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Human beings are by nature absurd and their activities are laden with absurdities, except the few endowed with wisdom and are guided aright strictly by it in their conducts and utterances. Their absurdity is an emanation of the egotism that is an integral part of their frail physical and spiritual being.
It takes exceptional wisdom and moral uprightness by a man to fight his egotism to achieve honour, integrity and respect among his fellow men. Most men are so egoistic and severely blighted by waning lusts and desires that they assault headlong even the traditions that they by their civilisation uphold as hallowed and proclaim as fundamental pillars of their way of life. It is the most sickening, call it most degrading insult expressed by man to assault the hallowed tradition of justice, the tradition that forms the bedrock of civilisation by reducing its verdict down to the level of such trivia as strictly personal relationship between in-laws who are themselves frail subjects before the powerful tradition of justice. On Friday, 11th April, 2008, the sacred tradition of justice expressed itself in the form of two judgments by the Appeal Court which sat in Kaduna and presided over by Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa. The court on that day nullified the election of Alhaji Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko as the governor of Sokoto State and upheld that of Alhaji Sa’idu Nasamu Dakingari as governor of Kebbi State. For every civilised person, the court as does every other court of law in all civilised human societies and according to the required principles and practice and in sustenance of the sanctity of justice, had delivered its verdict most appropriately. Justice is blind. No one, not even in-laws, are sacred before it. However, elements not favoured directly or by association by the verdicts leaned on trivia to rise in arms against justice to the chagrin of all civilised Nigerians. They comprised politicians as well as relations, friends, cronies and associates of all forms of those not favoured by the judgment such as Garba Deen Muhammad, who always backbites on people without any wise cause and justification. It is most disheartening that Garba Deen Muhammad who is supposed to be civilised and very knowledgeable on the status and sanctity of justice as a journalist of some considerable standing and a publisher could crash from the lofty heights of civilisation to link justice with such trivia as the personal relationship of two in-laws. On the back page of April 13, 2008 edition of Sunday Trust, a publication of Media Trust Limited, Garba Deen Muhammad in spiting the sanctity of justice was so blinded by egotism that he did not see anything in the Wamakko and Dakingari cases but similarities that must guide the court to deliver a similar verdict. In his devastating display of ignorance and chilling insult for the hallow nature of justice and the court of law, he argued that there were similarities so fundamental in both cases that both needed a similar judgment. Anyone with even a little knowledge of the law knows that there were fundamental differences between the two cases, which naturally led to two different verdicts by the court. For instance, did Dakingari have double nominations from PDP and ANPP as a gubernatorial candidate? Do DPP members have the locus standi to challenge the emergence of Dakingari as a gubernatorial candidate on the platform of PDP, which is a different political party with a different constitution and membership? It is appallingly unfortunate that the supposedly civilised Garba Deen Muhammad could stumble so low as to insinuate that Dakingari’s election was upheld because he is a son-in-law to President Umaru Yar’adua and Wamakko’s was nullified because he has no such relationship with the president. Even most unfortunate in his insinuation was that the First Lady, Hajiya Turai, could cause her husband to influence and subvert the course of justice with regard to the two cases. "Governor Sa’idu Dakingari," Garban Deen said in his diatribe, "who is better known as the son-in-law of Hajiya Turai Yar’adua than as an outstanding governor of Kebbi State, is probably beside himself now with joy. But his victory at the Court of Appeal tribunal which sat in Kaduna yesterday may well turn out to be the final proof that sceptical Nigerians needed to lose what is left of their hope on his father-in-law, President Umaru Yar’adua. The PDP, on the other hand, is saying that the only reason why their Governor Wamakko lost was to save Dakingari of Kebbi, who is a sacred cow and therefore must not lose; thanks to his powerful mother-in-law who had allegedly sworn that her daughter married a governor and must remain married to one." To say that there are sacred in-laws before justice is tantamount to the most mischievous assault on the tradition of justice and abuse of its sanctity. Whoever thinks there are sacred cows before justice needs his civilisation and moral uprightness to be seriously questioned. It is most unfortunate that Garba Deen Muhammad can ridicule himself and abuse reason in this manner by not only associating himself with the harbourers of such thoughts and the believers of such speculations, but even participating in harbouring the thought himself and believing the speculations whatever their level of allegation. It is very clear that he was only expressing his beggarly and sycophantic self. He has to be of some service to those who give him a pittance once in a while to justify the gratis and pave the way for more as ‘a good boy,’ more so as he is getting more dangerously frustrated due to his inability to be a successful newspaper proprietor and publisher. He has to be a spokesman for the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) of former Sokoto State Governor Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa in order to justify the assistance given to make his newspaper a household name in the country, which unfortunately could not see the light of the day even in its formative months. It is obvious that Muhammad has indeed not only disappointed all civilised Nigerians but abused their reason in the most grievous manner by expressing his irrational thoughts and positions on the April 11, 2008 judgment on the back page of Sunday Trust, a most respected publication of Media Trust Limited. His article has no doubt betrayed all moral values and journalism’s longstanding ethics. Zuru wrote from No. 8, Galadima Magoro Road, Rafin Zuru ward, Zuru, Kebbi State.
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