The judiciary, as an institution, derives its sacredness and relevance from the presumption that its stakeholders, including lawyers and judges, possess impeccable integrity in the discharge of their responsibilities.
The judiciary, as an institution, derives its sacredness and relevance from the presumption that its stakeholders, including lawyers and judges, possess impeccable integrity in the discharge of their responsibilities.
It is often correct to say magistrates, judges, justices of the Court of Appeal and the Justices of the Supreme Court rise to their enviable positions by virtue of their track records of integrity, learning, and experience among several other criteria.
It is against this background that any stakeholder obsessed with the theory of justice and integrity should naturally feel alarmed at any attempt to impugn the integrity of judicial officers without cogent, compelling and hardcore evidence to substantiate same- as normally required in civilized climes. One is forced to make these remarks following disturbing newspaper reports seeking to unfairly impugn the integrity of the president and justices of our revered Court of Appeal following the Court’s patriotic intervention in resolving knotty cases of electoral disputes which otherwise could have spelt doom for Nigeria’s fragile democratic experiment.
The comments, allegedly credited to the NBA president, Learned J.B Daudu, SAN, as allegedly published on the front page story of the National Mirror where the NBA president was reported as allegedly insinuating the NBA leadership’s lack of faith in the integrity of about 85 percent of the justices of the court of appeal are gravely disturbing. It will seem the torrents of unflattering insinuations (albeit largely unproved and unsubstantiated) being made against the Court of Appeal began with the unrestrained assaults against the President and some justices of the Court of Appeal contained in an advertorial allegedly sponsored by Senator Iyiola Omisore. Perhaps having ruminated over the several critical responses his ill-advised advertorial got, Senator Omisore discarded the inelegant terrain of verbal assaults on Newspaper pages against the Learned Justices of the Court of Appeal and proceeded to formally present a petition to the National Judicial Council (NJC) alleging corruption against the leadership of the Court of Appeal. It is clear that the NJC is yet to treat the said petition neither has it returned a verdict of guilt or otherwise against the Learned Justices of the Court of Appeal. One is confounded that the Learned President of the NBA, J.B. Daudu, SAN allowed himself to be unduly moved by the unsubstantiated market rumblings by hastily making comments which caused the papers to quote him (rightly or wrongly) as lending weight to the largely unproved allegations against the revered Appellate Court. It appears like the first time a Bar President will publicly level subtle allegations of wrongdoing against an arm of the judiciary. It is soothing to see the NBA leadership coming forth to make official denials of the purported statements and making clarifications. However faint the clarifications may seem, it is at least soothing to those who deeply abhor hasty condemnation of the judiciary whenever it hands down decisions which hurt so-called powerful interests.
Now, it has been alleged that the Federal Judicial Service headed by the revered Chief Justice of Nigeria met last week and recommended the current President of the Court of Appeal, Honourable Justice Isa Ayo Salami be “promoted” to the Supreme Court. To be sure, the Supreme Court is the highest and most distinguished Court of the Land and promotion to the membership of such distinguished jurists ordinarily should elate joy on the part of recipients of such recognition and honour. However, the alleged proposed “promotion” of His Lordship, Justice Isa Ayo Salami, at a time the Court of Appeal headed by the Learned Jurist is being maligned inevitably raises crucial questions. Now, the Learned President of the Court of Appeal has an unresolved petition pending against his name. Appropriately, a moratorium ought to be placed on any official “promotion” or “demotion” of the Learned Judge until the pending allegations are exhaustively investigated and the report of such investigations made public. This is the advisable thing to do in order to prevent the multiplicity of allegations and insinuations that will recur from the public’s perception of the reasons underlying the promotion. First, the accusers of the President of the Appeal Court may wonder why the N.J.C was not allowed to thoroughly determine the culpability or otherwise of the Learned jurist and yet the Federal Judicial Council proceeded to “promote” His Lordship without awaiting the NJC’s verdict on his judicial character. The N.J.C’s verdict is in itself a report that will determine the suitability or otherwise of the Learned jurist to occupy a place in the Highest Court. Conversely, those who believe in the impeccable integrity of Justice Isa Ayo Salami would wonder whether the “promotion” of His Lordship does not amount to a subtle attempt to get His Lordship out of the Court of Appeal and by implication, prevent His Lordship’s further participation in the resolution of future electoral disputes which will predictably begin after the April General Elections. Either of these insinuations may be wrong but the Judiciary ought to stand as an unshakeable rock of Gibraltar which should remain steadfast in the defence and protection of its members and not appear to take decisions or truncate soaring careers of its members based on shaky sponsored newspaper or market place rumblings. Against the background of insinuations that His Lordship did not apply for such promotion, it can be said that this will appear to be the first time in our judiciary history that a serving judge will be “promoted”, allegedly without his consent. If this were so, then it raises grave implications for the independence of our judiciary and may unwittingly reduce the esteem of the judiciary in the estimation of right thinking members of the society.
In truth, it can be said that the judiciary has had to grapple with enormous challenges since the advent of the current democratic dispensation, but it is the court of appeal that has in recent times, particularly since the tail-end of the tenure of Justice Abdullahi, risen courageously in coping with these challenges, a tradition admirably sustained by the leadership of Justice Ayo Salami. This is reflected in the court of appeal’s courageous decisions in the resolution of governorship electoral disputes in Edo, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun States. While it is true that the beneficiaries of these courageous interventions were opposition parties i.e. the Action Congress of Nigeria and the Labour Party, it is equally correct that during the tenure of Justice Abdullahi, the court of appeal annulled the elections in six states, one by the PDP, namely Adamawa, Bayelsa, Cross River, Kogi, Ekiti and Sokoto States (and countless Houses of Assembly Elections won by the PDP cancelled during the period) with no heavens falling or negative insinuations being raised. Why is eyebrow being raised in respect of cancellation of elections in PDP states during Salami’s tenure?
It is also instructive to note that under the leadership of Justice Ayo Salami, only the results of three states so far (Ekiti, Osun and Delta) were cancelled by the court of appeal with His Lordship Justice Ayo Salami presiding in only one of them i.e. Ekiti State. It was largely in recognition of Hon. Justice Salami’s integrity that the former president of the Court of Appeal, Justice Abdullahi, requested Justice Salami to preside over the panels that determined the Ondo and Edo cases, an assignment which His Lordship discharged satisfactorily.
The point being made is that in difficult and challenging times like this when the judiciary is being put into needless searchlight by politicians, the stakeholders in the administration of justice must be wary of the antics of detractors and see the present assault as one that is unleashed on the judiciary as an institution and regrettably, undeservedly.
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It is the opinion of this writer that the leadership of our various courts including the leadership of the NBA must unite to confront this unwarranted assault on the judiciary because to do otherwise might encourage fifth columnists to infiltrate their esteemed ranks.
Wahab Shittu teaches Jurisprudence and International Law at the University of Lagos.
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