By Richard Akinnola
Justice is rooted in public confidence. It wasn’t for fun that judges of old lived reclusive lifestyles like old monks – Insular, with minimal social life. Lest they mingled with present and potential litigants.
Judges were then seen as being next to God. They were approached with awe, reverence and trepidation. They exuded so aura. Even when they met with functionaries of other arms, they were always treated with so much respect. Then, it was a taboo to send Christmas or Sallah gifts to judges.
Commingling with members of the executive was an anathema. Such relationships were supposed to be mutually exclusive.
Today, such noble exceptions have become a norm. On November 24, 2022, immediate past CJN, Olukayode Ariwoola was in Port harcourt, Rivers state to commission a court project executed by the then Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike. If that official function had ended that way, perhaps, there could not have been the latter furore.
That night, Wike organized a banquet dinner in the honour of the CJN. Present at the event were some of his PDP governors, then known as G5. They were the renegade group within the PDP opposed to Atiku Abubakar and loyal to Wike as their leader.
During his speech, Ariwoola, from Oyo state like Seyi Makinde, his governor who was present at the event, made a faux pas, stating that he was happy that Makinde belonged to the G5. To quote him, he said:
“That is why we should not be scared to have these men of the integrity group.
And I am happy that my own governor is among them because he would try to imitate his friend and in-law because we came here to marry for my governor.
“So, Governor Wike will always threaten that he will call back his sister if my governor fails to play ball. That is why you see him following his Excellency (Wike) because my governor is afraid of his wife being recalled.”
He then praised Wike for leaving a legacy in Rivers State worthy of emulation.
What a sacrilege. He was lacerated by critics for his careless flirtatious political comment.
To stave off the backlash, he caused his media spokesman to issue a rebuttal, saying he was quoted out of context. He had forgotten the event was aired live on Channels and it’s on YouTube.
I was aghast when a l saw, few days ago, the story and photograph of FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, appointing the president of the Court of Appeal, Hon. justice Monica Dongban-Mensem as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the IBB International Golf and Country Club in Abuja. To the uninitiated, the golf club is an elite club of the movers and shakers in the political and business world, a conclave where business and political deals are perfected. Is it therefore appropriate for a judge of the caliber of the president of the court of appeal to be seen in such an environment , where she has to mingle with politically exposed persons and their associates?
Don’t forget that the president of the Court of Appeal is responsible for empaneling Justices for election tribunal duties and those of the court of appeal. It may be possible that the PCA may not be involved in such shenanigans but justice is rooted in public confidence. Perception is often stronger than reality, particularly in an environment where the FCT minister, rightly or wrongly, is perceived as the chief enforcer and enabler of certain judgments in political cases. For the president of the Court of Appeal cavorting with such a politician by accepting the position of the Chairman of Board of trustees of such a club, does not augur well for public confidence in justice delivery. It was the same inappropriate relationship between a senior police officer, DSP Iyamu with notorious armed robbers, Lawrence Anini and Monday Osunbor that led to their trial and execution for armed robbery in the 80s in former Bendel State.
Judges and politicians are like oil and water. They don’t mix. Perhaps, that is in the realm of theoretical conjectures by idealistic proponents of judicial independence.
Critics with such perception are wont to refer to an incident in October 2016, when the Buhari government wanted to address the malfeasance of corruption in our judex.
In an operation that targeted some judges, the Department of States Security (DSS), in a dawn raid, stormed the homes of some judges in impromptu searches. One of such judges was Justice Mohammed Liman (of the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, as he then was). The DSS operatives stormed his Port harcourt home, on the suspicion that a large cache of dollars from a politically exposed person were stored in the home. Rather than call his Chief Judge at that wee hour to intimate him of the strange visitors, Justice Liman called Governor Wike, who stormed the judge’s home that wee hours and prevented the DSS operatives from gaining entry and carrying out their duties.
The relationship between the Bench and executive in Nigeria has become incestuous, an odoriferous act of judicial perfidy. Open flirtation between the judiciary and the executive, lacking in judicial gravitas, exposes the Bench to public opprobrium, particularly at this era where there seems to be an asphyxiation of the judex.
Supposedly, the judiciary is the last hope of the common man but that confidence is being daily eroded today by acts of commission or omission by the judex, through questionable judgments that stand both law and logic on its head and also through unholy dalliances between the judex and politically exposed persons.
Was it not in this country that we witnessed during the 9th Senate, Senator Adamu Bulkachuwa and husband of the former president of Court of appeal, Hon. Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa wherein he said at the valedictory session on June 13, 2023, how he assisted some fellow legislators through their cases with his wife?
“Particularly my wife, whose freedom and independence I encroached upon when she was in office, and she has been very tolerant and accepted my encroachment and extended her help to my colleagues…I look at faces in this chamber whom have come to me and sought for my help when my wife was the President of the Court of Appeal”, Bulkachuwa said to the discomfiture of Senate president, Ahmed Lawan who tried to hush him up.
In a paper delivered at the 1988 Annual Bar Dinner of Ikeja Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) on January 22, 1988, Justice Chukwudifu Akunne Oputa said on the independence of the judiciary:
“The decision of important and controversial cases on the basis of merit and principle rather than on the basis of expediency;
It means resisting the pressures of hysteria and fanaticism; it is that ingredient that allows a judge to rise above passion, above public clamour, and above the politics of the moment;
It insulates the judge from executive violence, legislative violence and mob’s hysteria and violence;
Without judicial independence, no judge however brilliant and hardworking, however well-prepared by qualities of heart, mind and professional training can give full effect to the enduring values enshrined in our constitution or even do justice to justice”.
Here was a jurist who walked the talk. Today, where are the Dr Akinola Agudas, Anthony Aniagolus, Adolphus Karibi-Whytes, Kayode Esos, Ephraim Akpatas, Udo Udomas, Aloma Muktars, Uwaifos, Pats-Acholonus, JIC Taylors, Yaya Jinadus on our Bench? This is a challenge to the current crop of judges at different levels. What would you be remembered for, years after leaving the Bench? Your questionable wealth through dubious judicial heresies or your faithful adherence to judicial oath of office of not perverting the course of justice?
The Executive, legislature and Judiciary were fathered by one person -the constitution. The judiciary should therefore sever herself from any incestuous dalliances with her other siblings, particularly the executive.
The world is watching.
