Forgiving themselves their trespasses!

The one thing generally agreed upon regarding Nigeria’s postindependence history, is that Military rule was an unmitigated disaster. At the end of the day all that really happened during that era was that a bunch of young men in uniform who knew little, but thought they knew everything, were undisciplined enough to kill their superior officers, and each other. Before they were finally disgraced out of office they dragged the nation into a fratricidal war, engaged in several coups against themselves, shared our national patrimony and looted the treasury with impunity.

Military rule created and entrenched most of the ills prevalent in the nation today, and those who perpetrated the illegalities, injustices and crimes of that era have got away scot-free. Former Military Administrators continue to loom large and pollute our democratic political environment. In spite of their incompetence in governance and failure to uphold human rights, retired military administrators continue to litter State Government Houses and the National Assembly, and hold key national appointments under democracy. They even aspire to be President despite the fact that back in the day they expressed contempt for democracy!

Since the return to democratic governance in 1999, two Presidents have been military rulers who were neck deep in human rights abuses, and anti-democratic sentiments. Others, even those who previously ridiculed and despised the poor when in power, are queueing up to follow. There are two reasons why former military administrators feel free to continue ruling our roost. Firstly, having been plucked from obscurity, rescued from prison and elevated to the Office of President through no effort of his own, President “I dey kampke” Obasanjo (OBJ) wasn’t inclined towards causing problems for his military benefactors. In South Africa when apartheid ended, a “Truth and Reconciliation” Committee was established to expose the sordid details of what actually transpired and help heal the wounds.

In Nigeria OBJ fudged the issue with his “Human rights Violations Investigations Commission known as the Oputa Panel. Mandated to establish the causes, nature, and extent of human rights violations between January 15th 1966 and May 29th 1999, the Panel investigated only 340 of the approximately 10,000 petitions received. Key Military actors refused to appear before it, and those who did were unrepentant. At the end of the day, no one accepted blame for any of the atrocities committed, and the recommendations of the Commission were not made public.

The second and major reason why failed, inept, corrupt and kleptocratic military administrators are set to continuously hold the highest political offices in the land, is the Nigerian Constitution itself. Constitutions aren’t mere legal documents, they relate to and regulate the affairs of a Nation or State. They outline the functions and powers of different arms of government, and prescribe the rights, powers, duties and responsibilities of both government and citizens.

The content and nature of every Constitution depends largely upon the source of its authority. Although Nigeria’s current Constitution which came into force in May 1999 pretends to be a “People’s Constitution”, it’s quite evidently a fraudulent document and product of the military. It didn’t emanate from any referendum, convention or Constituent Assembly elected for the purpose, and deliberately abridges the judicial powers of the Courts. Section 6(6) (d) provides that the judicial powers vested in the Courts shall not, as from the date the section came into force, extend to any action or proceedings relating to any existing law made on or after 15th January 1966 for determining the competency or authority or person to make such a law. There is no wisdom in this provision. It is inimical to the progress of the nation. The only basis for it is that the military wanted to make sure that future democratic administrations would be restrained from digging up the skeletons of their calamitous maladministration.

While in power Military Administrators never upheld the ideals of constitutional democracy and the rights of individuals, rather they killed or jailed opponents. They did as they pleased and muzzled any challenge to their authority through use of their infamous ouster clauses in Decrees. The only reason for Section 6(6)(d) in the Nigerian Constitution is to deprive the Courts of their powers to question the constitutional validity of any Decree or Edict made between 15th January 1966 and May 1999. Quite preposterously our Supreme Court itself has upheld this section of the Constitution, proving that they too can be restrained, and are not “Supreme” in anything other than name.

The learned Justices of the Apex Court have in effect agreed that citizens whose civil rights and obligations were abridged by the military cannot challenge their authority to have done so. It should be recalled that the Military illegally and unconstitutionally serially seized power on the pretext of saving the ship of state from disintegration and ending maladministration caused by lack of accountability. It’s sheer hypocrisy for them to have injected an ouster clause in the Constitution which prevents investigation of their stewardship. Legal experts maintain that the Nigerian Constitution is founded upon the separation of powers, and by exempting former military rulers who were members of the then Executive, from searchlight by the Judiciary, Section 6(6)(d) negates this principle.

A cardinal belief of most religions is the notion of forgiveness. For Christians, it’s enshrined in the “Lord’s Prayer” in a sentence which begs the Almighty to “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”. Ironically, those responsible for placing Nigeria in the unwholesome mess in which the nation now finds itself, who killed opponents at will and never forgave anyone, implausibly forgave themselves for their trespasses against us! The anti-corruption war should not be limited to only events after 1999. The time is right after 18 years of democracy for the National Assembly to assert the superiority of democracy over military rule and remove this obnoxious clause from the Constitution.