The current seniority arrangement and retirement age factor at the Supreme Court favour Southern Nigeria to produce three Chief Justices of Nigeria in a row, and lead the Nigerian Judiciary for the next seven years. Incumbent Kayode Ariwoola (June 27, 2022 to August 22, 2024), Kudirat Kekere-Ekun (August 22, 2024 to May 7, 2028) and John Iyang Okoro, yes the same one arrested by DSS (May 7, 2028 to July 7, 2029). Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammed, the current most senior Justice of the court, is retiring on October 27, 2023, meaning he would be done before Ariwoola is done, provided the appointing authority, President Muhammadu Buhari, doesn’t shake up the design of fate.
The president is expected to send Ariwoola’s name for Senate confirmation before the first acting period expires on September 27, 2022, except there is a substantial baggage, arising from genuine intels and not some cooked-up adversarial security report. After the manner in which the last two CJNs, Justices Walter Onnoghen and Tanko Muhammed exited the job, the apex court which is the ultimate symbol of the Judiciary, needs some stability, to rebuild lost credibility and recoup eroded dignity. Though the president’s unfriendly disposition to the arm of government has badly affected its psyche, he can’t be wholly blamed for what it has become, which is a reflection of the general rot in the entire governance structure and public service in the country.
Judging by his December 28, 2011 outburst, the appointing authority, has always had a mindset about the Supreme Court; what it should be and should not be, which possibly guides his relational with the court and its leadership.
Reacting to the judicial confirmation of then President Goodluck’s electoral victory over him, by the final court, then-Candidate Buhari said, “This Supreme Court has proved no better than the Supreme Courts of 2003 and 2007. The court turned a blind eye and deaf ear to the gross irregularities of the polls, just as it did in 2003 and 2007.”
It means the president believed and possibly still believes there is a cartel in the court, that determines who gets what, preserving itself through new additions, just like the alleged cartel in the Court of Appeal years back, cornering and delivering election matters, in incredulous manner.
In fairness, the president’s worry can’t be dumped wholesale, though what he was also expecting from the court wasn’t due him. Yes, the president was closer than ever in 2011, but it was still basically a sectional bloc vote that would win no one the Nigerian presidency.
Now, he has the presidency and thinks he should recreate the Supreme Court and by extension, the Nigerian Judiciary, in his own image, according to his likeness. And that is where the problem lies. The president is an unbalanced assessor. His perception is tilted and it isn’t towards the Judiciary alone. In 2017, then-president of the World Bank, Korean-American Jim Yong Kim told the whole world the Nigerian leader asked him to favour North in developmental projects. When Kim innocently blew the lid on the scandalous request, General Buhari just shrugged and moved on. That is how much he loves his own, maybe, too much, to the detriment of others who gave him a national assignment that requires, inclusiveness and being just, to all.
Already, there is a rumour the president isn’t interested in making Ariwoola the substantive CJN. Dattijo’s name is being bandied as the favoured one. After the Tanko fiasco, and how God restored Southern Nigeria to its due the president tried to take away, one would think that everyone must have learnt enough not to engage in any sleight to promote any favourite. But men like to dare God. My sincere advice to Justice Dattijo is to accept the fact and reality, that the farthest he had been designed to go in the system is vice chairman of the National Judicial Council (NJC) and most senior Justice in the land. Being CJN is obviously not in his destiny; that is why he was born when he was and not earlier or later, and got promoted to the apex court, when he was, and not earlier or later. You can say Ariwoola got there before his time, but he had been destined to be CJN, having been in the succession line, though he was to be CJN, for just six months, before grace found him and Southern Nigeria again.
Reducing the conversation about jurisprudential capacity and managerial ability at the level of judiciary leadership to religion and region is a sad commentary on how the political elite have used the twin evil to first divide Nigerians before profiting massively from it. But it is the reality that governs the Nigerian public space today. The president has exceeded all boundaries of restrain to cement the twin evil as state policy. Whenever he is displeased with a Southerner, a Northerner is almost certain to take his position, except where the constitution restrains him. What has happened at the level of leadership at the DSS is simply mind-boggling. Is it also a mere coincidence that the only two CJNs in history without the honour of valedictory service are Christians; one from the South (Onnoghen) and the other, from the North Central (Aloysius Katsina-Alu)?
I have gone this far to particularly remind three men; President Buhari, Justice Dattijo and Ag. CJN Ariwoola, that history has a rear mirror. Justice Dattijo must resist any attempts to be used as a spoiler. He should reject Greek gifts. Yoruba will say “Ohun ọwọ́ mi ò tó màá fi gọ̀ǹgọ̀ fàá, àbùkù nií mú kanni”, (To incessantly quest after what’s evidently beyond one’s reach, is to court shame.) He has 15 months more, to serve his fatherland and retire in honour. He should not be driven by ambition of any definitions.
For President Buhari, he has seen what God can do, with how his fav; Tanko, ended, and this is not being mean. Yes, Yoruba will say, if a madman is handed a hoe, he would draw the harvest unto himself. But man, should not struggle with God. What He hasn’t given you, you can’t have. If you insist on having it, you are courting trouble. President Buhari is definitely no longer invisible in the North, but he still has a place in their heart of his base. He should let the current leadership arrangement in Judiciary, stay, the way fate has constructed it.
For Justice Ariwoola, the odds aren’t in his favour. Already, there is the thinking he is playing the establishment game of radio silence, expected to take the attention of Nigerians away from the system, for it to return to business as usual. That is courting the disaster of the Onnoghen curse. Between November 22, 2011, when President Jonathan appointed him to the bench of the Supreme Court and 2016 when Onnoghen began his reign the new man was just five years at the court. Hopefully, he was close enough to see the bad start of that jolly fellow from Cross River. Hey, what is this thing they say about doing stuff same way and expecting different result.
(To be concluded).
and then