Nigeria, the bitter memories and continued use of politically motivated prosecutions

One dangerous and persistent aspect of Nigerian experience remains the abusive use of the prosecutorial powers of the state. By this, we refer to all instances where government officials fabricate a crime and put an opponent of government through a sham trial. Not only can such sham trial put the innocent man through a great deal of pain and suffering, it can lead to his death. That was the case of Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others.

Selective and politically motivated criminal investigations and prosecutions pose the worst threats to rule of law, political stability and development of a country.

Increasingly, Nigerian law enforcement agencies, particularly, the EFCC, the police and DSS, have used false, retaliatory, and persecutory prosecutions to go after critics of government or government policies or critics of corruption in law enforcement.

To understand how the world views politically motivated prosecutions, let’s examine what is going in the United States over the impeachment inquiries against President Trump. In the impeachment testimony of Senior State Department Official, George Kent, Mr. Kent said:

​“I do not believe the US should ask other countries to engage in politically associated investigations and prosecutions.… As a general principle, I don’t think that as a matter of policy the US should do that, period, because I have spent much of my career trying to improve the rule of law. And in countries like Ukraine and Georgia, both of which want to join NATO, both of which have enjoyed billions of dollars of assistance from Congress, there is an outstanding issue about people in office in those countries using selectively politically motivated prosecutions to go after their opponents. And that’s wrong for the rule of law regardless of what country that happens,”

Politically motivated prosecutions are a big threat to rule of law. Civilized nations oppose it so much that they are willing to remove a president who tries it. Why can’t Nigeria learn? Why can’t we learn from Ken Saro Wiwa? Why try the same wicked and discredited practice against Emeka Ugwuonye and many more?

We must find ways to hold responsible those who do this. No matter how long it takes, we need to go after them and hold them accountable. Thank God, an arrest warrant just got issued against Campore for the killing of Sankara. It means we can still go after people for crimes committed 40 years ago.