A searchlight on Nigeria’s judiciary

When incidence abounds where judgments can be influenced; substantial evidence is trivialised and or it carries no weight any longer; the Supreme Courts’ final judgments are upturned as frequently as it is reprehensible; biased judges no longer recuse themselves; “go to court” refrain now becomes the villains’ easy threat and trauma-inflicting bullet words to the upright individuals, therefore, we are finished. 

At the time the heads of Nigerians were swelled with the flowing promise of ensuring that electoral reforms are perfected, I almost believed. But I quickly recovered to remember similar unfulfilled promises that have made Nigerians become weary and demoralised. “Hope defers makes the heart sick” – Proverbs 13 vs 12.

Baring this promise-evasion custom, one could have relied on the words that are supposedly the bonds of the government to suggest an extension of the judiciary system overhaul, anyhow, but sacrosanct. The three arms of government – the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary – are self-existing and independent but enjoy the available mechanism to checkmate each other for general proper governance. 

To be candid, the high rate of the judiciary debacle situation and malpractices being witnessed in Nigeria now from top to bottom are appalling. For the fear of sounding immodest, especially making efforts not to make prejudicial statements, I will be constrained to refer only to concluded cases or those not established. There is a 7-minute broadcast footage of Mr. Liborous Oshoma (a certain reputed eloquent critic of bad governance) that has gone viral on social media platforms in which he reeled out names and incidents riddled with judiciary corruption both concluded cases and avoided ones for the fear of the unknown. I intend not to replicate the video content completely here but I will select prominent references to drive home my point. Before I do that, for the umpteenth time, I bemoan the ugly trend that mainly our politicians seem to have a seared conscience and have lost human sympathy. Humanity means absolutely nothing to them, especially anyone guilty of inbred corruption. 

The humongous amount of money Nigerian political elite steal is largely unnecessary. It’s a sheer psychological disorderliness and a demonstration of insanity for a person to embezzle public funds running into billions and trillions of naira and still find comfort in sleep hoping to wake up safe and sound. I beg to disagree. No rational human has this capacity. There must have been some hormonal distortion with conscience transformation and tampering that took place on the subject individual before they could conduct themselves so abnormally. Yet life smiles ruefully at them. With such unbridled thirst and unquenchable greed for filthy lucre, they still, most often untimely, found time to kick buckets. The unpatriotic aspect is that they find no peace or place in Nigeria to transit to the great beyond but in foreign lands. Misery and melancholy define their ends. Someone rightly said that the sky is wide enough to accommodate all birds to fly far and wide without ruffling feathers with the other birds. So, let’s not grab and hoard resources that are meant for everyone. Godliness with contentment is a great gain indeed. Altruistic service to mankind is of greater importance and benefit. This gospel is known by some of our politicians but the god of mammon often beguiles them.

To quote part of the above-mentioned Liborous Oshoma videos’ introduction, he said, “The presiding judge of the court of appeal Sokoto Division Justice Mohammed Lawal has urged Nigeria graft agencies to prioritise going after highly placed corrupt persons and not just only street and young fraudsters who are popularly known as “Yahoo Boys.” The stern justice continues, “Part of the problem facing fighting corruption in Nigeria is judges who grant ex parte order to protect highly placed individuals against prosecution from anti-graft agencies.” When you hear this kind of sound warning from the horse’s mouth, then you should be mindful of anyone who is disposed to argue that the Nigeria judiciary was not under siege a long time ago. If the last bastion of hope of the ordinary citizenry is now under shackles and manacles and every glimpse of hope of redemption is dashed, whither our respite? May Nigerians not lament this woeful cry in Jeremiah chapter 8 verse 20, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended and we are not saved.”

If crying about the hopeless situation in Nigeria’s governance system would proffer viable solutions, then I want to join the weeping team. But that will exacerbate the already worrisome situation. If the ostrich players have successfully argued that revolution is untimely in Nigeria, what other workable options are they putting on the table? That option would have been tried previously but failed. Only drastic decisions and resolute actions will salvage us or we perish. We are already at the brink of the precipice… roll over to the damming dish or be rescued. There are lots of national tasks to be done.

Orajiaku writes from Lagos.