The Federal Government’s anti-corruption war is coming under a barrage of fire. Two contiguous incidents underscore this. First, the Nigerian Bar Association openly described the Muhammadu Buhari’s “anti-graft strategy as faulty.” The NBA president, Abubakar Mahmoud, capped his Democracy Day salvo with a call on the executive to “terminate the investigations” against judges accused of corruption. Second, at the weekend, the National Judicial Council did the NBA’s bidding, restoring six of the judges in question. The coincidence is scary. It is a powerful and noxious message to the Buhari administration that its war on graft is facing a stiff test. There is the need, therefore, for an overhaul.
Condemning the government for taking too long to file charges against the judges, the NJC recalled Justice of the Supreme Court, Inyang Okoro; Uwani Aji of the Court of Appeal; three Federal High Court judges and another of the National Industrial Court. The FHC judges are Adeniyi Ademola, who has already been tried and acquitted, Musa Kurya and Hydiazira Nganjiwa. The judges were arrested after a crackdown in October 2016 by the State Security Service, whose agents raided their residences. Three others, including Rita Ajumogobia, are still on trial.
The position of the NBA and the NJC is a cause for concern. Mahmoud argues, quite ridiculously, that a period of eight months is too long for judges to be under investigation, while the NJC hinges its recall on the backlog of cases in the courts of the suspended judges. But it is erroneous to advocate blanket freedom for law officers accused of misconduct when the allegations against them have not been totally exhausted.
This position flies in the face of the argument by the acting President Yemi Osinbajo that the process might be slow, but “the good news for justice is that our law does not recognise a time bar for the prosecution of corruption and other crimes.” The NBA and the NJC should allow the law to take its course. All Nigerians – including judges – are equal in the eyes of the law and can be investigated.
Yet, the Bar is a major factor in the grinding process. Lawyers deliberately introduce irrelevant motions to delay cases despite the existence of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 aimed at dismantling such roadblocks. And, corruption is at the heart of our underdevelopment. Judicial corruption is, in fact, the worst form of decadence.
Among the people and within its own ranks, the NBA cuts a sordid image. Judges and lawyers have soiled their noble robes for filthy lucre. A peep into the extent of the sleaze in the judiciary unearthed a disturbing picture shortly after the fraudulent 2007 elections. This prompted the late Kayode Eso (then a retired JSC) to dub some judges involved in handling petitions at Election Petitions Tribunals as “billionaire judges.”
Itse Sagay, Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption, corroborated this last year, when he said that “the judiciary has degenerated into a world of mammon, where cash dictates justice.” Sagay lampooned the NJC for its inability to handle the monumental graft in the judiciary. In April, Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, echoed Sagay’s lamentation that Nigerian courts had indeed become “supermarkets where only the rich do their shopping.” They are all spot-on.
It is not, therefore, surprising that many judges are currently undergoing trials on corruption charges. In September 2016, three senior judges – Innocent Umezulike, Mohammed Tsamiya and Kabiru Auta – were retired on allegations of abuse of office and fraud. A former CJN, Mahmud Mohammed, had stated that “64 judges were disciplined as appropriate” between 2009 and 2014. Anti-graft agencies are often queried by the NBA for rushing to court without proper investigation of cases. Now, questions are being raised as the same body is curiously seeking to be more thorough. In a clime where corruption is a big business, the NBA and the NJC’s sole concern about the procedure could be an act of self-preservation.
The Federal Government should sustain its focus on the judiciary. That is the standard practice elsewhere. In April 2016, Bulgaria’s Supreme Court affirmed a four-year jail term on a judge, Slavcho Petkov, who was indicted for collecting a bribe of €8,173 from a defendant. The case lasted four years. Likewise, 20 rogue judges were dismissed in Ghana in 2015 after being found guilty of bribery. In the United States, Thomas Spargo, a judge, was jailed for 27 months in New York for attempted extortion and bribery of $10,000.
By recalling the judges, the NJC is sending a strong message to the Buhari administration: that its war on graft lacks coordination. The strong start to the war on graft has clearly ebbed with the subtle rivalry among the key agencies: the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the SSS in particular. This has to be worked on. On its part, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission has been ineffectual. This calls for re-tooling, bringing on board passionate and focused anti-corruption crusaders.
For Buhari’s election mantra to succeed, the executive has to re-strategise. Now is the opportune time to appoint a well-versed coordinator to drive the anti-graft fight. A comprehensive review must entail the use of technology to diligently investigate cases against the judges.
The need for special courts cannot be wished away. As we have advocated before, the Federal Government ought to identify the upright judges and forge a partnership with them to prosecute graft cases. The judiciary, as critical as it is, is wallowing in filth simply because the NJC has been treating judicial corruption with levity. Its habit of just retiring corrupt judges without prosecution entrenches judicial corruption. But there should be no escape for the corrupt, whether in the military, police, civil service or the judiciary.
