The last few months haven’t been good for the Nigerian Judiciary. A strong and independent Judiciary is one of the pillars of a genuine democracy, but long gone are the days when Nigerians believed that Judges should be held in high esteem and Courts dispensed justice. In Nigeria elected leaders of the Executive and legislature have so little respect for the law that they demand immunity from it as part of their conditions of service! There is a successful concerted attempt to subjugate a Judiciary which has been unable to assert their right and stand their ground. The strategy has been one of rubbishing Judges through unsubstantiated allegations of corruption.
A case in point is the trial and subsequent resignation of the former Chief Justice of the Federation of Nigeria (CJN) Walter Onnoghen. Undeniably the judicial process was corrupted, distorted and abridged in order to get rid of him. Now that he has resigned, it really no longer matters whether he was guilty or not, what is important is the repercussions for Nigeria’s constitutional democracy. The presence of democratic institutions doesn’t necessarily mean that democracy is alive and well.
In Zibltat and Levistsky’s book “How Democracies Die” they outlined the manner in which elected leaders can gradually increase their power, become authoritarian and subvert the democratic process through the use of the very institutions of democracy. They contended that many subversions of democracy are “legal” because they are approved by the legislature and accepted by the judiciary. In Onnoghen’s case his initial suspension was based on a legal document by a Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) created by a legally recognized Act which passed through a legally recognized law-making legislature.
The Tribunal isn’t part of the Nigerian Judiciary, rather it’s a quasi-criminal Court under the full control of the Executive, conferred with powers to be Accuser, Prosecutor, and Judge in all matters before it! Another “Institution of Democracy” the National Judicial Council (NJC) woefully subjugated itself to the wishes of the Executive by recommending Onoghen’s compulsory retirement and the appointment of the “Acting CJN” in his place supposedly in order to “maintain confidence in the judiciary”. They ignored the principles of natural justice and appeared totally unworried by conscience. Neither were they embarrassed by recommending his replacement with someone who by their own rules should have been retired for accepting appointment in an acting capacity through subversion of the natural order of appointment of judges. This contradicts their stand in Abia State where a Chief Judge was removed by an elected Governor without recourse to the law and they recommended the dismissal of the Justice who replaced the Chief Judge.
The NJC’s subordination of the principle of the rule of law to the dictates and desires of the Executive, their application of double standards, and their refusal to comment on whether or not a President has any power to suspend, sack or remove the Chief Justice of the Federation without recourse to the Judicial rules or constitutional provisions, has eroded citizen’s confidence in the Judiciary far more than Onnoghen’s actions. Neither did the CCT fare well in the matter. Acting with a previously unheard of alacrity the petition against Onnoghen was written on the 7th January, received on the 9th, charges filed on the 11th and arraignment on the 14th! As far as Mike Ozekhone SAN is concerned the Chairman of the CCT Danladi Umar, himself the subject of serious corruption allegations, acted without any pretence of justice, disrespected the office of the CJN, refused to recuse himself on the matter of jurisdiction, discarded earlier precedents, ignored court rulings and granted an ex-parte order not moved by any lawyer on record. It was obvious that once his ex-parte order had been granted Onnoghen was a “dead man walking”.
Incredulously a legion of lawyers supposedly trained in the need for substantive evidence, found him guilty even before his trial had commenced! If a person of the caliber of the former CJN cannot get justice, then it speaks volumes about the plight of ordinary citizens. This isn’t the first time the NJC has thrown one of their own under the bus. The case of Justice Ayo Salami is still fresh in the mind. Back then when his innocence became clear the NJC neither defended nor exonerated him. Rather he was sacrificed and stayed “suspended” for over two years! There was little hope for Onnoghen that NJC would come to his defense. Those who believe the treatment meted out to him is the beginning of every government official from the top downwards being subjected to the same interrogation, and disclosure of their bank account details, personal bank loans, as well as personal finances are sorely mistaken. Celebration of Onnoghen’s resignation should be tempered by deep concern for the dangerous consequences of a bad precedent in a nation whose leaders show little regard for the rule of law.
The Judiciary should be forewarned that, nothing good will come out of the appalling manner in which the former CJN was criminalized and humiliated without being found guilty of by any Court. The “Independence” of the Judiciary has now been pocketed by the Executive, it’s simply the final nail in their coffin.
