NNAMDI KANU COURT TRIAL – A CASE OF ‘CLASH OF LAWS’ IN NIGERIA’S JURISPRUDENCE By Rev. Fr. Francis Anekwe Oborji

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor. It must be demanded by the oppressed.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Nnamdi Kanu Supreme Court Judgment and Nigeria on Trial: In the first place, Nnamdi Kanu has put the Nigerian Judiciary on trial. He has exposed everything that is wrong with Nigeria and its judiciary. He has also fulfilled the prediction he made in 2015, when he first appeared at Nigeria’s High Court Abuja because of his chosen mission of freedom fighting for the self-determination and independence of the Indigenous People of Biafra (former Eastern Region), from Nigeria. He told the people gathered in the High Court at Abuja and across the globe that he was going to defeat Nigeria in its court with truth. Because “truth is a more potent weapon than arms.” 

Love or hate him, Nnamdi Kanu has ‘defeated’ Nigeria with the truth. Today, Nnamdi Kanu is the hero of whatever has transpired between him and the Nigerian State, especially, Nigeria’s Judiciary. That is, in Nigeria’s law courts since 2015, when he was first arraigned in Abuja High Court by the Nigerian Government, and to the last December 15, 2023, so-called Supreme Court judgement, or rather, rape of justice. Nnamdi Kanu’s fight for truth and freedom, in each case, triumphed, and he remained the winner and hero over and above his tormentors. He has been vindicated always, and in each case, by truth, honesty and love for his people. 

“No Easy Road to Freedom” – Nelson Mandela: As I wrote elsewhere some months ago, “the freedom of Nnamdi Kanu is NOT in Nigerian court.” At least, the shenanigan that they called the Supreme Court judgement on Kanu’s case of December 15, 2023, has once again, proven us right. Nnamdi Kanu’s Supreme Court Trial of December 15, 2023, has above all, exposed the rottenness, rascality, and abnormality in the already, deeply corrupt Nigeria’s judiciary. Not only that, it has also exposed the level of what some have described as, the ‘Clash of Laws’ in Nigeria’s Jurisprudence.’ 

It has also exposed how the three arms of the Federal Government of Nigeria are suffering from the same chronic disease, and are all partners in crime. This is the crux of the matter. Nnamdi Kanu’s last December 15, 2023, Nigeria’s Supreme Court rape of justice has exposed all that. Anybody telling you about the separation of powers between the three arms of the government of Nigeria is either ignorant or the person is simply playing on your intelligence like most of them at the corridors of power in that British colonial-created contraption, called Nigeria, do often, to gag the gullible. There is nothing like separation of powers between Nigeria’s three arms of government, namely, executive, legislative and judiciary. That is bullshit. 

Whatever the case, however, one thing is certain. No matter what happens evil will never triumph over good. As the Holy Script assures us, ‘we are created for the glory of God and not for eternal suffering, to live in freedom as children of God, created in his image and likeness.’ Such that the rape of justice, in whatever form or shape they fashion it by the gatekeepers of the Nigerian State, has no long duration. It is a matter of time before everything it represents collapses and the children of God are set free. 

The rape of justice we all witnessed in Nigeria’s corrupt and inconsistent Supreme Court ruling of December 15, 2023, at Abuja against Kanu’s release will never have an upper hand. Because, in the long run, true justice will assert itself and set free the ‘just man’, the evil Establishments holding indigenous Peoples in bondage in Nigeria, have tried to break him down and eliminate him from the face of the earth. God forbid! Those evil Establishments will eventually collapse, for truth and justice to reign. Again, don’t forget: “No easy road to freedom”, Nelson Mandela reminds us. 

In fact, what you see playing out in their ongoing shenanigans called Nigeria’s ‘Court trial’ of Nnamdi Kanu, is the impunity and corruption that defines Nigeria as a nation-state. It is the highest manifestation of the judicial rascality, conflicts of interests, and confusion that is called Nigeria, an artificial and arbitrarily, abnormal nation-state that was created by the British as its business enterprise in 1914 and which it granted the flag fake independence in 1960. 

Put in another way, Nnamdi Kanu’s ongoing court trial in Nigeria has showcased and brought to the limelight, the impunity and confusion as well as the conflicts of interests underpinning the three foreign laws’ Jurisprudences upon which the Nigerian State was created and founded by the British. And was handed over to the Fulani Muslim Caliphate Oligarchy of Northern Nigeria to look after them as their local neo-colonial agents, and spinoffs. Which, they have now, finally succeeded in bringing in as second-class collaborators and partners-in-crime, their Yoruba Muslim brethren Oligarchy ruling class and elites of the Southwest. This last group or geopolitical zone is now working together with the Fulani Caliphate – Northern Nigeria Sharia States, as the local spin-offs – British neo-colonial local agents over the rest of the indigenous Ethnic Nationalities that make up the British colonial-created contraption, called Nigeria. 

The ‘Clash of Laws’ in Nigeria’s Jurisprudence: This is another clear evidence that shows that the Nigerian State has reached its end. Just think about the ‘Clash of Laws’ of different, conflicting Jurisprudences governing the country concurrently, which they used in determining their case against Nnamdi Kanu. Again, what is playing out in this court trial of Nnamdi Kanu is the confusion and impunity in which the Nigerian State was founded and has been governed since its creation by the British in 1914, and by its local agents, spin-offs, especially, since Nigeria’s flag fake Independence in 1960. Have you ever seen where any country in this modern day is practising concurrently three foreign laws’ jurisprudences, namely, English Law, Common Law, and Muslim Sharia Islamic Law Jurisprudences? All of which are alien to the Nigerian indigenous ethnic nationalities’ jurisprudence. Yet, the gatekeepers of the Nigerian state have been doing everything to make sure that they succeed in using these three foreign divergent and conflicting jurisprudence to suppress the over 50 indigenous jurisprudence of the Ethnic-Nationalities that make up the Nigerian State. 

Again, the three diametrically and conflicting opposing foreign laws and jurisprudences upon which Nigeria was founded and is being run and governed today are, namely, the English/British (Constitutional Monarchical law), the (American) Common law, and the Arab Islamic (Caliphate) Sharia law Jurisprudences. These three foreign laws and Jurisprudences that are diametrically opposed to one another, and which are alien to the Jurisprudences of the Indigenous Ethnic Nationalities of Nigeria, are unfortunately, what is being practised concurrently in Nigeria, in running of the affairs of the Nigerian State, since independence in 1960 to the present day. The Constitution of Nigeria and the so-called ‘laws of the land’ of Nigeria are all based and dependent on those three conflicting and diametrically opposing foreign jurisprudences. Quo Vadis?

This is the abnormality of the Nigerian State and its so-called Jurisprudence and Judiciary system under which Nnamdi Kanu is being tried in Nigeria, for standing up against this unjust system, that has for long reduced his Biafran people and other indigenous ethnic groups in Nigeria into second-class citizens and nonentities in their own ancestral lands! The Nigerian State is using exactly the same abnormality of its inconsistent and conflicting law system – the shenanigans called Nigeria’s Jurisprudence, which Kanu is fighting against, to prosecute and try Kanu in the same Nigerian corrupt law court. Who is deceiving, who? 

Moreover, the gatekeepers of the Nigerian State have been trying to use the three, inconsistent and conflictual foreign jurisprudences that underpin the so-called Nigeria’s Jurisprudence, to suppress the Indigenous Jurisprudences of over six major Ethnic Nationalities or Geopolitical Regions, and other Minor Ethnic Groups that make up the Nigerian State. This is the crux of the matter! Only fools would sit down and expect justice to come out of such abnormality of Jurisprudence that will favour the release of Nnamdi Kanu, or even bring about any form of development and political cohesion in Nigeria. 

Again, one good thing that has come out from that rape of justice at Nigeria Supreme Court on December 15, 2023, is the vindication of Kanu’s cause and struggle for the freedom of his Biafran people. That is, when he told the public during one of his early court hearings in 2015, that he would use ‘truth’ to expose and defeat Nigeria. Because, as he categorically, stated, “Nigeria was founded on lies and falsehood. As something founded on lies and deceit, the Nigerian State cannot withstand any truth. Such what is happening now in Nigeria, especially, since Kanu made that prediction in 2015, when he was first arraigned at the Federal High Court Abuja for agitating for Biafra, clamouring for Biafra Self-determination and Independence from Nigeria through the legal means of referendum, he has today, been vindicated. It is the vindication of Kanu’s prediction that by the time he finishes with Nigeria in this court case brought against him because of Biafra, ‘there would be nothing to remember about Nigeria again. Because he is going to use the truth to defeat Nigeria.’ 

This would be so, because, as Kanu said, ‘Nigeria was not founded on truth but on falsehood, lies and deceit.’ That is exactly what has showcased, once again, on that fateful day, December 15, 2023, by that fraudulent and shambolic rape of justice called the Supreme Court ruling on Nnamdi Kanu’s case. Which is the highest manifestation of judiciary rascality and rape of justice ever seen in recent history. Nnamdi Kanu has been vindicated. The IPOB leader has not only defeated the Nigerian government in its own highest law court but has also exposed the falsehood and deceit upon which Nigeria was founded and is being governed. Kanu has defeated Nigeria. He has won the case already. There are no two ways about it. 

With the latest Supreme Court rape of justice against Nnamdi Kanu’s unconditional release, it is obvious that Nigeria’s Supreme Court judges have not only disgraced themselves but exposed the rottenness and rascality in Nigeria’s judiciary system and jurisprudence. They have also told the entire world that Nigeria has reached its end. That there is nothing more to be done to remedy the situation. If the Supreme Court Judges are such corrupt, and ethnic-biased, that they would throw overboard the ethics of their legal profession, honesty, truthfulness, justice, equity, and rule of law, to please those who have seized power in Nigeria through violence and election riggings, then, there is no more hope left for the common man in that British contraption, called Nigeria. 

As some of our knowledgeable, seasoned, and incorruptible legal experts tell us, the Supreme Court is a place where judiciary policies are made by the judges. It is not where rulings or rather justice already delivered by the judges of the Appeal Court are denied and abrogated by the judges. That can only happen, for example, in the era of the medieval monarchical court of ‘Her Majesty’ or the Islamic State, Caliphate Sharia Law Court. But not in a modern society or state that pretends to be practising democracy and the rule of law. 

In normal clime, the Appeal Court is the highest court of the land that has the right to entertain cases and deliver justice on such cases. However, when such cases are eventually, taken to the Supreme Court (which is the court of policy-making), as the highest court of the land, it is not the duty of the Supreme Court to deny the justice already delivered at the Appeal Court. Rather it must confirm it or make further policies to strengthen the country’s jurisprudence and to improve on it in the light of new developments in the modern legal profession and scholarship, and for justice, equity and fair play to be seen to have been done to each party, by all and sundry. The Supreme Court does not exist to discriminate, or be biased against anybody or part of the country. The Supreme Court does not also exist to take people and jurisprudence back to the medieval era. Unfortunately, this is what Nigeria’s Supreme Court has messed itself up with, in its December 15, 2023 rape of justice court ruling against Nnamdi Kanu’s release. Which was more of an attack, a judiciary rascality and impunity of the Supreme Court against the Federal Court, Abuja ruling of October 13, 2022, that discharged and acquitted Nnamdi Kanu from all the charges brought against him by the Federal Government of Nigeria, for his Biafra Agitation. 

The Nigeria’s Supreme Court has done the worst on December 15, 2023! If the Supreme Court could set aside, or negate justice for Nnamdi Kanu in such a fraudulent and shameless way, the justice and court ruling which was delivered by the Federal Appeal Court on October 13, 2022, you can imagine the type of medieval, feudalistic mindset of those who are in-charge of the Nigerian State and its lopsided Sharia-driven federal government and judiciary. That there is nothing those Nigerian judges cannot do. How the Supreme Court Judges could renege on their function to give blessings to the judgement of the Appeal Court and go through the backdoor, fraudulently, to rule against that judgment of the Appeal Court on this matter, is again, one of those things that tells you that Nigeria has reached its END. 

Nnamdi Kanu’s Court trial has exposed all that is wrong with the Nigerian State. That means that what Nnamdi Kanu is fighting for, what he stands for, and for which he is being persecuted by the gatekeepers of the British contraption, called Nigeria, is indeed, a struggle by the IPOB leader to liberate all the Indigenous Ethnic Nationalities and Peoples that have found themselves forcefully, trapped into this abnormal situation that is called Nigeria. This is why everyone should have an interest in what Nnamdi Kanu represents today in this ongoing court trial and for his God-given mission of freedom fighting for the liberation of the oppressed indigenous peoples in Nigeria. Not just for his Biafran or Igbo people alone. 

Have you ever seen in a normal clime, where a supposedly ‘learned judge’ of a supposedly ‘Supreme Court’, would rule in its judgment against Nnamdi Kanu, by implying that Nigeria is not developed enough to obey the international laws on extraordinary rendition and abduction of a freedom fighter? That the international crime of extraordinary rendition and abduction of a freedom fighter, is alien to Nigerian law and judiciary system? Only in Nigeria. A case that had already been determined at the Federal Appeal Court, where Kanu was discharged and acquitted on the ground of the impunity of Nigerian state abduction and extraordinary rendition of the IPOB leader in Kenya in June 2021, was again brought to the Nigerian Supreme Court, either to uphold the judgment of Appeal Court or to begin its own public sittings on it, to advance justice and jurisprudence in the country. Instead of following the right thing expected of it as a Supreme Court, it sent back the same case to the Appeal Court that had already given its judgment on it. Quo Vadis! 

Not even in a ‘Banana Republic’ is such a mess obtainable? Nigerian Supreme Court abjured its own responsibility to uphold impunity and lawlessness against an innocent individual, Nnamdi Kanu that has been discharged and acquitted over a year ago by a court of competent jurisdiction, the Federal Appeal Court. The same Federal Appeal Court that has ruled that the crime of the extraordinary rendition committed by the Nigerian government against Kanu has made it impossible for any court in Nigeria (which includes the Supreme Court), to try Kanu. Now that the so-called Supreme Court has sent back to the Appeal Court Kanu’s case? Now, what does the Supreme Court want the Appeal Court to do next? Perhaps, for the Appeal Court judges to be ridiculed and intimated to swallow their own vomit. Mind you. All because those in the executive arms of the federal government and cohorts did not like the judgement of the Federal Appeal Court that discharged Nnamdi Kanu unconditionally. 

What again does the Supreme Court want by returning the entire case of Nnamdi Kanu back to the Appeal Court? Does the Supreme Court want the Appeal Court to treat Kanu’s case as a criminal or civil case, or what? That is, do they want the Appeal Court to follow them to validity the federal government’s impunity of abduction, torture and extraordinary rendition of Nnamdi Kanu, negate the international laws on extraordinary rendition, and join the corrupt Supreme Court judges themselves in making such absurdity a jurisprudence in Nigeria? What exactly does the Supreme Court want from the Appeal Court judges again? Perhaps, to intimidate and force the judges of the Appeal Court to buy into their corrupt judicial rascality and rape of justice of December 15, 2023? All these shenanigans are signs of a dying horse. The Nigerian State has finally reached its END. 

Again. As the saying goes, “Your freedom is in your hands. You hold the key to your freedom and the freedom of your people. Don’t betray it.” In the first place, it is not the Court of the same Nigerian Government that went to a foreign country, Kenya and abducted Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, extraordinarily rendition him back to Nigeria, and has since June 2021 kept him in the torture cell of Nigeria’s secret police, DSS in Abuja, in solitary confinement, incommunicado, that is going to free him! Rather, Nnamdi Kanu is going to be freed through the activities of his Biafran people. 

Nnamdi Kanu is going to be freed, just as Biafra is fighting for its self-determination and independence, is going to be a free sovereign and independent state on its own rights, only through the concrete activities and collective determination and concerted efforts of the Biafran people themselves, Nnamdi Kanu’s kinsmen and women. Ndigbo in particular, to be precise. That is, as an Indigenous Nation, standing solidly behind Nnamdi Kanu, with their activities of freedom fighting, civil disobedience resistance strategies, and determination as a people who truly want to be free. Who wants to have their own independent sovereign nation-state and self-rule, standing firmly behind Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and his struggle for their liberation from this abnormality and confusion, called Nigeria! This also is the way they are expected and supposed to stand firmly behind whoever has taken it upon himself, has proved himself beyond all reasonable doubts, to be genuine, and to stand firmly on the gap for Nnamdi Kanu in the liberation struggle, especially, now that the IPOB leader is in the dungeon of the enemy! 

The Challenge before Nnamdi Kanu’s Biafran People: Make no mistake about it. The struggle that Nnamdi Kanu has taken upon himself is not just for his Igbo or Biafran people alone. No! Rather, it is a struggle that has wider implications for the imminent liberation of the entire, different and diverse, component, indigenous ethnic nationalities and peoples, that the British forcefully coupled together under a colonial fiat in 1914, and named Nigeria! 

This would also imply that what Nnamdi Kanu is fighting for, is the second independence of the different indigenous Ethnic Nationalities of African peoples – the aggrieved ethnic nationalities, from the neo-colonial yoke and from the domineering ethnic nationalities and modern-day African political puppets that have been holding everyone in bondage and servitude in the country! This is why every hand must be on deck for the immediate and unconditional release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. Love or hate him, the solution to the perennial political imbroglio besetting Nigeria since 1914, and especially, since the country’s flag fake independence in 1960, lies in this struggle, Nnamdi Kanu’s travail is challenging us all with. 

Today, many people are beginning to realize, especially, after the last shambolic and fraudulent 2023 elections (just like the previous so-called elections before it), that the problem with Nigeria is never going to be resolved through every four years of elections that produce nothing but anguish, violence and more suffering for the masse. And that has always succeeded in recycling the same corrupt, self-serving and bloodsucking politicians that are responsible for our woes in the country all these years! Nigeria’s problem won’t be solved through this every four years of shambolic political elections, or change of personnel of the same ‘criminal politicians’, through those fraudulent and shambolic, bloodbaths, violence-ridden elections. Nigeria’s problem also will never be resolved through the clamour for a ‘New Constitution’, or through the deceptive political slogan of “New Nigeria,” or anything of the sort. 

The problem with Nigeria has surpassed all that. It is also never to be solved by the usual recourse to militarization and the use of military and police by the government against any dissenting voice, group, ethnic nationality or geopolitical zone. All these have proven to be an effort in futility on the part of the government and its Nigerian security operatives. For how long do you think you can continue to hold the people in bondage and keep them under suppression at gunpoint? There is a limit to human endurance! 

Conclusion:

If truth be told, the solution to the problem with Nigeria lies in what Nnamdi Kanu is struggling for. That is, on this very thing he is calling on the gatekeepers of the Nigerian state to do. Namely, to conduct a referendum for self-determination for those ethnic nationalities or major geopolitical regions in the country that want to separate, to form their own independent sovereign states. In this way, we all will begin to relate well as neighbours, and neighbouring nation-states in the West African sub-region, under ECOWAS. And that will help to put an end, in fact, a stop to all these shenanigans of bloodbaths and violence we call elections in Nigeria. It will also help to put a stop, or at least, minimize the current Islamic insurgency and terrorism in Nigeria and in the neighbouring Sahel region countries of West Africa! 

The referendum for self-determination that Nnamdi Kanu is advocating for is the most viable solution to the problem we have at hand, both in Nigeria and throughout the ECOWAS nation-states. This is the reason why we all must listen to the IPOB leader and get him released unconditionally and immediately from the dungeon of the Nigerian government! Nnamdi Kanu’s struggle for self-determination through the legal means of referendum is the key to the problem with Nigeria and West African nation-states, on these perennial issues of violence, political instability, insecurity, bad governance, corruption, militancy, kidnapping, Islamic and herdsmen terrorism in the region and Nigeria in particular. 

Rev. Fr. Francis Anekwe Oborji can be reached via email; anekwe.oborji@gmail.com, Pontifical Urban University, Vatican City (Rome)

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