The wages of impunity

Thanks to those eminent justices of the Court Appeal, the wheels have now turned full cycle for the Ali Baba and his gang of 40 thieves. With the Court of Appeal’s dismissal of the appeal by Senator David Mark regarding the African Democratic Congress (ADC) leadership dispute and the specific orders that all parties to maintain the status quo ante bellum, it remains to be seen, who between the hijackers led by David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola, and the other faction led by Nafiu Bala Gombe would be allowed to keep the rump or what good the eventual winner could still make of the leftover.

Imagine the sheer spectacle that the Mark-led faction has made of itself since that judicial gavel came down. INEC, they have gone ahead to announce, cannot halt its scheduled congresses and national convention! Screening of aspirants, the party insists will still hold on April 7, followed by appeals on April 8, while polling unit, ward and local government congresses are slated for April 9. (The only thing possibly worse was their infamous hostile takeover of the ADC!)

Again, to imagine that the appellate court didn’t put out anything extraordinary other than asking the appellant (the Mark group) to go back to the trial court for the matter to be heard expeditiously and for the parties – INEC and the two factions –to refrain from foisting a fait accompli since the process was already, fully engaged. Surely, if the usurpers understood the imperative, they probably assumed that such niceties were beneath them; or perhaps such niceties matter only when institutions choose to bend to their will. 

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Despite the deliberate muddle, Nigerians, surely, cannot feign ignorance about the script and more particularly what those behind them seek to achieve. It is all about power and the way to snatch it. What is however interesting is how those who claim to be desperately hungry about taking power at the centre have gone about the business, particularly their disdain for the rules. 

Not that there’s really nothing to choose between the supposed landlords and the usurpers, though. Neither has proven to be smart let alone original; both are tardy as anyone could imagine and appear largely overrated as far the issue of party organisation is concerned. Perhaps the only thing one party in the dispute has going for it is name recognition of its leading members like Atiku Abubakar, Rauf Aregbesola, David Mark and Rotimi Amaechi. The question of how far this can get them in the absence of capacity by the leadership is of course an open one. Which is Nigerians cannot but enjoy the mind games that are bound to follow as the matter waltzes through the courts and beyond!

Having said that, I have often wondered why the Mark group could not have anticipated the crisis and thus opt for a different path. Now, the joke is that these supposedly battle-tested veterans had to entreat the system to a needless judicial rigmarole that a sophomore law student would have recognised as a no-hoper! Faced with no discernible pathway out of the self-created judicial cul de sac, the Mark group, like some doomed sailors on the high seas, insist on latching to the straw of semantics with their deliberate but orchestrated misapprehension of what status quo ante bellum means in the context in which it was used even when the judge had to hand them a lifeline of expedited trial to resolve all things! 

And to show how desperate things have become, they have since resorted to their familiar games of threats and institutional blackmail.

Of course, Mark and Company have themselves to blame. Which is why it is no surprise that they want the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Joash Amupitan out and perhaps INEC disbanded for the crime of carrying out the orders of the court. It is merely a preface to the looming battle of de-legitimisation to be launched by sore losers.

Imagine; even a late joiner like that enfant terrible from Kogi State, Dino Melaye, has purportedly thrown out the only elected member of the party, Honourable Leke Abejide, to allow for a smooth takeover by the new kids on the block! Talk of how bizarre things can sometimes get among our wayward politicians. The situation reminds me of a Yoruba proverb in which a farmer’s hesitation to call out a thief results in the thief actually switching the role!

For now, the caveat by INEC chairman, Amupitan, ought to suffice. Much as it  would seem too much to expect those whose standard operating procedure (SOP) is impunity to live by any other rule, such reminders about their possible consequences ought to count for something –a reminder that rules still rule!