BY Oseghale Erahodu.
An unsavoury dinner has just taken place in Aso Rock Villa. The
Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Tanko Mohammed, was caught on
camera in a dinner session with President Muhammadu Buhari. The CJN
had a full retinue of Supreme and Appeal Court justices, including
members of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal at the dinner.
They were at the Villa to break the Ramadan fast with the president.
If you ask me what my grouse with this high-powered dinner is, I will
quickly retort by telling you that there is something distasteful
about the meal. It is sour in every sense of the word because of the
secrecy that was brought to bear on it.
Before their lordships were feted at this presidential dinner, some
other high-ranking government officials, including the leadership of
the legislative arm of government, had had similar dinners with Mr.
President. But there is a difference. The dinner for the other
stakeholders was in the public domain. They were announced to the
Press. The public was very much in the know. But that was not the
case with that of their lordships. Theirs was kept under wraps. It
took some kind of whistle-blowing for some of us to know about this
meal that has all the trappings of compromise.
Why were their lordships ferreted into Aso Rock and treated to a
sumptuous evening without Nigerians being put in the know? That is
the question that is begging for answer.
Now, let us go into the substance of the matter. I have a problem
with this dinner because of the issue we have on our hands. The
Nigerian judiciary is on trial because of the 2019 presidential
elections. The received impression in many homes in Nigeria is that
the election in question was won by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the
presidential candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). President
Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is largely believed to
be holding a stolen mandate. It is this disputed outcome of the
election that Atiku and his party, the PDP, have gone to court to
challenge.
But an issue as testy as this cannot be resolved by a corrupt and
compromised judiciary. The independence of the judiciary, the world
over, is almost taken for granted. The judiciary is the last hope of
the common man. It is the bastion of democracy. It is expected that
the judiciary will stand firm and courageous when democratic
institutions are being abused and trampled upon by corrupt
politicians.
Not too long ago, the judiciary in Kenya, an East African country,
made the world proud when its Supreme Court upturned the result of
the 2017 presidential election in the country owing to widespread
electoral malpractices. Since that courageous step was taken in
Kenya, the world has been holding the Kenyan judiciary aloft as the
beacon of hope for democracy in Africa, nay in the world. The
judiciary in Nigeria may not have attained this enviable height, but
Nigerians are hoping that our courts would, one day, help to right
monumental wrongs. This is where we stand in Nigeria of today.
It was on the strength of this delicate situation that Justice Zainab
Bulkachuwa, the President of the Court of Appeal who also assumed the
chairmanship of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, was
asked to recuse herself from the trial because it is believed that
she is an interested party in the case. I will not bother you here
with the details of the assumed and presumed weaknesses of Justice
Bulkachuwa in this matter. Suffice it to say that she has since
recused herself even though she did so in a pretensious manner. Our
hope is that the other Justices on the panel and whoever that will
take over from Bulkachuwa will do justice in this matter without fear
or favour.
But we are constrained to say that members of the presidential
election petition tribunal have started on a disappointing note.
Their ruling that there was not enough reason for Justice Bulkachuwa
to recuse herself from the case is bizarre. How they decided to
ignore judicial precedents and decided cases in this matter beats the
imagination. Is this their skewed judgment a foretaste of what to
expect from them in the case before them? We hope it is not.
Nigerians are still waiting for them to dispense justice in a manner
that will not make our judiciary a laughing stock.
You can now appreciate my agony when the matter which we are trying
to resolve at the Appeal Court level is being entrenched at the
Supreme Court. It must be noted that Justice Tanko Mohammed was
appointed in controversial circumstances. He was chosen to replace
Justice Walter Onnoghen, the deposed CJN who Buhari suspended in
circumstances that were less than decent. Analysts have since linked
Onnoghen’s deposition to the presidential election case we have on
our hands. All the talk about non declaration of assets by the former
CJN was bunkum and a mere afterthought.
Given this set-up, it will be most unconscionable for Justice Tanko
Mohammed to do anything that will throw him open to suspicion. Since
he is believed to be the president’s special nominee, he must tread
with caution. He must be seen to be an impartial arbiter who will not
be compromised by sticky meals.
The fact that the presidential dinner under reference took place in
secret is worrisome. The impression it conveys is that the concealed
meal may be one of the sessions that will be put in place to
compromise the justices, particularly the CJN in the ongoing
presidential election petition trials. The development is most
reprehensible, to say the least. It sends uncomfortable signals to
the watching world.
Justice Mohammed must retrace his steps. He must also watch his back.
He must bear in mind that it will be imperative that he recuses
himself from the case if he cannot maintain the neutrality expected
of him. Nigeria must overcome a compromised and corrupt judiciary
which cannot save the country from itself. The ongoing presidential
election petition will be a case to end all cases. Our lordships must
watch what they do because the world is watching.
That is why I shudder at the fact that their lordships did not see
anything wrong with the secrecy that attended their outing.
Considering the fact that other dinners that held before theirs were
publicized, their lordships should have spared a moment to ask why
theirs was made a top secret.
Circumspection is paramount here because of the case before them.
They must realise that they are being looked up to resolve many of
the thorny issues that the 2019 presidential election has thrown up.
A cavalier disposition such as the one Tanko Mohammed and his
entourage displayed in the instant case will not serve anyone’s
purpose in this matter. They should come off it and stay guided.
OSEGHALE, A freelance journalist writes from Benin City.