- Warns against subversion of constitutional safeguards
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By Daniel Kanu
Assistant Politics Editor
Constitutional lawyer, Ben Nwabueze, is not happy with the raid of the homes of seven judges, describing the Acts establishing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Department of State Security (DSS) as illegal and unconstitutional.
Nwabueze said the Acts should be expunged from the statute books because they work against the spirit of constitutional democracy.
He warned that the Acts have become instruments of personal power that has led to massive subversion of the safeguards in the Constitution for the protection of individuals against physical coercion by force of arms.
“It’s strange to me how the Acts establishing the EFCC and DSS got into the Constitution.
“This is because the issue confronting us is not only as to whether the activities of these two agencies are in conformity with the law establishing them, but also whether, more importantly, the law establishing them are in conformity with the Constitution, the supreme law of the land,” he said.
Nwabueze told TheNiche in an interview in Lagos that the federal government has degenerated into using state terrorism to intimidate citizens, citing the gestapo arrest of the judges which he described as a disgrace to the judiciary.
“What we are witnessing is the emasculation of our constitutional democracy through the subversion of the safeguards enshrined in the Constitution for the protection of the individual against the oppressive use of the organised coercive force at the disposal of the state.
“This is dangerous and something serious must be done to guide against this abuse.”
He said the lawless activities of the EFCC, created ostensibly to fight corruption, has increasingly assumed terroristic proportions that must be called to order, insisting that Nigeria practices constitutional democracy, not state police the government has embraced in its action.
“Regrettably, the unconstitutional laws and the so-called enforcement activities of the EFCC and the DSS have made hardly any noticeable impact upon the rampancy of corruption in the country.
“Democracy is incomplete and deficient unless freedom to choose the rulers at an election is matched with freedom from the arbitrary and oppressive use of the state’s organised instruments of physical coercion by force of arms.
“It needs to be re-emphasised that these safeguards are designed as protection for democracy and liberty; they are enshrined in the Constitution because they are deemed necessary for the maintenance of democracy and the liberty of the individual.
“By enshrining them, the Constitution manifests an unmistakeable and jealous concern to guard against as much as possible the use by the president of the organised instrument of physical coercion and violence represented by the police as an instrument of personal power for the coercion, victimisation and oppression of the individual for political or other reasons.
“The aim is to check the emergence of personal rule of a dictatorship.”
Nwabueze said although he supports the investigation and prosecution of corrupt judges they should be treated with caution and respect.
“Their role as sentinels of justice and guardians of our liberty, however much tainted by abuse and corruption it may have become, still entitles them to respect over and above that accorded to ordinary citizens.
“Disgrace them, and you risk bringing into disrepute and undermining the credibility of that hallowed institution, the judiciary, the Third Estate of the Realm, which they represent.”
Abuja insists that the attack is not on the judiciary but on corrupt judges, but Nwabueze thinks otherwise.
“The attack is both on the individual judges and an affront on the institution. Right from the beginning, President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed grouse over the conduct of the judiciary institution, so he is demeaning the institution in a bid to get at some alleged corrupt judges.
“The judiciary is not immune to corruption but he must follow laid down democratic procedure not this abuse of their rights.”
Nwabueze said the Nigeria Judicial Council (NJC) needs to be revamped, just as he called for the restructuring of the country into at least seven zones, with a weak centre.
“We need to restructure Nigeria. People are dissatisfied because the structure is not fair and just to all. It is the reason some groups are calling for self-determination.
“We must understand that demand of self-determination does not mean secession.”
