KANU: FINALLY, LAWYER BLASTS BUHARI IN AN OPEN LETTER, ACCUSES HIM OF TRUNCATING DEMOCRACY AND FOSTERING ANARCHY

For his unrepentant defiance of the order of the Federal High Court for the UNCONDITIONAL release of the detained Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), an Abuja-based Constitutional Lawyer and Human Rights Advocate, Barrister Johnmary C. Jideobi, has some unkind words for President Muhammadu Buhari. In an open letter to the President, dated the 6th of January, 2016, the Lawyer accused Mr. President of being in contempt of court, warning that "disobedience of Court Orders (otherwise called contempt of Court) is an abomination of the rankest specie just as it is an anathema in every democracy worth the name as it holds the key to the floodgates of anarchy and societal destruction." The full Letter made available to odogwublog is 
found below.

6^th December, 2016.

THE PRESIDENT,

FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA,

PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI, GCFR,

ASO ROCK VILLA,

ABUJA.

DEAR SIR,

DISOBEDIENCE TO ORDER OF THE FEDERAL HIGH COURT OF NIGERIA MADE ON THE 17^th DECEMBER, 2015 BY THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE ADEMOLA AND THE COMPELLING NEED TO HALT THE ACCELERATED SLIDE INTO ANARCHY

The above subject matter refers;

1.      I bring you warmest greetings in the name of all lovers of democracy who sincerely believe in the peaceful and orderly continuous existence of our great Republic, which by the infinite mercies of God and grace of the ballot box you are privileged to be leading at the present time.

2.      By Constitutional structuring and operation of our laws, the Department of State Security (DSS) and indeed all other military and para-military agencies are under your ultimate control and command as per your pre-eminent position as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This being the position, it becomes pertinent to refresh your memory of the now notorious fact that on the 17^th December, 2015, the Federal High Court of Nigeria delivered a Ruling in the application brought by Citizen Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). In the said Court Ruling, a sacred Order was solemnly pronounced against the DSS to the effect that Citizen Mazi Nnamdi Kanu should be released UNCONDITIONALLY having been admitted to bail. To confirm that you are aware of the subsistence of that solemn Order and that same has not been complied with, on the 30^th December, 2015, you declared on the national television, that Citizen Mazi Nnamdi Kanu did not deserve the bail granted him by the Court, hence his continuous detention at your pleasure on the ground that he would jump bail since he has committed (not alleged to have committed) a serious offence. With this position you have taken, the gist of this letter to you has now crystallized.

3.      Not only because of the fact that I am one of the Lawyers who appeared for Citizen Mazi Nnamdi Kanu on the said 17^th December, 2015 but also (if not more importantly) as a Nigerian trained Lawyer, my knowledge of our laws was rudely shaken by the strange position you chose to adopt on this matter which is not only diametrically-opposed to established democratic norms but also kilometers and kilometers away from our laws and practice especially on which institution of the State has the competence to either grant or refuse bail or to pronounce the guilt or innocence of an alleged offence, no matter how seemingly heinous. I will now proceed hereunder, in the most diligent manner possible, to dispassionately demonstrate to you how your position represents an unfortunate departure from all democratic ideals, invitation to anarchy and disorder, resurrection of tyranny, and more seriously, contempt of the Court and the very Constitution on which the Temple of justice stands.

4.      In carrying out this assignment, Sir, I shall be drawing inspirations from our Supreme Court cases where similar issues have been discussed and settled, more so when our Supreme Court enjoins the finality of determinations as ordained by Section 235 of our amended Constitution. I consider it a good starting point to reiterate the supremacy of our Constitution over everybody as its Section 1 (1) very eloquently proclaims that; “This Constitution is supreme and its provisions shall have binding force on all authorities and persons throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” Amplifying this provision, the Nigerian Supreme Court, speaking through Tobi, J.S.C., in the case of Attorney-General of Abia State & 35 Ors v. Attorney-General of the Federation, had this to say;

“The Constitution of a nation, is the fons et origo, not only of the jurisprudence but also of the legal system. In Greek language, it is the alpha and the omega. It is the barometer with which all statutes are measured. In line with this kingly position of the Constitution, all the three arms of Government are slaves of the Constitution, not in the sense of undergoing servitude or bondage, but in the sense of total obeisance and loyalty to it. This is in recognition of the supremacy of the Constitution over and above every statute… All the three arms of Government must dance to the music and chorus that the Constitution beats and sings, whether the melody sound good or bad.”

5.      Having established that all arms of Government must dance to the music and chorus that the Constitution beats, Your Excellency, I shall now quickly move to show you what our Constitution says about the duty on all authorities of the State with respect to Court orders such as the one made by My Lord Justice Ademola on the 17^th December, 2015.

6.      For the avoidance of any scintilla of doubt, Section 287(3) of our Constitution provides lucidly, in the very words which I would now most respectfully reproduce;

“The decisions of the Federal High Court, the National Industrial Court, a High Court and of all other Courts established by this Constitution shall be enforced in any part of the Federation by all authorities and persons, and by other Courts of law with subordinate jurisdiction to that of the Federal High Court, the National Industrial Court, a High Court and those other Courts, respectively” (italics supplied by me for emphasis)

7.      Your Excellency, it bears no repetition that the discernible Constitutional duty that has crystallized on your shoulders as eventuating from the above provision is to ENFORCE the decisions of the Federal High Court such as the one made by My Lord Justice Ademola J. on the 17^th December, 2015, your personal opinion and reservations notwithstanding. Your Excellency, it is when you have failed in this Constitutional duty of ENFORCING the decisions of our Courts, as you have openly failed in this instance, that one is said to have committed the ‘contempt of Court’ which is a grave offence that is not taken lightly in every serious democracy as it has the dangerous potency of derailing the democracy of the entire Republic.

8.      Sir, all the existing Supreme Court authorities and our penal books lean heavily in support of the long-established postulation that disobedience of Court Orders (otherwise called contempt of Court) is an abomination of the rankest specie just as it is an anathema in every democracy worth the name as it holds the key to the floodgates of anarchy and societal destruction. Condemning this cancerous vice, our own Supreme Court, in the case of Hart v. Hart (1991) 21 N.S.C.C. (Pt. 1) 184 at 199, had these unkind words for those who disobey Court orders (contemnors);

“I would like to state that obedience to Orders of Courts is fundamental to the good order, peace and stability of the Nigerian nation. The ugly alternative is a painful recrudescence of triumph of brute force or anarchy, a resort to our old system of settlement by means of bow and arrows, machetes and guns or, now, even more sophisticated weapons of war. Disobedience to an order of Court should, therefore, be seen as an offence directed not against the personality of the Judge who made the Order, but as a calculated act of subversion of peace, law, and order in Nigeria society. Obedience to every Order of Court is therefore a duty which every citizen who believes in peace and stability of the Nigerian State owes to the nation. To allow Court orders to be disobeyed would be to tread the road toward anarchy. If orders of the Court can be treated with disrespect, the whole administration of justice is brought into scorn…If the remedies that the Court grants to correct wrongs can be ignored, then, there will be nothing left for each person but to take the law into his own hands. Loss of respect for the Court will quickly result in the destruction of our society.”

9.      Additionally, just to demonstrate the emphasis which our jurisprudence places on obedience of Court Orders, the Supreme Court in Odu v. Jolaoso (2005) 16  NWLR (Pt.950), while dealing with the same issue, declared with a tone of finality that;

“It is a plain and ungratified obligation of every person against, or in respect of whom, an order is made by a Court of competent jurisdiction to obey it unless and until that order is discharged. This is so even in cases where the person affected by the Order believes it to be irregular or even void. So long as it exists, it must be obeyed to the letter.”

10.  Sir, our Supreme Court has said it all and I could not have done better. I cannot possibly add or improve on the proposition of law so ably and comprehensively stated in most beautiful a language. The corollary of the foregoing irresistibly crystallizes to the fact that your continuous detention of Citizen Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, despite a subsisting Order of Court order to the contrary, has satisfied all the ingredients of the definition ascribed to a contemnor who our Supreme Court adjudges to be an anarchist, terminator of democracy and enemy of order, peace and stability of Nigeria. Indeed, this is a shameful toga that is most unworthy of any occupant of the number one office in our Republic as ordained by our Constitution.

11.  In conclusion, Sir, for whatever the consequences might be, my resignation and abiding duty to higher causes of human rights advocacy, Rule of Law and defence of our democracy, all borne out of good conscience, has prevailed on me to speak out against this primitive rape of our democracy and unrestrained slide into tyranny and impunity, which all along we thought had been buried seven months ago. By so doing, I am discharging the duty I owe to my conscience which is speaking out against the evil of my day thereby securing the vindication of posterity when the sad records of impunity in the Nigeria of our time might fall for review. Mr. President, in my village where I come from, we have a saying that no matter how intimidated and scared a people might be, it will necessarily get to a point where they will be compelled to protest to their dreaded king even if it means covering their faces with baskets in so doing.

12.  In signing off, Sir, may I extol your determination to decisively stamp out this excruciating scourge of corruption which has left our economy in tatters and has almost hobbled our collective dreams as a nation. Section 15 (5) of our Constitution mandates you to so do and additionally, our Supreme Court has equally strengthened your resolve by its testimonial decision in the case of Attorney-General of Ondo v. Attorney-General of the Federation. On this score, Sir, I am standing on the same pedestal with you and swim in the same water. However, what I am not at peace with is your unconstitutional method since we cannot (and it is even illegal to) fight impunity with impunity. At all times, our Constitution must remain inviolable since no amount of ‘good intention’ can furnish a justification for its abuse. Secondly, Sir, you may need to keep in view the seasoned advice of a Learned Hand which is that “If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: Thou shalt not ration justice.” May the almighty Nigerian Constitution never suffer worship on the altar of Tyranny any more.

13.  As you graciously find time to reflect on all this delicate issues, I most earnestly pray our God Almighty to generously sprinkle you with rains of wisdom so as to objectively appreciate the issues at stake, the courage to retrace your discomforting  unconstitutional steps, the discerning spirit to identify and hold unto only those policies that will ennoble your Presidency so that ultimately, our future democracy will be protected, the Republic will be preserved and your tenure records a resounding success.

Please, Sir, do kindly accept the assurances of my highest esteem,

Yours in Defence of Democracy,

JOHNMARY CHUKWUKASI JIDEOBI, LL.B (UNN) BL (Abuja).