I will start this report by referencing a statement by the former Chief
\nJustice of Nigeria, Justice Muhammadu Uwais on corrupt judges;<\/p>\n
\u201cA corrupt judge is more harmful to the society than a man who runs amok
\nwith a dagger in a crowded street. The latter can be restrained
\nphysically. But a corrupt judge deliberately destroys the moral foundation
\nof society and causes incalculable distress to individuals through abusing
\nhis office while still being referred to as honorable.\u201d<\/p>\n
A revolution has been started in Nigeria with the arrest of leading judges
\nin a night raid last weekend for corruption. The Department of State
\nSecurty (DSS) which led that surprising sting operation, said it was
\nfollowing over seven months investigation of corruption cases against
\njudges. Let us recall that earlier in the year, some leading lawyers were
\narrested and arraigned in various courts for acts of corruption in what is
\nperhaps the biggest shakedown the Nigerian judiciary has faced in its
\nhistory. For many years, most Nigerians have impotently watched as justice
\ngets priced beyond the reach of the ordinary Nigerian. Many have watched
\nas clear cases of perversion of justice with victims left to hug the
\ntransformer while the officers in the temple of justice smile home with
\ntheir gargantuan loots. Many have watched as the judiciary waxes
\nconspiratorially languid in punishing many of the corrupt people that have
\nbeen hauled before it. Of course, these corrupt people with the support of
\nsenior lawyers whose rise in the legal profession is procured mainly from
\ntransacting with judges and being awarded cases without any care about the
\ninterest of the nation.<\/p>\n
It was therefore apt that Nigerians have forlornly called for the
\nsanitisation of the judiciary. The coming of President Buhari rekindled
\nthe hope that the burning Nigerian chestnut could be pulled off the fire
\nwith a thorough anti corruption war that will aim at the very roots of the
\ndecibel. One of such obnoxious roots is the Nigerian judiciary as
\nNigerians believed that any meaningful fight against corruption must start
\nfrom the judiciary where grotesque manipulation of justice has ensured the
\ncountry’s most corrupt seizes the courts and allocate justice to whosoever
\npleases it. There has been the expressed wish that the judiciary could be
\nshaken down to the roots and only an audacious, bold, courageous action,
\nwhich only a President Buhari can do, stands to salvage the judiciary from
\na valley of odium and place it on the strategic pedestal where it leads
\nthe country’s quest for probity and accountability.<\/p>\n
The night raid\u00a0 which simultaneously targeted some justices of the Federal
\nHigh Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court all over the country signals
\nthe needed cleanser citizens of an unjust, misruled and abused country
\nhave yearned for so many years. In the raid, where seven judges of the
\nthree levels of the court were arrested witnessed the recovery of a huge
\ncache of money in both local and foreign currencies in the arrested judges
\nresidences. It was a daring signal that officers at the temple of justice
\nshould comport to the same etiquette and moral rectitude other citizens
\nare required to adapt to. It was a wake up call for a judiciary that has
\nplayed deaf to the loud demand that it must sanitise its inner coves and
\nsave itself from a largely self-inflicted atrophy.<\/p>\n
The furore that greeted the arrest, with the fuming Nigerian Bar
\nAssociation and a motley crowd of civil rights groups issuing hasty
\nmoratorium condemning the arrest and calling for the release of the
\njudges, has given way to increasing citizens support for the act that will
\nsurely ensure that corrupt\u00a0 commercialisation of justice is capped. With
\nthe clear explanations given by the DSS, which detailed why and how the
\nsting operation was carried out, a stunned citizenry has been let into how
\nbizarre wheeling and dealing have been imported into the justice system to
\nnot only deface what should be a hallowed institution but outrightly
\ncommercialise it to pander to the desires of the highest bidder. The
\nunseemly picture of judges shunting in lowly departmental stores and
\nacross the border to collect huge bribe money to pervert justice was a
\nshameful indict indictment the Nigerian judiciary must live with for many
\nyears to come. With the rampaging effects of official corruption in
\nNigeria, it is not difficult to see why and how the judiciary has been
\nshackled and made a conquered vassal of the impudently corrupt political
\nclass in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
It is not as if the story of judicial corruption in Nigeria is a new tale.
\nIt is as old as Nigerian governance but thus far, no government has
\nmustered the will and guts to lay bare the inner coves of the nation’s
\njudiciary and put a leash on the wholesale trading that has rubbished the
\nintegrity of the Nigerian judiciary. It was even decipherable from the
\nreaction of the NBA, the NJC and its supporters, that the Judiciary was
\nalmost walking away with the impression that its members are above the law
\nbut such rude awakening as the DSS swoop will nudge it back to reality
\nthat they are Nigerians, prone to the malaise afflicting Nigeria and
\nsubject to the treatment for such malaise.<\/p>\n
From the DSS account itself, it is easy to preen that the body that should
\ndiscipline and moderate the indiscretions and nuances of judicial
\nofficials, the National Judicial Council (NJC) has been derelict in
\nsanitising an arm of government that had gained widespread notoriety for
\nmarketing justice to the highest bidder. Perhaps, the NJC was powerless
\nbecause it thought that it has separate ethics governing the judiciary
\nthat are not subject to the laws of the land. Its approach to dealing with
\nmalfeasance in the judiciary is to recommend analgesics for a cancer
\npatient. This laissez-faire approach has rather led to a worsening of the
\ncorruption in the judiciary and worsened its perception by the Nigerian
\npublic.\u00a0 \u00a0According to the DSS, the cases of corruption against the
\narrested judges were reported to the NJC seven months ago but the body had
\nrather issued a slap on the wrist for the judges and allowed the judiciary
\nto sink further into the abyss of corruption. It may be understandable
\nthat the NJC does not adjudicate on cases of criminality against judges
\nbut it displayed a poor appreciation of the problem by pretending it can
\nbut it ended up covering a huge pile of rot in the process.<\/p>\n
With the DSS raid however, an elated nation that has impotently rued the
\nincreasing criminalization of the temple of justice over the years, heaved
\na sigh of relief that indeed a Daniel has come to judgment. The poor whose
\nhopes for justice has percolated in the face of multi-billion Naira
\ntrading for justice must have heaved a sigh of relief that his remedy is
\nnigh. The vision of a judiciary that will not trade justice for sacks of
\ndollars, Euros, Pounds and Naira is a refreshing experience for citizens
\nof a country that have lived for many decades, internalising only corrupt
\nways of doing things, including procuring justice. Who will not like a
\nsystem where he will go to court and get justice without trading with an
\nappointed middleman that will name the price for the envisaged justice he
\nhopes to get? Who will not be elated going before a judge who has already
\nnamed the price for the justice he came to seek for? The biggest casualty
\nin this remains the judiciary which must work hard to regain the
\nconfidence of Nigerians. Such confidence is needed to secure an
\negalitarian society where no man is oppressed.<\/p>\n
It is noteworthy that such bodies like the NBA, with its own thick layer
\nof wheeler-dealer lawyers and some groups initially wanted to create
\nartificial immunity for the arrested judges. Judges are subject to the
\nsame laws they interpret and as such, are not immune from arrest and
\nprosecution for criminal and corrupt acts. They are not above the law and
\ntheir conduct is not beyond reproach. That they stand in the temple of
\njustice does not give them more privileges than other citizens. Perhaps
\nthe NBA realised this late but then, it is heart warming that we have this
\ncase to make other judges know that they cannot bestialise the temple of
\njustice and walk away free. For years, we have seen judges and some
\nlawyers live very flattering and opulent lives, not on their salaries or
\nlegal earnings but from the proceeds of corruption. In the sequel, the
\njustice system has suffered irreparable harm while the poor citizenry bear
\nthe brunt. Sure, there are honest and impeccable judges that try to live
\nstraight and\u00a0 honest lives but like in every other sector, the visage of
\nswash-buckling, nouveau-riche judges, obscenely displaying wealth is sure
\nto dampen their morale and serve as demoraliser to their struggle to live
\ntrue to their callings. Now that the weeds are about to be pulled off, the
\ngood seed in the ration’s bench will have tremendous opportunity to
\nflower; to the glory of the country’s judiciary.<\/p>\n
As citizens of a country where justice had been cannibalised and\u00a0 sold to
\nthe highest bidder, we have a binding duty to support the present effort
\nto cleanse and fumigate the judiciary. Unquantifiable is the gain a
\ncorrupt-free judiciary can do to a country’s growth. But then, we still
\nhave a duty to urge the present regime to go deeper in this cleansing
\neffort. Many\u00a0 more judges at the federal level are very corrupt and of
\ncourse, many judges at the state judiciary are as corrupt as their federal
\ncounterparts and must be equally probed, taken in and prosecuted. As the
\nBuhari government has shown, there should be no tolerance for sacred cows.
\nThe government and its security agencies must beam the searchlights on
\njudges that sat on the various election tribunals. There is a sustained
\nimpression that the country’s election tribunals are merely dubious
\ntrading points where politicians with burning ambitions, purchase
\nfavourable rulings from acquiescing judges which eventually give them
\npower over gargantuan state resources. The DSS or any other security
\nagency must probe judges that have sat at these tribunals if we will
\nachieve our desire fir a filth-free judiciary where justice goes to the
\njust.<\/p>\n
All said, the DSS raid on allegedly corrupt judges is quite in order. It
\nis a welcome development. It is timely. It is laudable. It serves very
\nexciting notice that our judiciary could be rescued from the pith of
\ndecay. It gives hope that the present anti corruption war will go a long
\nway in rescuing the soul of a lost nation. It gives hope for the Nigerians
\nmasses not only that all Nigerians are equal but that every Nigerian is
\nanswerable to the law. It is a fundamental imperative for placing the
\ncountry on a sound moral pedestal for a long journey in nation recovery.<\/p>\n
Peter Claver Oparah<\/p>\n