The validity of a theory does not demand 100% compliance or correctness. Validity or correctness to the point of reliability in predicting the outcome of its application is the hallmark of validity.
With the exception of a very few, I have always and continue to believe that all members of the Nigeria’s National and State Houses of Assembly are corrupt and the evidence is there for all those who are not suffering from self-imposed myopia to see. A few years ago, I wrote an article (http://nigeriaworld.com/articles/2007/aug/230.html) in which I argued the fundamental points for presuming every Nigerian politician to be corrupt until the contrary is proven. My position remains the same today. Many of these so called lawmakers who actually break more laws than the average Nigerian lack the basic necessity to carry out the assignments for which they criminally pay themselves millions for, they are also not willing to learn what it takes to effectively carry out their assignments. The reason for this subscription to willful ignorance is not farfetched. They are not in the National Assembly to carry out the job of legislation, they are there to steal and many of them already have many years, if not decades, of experience in stealing. Their primary mission is to rob the Nigerian people in the name of lawmaking and pass laws that will protect them from prosecution.
At this moment, members of the Nigerian National assembly are busy rushing through the legislative process, a bill that will among other things, grant them some sort of immunity from criminal prosecution. The proposed bill styled a “Bill Bill for An Act to Amend the Legislative Houses, Powers and Privileges Act, Cap L12 2004, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria and for Other Related Purposes, 2009”, would also extend protection to lawmakers at the state level. If passed into law, law enforcement agencies will be required to obtain the permission of the National and State Assembly leaders before arresting errant members, this will be in addition to the requirement that such members can only be arrested with a valid warrant or if caught in the act of committing the alleged crime.
I am a strong advocate of genuine due process, including the use of valid arrest warrants when arresting citizens. However, there are a myriad of situations in our laws permitting arrests without an arrest warrant but I cannot justifiably deal with that issue within the scope of this article.
As annoying as the view that the requirements of this proposed law may appear as a half-hearted attempt to regulate policing in the country, the implications are more serious than mere annoyance or irritation. One needs to understand the leadership of the National and state assemblies to understand the grave limitations it will impose on the powers of the law enforcement agencies. Imagine a law enforcement officer seeking David Mark’s permission to arrest one of his colleagues in crime, knowing he may need them to save his back when they come for him? You go and figure it out.
The following is one of the arguments made by the sponsor of the bill, Henry Dickson (PDP, Bayelsa):
“If we accept that members of the legislative Houses are honorable men and women, therefore the need for extra measures should be taken in arresting such a person”
The funny thing with Henry Dicksons’ argument is that very few people accept that members of legislative houses are honorable men and women. What he is saying is tantamount to a re-echoing of the delusional belief of our lawmakers that Nigerians consider them to be responsible members of the society. Nigerian lawmakers are yet to come to terms with the reality that Nigerians rate them lower than prostitutes, armed robbers and kidnappers. They are the lowest of the low because they are public trustees brazenly violating the terms of their trusteeship. In the western world, used car salesmen/saleswomen are often rated the lowest of the low when it comes to professional integrity, and it is a shame for any professional to earn a lower rating. Members of our national and state assemblies are miles below used car salesmen/saleswomen and many of them have admitted that much in private.
The most absurd claim by members of the National and State assemblies is the claim that they are “honorable members” How can they be honorable given the following:
• almost everyone of them rigged the elections that brought him/her into office;
• almost everyone of them has accepted one form of bribe or the other to act in a manner detrimental to the people;
• almost everyone of them has participated in one scheme or the other designed to loot the peoples’ coffers;
• almost all of them have woefully failed to comprehend their responsibilities and discharge their obligations to the Nigerian people;
• it is an admission of failure for our lawmakers to complain about the excesses of law enforcement agencies when it is within their powers to regulate policing in the country by enacting appropriate laws instead of spending more time planning how to cheat the people they are supposed to serve. In a sense they are victims of their own legislative negligence; and
• almost all of them have padded expenses or engaged in irrelevant travel in order to cheat Nigerians.
Ignoring the mere contemplation of this type of stupid law in a genuinely representative democracy being tantamount to political hara-kiri, this proposed bill is completely unconstitutional. The unconstitutionality flows from different sources and I will try to elaborate on a few of them.
• notwithstanding the notoriety of s.308 of the Constitution, it is unambiguous in providing immunity to the president, vice president, state governors and their deputies;
• s.308 of the Constitution is a violation of the equality provision in the Constitution but its constitutional validity, though not notoriety, is grounded on the fact that it is exclusively provided for in the Constitution and a Constitutional provision cannot be described as illegal since it is the source of all other laws;
• since the Constitution does not provide for the inequality of Nigerians except in the notorious s.308, any attempt to elevate lawmakers above other Nigerians as the proposed bill seeks to do will be unconstitutional;
• the national Assembly cannot derogate from the powers granted to the police and other law enforcement agencies without amending the constitution;.
Neither the absurdity of this proposed bill nor public outcry is likely to stop its enactment into law. This is because our politicians have become deaf, dumb and insensitive to the feelings of those they are supposed to serve. And the sleep-walking Yar Adua would happily sign it because he would have found another way to further his agenda of protecting corrupt politicians.
I will end by warning Nigerian politicians about the logical outcome of the groundwork they are laying. Like a dog that is bound to get lost and therefore does not have to listen to its master, the politicians continue their provocation of the Nigerian people without any consideration for their welfare, the history of the country and the modus operandi that have been employed in the past in dealing with incompetent, inefficient and corrupt politicians. A resort to techniques that have worked in whipping politicians into shape in the past may become inevitable should the politicians continue with their irresponsible conduct. They all know that those make peaceful changes impossible, make violent changes inevitable.
However the current impasse is resolved is up to the politicians. They can either recognize the sacrosanct nature of the peoples’ vote or behave like the fly who, lacking legal advice, decides to follow the corpse into the grave out of greed.
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