Ben Nwabueze: And the man died
by Moses Oludele Idowu
The death of Prof. Ben Nwabueze, foremost Constitutional lawyer and scholar announced today marks the end of an era in Nigeria. Coming just at the end of a controversial Supreme Court ruling dismissing the case of the PDP and LP candidates in the 2023 election, this death is significant.
I pray that his family especially children and grandchildren and other relatives will have the fortitude to bear his irreparable loss. And the Grace to weather the storm arising in the aftermath of his departure.
Ben Nwabueze was a legal scholar of no mean repute. He is an author of several scholarly publications on several areas bordering on the Constitution and legality and administration of Law. Even to his old age he was still writing, the mark of a real scholar. One of his last publications is titled HOW PRESIDENT OBASANJO SUBVERTED THE CONSTITUTION. It is a well- researched book that every student of History of democracy in the Fourth Republic should read.
Nwabueze is a formidable scholar. In him we see a convergence of academic scholarship and rigour with intellectual sophistication and logic. And to the best of his ability he deployed this to the benefits of Nigeria.
Really?
Some or many will disagree with the last statement that he deployed his talents for Nigeria for certain reasons.
May be.
Nwabueze did his best and his works have now passed on to history and his judgment now rests with his Creator and the tribunal of posterity.
In a sense Nwabueze troubled the waters of Nigeria – whether he knew it or not. Sure he might have had good reasons for his actions and advice but they have turned out awry bringing disaster to all. I am happy that he too tasted this and saw the tragedy that his innocent actions threw Nigeria and especially his kinsmen in Igboland.
Three important occasions we recall when this man played decisive role in Nigerian history and they were for the worse.
First it was Nwabueze who drafted the obnoxious, accursed retrogressive Unification decree that Aguiyi Ironsi used to abrogate the Regional form of government that had been useful and served each region well for the overall progress of Nigeria. For reasons that were known to him and his kinsman in power they abrogated the truly Federal arrangements in place for a Unitary government over which an Igbo man would be head. This was shortly after a controversial coup of January 15, 1966 in which most of the leading military officers and political leaders of other regions were dead but not a single blood was shed in the East. Despite the fact that most of the Committee members opposed this abrogation and only the Igbo members supported it, Ironsi decided to sail on and implement this terrible decree destroying the federal arrangements and regionalism that the founding fathers had put in place. We are still suffering for that blunder till today.
The thunder generated by that precipitate action of a minority report led to the counter coup of July, 1966 and the resulting pogrom and the consequent Civil War.
It would forever be a stain on this man’s intellectual capacity and career that he was the instrument of the document that has brought so much pain, so much sufferings to so many people for so long a time.
It is equally sad that Ben Nwabueze had a hand in the advise that finally led Ibrahim Babangida to annulling the freest and fairest election in the annals of democracy in Nigeria. The book to read is Prof. Omo Omoruyi’s book THE TALES OF JUNE 12.
The third tragedy that this man brought upon Nigeria directly and indirectly was that he was Sani Abacha’s minister of education who presided over the 9- month strike in which our universities were shut without any payments and had to return back to job with shame. That was when the university system died. That was when the man died in our academia. And this old man, wily and cunning, was instrumental to this tragedy.
What crimes did Nigeria commit against you, Prof. Nwabueze? What crimes did unborn children commit against you that you dealt us with so fatal blows?
Not to forget, this man also had a hand in the Abacha Constitution and the Abubakar Constitution that has trapped us today. Though to lesser degrees.
I am happy for one thing that Nwabueze lived long to see the consequences of his actions in full, first among Nigerians as a whole and among his own kinsmen in Igboland in particular. Those who break the edge are usually the first to be bitten by serpent; those who dig a pit are the first to fall inside. Ironsi was the first to be consumed by his own fire, by his ill- conceived decree and those who assisted him to destroy the Federal arrangements lived through the harrowing sufferings of their decisions and the disaster they helped birth.
It is a lesson to those in power today. All actions attract their direct consequences. There is no escape and no commutation. Everyone reaps what he sows and even much more.
Once again to the family of Professor Ben Nwabueze, my condolences.
Moses Oludele Idowu, wrote this piece.
