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The Nuisance Of Perpetual Injunctions: What About Jailing The Judges?

April 17, 2010

Only a few sane Nigerians will put their necks on the block for the integrity of the Nigerian judiciary and this has been the case for a long time because of its involvement in corruption. Despite this less than stellar background of covert support for corruption hitherto, an important part of the judiciary has now decided to overtly support the nation’s corrupt politicians in avoiding prosecution for their crimes.

Only a few sane Nigerians will put their necks on the block for the integrity of the Nigerian judiciary and this has been the case for a long time because of its involvement in corruption. Despite this less than stellar background of covert support for corruption hitherto, an important part of the judiciary has now decided to overtly support the nation’s corrupt politicians in avoiding prosecution for their crimes.
The judiciary’s now open support for corruption is tantamount to a declaration of war against the Nigerian people, the real owners of the looted resources.  It is a declaration of war with perpetual injunction as the weapon of choice.  

Not all members of the Nigerian judiciary are corrupt. But most of those in important positions and who handle important cases are. That the Nigerian judiciary is plastered with corruption is no longer news. That many judges accept bribes in exchange for favorable decisions is not news. That the two-faced and corrupt-beyond-redemption person of Farida Waziri of the EFCC has been shedding crocodile tears over the shameful role of the judiciary in frustrating the war against corruption is also not news. What is news is EFCC’s abysmal failure to investigate, prosecute and jail the judges involved in these shenanigans as a warning to others who may be tempted to follow in their footpaths. The judges should be jailed for taking bribes in exchange for these injunctions, not for interpreting the law wrongly. The EFCC is the most important and powerful of all the agencies saddled with the task of fighting corruption in the country and it knows very well that judges are accepting bribes, often in millions, in exchange for favorable judgments and in total and contemptible disregard for the law and sensitivities of Nigerians. Yet, Farida Waziri who claims to have written the manual on how to fight corruption in Nigeria while serving as an AIG in the Police wants Nigerians to believe that she has no responsibility to the nation beyond merely identifying the problem. One of my friends would say “shut your radio” when he feels you are vomiting arrant nonsense like Farida Waziri often does on this issue.

Nigerians from all walks of life have long known that the nation’s judges are taking huge bribes in exchange for perpetual injunctions in particular and legal judgments in general. Part of Waziri’s job is to solve the problem of judges accepting bribes in exchange for frustrating the fight against corruption. Her job is to thoroughly investigate how judges who are on civil service salaries come about living in mansions, sending their children to overseas universities, buying properties in foreign countries and receiving foreign medical treatments paid for by politicians accused of corruption. This is the task for Farida Waziri to execute forthwith without crying wolf. It is not the obligation of Nigerians to provide her with proof of the judge’s corruption (Babangida style) as citizens do not have any legal obligation to assist law enforcement agencies in doing the jobs (But I must point out that I believe it is better if citizens chose to assist law enforcement agencies if they are not involved in the crime under investigation). The responsibility for investigating allegations of crime belongs to law enforcement agencies whose members are paid to do just that and they cannot abdicate those responsibilities by challenging citizens to provide proof of crime. Unlike ordinary Nigerians, EFCC has all the legal power, resources and access necessary to investigate and establish crimes or innocence. Nigerians will accept nothing less, notwithstanding the decibel level of the propaganda coming out of EFCC these days.   

The judges who are bringing the entire judiciary to shame must be investigated and investigated quickly, tried and sent to very long jail terms. Very long jail terms because our laws do not allow execution as punishment for corruption. Once they find themselves as the defendants in corruption cases, maybe they can go searching for their own perpetual injunctions. For now these judges must be stopped. Their contempt for the people and laws of Nigeria are becoming too brazen. 

 Finally, I strongly disagree and I believe time will prove me right that a court can legally prevent statutorily established bodies like the EFCC and Police from discharging their statutory obligations (assuming they are willing and competent to) on a permanent basis. While there may be occasions where a temporary injunction might be necessary to allow accused persons, lawyers, courts and law enforcement agencies to deal with the logistics of investigations and prosecutions before giving the underlying matter full consideration, I dare say that a perpetual injunction is illegal and does profound violence and violation to the constitution of Nigeria. I say this because such an injunction amounts to perpetual immunity and is not provided for in the laws of Nigeria. The immunity granted a serving president, vice-president, governors and deputy governors under the justifiably maligned section 308 of the 1999 Constitution is only temporary for as long as those covered by it remain in office. Perpetual injunction provides lifetime immunity from prosecution and is in direct contradiction with the equality provisions in the Constitution. 


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