OPINION: Constitutionality vs Criminality By Ayantunji Benjamin Gbenro

“The only common thing about commonsense is that it’s not common” – MKO Abiola

The above maxim sum up the situation in Nigeria. How can majority be so irrational about simple rational issues. A poor man stole a mobile phone and poor masses set him ablaze until he is burnt to death while a big man stole billions that’s suppose to be use to protect the poor masses and the masses become emergency lawyers and analysts to defend the big man. New vocabularies have been introduced into our lexicon in the past one year of fighting corruption: rule of law, witch hunt, human right etc. If you are so concern about the ‘rule of law’ what about the ‘law of rule’? Should there be no rule on how to govern?  If there is such law, then, when you contravene the ‘law of rule’ , you forfeit the ‘rule of law’. Wherever there is a witch, there should be a hunter. Rather than castigating the hunter, it’s better to discourage the witch from the act of witchcraft.  If the witch fails to desist from witchcraft then the hunter should be encourage to hunt the witch. If ‘human right’ is so important, ‘human wrong’ should be discouraged. It’s ‘human wrong’ to use the money for the procurement of weapon for fight against insurgency for campaign. It’s ‘human wrong’ to turn national assets to personal properties. This is commonsense.

A governor’s personal account was frozen by EFCC because slush fund was traced to it. Instead of him explaining how he came about such illegal money, he went to town with the cry about the constitutionality of EFCC’s action because he enjoys immunity. The most annoying about the whole saga is the poor masses that help in amplifying the constitutionality alibi. If you are so concern about the constitutionality of EFCC’s action, shouldn’t you be concern about the criminality of stealing from our common patrimony? Which predates the other, the constitutionality or the criminality? This same governor has not been able to pay the State workers salary for upward of five months, yet he kept over a billion naira in an account for over two years. Probably you are among the workers the State is owing and you are talking about constitutionality. Commonsense is indeed not common.

A Senator has been insulting our sensibility for over a year with what he refers to as commonsense revolution. He told us that saving money through TSA account is causing job lost in Nigeria. He said we should buy Nigeria to grow the naira. He told us fight against corruption is hindering economic growth. He has regale us with so much in his so called commonsense revolution philosophy. We are already getting carried away by his commonsense revolution philosophy when we realized that our commonsense Senator took a loan of eleven billion over eleven years ago and he neither service nor pay back. We also realized that Mr. Commonsense is owing his staff for months. Despite these revelations, some emergency lawyers and analysts are disturbing our ears with how the taken over of Mr. Commonsense businesses by AMCON will lead to job losses without recourse to the damage his failure to pay his loan would have done to the bank. They will also tell us about constitutionality without considering the criminality of his deeds. The most annoying is most of the emergency activists are unemployed or underemployed as a result of the actions of Mr Commonsense and his likes. Commonsense is indeed not common.

The two houses of the national assembly recently pass a resolution asking the executive to follow constitutional provision of separation of power regarding the alleged forgery of the Senate rule book. The individuals involved in the case at the Senate have both denied any involvement in the forgery because they had no access to the rule book while Senators elect. The Senate bureaucracy has also denied any knowledge of the alleged forgery but also agree that rule book was changed. If nobody is ready to hold up to this glaring infraction, is it not commonsense to drag the two parties to court to determine who committed the forgery? No, commonsense is not common, the national assembly will rather see it as interference from the executive. They even went further to claim that it is an internal affair of the legislative arm while forgetting that the national assembly is funded with public fund. Shouldn’t the national assembly be more concern about the criminality of the forgery than the constitutionality of separation of power. Commonsense is not common.

Nigerians have never had a better opportunity than we have now to reclaim our country from the vultures that have eaten the country to bone hitherto. While we are striving to promote constitutionality, we should not forget to punish criminality appropriately. Only then can we have a country we will all be proud of.