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MEMO TO MR PRESIDENT

By Charles Ogbu

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Mr President Sir,

This memo is necessitated by issues of urgent national importance not unconnected with your statement at the Annual Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association where you told a gathering of eminent judges and lawyers that the rule of law is not supreme and could be set aside in the interest of National interest and Security.

When I watched you read that statement with a straight face, I was tempted to simply pause and die crying. Crying at the sight of a democratically elected President trying so hard to destroy that same democracy in a way and manner that is brazenly blatant.

I'm tempted to ask, Mr President, who defines what constitutes National interest? You?

With due respect, Mr President, in a democracy, that statement of yours is as atrocious as it is criminally offensive. In fact, there is a sense in which it can be interpreted as verbal treason. That you had the audacity to air such iniquitious and dictatorial view in presence of members of the judiciary which is a separate arm of government portrays you as an unsalvageable Emperor who has nothing but raw unadulterated contempt for the checks and balances of democratic processes and Procedures. The failure of the judges and Lawyers present at the gathering to immediately protest that legal sacrilege by staging a walkout is nothing short of a walking shame, one that should be studied in the University as a 3 unit course.

Mr President sir, Rule of law is the basic foundation upon which democracy rests and democracy is like pregnancy. You cannot be 'a little bit pregnant'. You are either pregnant or you are not. As a President, you are either practicing democracy, in which case, you must abide by the sacrosanctity of the rule of law or you are a full blown dictator. There is no "but", there is no "If".

Mr President, It is not rule of law that threatens National security. The greatest threat to National security and national interest is a President who treats the constitution, court judgments and human rights of his fellow citizens, who by the way, are his employers, with criminal disdain. A President that thinks the law should be replaced with his own whims and caprices is a danger to not just the society but himself.

Rule of law is the basic foundation upon which every civilized society rests. And it is anchored on certain principles which can be summarized as follows: (1)SUPREMACY OF THE LAW which explains that the society must be governed in accordance with established laws which must supersede the whims and caprices of any individual (2) EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW which states that all men are equal before the law and that no man shall be treated above the law nor beneath the law. The way a Charles Ogbu is treated before the law should be the same way a Muhammadu Buhari is treated before that same law (3) THE FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS which simply guarantees that citizens are entitled to certain inalienable rights which is not the government's to give to their friend or withhold from their enemies. Sadly Mr President, you've violated and continue to violate all of these principles.

Mr President sir, rule of law is about fairness, orderliness and impartial administration of justice. Without social justice, equity and good conscience, all of which are ingredients of rule of law, a State has no legitimacy. In fact, these ingredients are so indispensable that the Roman African theologian, St. Augustine of Hippo had to conclude that "without justice, a State is nothing but a band of robbers". And in the popular Television series "Prison Break", the drug Lord Lechero would even put it better when he asserted, "Without rules, we are nothing but savages"

Permit me to remind you, Mr President, that most of the very serious challenges our national security and national interest are battling with today stem from your determination to ceaselessly subject the rule of law to bottomless ridicule. For instance, on December 17th, 2015, a federal high court presided over by Justice Adeniyi Ademola ruled that the Department of State Security(DSS) under you should release the leader of the Indigenous People Of Biafra(IPOB) Mazi Nnamdi Kanu unconditionally. You neither obeyed that court order nor did you appeal it. You would later subject the judiciary to bottomless ridicule again on the same Kanu issue by invading his home, killing hundreds of people and disappearing him and his parents EVEN WHEN HE WAS STILL UNDER BAIL GRANTED HIM BY A COURT OF COMPETENT JURISDICTION. If you felt he had violated his bail conditions, you should have approached the court that granted him the bail. It is not your place to unilaterally determine that and take to self help the way you did. And if you felt he had committed fresh offenses, you ought to have filed fresh charges against him. Your handling of Kanu's case endangered national interest and security more than a million and one Nnamdi Kanu could ever have.

As a write, the former National Security adviser Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) has been in detention for over 3 years and counting despite not less than 6 court orders including a ruling by the ECOWAS COURT, the same ECOWAS you now preside over, ordering that he be released on bail. Sheik Ibraheem Elzak-Zaky and his wife yet languish in detention despite numberless court orders that they be released.

Mr President sir, each time you disobey court order, violate the constitution and abuse the principle of Separation of Power, regardless of your reason, the clear message you pass across to Nigerians is that they too should resort to self help each time they have any disagreement with either their government or fellow citizens.

Finally Mr President, let me remind you that it was the rule of law that made you President. If you remove the rule of law as you are clearly trying to do, we will be left with nothing but the rule of force which is a euphemism for anarchy. And as a former dictator who once ruled Nigeria with a loaded gun and suspended constitution, you will have completely shattered the Buhari myth in such a horrible way that even history would be too ashamed to reserve a memory for you.

Remember, Mr President, that no man, no matter how powerful, can make a private bargain with history. Please accept the assurances of my highest regard.

Please follow me on Twitter @OgbuCharlesSun2

Oyetunji Abioye, Washington DC

The President of the World Bank Group, Jim Yong Kim, said on Thursday that the bank had concentrated on the northern region of Nigeria in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s request.

Kim and the Managing Director, International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, who spoke at separate press conferences in Washington DC, United States, also advised Buhari to invest in things that would enhance economic growth.

Kim said, “You know, in my very first meeting with President Buhari he said specifically that he would like us to shift our focus to the northern region of Nigeria and we’ve done that. Now, it has been very difficult. The work there has been very difficult.

“I think Nigeria, of course, has suffered from the dropping oil prices. I think things are just now getting better. But the conversation we need to have with Nigeria, I think, is in many ways related to the theme that I brought to the table just this past week, which is investment in human capital. The percentage of the Gross Domestic Product that Nigeria spends on healthcare is less than one percent.”

He added, “Despite that, there is so much turbulence in the northern part of the country, and there is the hit that was taken from the drop in the oil prices. Nigeria has to think ahead and invest in its people. Investing in the things that will allow Nigeria to be a thriving, rapidly growing economy in the future is what the country has to focus on right now.”

Kim also said, “Focusing on the northern part of Nigeria, we hope that as commodity prices stabilise and oil prices come back up, the economy will grow a bit more. But very, very much important is the need to focus on what the drivers of growth in the future will be.”

According to the World Bank boss, the bank will invest in human capital in other parts of Africa in order to prepare the continent for the next phase of growth.

Lagarde, in her remarks, said Sub-Saharan African countries, including Nigeria, had posted suboptimal growth in recent times.

The growth figures, she said, were far too small considering the huge demographic potential of Nigeria and other countries in the region.

As a result, she said the IMF would be engaging ministers of finance and central bank governors from the region attending the annual World Bank and IMF meetings on how they could boost and stabilise economic growth.

Lagarde said, “The Sub-Saharan Africa is one region of the world where growth is suboptimal. Those countries grow at an average growth of 2.5 per cent. That is too low for the demographic expansion of the region.”

The IMF managing director said emerging and developing economies must invest more in their economies through infrastructural spending, strengthening safety nets, allowing women more access to the labour market and carrying structural reforms.

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