Genuine, unpretentious patriotism is deep, very deep. It arises from an unflinching, sometimes obdurate conviction that one’s country would one day recover from anaemic, degenerate conditions. With such persuasions, one strives to contribute to the country’s well-being mostly by utilizing available, legitimate avenues to identify various misdirections within the country’s social fabric, especially in the leadership and political corridors. However, when it becomes obvious that some privileged principalities and powers in human form are committed to desecrating the altar of equitable living by violating democratic principles, one feels sufficiently defiled, the intellect assaulted and civic being abused. The feeling inevitably encroaches on the mental process every day dragging along with it, negative, monstrous byways of the mind with all the associated corrosive potential for harming the psyche. An injured psyche is dangerous for social cohesion. It inevitably becomes a corollary of all forms of negative manifestation which ultimately robs off on the body politic.
The current Dele Farotimi and Afe Babalola saga has once again reminded genuine patriots that Nigeria is deeply immersed in the Orwellian crucible characterized by the erosion of civil liberties, censorship, and totalitarianism. Nigeria is believed to be a democratic country and some principles guide democracy – the rule of law is one of them. But unfortunately, the Nigerian brand of democracy is only on paper, it defines its scope and determines its direction depending on the actors involved. I am not a lawyer and I do not wish, never wished to be one. But of course, one does not need to be a lawyer to understand basic civil procedures, especially when the rights of citizens are involved. We all understand military rule and its aversion to the rule of law. No one complains about that. But when, under a supposed democratic setup, a military formula is employed to deal with civil matters, it simply means that our claims to democracy are at best cosmetic and self-serving.
Mr Afe Babalola, a nonagenarian alleged that Dele Farotimi defamed him in his book Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System. Afe Balalola has the right to feel aggrieved and pursue every legal, legitimate means to save his reputation. No one is arguing with that. Let me repeat it – Afe Babalola has the right to pursue redress if he feels he has been defamed and his reputation is in grave jeopardy. I have been called on the phone sometimes to report at designated places to clarify a few things in my essays. At no time was it violent. In the Babalola and Farotimi case, it was widely reported that armed policemen invaded Farotimi’s office in Lagos, assaulted his workers, seized all the phones, and practically abducted him to Ekiti State. Thus, illegality was employed to replace legality. Once again, the Nigerian police proved that the force is a willing tool in the hands of the powerful and the ruling class to hound weak, ordinary citizens.
The question to ask is – is it proper for armed men to invade someone’s house or office, assault members of his household, seize phones, and forcefully take the man away from his state of residence over an alleged case of defamation when a simple phone call would have sufficed? Is Dele Farotimi a hardened criminal or a kidnapper? Has Nigeria’s democracy waned beyond redemption to permit such a barbarous display of brute force when it is absolutely unnecessary? Yet, the same police suffer from paralyzing hypnosis to arrest politicians and public officers who allegedly plundered our patrimony with fat files at EFCC. Finally, Farotimi was taken to Ekiti by road. In a demonstration of judicial rape which he engaged in his book, he was denied bail too. Next question – is defamation a bailable offence or not? From what I have authoritatively gathered, defamation is a bailable offence where it is a criminal offence. It is not a criminal offence in Ekiti State just like in Lagos State. But Dele Farotimi, a lawyer, was refused bail and unlawfully detained. Under what law or constitution was he treated like a common criminal and what crime did he commit?
It is fair and easy for disorientated people to rejoice over Farotimi’s ordeal for political reasons but in doing so, such people subliminally enthrone and support a tragic culture of illegality, and the destruction of our judicial procedure. I have read so many illiterate, idiotic submissions and such base rhetoric like ‘let him have his day in court’. People who cling to such pedestal submissions are victims of emotional unease arising from their inability to justify apparent evil in our body politic. If one must have his day in court, such a person must be allowed to do so. But when entrenched odious elementals in the country ensure that illegality rules through subversion, how would an accused fairly have his day in court? However, the rule of law must take precedence over all other considerations. We cannot in all equitable conscience, use illegality to address a perceived illegality.
I have not met Dele Farotimi before but somehow, we are kindred spirits subscribing to the radical challenge of an oppressive order where political opportunists and social goons take advantage of the people’s prostrate tendencies to plunder our collective resources. Sometime in the past, he responded to one of my essays and we had a brief conversation. The Farotimi I know has a warrior spirit. Being arrested or taken into custody cannot break the spirit of such a man, if anything it would harden his resolve and conviction that the Nigerian superstructure is feeling the impact of his revolutionary and radical onslaught. Therefore, I laugh at those who think going to jail will break or affect Farotimi. Great men go to jail. Great men do not fear the walls of a prison. Mandela was there. Wole Soyinka was there. Obasanjo was there. Fela was there too. I am sure Farotimi already knows that given his anti-establishment stance and revolutionary trajectory in a country like Nigeria, one day, he will be a guest to prison walls. Such men are heroes. Already, Farotimi has acquired legendary status across the world with Amazon listing his book as a bestseller. A largely unknown book has suddenly become a global hotcake, capturing the Nigerian judiciary in uncomplimentary terms.
I have noticed the parochial approach and partial interpretation of the issues between Farotimi and Babalola. There are two sides to the coin – if Farotimi does not justify his claims, he will go to jail but what happens if he justifies his claims? Many people, social media warriors, paid internet hustlers, and ignorant commentators are only concentrating on the first instance which is, in the event he does not back up his claims with evidence. These people obstinately refuse to look at the second possibility which is, if he provides evidence to back up his claims. We must consider the two scenarios because both of them are possible. If Farotimi fails to substantiate his claims, prison awaits him. But what happens to Afe Babalola if Farotimi provides incontrovertible evidence to back up his claims? Will Afe Babalola go to jail too? Both Babalola and Farotimi cannot be right. One of them must be guilty and the guilty party should go to jail. No one is above the law.
No matter what sentiments anyone shares, it is wrong for the bourgeois class to deploy state instrumentality to fight personal battles. It is Farotimi’s turn today, it could be anyone’s turn tomorrow. We must collectively oppose the manipulation of state structures to advance selfish ends in our country. It happens all the time with wealthy people arresting anybody and throwing them into jail while obliterating the provisions of the law. Should this time of feral attitude be allowed to subsist in our country, then there is no need for us to continue to delude ourselves by rehashing the mantra of the rule of law or democracy. Farotimi in handcuffs in Ekiti is the most ironic pictorial representation of Nigeria’s reality and therefore should win an award. Of course, we know those who should be in handcuffs but they are free and celebrated while someone alleged to have defamed another person is in handcuffs. It is a caricature of Nigeria’s judicial system and speaks eloquently to what Farotimi captured in his book.
There are cases where journalists are arrested at night by gun-wielding security agents without a trace. It happened to Nigeria’s former Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen. It happened to Chioma Okoli, who eventually suffered a miscarriage in detention. Her sin? She gave a critical review of a tomato brand on Facebook. It has happened to many Nigerians. Therefore, the Farotimi case should serve as a wake-up call for Nigerians to resist and speak against this primitive, unconstitutional behaviour of illegally invading people’s homes, arresting them, and denying them bail while pressing charges against them. Farotimi is fine, very fine but Nigeria, where such unlawful, illegitimate processes are allowed to exist deserves our pity. No country makes progress with a defaced, unrecognizable judicial procedure. Don’t cry for Farotimi, cry for Nigeria.
