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For me, there is politics of law, for law is political and politics trumps law. Days back, the police brought some persons accused of their participation in violent protests to court. When there was an outcry about minors being charged, President Bola Tinubu ordered that they should be released “without prejudice to whatever legal processes are ongoing.” He also ordered the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry to immediately return the accused persons to their families. Earlier on, Nigeria arrested an American, a Binance employee. Diplomatic maneuvers happened. Nigeria released him and the United States President, Joe Biden, announced that he talked with the Nigerian leader, President Bola Tinubu, as well as thanked him for releasing the American.
Days earlier, the Nigerian government announced that it was dropping charges against the Binance employee. I sensed there was something to it. So when the US leader made his announcement I wasn’t surprised. I shall return to this point. I focus on the domestic front first. I take note when I see some in our political space pontificate about the law regarding matters that I believe are essentially political. They confront issues with the law when they should rather engage in the politics behind the law. I respect the law. I believe everyone should obey the law. I believe in the rule of law. But it’s still of concern to me that when a matter is political some still run to the law court. They run to the law for protection when politics can still circumvent them using other means. It can be frustrating.
Political solution is best pursued regarding matters that are political. But those who make the mistake continue to; make legal arguments when they should be quiet and seek a political resolution, most likely by using the back channels. It’s part of politics – back channels. In any case, political solution reflects more our culture on how we resolve issues than the legal route. Finding a political solution is one phenomenon in governance that I find interesting. The horse trading, the bargaining that gets government officials looking for less contentious means of arriving at amicable solutions, the quiet diplomacy, everything shrouded in mystery. Why? What I was taught in class is unfolding practically; it should interest a political scientist who’s trained to read these happenings and make the connection. As a journalist as well, one can then educate the public. It’s one’s contribution to the well-being of the polity, helps the political ecosystem grow, helpful as well to both the government and the governed. Ultimately, democracy wins.
Granted, a phenomenon that I find exciting may be a cause for concern for the parties involved. But politics happens to all of us, and so does law. Some happenings are just more in the public eye than others. For a political scientist who’s a keen observer, the politics of things matter; he observes and dissects as well as analyses which leads to a better understanding, and possibly proffers solutions to problems. There was that time a President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, was suspended under President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration. Salami went to court, and though he was to be returned to his seat, the government of that time didn’t permit him until he was due for retirement. It was a deliberate political act, a demonstration of the politics behind the law.
In 2019, I wrote about it, on this page. Justice Walter Onnoghen, the then Chief Justice, was accused of not making a declaration of assets to the Code of Conduct. He was suspended. It was a period when the outcome of a presidential election that brought President Muhammadu Buhari to office for his second term would inevitably head to the Supreme Court. Onnogen challenged his suspension in court. Seeing his lordship seated in court was a particularly harrowing sight, an emotionally sapping experience for me. I knew it was politics at play rather than what he was accused of and this made me feel he shouldn’t have been in court. Not at that time.
He had his reasons for going to court, of course. But I didn’t see him winning where politics had elected to exercise its superiority over law. It was that simple. It was brutal, the reality across the globe. I felt Onnogen should have left quietly, waiting for another administration when the atmosphere would be better for him to prove his point. I stated it on this page at the time. Recently, Onnoghen returned to court to seek judicial relief on the same matter. Now the current administration said it wanted to resolve the matter with Onnoghen out of court. And it did days back. The amicable resolution that both parties reached was what the court read out and ruled on. That was a political solution to a legal challenge that Onnogen might not even win if politics chose to stand on his path. When politics was willing, law easily delivered justice.
There are many examples across the world of cases which have demonstrated that any day, politics trumps law. It has to, as there’s politics of law. Politics, that is, the art of who gets what, also determines who makes the law, how and who it makes the net of the law catch and who it sets free. When a female American basketball player was arrested and jailed in Russia for carrying cannabis months back, the White House engaged in negotiations. Weeks later, the person already jailed for years by a court was back in the US. From time to time, soldiers caught by either side and meant for prison were exchanged in the Ukraine-Russia war.
In every country, the decision of the government on a matter already decided by a court has been shown to be superior on many occasions. Governments don’t even hide this reality these days. The Supreme Court may decide a case, and the president of the nation may decide to have the person involved released. Presidential pardon has been the more conventional route, but it’s not the only means. Presidential pardon still speaks to one thing though: Law can jail, but politics ultimately decides who stays in or out of jail.
There’s also amnesty that the political leadership can pronounce. In many nations, it doesn’t take more than an Executive Order to get a criminal entitled to amnesty. In that sense, the law says the person who commits treason should be jailed for life. But a president may say if the criminal surrenders, the law won’t take its course, and it becomes binding on all organs of government. In the event, the government, and the political leadership are the law, a reminder of what the French Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, famously said, “L’etat c’est moi”, or I am the state. Essentially he meant he was the law.
Where I’m heading is how in Nigeria many seek legal solutions to issues for which they should seek political solution. Again, the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu’s case comes to mind. In the past, I wrote severally on this page how chagrined I was that leaders from his part of the country didn’t seek political solution from the outset. They talk of doing so intermittently. But at first, they left the matter to the court. It didn’t work. Kanu’s lawyers keep saying he’s held against a ruling of the court that he should be released. Even if no one told them, did they think the government that went all the way to Kenyan to get Kanu extradited would want to release him?
Any government would use all legal technicalities to hold on to a thorn in their flesh. And this has become a political matter, not legal. Unfortunately, both the political and opinion leadership who say they want to follow the political route always miss one step before they start. They announce for the world to hear what they’ve not started. A political solution isn’t a legal solution, and it’s more mute than the latter. Or, who heard the American leader talking to the Nigerian leader until the Binance employee was released? Those who refuse to take counsel and are mute in Nigeria have a long way to go on the matter they pursue in court.
