Nigeria’s courts of cutthroats and kickbacks

As the Giant of Africa has been pounded on all sides by all manner of projectiles directed at the heart of a once prosperous country, there has been a frantic search for saviours – a desperate dash of the eyes for a salve, for hope, mostly in vain.

The judiciary, the longstanding last hope of the common man, has always existed to signify something more than just another institution of government. Its presence of mind and poise even in the midst of chaotic national conversations has always seen it keep its place as an arbiter. Until now.

It has been a long time in coming – strong suspicions tinged with bitterness and a nagging sense of betrayal at the last hope of the common man having become the last hoe for his gravediggers.

When after the advent of the Muhammadu Buhari administration in 2015, various state actors began to launch unprecedented assaults on the judiciary, Nigerians gave a knowing nod – one that recalled the undemocratic credentials of the one who had come in first place at the 2015 polls and the demystification of men who by selling their birthrights for pots of filthy lucre had cast their pearls before swine.

Post-2015, it has become common for Nigerians to wag their fingers at judges and the courts especially when the curiousity of yet another freshly voiced verdict gives off even the faintest hint of dubiety. Justice is rooted in confidence and to say that Nigerians have lost confidence in the judiciary is put it mildly.

Now, in a scenario akin to the lizard sharpening its teeth with salt while lamentation is going on for those bitten to death by the rat, a new report by the United States Department of State has painted a darker picture of the self-destruction going on in the Nigerian judiciary and the Scylla and Charybdis it is wedged in between in the executive and legislative arms of government.

In its “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2021” many red flags were raised about the inordinate influence of political leaders on lawyers and judges, widespread public perception that judges were easily bribed and litigants could not rely on the courts to render impartial judgments, long delays, requests for bribe from judicial officers to expedite cases or obtaining favourable rulings, understaffing, inefficiency, corruption and dereliction among others.

Now, even if the lines of this litany sung in lamentation of the leprosy afflicting such a critical arm of government were prepared by the enemy, what is happening here, what is the reality on ground, how do Nigerians perceive their judiciary? Admittedly, it is nothing to write home about.

It appears there are problems everywhere. Some of the problems are foundational. A country ill at ease with the delicacy of democratic federalism continues to struggle with the basics. So, many times, power-drunk members of the executive discard the scripts of separation of powers and checks and balances, and out of their whims and caprices, they begin to dictate to the judiciary in violent violation of everything federalism is.

The judiciary as with many other institutions of government is poorly funded. Even the poor funding is not guaranteed as every now and then, funding is used as the tail that wags the dog.

There have also been problems with the antecedents and credentials of those who preside in different courts as judges. As with many other things in the country, nepotism and cronyism have so eaten away at the selection process for judges that every shelf is stacked full with skeletons.  Thus, many of those who eventually make the cut are left beholden to the extensively corrupt patronage that is a firm fixture of politics in Nigeria.

In a country where the executive arm of government breeds resentment and revulsion in the citizenry as much as the legislative arm breeds bitterness, the judiciary as the last hope of the common man is supposed to sweeten the pudding. Alas, what it largely continues to serve Nigerians by virtue of judgments tainted with ambiguity and dubiety is vinegar and stale bread.

It appears that a venue of vultures has finally taken of the temple of justice in Nigeria.

Kene Obiezu,

keneobiezu@gmail.com

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