By Ikechukwu Amaechi
Many Nigerians were flabbergasted by the needless drama created by the Department of State Services (DSS) on Friday, December 6, in re-arresting Omoyele Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters, and candidate in the February 23, presidential election.
But I was not surprised. If anything, I am amused at the pervading sense of befuddlement, a consequence of the inability of Nigerians to pay attention to the utterances of their leaders.
Words matter because they reflect man’s essence. When the Bible says, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34),” it simply affirms that the motivation for man’s thoughts and actions emanates from the heart.
If Nigerians were conscious of this fact, as people in other climes are, then they would have paid attention to President Muhammadu Buhari’s words on November 22, at a meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja, where he said: “I know that I am in my last term and I can afford to be reckless because I am not going to ask for anybody’s vote.”
Buhari, who was dismissing the speculation that he may be tempted or, in fact, could tempt himself into a third term gambit, said age and the Constitution which he “swore by the holy book” to uphold would not let him fall into that temptation.
But he will ride roughshod on Nigerians, which is what being reckless means, literally.
As if that was not creepy enough, First Lady Aisha Buhari doubled down on her husband’s threat two weeks later when she took umbrage at government officials she accused of remaining “mute while bad people take over the government from us.”
Aisha could not understand why some Nigerians are trying to use social media to bring down her husband’s government while officials stand idly by, allowing the president’s “personality to be mocked with no consequences.”
“There is no way we will have such a society and have peace in it,” she threatened. “When there are no consequences, everyone does what they want and almost everything is in disarray.
“They are now taking to social media to bring down the government itself. I think that we should not allow people that are nobody and nothing to override the innocent.” Nigerians have suddenly become nonentities because they are now calling out Buhari’s government. Such hubris!
If Nigerians were paying attention, they would have come to the inescapable conclusion that the honeymoon was over. The First Family was no longer going to take prisoners.
So, the needless DSS drama did not surprise me. It is simply a physical manifestation of the president’s thoughts. Our people have a saying that “if the witch cried in the night and the child died in the morning,” you don’t need a soothsayer to know who killed the child.
Of course, nothing can be more reckless than operatives of the secret police invading a courtroom to re-arrest someone on trial, already on bail, who is not a flight risk.
Sowore had started a movement which he tagged #RevolutionNow under which auspices he called for nationwide protest against the Buhari government. But before he could pull off what was no more than a political stunt, he and Olawale Bakare, a co-promoter, were arrested on August 2 in Lagos and transferred to Abuja for prosecution.
Sowore and Bakare were arraigned in court on a seven-count treasonable felony charge, including conspiracy, money laundering, cyber-stalking and insulting Buhari.
On October 4, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu granted them bail, conditions of which were varied on October 21.
When the defendants perfected all the bail conditions, the DSS refused to release them, claiming that no surety came forward to receive them. That was strange.
It took an order by Ojukwu on December 5, giving the DSS a 24-hour ultimatum, N100,000 cost against the prosecution and a vow not to take further steps until her order was obeyed, for the DSS to let the defendants go after 125 days.
Yet, less than 12 hours later, truckloads of heavily-armed security personnel – with a police armoured tank positioned at the main entrance to the Abuja High Court – re-arrested Sowore after the judge adjourned trial till February 11.
The invaders desecrated the temple of justice. Not only was the drama uncalled for and needless, it was the height of recklessness and impunity.
As many commentators have said, not even during the brutal military era in which Buhari was a key player was the judiciary and pronouncements of judges treated so condescendingly.
And you wonder what point the DSS was trying to make by that braggadocio. Sowore, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), has no capacity to violently overthrow the Buhari government as alleged.
He is a paperweight “activist” who has offended most people in the opposition. In fact, many see his travails as sheer poetic justice, a richly deserved comeuppance. The government knows this for a fact. I will be surprised if the DSS claims ignorance of this.
In any case, part of his bail conditions is a restriction of his movement to Abuja. So, the almighty DSS operatives know his whereabouts and could have easily and quietly picked him up anytime, anywhere.
So, why the courtroom drama in the full glare of local and international media? Who gave the order for that brazen assault?
Considering the sensitivity of the matter, there was no way Sowore could have been released from DSS custody on Thursday without the authorisation of the DSS Director General, Yusuf Bichi.
And there was no way the same Bichi would turn round 12 hours later to order the re-arrest of the defendants knowing full well what led to the ouster of his immediate predecessor, Lawal Daura, who was sacked and arrested by then acting President Yemi Osinbajo on August 7, 2018, following a similar brazen assault on the National Assembly.
So, the only plausible explanation is that this assault was ordered from the highest reaches of power. It must have been Buhari’s idea of telling Nigerians pointedly that he meant business when he said he could afford to be reckless. Despite vacuous claim to being a born-again democrat, Buhari’s contempt for the rule of law is beyond the pale.
But there is a gross misjudgment here. This is not about Sowore. It is about the rule of law. Decency in statecraft. About good governance. About civility. The gestapo-style raid on the court is as thoughtlessness as it is condemnable. It smacks of impunity. The waywardness of the Buhari regime and the in-your-face attitude of the DSS is unacceptable and Nigerians are duty-bound to resist the insufferable affront to the rule of law.
Though the government has been trying to spin the incident, it is hard to deodorise this egregious act of executive lawlessness, a gross misconduct which adds nothing positive to those who orchestrated it.
The assault, which glorifies the rule of strongmen rather than of law, hews down the ramparts of our democracy. It may assuage Aisha’s agitation for tough action against enemies of her husband’s government, but Nigeria is diminished in the comity of nations and is worse for it.
Whatever goal those who orchestrated this brigandage intended to achieve or the message they wanted to send across, knowing that unlike the Daura case this time there will be no repercussions, will be self-defeating because it is witless.
Deliberate desecration of the hallowed chambers of both the legislature and judiciary by agents of the executive in a democracy is a tactical blunder because as the U.S. Department of State has reminded Buari, “respect for the rule of law, judicial independence, political and media freedom, and due process are key tenets of democracy.” Therefore, deliberate “Egyptianisation” of Nigeria’s democracy won’t work.
It will take more than a reckless assault on the judiciary for anyone, including President Muhammadu Buhari, to impeach this hard-won democracy. At the end of the day, Nigerians and democracy will prevail.
