Nigerian Economist Petitions Chief Judge Of Federal High Court, Abuja Over Series Of Adjournments In His Case Against Government To Frustrate Him

 

An economist and litigant, Odilim Basil Enwegbara, has petitioned the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Abuja, Justice John Terhemba Tsoho, over a deliberate series of adjournment in a matter with the Nigerian government to frustrate him out of the case.

In the letter dated November 16, 2023 which SaharaReporters sighted on Saturday, Enwegbara decried that since May 4, 2023, his case has been adjourned for four consecutive times in a row by the presiding judge on the instance of the defence, being the Nigerian government without being mindful of the justice of the case.

SaharaReporters had reported how Enwegbara dragged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to court for claiming ownership of “Eagle Eye”, an online application for reporting crime.

Abdulrasheed Bawa, the former EFCC chairman had during the launch of the app in 2021 claimed it was conceived and created by the staff members of the commission – a claim which Enwegbara said is false.

His petition was titled "When The Judiciary Is Rotten, A Country Becomes A Failed State," and copied to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola and President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Yakubu Maikyau.

He said, “I was in court today for a case that came up today, November 16, 2023. But the court did not sit. The case was adjourned to February 13, 2024. But before it came up today, it came up on July 13, 2023 and was adjourned to today November 16, 2023. It was moved to today simply because a day to July 13, 2023 defence counsel sent a letter demanding an adjournment, as simple as that. Even before July 13, 2023, the same case came up for mentioning on May 4, 2023 and was moved to July 13, 2023.

"Surely, like what happened to it or July 13, 2023, on Feb 13, 2024 the case may also witness another adjournment either due to the court not sitting or because of another letter from the defence counsel. And so the delay goes on and on," he lamented, adding "this is only one of the seven cases I have against the presidency and agencies of government."

Voicing his frustration, Enwegbara sighted another case he has in the same court, which he said is coming upon December 7, 2023. "Wondering what would be the fate of that case too. I had to inquire about it. It came up on October 11, 2023 and was adjourned to December 7, 2023.

"Usually not surprised, the court registrar made it clear to me that the court definitely may net be sitting on December 7, 2023 In other words, that case too is going to be adjourned to sometime In March 2024. Bear in mind that this case too has been witnessing some endless adjournments too since it was filed in 2021."

Enwegbara stated that it was no longer surprising for court to grant adjournments by judges once the request was made by defense counsels. "Of course, whether the court sits or not, appearance fees too must have to be given to your lawyers each time to come to court. With all these delays and all manner of technicalities, should you have to wait for anyone to remind you why you were told to "Go to Court?""

The petition partly read: "What about another case which I filed in 2019? This too having gone through such endless adjournments was this year withdrawn by the Chief Judge's office for reassignment to another judge. But it bad to remain with the said Chef Judge's office for months unassigned until after I severally visited the Chief Judge's office regarding the case before it was eventually reassigned to a new judge. As usual, from court records the reassignment took place sometime in May 2023.

"But guess what happened! Since then, the case is only coming up for the first time on December 14, 2023. Surely, based on that court's records, I was informed that the courts may unlikely sit that day since there would be no sittings after first week of December, 2023. Since I wouldn't want to bore you with too many of these stories and the fact that it is sub judice to discuss in details about cases in court, let me end it here, believing that the short stories given about the three out of seven cases in your courts have sufficiently explained my disappointments of how my cases are frustrated using unnecessary delays and employing some technicalities.

"All over the civilized world the judiciary has been praised as the last hope of the common man. This is due to the fact that in an order to promote justice and fairness for all, the powerful is never allowed to get away with their unlawful actions in the society including to the less powerful, who in most cases are their victims. And it is in line with this the judiciary is recognized as the last hope of the common man. It also to avoid justice delayed to become justice denied that effective and speedily dispensation of cases in court has remained such a worldwide norm.

"When Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the then President of Nigeria came to Cambridge Massachusetts sometime in late 1999, he begged Nigerians at both Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to waste no time in returning home to help in the rebuilding Nigeria's economy. Most of Nigerians who at that meeting believed that that was assignment they were duty bound as patriotic citizens of Nigeria to be carried out. And because his request came at a time leaders from China and India were also visiting and inviting their own citizens to be headed home, we too couldn't justify why remaining behind when those from other countries were returning home. So once we finished our education most of us headed home.

"I remember some of my Chinese friends at MIT who having spent years working on high speed rails technology, telling me how they were already working with Chinese government on how to develop Chin's rail transportation into the fastest trains in the world. Understandably, these Chinese graduates were already being awaited in Beijing. I also remember vividly the case of some Indians scientists who too were focusing on they would turn Indian into a generic pharmaceutical drug manufacturing hub of the world as their backdoor strategy in catching up with Western pharmaceutical multinational giants within a decade or little more.

"Like these Chinese, these Indians too were looking forward to going to help in the transformation of India first into as a low-tech industrial giant and immediately later by leapfrogging India's wealth of highly educated population also try quickening its high-tech industrial economy system. This everyone at that level knows to be where the real value is captured, which is where Western economies have been deriving their competitive edge.

"Little wonder today, while China is leading the world in speed train technology, India on the other hand is making hundreds of billions of dollars, thanks to having become the world's number one generic drugs manufacturers, which are mostly exported to poor countries like Nigeria.

"So why shouldn't we too dream of going home too to help our country Nigeria become what our Chinese and Indian counterparts wanted for their countries? In doing that, I developed interests in developing Nigeria's small business cluster financing along with product designing and development technical supports.

"But also having a world-class research intensive technical university, where the country's minds both students and faculty are gathered too became my second priority in an effort to ensure the simultaneous development of both low-tech and high-tech high-knowledge future entrepreneurial minds for the country. I had the belief that if Chinese and Indians could do it because they have already a technically trained army of young men and women with digital innovative technology business mindsets, we too should leapfrog our technical know-how based education for our own knowledge driven economic development. In other words, as late as Nigeria would be joining the industrial race and the need to have it fast-tracked to be driven by the double-leapfrogging both low-tech and high-tech industrialization ends should have to be pursued simultaneously.

 

"But after one and half decades, how did all these dreams end up? What is my personal story today? Is mine different from the stories of others who too rushed back to Nigeria to help" Were all my planned projects and accompanying proposals presented to government after government in Nigeria not ended up stolen by the same government after government, who when you demanded back your proposals, without any time wasted tell you "Go to Court?

 

"And having headed to the said courts all these years for justice, what else have I got than endless adjournments, in most cases using some of these legitimate court technicalities to keep me endlessly frustrated? By making me come to discover that actually saying "Go to Court" in its true meaning is go and die if you don't want to walk away. Or how can I as a common man go to court knowing that I am doing so wasting not only my precious time but also my very little financial resources I should have put to a better use?

 

"Having been a victim of this Nigerian unjust judicial system- especially haplessly watching the very unacceptable ways our judges and their aides work simply against you while aiding government have its way using delay measures in frustrating my cases, it is not obvious to me that by telling me to "Go to Court," certainly I have taken a road to nowhere? Who exactly can I cry to regarding my hopelessness, my being a victim of the injustices? Since justice delayed is justice denied, is my being in court against the ever powerful government not a confirmation of government agencies telling me to "Go to Court?"

 

"Since I decided to start pursuing the recovery of my stolen proposals by the presidency and the various agencies of government at the Federal High Court starting in 2019, when will one of these cases be concluded? In other words, when can I expect justice done given how the cases are endlessly pushed around? With such endless adjournments and judges giving dates they already knew they would never be sitting, am I not a fool to be endlessly expecting justice with such cases where the defense counsels endlessly apply for and endlessly get adjournments?"

 

It added, "How possible is justice for the common man in such a scenario where either that the defense counsel is ill-disposed to be in court or that the judge couldn't make it to the court due to whatever reasons? Or are going to ever question why the judge isn't in court? If you have to. who would you have to direct you question to? What about when this delay tactic is exhausted and then the courts begin with another set of delays, such as adjournments for family matters and later with adjournment on the basis of unavoidable absence of either the defense counsel for attending to promotion examinations or judge attending national or international training workshops?

 

"Don't forget also the fact that once the defense counsels received your case against their clients, which happened to be one of the government agencies, the endless delay tactic is instantly put in motion. It starts with all manner of Preliminary Objections. You must patiently wait for this round to fully play out before thinking about getting to the main issue of the case itself. Of course, years of such back and forth correspondences too must have to be endeavored whether you like it or not.

"Unless the defense wins their POs, then begins the nest round of delays. It starts with the case going through another endless mentioning and further and further mentioning. And should one be lucky enough to have one's case get through this stage to now get to the hearing stage that too means another set of years of delays. Here, the defense counsels will set in motion another series of delays, starting with coming to court with many letters of adjournment. Who really cares about the questionable reasons? Unless willing to give up your legal battle, patient you must have to be and wait and watch this play its full course too.

"Don't forget also that as the plaintiff, you must be the person endlessly mobilizing the court bailiffs, who you must be providing money on demand or else defendants will not come to court. This, you must knowingly do even when it is also certain that the courts may either not sitting or the defense counsel may be sending requests for adjoumment a day to the very date the case is coming up. As unfortunate and unbelievable as this could sound, the judges hardly have to be blamed for your predicaments, after all the said case to grant adjournments without bothering about their effect you the plaintiff is the least thing to bother them.

"Showing up in court and being told that defense attorney is absent becomes no longer surprising once the defense counsel's request for another adjournment is granted. Of course, whether the court sits or not, appearance fees too must have to be given to your lawyers each time to come to court. With all these delays and all manner of technicalities, should you have to wait for anyone to remind you why you were told to "Go to Court?"

"As frustrated as you may become are neither the judge's nor the defense counsel's concerns after all, it is not up to them to tell you that going to court in Nigeria is the biggest mistake and what else should do at this juncture than to abandon your pursuit of justice unless you want to continue heartbroken and financially ruined.

"In the meantime, your friends who refused to return home and as a result doing well within their respective careers, who have also being laughing at those of us who returned home eventually become invited home to made ministers, while you are seen as a failure. At this juncture, what else becomes your only plan than how to leave the country and return to the same country you earlier left decades ago? With your kind of disappointing story told across the world, one then wonders who in their right senses would after hearing your predicaments would want to invest in, the same Nigeria.

"In other words, if Nigerian investors are these recipients of injustice in their own country, can any sane foreign investor ever try coming to invest in the same Nigeria? Is that not why all we have been seeing in Nigeria all these year are foreign fraudsters, who masking themselves as genuine foreign investors are only coming here to connive with their local counterparts, most of whom are corrupt top government who all that matters to is enriching themselves while the economy continues to bleed to death. In this joint fraud, these ones cannot be told. "Go to Court?"

"Dear Chief Judge, I am not writing you this petition because I believe that you can single-handedly change this rotten judicial system. I will be foolish to even imagine you being able to do that. I am only writing you to have my experience shared with your office and for the records. I know I have gone to where every sane person ought not to go to, given the kind of consequences thereafter awaiting such a brave person.

"But having fearlessly spoken where no one has ever spoken and having lost one and half decades of my then promising career path in my own country what else would I have to lose speaking this fearlessly, where even powerful senior advocates have consistently stayed away from or else should they ever speak out, they too will become marked by these unjust justices.

"Because I know that if not that your hands are tied you would have seen reasons with me, let me in closing wish your office my highest regards."