When the Department of State Security (DSS) based on discreet information of corrupt practices labeled against some Justices of the Supreme Court, descended on residences of those corrupt judges and made several mind boggling discoveries at the early stage of the first term tenure of President Buhari. There were outcries of human right violation from the hypocrites in our midst in the temple of justice. Corruption was under perfection in the Supreme Court.
When the former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen was booted out disgracefully for corrupt enrichment, same hypocrites disturbed our peace, so was the case with the immediate past Chief Justice, Justice Ibrahim Tanko who hurriedly vacated the exalted seat before he could be fired to save face. But why are our judges in their right sense always found wanting and corrupt in the first place? The worst of the judges are those illiterates appointed to preside over various Shari’ah and Customary Court. Those judges have redefined what deliverance of credible justice means other than perfecting corrupt practice through fronts, touts or directly to water their appetite and taste.
Nigeria’s Supreme Court and other courts are now business and extortion centres or at best, gambling houses for those with the funds to play the game according to the beats of the corrupt judges.
If carefully reasoned, in the history of the affairs of mankind, wherever and whenever democracy thrives as the government of the people, by the people and for the people to give people the best available option and the best shot they can have at good governance, a vibrant, virile and visionary judiciary is never at a distance.
In fact, whenever a society has been able to forge a content citizenry out of an otherwise disgruntled mishmash of men and women who would ordinarily favor a survival of the fittest, it is usually because of a proactive judiciary is always around to resolve conflicts and clear away the cobwebs that so often accompany people and their matters.
Firmly etched into human experience of existing in any society is the harrowing fact that whenever the judiciary fails to meet the ends of justice or whenever people have not perceived that justice has been met accordingly, the wounds always take longer time to heal.
Nigeria’s democratic landscape is littered with a history of intervention by the courts. Of pristine moments when the courts stepped in to halt illegality or to check the abuse of power thus bringing surging impunity to a screeching stop. Some of the Nigerian judiciary’s most forceful interventions have come to shape the country’s electoral landscape in times when an ambiguous law or sheer electoral malfeasance threatened the will of the Nigerian people.
The courts’ interventions have no doubt largely helped to sanitize a system that has not always been without blemish. But more than cleaning the Augean stable, the actions of the judiciary in stopping electoral thieves in their tracks have strengthened the foundations of Nigeria’s democracy and renewed hope among Nigerians that there may yet be something for them in their own country.
Ahead of critical elections which are just days away, questions are mounting over the readiness of the judiciary to rectify the rot that will no doubt rise from the elections. When the question of readiness is thrown the way of the judiciary, it is often directed at asking whether the independence and impartiality of the judiciary have remained inviolate.
A careful study of the recent judicial summersault and abracadabra associated with Yobe North Senatorial District where a dispute existed over the ticket of All Progressives Congress (APC) that meandered its way to the Supreme Court, ‘unfortunately’ for the democracy, the ticket was definitively awarded or bought over by a hitherto embattled Sen. Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan, the current Senate President.
Bashir Machina, who contested the party primary had convincingly won the May 2022 for the Yobe North Senatorial contest, but the ‘greedy ingrate’ Ahmed Lawan who has been in the national assembly since 1999 and not a participant in the APC Yobe North senatorial primary election, returned with bruises all over his face from the APC presidential primary in which Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu had mopped the floor with him in spite of the glaring fact that he was touted as the favorite of the powers that be to whip up a titanic tussle over the destination of the ticket.
He had relinquished the senatorial contest when his grand illusions had convinced him that the country’s presidency was his for the asking and for grab on platter of gold. He was caught day dreaming and duly paid in his own coins by the APC Convention Delegates who confined him and his tall ambition to the dustbin of history.
Lawan’s quest to rip the APC Yobe North senatorial ticket off the unyielding claws of Machina laid bare the starling hypocrisy of the leadership of the APC which swiftly ruled that Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan won the ticket in a dubious primary election that was never held to public knowledge.
When Bashir Machina rushed to the court to seek redress, the Federal High Court sitting in Damaturu, Yobe State, delivered judgment in his favor. A repeat was the case at the Court of Appeal which held that he was the rightful candidate for the senatorial zone in the coming February 25 elections.
Thus, Bashir remained the rightful candidate of the APC for Yobe North Senatorial District election until the mighty Supreme Court’s judgment which upturned the two earlier judgments and gave a non-participant in the primary election a dash of the ticket against the rightful owner and in a claimed democracy or democrazy.
The infamous judgment of the Supreme Court has since sent shivers and shockwaves through Nigeria’s courts of public opinion and casting doubts on sincerity of the judgment and credibility of the judiciary.
For many Nigerians especially those who are not conversant with the delicate mechanics of justice, the judgment was perverse, bias and an injury to the credibility of the judicial system.
And therein lies a prodigious problem of perception that may not be solved with ease in decades to come.
Commenting on the fragile situation at hand threatening trust of the judicial system and possible derailment of confidence in the democracy and the judiciary if left unchecked, an Abuja based lawyer and political activist, Barrister Umar Farouk said: “The majority judgment delivered by the Supreme Court in respect of the APC candidate for Yobe North Senatorial election, did not find and conclude that Bashir Machina was not with a meritorious case. What the majority found was that the means through which the substantive suit was commenced was faulty and built on such a faulty foundation which necessitated the suit to suffer the sanction of a striking out that should be understood by all from the point of law without prejudice to any of the parties involved
“Personal opinions formed on matters before any court of competent jurisdiction does not count in law because it has never been part of law. It is rather the unbiased decision of presiding judge or judges that matters, and should always be accepted and respected at all times”.
Notwithstanding the opinion from the point of law by a professional to douse tension and strengthen the records to our understanding, but to a layman, the economics of justice must always take precedence over emotions of it, in a country where failing and flailing institutions have conspired to drag over 200million citizens into the mire, what people think about any person or process absolutely matters.
Were the impossibly fine margins not enough for the Supreme Court to learn of substantial justice of chaos and conspiracy that are determined to stampede the judiciary?
With crucial elections right around the corner commencing in few days time, Nigerians are not wrong to be apprehensive about what commendable roles their courts may play in handling election matters. Under the current administration which is gratefully packing, its bag and baggage, Nigerians have been patiently watching how the judiciary is repeatedly bruised and battered.
The height of it all was when a sitting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen was chased and booted out from office in suspicious circumstances and arraigned before the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
Yet, for the sake of whatever is left in the country and of the country, the judiciary must rise to the occasion in what is a critical period in the life of the country. The elections will bring an avalanche of allegations and accusations accompanied with a legion of litigations. However, the judiciary must stand firm to stem the tide of impunity and issue a brand of justice that will match the will of the Nigerian people and the international community that is losing trust and confidence in everything Nigerian.
While it may be yet impossible for the judiciary to recover all of its battered reputation most especially on how the Supreme Court awarded the gubernatorial office of Rivers State to Nyeson Wike in 2015, Imo State to Sen. Hope Uzodinma in 2019 and how the Court of Appeal Jos Division awarded Bauchi North Senatorial seat to Adamu Bulkachuwa against the actual winner of the 2019 election, Farouk Mustapha and several other cases across the country. But, hope is not lost as there may be light at the end of the tunnel for yet another chance of a shot at redemption.
While the character of majority of judges in Nigeria is undoubtedly in question, there is no escaping the fact that many Nigerian judges are hard at work and always doing the right thing within the temple of justice deserving commendation, and they ought to be encouraged to keep on going for the sake of Nigeria’s hard-won democracy, security and the sacrifices necessary to bequeath a prosperous country to the yet unborn.
As for all those who continue to bend the rules to exclude others thereby leaving the judiciary with near impossible tasks, the day will surely come when Nigeria will be too narrow a place for them to exert their iniquitous influences. The day is coming at a lightening spped!
Muhammad is a commentator on national issues
