By Ishaya Ibrahim
Firestorms of ideas peaked at the 16th annual lecture in honour of Nigeria’s most revered human rights lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, who died on September 5, 2009 at age 71.
Array of speakers and contributors dealt with the two issues that make the theme of the lecture – How right is Nigeria’s federal structure and is the Nigerian judiciary under siege?
Borrowing from the Holy Bible on the signposts to perilous times, one of the keynoter, Tayo Oyetibo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), lists the signs to show that Nigeria’s judiciary was already under siege.
“When you see men who are secret agents because of the undercover work that they do appear at night in hoods in the homes of judges in a gestapo manner, breaking doors and locks to gain entry!
“When an order is made by the court granting bail but the executive refuses to release the defendants for more than three years after the order was made!
“When the chief justice of the nation is removed from office by the executive upon an exparte order made at the instance of the executive by a body that openly admits to being subject to the control of the executive!
“When a citizen who has been granted bail and was only released by the executive after having been given ultimatum by the court and was forcefully removed from the courtroom while the court was sitting under the guise of being arrested by the body that earlier had him despite the order of bail!
“When a judge gives a decision which the executive finds unpalatable and a week after, the judge is required by the executive to declare his asset!
“Then, ladies and gentlemen, it is not difficult to know that perilous times have come,” he said.
For Agbakoba, he dealt on the subject of restructuring and how it could be repackaged to win the support of the northerners who have been hostile to it.
“We all know that restructuring is a southern language. Because I’m northern and southern, I understand them. Some of them think that this restructuring is to break up Nigeria. Therefore, in order to push for restructuring, we have to enter into their heads. Mandela did that. Mandela entered into the heads of the Afrikaans in order to understand their philosophy.
“We need to convince our northern brothers that restructuring will make the regions more powerful.
“When Rotimi Amaechi was governor, the commissioner of police in Rivers State denied him access to the government house. Can you imagine that. The commissioner of police just set up a barricade and the governor could not enter the government house. That is to show you how powerless the governors are.
“I told the governors in the north that restructuring will make them more powerful. But unfortunately that’s not the message. The message of restructuring needs to change.
“I have a new language for it. I call it cooperative federalism. We need to accommodate with our northern brothers in order for the restructuring to work,” he said.
On the new security outfit set up by the South West region, Agbakoba said it was in order.
“This decision of the attorney general that Amotekun is illegal ought to go to court. We need to take it to the court and let’s know who is right or wrong.
“For me, I think that what the states have done is correct because strictly speaking, what they’ve done is not policing. Its like security measures. In any case, the IGP was involved. I’m not sure what has happened. Whether they have a rethink,” he said.