Nigerian’s precarious scales of justice

THE position of judgeship in its originality is synonymous with integrity. It is also synonymous with decorum, with diligence, with zero tolerance for corruption. An ideally incorruptible position. The office is not one that I have ever coveted. I had always wanted to be a writer, then a journalist. Parental decisions made me a lawyer, going in the footsteps of my father who was an astute and renowned teacher of law, more particularly on Jurisprudence and Legal Theory. I would have loved his view on the jurisprudence of the ongoing saga rocking the judiciary. Finding myself in practice after circumstances of life forced me into the legal curve; friends have always advised I should apply for judgeship when the time comes. I find legal practice interesting, vast, challenging, demanding and one which experience slowly crystallise over time. But judgeship? It’s not in my view. People have asked why? I tell them it’s beyond the demeanour, the diction and even the knowledge of the law. It’s now even beyond brilliance. The days when the brilliance and erudition of judges were the hall mark of the bench are fast declining. The days government were a true tripod with clearly defined functions are becoming history. The era of true separation of power is washed away and what we have now is strange and unknown to the tenets of good governance in a democratic society and to the rule of law. The three arms of power exist to co-exist, depend to inter-depend so that one arm is not forced to arrogate powers to itself.

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A true definition of power can better be understood when we take our time to study the separation of powers in the old Oyo Empire. It is interesting and provides the necessary insight to fully understand the beauty in dividing or delegating powers. No king is an absolute monarch. There is no absolute power because the absolute drunkenness of power corrupts the bearer. The Alaafin is no doubt a powerful king but the Alaafin does not stand alone on the tripod of power, less he becomes a tyrant. Alaafins or kings that ruled with excessive abuse of powers have found themselves forced into exile or to commit suicide.

Just as the King rules over all his subjects and has control over their affairs, so also the Alaafin is incomplete without the Oyomesi, the kingmakers and decision takers and the Ogboni which is the spiritual fraternity in charge of all spiritual and metaphysical business of the king. These two legs of the tripod stand to guide the king in his day to day decisions fortify him spiritually and also check the excessive arrogation or misuse of the vast power of the Alaafin. The doctrine of checks and balances dates back to precolonial era and has always been the pattern of ruling in our customs and traditions.

This doctrine of separation of power and checks and balances is also replicated in what we now know as democracy, necessitating the division of checks and balances between arms of government. The three exists to serve as guards over the action of the other. But Nigeria is a deviation from the norm. The judiciary is now painfully perceived as a stooge of the executive and except in unique cases of good judges that will stand their ground, the office of the Judiciary is now at the object of an uncomfortable ridicule in the mouths of many citizens. The effigy which stands stall depicting a woman holding the scale and the sword and blindfolded is looked at with scorn. For the average Nigeria, the judiciary only favours the influential. The scale tilts and weighs heavily on the side of him who can pay the piper, so that the blindfold has been removed and justice sees very clearly.

In recent times, the focus has been on the Nigerian judiciary with the latest being the suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria by the President and all the events and drama building up to it. In spite of what the negativity that portends in the world stage, it would still be one of the most controversial issues to be recorded in the annals of Nigerian jurisprudence. The questions that arise are many and quite important for the future of our laws. The National Judicial Council sits as the regulatory and disciplinary body for judges with the Chief Justice as its chair, does there exists any lacuna in its rule? What happens when the head of the body is found wanting? Can he be a judge in his own case? On the Executive side, is it legal for a President to suspend a Chief Justice bypassing the NJC? What does the constitution say? Are the lacunas deliberate? We are overripe for a constitutional amendment but who are the draftsmen? The questions continue to spring with no clear cut answers. Speculations abound. Morality and the Law. Law and Politics. Constitutional Amendment. The strength and motive of the war against corruption. There is politics in law, there is law in politics, but it’s a difficult fraternity and uneasy one.

And while social media is hot with the legal fireworks forged on the furnace of raw emotions, becoming a judge in today’s Nigeria, to my mind is one that has to be carefully and thoroughly thought out before leaving the bar for the bench. Because the tripod is heavily imbalanced mimics the precariously dangling scales of justice.