The paradox of George Orwell’s Animal Farm in Nigeria

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”

A proclamation by the pigs that control the government in the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell has reared its ugly head. The sentence is a comment on the hypocrisy of governments that proclaim the absolute equality of their citizens, but give power and privileges to a small elite. This nauseating development has come to fruition in one of the most discussed issues in our dear nation Nigeria where the Kano state high court has ruled that the trial of the chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Ganduje, and others accused of bribery and misappropriation will continue even in their absence.

The Kano state government, on Thursday, arraigned Ganduje, his wife, Hafsat, son, Umar and six others for alleged $413,000 and N1.38bn bribery. The defendants, who were absent from court, were arraigned in absentia.

The Governor Abba Yusuf-led government had since April filed the charges against Ganduje and others, but efforts to serve them the charges had proved abortive. At the previous hearing on June 5, the prosecution obtained an order to serve the charges on them by substituted means, through newspaper publication.

The Kano government assembled 15 witnesses to testify against the defendants; Ganduje, his wife Hafsat Umar; Abubakar Bawuro; Umar Abdullahi Umar; Jibrilla Muhammad, Lamash Properties Limited, Safari Textiles Limited, and Lasage General Enterprises Limited on eight counts of alleged bribery, diversion, and misappropriation of funds amounting to billions of naira. During the last hearing on April 29, 2024, the court was set to rule on a motion for substituted service, but the defendants had not yet been served.

The charges span a series of alleged corrupt activities. Ganduje was accused of receiving $200,000 from a contractor in exchange for government contracts between January 2016 and February 2017. The second charge claims he collected an additional $213,000 as a kickback from the Kantin Kwari textile market-remodelling project.

Ruling days back, Justice Amina Adamu-Aliyu dismissed the state government’s application for a bench warrant against the defendants.

“The trial of the defendants continues even in their absence,” she stated.

It is imperative to provide jurisprudential insights herein, as the court had previously, on June 5, granted an order to serve Ganduje and the other defendants through substituted service.

The prosecution counsel, Adeola Adedipe (SAN) informed the court that the defendants had been served, and an affidavit of service was filed on June 6.

He noted: “My lord, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, and 8th respondents are not in court nor represented, only the 6th respondent.”

Adedipe requested the court to enter a plea of not guilty on behalf of the absent defendants, citing section 278(1)(2) of the Kano State Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) 2019.

“The court should enter a plea of not guilty on behalf of the defendants who refused to answer the complaint in the charge,” Adedipe argued.

He also urged the court to issue a bench warrant of arrest pursuant to Section 388 of the Kano State ACJL, stressing that “the essence of an arrest warrant is for the sanctity and urgency of the court because an order has been made for the defendants to appear before it and they refused”.

However, counsel for the 6th respondent, Nureini Jimoh (SAN) contended that service had not been properly effected on his client.

“We filed a notice of preliminary objection on the competency of the entire charge. The court does not have constitutional power on any of the count charges,” Jimoh stated.

He also mentioned that an application for a stay of execution had been filed before the court of appeal, “restraining the prosecution from publishing any charges against the 6th respondent”.

Jimoh urged the court to dismiss the prosecution’s application for a warrant of arrest and to refrain from entering a plea of not guilty on behalf of the 6th respondent.

Justice Adamu-Aliyu has adjourned the case until October 23 and 24 for the hearing of the preliminary objection and the main charge.

This development portends grave danger in the scheme of affairs with questions begging for an answer, such as: is the ruling party helmsman immune to scrutiny and forensic investigations by the anti-corruption body EFCC? In hindsight, Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf pontificated in public domain that his predecessor, Ganduje, has a case to answer as his government will stop at nothing to bring him and his co-travellers to book over his eight-year tenure allegedly characterised by corruption.

It’s beyond beggar’s belief that such an infringement has been swept under the carpet, as a similar case that involves the immediate-past Kogi state governor, Yahaya Bello, is hugging the headlines indefinitely. The confluence sub-national entity stated earlier in public domain that GYB has no case to answer, but the EFCC states that the reverse is the case.

The governor in his reaction regretted that Ganduje who was supposed to cover his face in shame over cases of corruption and political violence hanging around his neck shamelessly spoke about non-existent failure in the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) led government in the state.

According to the statement, “Governor Yusuf insisted that Ganduje presided over two unproductive tenures characterised with, inability to cater for the needs of Kano’s population and nepotism.

“Our eight months in office has remarkably outweighed Ganduje’s eight wasted years of political caricature and maladministration by all standards.”

He advised the acting national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the immediate-past governor of the state to rather buckle up in defence of his battered image at the court, instead of further exposing his impunity in the media space.

Furthermore, to gain helicopter oversight on this thorny issue that’s a sore thumb that constitutes leprous fingers was highlighted by Muhuyi Magaji, chairman of the Kano state Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission (PCCAC), where he stated inter alia that the agency has traced N51.3 billion allegedly diverted by Ganduje.

Magaji spoke during an interview on Arise TV. He said the funds traced by the anti-corruption commission were half of the over N100 billion meant for LGs in the state.

“The monies were channelled to different local government accounts. They then met with local government staff to create false expenditure with a payment voucher and then diverted the money through a third party,” he said.

“We traced a lot of the diverted funds to various individual accounts at the single market and subsequently took the money in cash to the state government house with someone stationed with a counting machine.”

The trajectory where ignominious allegations that involve perceived associates of the ruling party and levers of power are overlooked, while entities in the bad books of the system are subjected to vice-like grip treatment leaves a sour taste in the mouth that could be equated to dystopian locomotion in a democracy.

Ayoola Ajanaku is a communications and advocacy specialist based in Lagos, Nigeria