'The Great Lecture" By Adesina Ogunlana

29th May, 2011 was a special day in Lagos State and in many parts of the country. That was the day a re-elected Governor Babatunde Fashola S.A.N was sworn into office at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos for his second and final term. The story was the same in many other states of the Federation and even the Federal Capital Territory, where Goodluck Ebele Azikwe Jonathan, the only living husband of a widow, Patience Jonathan (the Dame) also took Oath as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I dare say of all the swearing in ceremonies of the day, the most unique was that of Lagos.


Why Lagos? Could it be because of the “mammoth crowd” in attendance? A conservative count would put the number of attendees at five thousand. Could it be because of the gaiety and colour?


Oh yes, the occasion was full of colour. All the colours of the rainbow and their near and distant cousins were present in the headgears, suits, ties, wrappers, shoes, walking sticks, garments, etc., of the hundreds of uniformed men, masquerades, politicians, traditional dealers (rulers), civil servants, jobbers, priests, etc., who swarmed and swamped the Tafawa Balewa Square where the ceremony held. Ah, it is not for nothing the saying, “Lagos For Show! ”There were the occasional ‘hurrahs’ when one or two big men made their entrances into the Square. The hustle and bustle was infectious, the air was light and people just yakked away.


But it was not for all these that the Lagos affair was unique. In all other fora of inaugurations of the State Governors and Mr. Married Widower, there was plenty of colour and fun too.


What made the Lagos Case special was that it was the only inauguration that was preceded by an unprecedented event. Am I speaking in a too long drawn out riddle? Please bear with me. Swearing-in any person into a public office has always been a simple straight forward affair. The swearee is prepared afore the swearer.


Then the swearer reads out the legend to the swearee who repeats same, to the effect that he would keep the law, discharge his duties, according to the Constitution, without fear or favour and that he would not disclose official secrets, bla, bla, bla and so help me… (You can please fill in the gap).


Thus the deed is done. And exactly so, was it done all over Nigeria on 29th May 2011, except in Lagos. What then happened in Lagos? Good question. This was what happened; The Chief Judge straight away and duly swore in the Deputy-Governor, Mrs. Orelope Adefulire. So the stage was set for the swearing-in of the Governor.


The Deputy-Governor’s inauguration took maybe six, seven minutes, and that much because of the slow, ponderous old-Mother-in-Israel recitation style of the new Deputy-Governor. The woman’s voice was so heavy and thick that I easily imagined that it emanated from a falling mammoth!


At this juncture, the next step was to have the Governor sworn in. That was when the law of gravity stopped, tradition shorn, precedent dented and the norm went numb. Lo and behold, a new precedent was made ‘in our very before!’


I should waste time no longer and tell you what happened? Well, instead of the honourable Chief Judge of Lagos State proceeding to swear-in the Governor, she did what no “Swearer-in” had ever done before; She gave, delivered, presented and rolled out a lecture to the Governor in particular and the Executive arm of Government in general essentially on the need to be faithful to the well known doctrine of Separation of Power!


Poor Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola! The “Eko O ni Baje” exponent must have been thunder-struck where he was seated or standing. The mass of the people present, who incidentally were parboiled and half boiled illiterates could not and did not appreciate the act of the Honourable Chief Judge.


But the few discerning ones did. It was a coup wrapped in an ambush, totally unexpected, normally unthinkable, audacious, daring and a maneuver conjured creatively out of a constitutional void but executed with military precision.


At first, I was aghast at Justice Inumidun Akande’s conduct. Clearly her speech was a breach of protocol, possibly a rude slap in the face of political etiquette and correctness and a punch on the nose of precedent. Some may even argue that that short lecture of hers flew in the face of constitutionalism.


However on second thoughts, I realized that it must have been patriotic fervor and a burning passion for proper running of government that must have prompted the delivery of the “Great Lecture.”


On a rather personal note, I am immensely gratified that, it is not only minnows, pedigree-less lawyers like my humble self that now ply the route of activism and agitational politics, otherwise known as “aluta” but also those located in the deepest recesses of the conservative centre of the status quo.


No doubt in delivering that lecture Justice Akande breached protocol and there is some merit in the accusation that her style was strident, indiscreet, even confrontational, but how else do you get at least a reform of the system?


The quiet, gentle style hardly achieves the change agenda. The boat rocking approach is more the answer. Well Justice Inumidun Akande in delivering the “Great Lecture” has done the unprecedented and at the same time openly “reported” the governing caucus to the governed mass open.


Well maybe one should not be too bothered about conforming to the norm and precedent. After all it was Lord Denning, who in one of his famous cases declared…”And if there is no precedent (for our course), we shall create one.