Why Nigeria is jagajaga

Monday’s conviction of former French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, for corruption-related offences communicates one or two critical things about Nigeria’s increasingly worrisome state.

Sarkozy, who was leader of the European country between 2007 and 2012, has been in public service for close to five decades, since he became a councillor and later, Major of Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1978 and 1983 respectively.

As would be expected of any politician worth his salt, Sarkozy has, in the past 42 years, become an established political force of the far right, earning respect from all shades of political divides in French politics. Urbane, popular and charismatic, he served his country in various capacities including as spokesperson for the national government and minister in key ministries like budget, communications, finance and interior, before it all culminated in his attaining France’s Presidency in 2007.

On Monday, he was handed a three-year jail term for trying to bribe a judge in exchange for information on a case. Although the former President says he is appealing the sentence, Judge Christine Mée was quoted to have said in her judgment that Sarkozy “knew what [he] was doing was wrong.” The former President has faced a few other allegations since he left office and should soon be in court on charges related to election expenses including taking money from the late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi.

Even though, like all human beings in his circumstance probe to sweep up conspiracy theories, the former President had once insinuated that some of the allegations were politically motivated, his conviction, which is the second time a former President would be tried and sentenced in France’s recent history, is a reminder and massive expression of equality before the law – the principle that all citizens are subject to the same laws and that the laws guarantee that no individual or group of individuals are privileged or discriminated against by the state. In delivering the judgement that convicted Sarkozy, his lawyer (who is an accomplice) and the accused judge, the trial judge was also quoted as saying that the actions of these men had given the public “a very bad image of justice”. This is what Nigerian leaders do not care about!

Let us make no mistakes about it, the issues of equality, justice and fairness are germane to national growth and development. The truth is that Nigeria has established herself as a country where there are no consequences for bad behaviour or at best, a country that operates two sets of laws, one for the poor and the other for the wealthy or powerful.

Here is a country where someone who steals two bowls of garri is sent to prison for 10 years while an ex-governor who has stolen hundreds of millions or even billions of naira, with the capacity to hire loads of senior advocates, will live in perpetual peace enjoying the loot, which has brought poverty and hardship on the people. There is of course, no society with absolute national adherence to constitutional and legal guidance, but functional societies are noted for punishing constitutional infractions regardless of whose ox is gored. In societies where laws are enforced dispassionately, tendencies are that such societies would be focused, service-oriented governance; and a happy, patriotic and predominantly law-abiding citizenry.

But that is not Nigeria. What we have built is a country with no consequences for ill-behaviour, graft and abuse of office. Prosecutorial institutions are ill-funded and enveloped around personalities rather than enduring philosophies. Personnel in these institutions are underpaid, over-worked and ill-equipped for the task and rigour of investigations, intelligence gatherings and prosecution, or completely compromised in the oceans of inequality and lack of professionalism built around most of our national institutions.

The country is prostrate because laws and their enforcement are impotent. Here is a country where a minister in charge of defence would encourage citizens to take the law into their own hands in self-defence, forgetting that such a suggestion indicates that government has abdicated its responsibility. A governor would claim to know those behind the criminal abduction of secondary school girls, yet no step is taken to report them to security agencies and get them arrested.  Another governor in fact justified the possession of sophisticated weapons by unauthorised persons! It is a country where those who swear to operate the laws of the land diligently flout the laws with the impunity of a child who does not know their right from left.

The foundation of all our national crisis is found in the social structure of a society driven by fraudulent class distinction, where the political, financial, cultural and economic elites are seen as untouchable and beyond legal reproach. They are instrumental to and strategic in the appointment of operators of the system in a society where merit is inferior to cronism and whom you know is superior to what you know. Judges wait in their living rooms for several hours in their struggles to be appointed as judges and top police brass run to the traditional rulers and in some instances, mistresses of men of powers before clicking the top job. This is a country where the best is passed over in the appointment into critical positions of service.

Yet, we are wondering why the country has become a jungle where might has become right and those who consider themselves hopeless and abandoned are taking up arms against the state.

The other day in Oyo state, a political dealer with the name Sunday Adeyemo stood up to speak for the Ibarapa area of the state against what is believed to be years of criminal intimidation by Fulani settlers. The week after, he moved to neighbouring Ogun state. He was said to have held a virtual meeting attended by loads of Yoruba people from across the world. At that meeting, millions of naira was raised for the mobilisation of Yoruba nationalism championed by a barely literate Adeyemo. The question to ask those who blame Adeyemo is, would we ever have come this far if the laws of the land had been fairly applied in dealing with the numerous reports of killings, rape and arson that had been lodged by residents of the area months on end?
At the moment, the Amalgamated Union of Foodstuff and Cattle Dealers of Nigeria have withdrawn the services of their members nationwide for what is an admittedly ridiculous request for compensation for losses the association members incurred.

But before now, this association had complained about extortions suffered by its members in the course of carrying out legitimate business. According to the secretary-general of the association, about N250, 000 would have been spent giving all sorts of bribes to security operatives before a trailer load of cows from Adamawa state arrives in any of the southern states. That is not to speak of complaints about multiple taxations.

For the years that the association has complained, no one paid attention. Now, with the withdrawal of their services are a myriad of ethnic sentiments capable of complicating the already tensed atmosphere in the country. What if these extortionist law enforcement agents had been dealt with before now?

In the final analysis, Nigeria’s redemption remains, amongst other things, in a decision to respect the laws we make. Because laws do not speak multiple languages, the manipulation of laws to speak and act in accordance with the multiplicity of our tongues and the sizes of our pockets, is at the root of our national crisis. Until we get disciplined enough to honour the law’s blindness to sentiments and allow it to punish those who are off the orbit of the law, all our national agitations for restructuring and a better society will remain empty or at best tentative. Everyone in a country must abide, be guided and subordinate to the rules upon, which the commonwealth is formed.

Adedokun tweets @niranadedokun