On-salvaging-the-image-of-the-nigerian-judiciary

Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria
 
ON SALVAGING THE IMAGE OF THE NIGERIAN JUDICIARY
It is sad that despite its pivotal role in the fight against corruption and the adjudication of justice across all issues affecting everyone in the country, the Nigerian Judiciary, which is supposed to be the last hope of the common man, has over the years, not lived up to the expectations of Nigerians. Rather, it has been bastardized within its different levels with varying degrees of isues which have made every of its judicial judgment and pronouncement questionable, lacking integrity/reliability.  In fact, some of the key players in the Nigerian Judiciary (lawyers and Judges), have reduced the nation’s legal system to nothing with the sort of conflicting, confusing, and unjustifiable judgements they render on some sensitive cases. This has made Nigerians to lose confidence and faith in the nation’s Judiciary.
Obviously, it is this stark and unfortunate reality that recently made the  Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Ibrahim Muhammad, former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Thomson Okpoko (SAN), Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),  Ibrahim Magu, and others; to have suggested ways of addressing the waning public confidence in the Judiciary.
While Justice Muhammad, advocated a concerted effort by all stakeholders to aid the judiciary in the effective discharge of its responsibilities; Okpoko, who regretted the sorry state of affairs in the judiciary, argued that there was need for more transparency in the operations of the court, including the process of appointing and promoting judges. Magu, on the other hand, advocated the need for commitment among lawyers and judges to rid the society of corruption and unethical conduct. They spoke in Abuja at a forum, with the theme: ‘Public Discourse on Justice Delivery in Nigeria:  A Framework for Reform’ put together by Justice Reform Project (JRP). Represented by Justice Ejembi Eko (also of the Supreme Court), the Acting CJN noted that: “no society develops without justice. A society decays from injustice. Help us to build a nation where no one is oppressed.”
The truth is that, the status of the Judiciary within a democratic system is sacrosanct because they are given the mandate to preside over the interpretation, adjudication and dispensation of justice. As such, we cannot afford to have so many instances that suggest the sort of flawed judgments that were obviously borne out of a corrupt disposition amongst Nigerian Judges and within the Judiciary.
When Court judgements are seen to be given with any trace of compromise, even the Government and its principles officials may find it difficult to obey such court judgments of this nature. We are not referring to Court judgements that are apparently disobeyed by Government officials, we are referring to Court Judgements that are laden with bias, compromise and at best, considered unreasonable. For instance, can a person obey a Court judgement that stops that person from eating food in his/her house? That is the level where most Court judgments in Nigeria have degenerated to - where even the law enforcement agents and the Government will find it difficult to obey. Obeying such Court judgments is tantamount to demanding that one should stop breathing. Some of these judgements are so unreasonable, as they do not have any element of integrity in them.
The Nigerian judiciary as it stands at the moment, is a cause for alarm, and something must be done immediately to cleanse and overhaul the entire Judiciary before it is too late. The Nigerian society is afflicted with crimes of all kinds and yet their Court Injunctions and Court Orders/Judgements will not allow the Nigerian Police to fight crime the way they ought to. This is because some of these Judges deliver unpopular Court Judgements to free known suspected criminals, and they also go to prisons to free more hardened criminals. Thereby endangering the society, the more. We shout and complain every day that the Nigerian Police is not working, but when they work, they are stopped by the law Courts. With such situations all around us, are the Nigerian Courts actually helping the society or killing it?
It is also appalling to note how some of these Nigerian lawyers and Judges become ‘excited’ during any election year, like they have been since January 2019. Their excitements are borne out of the fact that they see the post-general election period as their “festive period” of making it big with election tribunal cases and other election-related cases across different parts of the country and across different levels of government. Their excitement is also extended across “high profile” cases that pop up every now and then. These Nigerian lawyers and Judges see these as opportunities to “hammer”! There are so many instances that suggests the sort of flawed judgements that were obviously borne out of a corrupt disposition amongst Nigerian Judges, but we will not bother ourselves to mention them here.
The truth is that, in the Nigerian Judiciary, an emergency should be declared because what is going on is not normal. If this government really wants to fight corruption, the gateway to that battle is the judiciary because the President cannot fight corruption. It is an established fact that any democratic government that really wants to fight corruption, the gateway to that battle is through the Judiciary. In other words, no matter how powerful, resilient and determined a President can be, there is little or nothing he or she can do physically or otherwise do to enforce its resolve to fight corruption in a democratic setting. The hammer that nails the head in the fight against corruption is the Judiciary because it is the arm of government that interprets, upholds, enforces, implements, adjudicates, and executes the Rule of Law and every other law that governs the society. So, where the Judiciary has/is not living up to its expectations, not much can be achieved in the fight against corruption no matter the resolve of the President to achieve success in this area.
 
 
Zik Gbemre.
 
We Mobilize Others to Fight for Individual Causes as if Those Were Our Causes