The recent legislative engagement in Abia State, resulting in the suspension of the chief judge, and the subsequent legal brouhaha once more reignites the eternal debate amongst “learned” friends, philosophers and the critical mass of the polity on the relationship between morals, ethics, due process, and justice.
Poser is: beyond the rigmarole of “due process”, what is the fall-back position of the civil society when a beacon of the bench that is supposed to be a repository of huge intellect, judicial courtesy, puritanism, professional honesty, resorts to unnecessary gladiatorial duels with fellow judges, barristers and court room staff? Much has been heard of a chief judge who instead of expanding and pushing the boundaries of legal jurisprudence rather deploys her ingenuity and erudition to “legally beheading” learned colleagues with an acerbic tongue. Judicial workers are routinely slapped, assaulted and legal practitioners punished by kneeling down in an open court, in the manner of a village headmistress.
Must we, the so-called “unlearned persons” in the wider society, watch askance, hands akimbo and playing the innocent by-stander, while the drivel of legalism, and juvenile court room ego battles, compromise and wash aside morality and justice? It is trite in law that judges and lawyers must apply the statute for its true purpose – in the manner canvassed by the iconic image of Lustitia, the quintessential female goddess of justice that adorns court houses carrying scales and a sword, blindfolded, ostensibly dispensing and disposing justice.
Ever since the news broke, of the suspension, much heavy weather has been made of the lack of input from the National Judicial Council before the Chief Judge was suspended. Advocates of status quo interpretation, over flog the selective wordings of section 292, paragraph 21 of the 3rd Schedule, Part 1 of the 1999 Constitution {as amended} But a cursory look reveals that the section cited is just one of many ways of removing a Chief Judge. Same Section 292.{a} {ii} stipulates that
(1) A judicial officer shall not be removed from his office or appointment before his age of retirement except in the following circumstances
(a) in the case of
(i) Chief Justice of Nigeria, President of the Court of Appeal, Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Chief Judge of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Grand Kadi of the Sharia Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and President, Customary Court of Appeal of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, by the President acting on an address supported by two thirds majority of the Senate.
(ii) Chief Judge of a State, Grand Kadi of a Sharia Court of Appeal or President of a Customary Court of Appeal of a State, by the Governor acting on an address supported by two-thirds majority of the House of Assembly of the state, praying that he be so removed for his inability to discharge the functions of his office or appointment (whether arising from infirmity of mind or of body) or for misconduct or contravention of the Code of Conduct;
(b) in any case, other than those to which paragraph (a) of this subsection applies, by the President or, as the case may be, the Governor.
Note that this section 292.{a} {ii}is silent on the role of the NJC. And it is one out of many options of removing a Chief Judge. The other option is cited above 271 Part 1.
Question on the lips of many Nigerians is why is the NJC literally comatose and slow to reaction in fulfilling its constitutional mandate? Its trademark slothfulness is now of tragic proportion and in no small measure contributed to the morass in Abia judiciary. And in the bid to drain the legal swamp ridden with crisis, stand off and allegations of heavy handedness, malfeasance, manic-depressive behaviour, etc the Abia State House of Assembly rightly, had to wade in on a rescue mission. All this talk of self-help does not fly in the face of the realities on the ground.
The lackadaisical and lethargic manner the NJC treated the matter before now, was pivotal to the brouhaha. For several months, the council acknowledged the impasse in the Abia judiciary. Rather than doing the needful, it outsourced its responsibilities to “some elderly judicial officers of Abia State” for settlement. By December 2017, nothing had been achieved by way of armistice before the dam broke loose.
The deleterious state of affairs would not have hit rock bottom if it had intervened with dispatch. Part of its set goal vide Section 153 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is to oversee a pro-active and vibrant judiciary that has judicial officers and staff with proven integrity and impeccable character.
If the truth must be told, the apex leadership of the Abia judiciary had degraded itself to an atomistic entity, riven with instability and perpetually colliding against itself, and in the process danced naked in the village square. The NJC must resolve, to wield the big stick as at when due, especially on the issue of clearing the Augean stables of corrupt judges. Recall that a former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloysius Kastina-Alu, once lamented that the nation’s judiciary’s cup is half empty with respect to integrity and was not immune from the malaise of corruption which had plunged the nation.
The Abia civil society, inclusive the legal community and stakeholders, nay the Nigerian wider society deserve and it is their right to have a people-friendly, justice delivery system rooted in morality, ethics and shorn of meaningless verbiage. Short of that, there will always be critics and sundry external interventions.
Lord Denning, and master of the rolls, arguably, the greatest English Judge of the 20th century, weighed in, on the matter when he proffered his erudition thus, “if we seek truth and justice, we cannot find it by argument and debate, nor by reading and thinking, but only by the maintenance of true religion, virtue and morals. Religion concerns the spirit man whereby he is able to recognize what is truth and what is justice; whereas law is only the application, however imperfectly, of truth and justice in our everyday affairs. If religion and morals perish in the land, truth and justice will also. We have already strayed too far from the faith of our fathers. Let us return to it, for it is the only thing that can save us”
That is the morality of the Abia House of Assembly’s intervention.
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