The National Judicial Council, NJC , the body charged with the responsibility of regulating and monitoring the professional conduct of judicial officers appears to have woken from its deep slumber by summoning some judicial officers who have been dancing naked and dragging the image of the judiciary and legal profession to the abyss.
Doubtless, the political crisis in Rivers State wouldn’t have taken the form it has presently if the justices who have been sitting and adjudicating on the crisis had been upright and making foolproof pronouncements.
Even in matters which a lay man could easily handle and decide to the satisfaction of all parties, the justices who have been involved in the Rivers crisis particularly those of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court have allegedly presented themselves as lackeys of the FCT minister, Nyesom Wike who is at the centre of the Rivers crisis.
Notably, Justice James Kolawole Omotosho, Justice John Terhemba Tsoho, Justice Peter Odo Lifu and lately, Justice Joyce Abdulmalik have presented themselves as people who are deep inside the pockets of the FCT minister with their cockeyed decisions and pronouncements on the Rivers crisis.
Their legal pronouncements on the Rivers crisis have drawn a lot of flakes from close watchers of the political imbroglio in Rivers State who have been beckoning on the NJC to weild the big stick and call the erring justices to order.
Thus it came with some sort of relief, though belated, when the new Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Kudirat Kekere Ekun rose up to the occasion by setting up an NJC probe panel to look into the professional conduct of some judges who have played some part in the roiling Rivers crisis.
Nigerians, nay the international community is watching keenly to see how the NJC panel would handle the scenario to either discard or confirm the notion that the Nigeria judiciary is a stinking house or that the FCT minister, Wike Nyesom has pocketed the judiciary.
Interestingly, the CJN had sounded tough when she faced the senate during her screening on the reforms that should be expected from her leadership of the bench.
The Chief Justice had remarked that the issue of “Forum shopping” by some lawyers is not only rampant, but had often given rise to the emergence of conflicting orders by courts of coordinate jurisdiction.
“I would like to state clearly that henceforth, there will be consequences for any act of indiscretion that could bring the judiciary to disrepute. We have rules and ethics guiding the practice of our noble profession, and we must work assiduously to abide by them and always do what is right in the eye of the law.
“Under my leadership, the judiciary will adhere to the principles of honesty, transparency, and integrity. I call upon all judicial officers and members of the Bar to join me in achieving this goal”, she said before the senate
But some analysts are hard put to even believe the pontification by the CJN pointing at the role she played in the controversial declaration of Senator Hope Uzodinma as the winner of the 2019 Governorship election in Imo State.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC had declared Hon. Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP as the winner of the election, presented him with his certificate of return and was sworn into office.
But Hope Uzodinma who came fourth in the All Progressive Congress, APC Governorship primaries was strangely declared winner of the election by the Supreme Court in a ruling delivered by the current CJ N, Kekere-Ekun.
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So with this type of antecedent trailing the CJN, observers are not convinced that she would work the talk as she presented before the senate.
Over time, the judiciary in Nigeria have become the butt of pervasive criticism as a result of questionable pronouncements some of the justices are dishing out, obviously tailored to appease some interests.
Many of the justices have strangely become more political than the politicians themselves because of their unholy alliance with the politicians. This has regrettably given rise to a popular fad among the politicians who would always echo “go to court” whenever eye brows are being raised on their mode of victory at elections since they believe that the judiciary would always ‘play along’.
Observers are deeply worried over the vaccilation of our courts in taking a definitive position on the political imbroglio in Rivers State according to the provisions of the nations grund norm which is the constitution.
Many legal minds have copiously quoted section 109 (g) of the 1999 constitution as amended which clearly states what happens when someone elected on a particular political platform abandons the platform and defects to another polical party.
Section 109 (g) of the constitution says such a person would lose his or her elective position, and that is where the scenario in the Rivers State House of Assembly comes into focus with regards to the fate of Martins Amaewhule and his 26 colleagues who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to the All Progressive Congress, APC.
The constitution even reinforced that particular section by deeming it to be self executory, which means that the interpretation of the court is not necessary to effect the provisions of that all important section of law.
So one wonders why our learned justices have engaged in melodrama all along in dealing with the issue of the defection of the 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly from the PDP to the APC even when there is a judicial evidence by the sworn affidavit of defection domiciled in the court.
So our dear CJN, Kekere- Ekun apart from raising the sticks against members of the bench found culpable in the handling of the Rivers legal disputes, should save the nation and by extension the judiciary from the embarrassments some of the judicial officers have brought on the land.
Without laboring to interprete the section 109 (g) of the constitution, the CJN should just direct the discontinuance of all legal matters that have to do with the 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly instituted in the name of the Assembly after their voluntary defection from the PDP to the APC.
This will instantly restore sanity in our political space and demonstrate indeed that the judiciary has not unwittingly found itself into the pockets of one man.
Already there are misgivings that even the probe ordered by the CJN would be a mere window dressing which at the end of the day the judicial officers in Rivers State would be made scape goats in the erosion of legal ethics withnessed in the handling of the Rivers political crisis.
According an analyst in Port Harcourt, the judicial panel is “Just to deceive people. We are watching their abracadabra. What good do you expect from her(CJN)? What they want to do is just hang 80% of the blame on Rivers CJ and shade their Abuja CJ because he is in their clique.
“Nigeria judiciary is a marketplace where cases are freely bought and sold. The highest bidder can easily buy all the cases and pay handsomely for them. Let’s hope that what the CJN is doing will not be an effort in futility” . Indeed!
