BY LEKAN SOTE
If you have read “Great Expectations” written by English author Charles Dickens, you would have seen the rotten underbelly of the English judicial system that was experienced by Pip, the protagonist of the novel.
Pip almost lost the fortune bequeathed to him by Abel Magwitch, the escaped convict for whom he stole the pie and brandy meant for Christmas in the house of his older sister, and the tool of Joe Margery, blacksmith and husband of his sister.
So, you can see that the rot in the Nigerian judiciary reflects the decadent nature of the judiciary of 19th Century England, the colonial power that bestowed the best and the worst of its judicial institutions and values to Nigeria.
The other day, Olumide Akpata, former President of the Nigerian Bar Association and aspiring Governor of Edo State, told the International Bar Association bigwigs how the Nigerian judiciary is held hostage to the whims of the political class of Nigeria.
His words, “When I was President (of the Nigerian Bar Association), I found out that there’s a deliberate attempt… on the part of the political class in Nigeria to capture the judiciary… And that has very serious implications for the rule of law in Nigeria.
“It is deliberate. It is intentional. It is achieving the results for (the politicians)… As President of the Bar, I sat on the interview committee for (the appointment of) judges. And what I saw was bizarre. That a good judge will emerge out of Nigeria, out of that process, is by fluke only. Sheer luck. Luck of the draw. We play Russian roulette with judiciary appointments in Nigeria.
“Two, impoverishing the judges in Nigeria… I don’t even want to tell you what a judge earns in Nigeria… (And) their kids want to go to Cambridge, Yale and Harvard. But they can’t afford it. But I assure you that their kids are in (there). Your guess is as good as mine as to how those kids get there…
“We can call (the judges) out by looking at their judgments… When you read their judgments… When you know a man who knows, and it’s not always that they know the law… his judgment goes against… what the law should be, you know there is something else motivating him.
“These days, retired judges act as “consultants” to lawyers in high profile cases that include presidential, governorship and legislative elections that are contested by those who lost the elections”
“Then we talk about impoverishing… There’s a total absence of financial autonomy (for the judiciary). The (Chief Judge) needs cars for… his judges, or needs houses; he has to go to the governor…
“And some judges actually kneel for the governor! And the governor would say, ‘I’ve just given cars to my judges’… So, what we have is a total erosion of confidence in the judiciary… Because the kinds of people who show up (to become judges) have no business (being in the judicial system).”
At a political rally, an unidentified politician on the hustings told a yelling, obviously acquiescing, crowd, “We have gone to the Appeal Court. And the final destination is the Supreme Court (of Nigeria). And we will meet there.” Then he boasts, “That is when we will know who they know. And they will know who we know.”
A lawyer, who shall remain anonymous, somewhat confirms how this unidentified politician will “buy” judgment from the court: “A client came to me, and said he needed my service, (to) which I said, ‘Ok,’ and told him what I was going to charge.
“But he told me I shouldn’t worry, that he just needed me to go to court, as he has discussed with the Chief Judge, and it’s just for me to show up, and what I am charging should be reduced, as he has settled the judges!”
As you can deduce here, it is Nigerian judges that get paid what you might call “judgment fees,” instead of the conventional legal fees payable to lawyers who hold the briefs to represent clients in the courts.
These days, retired judges act as “consultants” to lawyers in high profile cases that include presidential, governorship and legislative elections that are contested by those who lost the elections.
Also, these “judge-consultants” are willing to be “bought” by commercial houses with high-stakes cases in the courts. They sell their “consultations” to the highest bidders, the Big Boys with the big bucks.
Rambunctious Senator Dino Melaye, aspiring jester and singer, has resigned himself to his election Waterloo. He will not be challenging the result of the Kogi State governorship election that he lost.
He alleges that the judiciary is no longer independent, and has become a department of the ruling All Progressives Congress. When a streetwise establishment politician like Dino gives up on the establishment judiciary, you know that the worst has happened.
A Court of Appeal pronounced judgment against a sitting governor, who won an election in 2023, but turned around, in the Certified True Copy of the judgment, to award the judgment to an appellant, citing “clerical error.”
If this so-called “clerical error” is not a result of manipulation (maybe due to pecuniary inducements consummated) in the “hallowed” chambers of that court, it is certainly evidence of the lack of professionalism on the bench that Akpata alluded to in his submission to the IBA.
Clearly, someone within the system of the Court of Appeal is not paying enough attention to his duties. And why the National Judicial Council, headed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, did not immediately wield the big stick and sanction somebody is baffling, worrisome.
If you are wondering why members of the NBA are not quite saying much concerning this kind of shameful occurrence, it may be that you are not aware that many of the more prominent lawyers are probably the bag-men for the corrupt judges who sell judgments to the highest bidders.
When you hear the cursed phrase, “Go to court,” it is a hint that some members of the Nigerian bench can be bought, or have already been bought, and you meet a Waterloo if you ever approach them for the redress of any injustice you may suffer.
Something even more scary is afoot. The Armed Services, led by the Chief of Defence Staff, recently told the National Assembly that the judiciary always seems to love to release captured terrorists on the grounds of inadequate evidence.
If this is true, it suggests that the judiciary is exploiting the inadequacy of the knowledge of the military, whose training prepares them only to search-and-destroy, instead of manoeuvring their way within the Roman judicial system that Nigeria inherited from the British.
This scary dimension of the failure of the rule of law puts the security and safety of all Nigerians, including their lordships in the temple of justice, in utter and irreversible jeopardy. That is a potent danger.
Security experts need to speedily seek an audience with the CJN and explain the impact of the actions of his justices on the nation so that he can shepherd his men away from the wayward path that will become the imminent end of Nigeria.
This turn of events makes one think that maybe former President Muhammadu Buhari was right after all when he sent the men of the Secret Service to invade the homes, arrest and prosecute some of their lordships in 2017.
