Judiciary under siege

The Nigerian political firmament has always been tough. It is getting tougher nowadays with the principle of winner-takes-all being embraced by politicians. In Nigeria, some people have seen politics as the easiest avenue to make money. This accounts for the level of desperation with which politicians approach the game.

While Nigerians await the pronouncements by various electoral tribunals across the states, there’s the need to emphasise that judges handling the cases must be protected from desperate politicians.

There have been controversies over the relocation of some state tribunals to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) either for security of the officials of the tribunals or to avoid unnecessary meddlesomeness by politicians. Many people have expressed fears that by the time the tribunals are ready to give judgments, desperate politicians might begin to kick. It is also alleged that some officials of the tribunals are now being approached to miscarry justice. But we hereby advise that such contemplation should be aborted in the interest of the nation’s fledgling democracy.

At a special session of the Supreme Court, Abuja, on September 19, 2011, Joseph Daudu, then Nigerian Bar Association president, had voiced the despair of the citizenry when he said there was “a growing perception backed up by empirical evidence that justice is purchasable and it has been purchased on several occasions in Nigeria”.

Since the return of the country to civil rule in 1999, a number of judges have been manhandled for either delivering judgments their assailants believed were not favourable to them, or in order to cause some miscarriage of justice. We recall with regrets the cold-blooded murder of some of the finest politicians in the country between 2002 and 2003. We also recall the eruption of politically-motivated violence in some states of the federation which claimed several lives of innocent individuals.

Between 1999 and 2007, the government in power had a penchant for not obeying court rulings. It was flagrant in disobeying orders from the court. The party in power at the point was also infamous for threatening judges and the judiciary in general.

Whereas a number of judges have had to stew in their own juice for their obvious indiscretions and gaffes, some innocent others who insist on justice are being hunted by vicious politicians who believe that the business of politicking must be a win-win all the time.

Indeed, there have been cases of outright and barefaced assault on some judges for their courage to stand for the truth. We recall the case of a judge sitting over the Ekiti State gubernatorial election petitions who was physically assaulted and had his clothes torn to shreds in full public glare by thugs allegedly on the orders of a political heavyweight in the state. It was reported that the huge number of policemen drafted to the court premises could not stop the activities of the miscreants.

Recently, a female judge was quoted as saying that her life was being threatened by a politician and had to raise an alarm to alert the general public.

In March, Mahmud Mohammed, the chief justice of Nigeria, cried out over what he described as the desperate plot by politicians to use the judiciary to scuttle Nigeria’s democracy. But the CJN assured Nigerians of his commitment to ensure the country’s judiciary does not succumb to politicians’ machinations.

“We will not be swayed or distracted from the course of justice in any election matter that is before or comes before the justice system,” the CJN assured.

We stand by the CJN and join our voice with his to “strongly” advise “all judicial officers not to allow any party or politician use the courts to truncate our nation’s nascent democracy”.