THESE are dolorous times for the judiciary and all is down to one man who wanted to be king ahead of his chi. He had to take a path and like his progenitor, Achan, son of Zerah, in Joshua Chapter 7, the acting CJN, Mohammed Ibrahim Tanko, is an inch close to bringing the entire system, which is already wonky, into an eternal damnation because he could not keep his hands off what His Maker had not given him.
Before Israel under Joshua realised the damage of Achan’s act, the entire nation had come to the grief of humiliating defeat in the hand Ai, which on a good Godly day, Israel would simply have for brunch. Thirty-six innocent souls, were the first set of casualties. Then, national mourning for tragic setback. The most-worrying for Joshua and his nation, was not knowing why the mighty hand of God that had always been for them, was suddenly against them. But to the eternal credit of the leaders of the Israel nation at that time, justice was made to be swift immediately God, in His infinite mercy exposed Achan, so the rest of the nation, would not continue to suffer for his sleaze.
Verse 25 & 26 read “And Joshua said, why have you brought trouble on us? The Lord will trouble you this day. And all Israel stoned him (Achan) and those with him with stones, and afterward burned their bodies with fire. And they raised over him (Achan) a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Then The Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger”. That was real blind justice.
With all humility, I have enough insight into the National Judicial Council (NJC) to know of the desperate moves to save Tanko from what should be his comeuppance for accepting Buhari’s offer of illegal job, without the constitutional inputs of the Council which he now purports to lead as the acting chairman. The President of the Court of Appeal, Zainab Bulkachuwa, is leading the charge with the self-appointed locum tenens of the Council, Justice Umaru Abdullahi, coordinating the latest effort to rid the system of Walter Onnoghen and get Tanko a reprieve.
After all the alleged impunity of Abdullahi in the sack saga of the Supreme Court-reinstated Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal, Bode Thomas that got the apex court tongue-lashing Umaru, should such a person sit atop any process even with a semblance of a charade?
Maybe, what is actually going on within the Council in the name of a probe into accusations against Onnoghen and Tanko is a little higher in incredulity than a charade. At the last Council meeting presided over by Abdullahi, copies of supposed argument exonerating Tanko of any wrongdoings was distributed to members, who protested that debating such position would be jumping the gun. Abdullahi told them he just wanted them to read and “maintain an open mind.”
That should sound more like an open, festering sore. Abdullahi has been a Council member for upward of 12 years. He is a living encyclopedia of the rules and constitutional provisions, when he wants to be decent. He had led and sat on panels dismissing Chief Judges for accepting Tanko’s kind of illegal appointment from desperate governors like the president. The fraud about being perpetrated by Abdullahi and Bulkachuwa is hinged on the vexatious court order from CCT. Haba! Did Rotimi Amaechi not get a similar jankara order to swear in Peter Agumagu as Rivers acting CJ, while trying to dump Daisy Okocha, the constitutional heiress? Did Umaru not join others to send Agumagu packing from the judiciary?
The Word of God says his kind, are descendants of Achan. A nation or system keeps such fellows at its eternal damnation. Once caught, like their forebear Achan, justice should be swift and total. Men and women of goodwill in the judiciary must prevail on Abdullahi and Bulkachuwa to do the right thing and the needful. NJC should do what the law says about Onnoghen and Tanko. Maybe, those trying to circumvent justice haven’t realised this; once this precedent is set and Tanko is “saved,” all a raving governor would need to rid his sight of pesky CJ is a jejune order from any hell-hole and NJC plus judiciary will be history. A particular governor is currently shopping for such an order in a troubled North-Central state to unseat the CJ for refusing to help him put a distracting senator away. The governor is just waiting on the NJC under Abdullahi to irretrievably bury the judiciary.
Broda Wole, a bigamist?
Social media controversy is trailing Chief Wole Olanipekun’s reported legal obligation to the miasmic mandate of President Muhammadu Buhari, weeks after he extended same to Walter Onnoghen, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, unconstitutionally suspended by the president. Chief, though a respected Nigerian, got plenty sticks for seemingly helping Buhari to enjoy the comfort of the law, the Nigerian leader, habitually spoon-feeds with sniper, the famous rat poison. The Ekiti High Chief and foremost Bar activist was accused of hunting with the hounds and running with the hare. The wailers didn’t want to buy the saying that in the legal profession, gbogbo ejo jije ni (all na work). They were mouthing principles, life philosophy, morality and tomorrow (posterity). Well, I don’t know which side to take, but the thing get as e be sha, as the street would define what clearly looks like bigamy, were clients to be taken as, matrimonial partners.