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KWENU: Our Culture, Our Future |
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The absolution of Abubakar M. O. Ené egbedaa@aol.com
Growing up in the Coal City, lawyers were not a common sight, and they were not many in town. At the end of our street resided Lawyer Akpamgbo and his neighbor "Operator," a certain Mr. Solomon of Lebanese extraction, his wife, and showcase daughters. Oh, he had an orange orchard too; kids sang that the "Operator's oranges" -- actually tangerines -- sweeten in the brain! Chain-smoking Mr. Solomon owned and operated the lone cinema theater in Coal Camp, hence his nickname. Lawyer Akpamgbo was my earliest knowledge of lawyers -- then held in awe by adults as we held teachers. Barrister C. C. Onoh, now Ikemba's father-in-law, was on the other end along Agbani Road, opposite Tinker's Corner -- a beehive industrial hub where every auto part was reproduced. Of course, Barrister Phillip Nnaemeka Agu, now a retired Supreme Court Judge, was practicing and politicking in Enugu. We were proud that "he is our place's person." To set foot in the office of a lawyer was a big do. There was a style of plaited hair called "Ejeke m (e)be lawyer." [I am going to a lawyer's place.] I wonder why.
If you had a lawyer in the extended family, you could step on any toes and tell the story your way. When later we moved to the suburbia of Enugu, lawyers disappeared from my radar; it was an uncaged, crime-free community, where policemen were a rare sight and the rough-and-ready Coal Camp character was like something from the past century. Lawyers were a breed apart. All of them were barristers and solicitors. It sounded great. Of course, I would find out later in 1980s Britain that toads and frogs may be amphibians but that there is a difference. In the 90s USA, I discovered that not all juris doctors were cracked out to be lawyers; many would be rightly classed as "solicitors," while the stellar solicitors should have "barristers" added.
At times, I imagine what I could have done with a law license; at times, I wonder what fun it would have been to make "learned friends" sweat in their winter boots. I don't worry about it though: My friends are all legal scholars and I have lawyer acquaintances, but we don't normally talk law. So when on a visit to the Potomac region, on Saturday, April 21, 2001, I unconsciously opened up a chat on a celebrity case with Attorney Ephraim Emeka Ugwuonye. I got a whole lot more than I had bargained, and he didn't even go into the particularities of the case, in which he was then peripherally involved. My interest was principally rooted in how a prominent Nigerian citizen could miss a court date after a duly delivered summons, thereby risking default judgment.
I am talking about the civil case against former Nigeria's head of state, retired General Abdulsalami Alhaji Abubakar (AAA). The case had all the hallmarks of a landmark legal excursion, especially with the big names involved and the possibility of opening up barrels of boiled beans. Obviously, I was keen on knowing how the civil case could generally play out. Default judgment would be a victory by ambush, a hit-and-run strike that only opens more fronts than win a war. A good case should be won, and it must stand in the highest court of the land. So I looked further into the barrels, and there were just a few shriveled bean seeds, not enough to stink up a room.
In "A basket of cases," I summed up the case against Abubakar thus: "[T]
here is still much less to the case than meets the eye. Once a better legal
front for Abubakar overcomes the initial setback of lackadaisical diplomacy, or
is it diplomatic snafu, and the first- and second-round, sucker-punch knockdowns
delivered by the appellants' attorney, we will see the matter for what it is: a
big basket of cases."
Then Emeka Ugwuonye, Esq. of DC/MD-based ECU Associates -- an international law firm, stepped into the front line. And a big basket of cases it is. US district Judge Bernard Friedman in ruling to dismiss the case agrees that there are too many holes in just one basket. Now, don't you wish someone had paid me a red cent on every dollar spent on this case? I would have saved everyone a lot of dough. But I am not a lawyer; I write. When the supposed celebrity plaintiffs started dropping off from the basket, we saw that baskets hold no water. Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN -- the now unopposed presidential candidate of the yet-to-be-registered National Conscience Party (NCP) -- no longer featured. Retired General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) became more powerful in Nigeria. Retired General Muhammadu Buhari entered the Sharia saga. Yet, the case dragged on, and all sorts of spin surfaced. With Ugwuonye now firmly in the driving seat, Abubakar's defense quietly went to work, undaunted. Barrister Ugwuonye concentrated on reversing grounds lost under the watch of Attorney Kevin Duckworth, arguing successfully that the default judgment could not stand, since there was no jurisdiction and therefore no need for deposition.
I didn't revisit the case because there was really nothing else to add. It was what I had called it, and I knew it could not grow wings. Following the case and reading details of the depositions was an education in court calisthenics. It was actually the first time I read two Nigerian attorneys go at it in an American court. In one instance, at the deposition of Chief Arthur Nwankwo, the appellants' lawyer spent so much time blocking a request by Ugwuonye that the popular publisher establish he was whom he had claimed! And there was the turn of Abiola's daughter, a co-appellant. You were still wondering why the wheels of justice spins ever so slow and is costly? Well, wonder no more; it is an expensive business. We also read of the defense lawyer ejecting some fellow from the venue. It looked like the case would be tried in the media, but it soon fizzled out. With occasional updates from Laolu Akande, the case captivated inquiring minds in the legal community.
All the legal gymnastics came a screeching halt on Wednesday, April 24, 2002 at about 2:45 PM in a Detroit, Michigan courthouse. The presiding Judge Friedman simply dismissed the case on the first point of a motion Ugwuonye had "filed on January 11, 2002, without much of any oral argument." [See http://odili.net/news/source/2002/apr/25/115.html] The issues are really simple. As I understand the personal-jurisdiction angle, Abubakar does not live in Michigan, and he has no connection with the city of Detroit or the State of Michigan. Secondly, since the man visited Chicago, Illinois -- where he was served the court papers publicly and has a scholarship project, why wasn't the case tried there? It goes on: Does the court have the subject-matter jurisdiction to try a Nigerian citizen not resident in America and who committed no known crime in America? And here is really where the interest lies: Could a former Nigerian government official be tried in the United States after leaving office? If that were the case, I think everyone from General Yakubu Gowon through Chief Anthony Enahoro, himself one of the appellants in this case, to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo should expect their turn some day.
Alas, a legal precedent is about to be established: You cannot sue successfully a former head of state with no personal jurisdiction in the United States. Although the judge is yet to deliver his written judgment and the defense reserves the right of appeal, this case has not only disappointed it has set back the hand of clock somehow. It has only achieved a limited humiliation of the general, which is hopefully not what the plaintiffs set out to achieve. While the man (AAA) is no saint -- like the rest of us -- I think the wrong man was netted and that he tore threw the net with minor contusions, damaging the net in the process. So we ask: was it really worth it? Well, as we say on this side of the Great Pond: no pain, no gain. There is no knowing who gained or lost what: The fat lady is yet to sing; but, for now, the general came, saw, and won the first major battle after taking some public-relation bruises in initial skirmishes.
Meanwhile, one big winner in all this is our Emeka Ugwuonye, Esq. His firm is definitely better for the duel in Detroit. General Abubakar obviously got value for every cent he shelled out in legal fees and then some. On the other hand, there are really no losers, more especially in the legal teams. It is good for Nigeria that two of her sons fight for justice in a US court of law. It is good that the parties in the case had faith in our own lawyers. I hope that no one takes it the wrong way, including the General himself whose wife is a judge. I bet he won't enjoy the bad publicity and the embarrassment one bit. That's understandable, but he should spare a thought for the victims of past federal fiats and executive excesses. He was not picked out of the blue. The ocean swallows no one with whose leg it does not come in contact. Flies follow those who sit by "burukutu" bowls. Or, put nicely, uneasy lies the head that has worn the crown.
Appellant attorneys Kayode Oladele and Austin Ugupublications did well. No good attorneys would have shied away from such a celebrity case; however, it didn't appear like the big names mentioned initially were actually in the midst. This helped to repel media magnetism, especially when erudite Chief Gani Fawehinmi was a no-show. Which raises the question: Were all the plaintiffs connected to the case with consent? Otherwise, there could be consequences of ethics. In the main, I agree somewhat that some people somewhere "pampered themselves into believing that they had a case," a case they could win both in a court of law and in the court of public opinion. It doesn't work that way in America, fortunately or unfortunately.
It seems that General Abubakar has been absolved, cleared of all legal constraints, and freed of fear of flying into USA to continue the promotion of his now controversial pet project in the Chicago-area university. The right of appeal and of continuance can only attract counter suits, and we could all be in for a long-drawn and expensive tit-for-tat. It is now left for his handlers to rein in the bad publicity into which the general has unwittingly walked. The initial drafting of an American lawyer to handle the case nearly railroaded him into taking the fall for the Real McCoys. As if that was not enough, the General (AAA) missed a great opportunity to shine by shunning the Oputa Panel. On August 8, 2001, I wrote in "Sacred snails of Umuaga": I know that AAA is carrying the cross of Abacha. But, there are serious issues worth talking about. I am a believer in the power of healing. Snail is a diplomatic creature; it negotiates thorns with its smooth tongue. ….. I don't know for sure what these men [Buhari, IBB and AAA] did or didn't do. But, as we say in Naija, "Na small $#!@ dey break nyash." I just hope that Buhari, IBB, and AAA wouldn't be like the proverbial snail that thought it could stay in its shell and quench fire with its slimy stuff, but got cooked inside the shell instead. [See: http://www.kwenu.com/moesmemo/snails_80801.htm] The place of Abubakar in history remains undefined mainly because, like "ogbanje" or "abiku" child, he is a caught in two worlds. Those who find it hard to bash the dead find in him a substitute-trashing bag. On the other hand, those who are angry at the present regime of President Obasanjo blame him for passing the ball in an allegedly arranged election or, as some say, "a selection of sorts." Now, he carries the can as the man who set the stage for a possible "Mugaberization" of Nigeria in 2003. Do, he is damned; don't, he is still damned. At the quietest hour of the night, the General must sometimes ask himself if he should have stayed back in Aso Rock Villa for a few more months… years; what with the packs of peripatetic powerbrokers, professional pilfers, pathetic parasites, and political prostitutes then urging him to hang in there. I guess this informed the recently reported support, if true, that he gave to Obasanjo's anticipated sit-tightness. The mischaracterization of Abubakar endures, despite the apparent absolution in Detroit, Michigan of all places. He must carve out a solid slot for himself in history; otherwise, history could continue to judge him harshly, harshly because Obasanjo became a darling of the Western world when he handed over power to Alhaji Shehu Aliyu Usman Shagari on October 1, 1979. Twenty years later, on Saturday, May 29, 1999, he handed over to Chief Matthew Aremu Okikiola Olusegun Obasanjo. He must be asking himself: What changed; why is it different for General (Alhaji) Abdulsalami Alhaji Abubakar? Only time and the media will tell. &&&& Ps: So the Good God, Almighty Allah, Creator Chineke, or Omnipotent Oluwa has divinely directed our own dear Uncle Sege to sing "Who the cap fit, let them wear it"? Well, when "come comes to become," we shall return to retrace the road not taken. And the fat lady shall sing the unfinished Aso Villa Symphony, Volume II. Until then, let the music play on. |
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