'When Guns Boom' By Adesina Ogunlana

…UPDATE ON



MOOD JUST BEFORE RECENT NBA CONFERENCE IN PORT-HARCOURT






I am not too sure now, who first observed that “when guns boom, laws are silent.” However I doubt whether any reasonable person will fault the merit in that truly chilly statement. When guns boom.


A gun is a terror. An instrument of execution, and death. It is a symbol of not just power but of terror. An agent of death. A terminator. So you don’t joke with a gun, except maybe it is a “toy gun.”


Now when such a “statute” of coercion booms (not merely talks), it is power, raw naked power that is on the podium and who dares not listen? In fact the wiser, the more learned you are, the quieter you become. When guns boom.


When guns boom, that is might ‘manifesting.’ Overwhelming might, before whom or what nothing can stand, including law. Interestingly, both Might and Law share one characteristic – they are regulators.


They regulate differently though the Law expects to be obeyed. It doesn’t shout, it only exists. Its majesty is supposed to be self evident. Might is no way like that; it trumpets, sorry, it screams, it roars. It compels obedience on its own nasty terms of pain, agony and brutality, and is often swift. When guns boom.


Law involves the niceties of procedure to ensure the decency of legitimacy and satisfy the etiquettes of (legal) Justice. Of course with the Law on the throne, Right, as understood and accepted by Reason is Might.


The booming of guns finds the above very distasteful for it achieves its purpose in the fury of violence. A very rough situation it is, I tell you. When guns boom.


In such a situation, legality flows through the barrel of the gun. Law and her minions, automatically take a dive or as we say here in these shores, “run for cover.”


The fear or do I say respect or even reverence for “Rampaging Might,” I can authoritatively declare to you as the “First Gecko,” is the reason why some lawyers are not going for the Port-Harcourt Conference.


Such Lawyers strongly believe that Port-Harcourt has at least two Governors – Rotimi Amaechi and wait for this – KIDNAPPERS! They contend that Port-Harcourt is a place where guns are booming and as such, is a place where “Might is very much Right.”


A concerned colleague told me that since Kidnappers in Port-Harcourt could go after ‘allowee’ dependent Youth Corps members, it is too sure that they will be interested in snatching away Lawyers.


Now you wonder, if Nigerian lawyers are scared of attending their conference in Port-Harcourt and even more scared of visits to the Upper Reaches of the River Niger, then what can one expect of foreign investors, industrialists and tourists?


My take is that, the legal profession should be very concerned about the state of security in Nigeria, so that Law will not be silent.


Of course when the Law is silent in the face of booming guns, Lawyers too keep mum. And you know what that means. Lawyers go hungry, lose value…when guns boom.