Nigeria: One Country, Different Laws

THEFRONTLINES

In the past week, two separate but highly instructive events played out at different locations in this country. These unrelated events have succinctly exposed the hypocrisy, lies, and false hope being bandied about a united or one Nigeria.In Osun State, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the build-up to the just concluded governorship election decided to procure the services of hip hop’s current rave of the moment, Habeeb Okikiola whose stage name is Portable. The APC’s action was apparently to counter the decision of its rival opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which campaign was being buoyed by the Iconic Music star, Davido. The Music Icon opted to join the fray to support his uncle the PDP candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke.

After the election, perhaps in the euphoric moment of celebrating a hefty N10m payday, he claimed in a viral video to be the founder of the notorious and infamous One Million Boys.

In a video, which went viral, Portable was heard saying he formed the cultist group and another notorious group known as Ajah Boys. “Open your ears and hear me, Have you heard about Ajah Boys, One Million Boys, I’m their founder. Go and ask Sammy larry,” he announced to whoever bothered to listen.

The One Million Boys in their heydays was a group of criminal elements who wreaked havoc in Mushin and Agege areas of the state. The group was engaged in everything illegal, from robbery, illicit drugs, street brawls, and killing and maiming of opponents to constituting a huge security risk and menace to the areas of their criminal activities.

Barely 24 hours after the video went viral, a statement by Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi said the Inspector-General Of Police, Usman Baba, ordered the arrest and probe of the music star, over his alleged ties to One Million Boys and other claims.

Meanwhile, about the same day far away town of Tsafe in Zamfara State,  the Emir of Yandoton Daji Emirate, Aliyu Marafa turbaned a wanted bandit leader, Adamu Aliero-Yankuzo, aka Ado Alero, as Sarkin Fulani of the emirate. The ceremony came barely two years after the police declared the terrorist leader wanted and placed a N5 million bounty on him. Alero is the leader of one of the ruthless groups responsible for the killings, maiming, and kidnappings in the local communities of Zamfara and Katsina States.

Following the uproar that the turbanning provoked nationwide, the Zamfara State Government was forced to react. It announced the suspension of the Emir of Sabon Birnin Yandoto of Tsafe local government area of the state, Aliyu Garba Marafa, for turbaning a notorious repentant bandits’ leader, Adamu Aliero, as Sarkin Fulani (leader of Fulani).

The Secretary to the State Government, Kabiru Balarabe who signed the statement said the State Government was dissociating itself from the alleged turbaning of a Sarkin Fulani by the Emir of Birnin Yandoto of Tsafe Local Government Area. He announced that the Governor, Hon. Bello Mohammed Matawalle, MON (Shattiman Sokoto) has directed for suspension of the Emir with immediate effect.

Was the action taken by the Zamfara State government just an afterthought? The answer is an emphatic No and this goes to show the glaring incidents of double standards, nepotism, clannishness and the outright breach of the rule of law to favor a particular tribe and part of the country (North) over the other (South). 

So many instances abound to reinforce the promotion of One North interest and expose the big lie in the same northerners who claim the indivisibility of Nigeria or one Nigeria. For them, one Nigeria is expedient when it comes to rent-seeking or sharing of Nigeria’s spoils of office. Even in the dispensation of justice, northerners are shielded from the law while their southern counterparts are demonized and scapegoated.

A classic example of this is the disgraced super cop DCP, Abba Kyari, and his co-conspirators who were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and identity fraud, last year.

The U.S. government preferred charges in July last year, accusing all six defendants, including Messers Anifowoshe and Kyari, of playing different roles in the $1.1million fraudulent scheme led by Ramon Abass, also known as Hushpuppi, a former Nigerian Instagram celebrity. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) also sought the extradition of Kyari to the US to answer the charges preferred against him.

While awaiting his verdict on the extradition matter, in March 2022, the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja ordered that Kari and six others facing drug trafficking charges with him should be moved to the Kuje Correctional Centre.

It was discovered that, while the police authorities suspended Kyari pending the outcome of an investigation to ascertain the level of complicity in the money laundering allegations, Kyari was still carrying out his official duties illegally.

He was however busted when he tried to bribe officers of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) with over $61,000 to release a substance suspected to be cocaine with street value of over N4b.

But all this could have been averted had the authorities promptly extradited him. Rather than complying, the police authorities, including the commission and the Attorney General’s office all headed by Northerners, have embraced all notable bottlenecks to checkmate his extradition and perhaps delaying it until it becomes statute barred. 

Meanwhile, it would be recalled that Nigeria maintains extradition treaties with several countries and successive governments have consistently upheld the sanctity of the treaty without defaulting. For instance, it was the extradition treaty Nigeria maintains with the United Arab Emirates that paved the way for the extradition of former Delta State governor, James Ibori, s southerner from the United Arab Emirates, in conjunction with the Federal Government of Nigeria, to the United Kingdom.

Apparently provoked by the federal government’s selective justice system, The Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA) condemned the FG’s alleged nepotistic and selective extradition of Southerners whilst Abba Kyari cools off in Nigeria despite that he has been declared wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States for over one year. It recalled that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission recently coordinated the extradition of a Southerner and Yoruba man by tribe, Fatade Olamilekan, for alleged wire fraud of over $3.5million.The EFCC got to work after the FBI declared Olamilekan wanted through the US Legal Attache. In April 2022, the EFCC coordinated the extradition of a wire fraud suspect and a Yoruba man, Adedunmola Gbadegesin, to the United States over a $148,000 scam.

Also, in May, another Nigerian from the South-East geopolitical zone, Chibundu Anuebunwa, was extradited to the United States over his alleged involvement in a multi-million-dollar business email compromise scam.

Forbes Billionaire, Obinwanne Okeke also known as Invictus Obi who plead guilty to $11 million (N4.2 billion) fraud was arrested by the FBI and extradited to the United States last year on charges of computer and wire fraud. Obi, 32 reportedly confessed to investigators that he was guilty of the charges between 2015 and 2019. All these persons extradited are southerners.

As I write, the Inspector General of Police has not ordered the arrest of the turbaned bandit because he is a northerner. It rankles when it is so evident that the federal government that is expected to lead by example ends up adopting a clannish, divisive approach to fighting crime? With this selective justice system, how do you deter citizens from crime? When criminals are shielded from justice, what is the message to the citizensIt is a complete waste of time and hope for one Nigeria when the government itself is so parochial, fails to practice what it preaches, and can not be trusted because it is incapable of delivering justice and equity. The late Maitam Sule warned President Muhammadu Buhari years ago when he recommended that only equity and justice can heal the wounds, integrate Nigerians, give Nigerians a sense of belonging and make the country great.

Regrettably, the action of the Buhari administration is the exact opposite of Sule’s recommendation. It has perpetrated the worse forms of division in the country. Today, insecurity is threatening the entire country where lives and property are no longer safe. Yet, the President fails to act because the perpetrators are his tribesmen.

And because the President prefers to seat by and watch, approving the reintegration of so-called repentant Boko Haram insurgents into different security services, pleading with victims to accept their traducers as brothers, and praying that his tenure should end so he can return to Daura his home town to rest, the criminal elements are emboldened.

Today, most highways are no-go areas as people are kidnapped in daylight by Fulani militia. Killers herders are on a rampage killing and dispossessing farmers of their ancestral lands. Repentant insurgents are given VIP treatment the same way a fugitive bandit would be crowned in the full glare of law enforcement officers. It is a great pity that the diversity that united us since independence has completely been eroded by the deliberate winners taking all approaches of this administration. Do we still have a country?

That is still a subject for debate because what sort of country that a presidential advance team would be attacked with such brazen courage by rag-tag insurgents operating on motorcycles. As if that is not enough, how could insurgents, who recently attacked a Kaduna – Abuja train and abducted hundreds of passengers and who gave a condition that the federal government must free its members from Kuja prison, brazenly attack and free all their members?

Does it not smack of dereliction of duties and apparent complicity on the side of the government? The Buhari administration must come clean on the issues raised. First, Kyari must be speedily extradited to the USA to answer his charges, whenever he’s back, he can be arraigned for the drug charges in Nigeria. In addition, the government must arrest and prosecute the promoters of the Fulani militia and their sponsors whom government knows but shield from prosecution.

The government should also arrest and prosecute Sheikh Abubakar Gumi for his incendiary preachings and stoking the ambers of hate across the country and ascertain who are his sponsors and what are their motives. It is curious that while IPOB is a terrorist group to Buhari, the Fulani militia, and Miyetti Allah that pose a big threat to Nigeria’s existence through their illegal activities and vitriolic utterances have done no wrong in his judgment. As 2023 beckons, Nigeria should be careful not to repeat the same 2015 mistake but carefully choose a President that is truly a leader who stands for the country as his sole constituency and every Nigerian as his priority. That’s the only way to save Nigeria from the current brink.