I find the Department of State Security (DSS) continued display of primitive barbarism with regards to Omoyele Sowore’s case criminally disgusting. What we saw in the trending video is nothing but Executive brigandage on the part of the DSS. I feel nothing but disdainful contempt for the Commander-In-Chief who is perpetrating this banditry on an innocent citizen right inside the court of Law.
But,
I feel more disdain for Barrister Femi Falana and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) for playing a very active role in nurturing and emboldening this monstrous tyranny. Those two (Falana and the NBA) are part of the Arsonists of this inferno which is currently consuming the whole country. And they must never be allowed to deceive anyone that they are the Fire fighters because they are not.
Let’s face it, President Buhari didn’t start destroying our judiciary/democracy two days ago. He started it a long time ago and only a man who lies for a living will pretend not to know this. First, he started disobeying court orders with impunity with the NBA doing nothing. From there, he completed the evil job on October 2016 when he used this same DSS to abduct Supreme Court justices and judges of the lower courts IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT under the guise of fighting corruption. Is the DSS an anti-graft agency? And just before the 2019 election, he buried the judiciary and by extension, the rule of law and democracy when he SINGLE-HANDEDLY removed a sitting Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen using a mere exparte order fraudulently granted by the Code of Conduct Tribunal directly under the presidency and receiving orders straight from same.
Judging from Buhari’s past as a Tyrant with a very horrible undemocratic records, Femi Falana and the NBA ought to have seen the sign quite earlier. As a lawyer and a body of lawyers equipped with the mental capacity for critical thinking and discernment, they should have known that a Buhari who publicly and repeatedly absolved Sani Abacha of any corruption charge, withdrew Danjuma Goje’s 25billion naira corruption case with the EFCC, re-appoint his Chief of staff, Abba Kyari despite serious corruption allegation hanging over his neck etc WAS NOT CAPABLE OF RECOGNIZING CORRUPTION NOT TO TALK OF FIGHTING IT. And as such, couldn’t have violated all known rules guiding separation of powers in a democracy the way he did in Onnoghen’s case for any altruistic reason.
But,
Shockingly, Falana not only supported Buhari on Onnoghen but was all over the T.V defending the head of the executive arm of govt unilaterally and vindictively removing the head of another separate arm of govt. In fact, during the last NBA conference, the same Falana was busy countering Mike Ozeikhome’s attempt to rally the NBA in defense of the sanctity of the judiciary. He was there shouting that Onnoghen was corrupt and as such, the NBA couldn’t possibly rally round a man facing corruption charges. But he forgot that it wasn’t really about Onnoghen as a person but about making a bold statement that the judiciary is a separate arm of govt whose head should not be unilaterally removed by an over-bearing head of the Executive.
On the part of the NBA, what did the members do when Buhari, after disobeying countless court pronouncements, came to their conference to tell them to their face that he (Buhari) has the right to hide behind National Security to violate rule of law?? Those lawyers clapped to that treasonous statement and smiled like some teenage boy who just received his first kiss from his childhood girlfriend. That was a very unique opportunity for Nigerian lawyers to diplomatically lecture the President by making him understand that you endanger National Security more when you discard Rule of Law. Buhari even cited a Supreme Court justice who stated in Asari Dokubo’s case that individual rights can be suspended in the interest of National Security. But being illiterate about democracy and due process, the President obviously didn’t know he was countering his own argument because the case he cited was a court of competent jurisdiction, the Apex court, ruling, after carefully looking at the evidence presented by the prosecution, that a citizen (Dokubo, in this case) can be denied some of his rights for the sake of National Security. It wasn’t some head of the executive or his lawless DSS unilaterally refusing to release a citizen as ordered by the court. But the cowardly NBA couldn’t summon the courage to give the President the lecture he badly needed.
The rest, they say, is history.
Here we are!
So why is both Falana and the NBA now expressing orgasmic outrage over the DSS invasion of justice Ijeoma Ojukwu’s court in a violent bid to re-arrest citizen Sowore as though the Buhari govt became lawless just two days ago???
I think there is an important lesson to learn from this current reign of terror:
Tyrants always start by testing their limit. Once they take one tyrannical step, they listen and watch for people’s reactions. And once notable people like Falana and bodies like the NBA support their tyranny, they enter the next level. From there, they continue nonstop until they find their way home because make no mistake, tyranny always find its way home.
Whether in your place of work or govt of your country, always summon the courage to stand up to and speak against injustice and tyranny in any form no matter how smart the Tyrant disguised his objective.
Democracy is nothing without due processes and procedures. And it can’t exist without an Independent judiciary and a free Press (none of which we have at the moment). If some Tyrant masquerading as a democrat violates a laid down process under the guise of fighting corruption, supporting that Tyrant while chanting “corruption” like some robot simply because you don’t like the face of his current victim is foolishness. You should look beyond what the Tyrant is saying and try to see what he’s leaving unsaid but which his body language and past record is pointing at. Most importantly, and this is for those against Sowore for his role in bringing Buhari, please guys, we have a common enemy and existential threat here, and it is certainly not Sowore. If we don’t put 2015 behind us, we might not make it through the remaining part of this very loooooooong night filled with terror.
#ShameOnTheDssAndAllTheirSupporters
