Now, NJC deserves its medals

IN the outgone week, the National Judicial Council under Chief Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun came out swinging against a slew of felonies among judicial officers, ranging from fraud to rascality, sleight of hand (euphemism for forgery) and ambition conducted outside of the law, among others. Dozens of judicial officers bit the dust. They collected wotowoto {they collected a lot, possibly more than they bargained for} as the street would capture cracking coconut with their heads, including the Imo state wannabe-Chief Judge, T.N Nzeukwu who hurriedly licked the hot soup cooked for him by Governor Hope. Will ambition ever allow men to see and think clearly?. To think this fellow was in town when fellow senior judicial officers got hung by NJC for lending themselves to untoward agenda of their state governors by accepting acting appointment above their grade. Yoruba will taunt such inordinateness as rushing to down hot soup. The Uzodinma “ofe onugbu” came too hot and bitter. Nzeukwu’s tongue and that of other forgers in his division got badly scalded. How can a judicial division be that dirty? Nine judges nabbed for forgery? Is that a reflection of the leadership provided by the appointing authority; the governor? Then, whatever is the secret service screening when list of potential Bench appointees is sent to it? It is commendable the scrubbing and drubbing was extensive and elaborate. As the Imo G10 of fraud head home after terminating their own appointments, it must be noted that only Nzeukwu should be without criminal referral to the police for prosecution. Others caught in forgery must be prosecuted in the spirit of the new dawn Kekere-Ekun is projecting. And to think these characters would have possibly sat in judgement over forgery/fraud cases, and possibly convicting? When Yoruba have no answer to a befuddlement, they simply say “o ma se o” {so sad}.

Considering the quantum of petitions against judicial officers in the Imo Judicial Division, I am suggesting the whole division be watchlisted by the Council and even the cleared judges, should come under surveillance, especially those with “explained” discrepancies in their birth dates, since it is still very easy to criminally-tampered with those already-altered dates. 

Without doubt, the Council delivered this time. The outing was reminiscent of the Aloma Mukhtar era. The stick was big, the haul, sadly commendable, demonstrating a willingness on the part of the Kekere-Ekun leadership to turn every dangerously-placed stone within the system. The move to redeem and restore the system is gladly mirroring the Aloma years and to a considerable extent, the brutally-abridged Walter Onnoghen time as the head of the country’s judiciary. You do anyhow, you collect anyhow, is how tough/street boys would warn anyone daring and damning their hold on their territory.

I have criticised Kekere-Ekun’s tedious start to her reign, especially for not immediately repudiating the unenviable past with bold announcement of a clear reform agenda, but the clear favourite of her god-mother and precursor; the first female CJN in the history of the Nigeria judiciary, appears bucking the labourious beginning. Maybe we should appoint more female CJNs. Unfortunately, none is in view anytime soon, except President Bola Tinubu will choose the disruptor path again, just like he did what no presidential candidate had done in Nigeria’s civil rule history with a Muslim/Muslim ticket and famously getting away with it. With him, the Yoruba saying that whoever did what no one had done would see what no one had seen, missed the mark. He got same result as past winners with “mixed” tickets. If he chose to look for Kekere-Ekun’s successor elsewhere outside of the apex bench, bypassing the succession-by-seniority convention, heavens won’t fall and the National Assembly, would as usual, do the needful! Did Barau Jibrin, Godswill Akpabio’s deputy not just declare total and unconditional loyalty to the President, noting to the crowd pushing his VP aspiration that he would do anything the President asked of him. Frightening? Yes, but that is how lucky Mr. President is. Men on queue to swallow his phlegm. 

An outsider successor to Kekere-Ekun won’t even be novel, even if it is back-to-back female. Fresh, next-door neighbour precedents abound. At the penultimate Court of Appeal, women have kept men off the leadership since 2014, with then-PCA {President, Court of Appeal} Zainab Bulkachuwa handing over to incumbent Monica Dongban-Mensem. Interestingly, the next to the current PCA in seniority is another female; Ekiti-born Justice Oyebisi Folayemi Omoleye. The only insurmountable hurdle before her succeeding Dongban-Mensem, is age. The incumbent wont finish until June 13, 2027. Omoleye is going home on October 6 of next year. It should be noted that the Court of Appeal “sis code” is a function of seniority, though Aloma as CJN/NJC chairman skewed the process to keep now-late Dalhatu Adamu, then-most senior, from keeping the job in substantive capacity after he acted for multiple months following the controversial removal of Ayo Salami as the PCA.

While disrupting the stability the current succession arrangement brings, despite its many warts including producing CJNs with zero administrative and managerial experience, either as state Chief Judge or President, Court of Appeal, is not to be coveted due to the sliceable ethno-religious tension all over, two precedents at the level of CJN can still be pointed out; the appointment of Professor Taslim Olawale Elias and his successor’s; Darnley Arthur Alexander. They didnt have to queue. When men who wanted them came around power corridors, they both had their turn. The only problem is that the outliers were under military jackboot, where things were just decreed into existence god-like. But did someone just ask the difference between military dictatorship and current democratic experience, especially under the incumbent?

Beyond cracking corrupt skulls, the most heartwarming reform from the Kekere-Ekun NJC is forming the Nigerian public into a vigilante to keep damaged candidates from accessing the Bench, by returning to the era of openness when Nigerians were allowed to speak their truth about men and women to be handed the power of life and death as judicial officers. It was a first in almost a decade, spanning multiple CJNs as Council chairmen. The list of nominees to various Bench vacancies was published in 10 Nigerian newspapers and public comments were invited about them. Even judiciary-tormentor, Professor of Law, Chidi Odinkalu {I wonder if he ever applied for Silk and denied or never applied} couldn’t fault the openness move, though he still gave the allowance it could be a smokescreen. That is why he is a critic. His “calling” won’t allow for 100 per cent score. But the move delivered.

The public responded with flourish, dropping 86 feedbacks though just 13 were complaints against some nominees. That the response was mostly supportive of the newbies, should not detract from what was an encouraging start in the quest for gradual restoration of public confidence and trust in the Judiciary. Even the minimal adverse reaction still nailed a nominee. The Nigerian public may be largely skeptical of government of any kind and for good reasons, but the people aren’t definitely asking it should be crimson every time, though governance space is now like a sprawling crime scene. Well, the executive arm may be protecting its own crooks; the legislature may have adopted see-no-evil as corporate stealing policy, but thankfully, the judiciary is naming, shaming and sending its own rogues home.

Though I’m likely to get into trouble rounding off this way, it would be grossly unfair leaving out the man who sustained the years-long vigorous campaign for public-themed entry point into the Bench, which several CJNs rebuffed before the coming of Kekere-Ekun, largely seen as Aloma 2.0.

Ahmed Gambo Saleh, Secretary of the National Judicial Council, the umbrella body for Judiciary nationwide, doesn’t want to be seen or heard. He wants to be under the radar all the time, doing public job, which should be impossible, but somehow, he has found a way round his preferred sheltered self in an ecosystem that should ordinarily constantly bring attention to him. Let me stop here before I would do to him what the Israelite women did to David, singing Saul killed his thousands, David, his ten thousands. If sanity is ever restored to Bench appointments in Nigeria, Nigerians should remember his name.

Yoruba always caution about comparison, giving advance warning that using same parameters to compare two children may lead to one being murdered in cold blood due to hot, disappointing reaction.

In trait, Saleh is an inverse of his predecessor-in-office, the blustery Danladi Halilu Enveluanza, popularly known as DHE in Nasarawa politics he retired to. Even in office where he spent a record-breaking 15 years, Danladi proudly flaunted his rock-star status. He was a judicial celebrity, befriended by the high and the lowly, the mighty and the weak. The Eggon-born populist has always been a social butterfly. Maybe that is why he shunned the Bench, from state to federal, because the in-built conservatism of the Bench and the framing of the Code of Conduct for judicial officers, have practically made a recluse of an average judicial officer, especially those of superior and higher courts, handling election duties as final arbiters. This pivots right into the case recently brought against future CJN and once-indicted but cleared Justice Inyang Okoro of the Supreme Court by Odinkalu about a social visit to Edo State almost the same time the state governorship dispute was berthing at the apex court. The apex court insisted the jurist was on an approved private visit, purely for obsequies of a friend’s mum. Chidi alleged he was sighted in improper company which, according to the social commentator, gave optics that are as bad as the vibes.

My take on the back-and-forth is to lean on Yoruba’s admonition to someone with stinking entrails. He shouldn’t put such on display. While judicial officers are also due work-life balance, the messenger must be well chosen. While no indictment hovers over Justice Okoro again, the admonition of Thessalonians 5:22, to flee from all appearances of evil, should have served him and his boss, the CJN. He is the most senior justice in the land and a future king of the arm of government, he can’t be seen at just any gathering. He is the crown-prince of the judiciary, the heir apparent. Did Yoruba not say something about a properly-groomed prince not night-crawling or being found in degrading company?

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