Nigerian judges recently gathered for the 2021 Biennial All Nigeria Judges` Conference which held at the National Judicial Institute, Abuja and on the invitation of the judges, Nigeria`s President, Mr. Muhammadu Buhari, dispatched his Vice, Mr. Yemi Osinbajo, erudite Professor of Law and eminent Senior Advocate of Nigeria, to address the August conference.
Expectedly, Mr. Osinbajo harped on the need for the judiciary to do more to improve the justice delivery system of the country and make it more competitive to attract business.
Mr. Osinbajo also reiterated that the judiciary remains the last hope of the common man while restating the readiness of the Federal Government to partner with the judiciary to ensure that the judiciary is financially independent so that it can be free from all forms of interference.
The Vice President went on and on. But it did not take too long for the true target of his speech to emerge. Lamenting the delay in justice delivery, the Vice President was quick to stress that the judges were not necessarily at fault for the ugly trend. Instead, he blamed Nigerian lawyers for the delays while suggesting that a cost-award system that recognizes the court as a finite and expensive public resource be evolved alongside deterrent costs to discourage delays and dilatory tactics.
But does the erudite professor of law know? Does he know that his government has not appointed enough judges to man Nigeria`s courts? Does the eminent Senior Advocate of Nigeria know that many of the courts directly under the watch of his government scandalously lack adequate infrastructure with which to expedite judicial proceedings?
Does the former Attorney-General of Lagos State whose ferocious defense of the Lagos State Government in the days when erstwhile President, Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo, arbitrarily and illegally withheld allocations belonging to the State over the creation of Local Government Development Areas know that his government has not done everything within its power to preserve the independence and financial autonomy of the judiciary to preclude delay in judicial proceedings?
But he would not know. Playing the ostrich has become the signature policy of the government in which he serves. Of course, it is supremely convenient for a government that has failed and is failing to keep to its phony pre-electoral promises it made to Nigerians to flail at all available straws and blame others for its embarrassing failures.
Lawyers are not exactly the best of men, but neither are they the scum of the earth. The Federal Executive Council as it is presently constituted is staffed and stuffed with many eminent lawyers. On the fingers of one hand, one can count four Senior Advocates of Nigeria in the Vice President, Mr. Abubakar Malami , Mr. Babatunde Fashola and Mr. Festus Keyamo. That the government is strikingly famished for wise counsel is testament to either official intransigence on the part of the administration or scarlet incompetence on the part of the lawyers. Or both.
There should be shame. There should be shame that on October 8, 2016, some Nigerian judges were roused from their sleep and harassed like common criminals by men of the Department of State Services. There should be shame at the travesty that went on at the Code of Conduct Tribunal in 2019 to oust former Chief Justice of Nigeria Mr. Walter Onnoghen. There should be shame at the invasion of a Federal High Court in Abuja on 6th December 2019 while it was sitting.
There should be shame that on the 29th day of October 2021, the home of Mrs. Mary Odili, Nigeria`s second most senior judge was invaded. Till this day, different state actors continue to pass the buck among themselves.
There should be shame that in many court rooms in Nigeria, rats, bees and snakes publicly compete with judges, lawyers and litigants for premium space.
There should be shame that at the fancy of parochial interests seniority is waived in appointing the head of the judiciary in many states. There should be shame that at this point of Nigeria`s democratic journey, funding is still used as the tail that wags the dog over the judiciary.
But there is no shame. Because there is in place a government in which impunity is bread and butter, there is no shame.
Nigerians remember the hurdles Mr. Muhammadu Buhari scaled before he became president. Nigerians remember how in the days when he sought the restoration of his supposedly stolen mandate by the courts, he patronized lawyers and the judiciary. Nigerians remember the sweet nothings he said about the judiciary then.
The shoe was to go to the other leg in 2015 shortly after Mr. Muhammadu Buhari assumed Nigeria`s highest office. As part of his rhetoric against corruption, he hastily blamed lawyers and by extension the judiciary for the cancerous corruption that was eating up the country. It proved a harbinger of what was to come as the homes of judges were invaded shortly after. Those who read the signs must worry at where this is going and the treacherous terrain where it may yet lead to.
Under the present administration, there has been a deliberate attempt to rein in the judiciary. This makes sense as the legislature has already been reined in given that its leadership is composed by legislators loyal to the President and his party. Democracy and federalism guarantee the principle of separation of power and in the face of crystal-clear attempts to erode it, judges must worry.
Courage is the spine of justice and the judges in the hearing of whom the Vice President blamed lawyers should have asked him questions. The Vice President should have been asked questions about what his government was doing to uncover those behind the recent sacrilegious attack on the home of Mrs. Mary Odili, Nigeria`s second most senior judge.
The judges should have asked the Vice President why the Department of State Services is always so intent on keeping out select people from witnessing the trial of Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra.
Poignant questions, personal and impersonal, must be asked of those who administer justice in Nigeria and those who have the people`s mandate to guarantee the proper administration of justice.
If there is rot in Nigeria`s justice sector, it must have begun from the top. Nigerian judges must look at themselves, so must Nigerian lawyers.
The government must also ensure that its house is in order because to ladle out blame to others while its own teeth are on edge from eating sour grapes would amount to heinous hypocrisy. Not that it will matter much to it.
It can only be hideous hypocrisy for the government to conveniently blame lawyers for imaginary infractions while turning a blind eye to the utterances and activities of its own chief law whose sole remit it appears is to do whatever the government wants no matter how illegal or repugnant to Nigerians.
As for the lawyers who serve in the current do-nothing administration, no matter how long it takes, the chickens will come home to roost.
Kene Obiezu,
keneobiezu@gmail.com
