by Osaze Sunny
Everyone is concerned about security challenges in the land. Though the problems are multifaceted, they require various strategies including collaborations between security personnel and civilians as well as words of encouragement from elders, scholars, religious and traditional rulers.
The recent outburst of former legal adviser to the regime of maximum ruler, late General Sani Abacha, Professor Hamisu Yadudu, over security issues in the country was alarming.
Many thought that the law professor who served the dictatorial regime that served the nation draconian laws would just maintain sealed lips and allow other individuals to offer their best in the service of their fatherland.
Professor Hamisu Yadudu came out rather very controversial and harsh in a recent interview, which featured in last week’s edition of Saturday Sun. In the said interview, Professor Yadudu betrayed the little confidence some Nigerians had in him when he came out offering remarks capable of heating up the polity.
Aside failing for selfish reasons though, to applaud President Goodluck Jonathan’s commendable achievements in the war against insurgency in north eastern part of the country, he chose to pick holes in the measures adopted in dealing with terrorism in the country.
Professor Yadudu’s recent outing further portrays him as someone who has no regard for the feelings of other Nigerians who he so despised and insulted a few years ago. It was during his tenure as General Abacha’s Legal Adviser that Nigeria recorded its highest number of human rights abuses in the country’s history. One had expected Yadudu as someone who knows the law to object, but he never did. Rather, he rose in defense of his paymaster as Nigerians with opposing voices were clamped into jails. One wonders if the same Yadudu who watched as his late boss took human rights abuses to a frightening level, is different from the Yadudu who is threatening legal action against the Joint Military Task Force operating in northern Nigeria for human rights abuses! This is really a sad development.
I wasn’t too shocked by Professor Yadudu’s threat of legal action against the JTF for alleged rights abuses. I’m very sure Yadudu is only out to heat up the polity for very selfish reasons and to further pitch Nigerians in the north against the Federal government.
This is not really fair and acceptable. Not at a time that landmark efforts are being made to deliver dividends of democracy to Nigerians across board. It’s totally unacceptable and laughable for a man who is versed in law to maintain sealed lips when human beings were denied their rights in the past only to come out a different person today. I believe Professor Yadudu lacks the moral right to accuse a government that upholds the rule of law in the running of the country of rights abuses.
President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration would go down in history as the regime that operated all its activities within the ambit of the law.
In as much as one will not completely rule out a few cases of rights abuses in the prosecution of the war against insurgency in different parts of the country, this doesn’t give credence to Yadudu’s wild claims against the JTF in northern Nigeria. This is not peculiar to Nigeria alone. It is pretty difficult to completely rule out cases of rights abuse in any war situation.
What is usually done is that, while efforts are on to restore peace, law and order to the North East, JTF operatives are given the necessary guide on ways to go about their activities. The Jonathan administration is a firm respecter of human rights and carries out its duty with strict adherence to human rights laws.
Professor Yadudu has lost what it takes to question his fellow human beings’ actions. He lost that opportunity some years ago during the Abacha military junta. As widely upheld, anyone who must go to equity must go with clean hands.
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Read this article in the Sun Newspapers
Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.
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