By Kayode Adeoti/ Abiodun Bolujoko
Since Muhammadu Buhari emerged President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2015, judiciary, the third arm of government, has been in the eye of the storm.
In the past four years, many of the actions taken by the Buhari administration as regards the sector have generated lots of controversies and critisms from legal practitioners and members of the public.
With the re-election of Buhari to govern the country for another four years, many legal practitioners have to wonder how the judiciary will fare.
Recall that in October 2016, Department of State Service (DSS), in what it termed “sting operation” stormed the residences of seven serving judicial officers of the Supreme, Federal and High Courts across the country in the wee hours of the night and arrested some of them.
The affected Justices of the Supreme Court were, Sylvanus Ngwuta and Inyang Okoro, while affected Judges of the Federal High Court were Muazu Pindiga, Adeniyi Ademola, Abdullahi Liman and Nnamdi Dimgba.
The seventh judge, who is serving in Port Harcourt, Rivers state capital was saved from the raid and arrest by the prompt intervention of the state Governor, Nyesom Wike. The DSS had later alleged that $2million was stashed in the judge’s house and that the governor assisted in moving the money away in the course of his intervention. The development was unprecedented. Such “desecration” has never happened in Nigeria’s judicial sector before then. Therefore, the outcry that followed was massive, especially among lawyers, the National Assembly and particularly, the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA).
The then Nigerian Bar Association (NBA)’s President, Abubakar Mahmud (SAN), described the crackdown as illegal. According to Mahmud, NBA’s position was not to protect the judges but to stand up against corruption. He insisted that DSS should not be the ones to undertake the operations, adding that similar event in Ghana took two years of investigations before the judges were arrested and did not follow the gestapo action of the DSS.
Again, till now, the President turned deaf ears to the order of the court on the bails of the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki. Despite the fact that different courts, including the ECOWAS court has granted him bail, the retired Col. has remained in the custody of the State Security Service (DSS) on the order of the presidency.
Dasuki had in 2015 admitted to bail by Justice Adeniyi Ademola, but the bail order was not obeyed by the Federal Government. Other bails granted by Justice Peter Affen and Justice Husseini Baba-Yusuf of the FCT High Court were also ignored.
In the same vein, the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky had equally been granted bail, but the executive flouted court pronouncement and retained the aged man in DSS custody. The protests held by members of the group has further resulted into their albatross.
The statement credited to Buhari during the flagg-off of the 2018 Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, in Abuja, that he will give priority to national security and national interest above the rule of law, still remain a shock to many Nigerians.
He had said, “Rule of Law must be subject to the supremacy of the nation’s security and national interest.
“Our apex court has had cause to adopt a position on this issue in this regard and it is now a matter of judicial recognition that; where national security and public interest are threatened or there is a likelihood of their being threatened, the individual rights of those allegedly responsible must take second place in favour of the greater good of society.”
Another issue of concern that is making many legal practitioners worry about how the judiciary will fare in the hand of the president is the recent suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Samuel Walter Onnoghen, who was accused of non declaration of asset among others.
Onnoghen, according to some legal practitioners, was not suspended based on the rules and constitution that govern public office. The President, according to lawyers arguments, ought to first report the CJN at the National Judicial Commission (NJC) for investigations on the charges against the President.
His suspension was followed by the arraignment before a Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).
Yesterday, the CJN was docked over the case and the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Wednesday reserved judgments in the four appeals filed by the suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria.
The question on the lips of many, especially the legal practitioners is, will the clampdown on the Judiciary sector continue?
Will the bill of judicial autonomy assented to by the President come into use? Will there be a sort of improvement in the sector nationwide in terms of physical structure that will give the Nigeria court a better look?
Will the promise to re-structure the prison yards, to ensure rehabilitation and re-orientation of inmates come into fruitition? All these are question begging for answer.
