In an interview published by THE GUARDIAN ON SATURDAY of May 9, 2009 Chief Afe Babalola SAN berated his professional colleagues who had the temerity to confront the brazen and blatant subversion of the democratic process at the collation centre in Ado Ekiti last month. In particular, the learned Chief claimed that he “watched with dismay the ugly events that happened at the collation centres where people of the noble profession (lawyers) joined in what I call shameful and barbaric acts”.
Although I did not engage in “shameful and barbaric acts” I wish to state that I have no apologies for challenging the executive rascality of the Federal Government and the sheer impunity of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). As a stakeholder in the democracy project I appeared at the collation centre on two occasions. On Sunday, April 26, 2009 I succeeded in frustrating Mr. Solomon Soyebi, an INEC Commissioner from usurping the functions of the Ekiti State Electoral Commissioner, Mrs. Ayoka Adebayo when he attempted to announce the results of the rerun gubernatorial election. My stand received succor from senior colleagues like Mr. Dele Adesina SAN, Otunba Niyi Adebayo and Chief Tony Adeniyi who were present at the locus in quo.
On the second occasion there was no room for raising informed objections as the State Collation Centre had been taken over by armed gendarmes. Having been held hostage inside a car for over 3 hours Mrs. Adebayo was led into the hall to declare Mr. Segun Oni the winner of the governorship election, even if the heavens would fall. In the charged atmosphere I tried, in vain, to draw her attention to the illegality of announcing the results of the election in Ido Osi Local Government which she had rejected a week earlier. She wanted to address the gathering but her strength failed her. The security goons practically lifted her up. As she had traded off her conscience and betrayed her God she managed to advise those who were dissatisfied with the blatant violation of the Electoral Act to go to court! Notwithstanding that Mrs. Adebayo’s comment was provocative enough I took her advice in good faith. But those who had lost faith in the judicial system vehemently protested the disgraceful effrontery of the official riggers.
Frankly speaking, I was totally flabbergasted at the costly drama that unfolded before my very eyes. As I was taking notes I recalled, rather painfully, that Nigeria had, from 1975-2000, invested huge resources in the decolonization of Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa as well as the restoration of peace in the war-torn Liberia and Sierra Leone. I felt sad when I realized that in the last three years each of these countries save Zimbabwe, has held fair and free general elections while Nigeria has continued to exhibit bungling incompetence in the conduct of elections. There and then I resolved that some of us would have to return to the barricades to ensure that credible elections are conducted in Nigeria in our life time.
Those of us in the legal profession who belong to the radical school of jurisprudence believe that the struggle for democracy, rule of law, human rights and social justice in a neo-colonial environment transcend the narrow confines of courtrooms. Hence we are sometimes compelled to partake of street protests, campaigns and other forms of civil disobedience. Even under the most fascistic military junta in Nigeria I did not hesitate to pitch my tent with the late Mr. Alao Aka-Bashorun, Chief Gani Fawehinmi SAN and other patriotic lawyers in the titanic battle of the Nigerian people for the restoration of democratic rule in the country.
While we sacrificed our liberties and risked our lives some senior colleagues smiled to the banks as they had pitched their tent with kleptomaniac military dictators. Such lawyers equally profited maximally for defending the anti-people’s policies and programmes of the pseudo-democratic regime of President Olusegun Obasanjo. On several occasions I clashed with those colleagues in the court and at the Oputa Panel of Enquiry on Human Rights Violations where I represented, pro bono publico, the Nigeria Labour Congress, the Academic Staff Union of Universities and other victims of executive lawlessness and official brigandage that characterized those years of the holocaust.
No doubt, Chief Afe Babalola SAN might have been displeased with the conduct of lawyers who took part in “the ugly events” at the collation centre and the journalists who purportedly blew the Ekiti political crisis “out of proportion”. But in pontificating on the historic resistance of the Ekiti people against State sponsored electoral fraud the learned Chief ought to have made a full disclosure of his professional interests in the political crisis. After all, when Mrs. Adebayo came out of hiding the other day she was accompanied to the INEC headquarters at Abuja by two lawyers from Chief Afe Babalola’s Chambers. It was after that meeting that Mrs. Adebayo announced her plans to return to Ekiti State and conclude her assignment as a re-branded member of the INEC family.
In his 550-page Book on ELECTION LAW AND PRACTICE Chief Afe Babalola SAN set out to imbue “a sense of respect for due process of law into all politicians and participants in civil governance, so that our democracy earned by the blood of martyrs, the incarceration of some, the liberty of the ordinary citizen and the labour of all will be sustained for all times”. Therefore, there should be no basis for attacking members of the noble profession who insist that “the due process of law” be respected with regard to the rerun gubernatorial election in Ekiti State. In other words, while the learned Chief is perfectly entitled to advise Mrs. Adebayo in the circumstance other lawyers should not be called names for challenging the quality of such legal advice.
Finally, I wish to say, without any fear of contradiction, that my stand on the Ekiti electoral farce is in consonance with the progressive stand of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). Two years ago, the NBA called out its members to protest the conduct of the highly flawed 2007 general election which exposed Nigeria to unprecedented ridicule before the comity of civilized nations. A few days after the shame of a nation that was exhibited in Ekiti State the NBA President, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu SAN took advantage of his remarks at the Annual dinner of the Ikeja Branch of the Nigeria Bar Association to commend “those members of the Bar who refused to keep silent in the face of the electoral robbery that took place at the collation centre in Ado Ekiti”.
*FEMI FALANA prepared the speech for the "State of the Nation: Summit in London on May 29 2009
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