THE National Judicial Council (NJC) Friday evening confirmed that the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Kayode Ariwoola, has notified the body of his imminent retirement.
A statement by Council’s Director of Information, Soji Oye, said, “The Council deliberated on the notification of retirements of three Judicial Officers including that of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice OkukayodeAriwoola, GCON and notification of death of three Judges of the Federal and State Courts”.
By Wednesday May 22, it would be exactly three months to his current national assignment and established protocol of the Council, which he heads, compels retiring judicial officers to notify the umbrella agency, of their imminent exit, in writing, three months to bowing out.
Ariwoola came into office with a situation akin to age scandal, with August 22, 1958 being initially bandied as his birth date, instead of August 22, 1954, the official birth date he had claimed all through his time at the lower courts. What further ignited the mini-scandal was his refusal to have his birth date listed on the website of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, unlike others, including his imminent successor, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, born on May 7, 1958, who had their birth dates, boldly on their names.
Well, before the scandal could blossom, the apex court quickly dispelled the 1958 spin, allegedly put in public domain by well-wishers of the CJN, who reportedly wanted a longer stay for him in office as CJN.
Thankfully, the plot failed, because it would have robbed South West the history of producing the second female CJN in the history of Nigeria’s judiciary.
Despite the correction issued by the apex court, the August 22, 1958 claim is still online as the birth age of the Iseyin-born jurist, at least, as of Friday morning, when I checked, though it is now irrelevant.
The CJN submitting retirement notice should not be a major news item, let alone, attracting commentaries, but it would appear that the Council deliberately alluded to it in the Friday statement, to hush the alleged hush-hush of a long-shot tenure extension for Ariwoola by President Bola Tinubu, his assumed friend, in fulfilment of an alleged quid pro quo.
The CJN received a lot of fire from opposition elements and political parties, after his erstwhile deputy-turned-bitterest foe, Justice Dattijo Musa Muhammad publicly humiliated him, for alleged underhand dealings in the handling of the petitions challenging Tinubu’s victory, in favour of the President.
Rumour began to spiral about the elongation suspicion when the CJN assumed the chair of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Judicial Council, and hosted/presided over a three-day statutory meeting of the Council in February, in Abuja.
The hosting was Nigeria’s first.
Apart from leading other ECOWAS Chief Justices to Aso Presidential Villa, to parley with the President, Ariwoola’s uncharacteristic regional fervour, compared to his feeble leading of the Nigerian judiciary, began to give stakeholders jitters that the one they desperately want out, might use his running tenure as the region’s leading judicial officer, to bargain for an extension at home.
The anti-extension elements were afraid the President might play ball, considering that Ariwoola had allegedly been there for him, during the jurispudential disputation of his electoral victory.
Weeks back, Ariwoola and his team, were in some ECOWAS countries to further push the Abuja Agenda of February, sending those watching his moves into a meltdown.
But it has turned out that the tenure-extension frenzy is a needless, though not unfounded, fear. Ariwoola is leaving as due, and his headship of EJC, which now has its Bureau in Nigeria, will be transfered to his successor back home.
Dubbed by his critics, within and outside of the system as the “worst in history”, there is a semblance of a countdown for him, everywhere you turn in judicial circles, including among those who are of the same kindredship with him.
A justice of the apex court who was part of the Ariwoola-led coup that terminated the equally-incorrigible and patently-inefficient Tanko Muhammad as CJN, lamented that the Ariwoola that emerged after the early days of camaraderie, and now allegedly running a one-man show as the CJN, has remained bewildering to him and the rest of the apex bench.
It would even seem that the only reason the Tanko treatment is not being dusted against the incumbent by his colleagues, is his relatively short stay in office and any semblance of disruption of that comforting assurance, would be vehemently rejected.
It is just like the Tinubu gift of five extra years to judges of the court of appeal and others, which universalised the retirement age for all judicial officers, triggering leadership crisis in states like Osun and FCT Judiciary, where unloved leadership, close to termination, suddenly received somewhat fresh mandate.
For those who were eyeing seats expected to be vacant in months, now having to cope with five more years of waiting, it was an unimaginable heart break. Those disappointed by systems and who can’t leave, usually stay in, to piss in.
The Tinubu bonus was so valued that judicial officers who retired shortly before it was signed into law, began to lobby wildly, to have it backdated, to accommodate them, but the leadership of the Council, was resolute, about not applying a sleight, to favour some judiciary blue blood. The question I asked a system leader then was why would those who were complaining about poor conditions of service, would lobby to return when God had helped them to conclude their service in one piece.
The leader now told me the story of a supreme court justice who woke up on Monday of the first week of his retirement, bathed and kitted; suit, wig et all, (he should pardon me because he is likely to read this), for office and was calling for his driver before his wife reminded him he had his valedictory the preceding Friday. That was someone who retired at 70, not 65.
There are too many reasons for Nigerians, especially those weaned on the national purse, to want to die in office. It could be just what you are thinking right now. Here is Gibbers wishing Me Lord, a fulfilling retirement.
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