By Our correspondent in Ilorin
A legal icon, Mallam Yusuf Olaolu Ali, SAN, has stressed the need for Nigerians, especially political office holders, to always allow their actions be in accordance with the rule of law “so that tomorrow one will not be afraid for the past.”
Ali made the call at the 2020 Press Week of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Kwara State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) at the Press Centre, Ilorin in his lecture entitled, “Effectiveness of Party Supremacy in Strengthening Democratic Principles and Promoting National Development”.
He said: “We have lost rule of law, we don’t understand it at all, we all play by the rules of convenience, even lawyers play by the rules of convenience.
“It is rule of law when it favours whatever positions we have taken, it is not the rule of law when it is against our expectations, rule of law is rule of law everywhere. There is equality before the law and it must be applied across the board.
“The law must be known to the people who are to obey it, and must not be made to target individual or a group.
“We must all agree that those in power, those outside of the power are equally entitled to protection of the law, all those that hold offices should remember tomorrow so that they can be able to walk freely the way they used to walk before they accepted political power.”
The SAN, who kicked against funding of political parties recalled that “in the first republic, political parties were funded by the members and not by government.”
He, however,noted that with the coming of the Babagida government with Babangida Model,financing of political parties by government became a vogue with the formation NRC and SDP, including the printing of their manifestoes,
Speaking on Party supremacy, he said that the political parties were actually in control of their members,and such, members were very careful because it was seen as a stigma to be expelled from political party.
Going memory lane further, the legal practitioner also recalled “at that time, we had level of shame in our system, party supremacy was able to work at that time because there was value in our society.”
He argued that the founding of political parties in Nigeria which came into force during Babagida “time is still with us, although with some modifications.”
He described political party as an agregrassion of men and women who shared certain values, usually positive values and who want to use the platform to get elected and get power to serve the well-being of the people.
He, however, frowned at too many numbers of political parties in the country, stressing,” we dont need more than three, four political parties that are viable that can challenge those in power so that we can bring out better governance from the system.”
The lawyer called on INEC to strengthen its duty of monitoring finances of political parties,but stressed that the electoral umpire must be given the wherewithal to perform its role effectively to ensure accountability in the way political parties carryout their finances.
Contributing, the Governor of the state, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, called on journalists to continue to uphold the ethics of their profession, particularly as it concerns balance, fairness, and truth.
“Remain committed to national cohesion and security, fight fake news vigorously. The events of the past few weeks have shown us the danger of fake news and unverified or one-sided accounts of events. There is, therefore, a need for all of us to face down this threat before it is too late.
“Equally important is for the media to rise against the ‘cancel culture’ now spreading across the social media space. Suddenly, we are having an army of people who regard their own opinion as final on any issue.
“Anyone who disagrees with their opinion must be mobbed or taken down at all cost. This is akin to fascism and must be stopped before it is too late.
“Democracy recognises multiplicity of opinions and the right of every citizen to hold a contrary view without being haunted for it.
“I urge the media to join the campaign to discourage this new threat to democracy and free speech,” he said.
