By C J Okoli-Akirika Esq
The recent intervention of fifty members of House of Representatives in the obviously vexed and momentous matter of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is a wholesome paradigm vista. The reasons are not far-fetched in that for the first time, the elected representatives of Nigerians across region and religion, tribes and tongues wrote the Chief Executive Officer of Nigerria to rely on due process to effect the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu who has been standing trial in protracted, albeit, criminal prosecution.
Without doubt, the Mazi Nnamdi Kanu saga evidently and outlandishly epitomises the Nigerian State: a state that inexplicably ignores causes to dubiously fight effects. A state that ominously chooses the easier wrong in preference to the obviously harder right. A state of double standards, inequity and injustice. A near unconscionable and rudderless state.
Is not intriguing, if not paradixical that the Nigerian State produced a Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from obscurity as a “still small voice in the wilderness” to a topical issue that engages the attention of the government and institutions of governance. Simply because the Nigerian State left undone what it should have done and did what it should not have done.
Though, the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria was not essentially the product of “we the people of Nigeria” but the author(s) embedded therein the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy to act as navigating compass to managers of affairs of Nigerians
Contextually central in these Directive Principles is the axiom that power belongs to the people whose welfare and security constitute the primary duties and the very essence of Government anchored on equality, justice and fairness.
It is the untoward abnegation of these salubrious paradigms that produce the present day Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, Sunday Iboho et cetera
To illustrate the foregoing, an isolated instance may be cited: In the heady days of pervasive insecurity ranging from ruga/herdsmen killings, Boko Haram insurgency and insurrections to self defense outfits in various parts of the country, the inglorious federal government singled out IPOB for proscription and proceeded to the extra territorial extradition of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu when some persons declared wanted by State security operatives were being feted and honoured by traditional rulers in certain parts of the country. This, certainly, is an obvious obnoxious demonstration of double standards and undisguisedly derogates from the constitutional mandates inaugurated as Directive Principles.
The concomitance is the inducement of sense of alienation on the citizenry and attendant, even if unintended, recourse to unorthodoxy.
Against the backdrop of the foregoing, the recent written demand by the federal lawmakers beckoning on President Bola Tinubu to direct the Attorney General of the Federation to activate the salutary provisions of Sections 174 of the 1999 Constitution of F R N and 107 (1) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 (as amended) to terminate the intractable prosecution of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is sanguinely exhilarating and affords imperatives for national unity. The demand. This request is undoubtedly historic and euphoric.
The nationalistic stance and arguments advanced by the fifty federal law makers are as tenable and reasonable as they are justifiable and credible.
In the past, the Federal Government had granted pardon to some citizens standing trial for treason and cognate offences. The Federal Government is also on record to have taken some steps, including creating a Commission backed by Act of Parliament to checkmate and contain violent complaints against the Nigerian State by sections of the Federating units.
The foregoing notwithstanding, the clarion letter by the legislators is not without adjectival justification and precedence.
The state, as prosecutor had on many occasions amended the charge against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in manners suggestive of unpreparedness to proceed with substantive trial of the case, thus casting a deserved slur on the cogency of the allegations levelled against the defendant. Also, the penultimate Court had reason and occasion to strike out the material ingredients of the charge against the defendant. Yet, the Federal Government appears surprisingly obdurate to continue with the prosecution of the defendant even when the facts and circumstances are not adding up.
Recently, it was widely reported that the presiding Judge advised the parties to seek an out of court resolution of the matter. Certainly, this judicial compass is neither fickle nor flimsy but borne out consummate extrapolation of the peculiarities of the intractable prosecution of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu
Extant experience has shown that meaningful development cannot take place in a milieu characterized by insecurity which is pervasive and ravaging the country. Lives and properties are being wantonly wasted and the country oftentimes oscillates on the fringes incommodation
In the eternally evergreen opinion of the fifty federal lawmakers “the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from detention ..is long over due and would be instrumental in opening the door for much needed conversations surrounding peace, reformation and inclusivity as well as addressing the issues that led to the ongoing agitations , especially at this time Nigeria is going through several Constitutional reforms”.
There is nothing more to add to this manifest truth and veritable pointer for concerted efforts to enthrone a milieu of brotherhood though tribes and tongues may differ.
One of the avowed declarations, if not aspirations, in our National Creed is that no man shall be oppressed. The manner of the arrest, continued incarceration and prosecution of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu , have the uncanny trappings of oppression especially when viewed in the context of the treatments meted out to compatriots accused or suspected of kindred offences.
Herein lies the transcendental impetus to heed the illustrious demands by the federal lawmakers as imperatives for national unity.
Okoli-Akirika Esq was Commissioner for Lands in Anambra State. He was also former State Secretary of APGA and PDP