships with many Nigerian legendary politicians – Prime Minister, Tafawa Balewa, Nnamdi Azikwe, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Alhaji Ado Bayero (Emir of Kano), Dr K. O. Mbadiwe, T. O. S. Benson, Adeniran Ogunsanya, SAN, Mojid Agbaje, Bode Thomas, Chief Ashamu, and others. The Ibadan People’s Party (IPP) which Chief Richard Akinjide joined in 1959, upon return from his law studies in England, had its founding chairman as Chief Augustus Meredith Akinloye. Other founders were Adegoke Adelabu, Kola Balogun, T. O. S. Benson, Adeniran Ogunsanya and Chief H. O. Davies. Others included Chief S. A. Akinyemi, S. G. Lanlehin, Moyo Aboderin, D. T. Akinbiyi, Samuel Lana, S. Ajuwon, S. Aderonmu, R. S. Baoku, etc.Chief Obafemi Awolowo was reported for politics of ideology. He therefore preferred principled politics of opposition, to aligning with a federal government he considered corrupt.

However, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, who succeeded Awo as Premier of Western Region after the 1959 federal elections, favoured a relationship with the Federal Government. It was also a personality clash between Awo and Akintola. The Action Group (AG)’s collapse became inevitable. Akintola’s faction of AG transformed into a new political party, the United People’s Party (UPP), which governed the Western Region in alliance with the erstwhile opposition party, the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroon (NCNC). The NCNC, in 1961, became the National Council of Nigerian Citizens. This followed the United Nation’s plebiscite when the Southern Region, known as West Cameroon, joined East Cameroon (formerly French Cameroon) to form today’s Federal Republic of Cameroon.

Akintola and other members of the NCNC later teamed up and formed a new National Democratic Party (NNDP), which entered into an alliance with the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) to form the Nigeria National Alliance (NNA). This alliance, with the NPC, was made during the run up to the 1964 Federal elections. The AG then teamed up with NCNC, to form the United Progressive Grand Alliance (UPGA). The NNA, though quite unpopular amongst the Yorubas, claimed to have won 38 out of 57 regional seats in a very controversial federal election. It was rewarded with 14 seats in a behemoth cabinet of 54 ministers, with seven of cabinet members. This was how Akinjide, a very brilliant lawyer, became second Nigerian Minister of Education (not Minister of State as I erroneously stated last week).

GOVERNOR UMAHI AND HIS DISPLAY OF TRUE LEADERSHIP

Last week, I critiqued Engineer David Umahi, Governor of Ebonyi State, over his wrong treatment of two journalists, Chijioke Agwu of the Sun and Peter Okutu of the Vanguard nespapers. I criticised him for arresting and detaining them, and also threatening to “Shugaba” them out of Ebonyi State, over alleged false publications. I wrote inter alia: “In decent societies, the Governor would simply have apologised, recalled the journalists and gone ahead to face serious issues of governance. In the absence of that, where the Governor genuinely feels convinced the journalists had overstepped their boundaries, he could resort to court through a defamation”.

In a most unaccustomed manner in this part of the world, Governor Umahi did the unthinkable. He chose the former suggestion. In a state-wide broadcast (the same way he did the banning), Umahi publicly apologised to the journalists. Not only this, he actually invited the journalists whom he had banned “for life (from) anywhere in any government facility”, with threats of using the ‘koboko’ (whip) if the journalists believed they “have the pen”.

NOW THIS

The action of the Governor banning the journalists had immediately generated public hoopla and ruckus. Associations such as the Nigerian Union of Journalist (NUJ), Nigeria Guild of Editors (NGE), the Civil Liberties Organisation ([CLO], which I cofounded on 15th October, 1987); the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), International Press Council (FPC) and Media Rights Agenda (MRA), all weighed in. In my backpage Sunday Telegraph write-up of 26th March, 2020, titled, “When Governor Dave Umahi threatened re-enactment of Shugaba”, I decried the action. Barely two days later (specifically on 28th March, 2020), the seasoned Civil Engineer, Political strategist and astute Administrator, made the apologies.

Governor Dave Umahi’s handling of the brouhaha typifies the hallmark of true leadership; rather than rulership. I thank him for pointing the way of leadership, not rulership. Leaders have willing followers (e.g. Zik, Awo, Harry Truman, George Washington, Mohandas Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Luther King Jr, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama). Rulers, on the other hand, have subjugated subjects over whom they impose their authority. They rule by force. Examples are Adolf Hitler, Attila the Hun, King Henry III, Gheghis Khan, Idi Amin, Emperor Bede Bokassa.

AND THIS

In the latter state-wide broadcast made on the corona virus on 28th April, 2020, Umahi’s words were humble, humane and touching; very much unlike our new Sheriffs-in-town Politicians in town, who will dig in, as “constituted authority”. He pleaded with the journalists to join him in building Ebonyi State as “partners in progress and let us work together to build the state”. Hear Umahi more: “As a father, you beat a child with one hand; you bring him back with the other hand”. Your Excellency, to err is human and to forgive is divine. We all make mistakes. Your apology shows your mistake was of the head, not of the heart; inadvertent, not deliberate. The tone was civil, accommodating, genial. Thank you, Governor Dave Umahi.

LAST LINE

Nigerians, keep hope alive as we shall, individually and collectively, defeat Covid-19, in Jesus mighty name. Keep faith with The Nigerian Project every Sunday, with Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, OFR, Ph.D., FCIArb, LL.D.