19 Dec 2008 |
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| Fawehinmi: No honour in dining with depraved men By Levi Obijiofor Friday, 19 December 2008
Soon after President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua began his controversial tenure (now resolved controversially by the Supreme Court), many Nigerians referred to him as a perfect clone of Obasanjo. There were valid reasons for this. First, Yar’adua was handpicked by Obasanjo in total disregard for democratic procedures and in contempt of other qualified candidates because Obasanjo wanted a pliable politician to replace him as president. Second, Obasanjo, as political godfather, also put in place sneaky mechanisms (including a crooked election umpire) to ensure that his choice of candidate emerged as the winner of the presidential election.
Now, after 20 months of exchange of brickbats at the state election petitions’ tribunals and the appeal court, the Supreme Court last Friday re-confirmed Yar’Adua as the legitimate winner of the 2007 presidential election. Nigerians have no choice now but to live with the Supreme Court’s twisted judgment.
Since his election, Yar’Adua has not done much to change his negative public rating or to assert himself as an independent president capable of taking decisions and personal initiatives without any reference to his predecessor. Twenty months after he assumed office, the feeling is still strong that Yar’Adua is indeed a replica of Obasanjo.
In an article I wrote in the first four days of Yar’Adua’s government (Yar’Adua As Obasanjo’s ‘Greek Gift’ - June 1, 2007) in which I wondered whether Yar’Adua could be regarded as Obasanjo’s Greek gift to Nigeria, I posed the following questions: “Would Yar’Adua be man enough to act independently, to introduce his own policies and to distance himself from the political baggage left behind by his mentor Obasanjo? Would Yar’Adua preside over national affairs by shuttling secretly at night between Abuja and Abeokuta to seek Obasanjo’s stamp of approval for his government’s policies? Would Yar’Adua be bold enough to ditch Obasanjo’s grandiose and worthless projects and introduce economic strategies that are designed to reduce poverty and lift the economic welfare of the people?”
Yar’Adua’s performance since May 29, 2007, including his style of administration, provides valid answers to some of the preceding questions. Consider this. In 2004, Obasanjo announced his government would honour renowned author Chinua Achebe with a national award. Achebe saw that as an insult to his integrity and international profile. He promptly rejected the award. The idea of a national award was indeed a clumsy and indirect attempt by Obasanjo to get an international scholar of Achebe’s calibre to endorse his (Obasanjo’s) widespread acts of political mischief, not to forget Obasanjo’s evil plot to sow the seeds of political instability in Anambra, Achebe’s home state.
In rejecting that national award carefully contrived by Obasanjo, Achebe made the point that a man without honour (reference to Obasanjo) lacked the moral righteousness to confer an award on anyone. In a blunt press release, Achebe said he did not wish to be associated with Obasanjo’s government and he would not like to be a recipient of an honour manufactured by dishonourable men.
The idea to confer a national award on Achebe was laced with intrigue. When you deal with a wily old politician such as Obasanjo, you have to be apprehensive of every gesture that comes from the man. If Achebe had accepted the award, Obasanjo would have used it as an emblem of the forthrightness and moral authority of his government. Achebe saw through the plot and rejected the award.
Four years after Obasanjo committed that error of judgment, Yar’Adua has repeated the same error by picking out Gani Fawehinmi for a national award. There must be something about these politicians who feel that honouring important persons in the community is an indirect way to secure national and international recognition for their government. But one does not need to consult a diviner to understand that Fawehinmi, a staunch human rights advocate, would rebuff a national award from a government that has consistently abused human rights.
Predictably, Fawehinmi has vigorously rejected the award and made it public on Monday this week. Fawehinmi’s strong rejection of the national honour of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) was significant in many ways. By rejecting the award, he has conveyed to the federal government in no uncertain terms – in the manner that Achebe did -- that he does not wish to mix, dine or do business with dishonourable men. Quite simply, this national honour would add nothing to the armada of reputable awards already received by Fawehinmi at national and international levels.
By deciding to honour Fawehinmi without assessing the man’s willingness to accept the award, Yar’Adua and his advisers have shown lack of judgment. They have not done their homework properly. In a twist of irony, the national award has provided a forum for Fawehinmi to expose the transgressions of Yar’Adua’s government, in particular the rising cases of human rights abuses, unlawful arrests and detention of journalists, failure by the government to improve the economic conditions of the people, and Yar’Adua’s failure to hold fast to his mantra about the rule of law.
Fawehinmi’s rejection of the award raises two legitimate moral questions: Does the national honours award still hold any value in our society? What is the value of an honour granted by a government afflicted with a poor achievement track record?
Whether you agree or disagree with him, Fawehinmi has been a consistent critique of various governments for many years. In many respects, he represents the moral voice of the people. He is no respecter of military dictators or bumbling elected officials. He has fought many legendary legal battles at state and federal levels. He is also a studious Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), a title he wishes he does not have to wear sometimes. This says a lot about his unassuming nature.
Fawehinmi has been unwavering in his belief in the role of government in a democracy. He represents a one-man force that has consistently held the presidency and other federal officials to account for their misdeeds. He has been a profound defender of the less privileged members of our society. His unwillingness to compromise his professional and personal values, as well as his undying faith in the national project called Nigeria, have made some people to dub him as a maverick lawyer and activist, as well as an untiring human rights campaigner.
In his public statement in which he gave reasons for rejecting the national award, Fawehinmi pointed to failure by the government to tackle endemic corruption in the society, as well as human rights abuses by the government. On corruption, Fawehinmi said: “It is one single, fundamental factor that retards the progress of the nation and its socio-economic development. The issue of corruption is so fundamental in the governance of any nation.” He is right. Corruption is the destructive rodent that plunders a nation’s resources and blocks the path to national development. In spite of the destructive impact of corruption on the society, the official agencies set up to combat the pest seem to be overwhelmed by the enormity of the problem.
In tackling corruption, we must look at those aspects of our culture that deem some people as “sacred cows” who are at liberty to embezzle funds or commit crimes without official sanction by the state. Fawehinmi also said his rejection of the national award was informed by the federal government’s failure in various spheres of governance, such as inability to eliminate poverty, inability to check gross human rights violations, failure by the government to stick to its rule of law guideline, failure to provide free and qualitative education, lack of decent healthcare services and failure to provide basic infrastructure across the country. These are areas where the government has failed.
Here is an example. In February this year, the government rolled out what it called “Community Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy” (CEEDS). As Sanusi Daggash, then minister and deputy chairperson in the National Planning Commission claimed, CEEDS would get rid of poverty from the homes of 30 million Nigerians by the year 2011. CEEDS was also aimed to achieve a number of objectives such as “poverty reduction, social mobilisation and partnership for development, community capacity enhancement, micro-finance, public works, ecological restoration and improvement, and productivity enhancement that is research-driven”.
Eleven months on, nothing has been heard about this sham project. This is another example of how Yar’Adua’s government engages in grandiloquent policy statements that are never converted into concrete, identifiable projects.
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