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DSP Yari: Whither The Rule Of Law? By Kabiru Mailafiya
Despite its limitations from one polity to another, democracy still remains the most fashionable system of government around the world. Its beauty lies not only in the freedom to choose our own leaders, but also because it holds leaders accountable through the rule of law and accords respect to the basic rights of citizens, including men in uniform.
Ironically, however, despite our celebrated return to democracy in 1999, the jungle order still seems to dominate the practice of democracy in our every day life. The rule of law means we are all equal before the law, including our leaders who are entrusted with our mandate to enforce the law. The success of democracy goes beyond lip service, because as long as democratic culture is not imbibed by all institutions of government, we can lay no claim to earning the respect of the outside world. Under a democratic society, even suspects or criminals are entitled to certain fundamental rights. For suspects, in particular, they have the right to be told the nature of their offences and of being charged to court within a specified period of time.
The indefinite detention of any citizen, without charge regardless of the institution of government he works for or his status, is in conflict with the democracy we purport to practice in our country today. Since no institution of government is above the law and superior to the constitution of our country, repressive tendencies towards the rights of fellow citizens is not a laughing matter. Nigerians should not therefore, stand akimbo while the disregard for the rule of law takes place unchallenged.
A case in point is the inexplicable and indefinite detention of DSP Abdul Yari, the former ADC to Vice-President Atiku Abubakar by his uniformed authorities. Given the political nature or motivation of his arrest and detention, Nigerians cannot stop asking legitimate questions why up to now the police authorities cannot tell Nigerians whether he is a murderer or a treason offender who is not entitled to a bail.
It is a notorious fact that our police force is openly partisan; the conduct of the force in the 2003 election and the testimonies of witnesses at election petition tribunals were a confirmation of the degree of police partisanship. In fact, the former Inspector General of Police was openly partisan over the Anambra political drama in which a gangster millionaire businessman, Chris Uba, violently attempted to remove an elected governor by unconstitutional means. In July 2003, Nigerians saw live on television how policemen aided and abetted the illegality. Worse still, Alhaji Tafa Balogun even forgot that he is a trained lawyer under the obligation to uphold the rule of law. Instead he routinely and proudly flouted court orders that urged him to restore the police guards attached to beleaguered Governor Chris Ngige. Even as the court order of an Enugu High Court in demanding the removal of Ngige was obviously illegal, the former IG was fanatically willing to enforce it because of his patent degree of partisanship.
The current similar drama of shame in Oyo State also glaringly exposes police hand of partisanship. To single out a police officer for persecution for being loyal to a politician in a different camp exposes the hypocrisy that surrounds the continued detention of DSP Abdul Yari, the former ADC to Atiku Abubakar, the vice president who is in a different camp of the ruling PDP, from the President. His persecution by the same police authorities that attach police guards to a political thug (Chris Uba) also demonstrates police disdain for the intelligence of Nigerians. The idea of browbeating any police officer into betraying his boss by providing incriminating information (real or imagined) against his boss is disgusting. In fact, this is a practice typical of fascist states and not a democracy such as the one we pretend to practise.
Does the police uniform mean that its wearer who is in the wrong political camp at the wrong time loses his basic rights as a citizen as guaranteed by our constitution? Are uniformed men and women not entitled to know why they are being detained or why they should not be taken before the court and charged for whatever alleged offence(s)? Public passion for justice and an active interest in the pursuit of justice naturally waters the seeds of justice. Indeed, nothing waters the seeds of injustice more than public apathy to the conduct of institutions that think that they are above our courts or the constitution. Because of the passage of time, public interest in the continued detention the former ADC to Atiku Abubakar seems to be waning. (???)
However, our apathy to the abuse of power by any institution, even against its own members, can be potentially damaging to the growth of democracy and the enthronement of justice. Without the vehement public outrage and reaction, the Apo six incident in which six innocent Igbo traders were shot and killed as armed robbers by gung-ho policemen on patrol duty, would have died a natural death and justice would have been buried along with it. It took the violent reaction of Igbo traders to force the police authorities to set up the AIG Mike Okiro Panel, which itself was discredited and replaced by an independent judicial panel.
Since popular apathy feeds the growth of injustice, can Nigerians afford to watch helplessly as the police authorities persecute a promising young man and destroy his future career just because he was loyal to the wrong politician. As John Marshall observed, “the court of public opinion is the highest court of the land, and not the Supreme Court as is generally the case.” Our interest in the course of justice can potentially check the excesses and abuses by institutions that believe they don’t have to be accountable to the public whose interest they purport to serve.
A society without respect for law will surely suffer a reversion to jungle tendencies, in which case our constitution that guarantees our fundamental rights will no longer be worth the paper it is written on. The Abdul Yari case is not an isolated issue; indeed, it is a test case to affirm whether our constitution has the capacity to assert itself over any institution of government. Any unchecked abuse of power by any institution of government can threaten the growth of the very democracy we strove to bring about. The ferocious public focus that forced the authorities to let justice take its course over the Apo six incident should be sustained on the Yari case, so that the police force cannot be allowed to get away with the notion that it can take away the constitutional rights of fellow citizens and even their own members.
The rule of law is the life blood of the democratic process and, once that is absent, democracy becomes clinically dead. This is because the vital function of democracy depends essentially on the rule of law. In his recent Sallah message to mark the Eidel-Kabir Muslim festival, President Obasanjo reiterated the commitment of his administration to this principle of democratic practice. However, Nigerians only hope that the import of his message was not lost on those institutions of government that believe erroneously that the rule of law is only binding on the civil population under a democracy.
SIGNED: Kabiru Mailafiya Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa, Nasarawa State.
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