Joseph Nkaissery has no authority to stop demonstrations

Interior CS Joseph Nkaissery

An old dog does not learn new tricks, so the adage goes. Contemporary research however continues to show that you can in fact teach an old dog new tricks?—?the dog just needs to use a different kind of nerve cell to learn them. Yet another saying, perhaps far less known but old enough to be one of those Latin phrases that’s engraved into stone somewhere in the sprawl of the former Roman Empire; Repetitio mater studiorum est.

Repetition is the mother of all learning. Which is why I will embark on an exercise I have undertaken severally in the past, that is, repeating ad nauseam that under Article 37 of our Constitution every person has the right, peaceably and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket, and to present petitions to public authorities. This right is buttressed by Article 19(3) of the Constitution which provides that the rights and fundamental freedoms in the Bill of Rights belong to each individual and are not granted by the State.