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Implementation Of the Unratified Bakassi Treaty By Anthony Okosun The Nigerian president's decision to implement his concordat with the Camerounian president to ostracise the Nigerian territory of Bakassi is an arbitrary, despotic, capricious, autocratic, totalitarian and high handed decision. Implementing such a decision in the absence of the Nigerian Senate’s express ratification, endorsement or acquiescence will amount to an unconstitutional and an illegal conduct. Such an act will effectively make President Olusegun Obasanjo an imperial and an absolute President. For the geo-socio-political behemoth known as Nigeria not to suffer recidivism, deterioration or regression to atavism and nihilism our leaders must abide by the civilised principles of the rule of law, separation of powers/check and Balance and the supremacy of the constitution. The rule of law is the principle that governmental authority is legitimately exercised only in accordance with written publicly disclosed laws adopted and enforced in accordance with established procedure. This principle is intended to be a safeguard against arbitrary government. The most famous exposition of the concept of rule of law was laid down by Albert Venn Dicey in his Law of the Constitution published in 1895. He wrote "every official from the prime minister down to a constable or a collector of taxes is under the same responsibility for every act done without legal justification as any other citizen. The reports abound with cases in which officials have been brought before the courts, and made in their personal capacity, liable to punishment, or to the payment of damages, for acts done in their official character but in excess of their lawful authority. [appointed government officials and politicians alike]. . . . . . . And all subordinates though carrying out the commands of their officials, are as responsible for any act which the law does not authorise as in any private and unofficial person" Thomas Paine in his Common Sense published in 1776 wrote "the world may know that so far as we approve of monarchy that in America the law is king. For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king, and there ought to be no other. John Adams in his draft of the constitution of Massachusetts wrote" in the government of this commonwealth, the legislative department shall never exercise the executive and the judicial powers or either of them. The executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them. The judicial shall never exercise the legislative and executive powers, or either of them. In the end it may be a government of laws and not of men. -----Massachusetts constitution, Part the first, actxxx (1780). Unlike the noble and civilise theories hereinabove adumbrated by the masters of modern systems of government our own president Olusegun Obasanjo appears to be practicing the authoritarian and/or totalitarian systems of government which are based on the theory that government posses the inherent authority to act purely on its volition subject to no checks, balances and limitations. The unilateral decision of President Olusegun Obasanjo to enforce the Bakassi expurgation and ostracisation treaty without waiting for the senate’s ratification hearing attests to and buttresses this postulation. Another very important theory of governance which our president Olusegun Obasanjo must totally understand and respect is the theory of separation of powers. The theory of separation of powers or TRIAS POLITICA was propounded by a French political philosopher Baron De Montesquieu. Under this theory each branch of government, executive, legislature and judiciary has separate and independent powers and areas of responsibility. Each branch is also able to check and balance the powers exercised by the other branches of government. Checks and balances which was also propounded by Baron De Montesquieu theorises that governmental actions must be processed by passing through a check and balance system otherwise known as the Montesquieu gauntlet. Checks refer to the ability, right and responsibility of each power to monitor the activities of the other branches of government. Balances refer to the ability of each entity to use its authority to limit the powers of other branches of government, whether in general scope or in particular cases. Check and balances makes sure no branch is too powerful. This concept brings us to the Bakassi expurgation treaty. The doctrine of check and balance demands that the Nigerian president must not implement the Bakassi ostracisation treaty until the Nigerian senate deliberates on it and ratifies it. While the executive which the president represent is saddled with the duty of negotiating treaties it is however the duty of the judiciary to declare such treaties illegal and/or unconstitutional. The senate is usually not consulted until after a treaty has been completed and laid before the senate for ratification. When so laid before the senate, that body shall deliberate upon it. The senate may wholly reject the treaty or advice and consent to a ratification of parts of the treaty. In the event of a partial ratification, the treaty does not become law of the land, until the president and the foreign sovereign have each assented to the modifications proposed by the senate. When the senate denies ratification to a treaty, that treaty is no treaty it cannot and must not be implemented by the executive in the spirit of good government, rule of law, separation of powers, supremacy of the constitution and zero tolerance to authoritarianism, totalitarianism, and dictatorship, absolute and imperial presidency. The refusal of the U. S. senate to ratify the Kyoto Environmental Protection Treaty that would have subjected U. S. energy production to the whims and caprices of third world countries has effectively made it impossible for any American President to implement the Kyoto Accord. German dissatisfaction with the terms of the treaty of Versailles, which said treaty grossly, reduced the size of the German army and navy after World War 1 is widely believed to be responsible for the nationalist feelings and agitations in Germany that led to the growth of Nazism and catapulted Adolf Hitler to power. This explains while governments are extremely careful and cautious not to execute, ratify nor implement nationally unpopular treaties. I guess the obnoxious, repugnant and repulsive Bakassi ostracisation and expurgation entente is no exception.
Anthony Okosun writes from the U. S. A
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