Sodiq Oyeleke
Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has questioned the legality of the lockdown ordered by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).
The PUNCH reports that Buhari had on Sunday ordered the lockdown of Abuja, Lagos and Ogun States in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus in the country.
But Soyinka in a statement on Monday wondered if the president has the power to order such lockdown.
The Nobel laureate called on constitutional lawyers and lawmakers to clarify the legality or illegality of the lockdown.
He also warned against “constitutional piracy” in the fight against coronavirus in the country.
The statement, titled ‘Between COVID and Constitutional Encroachment’, read in part, “Constitutional lawyers and our elected representatives should kindly step into this and educate us, mere lay minds. The worst development I can conceive of us is to have a situation where rational measures for the containment of the Coronavirus pandemic are rejected on account of their questionable genesis.
“This is a time for Unity of Purpose, not nitpicking dissensions. So, before this becomes a habit, a question: does President Buhari have the powers to close down state borders? We want clear answers. We are not in a war emergency.
“Appropriately focussed on measures for the saving lives, and committed to making sacrifices for the preservation of our communities, we should nonetheless remain alert to any encroachment on constitutionally demarcated powers. We need to exercise collective vigilance, and not compromise the future by submitting to interventions that are not backed by law and constitution.
“Who actually instigates these orders anyway? From where do they really emerge? What happens when the orders conflict with state measures, the product of a systematic containment strategy – `including even trial-and-error and hiccups – undertaken without let or leave of the Centre. So far, the anti-COVID-19 measures have proceeded along the rails of decentralised thinking, multilateral collaboration and technical exchanges between states.
“The Centre is obviously part of the entire process, and one expects this to be the norm, even without the epidemic’s frontal assault on the Presidency itself. Indeed, the Centre is expected to drive the overall effort, but in collaboration, with extraordinary budgeting and refurbishing of facilities.
“The universal imperative and urgency of this affliction should not become an opportunistic launch pad for a sneak RE-CENTRALISATION, no matter how seemingly insignificant its appearance. I urge governors and legislators to be especially watchful. No epidemic is ever cured with constitutional piracy. It only lays down new political viruses for the future.”
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/121825446.1017280.1585634314989%40mail.yahoo.com.
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/DM6PR12MB3419C725694BB8ADDE59BC1CDAC80%40DM6PR12MB3419.namprd12.prod.outlook.com.
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
Hear Hear! Famous last words by Baba Biko in support of his Baba Soyinka: “He urges us to be vigilant when dictators use authoritarian populism to grab hard-won constitutional rights to the freedom of movement. “Indeed. Indeed, he urges us.
Baba Buhari has not done that. He has not used “authoritarian populism” “to grab hard-won constitutional rights to the freedom of movement. “
When there’s a genocidal killer virus on the rampage, every idiot knows that it’s not the time for the popular shaking of hands, hugging, kissing and loving everybody all over the place and thereby aiding and abetting the spread of the virus. in the name of the same “One Love,” there should be no delay in getting you and your beloved people out of harm’s way. That should be the logical, the sensible and the humane thing to do. And that’s what Baba Buhari is saying and doing.
The lockdown in India and South Africa are not cases of any alleged dictatorship using “authoritarian populism to grab hard-won constitutional rights to the freedom of movement. “
Muhammadu Buhari, the democratically elected president of Nigeria has used his discretion in exercising some of the executive power that’s granted to him and vested in him by the Holy Nigerian Constitution.
Agreed, of course, this does not mean to say that the Nigerian polity should be ever vigilant that even a good-hearted president like Muhammadu Buhari does not step over the limits of what the Constitution legally empowers him to do. In the not so distant past, Nigeria has had her own unfair share of dictators and dictatorships, even those who wanted to be benevolent dictators, and understandably, that’s why the Babas are a little worried. As Bobby Marley wails in Real Situation , the fear of
“Give them an inch, they take a yard
Give them a yard, they take a mile (ooh)”
Biko : Cannabis sales soar as Canadians stock up for coronavirus lockdown
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/1393958962.3778769.1585679244558%40mail.yahoo.com.
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university