In Nigeria, a country of contradictions, it has become extremely easy, even effortless, for public office holders to make the lamentable leap from the dignified to the despicable; from the excellent to the egregious.
To those who know, one of the reasons the quest for power in Nigeria is usually so fraught with tension is that access to power represents a ticket to the very thickets of impunity. It is in Nigeria that elected public office holders say what they like, do what they say, and defy the consequences because in most cases there are no consequences whatsoever at the end of the day.
It is in Nigeria that elected public office holders blatantly abuse power in the public glare, act brazenly and still saunter about with people cheering them on and applauding their actions.
It is in Nigeria that public office holders who should be held accountable for abusing their offices go after those who dare to question them, and have their way at the end of the day.
Thus, a country of contradictions continues to experience contradictions of all sorts, and all manner of people who personify such contradictions.
When on March 8, 2022, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja sounded the death knell for the governor and sixteen members of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly for defecting to the ruling All Progressives Congress from the opposition Peoples Democratic Process on whose platform they won elections, Mr. David Umahi, the governor, completely lost it. Casting away every pretense to civility, the governor cast aspersions on the person of the trial judge, Mr. Iyang Ekwo.
In outbursts which have drawn the critical attention of the Nigeria Bar Association, Mr. Umahi allegedly accused the trial judge of murdering justice, perpetrating jungle justice and being on a mission to embarrass the Federal Government and the All Progressives Congress. Mr. Umahi was also alleged to have proceeded on his own to declare the judgement null and void.
While the Nigeria Bar Association, the umbrella body of lawyers in Nigeria, took Mr. Umahi to the cleaners over his attack on the person of the trial judge, a leading APC national chairmanship aspirant and serving senator from Nasarawa State Mr. Tanko Al-Makura came out in a statement to strongly support Mr. David Umahi`s position. According to the former Governor of Nasarawa State, the judgment which will soon collapse as the reckless academic exercise that it is lacks merit and would soon earn its deserved place.
It really beggars belief. It beggars belief that in Nigeria, a State governor who is at the receiving end of a the judgment of a court of law can attack the trial judge with such un complimentary and uncharitable words.
It beggars belief that the governor of a state in Nigeria who is sworn to uphold the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria can attack a judicial officer in Nigeria with such venom and vitriol for nothing other than the fact that the judge gave a judgment he disagreed with.
It beggars belief that in a country where the separation of powers between the three arms of government is a clear as day, with checks and balances being just as critical, the governor of a state can take leave of the dignity and responsibility of his office to launch such a scathing attack on the person of a judge whose only offence until proven otherwise appears to be that he sat in his court and gave a judgement that such a party does not agree with. The character of some of those who straddle the corridors of power in Nigeria is unmissable when they act. They bear fruits that tell their story.
Less than forty-eight hours after raining invectives on the trial judge, Mr. Umahi hired about eighteen senior advocates of Nigeria to test the judgment on appeal. The question must thus arise that if Mr. Umahi knew that the Federal High Court in Abuja sitting as a court of first instance was never the final arbiter in his matter, why did the dignity of his office not compel him to keep his power dry and beseech the appellate courts to expose the judgement for the travesty of justice he claims it was.
He may have apologized for his utterances but the deed was long done.
In the last seven years, the Nigerian judiciary has witnessed some of the gravest attacks on its judicial independence since Nigeria gained independence in 1960.The APC and those elected on its platforms have largely been the chief culprits.
On largely spurious allegations, the homes of judges have been raided in the dead of the night while well-meaning Nigerians slept. It was under the APC-led federal government that a Chief Justice of Nigeria was removed in 2019 in suspicion-laden circumstances at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
It was also under the APC-led federal government that a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja was raided in broad day light by state actors as it conducted judicial proceedings in the trial of a prominent government critic.
If Mr. Umahi`s frustration boiled over, it may have been because all efforts to reach and influence the trial judge from arriving at the decision he reached failed. Perhaps, because the learned trial judge was not serving in the Ebonyi State Judiciary, the only way to shame him apart from testing his judgement on appeal was to rain insinuations on him in public using unprintable language.
One must then feel for some state judiciaries in Nigeria where state governors do everything they can to erode the independence of the judiciary. This they do by seeking to arbitrarily determine who emerges the chief judge of their states even when the tradition is clear, and outside the directives of the National Judicial Council which is empowered by the Constitution to do so. The longest stand- offs for this reason have come from states controlled by the APC. The shameful impasse in Cross Rivers State was resolved not long ago. Similar episodes of shame have also transpired in Kebbi and Gombe States.
Mr. David Umahi has made public his desire to become the president of Nigeria in 2023. What his outburst has outed is that he is hardly a good fit for any public office in Nigeria. The way and manner he jumped the ship of the party on whose platform he became governor spoke volumes of the content of his character.
There have also been fierce whispers about how he has governed Ebonyi State, especially his deployment of the notiorious Ebubeagu group which has been visiting terror on all those who oppose the governor in the state.
While he waits for the appellate courts to decide his fate, Mr. Umahi needs to be reminded that the judiciary should never be dragged into jamboree that Nigerian political parties engage in with neither shame nor sufferance.
Kene Obiezu,
keneobiezu@gmail.com
