An American constitutional lawyer named Bruce Fein, pictured above, has penned an open letter to President Buhari.
Read the letter as posted on Huffington Post.
President Muhammadu Buhari
Aso Rock, Abuja
NigeriaDear President Buhari:When
you visited the United States Institute of Peace last July, you pledged
that you would be “fair, just and scrupulously follow due process and
the rule of law, as enshrined in [the Nigerian] constitution” in
prosecuting corruption.Such
loftiness is laudable. As the Bible instructs in Amos 5:24: “[L]et
justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing
stream.”But to be just, the law must
be evenhanded. It cannot, in the manner of Russian President Vladimir
Putin, be something that is given to punish your enemies and withheld to
favor your friends. If so, the law becomes an instrument of injustice
bearing earmarks of the wicked rather than the good.In
the United States, you declared a policy of “zero tolerance” against
corruption. You solicited weapons and other assistance from the United
States government based on that avowal. But were you sincere?During
your election campaign, you promised widespread amnesty, not zero
tolerance. You elaborated: “Whoever that is indicted of corruption
between 1999 to the time of swearing-in would be pardoned. I am going to
draw a line, anybody who involved himself in corruption after I assume
office, will face the music.”After
you were inaugurated, however, you disowned your statement and declared
you would prosecute past ministers or other officials for corruption or
fraud. And then again you immediately hedged. You were reminded of your
dubious past by former Major General and President Ibrahim Badamasi
Babangida, who succeeded your military dictatorship. He released this
statement:“On General Buhari, it is
not in IBB’s tradition to take up issues with his colleague former
President. But for the purpose of record, we are conversant with General
Buhari’s so-called holier-than-thou attitude. He is a one-time Minister
of Petroleum and we have good records of his tenure as minister.
Secondly, he presided over the Petroleum Trust Fund, PTF, which records
we also have.We challenge him to
come out with clean hands in those two portfolios he headed. Or we will
help him to expose his records of performance during those periods.
Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. General Buhari
should be properly guided.”You then swiftly backed off your zero tolerance policy because you would have been its first casualty.You
opportunistically announced that zero tolerance would be narrowed to
the predecessor administration of Goodluck Jonathan because to probe
further would be “a waste of time.” That conclusion seems preposterous.
In 2012, the World Bank’s ex-vice president for Africa, Oby Ezekwesili,
estimated that a stupendous $400 billion in Nigerian oil revenues had
been stolen or misspent since independence in 1960. The lion’s share of
that corruption spans far beyond the Jonathan administration.Your
zero tolerance policy seems to come with a squint to avoid seeing
culpability in your political friends. A few examples are but the tip of
the iceberg.A Rivers State judicial
commission of inquiry found that N53 billion disappeared from the
Rivers State Reserve Fund under former governor Rotimi Amaechi. Former
Lagos governor and head of your campaign finance team Babatunde Fashola
was accused ofsquandering N78 million of government money to upgrade his
personal website. The EFCC has ignored these corruption allegations,
and you have given both promotions: the Ministry of Transport to Mr.
Amaechi, and the Ministry of Power, Works, and Housing to Mr. Fashola.In
contrast, you have played judge, jury, and prosecutor in the newspapers
to convict former PDP Petroleum Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke of
corruption.Is this evenhanded justice?United
States Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson taught: “[T]here is no more
effective practical guaranty against arbitrary and unreasonable
government than to require that the principles of law which officials
would impose upon a minority must be imposed generally. Conversely,
nothing opens the door to arbitrary action so effectively as to allow
those officials to pick and choose only a few to whom they will apply
legislation and thus to escape the political retribution that might be
visited upon them if larger numbers were affected.”To
investigate or prosecute based on political affiliation or opinion also
violates Articles 2 and 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
It is unworthy of a great nation like Nigeria.Make the hallmark of your administration justice, not retribution, and you may live for the ages.
I am a United States citizen and lawyer. I have no political standing
in Nigeria. Some might argue that my speaking about the administration
of justice in Nigeria bespeaks impertinece. But you chose to vist the
United States to solicit weapons and other assistance from my
government–a government of the people, by the people, for the people.
The United States government represents me. What the United States
government does reflects on me. I thus have an interest in addressing
the actions of foreign governments that receive United States government
aid.Sunshine is said to be the best of disinfectants.Sincerely,Bruce Fein
Fein & DelValle PLLC
300 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Suite 900
Washington, D.C. 20001