By Yinka Odumakin
I HAD this engaging interview with the Alaafin of Oyo in 2002 alongside Wale Adeoye during which the monarch dwelt extensively on Yoruba jurisprudence or its philosophy of the law. Oba Lamidi Adeyemi dismissed the idea that it was the English Common Law that brought the concept:  audi altera partem which emphasises that you must hear the other side, to Yorubaland.

Parade of suspects responsible for the clashes, disturbance of public peace and mayhem In Ile-Ife, Osun State. Photo by Gbemiga Olamikan

He made reference to the doctoral thesis by his son at the University of Ibadan Law Faculty which dwelt on “600 years of Yoruba jurisprudence”.  Nigeria just celebrated 100 years of existence.

One of the proverbial jurisprudential kernels of Yoruba which he said the gentleman relied on to show that natural justice was rooted in Yorubaland centuries before the advent of colonialism was the saying that: a gbo ejo enikan da agba osika (The man who judges a case after hearing only a side to the dispute is a wicked elder).

The other twin concept of natural justice in the English Common Laws they inherited from the Romans is nemo judex in causas sua, which means that it is not neat for you to be a judge in your own case as you would be partial. For ages, Yoruba have said that ti aba fun were loko, odo ara e lo ma roko si (If you gave the hoe to a madman he would gather to his own side insanity notwithstanding).

United against impunity

It is because of these twin-concepts that the Yoruba have spoken in one voice against the recent impunity of the Nigerian Police Force in parading 21 Yoruba persons for trial after the recent conflict between the Hausa-Fulani settlers and the indigenous people of the cradle of Yoruba civilisation, Ile-Ife.

For the records, a quarrel between Kuburat Eluwole and Abubakar Mohammed led to the latter slapping the former. The violated woman reported to her husband, Akeem Eluwole, who went to meet Abubakar to inquire why he should slap his wife. A fight ensued between the parties which was calmed on the evening of March 7. But by the morning of March 8, the issue degenerated to an ethnic feud during which a Yoruba man, Balogun Elijah, a welder was killed by the Hausa-Fulani and placed in a wheel barrow.

That was the first casualty of the war. The next two deaths  were Yoruba. Unedited videos from the crisis scene have shown how the Yoruba were running all over the place when the crisis started uttering words to the effect that the Hausa-Fulani people have destroyed their shops and cars while Yoruba people were running from them. There were billowing fires all over the place as the “festival of destruction” intensified.

It was, therefore, terrifying and too much to bear for a people who had formed a philosophy of Law based on fairness 500 years before the amalgamation of Nigeria for the police to come out in full bias that they were going to try only 21 Yoruba people for a fracas between the Yoruba and Hausa Fulani. Among the 21 is a Yoruba Oba against whom no real evidence was adduced in a country where a Prince from a major city in the North was years back spared the ordeal of trial because of his blue blood when he allegedly joined other Wahabists to behead an Igbo man accused of desecrating the Holy Quran.

Equally appalling is that while Akeem and Kuburat Eluwole have been listed for trial as those involved in the origin of the crisis, Abubakar Mohammed who slapped her is not slated for trial. This is complemented by the ridiculous cases the police have built against most of the 21 Yoruba people. Someone is to be put on trial for being found with spaghetti as if it is the exclusive delicacy of the Hausa-Fulani.

Another person is to be tried because they found a cutlass in his house not minding that Ife is an agrarian community where there would be cutlasses in most homes. The crime of another is that an axe was found in his house without considering that with the exorbitant cost of kerosene many people would rather use firewood to cook now which requires having axes. Yet another person would be tried for being found in the house of a suspect. There is also a Yoruba man who is to be tried for having a cut on him which a Hausa-Fulani man must have inflicted on him!

Ethnic abuse of power: The Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, worsened the matter when he hid behind a finger to justify the arrest of only the 21 Yoruba persons in this naked ethnic abuse of power. He reportedly said, “You know we are police officers. Crime has no tribe. If you are a criminal, you are a criminal. Crime has no face. We don’t look at crime in the identity of where you are coming from. As far as you are a criminal and the police find you wanting, we apply the law.”

Yoruba as criminals

Mr. Idris, if you are a police officer for the whole of Nigeria and not part of it, can you stand before Allah to say you have not looked at faces in this case? Has identity politics not been the basis of your seeing only the Yoruba as “criminals” in this crisis while you couldn’t find just one Hausa-Fulani in the conflict?

The Yoruba are too civilised to be treated with this type of arrogance and contempt. We reject this iniquity and we ask all decent nationalities within Nigeria with a fair sense of justice to raise their voices against this injustice. As Martin Luther King once offered: We will not remember the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.

Feedback

YES, there are moments and instances when I feel so distraught and terribly ashamed of Nigeria and those saddled with her day to day affairs. The so-called swift arrests/ investigations of the Ife/Hausa crisis so far are indeed a calamity.

The brazen/shameless ethnicity displayed by the Interior Minister, Abdulrahman Danbazzau, and IGP in the crisis so far cannot be imagined in all ramifications.

It is an obvious disaster in the waiting for a country such as Nigeria begging for stabilising factors and true unity to have such individuals in very sensitive positions that bother on security.

Well, no matter the sort of hidden agenda by any part of the country, the Law of Retributive Justice (Nemesis) will always come quite handy. With all the arsenals and the antics of Adolf Hitler, the Holocaust could not exterminate the Israelites.

Nothing short of True Love, Justice and Equity can save Nigeria. The Igbos, Yorubas, Arewas and all the Minorities must have/show true love for one another for Nigeria to continue to remain as an entity.

Oh…my heart indeed yearns for northern citizens in the moulds of Col. D. Umar (rtd) and Alhaji. Balarabe Musa in issues of this nature. The character and the body language so far displayed by the likes of  Danbazzau, IGP Idris, and others certainly make a genuine peaceful Nigeria a mirage.

Only the Almighty God truly knows what tomorrow holds for Nigeria. A country so blessed, yet cursed. Remain blessed, please.

Godwin – Lagos.