By Kayode Ketefe
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Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloma Muktar
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Of all the three arms of
government, the Judiciary is the most educated and most professional! But
most importantly, the organ is very critical and strategic to national
survival. This rests on the fact that the Judiciary of any nation plays a
cardinal role in the harmonious co-existence of the populace; it furnishes a
popular medium of social engineering for resolving the conflicting interests
that would otherwise induce fractious tensions in the polity.
It is the bastion of hope,
the succour for the downtrodden, and the vanguard of social justice. It is the
proverbial reinforced concrete upon which the entire superstructure of social
order is balanced. So when this hallowed institution is afflicted with
self-destructive cancer of corruption there is a genuine reason for concern.
This explains why this
writer felt pained when the National Mirror broke the news that Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), has uncovered illicit funds in the
accounts of some serving judges.
In the said report, the
anti-graft commission claimed it had vetted the bank accounts of some six
judges allegedly involved in this scandal and confirmed that they are in
possession of and have ownership of multi-million naira assets, the origin of
which they could not satisfactorily explain.
The EFCC further claimed it
would meet with the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloma Muktar, who heads
the National Judicial Council, to work out the modalities on how to proceed
against the affected judges.
The modus operandi of
alleged bribe-taking by these judges was said to be by receipt of value cards which
have no external accounts attached to them and therefore make verification and
tracing of their owners extremely difficult.
This immediately pops up
multifold ironies; it is not only ironic that some officers in the temple of
justice are allegedly taking bribes, it is also ironic that they are allegedly
compromising the society’s values through the instruments called “Value Cards”.
This incident,
unfortunately, would further erode the confidence of the common man in the
sacred organ which had already taken a bash with the famous scandal of the open
attrition between the former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Ayo
Salami and the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Iyorgher Katsina-Alu.
It is the postulation of
this writer that the Judiciary, in spite of all these, is still the least
corrupt democratic institution in Nigeria!
The reason is very simple,
while there is no any specific requirement other than basic O-level education
for any person to be elected a legislator or even the Executive President; it
is a different ball game for lawyers and judges who invariably constitute the
Judiciary. Every member of a Judiciary is not only a graduate, but also someone
who has undergone some special training conditioning him to be the advocate of
the rule of law.
To start with the Council
of Legal Education engages in thorough screening of candidates before admission
into the law school. Even after this the Honourable Body of Benchers would
conduct its own screening before calling candidates to the Bar.
In addition to this, if a
person aspires to become a judge, he would first have to post ten years of
unblemished record as a legal practitioner, after which he would have to brave
the selection process of the appropriate Judicial Service Commission, then the
NJC is ever at alert to cast him off the bench ignominiously if found to be
corrupt!
Even if a person did not
set out as an honest person, all these built-in mechanisms would have equipped,
even the most deviant character, with some measure of moral censorship.
And suppose the indoctrination did not do it, what about perpetual fear
of being derobed or removed from the bench with ignominy?
There have been many cases
of judges being removed from the bench. The list of victims in this regard
include a former judge of the Federal High Court, Abuja, Justice Chukwuemeka
Nwaogwugwu; ex-judge of the Lagos High Court, Justice Adebayo Manuwa; a former
Chief judge of the Abia State High Court, Justice Kalu Amah and former judge,
Federal High Court, Justice Wilson Egbo-Egbo.
Other victims were Justice
Stanley Nnaji - a former judge of the Enugu State High Court who was sacked for
his ignoble role in the Anambra State political scandal in 2004. In February this
year, Justice T.D. Naron and Justice Charles
Achibong, were suspended from the hallowed bench.
Which of the other arms has
this kind of nurturing and self-cleansing for its members?
This never means we don’t
have corrupt judges on the bench, one is only stressing that their number is
far lower relative to members of other arms of government.
That is the reason I have a
great faith in the Judiciary. That is why I believe the Judiciary can survive
the present crisis. The ongoing investigation of the affected judges should be
real and conducted in manners that should be seen by all to be thorough, open
and transparent. Any judicial officer found culpable, no matter how highly
placed, should receive commensurate sanctions.
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