Kunle Adegoke, SAN, a rights firebrand, prolific writer, notable election petition prosecutor and reputable commercial lawyer, in this interview, assesses various civilian and military administrations in the country from 1960 to 2023 on their extent of adherence to Rule of law and says that while Abacha regime appears the worst of the military governments, Buhari administration was the least respecter of rule of law under civilian administrations.

Although, he says it is too early in the day to assess President Tinubu’s government, he nonetheless gave him hints on what to do if it must end well starting with the curtailing of the Department of State Service (DSS).

Rule of law means so many things to so many people. Can you share your perspective on this touching on its importance in a democratic setting?

The term “rule of law” is a politico-legal principle of governance which means broadly that all persons and institutions, including the state itself, are subject to the laws of the land.

The World Justice Project regards it as a durable system of laws, institutions, norms, and community commitment that delivers four universal principles: accountability, just law, open government, and accessible and impartial justice. It connotes that all are regulated by the same set of laws and no one is above the law.

In ensuring this, it equally requires separation of powers and an independent judiciary without which there would be no institution to interpret the law and make it binding on all, the government itself inclusive. The absence of rule of law connotes rule of man and that man may be the ultimate, that is, superior to the laws of the land. Idi Amin’s Uganda, for instance, cannot in any way be said to be one of rule of law.

Similarly, many African countries where a supposedly democratically elected president has turned himself to a life president cannot be regarded as a country where the law applies without distinction. In such countries, you discover that human rights are alienated and any voice of dissent is considered a sacrilege. A state subject to rule of man is most likely to descend to the state of nature where life is short, nasty and brutish. But where there is a rule of law, there will be fear of violation of the right of another person.

There will always be consequences in accordance with the law where there is rule of law once there is a violation or breach of contract. A country in which the judicial system is not working cannot be said to be an operating rule of law. In a democratic setting, therefore, there cannot be genuine democracy where there is no rule of law. This is not to say that there cannot be a rule of law where there is no democracy. Not at all. However, in a country that claims to be democratic, the essence of genuine democracy first connotes the prevalence of the rule of law.

While democracy connotes regular holding of elections, there cannot be free and fair elections where there is no rule of law as elections themselves are regulated by laws.

The implication is that although there may be elections, such elections cannot be guaranteed to be free and fair. It is such elections that are characterised by rigging, manipulation and circumvention of electoral rules without consequences.

The ultimate consequence is loss of confidence in the electoral process and mass disillusionment which may lead to breakdown of law and order. In other words, without the rule of law, there will be failure in governance. There will be loss of confidence in the government by the people and the result will be anarchy.

How do you think institutions enforcing rule of law have fared since 1960?

Well, let me say that all institutions of government and individuals have the duty to enforce the rule of law. However, failure of rule of law first manifests where the executive slacks in its duty of executing the law. It also manifests where the judiciary misinterprets the law to favour the privileged. In Nigeria, we have had our own fair share of failure of rule of law.

It is such situations that led to the military coups in 1966 and the civil war that visited the nation for almost three years thereafter. We have had military incursions into governance in Nigeria for more than three decades of our national existence and it has not been a good story to tell.

It was during the military regimes that we had the constitutions suspended with the legislative arm of government disbanded and the judiciary largely gagged. It was during the military government of Babangida that we had corruption institutionalised and till today, corruption has become part of our national life.

Let us not forget that the civilian governments that came at intervals also failed to guarantee rule of law as corruption became the order of the day with huge sums of money disappearing from government coffers and many payments due to the government to take care of the people were diverted to private coffers.

It is as a result of failure of governance that crimes ascend on a daily basis while terrorism has taken a huge toll on us as a people.

To be specific, we have had several administrations in Nigeria since the nation attained independence in 1960. Picking them without necessarily following any order, how did rule of law fare under each administration on a scale of 1 to 10 points?

Using my explanations supra as indices, I will score Balewa’s government 7 out of 10. The government of General Gowon performed creditably well as it was under that government that we fought a war for three years without borrowing a penny and our currency was stronger than the British Pound and the American dollar. That government, to a large extent, still represents the best, by my own rating. The economic policies, formulated and implemented under the vice chairmanship and minister-ship of finance of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, SAN, still remain the best in the history of this country. That government deserves 9 out of 10.

The government of General Olusegun Obasanjo that followed was a failure and cannot score anything more than 4 points. It was a government under which N2.8 billion naira was said to be missing and a terrible electoral heist was perpetrated.

The civilian government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari was littered with corruption and electoral malpractices which led to another military government executed by Buhari/Idiagbon dictatorship.

Rule of law took flight completely under Buhari with many journalists, student leaders and critics clamped in detention without trial. Many politicians, whether corrupt or otherwise, languished in jail without reason. That government cannot score anything more than 3 points.

The succeeding government of Babangida made corruption its birth right as corruption became institutionalised. First bombing of a private citizen who is entitled to be protected by the state occurred under Babangida with the killing of Dele Giwa in 1986 while most journalists found their trade a licence to death or jail.

It was a murderous government that deserves presence in a hall of infamy more so with the annulment of June 12 1993 presidential election that has been adjudged to be the most free and fair in the history of this country. I wont give his administration more than 2 points.

A look at the government of Abacha that followed revealed a disaster. Rule of law became an alien completely and looting of government treasury became a fad. Till today, we have not succeeded in recovering the humongous sum that was looted under that government.

I will give his government 1.5 points. It was a government most hated by Nigerians. The succeeding government of Abdulsalami Abubakar lasted a few months but it gave birth to a civilian administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo that spent $16 billion dollars to give us darkness. I will give his administration 6 points for handing over powers to a democratically elected government.

For Obasanjo’s administration, neither his government nor any succeeding government considered it fit to unravel how and who were in possession of the missing $16 billion dollars power project money went The people who looted the money and made Nigeria a joke are still around without any form of punishment. It was under that government that our electoral process became a do-or-die affair.

Electoral heists were perpetrated with impunity and thuggery, with its trade characteristics during elections, became a profitable venture. That government deserves no human subject to govern. He cannot have more than 2 points. The government of Yar’Adua would probably have been better for certain policies it took but for his illness and eventual death. Those challenges did not give us the opportunity to have the administration’s scorecard properly examined.

I can still give him 5 points. What succeeded him was the clueless government of Jonathan. President Jonathan was a doctorate degree holder and it was our expectation that, with his education, he would correct the anomalies that characterised the previous governments.

His government was rather a competition in ‘enjoyment’ with looting and thievery the order of the day. Government officials like Diezani Madueke and a host of others lived in satanic splendour at the expense of the masses with allegations of stolen billions of dollars hanging on their necks.

A book by the then Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala documented how corruption fought back under the regimes in which she played the role of Minister of Finance. Further comment on that government is definitely superfluous. I will give him 2 points too.

It was the failure of Jonathan government that triggered amnesia in us to vote Buhari into office, forgetting his dictatorial tendencies of 1983-85 and his lack of knowledge of governance or economic management.

The Yoruba say: aise deedee ara aye nii mu’ni ranti ero orun, which literally means, it is the failure of the living to perform creditably that nostalgically reminds one of the dead notwithstanding his imperfections while alive. It is the failure of Jonathan that made us choose Buhari. Although many Nigerians preferred a goat to Jonathan, they never knew that the man coming after him had no sense of economic management or fine logic for the enthronement of the rule of law.

It ended up being a terribly corrupt government worse than Jonathan. It was a government that put the rule of law on the reverse. I will give him -1 point. The current government is yet to open the cesspool of corruption that Buhari’s government represented while the man from Daura sat on the throne like a Grand Wizard. Unfortunate

Given your assessments of the various administrations between 1960 and 2023, would you say there are hanging challenges that require fixing?

Without doubt, that there are definitely problems to be fixed and we must fix them. The current government is still young in office but it has a lot to do.

The rot left is stinking and deep. The government of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has inherited a system that is highly dysfunctional. The last government of President Muhammadu Buhari put Nigeria on auto-piloting and left too much to corrupt officials to superintend.

The security situation was horrible by the time the government was leaving while the economy was on a downward slope of an unrestrained collapse. That government set Nigeria back beyond contemplation.

The consequence is the continuous depreciation of Naira as the manufacturing sector of the country completely sank with most foreign companies leaving Nigeria while local manufacturers also looked for greener pastures. A lot businesses simply folded up with government policies being totally unfriendly.

The only product the country was producing—oil, could not be refined in the country with the government of Buhari spending eight whole years without building a single refinery. Yet, the government kept on spending billions of dollars every year on turn-around maintenance of moribund refineries without refining a drop of oil.

No official has accounted for this. The government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must open the cankerworms of corruption that characterised the previous administrations.

This is a President that has a date with history and has a lot to do to prove critics wrong. His failure, God forbid, is going to be an unmitigatable disaster to Nigeria. I pray he succeeds.

That is the hope of the people. That is the only thing that can keep this nation together.

He must have the political will to do the right thing. His appointments have not been too bad so far but he must supervise his government. We expect him to deliver us out of the current economic doldrums and he must keep his hands on the lever to achieve all he promised during the campaign. The economy must be revamped.

The energy sector must be revamped. Cost of production and living is prohibitive. We must be once again a productive nation to strengthen our currency. Dollar is not rising at all.

It is our Naira that is falling and devaluing. Without the manufactory being brought back, we have nothing to exchange to earn foreign income. Our participation in international trade is zero. We must regain the confidence of genuine investors who will play the game by the rules of rectitude and not fraudsters who have seen Nigeria as a land where anything goes and you can buy our mothers for a paltry sum of corrupt morsel.

The civil service, as a part of the executive, is extremely corrupt and contributes in no small measure to the rot on ground. Aside from taking bribes from contractors or stealing funds of government, they take bribes in dollars and not in Naira.

This constitutes further strain on the unavailable dollar. The government must beam searchlight on that sector.

The government must explore the currency swap deal in foreign trade with some countries. Our traders and men of business trade more with China. There is no basis looking for dollar to make purchases with China whose national currency is not dollar.

The previous government killed this trade mode of payment for some insane reasons. Trade within and among African nations cannot be dollar-denominated.

The government of Asiwaju Tinubu must strive for an economy that is less dollar-dependent.

It may also tinker with the idea of recalibrating the Naira. Bulgaria used it against its hyper-inflation and it worked. Germany set the precedent and heavens did not fall. President Tinubu has started well with the security situation. He must sustain the tempo.

You will see that without much noise, the security situation in the north-east of the country is becoming more encouraging as terrorists are being rounded up and exterminated on a daily basis. Our security operatives must turn attention to the lunatics called bandits terrorising the north-central and the north-west. Any person that campaigns for amnesty for those murderers must be arrested and investigated. The terrorists, euphemistically called bandits, deserve nothing but complete routing and extermination.

We must wage a ruthless war against them and their collaborators and abettors. The anti-corruption campaign must be given a strong bite. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other anti-corruption agencies need a purge. Without purifying the vessel, the water kept in it will always be contaminated.

The campaign against corruption can only be successful if the government upholds rule of law.

What do you make of the attitude of the less than six months old administration of President Bola Tinubu to rule of law and what advice do you have for it going forward?
The government, I believe, is still trying to put itself in a strong position to be able to achieve on its promise to obey rule of law.

It is a little bit early to judge but a dark spot has been observed. It is important for the President to rein in the men and officers of the Department of State Security. The role they are assuming in arresting private citizens on charges that have nothing to do with threat to internal security is becoming quite alarming.

They have no business arresting and detaining people without trial for offences like corruption or corrupt practices. We have enough agencies of government saddled with such responsibility. A depressing situation occurred recently when the men of the DSS were fighting with officials of the Correctional Centres on the right to detain a suspect being tried at the Federal High Court.

The same display of lawlessness and lack of regard for rule of law occurred when the same men of the DSS sealed up the premises of the EFCC in Lagos. How does it sound well that a government security agency is fighting another for whatever purpose? Are these the people that are meant to protect the interest of ordinary citizens?

This is lawlessness complete with no euphemism. The arrest and continued detention of the former Chairman of the EFCC calls for caution. By now, if there is no charge against Abdul-Rasheed Bawa, he ought to be released. The Constitution forbids the detention of any citizen for more than 24 hours without a charge. Such a detention is only lawful if it is on the order of the court pending completion of trial. The DSS cannot just arrest and detain another head of a government agency or any citizen without trial or a charge.

That means that there is permission from the President. We love the President too much than for us to keep quiet on this. Today, it is Bawa, tomorrow it may be you or me. No nation thrives in the absence of the rule of law. I believe the new government is losing a point on the rule of law rating with this development concerning the detention of Bawa. I will advise the President to charge Bawa to court.

The indefatigable lawyer in the Attorney General of the Federation, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN must see to this. If there is no offence or charge to be brought against the man, let him enjoy his freedom. This particular development is a test of our integrity as a government that promised rule of law in order to come to power.

The post JUST IN: Rule of law suffered most under Buhari, Abacha govts, says Kunle Adegoke, SAN first appeared on Opinion Nigeria.