By Ike Abonyi
“Peace cannot exist without justice, justice cannot exist without fairness, fairness cannot exist without development, development cannot exist without democracy, democracy cannot exist without respect for the identity and worth of cultures and peoples.” – Rigoberta Menchú Tu, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1992)
Some lawyers and judges often think their lay friends/siblings cannot tell good from bad judgments. Such judges use jargon to confuse their rogue rulings. On the contrary, an average person can appreciate a good judicial outcome. In any case, justice should be unambiguous despite its technicalities. Judges and adjudicators who dance around justice should know that all the underhand games are well known to the people.
The high-profile politicians who influence judgments and their security partners involved in the state capture of the nation’s judiciary, the “Senior Advocates of Negotiation” who make their name more for their ability to negotiate gratifications for judges, rather than their legal prowess, and the security chiefs who use coercion are all known to the people. The so-called laypeople follow developments and even notice when defence counsel and judges switch roles in some election petitions. They saw Korokoro when referees descended onto the field wearing the jersey of one of the teams. Before, these things used to be done with style. But these days (with their ‘capon’ on the throne), they are more blatant.
The people may be unable to do anything beyond invoking God’s wrath. However, the overall effect of such a passionate expression of grief ends up more devastating. Have we ever sat back to consider why less than 20 per cent of public officers have rosy lives with their families after leaving office? It’s arising from curses emanating from the lamentations of the helpless and hapless populace.
Judging cases is a calling like a priest’s duty. A calling is not necessarily for money-making or personal aggrandisement. You derail and lose focus as a judge when you start seeing yourself as a political leader who should influence things, right or wrong. The same case applies to the one who sees themselves as representing a particular interest.
The increased decadence in society today is because of the misadventure where people take up callings such as priests, pastors, Imams, and judges to increase their influence and affluence, instead of serving the creator and humanity. This situation applies to all professions, including journalism. The moment I use my pen to advance an unjust cause, it turns into an abuse of my God-given talent. It has consequences!
As a political reporter who has been active in and around Nigeria for most of these four decades, I know it never ended well with judges who came down from their high calling to the murky waters of politics. Ditto politicians who had abused their positions. When we say that it’s God who gives power and position, we also refuse to hear that it’s the same God who punishes those who rise to power unjustly. Just look around you today to see some high and mighty in the political sphere or judges of yesterday who are struggling to live with their wealth. They are striving to enjoy true happiness that can only come from God.
As a journalist and chronicler of events, I owe God and humanity the duty to draw the attention of the current political and judicial players: what they do or fail to do has serious consequences now or later. There are consequences too for society expecting justice and fairness but getting the opposite, for individuals or groups denied it and have become victims as a result.
From the military era to the June 12 impasse to the current political dispensation (1999 to 2023), I have watched political and judicial operatives who undermined justice and now live or die in regret. Living in regret does not mean a lack of money or position but being denied the most cherished things that humans seek: good health and true happiness.
My duty, therefore, is to highlight all that may accompany this brazen and blatant undermining of the people’s will for pecuniary gains. This subversion is raging across the country…in Lagos, Enugu, Kano, Plateau, and Zamfara states among others. They may have the power and what it takes to dance samba on the grave of the underdog but it certainly does not end the matter.
We must recognise, however, the fact that judges, being human, are fallible. They can deliver faulty judgments sometimes and be forgiven, but not always. It is worse if a bad judgement derives from corrupting influences of the parties to a case and or other interests antithetical to justice, fairness, and the rule of law.
I have not had much privilege of interviewing judges and justices because of their secretive and highly conservative lifestyle. But I was lucky to have interviewed one outstanding justice twice. Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, when he was Chairman of the Truth and Justice Commission, alias Justice Oputa Panel, who showed me the depth of his intellect and wisdom and why he was the Socrates of the Supreme Court.
“Judges are fallible because they are human and they are not Pope but rarely should they fall,” he told me in one of my encounters with him.
Today, the falling of our judges is no longer infrequent but more often than ever imagined. Imagine Justices Chukwudifu Oputa, Justice Niki Tobi, Kayode Esho, Justice Idris Kutigi, and Justice Karibi-Whyte, among others of that calibre presiding over Imo State gubernatorial case that saw candidate No. 4 chase away No. 1 or non-contestants in the Senate seat emerging to be a senator and a Senate President in Yobe and Akwa Ibom state respectively or all the ruling from various election tribunals at the appellate and apex levels.
Justice Oputa could never have imagined a corrupt judge. Here, he is on marble on different occasions: “If you are a judge and you are corrupt where do we go from here? Then everything has come to a halt. If the legislature is corrupt, you go to the judiciary for redress. If the executive is corrupt, you go to the judiciary for remedy. If the judiciary itself is corrupt, where do you go from there? That is a question, where do you go? To God whom you don’t see? To history which is in the past? To the future that hasn’t come? Today is here, so let us use it.”
All the judges who play with the lives of Nigerians by underrating the power and effects of their obnoxious rulings should once again hear Justice Oputa on the devastating reverberations of a bad judgement. What damage it does to the environment in all ramifications. Delivering a ruling in the case involving the late fiery lawyer Fawehinmi v. Akilu (2002) 7 NWLR (Pt. 769) 527 at 689, Justice Oputa said, “Bad judgements can have a devastating impact on the economy and poverty reduction. They can discourage investment, undermine market confidence, and lead to increased corruption. Bad judgements can also erode public trust in the judiciary, which is essential for a stable and functioning democracy.”
If the judges at the various tribunals and appeal courts as well as the Supreme Court were conscious of the above impact on society, they would have been more circumspect, and unwilling to drag their country into such avoidable circumstances.
If they were aware that their unpleasant rulings could worsen the multidimensional poverty status of a country that is already the global poverty headquarters, if they understand that their rulings are worsening the leadership recruitment and blocking the search for ethical leadership in the land, maybe they will have a rethink and save themselves and the country going forward.
Even if the Supreme Court cannot reverse certain embarrassing decisions already taken, going forward it can still use the remaining cases before it to reduce the damage and try to redeem itself. Fortunately, Nigerians have large hearts and can easily forgive yesterday’s error if there is a correction today. To do that requires simple courage, the type that says no to state capture of the entire judicial system. If the immediate past President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Barr Olumide Akpata, can confess at an international forum in France that Nigeria’s judiciary is afflicted by state capture and that only by fluke will a good judge emerge from the system already emasculated by the political class, where do go from here?
What the former NBA boss said was not a scoop because Nigerians of all classes know long ago the judiciary sold its soul to the highest bidder. When it began to give rulings that contradicted the status quo, rulings it was shy to cite in subsequent judgements. When it started dining and wining with criminals camouflaging as political leaders…when it began to amass wealth it did not even need. Corrupt judges bastardised the hallowed chamber and started thinking like politicians about succession to their seats, wanting only their children, spouses, and girlfriends to succeed them. It was then that we knew that the hallowed house had decreased and democracy was put out on the slab for slaughter. God help us.
