Taming NJC strongman

BY administrative and conventional arrangement, a sitting Chief Justice of Nigeria should be the strongman of amala (sorry judiciary) politics. He chairs this and that within the system. He should also have his palms glued to the long spoon of patronage; the lucre that keeps Nigerians in grovelling before men of power. However, with the exit of the judicial bulldozer; ex-CJN Aloma Mukhtar whose temper and tongue, subordinates of all sexes, dreaded like cobra’s lunging, a certain “outsider” has been king of the system. Well, maybe not a complete outsider being a retired president of the Court of Appeal, but Justice Umaru Abdullahi isn’t just the longest serving member of the National Judicial Council (without doubt the primus inter pares among judicial organs), today, he sits atop about seven juicy committees out of about 12, in a council of 25 members, including the secretary. And he is neither the chairman nor the vice. But many see him and a couple of other tagging-along old men on the council, as the vice of the system. Somehow, the 79-year-old Muhammadu Buhari’s secondary school classmate always appears unruffled. He has a calm mien to his agility that belies his age. The Supreme Court, many of his juniors serve, however, took the air out of his sail about two weeks back. Someone he thought he had “finished” and “done with” since March 5, 2009; former Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal under him, Mr. Bode Thomas, was reinstated to his position after about nine years of being programmed into the FJSC firing line by Umaru. Talking of the proverbial two-decade poundo-yam returning stemming hot, to burn tongues, licking undeserved soup.

Abdullahi got rid of Thomas and brought in a lackey from the nape of his neck, who he almost programmed into NJC as secretary when Danladi Halilu was exiting. Now, what they thought had become too inadequate for their appetite by gruffly seeking the NJC top-job, is going to be taken away, except someone is thinking of frustrating the implementation of the apex court judgement.

Since the nation’s judiciary lost its innocence to nepotism, clannishness, favouritism, ethnicity, turn-by-turn enterprise and daylight merchandising of justice, integrity and merit have become cereal for dog’s breakfast. In fact, no one would say it better than Justice Kumai Akaahs, in the leading judgment of the five-man panel which unanimously condemned Abdullahi’s impure ways.

Quoting Akaahs, “in view of all that transpired and especially based on the fact that the President, Court of Appeal (Abdullahi) had made up his mind, when he wrote to the Secretary of the FJSC on November 24, 2008, that he could no longer work with the appellant (Thomas) as Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal and requested that an appropriate disciplinary action be taken against him.

“It is obvious that the appellant did not stand a chance of getting any verdict from the commission (FJSC) other than the one which was recommended by the investigating committee. In other words, the commission was to merely rubber-stamp what the committee had recommended.

“Most of the members of the committee were among those who sat in the commission to approve the recommendations.

“In conclusion, the appeal succeeds in the main. The proceedings of the committee, together with the decision of the FJSC are hereby declared a nullity for failure to adhere strictly to the rules of natural justice.

“The decision taken at the FJSC to compulsorily retire the appellant as the Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal since March 5, 2009 is hereby set aside. The appellant is reinstated to his post as the Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal with effect from the date of his compulsory retirement.”

Can victory be sweeter? Can condemnation be more forceful? Can a system be more compromised? Is it not a full-blown tragedy that a man like Abdullahi who orchestrated such a heist, is the de-facto authority in the nation’s judiciary today? Is it a surprise that the Council became what it was before the current CJN took over as chairman? Can the nation’s judiciary and the justice system ever move forward with men like Abdullahi holding its jugular vice-like? Is it a wonder that there isn’t a whimper in the system and the nation at large, despite the shenanigans attributed to the former head of the Appeal Court, by his own constituency? Are we so docile in this nation? Will the entire nation fold its arm if the judiciary would be too timid to uproot its Baals, all with the shrine? Should Abdullahi in good conscience continue to be an ordinary member, let alone the enforcer, at NJC? Who can tell how many Thomases he and ilk had sacrificed for their parochial interests, who didn’t have the fighting capacity of this victorious Thomas?

That the Court of Appeal is the only court where Thomas lost in his quest for justice, on January 16, 2013, even after Abdullahi’s exit, shows a system wired to protect its rot and the rotten. The whole saga becomes more egregious, going by the fact that Thomas was forced out eight months to Abdullahi’s retirement on November 30, 2009.

In reality, Thomas served actively only for eight months in 2017 before he was thrown out. Does his forced exit have anything to do with retirement packages which aren’t covered by the books? Was it about getting a “trusted son” to watch the back? Too many gaps and questions. Were this to be happening elsewhere a Mueller would be ravaging everywhere digging stuff, whether related or not. But this is Nigeria. Thinking something would come out of this? For where?