WHAT MAKES A LEADER A TYRANT by Ike Ekweremadu

Nigeria’s Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has called on leaders to lead by example, insisting that it was one sure way to entrench the rule of law in Nigeria.

“We all must be ready and willing to live by the spirit and letters of our laws. Much of our problems are not about the laws themselves, but about our disrespect for them.

 Indeed, a major difference between us and the developed world is that while we choose which rules, laws, or court judgments to obey or not to obey, they command obedience to their laws through strict enforcement that does not respect persons. We need to imbibe that attitude and culture in order to strengthen the foundations of the rule of law in Nigeria”.

“On leading by example, the words of Justice Louis D. Brandeis in Olmstead v. United States are instructive. In his dissenting opinion, he stated: ‘Our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto him; it invites anarchy’”.

“It is very clear, therefore, that impunity and lawlessness are contagious. If those at the helms of leadership have no respect for the rule of law, their subordinates are not likely to respect the rule of law also. If they, by any means, show that the law is meant to catch their opponents and perceived enemies alone, they have unwittingly licensed their purported friends to scorn the rules and break the laws. And certainly, as a leader, you cannot choose which law or court verdict to obey or which to disobey”, he added.

Ekweremadu spoke in Enugu at a public lecture in honour of the late Prof. G.O.S Amadi, organised by the Faculty of Law, University of Nigeria and the Prof. G.O.S Amadi Foundation. He spoke on “Strengthening the Foundations of Rule of Law in Nigeria”.

The Nation