NIGERIAN JUDICIARY IN THE GUTTER

The shameful saga involving the most senior members of the nation’s judiciary which Nigerians had watched with shock and disgust in the last few months is taking a turn for the worse, with the appointment of an acting President for the Court of Appeal to replace the embattled suspended President, Justice Isa Salami. President Goodluck Jonathan has accepted the decision of the National Judicial Council (NJC) to suspend Justice Isa Ayo Salami over his refusal to apologise to the Chief Justice of the Federation Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu and the NJC. President Jonathan therefore appears to have gone against the advice of the Nigeria Bar Association not to act on the recommendation of the National Judicial Council and suspend Justice Salami. Beyond endorsing the suspension of Justice Salami, however, President Jonathan said he will await the exhaustion of all on-going litigations in the matter before forwarding the recommendations for the retirement of Justice Salami to the National Assembly, which is the only organ with constitutional powers to remove Justice Salami by impeaching him. In the meantime, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has resolved to boycott activities of the National Judicial Council, starting with the forthcoming swearing-in Ceremony of Senior Advocates of Nigeria scheduled for Friday 26^th of August. The NBA has directed even recipients to boycott the event, or risk being sanctioned.

          This sad development in a long saga which has drained the Nigerian Judiciary of its vestiges of respectability and integrity will not be the last the nation will hear from the judiciary. There are already voices against the action of President Jonathan’s acceptance of the NJC’s recommendation, predicated on the argument that he has no powers to suspend Justice Salami. Justice Salami himself is likely to challenge his suspension, as he has challenged all actions of the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the NJC in court. The Nigerian Bar Association has pitched its tent against the NJC, and is likely to raise the tempo of its resistance against the manner it has handled the case against Justice Salami. Opposition political parties are raising their voices in their insistence that the entire saga is political, and is meant to tilt the balance of advantage in electoral litigations in favour of the ruling PDP.

          Beyond any shred of doubt, the odious quarrel which has exposed the embarrassingly shallow levels of personal and professional qualities of the leaders of Nigeria’s judiciary will compound the alarming concerns over the absence of credible leadership in our nation. A bad personal relationship between the Chief Justice of the Federation and the President of the Court of Appeal was brought into play in a most sensitive case involving the election of the Governor of Sokoto State. Severely indicting comments and insinuations were made, all of them by Justice Salami and his supporters to the effect that the Chief Justice had attempted to intervene and subvert the course of justice at the very point when judgement was about to be delivered. Aggrieved parties took up the strong positions, and the media was awash with stories of behind-the-scene manoeuvres to impose a particular verdict by the CJN, and the reported resistance by the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Salami against the attempt.

          In the midst of a raging controversy around the integrity of two heads of the highest courts, the Chief Justice of Nigeria attempted to remove Justice Salami as President of the Court of Appeal, and move him up as Justice of the Supreme Court. Again this was seen in many circles as an attempt to eliminate Justice Salami’s influence in the lower court, and install a more compliant President by the CJN. Justice Salami declined the offer, and when it was going to be forced on him, he went to court to stop it. Numerous mediation efforts were then set in motion, all to broker some sort of resolution between the two eminent jurists. They all failed. Worse, they also polarised the judiciary and the legal community along dangerous lines. When it became clear that informal efforts were unlikely to resolve the problem, the NJC got involved. Its conclusion was that Justice Salami had slandered the Chief Justice of the Federation, who had done nothing wrong or inappropriate in his conduct during the Sokoto State Gubernatorial election trial. The NJC demanded that Justice Salami apologise to the CJN and to it. He refused, and took the NJC, the CJN and those related to the matter to court to stop them from proceeding to discipline him. The NJC then recommended his suspension and subsequent retirement to the President.

          The uproar which has followed this latest twist to this shameful saga is evidence that it will assume an even larger dimension. Those who believe that the President acted illegally, because the entire matter is before the courts will make much out of the action of President Jonathan. The political dimension will be emphasized, and the politicisation of the judiciary will get worse. The nation’s confidence in the judiciary will be further dented. The rule of law, the foundation of the democratic system will be a major casualty in a situation where the Bench and the Bar are at each others’ throat, and where the suspicion of high level corruption is all over this scandalous series of events.

          The Nigerian judiciary is in the gutter, and none of the key players is looking up at the stars. Fundamental issues around the conduct and outcome of the April 2011 elections which the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court should adjudicate are now at the risk of being compromised. With the questionable involvement of the executive arm into this disastrous development, the leadership credibility in Nigeria will be even more pronounced. A Chief Justice of Nigeria who will retire in a few weeks time and a President whose election is being strongly challenged are casting shadows over the integrity of the electoral process. Nigerians have one more reason to worry over the state of our national affairs.