•Obasanjo, playing the cynic with a court order is diminished, not enhanced
The sight of a former elected president, playing the cynic over a court order that stopped the presentation of a book, is annoying. Yet, that is the situation former President Olusegun Obasanjo has put himself.
Justice Valentine Ashi, of the Federal High Court sitting in Wuse, Abuja, had on December 5, granted an ex-parte order, stopping the public presentation of Obasanjo’s new book, My Watch. But for whatever excuses, the former president went ahead to present the book in Lagos on December 9.
Buruji Kashamu, an Ogun State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) partisan, and from newspaper reports, no public friend of Obasanjo’s, had gone to court claiming Obasanjo’s latest autobiography risked permanently injuring his person. The court granted the ex-parte; pending further hearing on December 10. But by releasing the book on December 10, Obasanjo appeared to have rendered the court process nullity. This is most condemnable.
But the former president’s comments at the book launch was even more unfortunate: “In a normal judiciary,” he said of the judge that granted the ex-parte, “the judge should be sanctioned and I hope something will be done.” Obasanjo based his argument on the point that he had written the book, and his publishers had published it — so, not releasing it is out of question? Again, that sounds eerily much like self-help, the impunity that daily drives this country to the edge. it must be condemned by every lawful person.
But even assuming — without necessarily conceding — that the court of Justice Ashi erred, the judge works in the judiciary, a key institution of state that has strict processes. It is called the rule of law, which insists on due process. Obasanjo should have sought redress under this process, instead of resorting to self-help.
If the former general feigns ignorance of due process, pleading his military background (which would still be wrong, for even the military is set up by the law; and that institution is duty bound to obey the law), his status as a former president, elected in a democracy, is a harsh rebuke of that stance.
A man the law exalted as president over fellow citizens cannot turn back to treat that same law as an ass, without necessarily making himself one. Yet, that is the lawless path Obasanjo has taken. It is not only condemnable, it is utterly reprehensible.
Obasanjo and Kashamu do not interest this newspaper, beyond the fact that both are citizens, duty-bound to obey the law, if Nigeria is not to descend into anarchy. In their respective eyes, they could regard each other as saints or devils. But when court proceedings are involved, each should shed their sainthood or devilry and conform — conform because that is what ordered and civilised society dictates.
By his rash conduct, however, Obasanjo has failed this litmus test. He has thus paved the way for an unpleasant sight of a court hauling a former president, who should earn the reverence of all by virtue of his former position, before a court of law for contempt.
Indeed, Justice Ashi has hinted that much. At the resumed hearing of the case yesterday (December 10) the court gave Obasanjo 21 days to show cause why he should not be punished for contempt of court. To make the point that law rules, and arbitrary power or resort to self-help should never be tolerated, Justice Ashi should do everything to preserve the sanctity of the judiciary. If a former president wilfully makes himself a scapegoat, so be it.
Obasanjo, as an elder citizen, a former president and his often loudly asserted love for Nigeria and its wellbeing, must shun the Nebuchadnezzar complex — that hubris that tells an individual he is greater than the state. It was such hubris that landed him in trouble with the late Sani Abacha; and it was only divine intervention that saved him from the gallows; and gave him a second chance.
Regretfully, the former president seemed not to have learned from his past. That is unfortunate for a man of his age, standing and status, especially as role model for younger Nigerians struggling to imbibe democratic ethos, after decades of military impunity.
