The Need For A Deep Judicial Cleanse -By Ike Willie-Nwobu

To judge is to give life or death. It is to make or mar, to repair or ruin.

Like Peter during the transfiguration, judges ask justice to allow them make three tents – one for the complainant, one for the Defendant, and one for the court.

A key characteristic of justice is that it must not only be done, but it should be seen to have been done.

Elisha Abo is a bitter man who is also dazed. The controversial senator dished out a few slaps since he became senator. On…it was his turn for a thunderous slap when the Court of Appeal sacked him as the senator representing.

According to the court, Amos Yohanna won the election.

Because the Court of Appeal is the final court in election appeals from National and State Houses of Assembly, Senator Abo suddenly moved from the cozy confines of the National Assembly to a dead-end.

But the fiesty politician has been fighting Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, was  first to receive his verbal fisticuffs. He accused him orchestrating his travail. He has since backtracked and apologized but maybe only because he has found another target, presumably a softer one.

Convoking a press conference on, Abo accused the judiciary of corruption. He railed against Monica Dongban-Mensem, the Court of Appeal President, and Egondu Nwosu-Iheme, the justice who presided over the panel that sacked him.

In a long vitriolic tirade against the judiciary, Abo used the phrase “ judicial bandit.” He also accused children and agents  of judges for soliciting and collecting bribes from them.

It Is easy to dismiss Abo’s allegations as the blind rage of a sore loser, but it won’t be fair. As part of. Nigeria’s political class accused of mutilating the country’s core values, Abo may know even more than he discloses. If he knows more than he spilled in his press conference, then he should speak to the appropriate authorities and perhaps induce investigation and consequent prosecution.

But it is not only Abo who is worried that  he lost his seat in the way and manner he rails against. Nigerians have been worried for a long time now over the state of their judiciary. While every election season brings a  renewed bombardment of the judiciary with litigation and lies, the election cycle of 2023 was especially fraught. The effects of  a handful of confusing judgments have since been exacerbated accusations and counter accusations.

In his interview, Abo mentions the children and agents of judges. What else might Abo know about  the corrupt rackets that keep giving the Nigerian judiciary a bad name?

If pressed, which names can Abo readily drop and maybe kickstart a long overdue inquiry into the activities of the Nigerian judiciary with the goal of reforming it in the long run.

Serving and past members of the National Assembly are no strangers when it comes to making allegations against the Nigerian judiciary. Before he slipped into his personal post-legislature dusk, Adamu Bulkachuwa, who represented Bauchi South in the National Assembly, and was married to Zainab Bulkachuwa who was president of Nigeria’s Court of Appeal until 2020, let slip in his valedictory speech of how he made his wife to use her office to assist his colleagues then in the National Assembly. Before he was successfully hushed by the Senate President, Nigerians confirmed what they had long suspected.

Nigeria’s progress since democracy was restored to the country has been painfully slow. A key reason for this has been the self-serving nature of key institutions of government – the executive, legislature and judiciary. In the preceding years, the country has not been blessed with enough leaders willing to put the country before their friends and families.

It Is bad enough that almost every election conducted in Nigeria has to navigate  the maddening crucible of judicial proceedings to finally determine a winner. When politicians can buy judgments off courts of law and take home offices into which the people did not elect them, disaster is waiting to strike.

While it is the practice of sore losers with  teeth blackened by sour grapes to throw all manner of allegations when they lose elections. Yet, when a crying child continues to point in the same direction, it is either the mother or the father is there.

Allegations have been made and despite the paucity of evidence, the stridency of the allegations deserves some attention. Let it be determined that there is nothing to the allegations and only  then will  the torch of transparency be able to  deter future alarmists.

But until then, the National Judicial Council which is the body responsible for the discipline of judges must shake off its slumber and get to work. It must urgently identify those who  trade court judgments for filthy lucre  and remove them from the bench. Until this is done, a country that is fast becoming a hollow husk will remain haunted by a harrowing crisis of confidence.

Ike Willie-Nwobu,

Ikewilly9@gmail.com