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 Daily
Independent Online.
* Monday,June 14, 2004.
The need to obey court orders
If the Federal
Government ever found it convenient flouting court orders with
brazenness, the June 8 ruling of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja
should awaken it to the fatuity of such a disposition. Attorney-General
and Minister of Justice, Chief Akinlolu Olujinmi, had filed a suit at the
Court seeking to restrain the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) or its agents
“from embarking on, and/or continuing any strike or mass protest,
assembly or rally or any other form or manner of physical protest on the
9th of June, 2004 .” But the Chief Judge of the Court, Justice Roseline
Ukeje, had enough ground to dismiss the application “as an abuse of court
process,” and to order that both parties give effect to a February 9
ruling by the Court directing the Federal Government to revert to N38 per
litre of petrol and Labour to refrain from a planned strike.
The Petroleum Products Pricing and
Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), representing the Federal Government, promptly
declared its readiness to ensure that marketers complied with the order,
citing a directive from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC) on the subject. Labour, for its part, declined to commit itself to
immediate compliance, recalling how the Federal Government had defied
earlier court rulings, including that of February 9. Arguing that “this
is a case of once beaten, twice shy,” NLC’s Deputy President, Mr Joseph
Akinlaja, declared: “If we should de-mobilise now and government fails to
comply as they have done before, it will be difficult to re-mobilise. The
strike goes on.” The day after, June 9, the nationwide industrial action
began, with all notable unions in the financial, petroleum,
manufacturing, maritime and educational sectors and aviation joining
their counterparts in the Federal and State civil services to stay away
from work. Commercial activities, too, ground to a halt as all major
markets, with the exception of some in Abuja, were shut down.
Nigerians were witnessing a
most bizarre development, the open contempt by Government and the central
labour movement for a juridical pronouncement by an institution of
competent jurisdiction. It was not until three days later, last Friday
afternoon, that the NLC
announced a suspension of the strike in line with the court order.
Petroleum products marketers, in clear demonstration of their distrust
for the Federal Government, had refused to revert to the pre-February
pump prices, despite the public posturing of the NNPC and top Government
functionaries. The marketers insisted that NNPC should display its new
price list at the fuel depots as a sign of the new direction in pricing,
before they could adjust pump prices. Until that step was reportedly
taken, Friday morning, all stakeholders were evidently suspicious that
the authorities were up to some familiar antics and so none of the civil
society groups in the broad anti-government coalition would counsel the
NLC to review its stance. The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) had deplored
the situation on Thursday, but the tone of its release was understandably
harsher in regard to Government’s culpability.
It is a harrowing pass the Obasanjo
Administration has brought this nation to, by its open defiance of the
law and covert manipulation of judicial processes. When the Supreme Court
on April 5, 2002 invalidated first line charges on the Federation
Account, President Obasanjo directed the then Managing Director of the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to open two Special
Accounts offshore for receipt of proceeds from crude oil sales, in a bid
to circumvent the ruling. From then on, the Corporation arrogated to
itself the powers to deduct amounts determined by its Management for
operational costs and priority projects, contrary to constitutional
provisions requiring payment of such monies into the Federation Account.
The President also appalled Nigerians by his open encouragement to the
Inspector-General of Police to defy the January 12 (2004) Court of Appeal
ruling directing that the security aides of Anambra State Governor Chris
Ngige be restored. It is also under the present regime that the judiciary
has been ridiculed to the point that it issues what are now known in
common parlance as “black market injunctions.” The nation has arrived at
a sorry juncture in its social evolution where laws no longer command
obedience among the elite and where the generality of the people are fast
losing faith in the worth of the judicial system.
We can only remind the Obasanjo
Administration that the laws of the land are for orderly governance,
political stability and growth,
and that its activities
are fast eroding the basis for expectation that the nation could
ever attain such goals. We urge the President to turn a new leaf and give
this nation a new lease of life. Let him take the June 8 Abuja Court
ruling as the starting point: comply fully with the Court’s order and set
a worthwhile example for Labour and civil society to follow.
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