The Judiciary: About time to rise and shine

By Clement Udegbe

Arise from depression and frustration in which circumstances have kept you- rise to a new life! Shine, be radiant with the glory of the Lord, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. –Prophet Isaiah in the Holy Bible.

OUR politicians and leaders have over time developed good penchant to destroy whatever they cannot manipulate or pollute. The Judiciary, by its nature, training, tradition and ethics, have remained their target, since 1999.

Many of them often found ways to extract court judgments that were hardly enforced, while others managed to hang their cases at the investigation level, with the active connivance of the investigating officers. As a result, thousands of cases remain under investigation running into years, till the officers are either transferred, or something happened that would imply the closure of the case – a terrible pervasion of justice, caused by criminal delay.

However, the Judiciary remained the last bastion of hope for the people, as judges and magistrates worked hard to cope with the gross indiscipline of leaders in all spheres of our national life.

For example, politicians who win election cases hail the Judiciary, while those who failed blamed and labelled the Judiciary as corrupt, including those who failed deservedly.

The fact is that of the three arms of government, our Judiciary remained the most reliable, dependable,  trust worthy, the cleanest, and the last hope of the society, but gradually, these powerful cheats built a bad image for our Judiciary, which was to be capitalised by same politicians to the chagrin of Nigerians.

With the arrival of All Progressives Congress, APC, and Muhammadu Buhari as President, on the wings of Change Mantra, and the  special “ sting operations” that followed the well rehashed and orchestrated plan to deal with and of course “ clean up” the Judiciary, it was expected that they would have their facts on ground, or devote sufficient time to conclude investigations of such serious profiles, within weeks or few months at most.

The purpose of the “Sting” as it turned out, was not to clean up, but to clip up the Judiciary. It was a pill of vendetta, coated with the sweet cookies of anti-corruption fight, and we all knew and saw it coming, except those intoxicated till date, by the sweet wine of unprepared and unplanned  “change”.

The grand patrons and benefactors of “Change” including lawyers, could not be bothered even when their own profession was under an impending doom, because their chambers were getting briefs. They had political appointments. They have become celebrities, and that makes them shout at our Law Lords, without caution, ignoring the day of reckoning which shall come.

The operations of the Department of State Security, DSS, in October last year , saw eight Judges henpecked, detained, denigrated, embarrassed, and humiliated, in  actions timed to carry the blessings of naïve and innocent uninformed Nigerians who never knew that the agenda was a different one.

The National Judicial Council, NJC, the apex organisation responsible for the affairs of the Judiciary typical of Law Lords gave all the support needed to the enforcement agents to clean up the system if it was indeed dirty. Thus, at the request of the Attorney General of the Federation, the Judges were excused from their duties pending the conclusion of investigations.

In other words, the Judges have become “guilty”  even before their cases were established unlike those in the Presidency , Senate and NASS who remained in their offices, performing functions during and after investigations and appeared in court from their offices.

In the main, the DSS investigated eight judges, two of the supreme court, two of the Federal High Court, one from the National Industrial Court, and three of state high Courts. It was a good plan, touching on all the jurisdictions in the country. Of these, three judges were charged to court for corrupt practices etc, out of which one was discharged and acquitted of the 18 charges preferred against him.

It turned out however that some of these judges had in the past presided over cases involving some key members of the present ruling party, confirming the fear of many that vendetta was at the base of this fight to clean up our judiciary. It was an attempt at washing a dirty pot with a very dirty water, and was bound to produce a dirty result.

Almost eight months after the suspension from office, of these judges, investigations were still going for five of them, two were in court, and one had been discharged, and acquitted of the charges against him. It became clear that a thick darkness had fallen upon our judiciary!

While the suspended judges were resting at home, cases were piling up in the courts, and the judiciary was being blamed at seminars for delays in trials and cases. Some hustlers among senior lawyers were capitalising on the vacuum to push for appointment into the bench, so as to force the victim judges  out of their well-deserved jobs.

Pro-government lawyers would have us believe that the suspension  of the accused judges from office will give the fight against corruption a morally right colour, but failed to explain why the same principle was not being applied to the presidency, and the legislature. These group of lawyers simply wished that such an unlawful and unfair position could be maintained on the altar of political correctness.

They wanted their victims to be punished and perhaps pushed out of jobs. This realisation justified the NJC’s decision early this month to recall the Judges, while keeping watchful eyes on others who have petitions hanging on their necks.

The messages from the NJC appear clear. First a Judge should not and will not from hence forth be suspended from office for reason of his being under investigation.

Second, a judge may not be suspended simply for the reason of a well-crafted petition against him, because petitions will be subjected to thorough questioning.

Third, the NJC has risen to exert its independence. Erroneous decisions of the past shall not be repeated, and therefore, delays by lawyers in matters will soon end.

 

The post The Judiciary: About time to rise and shine appeared first on Vanguard News.