Buhari isn’t judiciary’s messiah (4)

From today, President Muhammadu Buhari has exactly 1,037 days in office, God willing. Except the unexpected happens, he is also certain to retain his appointor-general status for federal judiciary and FCT. Anyone dreaming of a constitutional deposition is feeding too much on hallucinogenic. The president, any Nigerian president for that matter, is the Supremo. All governance structures worship at his altar. The 36 miniature gods also have their strongholds safe, at least, until the One that collapses strongholds and binds principalities moves in. At that point, no creature matters. In a twinkle of an eye, He can lay vineyard in ruins and the way He has made men of power to tumble in this extraordinary season, Daniel 2:20-22, has become so gripping.

There is something Yoruba call ginigini (the precious). The complete story is, before Mother Earth takes permanent custody of the wicked, the precious could be mangled. God sparing all, Buhari won’t be appointing another CJN and NJC chairman, but there is ample time to remove more than one and undertake the system in a way that what is deemed too little now to hope for a new judiciary would completely disappear into the abyss of power-mongering.

One of the greatest tragedies of the president’s assault is the bid by the governors to outdo him, in undoing the state judiciaries, already crippled by ‘whataboutism.’ The Kekere Awo in Kogi actually wanted to do it the Baba Oyoyo’s way, by gunning straight for the head of the state judiciary after Buhari removed Onnoghen and it took the sagacity of council’s secretary, Saleh Ahmed Gambo, to stop Yahaya Bello from toasting CJ Nasir Ajanah. Sadly, COVID-19 was too strong for the late jurist and Bello likely popped champagne. Nothing seems to stand between him and the pit toilet of judiciary he wants in Kogi, but maybe the NJC, the arbiter of the other time, would be the foe now since more governors are finding a pastime in rejecting the council’s recommendations for judicial appointments, particularly for the office of Chief Judge. Bello attempted the Buhari blueprint to remove Ajanah, not because Kogi Judiciary was a stinkpot under the gentleman jurist, but because the governor had his preference who isn’t likely to be the most senior. That is the next phase of the battle NJC has to undertake and once governors, who are obviously scheming, succeed in taking away its constitutional responsibilities, that is the end.

But is NJC truly relevant again? I doubt, but the council can prove doubters wrong by standing up for those constitutional duties with some élan. Right now, its 24-man highest decision-making body looks a decomposing edifice. Not in recent time, it has looked so jaded. Aloma Mukhtar, as CJN, gave it life and bubonic governors like Amaechi, hell, despite his warmth with then Aso Rock. But under the current leadership, it was a “peace” delegation that went begging Bello to spare Ajanah, simply because Bello was today’s Aso Rock sweetheart. One error Walter Onnoghen should rue for the rest of his life was rejecting the advice and rounded support to dissolve the council as acting CJN. No, he wanted to be Aso Rock boi-boi at all costs. Those men and women he preserved their “allawe” for loyalty barbecued him for the one who demanded his head on a platter like John.

Today, governors like Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna, Ben Ayade of Cross River, Bello of Kogi, et al are sneering and spitting with relish in the council’s eyes because they discovered that its constitutional teeth have been dulled by eye-service and of what use is an expiring drug? That is the message in el-Rufai’s blistering narrative on the use of the council to state judiciaries. The merit or otherwise in his argument that NJC should be for federal and SJC should handle state judiciary matters can be further interrogated, but his intentions weren’t blurred. They are as sinister as they get. How? Even before his message could be properly digested, he moved his state’s SJC under the control of Head of Service who answers directly to him! What impunity! Who does that?! Now, imagine Kaduna State Judicial Commission having the final say on the appointment, discipline and welfare of judges. An erratic personality like el-Rufai may wake up one day and have the official car of the CJ withdrawn for not greeting him properly as protocol demands. Clowns like Yahaya Bello, could even have “his” “erring” CJ openly flogged by his thugs. Afterall, his commissioner allegedly raped a lady and he got the suspect out. COVID-19 programmes were disrupted in his state and federal agencies did nothing about it. He even got doctors detained for maximum effect. The daily lunacy from Lokoja and elsewhere is better imagined if the constitution is amended to disconnect Bello and co, from NJC’s recommendatory apron. For whatever it is worth, that semblance of due process must subsist.

Even now, because the council is almost a mere growler, stranger than fiction stories are coming out of states like Cross River where the second most senior, Justice Maurice O. Eneji, is today the acting CJ, bossing his boss, Justice Akon Bassey Ikpeme, because the same Governor Ayade who got Ikpeme nominated to the council as the most senior for the vacant CJ seat and Eneji as the stand-by, as is the practice, suddenly stopped feeling the Ikpeme vibe, after NJC had found his nominee worthy. He wanted the number two as number one. NJC put up a feeble disavowal. Prof simply ignored council and enthroned his man as acting CJ. In what is gradually settling as pacifist attitude to pure constitutional matters, NJC even allowed the renewal of the illegal appointment, asking Ayade to represent the nominees, while Ikpeme is left practically stranded. This is where you want to say Aloma kare (kudos to the first female CJN). Ask Peter Agumagu when he accepted similar illegal appointment from Amaechi. He became history. For starters, NJC should suspend Eneji with immediate effect. Bi a o ba pa ijimere ka fihan ijimere egbe e, ijimere o ni beru ode (except a monkey is riddled with bullets for its colleague to see, monkey will never respect the hunter).

To be continued.

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