Ebun Francis|
Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, on Thursday condemned President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent comment that national interest should trump the rule of law.
President Buhari made the comment at the opening ceremony of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), conference in Abuja last Sunday while defending the detention of Nigerians even against judicial pronouncements.
The president’s comment outraged lawyers and the civil society groups.
In a statement Thursday, Soyinka added his voice to the growing number of critics of the president’s comment and alerted Nigerians that Buhari’s position is a sign of things to expect ahead of the 2019 general election.
“Here we go again,” Soyinka said in the statement he titled ‘Buhari’s Pernicious Doctrine.’
“At his first coming, it was ‘I intend to tamper with Freedom of the Press,’ and Buhari did proceed to suit action to the words, sending two journalists – Irabor and Thompson – to prison as a reward for their professional integrity.
“Now, a vague, vaporous, but commodious concept dubbed “national interest” is being trotted out as alibi for flouting the decisions of the Nigerian judiciary. President Buhari has obviously given deep thought to his travails under a military dictatorship, and concluded that his incarceration was also in the ‘national interest.’”
The Nobel laureate described the timing of the president’s speech as “perfect.”
“We have cause to be thankful for the advance warning, since not all rulers actually make a declaration of intent, but simply proceed to degrade the authority of the law as part of the routine business of governance,” said Soyinka.
“We have been there before. It should be of mere interest, not despondency, that this latest proclamation of dictatorial recidivism has also been made before an assembly of officers of the law, the Nigerian Bar Association. We expect a robust response from the NBA as part of its conclusions.”
“Numerous rulers have tried again and again to annul that institution,” he said.