Corruption on the bar and bench

One lesson the legal profession in Nigeria will hopefully have learnt from public reaction following the atrocious invasion of the homes of judges by the Department of State Services (DSS) is the imperative of the bar and bench voluntarily and internally reforming themselves else a perverted, unintelligent, draconian and probably destructive form of reform may be imposed on them from outside. Public opinion about the judiciary is apparently that many, if not most judges are corrupt and even members of the inner bar are on record suggesting that the bar, especially senior lawyers are perpetually engaged in compromising judges! A friend called me to ask if it was true that all Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) do is essentially bribe judges! Another associate declared that the judiciary and legal profession are the worst manifestations of Nigeria’s corrupt elite! Many have, wrongly in my view, supported the draconian desecration of the temples of justice that the DSS invasion of judges homes in the dead of night represented, but the lesson for our Lords must be that they must urgently clean up the bench and ensure the bar is cleaned up otherwise they may allow the taint of corruption be used by those with an authoritarian agenda to destroy the concept of an independent judiciary in this country.

I happen to believe that there are still many persons of integrity on the bar and bench. I started life as a lawyer and I am still familiar with many in the profession, including SANs who have never bribed judges. I am certain there are many judges on the bench (and I may even be able to speak for some who were my classmates and associates) who I trust have not soiled their hands and robes with improper lucre, but corrupt lawyers and judges have become more visible in recent years. Many including SANs are known to have occupied important offices in the bar and state, including Attorneys General and bar leadership positions. The stories of judges becoming very wealthy on bribes paid by litigants in election petitions and other high profile cases have become more pervasive and in matters of the sanctity of the judicial process, appearances are at least as important as the substance. As they say, justice is not just required to be done, but in order to retain its credibility it must be manifestly seen to have been done! So whether or not stories of judicial corruption are as factual as the accounts suggest, once the public believes them to be true, the damage is done.

It is therefore an urgent emergency that the leadership of the judiciary especially the current Chief Justice of Nigeria and his more reputable predecessors and colleagues should rise to the enormous challenge of purging the bench of every single judge and magistrate with doubtful reputation and credible accusations against them. Our Lords must now realise that the alternative to their intervening in the urgent manner I have suggested is an existential threat not just to the judiciary, but to our constitutional democracy and the inherent values of rule of law, separation of powers, checks and balances and the independence of the judiciary. The leaders of the bar must also step up an offensive against their corrupt colleagues who they know specialize in offering corrupt inducements to judicial officers in order to pervert the course of justice. The honest legal practitioners who are the victims of these crimes and injustices have a duty to expose those tarnishing the image of the rest of us!

None of what I’ve said here however validates what the DSS did on October 7-8, 2016. The DSS was unjustified on the facts and in my view, also on the law. As I wrote in “Tyranny Beckons”, three of the seven judges whose homes DSS invaded had already been tried and “convicted” by the National Judicial Council (NJC); NJC had indeed recommended that one of them be handed over to the AIG Kano for criminal prosecution; the evidence suggests as I argued and as the judges have now indicated, that the real crimes of the four other judges was to rule against the DSS, government and the ruling APC in several matters before them. One judge’s home was invaded and searched even though the two search warrants produced bore the names of other judges! We can’t allow our judges to be persecuted by a vengeful state and intolerant and immature politicians because “Oga is not happy”! Even if the state was to carry out raids on the homes of judges in pursuit of legitimate corruption allegations, I am persuaded (and I’ve not seen any provision to the contrary in spite of the best efforts of many pro-DSS persons) that such should have been carried out by the Police or EFCC, and certainly not the DSS.

I have particularly been shocked at the suggestion by the NBA President A. B Mahmoud and the body of SANs that the judges whose homes were invaded by the DSS should step down from their positions until their names are cleared. That suggestion is preposterous and unreasonable because no formal complaints have been made against those judges (minus the three NJC already recommended for dismissal) before the NJC, Police, EFCC or any other legitimate authority constitutionally seised of the matter. Certainly none of them has been charged before any court of law! In effect as at today, there are no allegations against which the judges have to clear themselves! Are NBA and the SANs suggesting that once a state security agency invades the home of a judicial officer, and makes allegations against him or her IN THE MEDIA, such an officer is under obligation to step down from his/her duties? Are they willing to accept the implications of this dangerous precedent they are trying to set? Are they comfortable with such an egregious overturning of the presumption of innocence even when no formal allegations have been made against an officer? Is the bar willing to discount an independent judiciary and on the basis of which principles or protections? Do our elite remember that the road to hell is often paved with good intentions-such as the destruction by the Murtala/Obasanjo regime of the civil service because of the corruption of a few?

There is an urgent imperative to clean up the bar and bench and the leadership of both institutions should rise up to this historical duty. We don’t however have to abolish our constitution, rule of law, independent judiciary and presumption of innocence to do so! We don’t have to enthrone tyranny to have a honest and credible judiciary; indeed tyranny always produces the opposite!

Opeyemi Agbaje