“My faith in my country is anchored on the knowledge that nation-building is like making sausage. It is a messy, ugly, unending process. Every nation has its fair share of shit, the difference between failed and successful nation states is not measured by their inherent perfection but by the commitment of their citizens to the patriotic task of constant improvement and adding more layers of growth from lessons learned from past mistakes and failures in the gradual, unending and never-completed task of building the elusive perfect union.“
Beyond the particular case of Dele Farotimi versus Aare Afe Babalola which hopefully will be fairly decided in the court of law, after listening to his lengthy video interview, I have to agree that Dele Farotimi made a compelling case about the decadence, the abject lack of integrity and probity in the Nigerian judiciary.
Frankly, that should not come as a surprise to most Nigerians. In most Nigerian lived experience we have all at one time or another been confronted with, and victimized by the obscenely ugly side of the Nigerian legal system starting with the decadent, corruption ridden, oppressive Nigerian police force which victimizes the poor with illegal arrest and bribery at every point in our interaction with it while the rich gets away with murder.
A police force which ordinarily should serve as the foundation of the judicial system, but which instead is the agency in which the victim of crime is made to pay for the book on which his or her case will be documented and to provide fuel to the car to arrest the offender. A police force that will advise the criminal how to circumvent the law.
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We have seen a judiciary where justice is meted out according to the pocket book. A judicial system in which a poor man who steals rickety cellphone, if he escapes lynching by the mob, would be lucky to get 10 years in jail while a white collar criminal who steals billions and with a water-tight case against him or her by the EFCC , will have his or her case killed with adjournments amidst injunctions.
If we are going to be honest with ourselves, the weight of evidence against our judiciary like every single institution in our country starting with our religious bodies, the churches, the mosque and the traditionalists, to our educational system where certificates have been commoditized and sold to the highest bidder or with demand for sexual favor or exploitation, to the highest level of our government, is that the stench and rot is so deep, so total, so all-encompassing, and so systemic, that they are almost irredeemable and all need to be totally blown into shreds and rebuilt from the ground up. That is the honest to God truth. Until then, we shall be moving from one crisis to another.
It is a bitter pill to swallow but there is no escaping it. It is sad and demoralizing but we must face our stack reality. This is bigger than President Tinubu because the rot in our institutions predates him. It has been long, deep and systemic from its foundation.
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Before people start to shout “we told you so”. Let me state clearly that my faith, belief and commitment to Nigeria is total. It is not anchored on a denial of nor shaken by its inherent dysfunction and its internal contradiction. My faith and commitment to my country which I dearly love and in which I am grateful that the universe has placed me, is regardless of its dysfunction and internal contradiction. My faith in my country is anchored on the knowledge that nation-building is like making sausage. It is a messy, ugly, unending process. Every nation has its fair share of shit, the difference between failed and successful nation states is not measured by their inherent perfection but by the commitment of their citizens to the patriotic task of constant improvement and adding more layers of growth from lessons learned from past mistakes and failures in the gradual, unending and never-completed task of building the elusive perfect union. That is the task we as citizens must take on if we are going to build a virile, strong nation we all can be proud of. No one else in this world would do it for us. And no matter how many passports we earn by way of naturalization, there is no escaping our Nigerianess. People will always ask you the “I mean where are you really from” no mater how much you try to code-switch.
Adewale Alonge, PhD, is Founder & President, Africa Diaspora Partnership for Empowerment and Development. www.adped.org
