Last Thursday was July 10. That made it 11 long years since the shameful public display of impunity in Anambra State. On that day in 2003, a band of criminals, buoyed by the megalomania of a moneybag investor in Nigeria’s special brand of politics, shot the South Eastern state to international disrepute. They abducted a sitting governor, Chris Ngige, and claimed that the man had resigned his position.
That was the height of political rascality by a political ‘godfather’ whose only qualification was that he used his wealth to ‘purchase’ political office for his lackey. Ngige, although putting himself out as a saviour of his state, could not have smelled of rose after he had earlier submitted himself to such indignity of swearing to oaths of allegiance including signing an undated resignation letter to a deep pocket in order to be helped into political office by whatever means. The anomie in Anambra later led to the destruction of several state government facilities.
Although the shenanigans took place in Anambra, it was clear that they were protected and supported by powers from the presidency. This is because of the inglorious role played by the police in the entire debacle just as none of the key and powerful perpetrators of the illegality was prosecuted or convicted. On one occasion, a most spurious court judgment was obtained from another state’s high court with a supposed directive to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to remove Ngige from office as governor. It was a silly judgment which the police boss was eager to implement. Another reason to believe that the impunity was supported by the then Olusegun Obasanjo presidency was the contemptible manner the president described the incident as “family affair”, thus leaving the resolution to the whims of politics as determined by his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
It was a defining moment for what has remained a culture of political rascality and impunity. Apparently, that was what gave the political gladiators there the audacity to later plot and execute an unconstitutional ‘impeachment’ of Peter Obi as governor of the same state a few years into his governorship tenure after he won a long-drawn legal battle to wrest political power from Ngige who all along was serving a stolen mandate.
In Obi’s case, a splinter group of state legislators purported to impeach him and the Obasanjo federal government in Abuja gave the flawed process all the support. That same rascality and impunity also played out in Oyo and Plateau states where a few number of legislators claimed to suspend majority of their members, and, claiming to remain the ‘authentic’ members of the parliament, went ahead with a supposed impeachment process of the governor. Again, the federal government (under Obasanjo again) gave them the support. Thankfully, in the cases of the unconstitutional removals of state governors, the court always saved the day, even when it was an expensive and unnecessary process if only our political leaders had done the right thing.
One thing with impunity is that it has a tendency of replication and emboldening of perpetrators. And that is what we have seen across the states; bare-faced brigandage carried out by members of the ruling class. One year ago, we saw complete breakdown of law and order in the Rivers State House of Assembly, as lawmakers freely used violence against one another. Again, the police were involved or used. I predicted then that, as happened 10 years earlier in Anambra, nobody would be punished in Rivers. One year on, I am still right, sadly so.
We have seen similar incidents in many other states, with Edo as the latest. Legislators, who are meant to be law-makers, have turned to law-breakers with open display of violence to settle political differences. Little wonder, therefore, why Nigerian laws are hardly respected even by ordinary folks who would always point to the mega criminals running their affairs with impunity.
The way forward, however, is to see every infraction of the law as unacceptable and subject to the application of the full weight of the law. That means our law enforcement agencies must be made as independent as possible, so they are bold enough to investigate, arrest and prosecute whoever breaks the law. Oh, and by the way, whatever happened to the Honourable Farouk Lawan? He is still there in the House of Representatives, making laws for the ‘peace, order and good government of the federation’. How nice!