DELE FAROTIMI: How a failed judiciary triggered the Nigerian Civil war.

By Deji Yesufu

Obafemi Awolowo explains in his writing that British rule was not entirely negative. Before the coming of the white man, for instance, most of Yoruba land was at war with each other. When the British eventually integrated the many warring factions and created a modern nation-state which would ultimately be called Nigeria, they did this solely on some specific laws. The white man, Awolowo would learn with time and did not take documentation lightly. Whatever is written carries weight. This was why the first set of people the British began to take issues with were those who criticized the British government through their writings. The highest form of documentation for the British was the nation’s laws. They understood that the law was blind and that the same law that stood against you today, could work for you tomorrow. Therefore, the British always obeyed the injunctions of the courts of law.

Between 1921 and 1928, two celebrated legal disputes pitched Herbert Macaulay against the British rulers of Nigeria, which eventually propelled Macaulay to celebrity status. In 1921, Herbert Macaulay supported Chief Amodu Tijani against the government of the day. Tijani had argued in the Nigerian Supreme Court that he was to be compensated for land in Apapa (Lagos) that the government had forcibly taken from his family. The Supreme Court ruled against him, but Tijani took his case to the British Privy Council, a body of legal luminaries, whose decisions were respected in the British Commonwealth. The Privy Council overturned the ruling of the Nigerian Supreme Court and Tijani got compensation for his land. 1928, Macaulay supported Echugbayi Eleko, the king of Lagos, against the British government in Lagos. The government had deposed Eleko and installed Akintoye. Macaulay joined Eleko in his trip to London to argue his case, again, at the Privy Council. The Privy Council weighed the matter and ruled in favour of the Eleko. Macaulay returned to Nigeria a hero.

As the British departed the shores of Nigeria in 1960, the first thing that suffered was our nation’s commitment to the rule of law. The resultant effect of it all was that the country experienced a bloody thirty-month civil war that ended exactly one decade after the staff of government had been handed to us by the British. A lot of things could be said to have contributed to the start of the civil war, but the contributions of the judiciary can not be overlooked. In less than two years after independence, the ruling party in the Western Region, the Action Group, found itself in an imbroglio – the party had expelled Chief Ladoke Akintola, who was the Premier of the region. The party was convinced that Akintola along with a few people in his caucus, were no longer following party guidelines for the development of the Western Region.

Obafemi Awolowo, the leader of the party and also the leader of the opposition in the Federal Parliament in Lagos, had been unable to get the cooperation of Akintola – his erstwhile deputy. The government of Tafawa Balewa stepped into the matter and declared a state of emergency in western Nigeria in 1962. The matter was taken to a Nigerian court which ruled in favor of Akintola. Akintola was restored to office based on this ruling, but the Action Group took the case to the British Privy Council, which acted as a court system higher than even the Nigerian Supreme Court then. The Privy Court dismissed the ruling of the Nigerian court and declared the Action Group to be in the right. The government of Akintola was declared illegal, and Chief Adegbenro of the Action Group was declared the lawful Premier of the Western Region. The Balewa government rejected the Privy Council ruling, declaring that Nigeria was now an independent country and no longer bound to obey the British. That singular action ended all appeals to the Privy Council in Nigeria.

At about the time the country was rejecting British lawful counsel, a young man by the name of Chukwuma “Kaduna” Nzeogwu had just been appointed the first military intelligence officer in the Nigerian army. Nzeogwu had been trained by the military in the prestigious Sandhurst military academy in England and was appointed to head the army’s intelligence unit in Lagos. Nzeogwu was a conscientious person who detested oppression. He had imbibed socialist ideas while in England, and was convinced that these ideas could change Nigeria and the whole of Africa. As a military man, he had the option of carrying out his revolutionary thoughts using weapons. He hoped to bring positive change to Nigeria, and then head to South Africa to overthrow the apartheid government of that time. Nzeogwu, via his work at the intelligence office, had access to classified information and could tell that the government of the day was persecuting Awolowo – a man whose socialist ideas he shared. It was at this time that Nzeogwu met up with Ifeanyi Ifeajuna and Adewale Ademoyega to hatch a plan to violently overthrow the government of the day. When peaceful means of change and development are rejected by a people, violent means become inevitable. I am arguing here that the seeds that set the tone towards the Nigerian civil war were a brazen rejection of the country’s laws by the Nigerian ruling class in the first republic.

These thoughts bring me back to Dele Farotimi and his book “Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System”. You will be living on Mars if you believe that Nigeria has a functional justice system. Farotimi may have exaggerated his point by stating that the nation’s judiciary was criminal. However, we all know that the best way to make a point is to employ something of hyperbole in our words, and this is what Farotimi has done. What is abundantly clear with the Nigerian judiciary is that money talks; the poor and ordinary man cannot argue a case on its merit alone – you must be able to back up your claim with money. Most people who run foul of the law in this country, and go to jail, are usually persons who don’t have money or don’t know somebody – or both. No nation can move forward where there is a brazen disregard for the law. How many times has the government refused to obey court orders in Nigeria? It appears that the government operate by its own rules, and only obeys court orders that suit them.

Now, whichever way Dele Farotimi’s case goes, the man would remain a winner. His book is shedding light on a fundamental problem in this country. And whether he wins or loses his case, we all know now that there are fundamental problems with the judiciary that must be fixed ASAP. Another thing we must keep in mind is that Farotimi is a continuation of the #ENDSARS revolution. What #ENDSARS failed at achieving, this Farotimi case will succeed at. By helping Nigerians rethink the trouble in this country, hopefully, we will find workable solutions.

I have provided the civil war twist to this matter to warn us in this country: the things that drown a country in perdition are usually little things. Top on that list are brazen disregard for the rule of law; cheating the weak; stealing from the poor; and disobeying court injunctions. Dele Farotimi, in one book, has provided this country with a synopsis of her problems. We will avoid greater trouble by attending to the issues raised in the book, rather than crucifying the prophet God is using to speak for the betterment of the country.