By Dr Austin Orette
There is no development if it is done at the expense of the rule of law and the confiscation of people’s properties. The greater part of development is the upholding of the rule of law and justice.
Since I can remember, successive Nigerian governments have treated the rule of law as an inconvenience. The rule of law is the bedrock of any society that wishes to develop. It is the sine qua non of a developed society. It is the main difference between developed and underdeveloped countries.
Successive Nigerian governments from states to the federal have made the demolition of people’s properties as a developmental tool. This is wrong at all levels. This they do without any conveyance from the courts. This is anathema to the rule of law.
Our laws must develop more than physical structures. These gross violations of the rights of the people by the government are the root for all the insecurities and anarchy in the land. The Nigerian government proposes and disposes. This is wrong. The damage done to the economy by these actions is monumental. No one in his right mind would bring money into such an economy where policy summersault and brigandage are the order of the day. Those who are there are just agents of capital flight.
I have always said that the National Assembly has betrayed Nigerians by being a collection of military boys who lack the acuity to create an enabling environment for the development of our laws. They take these fat salaries and go to Abuja to sleep. They have done nothing to expunge bad laws in the Nigerian statute books. This is very wrong.
At the end of apartheid when Nelson Mandela took over, the first order of business of the South African Parliament was the expunging of bad laws that were passed during apartheid. That is what they call development.
Since the inception of civilian rule in Nigeria, the successive governments from state to federal level have not reviewed any of the bad decree passed by the departing military personnel. They even refer to these military decrees as act of the National Assembly. Some of these laws are still observed to the detriment of the citizens. Olusegun Obasanjo passed the Land Use Decree. Since that decree was passed, a lot of Nigerians have had their properties confiscated or demolished by agents of government without any conveyance from the courts. This is abnormal. No one should be surprised that this is the major reason for insecurity and anarchy in the land. This is the reason for the stagnation of the economy. There is no rule of law in Nigeria and government agents are the people using the government to violate the rights and properties of the people. No nation can develop in the terrain of injustice.
From time to time, the Nigerian government goes begging for people to bring their hard-earned money to invest in Nigeria. A foreign entity recently announced an investment of 600 million dollars in Nigeria. This is not money compared to what Nigerians can push into the economy on their own. The people in power are too blind to see, or they deliberately ignore the Nigerians in diaspora who can flood the place with cash and lift the economy. They are financially buoyant and technically savvy. The Nigerian diaspora remits more than 25 billion dollars to Nigeria annually. This is the official amount that is documented. This doesn’t include unofficial remittances. This is the power that Nigerians in diaspora have that the government is deliberately ignoring because they know that the day these Nigerians make Nigeria their home, the shenanigans of the peacocks will be over. These Nigerians are savvy and technologically equipped. This is the formula that built China and India. Those countries gave their people in diaspora muscle, and they exercised it.
Today the Indians and Chinese are in Nigeria discriminating against Nigerians. No foreigners will bring his knowledge and talent to a place where the pronouncements of those in government and government officials become law. Nigerians in the diaspora are very sensitive to this lack of rule of law. A lot of them have lost their lives because they succumbed to the yearnings. This curiosity has been dampened by these unfortunate incidents. They know that life and properties are not guaranteed in Nigeria, and they have slowed their foray into Nigeria.
The hurt is too much. China and India leapfrogged into the twenty-first century by using their diaspora. Nigeria has more ingredients than these countries, but still on its knees and continues to treat the rule of law and justice as a gift it bestows on “deserving” citizens.
Nigeria is a place where a fellow Senator will suspend another Senator. Is our democracy a joke? It is a big joke as those in power think they can bend the laws to punish their detractors. The whole judiciary is corrupt. The criminals who should be in jail are in high positions enacting laws to imprison the people. The lawyers are nothing but high priests in the court of Herod. Their main job is to collect bribes for the judges. The rest of the people can be damned.
Development is not a gift you impose on people. It is a process that is necessary for the survival of a people. The development of the rule of law is the sine qua non of progress. Unless we champion the development of the rule of law, we are going nowhere. This is where our emphasis should be instead of building roads and bridges that lead to a cul-de-sac. The absence of the rule of law makes these constructions nothing, but monuments to our ego.
Dr Austin Orette writes from Houston Texas