By Kayode Ketefe
“Animal Farm”, that great satire
of all times penned by the great English writer, George Orwell, has
remained evergreen not only for its excellent characterisation, but also
because of its uncanny, penetrative insights into the deepest recesses of
human’s psychology of the rulers and the ruled.
The allegorical representations
of animals as characters vividly conveying human unmistakable foibles, follies,
greed, wickedness, and eccentricities were so true to nature that several
societies, politically denatured, have continually re-enacted the varying gory
episodes of the fictitious farm.
You can always expect our
leaders to be callous in their pursuit of basest self interest. But what one
finds exceedingly nauseating is the reasons they at times give for their
decisions. It would appear they think they are the only beings with sentient
capacity.
The news filtered in on Tuesday
that the Council of State, which comprised the President, Vice President,
all state governors, former Presidents, the Chief Justice of the Federation,
the Senate President and Speaker, amongst others, had granted state pardon to a
number of illustrious citizens, both dead and alive which included the former
Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha.
The list is a medley of
characters with Alamieseseigha palpably standing out, for if one can understand
the former political prisoners tried in kangaroo military tribunals being
pardoned, certainly, the questions would be asked about someone who
underwent trial and was convicted before a free, fair and impartial
court for perpetrating monumental corruption while entrusted with public
office.
The reason given for pardoning
“Alams” who confessed to looting Bayelsa State, read like something you would
naturally expect Squealer to give in outlandish defence of Comrade Napoleon in
the Animal Farm. Yes, Alams deserves state pardon because “apart from serving
his sentence he has devoted his life to travelling amongst Niger Delta
communities facilitating the peace.”
If words have meaning, then the
paradigm is this, get into public office through whatever means, steal like
hell, when caught, go into plea bargaining and surrender a fraction of the
loot, get a slap on the wrist imprisonment term, serve it with glee and retire
into your community to start promoting peace.
After some years, you get a
state pardon on a platter of gold, pronto! and the blemish against your name is
removed forever, with this pardon you can even come back to the public office
in future. Who says corruption has not become a state policy in Nigeria?
I should have thought convicts
are sent into prison for violating our collective ideals protected through
penal laws and that both the expiation of the crime though punitive
incarceration and the attendant stigma are inseparable part of the consequences
of crime , but here in the Animal Farm, the state still owes you a pardon for
sinning against it!
Let the likes of James Ibori,
Shina Rambo et al be warming up for their own pardon; the dead ones like
Lawrence Anini, Monday Osunbor, Ishola Oyenusi, Mighty Joe, Mufutau
Oloosa Oko should also be stirring in their graves in earnest expectation of a
posthumous pardon; whatever is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
Another burning issue is the
proposed bill to alter the 1999 Constitution to confer legislative immunity on
the Nigerian legislators. With a lightning speed, the House of Representatives
members, who have been known to be lethargic in addressing other more important
masses-oriented bills, engaged the self-serving bill and promptly move it to
the second reading stage.
Truly, under every modern
democracy, the concept of parliamentary or legislative immunity is an integral
part of the system as it is tends to nurture a fearless legislature whose
members would be free to exercise their unfettered discretion.
But the insistence by our
lawmakers that this privilege which they have been enjoying under the omnibus
provisions of sections 4 and 39 should be specifically inserted into our
greatest statutory document shows that there is a sinister agenda for this
bill.
This is a time when agitations
have reached the greatest decibels that even the executive immunity should be
removed or watered down.
It would also be recalled it
was this same House of Representatives that comprehensively defeated a benign
bill seeking to provide monetary incentives for unemployed graduates in Nigeria
when it came before them last month. They are more concerned with self-serving
bills!
The legislators claimed that
about ten countries in the world, including the highly civilised ones like
United States and United Kingdom have provisions on legislative immunity in
their constitutions.
What they failed to add is that
in most of those other climes constitutionalism, due process, transparency and
responsible governance have taken roots and there is hardly a room for
impunity.
Already, our experience with executive
immunity is nightmarish, with sitting governors looting with abandon and making
jests of the anti-graft agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission which are absolutely powerless in the face of immunity until
governors finish their terms.
This writer sees the present
legislative immunity bill as a ploy to more or less introduce the same level of
immunity that is contained in section 308 of the 1999 Constitution which is
already giving us problems with the executives.
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