Nigeria Rule Of Law Has Broken Down, Economy Broken Down , And Non-State Actors More Powerful -Prof.Mike Ozekhome Cries Out

Yakubu Busari

A Legal Luminary and Professor of law Mike Ozekhome Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) has said the rule of law has broken down, that economy has broken down, that state actors are now more powerful than legitimately constituted government challenging a sitting government legitimately that are having their own government, having chiefdom for themselves, creating local government putting their flags up giving identity Cards and pass to indigene.

He said Nigeria needs to go back to the drawing board and embrace people driving constitution that we be subjected to by the referendum or plebiscite and Command the legitimacy of acceptability and believability of the people that will be called the constitution of the people.

The Woman Right Activist said after the Amalgamation of the northern and Southern protectorates of 1st January 1914, by the founder of the country Nigeria Luggard things went from bad to worst that the country is operating a unitary constitution instead of the federal constitution.

Chief Mike Ozekhome who was in Jos to represent plateau Central Candidate Ambassador Yohanna Gotom at the election tribunal sitting in the state capital was speaking in an interview with Journalists.

He reiterated his earlier Statement in the past six, Seven, and eight months ago that whether Peter Obi, Atiku Abubarkar, or Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, whoever becomes the president of Nigeria, after the court case, can’t solve Nigeria’s problems.

According to him, Nigeria’s problems are endemic and fundamentally edge, it’s the problems of National questions, how we are,  how we are living together, where we are coming from, where we are, and where we want to go.

“I think the government is getting it all wrong, we are on a cycle show suffering from the barber Chair or perpetual motion, we are not moving front instead, we are going backward.”

He berated the Nigeria labour Congress (NLC) for Hasting in calling off the strike the Union embarked on following the government’s removal of subsidy from PMS that has brought untold hardship to the citizens of Nigeria.

Ozekhome said, l have been on earth for 65 years now, this music of musical chair, this games of Babasala,Alawada has always played down from one government to another.

He further explained how it played out, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and its counterpart, Trade Union Congress (TUC), gave notice of a warning strike, the government panicked and run to procure a court order of Ex-parte motion, but the Union still went ahead with the strike.

A day later, they said the government is listening to us, and we are calling off the strike.

They did not consider the enormity of the process of mobilizing for a strike which takes sometimes and resources, for you just to deflate your members, like a balloon and call off the strike prematurely, is bad for the country.

He further asked what the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, achieved on behalf of the commoners of this country who are suffering. And larger Nigerians who are scampering to survive. Nigerians are denied, ignored, oppressed, suppressed, and marginalized.

Nigerians which cannot even have two square meals a day, let alone three. Nigerians that now trekked to work where they use to take buses and taxis, they cannot even take motor cycle, where the journey of hundred Naira before, has gone to five hundred Naira, and that of five hundred Naira is now between one thousand and two thousand naira.

Yet the minimum wage still remains at Thirty Thousand Naira, so If the average Civil Servant pays two thousand naira every day to work, and uses one thousand to eat at work that is Three thousand naira daily , multiply by five days in a week, and multiply by Four weeks in a month which bring to one hundred thousand naira a month.

The legal Luminary further stressed,  for the Civil Servant you pay Thirty Thousand monthly, you want him/her to use Thirty Thousand Naira to come to work, and when he goes stealing, you arrest him/her and call him a thief.

Speaking on the recent coup in Niger and its effect and threat on Nigeria’s democracy in particular and other African countries in general, he said democracy in Africa is being threatened because the people who democracy is made, are not enjoying it, they are just onlookers, while the non-state actors, Elitist who make the non-state actors , less than one percent like Nigeria of about 220 million people, they would not allow democratic dividends to come to the people.

Added that democracy was defined on 19th November 1863 by the former American President Abraham Lincoln in the Declaration of Government of the People by the people and for the people.

Contrary to the definition of democracy by Abraham Lincoln, the democracy of Nigeria is operating the government of the elite by the elite and for the elite. What is going on in Nigeria, is what is going on in most  African Countries that is why you are seeing coups everywhere in Africa.

Coup makers don’t write love letters to inform you that they are going to strike so and so day, they look at the environment, the conduciveness of the environment, that the rule of law has broken down, that economy has broken down, that state actors are now more powerful than legitimately constituted government challenging a sitting government legitimately that are having their own government, having chiefdom for themselves, creating local government putting their flags up giving identity Cards and pass to indigene.

That is either a failed state or a failing state. In a failing state, or failed state, anything can happen. So that is what you see play out in Africa.

He however prayed that Nigeria with over 200 million population, with different ethics groups did not go through the experience, because If they do, it would be terrible.

Also Prayed for any government on power don’t take the people for granted, give democratic dividends to the people so that the people should not continue to be at the receiving end.

If that goes on, it may be a case of “Picking when say mama will not sleep, himself will not sleep”.

On Plateau Central Senatorial Election Tribunal between Ambassador Yohanna Gotom against  Diket Plang representing the Petitioner Ambassador Gotom, said the Petitioner and his client have a preliminary objection to a very funny reply to the 1st,2nd & 3rd Respondents.

They are discussing a pre-election matter in their separate reply contrary to provisions of sections 64 & 65 of the electoral Act and also 159 of the Electoral Act, they are challenging the eligibility of the Petitioner Yohanna Gotom which would have been done in a pre-election matter.

He further stressed that the time of the Respondents which is 14 days has expired, as they also put forward the person they declared winner in the plateau Central Senatorial district based on the result revised by a second returning Officer two months after the first returning Officer has completed his assignment.

Ozekhome said is not possible to have two Kings in the same palace, you can’t have two Obas ,Emirs and Ezes in one Palace, you cannot have two returning Officer on the same election, the returning Officer has finished his job and the job completed.

And told everybody that certain polling Units in Kanam local government and the local government should be re-run in those local governments.

He said like Abracadabra magic, the electoral Officer issued a letter dated 3rd April 2023 calling back all the results already concealed to re-run again which has not happened before.

He said he is very optimistic that the tribunal will not allow it to happen because with the evidence in our disposal, Gotom is elected senator to represent Plateau Central district.