If Ahmed Gambo Saleh, the number one civil servant in the Nigerian Judiciary eventually holds his current job till retirement on June 3, 2029, then God must have either long decreed it or He chose to answer the fervent prayer of lives the Jigawa-born silent operator is daily touching as the all-powerful and widely-influential Secretary of the National Judicial Council (NJC).
Weeks after surviving a botched constitutional coup, those seeking his back are back again, this time, chasing his tongue with the chalice of governorship temptation. The forbidden fruit is on the table before him, but the guy is playing wise enough, not to go the way of the First Adam. Interestingly, the one offering the forbidden fruit is a daughter of Eve. Truth is, she hasn’t always been an enemy. In fact, she set Saleh on the path of career-growth and national recognition. But possibly, she never envisaged Saleh would grow this fast within the system, or as big as inching closely to becoming the first ever Head of Service of the Judiciary, which is already in the works, at the constitution review level.
One lesson from the Saleh saga is that the hand that props up can also pull down, especially when expectations of personal gains, in the guise of IOU, (payback), are not met. This human factor is at the heart of godfather/godmother/godsons/goddaughters’ melee. Yet, political leaders are not learning. As another general election approaches, they are still at it. The outlier election in Ekiti is a case in point. Kayode Fayemi jammed his way through the APC primary and forced his anointed on the party. There is a signal the electorate are set to teach him a lesson. Hopefully, dibo ko se obe (vote buying) won’t triumph this time. The voters can take the N3,000 and still vote their conscience, if they truly feel it is time to end the Fayose/Fayemi alleged incredible alliance and free the state for a fresh breath. It is for them to fix, if they think it is broken.
Politics in the Judiciary is almost as stinking as the partisanship across the political aisle. Already a section of the country has cornered the entire system. All heads of courts are from that section of the country. The tribal bond in the system was fully on display when both Justice Walter Onnoghen as an embattled CJN and the incumbent CJN Muhammadu Tanko, as embattled Ag.CJN were on trial before the NJC, temporarily headed by Council’s longest serving (about 15 years and still counting) member and retired President of the Court of Appeal, Umaru Abdullahi. While it was an easy decision to hang Onnoghen, with an equally-split vote and one abstention from a five-member panel, it was also an easy decision to clear Tanko for accepting the controversial acting appointment from Buhari, an act for which Justice Peter Agumagu of Rivers Judiciary, was dismissed during Mariam Aloma Mukhtar’s leadership. Agumagu accepted acting appointment from Rotimi Amaechi while the issue of Rivers Chief Judge, was still being contested between NJC and the governor. Aloma would brook no disregard from any subordinate. She used the NJC platform to first suspend the senior judge, before terminating him. Amaechi, couldn’t save him.
But NJC cleared Justice Tanko for similar act. In the Nigerian Judiciary, the standard appears multiple. Danlami Zenchi, now of Court of Appeal, the one who read the lead judgment in an appeal set to mess the Council up completely, was Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, before moving to the Bench. His elevation to the Court of Appeal, was first rejected by the federal appointing authority; President Muhammadu Buhari, but his name was resubmitted. As God would have it, the one who was rammed and jammed in, is now acting like an undertaker. His lead judgment voiding the power of the NJC to sanction errant judicial officers, has rubbished all the Council had done in the last 22 years of its existence. Now, there is a scramble in the Council, to appeal the judgment so the Supreme Court can fix the mess. So much for ramming and jamming through.
The position of the Secretary of the Council is huge. It is the second most important in the Judiciary, after the office of the CJN. It could even be argued that it is systematically superior to the office of the CJN, despite the latter being the chairman of the Council. As the Chief Accounting Officer for the yearly hundreds of billions of Naira, the office Must (emphasis mine) attract an appreciable degree of influence as everyone is following the money, the way the street would couch the unmitigated greed in the land. Since all coins have the other side, the influence of the office and the occupant is as big as the envy it attracts among stakeholders, who daily covet the seat and work acrimoniously to have it, by hook or crook. Ambitions aren’t wrong. I remember our Ife days, some guys were labelled NFA (No Future Ambition), for just being derelict in studying. But when ambitions become a night of long knives and dagger-to-the-throat, then recriminations must be appropriately served.
Whatever is playing out in the Judiciary now, concerning Saleh’s office and job, is an ill-wind, that won’t do anybody much good at the end of the day, even if he is eventually forced out, after the botched tenure putsch, to prematurely end his reign. And those after him would have to stop dangling this Jigawa governorship nonsense before him, as a bait, to exiting him. He should be old enough to know if he wants to pursue a political aspiration, provided he has any, in the first place. The destabilising plot, should be halted right now. If he had misconducted himself and should be exited, the established procedure should be followed, in a transparent manner.
Saleh is one guy who always believes that troubles would just go away, if you do nothing beyond just enduring them, while they last.
There is a sense in that mentality if the kind of storm around him now, hadn’t done any serious damage in the past. Saleh may pretend not to remember the recent episode of a jejune order from a quasi-court, sacking his immediate chairman. Afefe to ka aso lori iko, ki elelubo ma safira. (Not interpreting).
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