American lawyer writes Buhari an open letter, says "Make the hallmark of your administration justice, not retribution"

An American Constitutional Lawyer and author
Bruce Fein, has written an open letter to President
Buhari which was published in Huffington post
website yesterday.

Very interesting letter. Read
below

President Muhammadu Buhari
Aso Rock, Abuja Nigeria
Dear President Buhari:
When you visited the United States Institute of
Peace last July, you pledged that you would be
"fair, just and scrupulously follow due process and
the rule of law, as enshrined in [the Nigerian]
constitution" in prosecuting corruption.
Such loftiness is laudable. As the Bible instructs in
Amos 5:24: "[L]et justice roll down like waters, and
righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."

But to be just, the law must be
evenhanded. It cannot, in the manner of
Russian President Vladimir Putin, be
something that is given to punish your
enemies and withheld to favor your
friends. If so, the law becomes an
instrument of injustice bearing earmarks
of the wicked rather than the good.
In the United States, you declared a policy
of "zero tolerance" against corruption.

You solicited weapons and other
assistance from the United States
government based on that avowal.
 But
were you sincere?

During your election campaign, you
promised widespread amnesty, not zero
tolerance. You elaborated: "Whoever that
is indicted of corruption between 1999 to
the time of swearing-in would be
pardoned.

I am going to draw a line,
anybody who involved himself in
corruption after I assume office, will face
the music."

After you were inaugurated, however,
you disowned your statement and
declared you would prosecute past
ministers or other officials for corruption
or fraud. And then again you immediately
hedged. You were reminded of your
dubious past by former Major General
and President Ibrahim Badamasi
Babangida, who succeeded your military
dictatorship. He released this statement:

"On General Buhari, it is not in IBB's
tradition to take up issues with his
colleague former President. But for the
purpose of record, we are conversant
with General Buhari's so-called holier-
than-thou attitude. He is a one-time
Minister of Petroleum and we have good
records of his tenure as minister.

Secondly, he presided over the Petroleum
Trust Fund, PTF, which records we also
have.
We challenge him to come out with clean
hands in those two portfolios he headed.
Or we will help him to expose his records
of performance during those periods.

Those who live in glass houses should not
throw stones. General Buhari should be
properly guided."
You then swiftly backed off your zero
tolerance policy because you would have
been its first casualty.

You opportunistically announced that
zero tolerance would be narrowed to the
predecessor administration of Goodluck
Jonathan because to probe further would
be "a waste of time."

That conclusion
seems preposterous. In 2012, the World
Bank's ex-vice president for Africa, Oby
Ezekwesili, estimated that a stupendous
$400 billion in Nigerian oil revenues had
been stolen or misspent since
independence in 1960.

The lion's share of
that corruption spans far beyond the
Jonathan administration.
Your zero tolerance policy seems to come
with a squint to avoid seeing culpability
in your political friends.

 A few examples
are but the tip of the iceberg.
A Rivers State judicial commission of
inquiry found that N53 billion
disappeared from the Rivers State Reserve
Fund under former governor Rotimi
Amaechi.

Former Lagos governor and
head of your campaign finance team
Babatunde Fashola was accused
ofsquandering N78 million of government
money to upgrade his personal website.
The EFCC has ignored these corruption
allegations, and you have given both
promotions: the Ministry of Transport to
Mr. Amaechi, and the Ministry of Power,
Works, and Housing to Mr.

Fashola.
In contrast, you have played judge, jury,
and prosecutor in the newspapers to
convict former PDP Petroleum Minister
Diezani Alison-Madueke of corruption.
Is this evenhanded justice?
United States Supreme Court Justice
Robert Jackson taught: "[T]here is no more
effective practical guaranty against
arbitrary and unreasonable government
than to require that the principles of law
which officials would impose upon a

minority must be imposed generally.
Conversely, nothing opens the door to
arbitrary action so effectively as to allow
those officials to pick and choose only a
few to whom they will apply legislation
and thus to escape the political
retribution that might be visited upon
them if larger numbers were affected."

To investigate or prosecute based on
political affiliation or opinion also violates
Articles 2 and 7 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. It is
unworthy of a great nation like Nigeria.

Make the hallmark of your administration
justice, not retribution, and you may live
for the ages.

I am a United States citizen and lawyer.
 I have no political standing in Nigeria.
Some might argue that my speaking about
the administration of justice in Nigeria
bespeaks impertinece. But you chose to
vist the United States to solicit weapons
and other assistance from my
government--a government of the people,
by the people, for the people.

 The United States government represents me. What the United States government does
reflects on me. I thus have an interest in
addressing the actions of foreign
governments that receive United States
government aid.

Sunshine is said to be the best of
disinfectants.
Sincerely,
Bruce Fein