SHORTLY after his swearing-in as the substantive Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) last week, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola addressed journalists and assured the citizenry of his plan to improve the judiciary with the support of his brother justices. However, the highlight of his address, which has also become a subject of interrogation, was his admonition to the politicians to stop mounting pressure on judges and the judiciary. In his words: “Politicians should allow the judiciary to function. Law is not static and that’s why you have seen that the National Assembly has continued to amend the laws and it is the laws that the courts apply to the facts available. We shall continue to do justice, if only Nigerians will allow us to perform and function without any pressure.” It is good that the CJN has recognised the painful fact that procurement of justice in the country has more or less become transactional owing to the despicable activities of some politicians and unscrupulous citizens as well as the acquiescence of some judges to the sordid development. But the solution he has proffered with the identification of the problem seems to be suboptimal.
Politicians who know that any overtures they make to judicial officers to pervert the course of justice is both morally reprehensible and criminal but still habitually go ahead to influence judgments are most unlikely to be swayed by a verbal admonition of the CJN. Justice Ariwoola is enjoined to summon the courage to solve the problem of perversion of justice from within his constituency by ensuring that justices and judges keep the fidelity of their oath of office. To be sure, the CJN’s charge to the politicians is good. But the judiciary should realise how desperate politicians can be where their ambition is concerned. Politicians are notorious for being quite tenacious and vigorous in their push to do anything to have their way in the courts. Therefore, the CJN should rather enjoin his colleagues at all levels to rebuff them sternly, be focused, and be fair and impartial. One of his cardinal assignments should be to ensure that the judiciary is independent as an institution and an arm of government. That way, predisposition to external influences in the ordinary course of discharging their duties will be reduced significantly. He must also keep in mind the issues he participated in raising during the tenure of his predecessor and be deliberate in crafting strategies to resolve those issues permanently.
Though the practice is much more prevalent amongst the politicians, other citizens and organisations who have major cases before courts are also known to have the tendency to approach the judiciary with intent to subvert the system. The onus is on the judiciary to remain firm. Judges must uphold their oath of office. It is crucial to stress that one way of preventing the judiciary from putting pressure on itself is to admonish judges to stop hobnobbing with politicians so as to obviate the temptation to compromise. While the fact that justice has been reduced to a mere commodity that could be procured at the ‘right price’ is disturbing, what the CJN regarded as the antidote/response to the grave challenge is equally worrying and uninspiring. Persuading politicians to stop mounting pressure on judges will only scratch the deep-seated problem on the surface. On the contrary, it is the CJN’s responsibility to ensure that judges do not succumb to politicians’ ignoble quests to compromise the system.
Justice Ariwoola should seek to achieve this crucial objective by working hard to put in place structures that will help judges to live up to their oath of office to be fair and impartial. The head of the judiciary should focus his attention on sleaze-induced miscarriages of justice from the supply side where he could leverage the instrument of his office to rein in the menace, instead of the demand side where the only tool at his disposal is persuasion. Again, the sanction grid for aberrant judicial officers could also be reviewed to accommodate and reflect new variants of malfeasance that are capable of subverting the judicial system. Once again, we congratulate Justice Ariwoola on his appointment and we commend the forgoing to him as his major focus and goal as he commences his tour of duty.
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