LATEEF FAGBEMI, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), is the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF). He is a prince of ljagbo in Oyun Local Government Area of Kwara State. He was appointed to his current high office by President Bola Tinubu on August 21, 2023. Before then, he had been in successful law practice and among senior lawyers whose names came first in election petition briefs where big money was paid.
Prince Fagbemi was in the middle of several of these big briefs when his appointment as Justice Minister and Attorney General came. At least, I know of his involvement in the petition of the failed APC candidate, Ovie Omo-Agege, in the governorship election in Delta State.
Some entries in the open information forum describe Lateef Fagbemi as a lawyer and politician. He is named as a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC). It is an aspect that doesn’t sound too convincing of a man that had been known all along to mind strictly his business of law practice.
Except there is a brand of politics in Nigeria that is practised outside noise making, Fagbemi does not quite fit into his description as a politician. How, for instance, does he compare in boisterousness with Festus Keyamo and Daniel Bwala, both of whom also combine law practice with politics? Unlike Fagbemi, the duo of Keyamo and Bwala can invent sweet-sounding jurisprudence to rationalise any piece of bad politics.
But while Keyamo has managed to remain within the APC to do all his pontifications, Bwala has made switching political platforms at will in search of higher dividends a fashion. He would explain away this unceasing political harlotry as part of the expression of his fundamental human rights as guaranteed in Chapter Four of the 1999 Constitution. Since he understands the constitution like the back of his hand, he drives down to the specifics and quotes Section 40 to butt. If you failed to be convinced like those ‘irritant’ Arise TV live hosts, he would pick up a quarrel right on air. He combines his sound understanding of legal principles and mastery of the English language to weave a sophistry to avoid responsibility. In other words, he has the elocution to talk his way out of moral and ethical crossroads.
Back to Fagbemi. He does not fall under the category of lawyers that openly court controversies in the quest for attention. He tilts more towards legal conservatism than he does towards legal activism. I encountered him for the first time in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. This was when something called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was in vogue in Nigeria. The idea was cut from South Africa, which inaugurated a commission, so named in 1995, after the country’s first democratic elections that produced Nelson Mandela as President on May 10, 1994, to investigate human rights violations under apartheid. This went some way in reaching a new racial understanding, otherwise known as Rainbow Coalition, in a post apartheid South Africa.
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The Nigerian version, also known as Oputa Panel (for the simple reason that the commission was headed by the late Justice of the Supreme Court, Chukwudifu Oputa), was inaugurated in 2001 under President Olusegun Obasanjo to do for Nigeria the same thing that the Mandela Truth and Reconciliation Commission did for South Africa. That is, to investigate and reconcile cases of human rights abuse under successive military regimes in Nigeria. But it turned out largely as another embarrassing exhibition of knowing how to cut without the corresponding skill of proper pasting. Some of the key dramatic personae, including General Muhammadu Buhari and General Ibrahim Babangida, refused to attend the hearings. And nothing happened.
As I was saying, I met Lateef Fagbemi in Port Harcourt. Rotimi Amaechi, who had just been enthroned by the Supreme Court as Governor after a long-drawn battle with counter political forces within and outside of Rivers State, decided to inaugurate a version of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Port Harcourt on November 29, 2007, to investigate the cult wars in the state. There could be deeper purposes for setting up the Rivers Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
For instance, it was an open secret that Amaechi’s predecessor, Dr. Peter Odili, had a hand and leg in the travails of Amaechi and the commission was floated to settle some scores. But let’s stay with what was stated.
The Rivers commission was headed by the foremost jurist and justice of the Supreme Court, the late Justice Kayode Eso. As if on trial, Governor Amaechi had brought in Fagbemi to drive his (Amaechi’s) arguments and pleadings at the commission with precision. I had witnessed proceedings at the commission for two consecutive days and instantly fell in love with Fagbemi. He was gallant. Justice Eso said so. But to do a complete characterisation in such circumstances, it is advisable to wait for the professional to become a politician.
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And something happened, Nobody knew the ugly details of the official high-handedness applied in the management of the End Bad Governance protests between August 1 and 10 last year until three months later on November 1. On that day, some 119 young people, of whom about 76 were minors below age 18, were uploaded at the Federal High Court, Abuja, presided over by Justice Obiora Egwuatu for trial.
They had been arraigned on a 10-count charge of terrorism, treason, conspiracy to overthrow the Federal Government and any other high felony that is captured in both the Criminal and Penal Codes. The children who were brought directly from the prison did not have enough food in their systems, and four of them fainted right before Justice Egwuatu. Jolted, the judge hurriedly adjourned proceedings to allow time for the fainted defendants to be revived for trial.
Justice Egwuatu resumed to surprising grant bail to these ‘terrorists. ’ For a paltry N10 million each and two or so not-so-difficult-to-meet ancillary conditions, these same children accused of planning to forcefully take over government from President Tinubu were granted bail by the learned judge.
Fagbemi was jolted too. In the first place, how did such a ‘high-profile criminal charge’ get to the court for prosecution without the express approval and input of the Attorney General? It is difficult to imagine. Or was it all a joke? Fagbemi alone can offer the right answers. What the rest of us do know, however, is that the matter inadvertently slipped from the closed court into the court of public opinion, and the A.G., who had seemed to be on vacation, hurriedly rose to the new reality. There is no explanation in the books to justify the bizarre spectacle at the Federal High Court, Abuja, on November 1, 2024. Fagbemi then suddenly remembered that he is the AGF and could invoke the provisions of Section 174 of the 1999 Constitution to enter a Nolle Prosequi to stop the travesty.
The next time the AGF was forcefully heard again was on the Osun council election matter. Again, concepts like treason and treasonable felony formed the content of his speech. This time, without a court decision or a proper charge for trial, he said the dissolution of local council administrations in Osun State by Governor Ademola Adeleke and the Governor’s subsequent decision to conduct an election to fill the vacant offices amounted to treason. The definition of treason is beginning to gain an unusual elasticity in the new jurisprudence under Fagbemi, and it is not looking good for him. The election was conducted, and the PDP, the party of the Governor, won all the chairmanship seats. There is nothing particularly wrong with that outcome. Such has been the pattern in local government elections in Nigeria. The Governor’s party wins everything, leaving nothing for the opposition parties.
It was a bit breathtaking. The Osun matter was still settling when the Supreme Court ruled on the Rivers State lingering political crisis. And between the two political gladiators, it was strictly a winner and loser situation. The immediate past Governor of the State and FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, won, and the incumbent Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, lost.
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The 27 State legislators who openly defected from the PDP, the political platform which bought them to office without a just cause, and because of which their seats were made vacant by the provisions of Section 68 (g) of the 1999 Constitution, had the last laugh. The Supreme Court gave back their seats to them.
More was done in Rivers State by the apex court. It annulled the local government elections conducted last year in the state. I don’t care what the surface arguments are, but deep down, the justice system is looking badly injured. The Rivers case is a running melodrama where the villain and victim are well-defined. Justice runs to free victims from their oppressors. It is not justice when villains stand tall on so-called principles of law to deliver large-scale evil on society. Any law that is manipulated, like a chess board, to serve a narrow interest is bad. And it is the place of all apostles in the temple of justice to stand firm against diabolic interpretations of law to support victimisation.
The same Supreme Court under Justice Walter Onnoghen did it. Sometime between 2016 and 2017, a certain Senator Ali Modu Sheriff had infiltrated the ranks of the PDP and appeared bent on crippling the party to give the APC all the advantages and truncate multi-party democracy. He had ascended to the chairmanship of the party before his backers realised he was a wrong choice. To save the party and democracy, the Supreme Court did what was necessary and sacked Ali Modu Sheriff as chairman of the PDP. I am saying the face of justice and democracy today does not look beautiful. Ordinary people are worried.
Before him, there had been Attorneys-general of the Federation (AGFs). One was Clement Akpamgbo. Another was Michael Aondokaa. This is the time for Prince Lateef Fagbemi, whom I have known more as a fine lawyer than a double-speaking politician, to step forth for eternal recognition.
