THESE are indeed terrible times for Nigeria’s democracy. To say the very least, the population of those in doubt that the practice of the Nigerian variant of federalism is defective and fundamentally flawed is diminishing by the day, thanks to the unabashed display of unitary mentality and its concomitant arrogance of power by the Federal Government and its agents. Last week’s exchange between the Lagos State governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu and a police operative over the invasion of Magodo Estate, Lagos, by policemen from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, lucidly brought to the fore the absurdity of having an overbearing partner or imperial power within a supposed federal system of government.
During the encounter, the innocuous and legitimate orders of a governor who, also by law, bears the sobriquet of Chief Security Officer (CSO) of his state were openly, brazenly and flagrantly defied by a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP)! This show of shame apparently happened to the delight of the officer’s power-mongering principals in Abuja, but it was certainly to the chagrin, disappointment and embarrassment of every decent person across the country who is genuinely concerned about its unity and progress. Curiously, the Federal Government reportedly by-passed the security structures in the state and sent a detachment of police operatives from Abuja to enforce a court judgment on a civil matter in Lagos State. Invading a state without the knowledge of the governor was terrible enough, but why bring policemen from Abuja to come and enforce anything when you have the police in Lagos? That was bizzare, preposterous and unacceptable.
We are not bothered as to whether or not this shameful development had any political undertone: we are more concerned about the need for the right thing to be done so that the fragile unity of the country which some people seem to have taken for granted is not irreversibly imperiled. The Federal Government’s penchant for embarking on a course of action that tends to circumscribe and erode the authority of state governments is distasteful and oppressive. It is hoped that it will rethink its rapacious quest for and selfish appropriation of power at the expense of subnational entities before it is too late. Otherwise, it risks a bulwark of potentially grave resistance against the status quo of unmitigated subjugation and oppression that is akin to servitude in a supposedly free society. Anyone thinking that this cannot happen should perish the thought, as snippets of resistance that unbridled centralisation of power and its abuse could elicit are already being observed in one of the South-South states where a sitting governor has, time and again, resorted to self-help, more or less, to check the federal authorities’ attempt to trample on his rights, especially as the CSO of his state.
No governor deserves the degrading treatment meted out to Governor Sanwo-Olu during the Magodo incident, and for a governor who superintends over arguably the most populous, prosperous, cosmopolitan and strategic subnational entity in the country to be treated with such disdain in the public glare is the most odious way to bring the office of a governor to ridicule. Thinking that this infamy can continue to happen unchecked and without consequences would be deluding.
It is difficult to fathom how the minds of some people in power work, because even an elementary student of power relations in a federal arrangement knows that invading a state and causing pandemonium without the prior knowledge of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of that state smacks of aggression and violates the principles of federalism. And is it not even embarrassing to the police as an institution that the Lagos State Commissioner of Police who accompanied the governor to Magodo Estate was allegedly oblivious of the presence and mission of a detachment of policemen from Abuja in his domain? That in itself speaks volumes about the absurd system that the country operates. If that is the kind of strategy being deployed at the centre to handle national affairs, then the challenge with which the country has to grapple is certainly more serious than many a Nigerian reckons with.
There is also a sub-text, and it is a dangerous and divisive one, of ethnically motivated aggression, as the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF), Abubakar Malami, is always at war with the governors of the southern states, opposing their creation of local security outfits like Amotekun, the ban on open grazing, and now their opposition to the degrading treatment of Governor Sanwo-Olu. However, the AGF is deluding himself if he believes anyone is hoodwinked by his sudden and pretentious interest in protecting the rule of law with his alleged intervention in the Magodo Estate saga. He has no history of interest in court orders as President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has treated court orders with disdain for years.
Even if the AGF had interest in protecting the sanctity of the court, should he not have written to the state government? What right has Malami and the IGP to send policemen to invade Magodo? For the avoidance of doubt, the only job of the police in situations like this is to give protection to the sheriff, the judgment debtor, judgment creditor and everybody connected with the enforcement. The person giving protection should not be the same as the one executing the judgment. Neither the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) nor the Inspector General of Police (IGP) is empowered under the law to execute any judgment. The incident at Magodo, Lagos, was a national embarrassment. The agents of the IGP and the AGF cannot invade the Estate under the excuse of enforcing a Supreme Court judgment; they are not sheriffs of court empowered to do so. If the Lagos State government disobeyed the court, recourse for redress still resides in the court of law, not the office of the IGP or AGF as that would be tantamount to self-help by subterfuge.
It is time Nigeria’s federalism was tinkered with: it is cockeyed to have governors taking orders from the police hierarchy and being treated with disdain even while they partially fund the police by providing virtually all their logistics. Even though state police is not typically set up to counter federal police, it has become increasingly imperative to have it now. Governors need to be the CSOs of their states in actuality, not just on paper or by word of mouth. Indeed, there can be no alternative to a comprehensive reconstruction of the governance structure in the country with emphasis on devolution of more power, resources and responsibilities to the subnational entities. Ordinarily, a civil matter in a small enclave in Lagos should not attract the overt attention of the Federal Government, even if it had a vested interest. But because the clime is less than sane, that precisely is what has just happened.
Nonetheless, there is a side of this incident that cannot be ignored in good conscience. Since the judgment in question was given when Mr. Raji Fashola (SAN) was governor and it was decided that the landowners be compensated with plots of land, the Lagos State government ought to have expedited action on bringing closure to the Magodo issue. The land in question was reportedly acquired in public interest under the military government but was not used for the said purpose. This is an aspect of the typically Nigerian scheme of things that ought to be addressed. Had the issue been resolved long before now, there would have been no reason for crisis to fester in the area. By all means, the appellants are entitled to the reliefs granted them by the Supreme Court.
Governor Sanwo-Olu’s predecessors ought to have taken quick steps to implement the judgment in question. In this regard, it is heartening that Governor Sanwo-Olu is taking steps to bring closure to the issue, bringing all the parties to the resolution table. That is definitely the proper thing to do and we urge him to conclude the resolution exercise he has started and ensure that justice is served.
