The Rule of Law, beyond our bias or prejudice -- A Nigerian case study.

"We are closed-minded about at least one thing, there is no man without bias or prejudice" -- Ademola Adesina --20/01/2014.

Without clinging too much on any arguments or topic, I will like to make clear some points, issues and debated opinions that are associated with laws, rules and doctrines guiding the conducts of humans in different parts of the world as defined by the laws of the land. I recently read a very sane argument in response to a topical issue (that I will try as much as I can to avoid) currently turning, twisting and distracting Nigeria from the reality of her situation and I have decided to first, redefine this comment and use it as a yardstick for my arguments.

• §  Human rights are a subset of the permission granted by the law of the society in any given society and as derived or defined by the laws guarding such society, the norms, culture and tradition of the society as provided for by the constitution or institutions guarding the commonwealth of society.

• §  The laws governs and stay supreme in every society, therefore crime, and associated punishments are defined by the legal system, as defined by the LEGISLATIVE, and in the absence of provision for such in the constitution or laws of the land, a supreme office or majority vote defines  the consequences of such in democratic manner

• §  Laws, crime and punishments therefore differ from state to state. A crime in state A, is not necessarily a crime in state C. Neither are fines, or sentences. A good example of this application of the law is the legal and Judicial system in the United States of America. While it is legal to carry a firearm and display it in some states, it is totally illegal in other states, some states adopt the jury system while in others, the judges decides. Based on this, your rights differ has you travel from state A-Z, meaning your rights are subjective to the dictates of the Rule of Law in every society, and this rights are defined by the "Rulership" or Leadership of the society as stipulated in the law.

• §  If the law says, "SMILING" is a crime, and thy punishment is "FROG JUMPS" for breaking that law, It is wisdom to conform, or relocate until such a time that the law is reviewed to accommodate smiling, or your views or personal judgement become popular enough to effect a change in the Rule of Law guiding the society.

Thanks to Daginie a commenter for providing me with the blue print.

A few days ago, BBC reporter Jon Sopel explains how explained with excitement how Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Prime Minister and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates, and constitutional monarch of Dubai had the aviation system of Dubai shutdown for close to an hour because he was having an interview, the BBC correspondent called it "Power" but I bet if it was Goodluck Ebele Jonathan that did the same in Nigeria, the BBC reporter Jon Sopel would have simply tagged it "Abuse of Power" in glittering words.

It is a crime for couples, married, single, dating, honey mooning etc to show public display of affection in the UAE (straight or gay), this rules are not written in "Neon Signs" at any airport or seaport in Dubai, Doha, Qatar or any other part of the UAE, and your nationality or naivety is not an excuse for breaking it. The same goes for homosexuality, alcoholism, brigandry, prostitution and others, with each of this crimes attracting not less than 10 years imprisonment. Imagine touching your spouse' cheek in a mall and getting arrested for it. I have read and heard of cases of European nationals, Americans and other citizens of the world being caught and punished for this acts but I am yet to read of any sanctions, threats or demands from this cock sucking imperialist concerning the "Laws of The Land" in this Middle East countries, but instead, Dubai was recently awarded the right to host the world at the "2020 World Expo" despite the fact that it is an antigay, anti-drinking, anti-prostituion etc... society. I heard Canada just called off the state visit of GEJ for reasons I will assume, and I've read about threats of sanction and comments from government and people across Europe and America…. Aren't we all just hypocrites?

I am waiting to hear the world famous excuses of my case study, UAE being an Islamic region. Only a fool will bring up this argument on the ground that Nigeria is a secular state. If Sharia is practiced in Nigeria and the government of the country spend tax payers money to send pilgrims to Israel and Saudi Arabia every year, then I will argue that Nigeria is rather a religious entity and should be guided by the tenets of her belief system at one point or the other.

The deceptive gospel of equality and oneness is preached from Abeokuta to Zaria, and a cloud of the non-existent unity shrouds us, a brain child of such gospel is the Unity Schools. The laws that preaches this equality and unity exhibits the highest level of inequality in this so called Unity Schools. 

A child from Yobe with a score of "5" in the entrance examination stands a better chance of gaining admission into a Nigerian Unity School than one from Akwa Ibom with a score of "150" and the one from Badagry is even doomed because he/she must score "250" to beat the competition from Yobe and Akwa Ibom because the law says so. I'm yet to see Nigerians come out en masse online and on ground to decry this illegality and anomaly in the name of educational opportunity imbalance, but here they are with the rest of the world discussing gay rights. Aren't we all just religious bigots hiding under the mask of human rights. Correct me if I am wrong, which of this two situations should be fought tooth and nail by both the local and international community, the Equal Right To Education or the Right To Pick A Sexual Partner, male or female which is supposed to be a totally private affair? Aren't we just so miserable?

A friend once wrote on his Facebook wall a few years ago when Barack Obama became the first American president to concede to homosexual rights, she said 

"In 1993 when I got to the USA, homosexuality was illegal and a taboo, over time it got less attention and in recent years became acceptable with a lot of people still frowning at it. Now it is legal, I better head back to Nigeria before this Nigga makes it compulsory, I love my shit hole tight". 

In the USA, it is illegal to show anybody drinking alcoholic beverage in its advert even though alcohol consumption is legal, it is illegal to smoke in public in some countries while Smoking Point are built for smokers in others, I've even read about "Quickie Points" installed in public parks in France, while a "Propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations" an anti-gay bill was recently passed into law in July 2013 by Vladimir Putin in Russia, this will not stop Mother Russia from hosting the Winter Olympics.

Prostitution and Marijuana has been legal in the Netherlands for decades but I heard MJ is now legal in Colorado alone in the whole of the USA, while prostitution is still totally illegal. I'm of the opinion that prostitution should be legal all over the word, "it's our body we can so what we want to" like Miley Cirus said, we shouldn't require a license to sell it like they do in Netherland, and should be able to frolic as we like in the malls and beaches of Dubai.

We must all learn to dump the cloak of mediocrity and hypocrisy, put on the garments or wisdom and reality and learn to live and abide by the Rule of Law as stipulated by constituted authourity. If the Nigerian laws says smiling is a crime, you'd better learn how to frown permanently until you can influence it through participation, instead shouting and pointing to another country where the law says it is legal to smile, but if the shouting will keep you frowning, keep shouting, else relocate. 

The human right of Nigerians is defined by Nigerian law and will not be changed by ranting of the crown or the wailing of the northern continent. If indeed Nigeria is a member of an international body that nominates a particular way of life, she's also member of the commonwealth nations, so I ask a similar question Japheth Omojuwa asked in one of his recent posts, "Why should I require a visa to visit any Common Wealth state, or transit visa when going through their borders or pay thrice the tuition when I choose to study in the United Kingdom?" The answer is simple, the UK law supersedes any commonwealth law, putting her interest before the interest of others, therefore the same applies to Nigeria as a nation in the best interest of her people. Our spiritual mandate Nigeria is to subdue the earth, that's why my father gave birth to six and his brothers did more, same reason our goat headed senators supported teenage marriage and it became law. Get used to us, it is in our nature to be productive and fruitful. Selah!

Nigeria as a state is independent and posses the power and right to define her human right. The people have voted, elected or selected their rulers or leaders constitutionally either by hook or crook and have accepted the Constitution that places our legislators in a position to make laws and decide the polity, rights and rules of the Nigerian state, and therefore they are duty bound to live by the laws enacted by the legislative until such is ammended. Remember, I am bias and the Rule of Law is always wearing a mask, Full Stop.

 

Buhari, the Desperate Unholy Mallam and His Unholy Gang

In the latter days of 2010 into early 2011, I was lucky to be serving this great country in the northern hemisphere of Nigeria. It was a great experience for me to be in the "New World" as it is called, see this diverse ethnicity bounded by the River Niger, a thin thread of love and a huge, dangling rope of hatred from whole new perspective. The night sky were cloudless and filled with stars, the weather was extremely arid and hot in the dry season and the unbelievably bone shattering cold in harmattan. I was grateful for the extreme weather because without it, the dirt ridden state will suffer perpetually outbreak of different diseases. Although I kept clean every minute of the way, I couldn't avoid coming in contact with slummy, scary dirt every fr**king day and I dare not blame it on poverty, there was water, why can't they just take a bath? I dubbed it  "Jigawa Dirt Sentence" in a 2795 words essay I wrote in March 2011 on my blog. Although the extreme weather in a way blurred the lines of the outbreak of any disease because it was either too hot or too cold for the causative organisms to survive long enough, it couldn’t burn out the stench that reeked out of every nook and cranny of the State I visited, and this stench was made more offensive by the constant mention of the name of that very popular "aboki", Muhammadu Buhari.

His name was made pristine and on every lips as if he was some saving grace, and people were so blinded by religion, ethnicity, sympathy and the pain of his constant defeat that they refused to see the true elements of Buhari the way I saw it. Back then, a lot of people disagreed with my arguments that "Buhari was not the messiah we desire", behind closed doors of course, and they sang his anti-corruption praises, just the way we sang the songs of hope for MKO in "Hope 93". I hope everyone that disagreed with me back then can now shamefully drop their head in their hands, and drown in the shame and disappointment he'd brought upon them by proofing beyond any doubt, even before getting into any political position that he's only power drunk, and as corrupt as the rotten skull of Abacha wherever that lies right now.

I remember he heralded his downward spiral movement into revealing his true crocodile nature when he bowed to Muhammad Abacha, and gave him a CPC citizenship in his house in order to get money to fund CPC. He shed crocodile tears back then but a lot of people were too blinded to see his jagged jaw line and they thought it was the real tears of a patriot. Thank God for the powers that be that made sure CPC flopped, I was in Kano to see his desperate show of shame and hunger for the very coveted rock throne in the Aso Villa, and the subsequent violence that rocked the north only changed the dimension of the truth. Buhari was not responsible for the violence, although his defeat was the catalyst for it, all of it was pure emotional outbreak. We fasted and prayed for it not to happen but the like G. Massey said

"They must find it difficult....

Those who have taken authority as the truth

Rather than truth as authority"

Now we all know, the once gallant pro-discipline, anti-corruption general who ruled with fire and brimstone alongside Babatunde Idiagbon between 1983 and 1985 not only bowed down to the corrupt dynasty of the Abacha's, but as also fallen to the mud at the feet of Bola Tinubu, and more recently Obasanjo, the Otta farmer that brought those crocodile tears out of his lidless eyes. I don't need to remind the world or maybe Nigerians the bitter words that came out of the shameless Aboki's mouth during those years of his endless lies, deception and constant defeat that led to the loss of lives and properties from Minna to Damaturu, Hadejia to Bauchi and other part of the north that still stinks from the blood of innocent youth corpers, easterners, and southerners that were operating legitimate businesses in the north of their country, just because one Aboki kept the lies going. Divine providence moved me out a day before the violence broke out, maybe I would have been dead by now because one very corrupt General held sway, and swung it without caring who lived or died because he was power drunk and wanted it for himself at all cost.

"Show me your friends and I will tell you who you are" they say, I am sure this popular Aboki will come out with brooms in hand this time and show us is "EFCC tried and hanging", "pending corruption court cases", "loot wielding" friends in his anti-corruption campaign towards 2015. I wonder what his tag line will sound like in his trophy chase this time, because to all this corrupt corruption specialist, the executive sit is just a throne design for supreme "rulership" and "stealership" but the elections is never a championship to be competed for, but a death race that must be won at all cost. While we wait, let me grab my Holy Bible, Holy Quran and Torah as I continually search for the truth within.