18082019 -Anxiety over " Next Level" Ministers

PAGE 22—SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 18, 2019
Mr Femi Falana is a Senior
Advocate of Nigeria
(SAN) and an activist.
Falana speaks on the state of the
nation in the wake of
‘RevolutionNow’ protest and the
arrest of the convener, Mr
Omowole Sowore.
What I have considered is that the
state, through the police, recognises the
fact that Nigerians have the right to
protest peacefully. And I hope
government will not reverse itself.
However, government is saying “we are
clamping down on protesters this time
around because they used the word
‘revolution’. But protest has also been
carried out by the Bring-Back-Our-Girls
campaigners at the Unity Fountain
Abuja because, since the Chibok girls
were captured in 2014, that
organisation has been protesting daily
to remind all of us that Chibok girls,
Dapchi girls are still in captivity of
terrorists. Government says no, “we
don’t want those rallies.” The Shiites
were also protesting peacefully to
demand compliance with a court order
releasing their leader and his wife.
Government said no! But now, we are
being told that rallies are allowed in
Nigeria and they must be peaceful.
That’s the first lesson. The second and
painful one is that protesters who are
not armed, placard carrying people, are
being brutalized. It does not portray us
a civilised people and we can avoid
that. What the law says, I am talking of
the Electoral Act, amended as of March
27, 2015, is that the police shall provide
security for protesters. That is the law
because we have won the battle against
obtaining police permit as a condition
for rallies and protests in Nigeria.
Incidentally, it was a case we won for
General Muhammadu Buhari and other
political leaders of the ANPP and about
ten other opposition figures sometime
ago. The point was made that peaceful
protests are part and parcel of freedom
of expression guaranteed by the
Constitution and freedom of assembly
and that when they are protesting, the
police and other security forces must
provide security. That was not what we
witnessed yesterday (Monday).
So what do you think informed
this kind of situation because
before becoming President, just
like you mentioned, Buhari was
one of those who protested
peacefully and there was not any
arrest?
No! That is not correct. In 2003,
September 22, the ANPP leaders, led by
General Muhammadu Buhari and the
late Chuba Okadigbo, had a rally in
Kano, because there was going to be
series of rallies to protest the rigging of
election that year. The Obasanjo regime
asked the police to clamp down on the
rally. And of course, the police did so,
violently and tear-gassed the conveners
and participants. In fact, three days
later, on Sept 25, 2003, Okadigbo
passed on and it was speculated that his
death arose from the dose of teargas
inhaled by him, because he had
respiratory problem. And
notwithstanding the fact that there is
judicial recognition of the right to
protest, on many
occasions, the police and
military clamp down on
Nigerians who are
protesting. Last year, there
was an incident where
about 50 Shiites were
killed by security forces in
Abuja for protesting and
demanding the
compliance to a court
order.
What do you think is
responsible for this
situation?
It is the failure to
recognise that we are free
people. We are being ruled
as a conquered people. I
have tried to make the
point over and over again.
Chapter 4 of the
Constitution which spells
out the fundamental rights
of Nigerians cannot be
violated or abrogated
without a procedure
permitted by the same
Constitution. Be that the
case, if you are going to
take the life of any citizen,
there must be a trial. Since
death penalty is still a part
of our law, a person must
have been tried, convicted and
sentenced. You cannot engage in extra
judicial killing. If you are going to
detain Sowore, you can’t detain him for
more than 24 hours in a place like
Lagos and not more than 48 hours
If they are
sure that the
revolution
has failed, or
going to fail,
why bring out
the army,
police, to do
what?
where you do not have a court within a
radius of 40 kilometres. Section 35 of
the Constitution says if you are going to
detain Sowore beyond 24 hours, you
must go and get a court order. If you are
going to violate my rights in anyway, if
you are going to seize my account,
passport, you must get a court order.
These will show that we are a civilized
people. If you have the right
information that the “RevolutionNow”
was planned to disrupt the peace of the
country, and you had the information
for about two weeks which is required
by the law, it is not a threat to commit
treason or you are a terrorist, the police
will approach the court.
So, you are saying government
erred.
Oh yes, for sure. The police will
approach the court and say “this is the
information we have”. I have seen some
of the papers circulated. No! You cannot
engage in media trial. You put
somebody in detention; you are
circulating information saying he
wanted to overthrow government, that
he has taken money somewhere to
overthrow government. Please charge
him. If you have
information that Mr.
Falana wants to cause
disruption, go to court;
you cannot sit down in
your office and conclude
that this is treasonable
felony. No! No police,
security officer has the
power to make such
declaration.
In all of these, you
are saying government
erred and, of course,
the protesters are
saying they will
continue. Meanwhile
the Presidency says the
revolution has failed,
that people should go
about doing their
businesses. Has the
revolution failed?
I wish government well.
But if they are sure that the
revolution has failed, or
going to fail, why bring
out the army, police, to do
what? The protesters did
not say “we are going to
cause such a disruption” as
stated, that nobody will
move. If you are having a
rally at the stadium, not on the street of
Lagos, why should any government feel
so disturbed? No! You can’t do that.
Under President Obasanjo regime, there
was a time the Labour Congress was
going to go on strike and government
confronted them for mobilizing for the
SOWORE:
We are being
ruled like
conquered
people
– Falana
strike across the nation. Then,
government approached a court in
Lagos in the dead of the night and got a
court order that the strike should not
hold. Comrade Adams Oshiomole, the
current APC National Chairman, was
the President of the Nigeria Labour
Congress NLC then; Peter Esele was the
President of the Trade Union Congress
TUC. They were confronted with the
order the following day. One way or the
other, the order was served. And so we
had a dilemma. The late Chief Gani
Fawehinmi and I had to spend 6 hours
at the Sheraton Hotels in Lagos to
convince the Labour leaders, but they
said “this is a black market injunction”.
But they had to obey, because next time
their members were arrested,
government will say “you didn’t obey
court order”. And that is what the rule
of law is all about. They obeyed the
order and we said “give us a week to be
back to the drawing board and set aside
the order”. And based on that
assurance, the strike was postponed and
we were able to vacate the order.
So, we don’t treat Nigeria as an
isolated case. There has been
mass protest in the United States
over the shooting of students and
we saw how government handled
it including other places with
similar cases. What do you say
about the way government is
handling this case now?
Sowore was ‘captured’ on Friday
night. I used that word ‘capture’
deliberately because I warned in 2016
when some judges were arrested in the
dead of the night: You don’t do it
because criminals might take
advantage of the people wearing mask
in the dead of the night like officials of
government wearing mask in the dead
of the night. Criminals will take
advantage and kidnap people and you
will be told it is done by the DSS. You
must learn to be civilized because it is
dangerous not to do so. And in the case
of Sowore, he kept them for over an
hour because he didn’t know who they
were until he got confirmation from
DSS office and he obliged.
So, what do you expect to
happen?
It is going to be difficult for
government to stop protests. Once, you
have not recognised that Nigerians
have the right to protest. You are now
convinced that there was no revolution
yesterday when the protest was violently
stopped. I have warned the security
forces to stop embarrassing
government, particularly the President
who had called the security chiefs to
recommend the Egyptian revolution to
Nigerians.
Do you say the President is not aware
of what is happening?
I am not saying the President is not
aware. But I am saying that the
President is being challenged with his
own involvement in protest in the past.
Nigerians are saying there must be
consistency on the part of those who are
in government. Some of them were in
NADECO. They took part in protests
with us. On their part, the last rally the
APC leaders organised was on the 19th
of November 2014 to protest insecurity
in the country. If other Nigerians are
protesting against insecurity in any part
of Nigeria, you cannot clamp down on
them. And that’s what Nigerians are
saying, that Mr. President should
recognise our right as yours was
recognised then.
I am sure you have looked at
this situation objectively. Is there
any justification for what the
government is doing right now?
There is no justification. But I also
want to assume that in some of these
crackdowns, government has not been
exposed to sound legal advice. The last
time we had this kind of harassment of
Nigerians over the use of the word
‘revolution’ was in 1948 when some
young Nigerians formed ‘Zikism
Movement’ without Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe
after being disturbed that the politics of
Nigeria was being ethicized. So, they
formed that body saying “we are going
to elevate Nigerian politics”. They
launched the movement to demand for
revolution here in Lagos at Glover Hall
and the lecture was delivered by Osita
Agunna. The Chairman of that
programme was the late Chief Tony
Enahoro, young people in their 20s and
30s. The second one was held and they
were arrested for calling for revolution;
charged, convicted and sentenced to
imprisonment by the colonial regime
for a period ranging from six months to
three years. They were not charged with
treasonable felony or terrorism. They
were only charged with sedition. And
seditious publication charge was then
under provisions of criminal code
which was declared illegal in July 1993
by the Court of Appeal. I am talking
about cases decided here in Nigeria. So,
you can’t charge anybody with treason
for saying “we are going to cause a
revolution”. That is part of freedom of
expression.
• Interview first aired on
Channels Television