THE NIGERIAN JOURNEY BY DR AUSTIN ORETTE
By DR AUSTIN ORETTE
It takes time to form a country. It takes patience and dedication to gradually change attitudes. When people from disparate places and cultures are brought together to form a Country, it is never easy. In the long run, the tears and toil are worth it because the interactions lead to expansion of consciousness which drives human progress.
The journey of nationhood is not for timid souls. It was never easy for countries like India and China to rise. It is not an easy journey. These countries have more divisions, ethnic and religious cleavages and groupings than we can ever imagine. The main thing that worked for them was that they never gave upstart military officers the chance to upend their civilian administration and throw their country into a fratricidal war.
The military is always subordinate to civilian authority. In time of distress, there are people in Nigeria who still look to the military for solutions. This is shameful. The military caused our problems. They have no capacity to solve our problems.
How did we arrive at this place where a lot of Nigerians still think the military has solutions to our problem? Are these folks’ victims of Military Induced Mental Retardation (MIMR) (pronounced Mama)? These people still think this way despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
The Nigerian military destroyed our uniform code of justice. Under military rule, law and justice became subjective and citizens were subjected to the brutality of the rule of men. This is the reason why the various legislative bodies have not seen it fit to abrogate the stupid decrees of the parasitic military that ruled and destroyed Nigeria on behalf of a certain group of people. This mentality is dangerous to our body politics. This is why a lot of politicians pay courtesy visits to these soldiers of fortune that turned Nigeria into a Pariah nation.
MIMR is the reason the Nigerian lawyers don’t know their role in a democratic society. For Nigeria to move forward, all the military decrees that are still in the statute books must be expunged. Those are laws meant for dictators not a democratic country. Those decrees gave unbridled power to the dictators and disempowered the citizens.
Military induced mental retardation is the reason we don’t have legal reforms. It is the reason why citizens don’t know how to seek redress from the government they elected. Most Nigerians don’t even know how they are governed and they don’t make effort to seek knowledge in this regard.
In a constitution that guarantees freedom of movement, the Nigerian is harassed daily on the highways by checkpoints which have become legal armed robbery by government agents.
Are we at war? Why is our freedom restricted? No lawyer has taken the government to court on behalf of any citizen that sustained injury from police brutality and constitutional violation. This is pathetic. We need serious legal reforms.
The method of appointing judges is very antiquated. We need to know the character of those who will be judges. Knowledge of jurisprudence should not be the only criteria.
During the military years, the Nigerian lawyer played the role of stenographer for military decrees, and the judges took decisions from the soldiers. Now, they are playing almost the same role as politicians who have no idea why they were elected. They have abandoned the practice of law to become jesters at the feet of reckless politicians and conveyors of injustice at our courts. Our courts harbor judges who suffocate justice under their robes and consider military decrees of bygone era as a guild post for our state of jurisprudence.
All over the country, you see governors and other politicians seizing and damaging people’s properties without just compensation and there is no lawyer in sight to argue on behalf of the afflicted. A lorry will damage and incinerate people on the highways, and no case is brought on behalf of the victims. The army goes into a village for security duties and wipes out the village. No justice for the victims. The governor pays a courtesy visit to the commander in chief. There is no lawsuit on behalf of the victim. The officer who issued the command to murder sleeping villagers is left to repeat the same scenario in another jurisdiction.
We will protest if this happens in Palestine. It is happening in the Democratic Republic of Nigeria where the rights of the citizens are undermined daily by those they elected. These politicians did not gain power by a coup. If you listen to them with your eyes closed, you will think they are military officers who have just gained power through a coup. They don’t seek consensus. They give directives. Some of them defy court rulings with fanfare.
The military infantilized everyone in Nigeria. They pushed the lawyer back into the womb. This is atrocious.
As a nation, we must consider the fifty-five years of military rule in Nigeria as the years of locust.
The journey of great nations is always evolutionary. The military years were the years when hatred of each other became ossified and personalized as the military played us against each other to prolong their power.
The revolution is always a lie. In history, most periods of revolutionary zeal turn to mirage.
What will be the sort of America if an upstart soldier took the reins of power during the great depressions of 1837 and 1929? We have good and bad leaders. Each period is an opportunity to learn what to do and what not to do. The rush to think that some army generals will appear and wave a magical wand to achieve all we wish for is infantile and dangerous.
No soldier can develop any nation. Nigeria is a testament to that foolery. It is the willingness of the people to understand the necessity to build bridges and lasting institutions of harmony that moves a nation forward. The rule of law is the cornerstone in this exercise. If we have the rule of law, the Nigerian will feel protected in any place he calls home.
The clamor for ethnic reductionism and tensions will dampen because he knows no matter what happens the law will protect him from ethnic or religious vigilantism that is the breeding ground for timid souls that are still married to the past.
These people must be made to see the supremacy of the law as the sign of our progress. The journey is arduous and our dream should be about building frameworks that last beyond our existence. The nation that we dream of should always be a continuous journey of those who believe in tomorrow and understand that the yearning and aspiration of our people shall never die. This is all we can ask for as we toil in our little corner to build tomorrow for the next generation.
We must strive to make tomorrow a brighter proposition for those coming after us. It is when we arrive at that place that we can say our work is done. This singularity is love that binds us beyond ethnic and religious proclivities, which robs us of our basic humanity.
We can start this journey today and also understand that others who share the same aspirations with us may start their journey tomorrow. The wisdom we seek should give us the patience to know the difference and endure the pain and loneliness of waiting for those who are not ready today but will join us tomorrow.
For those who seek truth, justice and fairness, tomorrow is a distant horizon we must gaze at with hope, endurance and fortitude.
Tomorrow is not a destination. It is a state of our being. The futuristic tomorrow may never come but our state of being will be fulfilled and rewarded as our collective struggles will build monuments that last beyond our time.
