Judiciary Clean-Up: NJC needs more sincerity

By Tonnie Iredia

No one disputes the fact that many problems currently confronting Nigeria’s judiciary are caused by a few bad eggs in the system as it is in many other organizations. If those few bad eggs are not quickly expelled or aggressively beaten into line, the cancer they have attracted into that arm of government in the last couple of years will soon quickly spread all through the system.

What this suggests is that the greatest problem facing the Nigerian judiciary today is not the continuing recklessness of the so-called bad eggs but the apparent lack of courage and sincerity of those at the top to hold the bull by its horn and call everyone to order. The implication of this is that the posture of the National Judicial Council NJC which is empowered to regulate the judiciary is inadvertently increasing the bad eggs.

Whenever a judge is accused of corruption, the NJC finds some technicalities for giving one of its own a soft landing. It is worse if the accused is quite high up in the system. Only 2 days ago, the media was replete with reports on the recommendation of the NJC for two senior judges, T. E. Chukwuemeka Chikeka, Chief Judge of Imo State, and Hon. Kadi Babagana Mahdi, Grand Kadi of Yobe State to compulsorily retire from service for age falsification.

With the aid of false affidavits, Chikeka has been illegally in office since 2021 while that of Mahdi has been for as long as 12 years. It is good that the NJC has eventually stopped them and directed that they refund salaries earned for the periods. It is however alarming that the Grand Kadi of a state can be illegally in office for 12 years before the NJC gets to act. Even at that, is retirement the punishment for the offence of forgery committed by the 2 senior judges?

Of course, because it is not so, many more judges are likely to commit same offence that ends up with retirement. Indeed, that has been the case for no less than the last decade. For public education, let’s name a few here. In 2013, it was Shadrack Nwanosike the then Acting Chief Judge of Abia state who had to be shown the way out because of age falsification. In 2016 it was the turn of Idris M J Evuti and Tanko Yusuf Usman of the Niger state high court.

In 2018, it was Joshua E Ikede of the Delta state high court; followed in 2020 by 3 senior judges, Francis Aboki Acting President, Imo State Customary Court of Appeal, Shu’aibu Talba, Grand Kadi of Yobe state and Abdulkareem Babatunde Abdulrasaq of Osun State High Court. Perhaps Nigeria would have been better off if we had listened to lawyers who much earlier called for the prosecution of judges involved in age falsification. As the famous Fred Agbaje and Onyekachi Ubani, the then chairman of Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association once said, retirement is not enough punishment because falsification of age is a criminal offence.

There is doubt if those who felt otherwise still feel so now. For example, legal luminary Itse Sagay had argued that in such a case, a judge’s loss of honour and integrity would suffice. “Let him go and savour the disgrace that he has been thrown in” was how Sagay summed it up but something more drastic is needed now to keep the judiciary going especially in view of certain recent events. In 2019, for instance, there was the interesting case brought against the then Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Muhammad.

Whereas not many expected the case to succeed no matter its facts, the hard posture of the presiding judge, Justice Danlami Senchi of the FCT high court attracted more public interest. In the case, a 46-year-old citizen, Tochi Michael had the audacity to state that Justice Tanko Muhammad had reduced his age by 3 years. The case was dismissed case after Justice Senchi made the following statements. a) that the plaintiff did not disclose much further information about himself, b) that the suit was commenced by way of originating summon instead of writ of summons and c) that the plaintiff did not specify the special interest he had in the suit.

Justice Senchi also imagined that the attitude of the claimant counsel Melkizadeck Zaro was nothing but to scandalize, malign and destroy the person of the CJN and the entire judiciary. Consequently, he ordered the registrar of the Supreme Court to commence disciplinary action against the claimant counsel. The judge then awarded a N10 million fine against the claimant which must be paid within 3 weeks to serve as a deterrent to others.

Was the plaintiff not actually unwise to have openly faced the same Tanko Muhammad that the entire NJC could not stop from wrongly presenting himself to be sworn as Acting CJN against due process? However, no one said anything about the plaintiff’s claim that before Justice Tanko Muhammad became a judicial officer, all his records including WAEC showed that he was born in 1950 and not 1953. The NJC needs sincerity not technicalities to help Nigeria get out of the confusion she has been plunged into by a few reckless judges.

To start with, many citizens have been wondering for some time now about the real reason for the creation of the federal high court. If it was not to get a body that would counter every move by the state high court, then it is time to promptly take a closer look at how both are operating and set clearer guidelines for the courts to be used for the greater good of the nation. Otherwise, the current posture in which each of them gives counter orders to parties before them would sink the judiciary sooner than later.

It is indeed dangerous to see judges stopping certain societal organizations from performing duties assigned to them by the constitution. It is not funny that many people can no longer predict how the judiciary in Nigeria these days goes about determining two political cases with similar facts. A good example is the decision of the Supreme Court in 1999 that took cognisance of the fact that due to party supremacy – a power given to political parties by the constitution, the judiciary should stay away from internal matters of political parties.

It would actually help the party system to grow. But today, there are courts in the country which do nothing else but conscientiously resolving internal issues of political parties. How come those cases are always assigned to them by heads of courts? In other words, the judges and their supervisors require the stern attention of the NJC and the sooner such attention is given the priority it deserves, the better for us all. There is also the need to remind the judiciary that in many cases before our courts we don’t just have a plaintiff and a defendant, we also have the interest of society.

It is therefore not enough to make pronouncements that can destabilize society. Painfully, this has been happening for some time now. Unknown to the judiciary, that lack of care for the state of the country is part of why people have become hypercritical of judicial officers. These days, it is as if judges have no right to have children and other relations. In fact, it is as if they are not human, if they attend any function it is criticized; if they smile, it is a bigger concern, all because virtually no one trusts them these days.

Judges must therefore return to their respected position of old so that people can remember that they too need welfare. The point to be made therefore is that we all have a role to play to return our judiciary to the good old days of Kayode Eso, Chukwudifu Oputa, Lawal Uwais, Otutu Obaseki, Adolpus Karibi Whyte etc. Whereas the conduct of some judges can easily attract ample criticism of our judiciary, there is complete silence about the elephant in the room.

Why can’t our judiciary as an arm of government have its own budget for capital allocation? Why does another arm buy cars and build houses for judges? If our judges are not independent in these matters, they won’t be in others either. So, let’s help the judiciary to get out of bondage while urging our judges to be agents of true national development.