Children Charged With Treason: Tinubu’s Damage Control

 By Dele Sobowale

“A society can be judged by the way it treats its children” – Nelson Mandela, 1913-2013.

Few Nigerians now harbour any hope that this country would produce a Mandela among its present crop of old politicians. And, if the young member of the House of Representatives, from Abia State, exhibiting delirium of power, as well as all the young Ministers, just sacked, represent the next generation of power seekers, then, we might have to wait until those in nursery school grow up.

UNPRECEDENTED DETENTION AND PROSECUTION OF CHILDREN

“The over-zealous man, doing his duty, will, sooner or later, pay his dues to the Devil.”

That observation made in the thirteenth century by a philosopher summarises why President Bola Tinubu found himself engaging in damage control. A lot of irreparable damage has already been done to the images of Nigeria, the Federal Government, Tinubu, the Nigeria Police and the judiciary the minute the pictures of those children slumping in Abuja hit the internet.

Messages and calls came to me from four continents; from lawyers, retired justices and human rights advocates asking, among other questions, if Nigeria has decent people running its government. The world has witnessed all sorts of trials by absolutely atrocious and murderous regimes; we have also had two Kangaroo military trials staged by the Abacha junta. 

In every case, as Mark Twain, 1835-1910, had remarked, it was always a matter of “Are you going to hang [them] anyhow, and try them afterwards?” The accused persons were never going to have a fair trial; because “power tends to corrupt; and absolute power corrupts absolutely” according to Lord Acton, 1834-1902.

But, the world has never seen so many children in an adult court; charged with, of all things, treason. Abuse of power against the most vulnerable and powerless human beings had never been more on display. All the kids have several things in common. They are all out of school, illiterate, malnourished and in rags. Most of them are probably homeless and would not know where to find their parents. They were on the streets when the protests started; they were not among the organisers. To them, what was going on was probably entertainment helping to break the drab monotony of their lives.

So, they joined the procession to have some fun – as kids in Lagos would spontaneously follow a masquerade passing by; without thinking about it. Interestingly enough, the very poor children were arrested in Abuja, Kaduna, Kano, Gombe, Jos and Katsina. None of them could possibly have a GSM set to call others in the same state; let alone, those in Gombe calling Katsina. So, there could be no collusion or conspiracy. Even those arrested in each state might never have met until that day and that hour.

That brings up a question: who were the security officers who decided that three or four children waving Russian flags, thrust into their hands by adults, constituted a threat to President Tinubu? None of those we saw on television could pronounce the word REVOLUTION even if asked to at gun point. What then is the basis for arrest and detention? Another question: why were they not tried in the states where the crimes were committed?

Why bring all of them to Abuja, far from home, if not to satisfy the sadistic instincts of those who took them there? There is more to be said later about the competence and character of all those responsible for the arrest and detention of the kids for 93 days in the first instance. Apparently, the Inspector General of Police, IGP, approved everything. But, the IGP would not have gone far without a complaisant justice.

MAKING HISTORY THE WRONG WAY

“It takes years to make a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you will do things differently” – Warren Buffett, 2022.

For 93 days, the detention of so many children under horrible conditions (it has to be horrible because neither the IGP nor the justice would want to keep his children there) was a best kept secret from the public – until their tormentors decided to stage a judicial charade with the kids as the main actors. Not trained in Nollywood production techniques, the prosecutor and the justice messed up the script. Comedy turned to tragedy when four of the kids slumped; and would have died with cameras from global media recording everything. The whole world witnessed the horrors in living colour. In less than five minutes, the reputations of the police and judiciary were ruined forever.

Irrespective of how long Justice Egwuatu had been on the bench, and how long he remains there, justices from four continents think he had soiled the bench. The bail conditions imposed on the victims of this injustice betrayed the hidden agenda to deny them bail and hold them perpetually in detention. Who can take a look at any of those kids and conclude that they can raise N10, 000 bail; not to talk of N10 million? Additionally, can anybody seriously expect any Federal Civil Servant, regardless of grade or level, to risk his/her career by bailing kids who are probably homeless even in their states?

Bail refusal was disingenuously wrapped around bail conditions impossible to meet for all the defendants. Unfortunately for the battered reputation of the Nigerian judiciary, the only person deceived by that subterfuge was the justice. The whole world saw clearly the intention to keep the kids in horrible custody conditions indefinitely. The Nigeria Police, perennially held in contempt, went a notch downwards. 

Try as he may, the prosecutor could not convince the global court of public opinion, as well as jurists, that he was in the right court, at the right time and prosecuting the right case. How did he expect to interrogate kids who never went to school on treason? He might as well have been prepared to talk to walls. Whoever handed him that case to prosecute must have achieved the intended consequence of ridiculing him. They got more than they bargained for. He has attained notoriety globally. His name will never be erased from the internet for as long as people inhabit this planet.

PRESIDENT TINUBU TO THE RESCUE

“There are times when a leader must must move out ahead of the flock; go off in a new direction; confident that he is leading his people the right way” – Nelson Mandela, 1913-2013, VBQ p 124.

With all the relevant officials of government tied up in their self-imposed judicial problems, while Nigeria’s image was again being dented worldwide, it was left to President Tinubu to set us off in a new direction; to restore sanity to the judicial system and to engage in damage control. His intervention was effective and face-saving for all concerned. Only God knows what would have followed otherwise. I grant the political adversaries their right to play down the gesture.

One commentator pointed to the sudden appearance of the British Foreign Affairs Minister in Aso Rock on the day the announcement was made as proof that Tinubu was prodded by the European Community and the Commonwealth nations to act. I have no evidence of that. But, the EU and the rest of the world tried in vain to convince Abacha to release Obasanjo. So, we must give Tinubu the benefit of doubt; that he acted based on his own conviction. There’s reason for this assumption.

“Idealists in politics lack a sense of reality; and a politician must be a realist above all” – Henry Miller, VBQ p 192.

Tinubu is perhaps the first real politician we have had as President. All the other Presidents, from Shagari to Buhari, were imposed by others. Shagari was not a presidential aspirant in 1978. A deadlocked convention forced leaders of the NPN to turn to a non-aspirant. Obasanjo was the candidate of the four Generals – Babangida, Abdulsalami, Danjuma and Aliyu Gusau. He in turn imposed Yar’Adua; who was really not interested on account of ill-health. Jonathan inherited the Presidency without which he could not have won in 2011. Buhari, after three failed attempts, was invited by Tinubu to return to political war. Only Tinubu plotted his journey to Aso Rock on his own and confidently announced EMILOKAN. Everybody, including me, who thought he was joking, has become a believer eventually.

While the IGP, Justice Egwuatu and the Minister of Justice were in a quandary regarding how to proceed, the politician with his uncanny sense of danger moved to diffuse the tension. What the officials failed to observe was obvious to Tinubu. Another day in court with the kids would have triggered the ‘Mother of all Protests’ – which the security forces might find difficult to contain. One group was planning to get three lawyers to represent each of the children and turn the trial into a circus. Tinubu was right to stop it.

*Dr. Sobowale is a syndicated columnist