A Task For Nigerian Bar Association

There was a news headline: “SIM Card: ‘DSS Told Me Buhari’s Daughter Ordered My Arrest-Trader,” in The Tide newspaper: Thursday, March 5, 2020 (page 10). The summary is that a trader, Anthony Okolie is suing the President’s daughter, the DSS and company MTN, for N500million over his ordeal, having been detained for 10 weeks.
Anthony Okolie bought an MTN line 09035666662 which turned out to be an old line of the President’s daughter, Hanan. He was arrested for “using a telephone line that once belonged to Hanan.”
Okoli told a Federal High Court in Asaba that upon his arrest, the was informed by DSS Assistant Director of Operational Services, that the President’s daughter, Hasan Buhari, ordered his detention. To have been detained between July 22 and September 23, 2019, arising from the purchase of SIM Card, must be an ordeal for a trader or any other person. Therefore, seeking a redress through a lawsuit is Okolie’s legitimate right. That the suit does not involve the Presidency but a President’s daughter, is understandable.
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) is obviously a body of lawyers whose professional ethics and social obligations include upholding justice in the country. The fact that they is a provision for legal aid even for aggrieved persons who cannot afford the fee in pursuit of redress, is a testimony that the NBA is justice-friendly. Defence of the defenceless is a humanitarian duty.
An association of legal practitioners in any country stands as a beacon for purpose of justice. Despite Jonathan Swift’s satirical statement that the law which lawyers know is the art of proving, by words multiplied for the purpose, that white is black and black white, according as they are paid, lawyers are meant to defend justice. Neither must political leanings cause lawyers to pervert justice.
For a country striving to move forward in progress and justice, Nigeria needs the support of all professionals whose activities seek to advance justice and equity. It is obvious that there are individuals and groups whose goals are not advancement of justice and fair-play, but their subversion. Currently, in Nigeria, there are whisperings of a possibility of some law-makers sponsoring a bill to ban public protest. Whatever its justifications, such a bill would not advance justice and fairness.
In the case of Anthony Okolie suing the President’s daughter and other corporate bodies, the Nigerian Bar Association can be supportive in putting what efforts it can to reduce sad abuses of power. There had been sad public reactions to another daughter of the President using Presidential aircraft arbitrarily for a private occasion. State facilities provided and maintained with public taxes should not be used for private purposes without an official authorisation.
Neither must office of a President be used in such a way that can bring disrespect or cause the public to grumble over abuses. We cannot deny the possibility of high public offices being brought to disrepute by some arbitrary actions or decisions of faceless persons. For example, the Nigerian Bar Association may wish to educate Nigerians whether or not the President’s daughter can instruct the DSS to arrest and detain Anthony Okolie, with no ado.
Currently, a group of youths in Kano took arbitrary and violent action against the family members of a musician by setting the family house ablaze. The youths threatened to take the law into their hands if the musician, Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, is not arrested for blasphemy. The anger is that the musician composed a song which was said to contain alleged derogatory comments on the Prophet Muhammad. We would not want to have another Rushdie or Akaluka case.
More importantly, the Nigerian Bar Association would do Nigerian public great service if that body of legal practitioners would show greater concern on police brutality. There is no doubt that law enforcement agencies treat Nigerians like brutes and often get away with such arbitrary acts of brutality. Surely, individual lawyers have been known to rise up in defence of Nigerians abused by security agencies. Quite commendable.
A large number of sympathisers and concerned Nigerians have shown interest in the Ikwunado case as a welcome opportunity to raise strong collective voice against excesses of the police. Anyone perceptive enough would know that there is a growing hospitality towards the police, despite the truth that there are good ones among them. When docile people are pushed to the wall, their reactions would be followed or accompanied by bitterness over past humiliations. Nigerians are becoming more aggressive.
Shenanigans, bravado, and apparent immunity of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States of America, took a different turn after one Walter Bowart’s interesting book: Operation Mind Control, was published in 1978. Apart from exposing various atrocities and human rights abuses associated with the CIA, Bowart also made public law suits brought against that agency. Since then, there had been out-of-court settlement of aggrieved families of those who died in CIA custody.
Without resortoring to militancy, the Nigerian Bar Association can work in collaboration with various human rights organizations to reduce the excesses of security and law enforcement agencies in Nigeria. To seek redresses in human rights abuses can be quite expensive, but the NBA can at least give some professional advice to victims of reckless abuses of power.