Walter Onnoghen’s Ordeal, Nigeria’s Federal Government & What The Corruption Fight Has Come To Symbolize -By Ifeanyichukwu Mmoh

Men are admonished to drop the mindset of greed and embrace the life of contentment but they scoff at such wise sayings of wisdom and make the carriers of such nuggets look like representatives from the Stone Age. Technically, they hinge their reasons for scoffing on the reality of our societies today and are able to always justify their actions of greed on the fact that life itself is not content but greedy to the point of exerting beyond a person’s financial strength.

There are strong signs that the federal government of Nigeria was all set to nail the CJN Walter Onnoghen in a most ignoble manner. They looked like they had all the evidence to silence every form of blackmail or campaign of calumny against their determined efforts to free up the space and enable the power tasty APC return its presidential hopeful for a second term in office. What other way to achieve this with ease but to look into the cupboard of perceived obstacles in the hope of finding needed skeletons?

What other style to use but to arm themselves with relevant reports on a shady lifestyle that’ll give their craft a face that appealed to Nigerians. Somehow, things are becoming different these days unlike what once obtained where obstacles are simply assassinated. In the First World countries, officers are neck-deep into corrupt practices but they are careful and always ready to compromise just to keep their skeletons intact and in the confines of their cupboard.  

Since the first day the news stormed the news space, a great percentage of Nigerians are still hypnotized with the political side of the saga especially with the fact that the CJN was another obstacle in the way of a vicious pirate and therefore another victim of state intimidation; without a thought to the legality of a public officer being in possession of several foreign bank accounts as against what the Constitution says. Few are concerned about what a sitting law officer did with several fat foreign accounts.

Can this officer still deliver justice when worse come worst? But there is another question that begs for an answer. Nigerians are aware that a number of persons who worked with this current government are embroiled in very shady stories that stinks yet none of them have been brought to book. Therefore it looked like a selective campaign or like a well rehearsed script where persons with skeletons in their cupboards are let into government and when it served government right; they are used to score cheap political points.

Persons like Prof. Usman Yusuf (NHIS), Engr. Babachir Lawal (fmr. SGF), Amb. Ayo Oke (fmr. boss NIA), Col. Lawal Daura (fmr. Boss DSS), Munir Gwarzo (SEC), Justice Walter Onnoghen (CJN) and the former aide to the president’s wife – Mr. Sani Baban-Inna. Among these persons so mentioned, only Walter Onnoghen’s case has received so speedy action that got tongues wagging. Is this therefore what the corruption fight is all about? Yes, the case is about the false declaration of asset. But what if those monies that lay in those foreign accounts are quite legitimate? What if they could be explained legally?

Onnoghen has been in the law practice for decades and several governments have passed. Chances are that the several politicians who have come and gone in the past are friends or perhaps once a client. Don’t forget that constitutional cases were once very popular in the past and that many of today’s celebrity lawyers benefited from the lawlessness that the political class put our political system in. Somehow, a guy like Onnoghen can explain the source of whatever he had in those foreign accounts.

In those days, lawyers like Ricky Tarfa, Joseph Dauda, Wole Olanipekun and several others reigned as prominent constitutional lawyers. They made so much money and had a great deal of popularity. What this means is that if any one of those constitutional lawyers was appointed as CJN, he/she would probably collide with the law either way. Now, we know of windfalls; don’t we? These lawyers have been in practice up until when the political class came with their influence that corrupted many who associated with them.

For me, the legal side of the Onnoghen’s ordeal remained a subject of speculation until a competent court of law makes a pronouncement. However, let me state in a very strong term that the CJN’s ordeal is a good example for why the people of Nigeria must change the way we did things. If the proves – for instance – that the foreign accounts of the CJN held monies whose sources cannot be explained; would that not amount a disgraceful end for a gentleman with a fine profile?

If the head of Nigeria’s judicial system could be caught pants down like any other Nigerian who knew nothing of the law; does it not suggest that we are just joking? The law says that every appointee must declare asset with the code of conduct bureau but the federal government and the CJN both looked the other way when the romance was sweet. Oshiomole said it best when he recently said that anyone who joined the APC would have their sins forgiven.

If the Nigerian people are expected to applaud the government of the day as fighting corruption; it will be a slap on us all. For why is the fight always coming when the love affair goes soar? When the going was good for the government, Rochas Okorocha was in deed a friend but when it went soar; Nigerians began to know certain things that we ought to have known before now.

And if the CJN expects that the people of Nigeria will side with him on the grounds of emotion or sentiment; there he goes wrong. The mere fact of having several foreign bank accounts – is a sign of greed for a law man – and anyone in his right senses will not want to be seen associating with such kind of greed. Nigerians are hungry today because Buhari decided to fight corruption and, also because the greedy in our midst has chosen to remain unsympathetic to the plight of Nigerians and therefore have continued to encourage greed.

Corruption, we must understand is when a citizen of the federation of Nigeria satisfied self in violation of the rights of fellow citizens or statutory laws. The CJN knows the law; his employer knows the law as well but now that the interest of both parties conflicted, the violation is remembered and the public is treated to another TALES BY MOONLIGHT stories. The question becomes DO THESE LEADERS SYMBOLIZE OUR SERVANTS OR OUR RULERS? AND IS THIS DRAMA THE PROMISED FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION?

This is the major reason why I find it hard to not disagree with the manner in which this corruption fight was prosecuted. Folks are not prosecuted because it was in the interest of the federation but because it served the APC, the Cabal and the President. President Buhari has allowed many criminals around him because he hoped to use them for his personal pursuits and anyone of those who failed to fall into line was made to look like the worse rouge in Nigeria.

This is what they once hoped they could achieve with the Saraki trial back then and since they failed, they lost influence over the national assembly allowing the president of NASS to rule with much impunity to the point of owing backlog of salaries. Now, if the CJN should win his case with the federal government; Nigeria may yet witness the rise of an independent judiciary that is fraught with much indiscretion and impunity from lawyers especially those from the ambitious fold.

Comrade Ifeanyichukwu Mmoh is an advocate for attitudinal change, a researcher and authored (THE ORIGIN OF IGBO MARGINALIZATION IN NIGERIA). 08062577718.