by Okoi Obono-Obla
I wrote this article in 2014, and it was published on Thursday, 13 February 2014 by Elombah. I have retrieved it from my archives, as Senator David Mark remains a point of reference in our country today.
Senator David Mark has come a long way in the social and political firmament of Nigeria. When he was a Major in the Nigerian Army, he was appointed Chairman of the Abandoned Property Implementation Committee by the Federal Government of Nigeria under the leadership of General Yakubu Gowon, the then Head of State and Commander‑in‑Chief of the Armed Forces, in 1974. I was barely eight years old at the time.
The mandate of the Abandoned Property Implementation Committee was to take inventory and sell houses and properties belonging to the Igbo people, which they left behind when they fled non‑Igbo territories to the Biafran enclave after the Eastern Region broke away from Nigeria in 1967. The Abandoned Property Implementation Decree of 1972 was a draconian, wicked, and pernicious piece of legislation that infringed on the fundamental rights of the Igbo people. This decree was used as a weapon to divest them of ownership of their properties after the end of the civil war.
My father was offered one of such properties to buy, located at Abakpa, Ogoja, by the Local Implementation Committee in 1977, but he refused on principle. It was at variance with fundamental principles of international law, which hold that a property cannot be deemed abandoned when it is located in a territory regarded or recognized as sovereign, such as Nigeria.
Justice Ignatius Chukwudi Pats‑Acholonu of the Supreme Court (as he then was), in Chukwuogor’s case (2004) 6 NWLR (Pt. 869) 382, trenchantly condemned the Abandoned Properties Act. He described it as an aberration and a myopic policy that could have done incalculable harm to the unity of Nigeria. He argued that the concept of abandoned property was a frightening phenomenon that undermined the idea of one nation, and likened its strict application to the legal positivism that enabled the horrors of the Second World War.
David Mark was one of the officers who masterminded the toppling of General Buhari’s military government in August 1985. At the time, he was Commander of the Signal Corps of the Nigerian Army. He was thereafter appointed Military Governor of Niger State, and later Minister of Communication by General Babangida, the then military president.
David Mark earned notoriety when he declared that telephones were not for the common man. During General Abacha’s regime, he fell out of favour and fled the country. He was reputed to be among the senior military officers who opposed Chief Moshood Abiola becoming president after winning the 1993 presidential elections.
David Mark resurfaced in 1999 when he was elected Senator. In 2007, he became President of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a position he held until 2011, and was re‑elected thereafter. Thus, David Mark has been a fixture in Nigeria’s national political scene since 1974—a span of 40 years.
Yesterday, David Mark revealed his true political colours when he used his position to block some senators from cross‑carpeting on the floor of the Senate, citing that the matter was before a court of law. He relied on Order 53 of the Senate Rules, which provides that the Senate cannot deliberate on any matter that is the subject of pending litigation. He ruled Senator Bukola Saraki out of order when Saraki raised the issue of his failure to read the letter written by 11 Senators expressing their intention to defect from the PDP to the APC.
David Mark has consistently refused to read the letter on the Senate floor. He is wrong to use his position to block senators willing to defect. In any case, these senators have already registered as members of the APC during the ongoing registration exercise. He cannot continue to use the pending court case as a subterfuge to prevent them from exercising their fundamental right to freedom of association.
Recall that these senators had previously filed an action in the Federal High Court seeking an order to restrain the Senate President from declaring their seats vacant should they defect from the PDP. David Mark, as one of the remnants of the praetorian guard that imposed military dictatorship on Nigeria for decades, cannot be expected to act as a democrat.
The Rules of the Senate are inferior to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, and therefore cannot override its provisions guaranteeing these senators the right to associate and subscribe to membership of the APC, especially in light of the fragmentation of the PDP into two factions. David Mark’s continual use of delaying tactics to stall their defection smacks of dictatorship and is unconstitutional.
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