By Prof. Kathleen Okafor
According to Karl Marx and his protégé Freidrich Engels, the history of the entire society is a history of class struggles which have ranged between Patricians, knights, plebians and slaves, etc. In the Middle Ages, after Ancient Rome, there were struggles between feudal lords, vassals, guild masters, journeymen, apprentices, serfs, the Bourgeoisie, the Proletariat, and people of the North, South, East and West.
After the slave trade, the main objective of British imperialism had been to source raw materials for British factories and also to expand commerce as in other colonised territories like India, Canada, Australia, Ghana, etc. Originally, our country Nigeria was geographically known as Royal Nigeria Company territory and extended to the Cameroons, Benin Republic (Dahomey), Niger Republic. Our first British Consul in 1847 was a business explorer called John Beecroft before Lord Lugard etc. Under the Consuls, colonial supremacist Laws and practices juxtaposed on our traditions, religion and rulership practices.
Our colonial masters did not submit to or complement our native laws and authorities perhaps due to the mass illiteracy, amorphous adjudicatory systems, multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-lingual constraints, etc. Rather, special courts were created applying English laws and rejecting all native laws and customs as being “repugnant to natural law, equity and good conscience”. By the time Nigeria became politically independent, it had become clear to all and sundry that the democratic principles, immoral capitalism and dialectical materialism advocated by the British were diametrically alien or somewhat repugnant to our culture, indigenous level of homegrown socio-economic consciousness and development. Authoritarian colonial governance had already been instilled on our generally illiterate, feudalistic, barbaric slave and human trafficking processes. Indeed, many slaves were sold or ostracised for non-compliant behaviour like debt defaults.
Nigerian Home-grown Democracy so far:
On the electoral front, the standard ingredients of democracy and acceptable processes have still defied universal definition. Also, the present legitimacy of our Constitution has been widely and astutely challenged as not being autochthonous thereby, strictu sensu rendering all actions based on the Constitution to be nugatory meaning actually that our democracy is a mere civilian dispensation or at most an inferior democracy. Not being autochthons, the federal structures and particularly the delineation of local governments culminated in entrenching and configuring electoral success for those who crafted the Constitution.
For Nigerians, the political will to incorporate the basic elements of western liberal democracy has consistently been at a very low ebb. Such basic elements remain basic supremacy of the Constitution, separation of powers, checks and balances, sanctity of the ballot-box, independent and strong Bar, freedom of expression, due process of law, independence of the judiciary and above all a legitimately accepted Constitution.
The consequence of the false claim that the people’s consent was secured for our Constitution questions the very essence of democracy especially as the rule of law has not redressed errors and injustice perpetuated on the voiceless who are all intended benefactors of democracy.
Early practice of democracy in Nigeria had been characterised by military regimes hijacking political power which held the country hostage for over 3 decades, i.e. 1966 – 1999. Militarism, political thuggery, hijacking of ballot boxes and monumental corruption stamped authoritarianism and fascist precepts over our nascent democracy, thereby truncating and retarding our progress towards democracy
Undoubtedly, one has to be persuaded that we have submitted to unrealistic optimism over achieving social order by government of laws and of men on mere statute books, white washed political process as well as unreliable and unrealistic census figures. The foundation of fractious democracy has rather been entrenched on conflicting judicial orders, widespread disrespect for law and order, rising incidents of self-help, parochialism, ethinicism, religious and internecine bigotry, ineffective law enforcement agencies making fidelity to law for peaceful development and good government a sore phenomenon.
Clearly, there is an inevitable inter-relationship between democracy and an effective legal system which confirms that our democracy is still a work in progress. Nevertheless, both democracy and the Rule of Law must co-exist as two sides of a coin to avoid fascism and blind adherence to the wiles of dictators, sit tight corrupt politicians, anti-democratic forces, and a creeping state of anomie and socio-economic decadence.
Existentialism and The Nigerian Legal System:
Undoubtedly, Nigerian laws and legal systems have substantially undergone huge revision and reform to accord with indigenous values and perceptions of the people especially as regards criminal law, corporation and commercial laws, as well as civil and criminal adjudicatory systems.
Nevertheless, our home-grown democracy has failed woefully to generate underlining thought foundation or integrating our historical jurisprudential elements, experience of honesty, communal or cooperative entrepreneurship towards socio-economic welfarism of people, obedience to authorities, security against invaders to achieve security, food sufficiency, infrastructural facilities, etc. Expectedly, the lack of solid foundations of democracy has precipitated the emergence and sustenance over time by tumultuous poorly educated, disoriented, job seekers and traders who have plunged into politics as a commercial business for self-sustenance without necessary political orientation of competence, good disposition and character necessary for effective leadership.
Of particular significance is that the “common good” ideology in the Constitution has, however also been selfishly interpreted by many politicians to mean sectional good of their immediate tribal, political or religious communities as a tool to subjugate their uneducated followership. In consequence, recent political parties’ primaries attest to the fact that our borrowed democratic principles have not yielded or effectively transformed us or refined our collective and individual dispositions and sensibilities needed to midwife a composite nation after independence. Having endured nearly 100 years of British colonial imperialism, Nigeria has not been properly initiated into the norms and practices of decorous and civilised democratic behaviour. This is not surprising as in spite of the fact that prior to this political dispensation, and particularly before independence in 1960, our people had effortlessly imbibed obedience to laws and obeyed the whims and caprices of feudal lords, traditional rulers, unelected elders whose authority flows from forced and violent ruler ship, and barrel of the gun.
The Urgency of Democracy Lawyers
Our national colonial antecedents make it imperative that the bourgeois, the elites and corporate Nigerians must be involved in the current class struggles. These classes of people should start by convincing Nigerian politicians that democracy without the democrats will be herculean if not elusive in the quest for an effective legal order. Nigerian professionals, pro-democracy activists, Human Rights lawyers and civil campaigners and technocrats must jump into the ring with political gladiators.
Also, lawyers must now be ready, willing and able to be at the vanguard of the struggle for a better society through democracy because we lack a viable alternative. We should always remember that VI. Lenin, Ghandi, Gani Fawehnmi, Obama, Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela were lawyers who led liberation struggles of their people. Our lawyers should, therefore, make a conscious choice to depart from self-seeking, self-serving and self-conceited motives, in favour of ideals that would ensure life more abundant for the preponderant majority of our people. Only thus can the profession attract greater understanding, relevance and empathy among local and foreign compatriots.
Undoubtedly, and for now, democracy presents a most viable mechanism for attaining development and egalitarianism. Fascism, authoritarianism, autocracy or militarism are not options. This is more so because democracy is inevitably intertwined with a functioning legal order and for a viable and prosperous society.
Money politics, as we saw in the recent party primaries and blatant corruption at all levels of governance are clearly the greatest threats to real democracy. After 62 years of independence, we cannot have any excuse for not achieving political irredentism. There is no better time for Nigerians to think differently. Colonialism can no longer be used as an alibi for gross infrastructural deficit, incessant power failures, corruption, prebendalism, low productivity, racism, e.t.c. Many other colonial territories in West Africa and beyond have long disentangled their nations from the negative effects of colonialism.
Adam Smith aptly posited that there may not be an obligation on anyone, lawyers alike to do well but that no society can thrive and be happy if most of its people are poor. We know that for a society to survive, rules are made to avoid individuals doing harm. All lawyers and the entire civil society should therefore cooperate to ensure that rules are enforced.
Lawyers must be inn keepers and must not allow the Nigerian economy to make us timid more so as rights are worthless unless and except guaranteed by an independent judiciary. The rule of law represents our charter for civilized living. Lawyers must remain frontline existentialists otherwise we will yield to totalitarianism and anarchy.
Prof. Kathleen Okafor, FCArb, FICIArb, can be accessed via: Ke_okafor@yahoo.com.
She teaches Law, at Baze University, Abuja.