5 November 2009
editorial
Abuja — The Nigerian High Commission in London has renewed the passport of former Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Malam Nasir el-Rufa'i, after the presidency overruled instructions to deny him.
Irked that el-Rufa'i and the former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman, Nuhu Ribadu, have become harsh critics of the Yar'adua Administration, some high-ranking government officials had ordered Nigerian missions abroad not to renew their passports or offer them any consular assistance.
That highhanded stance did not go down well with many at home and abroad, who saw the action as being inconsistent with the supposed disposition of a democratic government. Under a democracy, every citizen has a right to own a passport and to travel any where he or she likes without let or hindrance except ordered by a law court. To attempt therefore to impose any form of restriction on el-Rufa'i or Nuhu Ribadu or anybody else is unlawful. Moreover, it is also an article of faith that, in a democratic dispensation, citizens have a right to freely express their opinion within the bounds of the law. Seeking to punish anyone in the course of exercising such a fundamental right enshrined in the constitution is unacceptable.
The Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), who allegedly provided the basis for the action to deny el-Rufa'i the passport to be taken by officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was sacked from office as a result of the episode. This is as it should be. But we hope that the NIA official was not just a fall guy for this incomprehensive decision to deny a citizen the right to a passport of his country while resident in a foreign country. Beyond his removal however is the need to investigate the reason for such a decision, who gave the order, and why. It is important to establish the truth of this matter in order to avoid a repeat of it in the future. Those found to be involved in it, must be fished out and punished. By so doing, the government would be laying a better foundation for probity in the public service.
The government deserves some praise for immediately realizing the potential harm such a decision could have, not only on us as a nation in the eyes of the rest of the world, but also on us a citizens of a democratizing nation, and beating a retreat. Messrs el-Rufai and Ribadu may not be beholden to certain government officials as the most patriotic citizens because of their unflattering comments on the administration and its conduct of affairs. But that does not detract from the inviolable fact they are, and remain, citizens of Nigeria, entitled to all the privileges that citizenship entails, even if they stay abroad.
In a world that is increasingly becoming a global village, governments all over the world have a responsibility to be especially careful about how they relate to their citizens because whatever they do will be in public glare. Government officials may not know it, or have become so inured to old easy of doing things under the carpet, but this passport saga has exposed the country to ridicule in the comity of nations. How can it be that a citizen who is engaged in one thing or the other that would not be considered illegitimate, be denied a basic document such as a passport? What kind of a country would do that? A government that says it is democratic and that one of its cardinal principles is respect for the rule of law and due process should not be seen to be harassing its critics by any means.
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