Political constraints come in the nature of undue attempt by the Legislature or the Executive or a combination of them to influence the Courts. These constraints are usually in the nature of pressures exerted on the judiciary in matters touching upon the self interest of the Executive and members of the Legislature. It also comes in the nature of deliberate selection of persons to be appointed Judges based on political expediency as well as the nature of subtle scheme by the Executive and the Legislature to manipulate the judicial institution, for instance, by withholding funds due to the judiciary or by witling down the prestige of judicial officers.
Every Judge, as an officer in the temple of Justice therefore, will have to encounter and deal with many species of institutionalized abuse of the rule of law and the essence of justice. The Courts must confront the specter of political intimidation from the Executive and the Legislature. Today in politics, the Presidency has sought and apparently has acquired over bearing influence both over the Legislature and over the judicial system. It is the function of the Court to deal with the misguided complaints of those in the corridor of power to whom justice can only be just when it vindicates them or their interest.
Bribery, which is an important aspect of corruption, needs two parties for it to happen: the bribe giver and the bribe taker. In Nigeria, corruption is akin to cancer. “Corruption is like a ball of snow, once it is set rolling it must increase.
Indeed there are indications that many Nigerians, of which some of them politicians, retired civil servants, judges, and a few generals, have engaged in corrupt practices.
Indeed politicians are often placed in apparently compromising positions because of their desperate need to solicit financial contributions ostensibly for their campaigns, but in reality for rigging elections. They appear sometimes to be acting in the interests of those parties that sponsor them, but mostly they are driven by personal enhancement.
A retiring Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Stanley Shenko Alagoa, last week admitted that Politicians, Businessmen and Traditional rulers are the problem of the Judiciary.
Alagoa who stated this at a valedictory court session that was held in his honor at the apex court as he bowed out of active judicial service following the 70 years mandatory retirement age, added that politicians often resort to intimidation and harassment in their uncanny bid “to influence judges to depart from their sacred oath of office and the path of honor and rectitude.”
“I will be failing in my duty especially at this time if I do not say a word or two about allegations of corruption in the judiciary. Time was when this canker worm was confined to the Magistracy and Customary or Native Courts. With time it is said to have spread and has now gained ground in the High and some say appellate Courts. This trend must be worrisome to any discerning person as some highly placed persons including distinguished and respected retired Justices of the Supreme Court and other legal luminaries have expressed grave concern over this ugly trend.
Although Nigerian leaders in the last twenty to thirty years have been singing about fighting corruption, it does not appear that any serious effort has been made to address the real causes of corruption. Thus without a proper diagnosis of the causes of corruption, trying to fight it is akin to treating symptoms rather than rooting out the disease itself.
This unfortunately appears to be the strategy adopted so far in fighting corruption in Nigeria. We must now attempt to answer the questions that Nigerians should be asking their crusaders of corruption. What indeed are the domestic causes of corruption in one of the world’s most corrupt countries?
It is necessary to observe that aside from the quality, or lack of it, of people running the Nigerian economic and political shows, there are some systemic conditions in the Nigerian polity that promote corruption.
To start with, it is unfortunate that power is concentrated in the hands of decision makers who in reality are not directly accountable to the people as is is often seen in non-democratic regimes. This is a direct result of Nigeria’s inability since independence to always conduct credible, free, fair and uncontroversial elections to political offices in the country.
With political office holders acquiring power through disputable if not illegitimate methods, the situation is not helped by perennial lack of government transparency in decision making.
Again costly political campaigns in recent times, with expenses exceeding normal sources of political funding mean that elected officials’ first priority on assuming office is to recoup their election expenses. This is facilitated by the design of marginally relevant prestige projects requiring expenditure of large amounts of public capital. In the subsequent award of contracts for these projects, self-interested closed cliques, ethnic-cum-family members, and “old-boy” networks are favored.
