With a
history of rank sleaze purportedly behind it, the People’s Democratic Party
(PDP) may not provoke so much sympathy as it writhes in the throes of
self-inflicted intrigues and external conspiracies. That is why when its
members are hounded by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for
their complicity in corruption that allegedly besmeared the government of
former President Goodluck Jonathan, there is no much outrage by the citizens.
The
constant refrain is that they are paying for their sins. After all, they are
responsible for the economic pain of the citizens having unconscionably looted
the treasury. They are responsible for the prolongation of the war on Boko
Haram that has claimed many lives having diverted the funds meant for buying
the weapons to fight the insurgents. The citizens do not really bother that
these cases are still in court and that we cannot determine the extent of the
culpability of the accused yet.
But what we
have obviously failed to realise is that the more we uncritically adulate the
government and its arbitrariness, the more it degenerates into dictatorship.
Now from indiscriminate arrests and incarcerations, the government and its
agencies have gone a step further. They have engaged in a wanton liquidation of
the citizens. The latest victim of this government’s brutality is citizen
Desmond Nunugwo.
We have not been told by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) that he was a chieftain of the PDP. Neither have we been told that he
was one of those billions of naira have been traced to in the course of the
anti-corruption campaign. All we know is that he was only a chief protocol
officer to the minister of state for defence. Yet, the EFCC recently detained
him in its custody. The family was neither told of the charges against him nor
was he taken to court. While waiting for the EFCC to disclose the charges
against him, the family only learnt that Nunugwo who was never sick was dead in
the custody of the commission six hours after being taken in.
No matter
how much the EFCC tries to cover up its tracks, it is glaring that it is
complicit in the death of Nunugwo. The EFCC cannot deny its complicity when it
has consistently demurred when challenged to undertake an autopsy on Nunugwo
two months after his death. The family may be right after all in accusing the
police of playing the EFCC’s script as the two agencies have concluded that
Nunugwo died naturally. The two agencies reached this conclusion without
conducting an autopsy. And this is despite that the hospital where Nunugwo died
has expressed its readiness to conduct the autopsy by forwarding the
requirements for the exercise to the EFCC and the police.
Since the
police have already taken a position, they cannot be entrusted with an
investigation into the death of Nunugwo. And despite the promise of the
Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to investigate the
case, the government must demonstrate its sincerity by accepting the position
of the family that an independent investigator should be given this
responsibility.
It must be clear to the citizens that if the family of Nunugwo is
left alone to seek justice, the government would only end up frustrating the
case. Thus what is needed to secure justice for Nunugwo and prevent similar
atrocities is for the civil society and other citizens to rally round the
family of the deceased. We must not only insist that justice is done on the
case by making the perpetrators of the murder to get their deserved sanctions,
we must also ask for compensation for the family of the bereaved. After all,
the children that have been deprived of their father need to have education and
be cared for like other children. It is because the EFCC like the police and
other security agencies are not appropriately sanctioned that they continue to
kill innocent citizens for not giving a N50 bribe.
Instead of
championing a campaign against a glaring case of injustice like this, the
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is distracting itself with the threats
of prosecuting some politicians it has accused of electoral malpractices as
though all the politicians were not guilty of these same offences.
We must not
just hope that the law would take its due course. After all, if the law has
failed to resolve the cases involving the bigwigs of the society such as
politicians, there is no way it will be of help to the common man like Nunugwo.
In the long run, the government would manipulate the law and nobody would be
brought to justice over the death of Nunugwo.
Whenever
the issue of justice for the poor citizens comes up in these climes, one’s mind
goes to Frantz Kafka. Those who are familiar with the world of Kafka would
readily recall that in a story entitled “Before the law”, he explores how insurmountable
obstacles are placed in the path of one who desires to get justice. Kafka
represents the law as a physical space where a nameless man comes from the
country to seek admission.
He does everything he can, including bribing the doorkeeper. He
eventually spends all his fortune while waiting to gain admission to law. And
at his death, the doorkeeper shuts the door. Like Kafka’s nameless man, there
are many poor citizens who have been standing at the door, seeking admission to
law.
The case of
Nunugwo has reinforced the danger that the Muhammadu Buhari regime is blithely
ignoring. The government is pushing the citizens to resort to self-help. For if
a suspect knows he or she is not safe in the EFCC’s custody, why must he or she
accept its summonses? Would the citizens not find a means of defending
themselves? Since the government has failed to effectively rein in lunatic
herdsmen on the prowl would the citizens not defend themselves? It is in the
same way that the government has failed to tame religious bigots that are
mowing down Christians in a country that is supposed to be hallmarked by its
secularity.
By its
inaction, the Buhari administration is wittingly or unwittingly waiting for the
surfeit of crises in the nation to snowball into a conflagration that would
consume it. The government can only erase this impression by setting the tone
of obeying the law itself. The government should stop unnecessarily detaining
citizens under the guise of undertaking an investigation. If it cannot
investigate the cases promptly, it should not allow innocent citizens to
suffer. Or has the constitutional dictate of being presumed innocent until
proved guilty become a casualty of the anti-corruption campaign?
*Dr. Onomuakpokpo is on
the Editorial Board of The Guardian.
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