A firestorm in the judiciary ignited by security operatives’ raid and arrest of nine judicial officers for alleged corruption has nudged the National Judicial Commission into releasing revised policy guidelines for stricter regulation of conduct, and restoring the bench to its esteemed past. It is a document that has attracted as much approval as it has been excoriated. However, we welcome every action that will help the judiciary to heal its self-inflicted wounds.
In a charter, which the then Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mahmud Mohammed, launched in Abuja recently, amid a phalanx of his predecessors, he described it as a commitment to the values that elevate the judiciary, just as it will entrench transparency and accountability. Above all, he said, “The National Judicial Policy recognises that the greatest and most damaging challenge to administration of justice is corruption and that tackling this challenge must go beyond mere exhortation and sentiments.” Absolutely!
Under the policy, judges are barred from accepting gifts. A petition against any judge on corruption must be made within six months that the act occurred; while a complainant will have to go through a raft of procedures for the complaint to be considered by the NJC, including swearing to a court affidavit. This precondition is meant to forestall the forwarding of frivolous or unsubstantiated allegations.
Curiously, the NJP bars the media from publishing any petition of misconduct raised against judicial officers or any employee of the judiciary. Where a petition is leaked to the media, the NJC will no longer consider it. But the obligation of the media to the society is sacrosanct, as expressed in Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution. It enjoins the mass media to “… uphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people.”
Any measure that attempts to cripple the media will not work; and it has never. The NJC is setting a bad precedent: if other arms of government – the executive and legislature – were to cloak their activities in secrecy, what then becomes of the right to the freedom of expression guaranteed by the constitution? The society would have been thrown into the abyss of darkness.
The bench is not a cult; the NJC, therefore, should not turn it into one. Under the law of the land, only defence and trade secrets; and other classified matters are covered by the Official Secrets Act of 1962. When the judiciary that should emblematise constitutionalism, rule of law and order, begins to embrace fascist tendencies, it becomes obvious that there is more to it than meets the eye.
A corrupt judge is like salt that has lost its taste: it is useless, a disgrace to the bar and bench; and should not be protected under any guise. But some strictures in the NJP strongly create this impression. Limiting the time an impropriety should be reported to the NJC to only six months is as suspicious as barring leakage of a petition to the media. It is a barricade against freedom of information that should be dismantled.
Indeed, the issue is as apt as Emeka Ngige, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, viewed it, “It would amount to NJC covering up or shielding the judicial officer if the victim/complainant is told that his complaint is statute or time barred.” Yet, corruption matters do not enjoy the luxury of statute limitation.
The Department of State Services had raided the residences of nine jurists, two of them justices of the Supreme Court, last month and millions of naira and thousands in foreign currencies were recovered.
The NJC and the Nigerian Bar Association had lampooned the DSS, stressing the action was a bizarre attempt to intimidate and undermine the independence of the judiciary as an arm of government. However, their earlier bellicose posturing has given way to wiser counsel. The affected judicial officers have stepped aside at the behest of the NJC, pending when they would be cleared. Decency demands no more, no less.
Based “on evidence on the ground,” the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, intimated the CJN of his resolve to prosecute Sylvester Ngwuta and Inyang Okoro (Supreme Court justices) and Mohammed Tsamiya (Court of Appeal). Others are Muazu Pindiga, Adeniyi Ademola, Kabir Auta and Innocent Umezulike. Let the fireworks begin.
Rather than see government’s action as an assault on the judiciary, as erroneously interpreted by many key stakeholders, we regard it as a necessary public-confidence rebuilding process, without which the dignity, respect and awe that the bench once inspired, would not return. Corruption on a judge’s seat destroys the moral fabric of the society. It does not go unpunished in the United States, Britain, Singapore and other developed parts of the world. Nigeria cannot deodorise the stink oozing out from its temple of justice and move on as it is wont to do.
The NJC had during its September 29 meeting recommended the retirement of Tsamiya, Umezulike and Auta over misconduct. On Tsamiya, it confirmed that it had evidence that he met a petitioner three times, and demanded N200 million bribe for him to influence the outcome of an electoral petition before the Court of Appeal that sat in Owerri, Imo State. But it merely retired him, an action that questions the integrity of the process that deals with errant jurists.
Soiling of the bench has been endemic. It was why the late Kayode Eso, a former Justice of the Supreme Court, lamented the existence of “billionaire judges” in 2012. But the authorities never acted on it. Again, the sacking of 64 judges for misconduct between 2009 and 2014, without any of them being put on trial, gave licence to more of these tainted elements on the bench to run amok with their illicit obsession. But a new epoch is now unavoidable; one that brims with aura, dignity and respect.
