Simon Kolawole: In Nigeria, impunity is the name of the game

by Simon Kolawole

Simon Kolawole2

 One of the reasons many self-respecting companies avoid doing serious business with Nigeria is the fear that a government official can, with a stroke of the pen, invalidate an agreement without justification.

You should have seen me battling with tears. My aunt was narrating how my teenage cousin – a student of the Engraver College, Kaduna – was assaulted by a teacher, who ended up crushing one of his testicles. An emergency surgery was performed on the boy to save his life – and his manhood. As my aunt narrated the incident, all that was agitating my mind was how to get justice. I asked her what we could do next. She went blank.

“The school authorities have been coming here to sympathise with us,” she said.
“Is that all? Can’t the teacher be sued to court for assault and for causing grievous bodily harm?” I spat in rage. Her reply broke my heart.
“This is Nigeria, my brother. We live in an unusual country. If we say we want to seek justice now, do you trust the system? Before you know what is happening, the police would be bribed and the case would be turned against us. The complainant will become the defendant. They may even claim the boy fell from the top of a roof. It is not worth the trouble. Let’s leave everything to God,” she said with definite surrender. It has got to a stage where the ordinary Nigerian does not seek or expect justice. People in authority walk on our heads – with a swagger. Impunity is the name of the game.

As I dropped the phone, my head sank. One of the biggest tragedies in a weak state is the reign of impunity – that feeling of “I can do and undo as I please”. You see it around you all the time. “Big men” get away with murder. But if you think it is only individuals that are lawless, what about state institutions? If you see a car parking beside a “No Parking” sign, it is most probably a government vehicle. If you see someone driving against one way or failing to obey traffic lights, three out of five would be government vehicles. Official impunity regularly stares us in the face.

I was contemplating writing on the renewed impunity at the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) when I heard my cousin’s sad story. Early last year, I had raised the alarm over the crude way FAAN ejected and Airport Operations Management System (AOMS) concessionaire, Maevis, from the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos. This was in spite of a subsisting agreement and a court injunction. Some powerful people in government were hell-bent on bringing in their favoured operators without following the due process. On the night of March 23, 2012, FAAN operatives reportedly broke into the data centre of Maevis at the airport, destroying the doors, detaining and molesting the staff. It was a magnificent display of impunity.

Less than 48 hours later, the aviation authorities – clearly working to an answer – announced that the AOMS contract with Maevis had been terminated and Société Internationale de Telecommunication Aeronautique (SITA) had been appointed in its place. The process that produced SITA was not made public. Even a pre-school kid could tell that SITA had been appointed before the contract with Maevis was illegally terminated. FAAN, obviously acting under instructions “from above”, simply ignored every court order asking it to stay action. It has been shamelessly perpetrating this impunity since then. That is our own definition of rule of law.

Undaunted, Maevis returned to the courts, and two weeks ago, Justice Ibrahim Buba, sitting at the Federal High Court, Lagos, summoned the courage to deliver judgement against SITA, ordering the company to pay damages of N5 billion to Maevis and further ordering them to vacate the airports. The fundamental fact is that there was a subsisting agreement between Maevis and FAAN, and the court ruled that SITA was wrong to have induced FAAN to terminate the agreement despite a court injunction affirming the validity of the Maevis contract. You would expect this to peacefully end the impunity, but FAAN has refused to obey the court order, obviously to buy time and see if a superior court would upturn the judgement. I am eagerly awaiting the court of law that will say impunity is in order.

If two parties to an agreement are no longer in the mood to continue the relationship, there are decent ways of contracting a divorce. Anybody can say whatever they like in order to justify the lawlessness, but we are only damaging this country with these acts. Maevis, a company owned by Nigerians, had been running an efficient system before FAAN chose to curiously terminate the contract and appoint SITA, a French concern, without any regard for public procurement laws. I will always fight on the side of Nigerians who have demonstrated competence in their job. Even where Nigerians don’t have the competence, my argument is that there should be a well-articulated programme to build their capacity so that we are not tied to foreign aprons eternally.

Meanwhile, for a country that desires enormous foreign investment, the least impression we want to create is that agreements count for nothing. One of the reasons many self-respecting companies avoid doing serious business with Nigeria is the fear that a government official can, with a stroke of the pen, invalidate an agreement without justification. Last year, we almost embarrassed ourselves over the Transmission Company of Nigeria, Osogbo, Osun State. We sought to terminate the concession agreement with Manitoba through the backdoor.  It is only in the animal kingdom that impunity reigns supreme – no law, no order. It is the survival of the fittest, where a hungry animal simply pounces on and devours the weaker animal to survive. Anarchy is the only law in the jungle.

I can go on and on giving examples of the reign of impunity in the land. My cousin’s crushed testicle is a testament – but I’m sure many Nigerians have more horrible tales to tell, that’s if they are alive to narrate their horror; the lawlessness of FAAN is an example of how government wilfully breaks agreements and ridicules itself – I can bet more companies doing business with government have their own stories to tell. Whatever it is, we are still not demonstrating willingness to be part of the civilised world. Which is a terrible shame.

And Four Other Things…

WAITING FOR NCC
Can you remember that the National Communications Commission (NCC) spent over N6 billion to do SIM card registration? Do you know that the data they collected are not accessible to the telecoms companies? I registered all my lines with NCC but the networks say they don’t have my data. They threatened to cut off my lines for not registering. I am waiting for this to happen before I make my next move. When, as Editor of THISDAY last year, I published a story to alert Nigerians to this fact, the guys at NCC said I was paid to fight them. That is the burden we journalists carry. It’s no news.

THE DEATH PENALTY
I used to support the death penalty until I had a workplace experience in January 2011 when I was maligned and almost beheaded for something I did not do. Then it dawned on me that many innocent people may have been executed based on flimsy and circumstantial evidence. If innocent people are jailed, some strong evidence may set them free later. But once they are killed, there is no remedy. The controversy over the Benin executions offers us another opportunity to rethink the death penalty. Meanwhile, what serves revenge seekers better: instant execution, which is once and final, or life imprisonment, which is slow death?

FASHOLA AT 50
I have interacted with most governors in Nigeria and I am impressed with some of them. However, in terms of depth of knowledge and understanding of the science behind governance and development, I have always been impressed with Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, who clocked 50 on Friday. Many celebrate him for his physical achievements, but what really wows me about him is that anytime we have an opportunity to discuss, 11 out of 10 times I come away telling myself: “This guy really understands what he is doing.” I wish I could say that about most of our leaders in Nigeria.

ADIEU, ALHAJA
A little over 14 years ago, when Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu won the Lagos State governorship election, I had the privilege of interviewing his mother, Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji – a respected trader and market leader who died two weeks ago. She told me an interesting story about his son. “When Bola was a young boy, he used to keep record of my transactions. He wrote down every detail of sales and purchases. I was not surprised he ended up as an accountant,” she said with pride. I’m sure she was not surprised, too, that the accountant later became a governor.

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

One comment

  1. Any competent independent financial investigation today, will have both Tinubu and Fashola in prison for the rest of their lives

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