Speeches

Public Presentation Of Three Books By Professor Ben Nwabueze

Apr 3, 2008 - This bright audience gathered here today looks to me a representation of that growing society of patriots who must feel indebted to this legal icon, Professor Ben Nwabueze, (SAN), for his contribution to our country’s constitutional development.

Unarguably, for the country’s foremost constitutional law expert, his seminar works are reference materials on constitutional law and constitutional development in the country and in the Commonwealth.

Indeed, the passion, ability and diligence of this prolific author to assist the evolution and development of the jurisprudence of constitutional law are yet to be equalled. He is often quoted in judgments in the Supreme Court and the other lower courts in the land.

The three books for today’s public presentation cover vital segments and issues that have emerged in the last eight years in our practice of democratic governance. Like most of his other works, they are products of first hand experience spanning years of activities in and outside the classroom. We will recall that this Senior Advocate has been Federal Education Secretary, Secretary to the Pan-Igbo Social-Political group, Ohanaeze, an active member of the Patriots, university teacher and distinguished member of the bar. The books will certainly throw needed light on the dark pages of our legal and constitutional past which the present governments are trying to exorcise from the land.

We are all living witnesses to the issues covered by the books, which are issues of the rule of law and democracy, dictatorial attempts by the former Federal Government to stifle the development of the States and the vital features of Federalism which, among others, allow for the initiatives of the component units to develop in accordance with their potentials.

There is clear evidence that the former executive arm of government was deliberately and willfully flouting subsisting court ruling including that of the apex court. A sore case in point was the withheld Lagos Local Government Funds and the Independent Power Project (IPP), both of which are already in the public domain.

Suffice it to say that disregard for the rule of law is a real threat to the survival of democracy. It is an incontrovertible fact that democracy cannot thrive in the absence of the rule of law.

This is why I urge the Federal Government to remain steadfast in upholding this cardinal point in its implementation of its seven point agenda for the country. Of course, we know this new thinking accounted for the release of the Lagos seized funds. More than this symbolic gesture, Ladies and gentlemen, is the implication of this new found practice for the development of institutions in the country because operators of the system are being allowed the constitutional freedom to run the show. By so doing we are steadily developing our institutions which are the cornerstones of our democracy. It is also in this light that we must view the crucial role that the election petition tribunal is also playing in this stage of our development. When a voter knows that his votes count in the coming and going of governments and he can initiate changes in the system, a general sense of well-being and security pervades the system.

Even so, we need to look at certain grey areas in the Constitution that makes mockery of our Federal System of governance. There are many instances but I will cite a few. In looking at the way our justice system works, we need to be concerned about the challenges of law and order in Nigeria. Everyone knows that our system of policing in the ensuing years has proved to be ineffective especially in big cities. The constitution addresses the Governor as the Chief Security Officer of the state. But is he really so? My experience shows that when a Governor in Nigeria says he wants to control crime, his hands are tied. First, he does not control even the number of policemen in the State; he cannot hire or fire any of them. He is not involved in their training and he cannot set a vision or objective for them. The only answer to this anomaly is State Police as is the case with other Federations in the world. Other equally thorny areas are the sharing of proceeds from the Federation Accounts and other existing pre-1999 legislation that encroach on the autonomy of the States.

These constitutional lapses are grave and we need to address them NOW! Thank God we have statesmen of Prof Nwabueze’s status and profound intellectual standing, whose output should form the basic materials needed by our lawmakers who are about to embark on the amendment or repeal of sections of the Constitution which make the rule of law a difficult practice and the Federation a conglomeration of strange bedfellows. The books, “(i) How President Obasanjo Subverted the Rule of Law & Democracy; (ii) How President Obasanjo Subverted Nigeria’s Federal System (iii) The Second Justice Kayode Eso Lecture: Judiciary as the Third Estate of the Realm”, like the many others written by my learned statesman are a must read for all of us who sincerely desire to see our country take its God-assigned place in the comity of nations in the twenty-first century and beyond.

I thank you for listening and God bless you all.

‘’Eko O ni baje O!’’

Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN)
Governor of Lagos State