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The most important dividend of democracy, for me, is the rule of law. Any government, including those who came to power by the barrel of the gun, can provide electricity, build roads, bridges and the general items generally linked or associated with dividends of the democratic process. The longest bridge in Lagos, the Third Mainland Bridge, was built by the military government of General Ibrahim Babangida. The other bridges before it were built by yet another military regime headed by General Yakubu Gowon. Even the dreaded late General Sani Abacha built and rehabilitated roads with the assistance of Abdulkarim Adisa as minister of works and immediate past President overseeing Petroleum Trust Fund, where money made from marginal increase in the pump price of fuel was channelled for infrastructural development.
If infrastructure was a major yardstick for measuring democracy, some military governments would come tops, Babangida was a military Head of State, though he preferred the tag President. He did well in office in that respect. He appointed experts, created ministries, departments and agencies to fix specific issues. He birthed such agencies as Directorate for Roads, Food and Rural Infrastructure (DFFRI), National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in 1993 with decree 15 of that year. He created several others.
All the governments were illegal because those at the helm shot their way to power. No one put them there. They grabbed power and ran with it. The people had no hand in it. Babangdida’s regime and others before and after it that were not elected by the people were termed junta because they took power by force. They were not elected by the people, and they governed with decrees, not laws made by elected representatives of the people. I recall an event in those military days when Colonel Raji Rasaki governed Lagos State, and the newspaper I wrote for published an editorial comment lambasting the closure of Alaba Market over a flimsy excuse and the governor was so infuriated that he ordered the closure of the newspaper.
There was no court order or charge or any such thing. It was just that the governor had given the order, which meant that soldiers came to the newsroom and drove everyone away and locked the premises. Such instances were rampant. They could also put people away in detention on “orders from above.” The distinguishing factor for a civilian regime is that it is governed by rule of law. That major difference stands it out. There can be no orders from above for such illegal detention. The courts will strike it down on the basis of law.
Two instances have stirred this intervention. The cases are those of suspended Central Bank governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, and suspended chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa. The President suspended both men shortly after he came into office. it is within his right to do so because he could choose his team for such sensitive positions. But the axe I have to grind on the matter is their detention. The detention looked like a military order, given that no charges were pressed against them, no court ordered their detention. They had cooled their heels in detention for days before Emefiele was accused of carrying arms illegally. Bawa is said to have abused his office in ways we have not been told.
Just before I set out to put pen to paper on this matter, news broke that the government had applied to withdraw the charges it pressed against Emefiele and replace them with new ones. When the court granted him bail, the Department of State Services (DSS) took him back after a disgraceful free for all with officers of another agency. Why were both men sent to detention when no charges were found to warrant it? It would be standing truth on its head to misconstrue this as a defence for both men. The interest here is the rule of law, which ought to be the hallmark of a civilian government. Why then were both men arrested and kept behind bars when there were no charges against them? The direct answer is that their arrest was “an order from above,” reminiscent of the jackboots days of the military. The order from above is obeyed willy-nilly by people whose jobs would be on the line if they dared raise any eyebrows. No one should, therefore, lay blames on the doorstep of the DSS because their steps are ordered by orders from above. I recall the story of a certain director of news in the Nigerian Television Authority in the days of the military jackboots who dared question the professional correctness of an order from above for a certain news item to be included in the national news at 9 p.m. Then the report reached the source of the order, and about 15 minutes to news time, a fresh order came from the same source that the director of news should be relieved of his post instantly and news of his removal must be included in that bulletin he had questioned inclusion because of orders from above. He lost his job.
I have no grouse with the DSS but the ‘above’ from where the order emanated. Why should someone he held in detention before investigations are made to nail him? This is not the mark of a civilian government. The military attitude has not left our polity. The perplexing thing is that those who fought to return and reposition democracy may have been hypocritical in their moves. Sambo Dasuki, former National Security Adviser, was held for four years by the immediate past government but that would hardly stir this writer because that government was headed by a General. It smacks of dictatorship that a civilian government is showing the antics of a dictator. These detentions may be more political than civil. But is it not an irony that the same party is in power, yet appointees are facing seeming political trials? It is obvious that the target goes beyond the officers who may well be suffering for obeying orders from above. Let’s see how this pans out.
