The Nigerian Lawyers last week Friday embark on boycott of court to protest the last April Election, and from the coverage by daily newspapers, it was indeed a success. But like Lawyers they are, one begin to wonder whether boycott of court is an antidote for the last election. The lawyers are known to believe in the rule of law, one would have thought that taking the right step of contesting the election in the law court would have been the civil way, resorting to court boycott is seen to me as somewhat accepting defeat even if the matter is challenge in the court. Because if the lawyers do believe in the rule of law, they should not have agreed on court boycott knowing fully well that, they can right the wrong of the election in the court.
A protest in futility is perhaps the right way to captioned the Lawyers boycott and it can only come from a body that has a human right activist as its head, no wonder the boycott is expected, but methinks fighting it through what they believed in i.e rule of law should have been the best way to protest.
Having said this, it looks like Yar'adua will get away with this mandate and get sworn in come May 29th, all is set and endorsements of his administration from foreign countries has been witnessed. The two runners up in the last election had not yet also submit their petition to the election tribunal while we await the judgement in the case of Agoro challenging the swearing in of the president elect come this week.
Definitely, I cant and wont join any protest, neither is over 60 million Nigerians that voted for Yar'adua, and I am sure that millions of Nigerians who did not come out to vote on the election day would not also participate in the protest, not to talk of Millions of Nigerians who are ready to give peace a chance.despite the fact that they believe there is shortcomings in the election.
Therefore, the planned protest by the civil right groups slated for May 28 and 29 and the last protest by the Lawyers last week Friday seems to be a protest in futility. I continue to ponder over this, and I cant just continue to ponder in silence. Like we always said in the last popular June 12 debacle, On June 12 we stand, if I may borrow that, On April 21 we stand, protest or no protest.
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