Softly, softly CCT chair Danladi Umar

CCT chair Danladi Umar needs to take a cue from Prof Attahiru Jega’s uncommon patience when dealing with the (then) falling Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) as INEC was collating the result of the presidential election last year.

Godsday Orubebe (remember him?) was the man appointed to play the party’s last joker. We saw how hard Orubebe tried to scuttle the exercise in anticipation of getting Jega annoyed, thus creating a stalemate that would have made the announcement of the election result inconclusive. But Jega showed uncommon composure, which over time wore out Orubebe because that was not what he and those who sent him anticipated. It was an exhausted and disappointed Orubebe that was whisked away from the venue before Jega took the microphone and gave him a thorough tongue-lashing. Orubebe might have apologised for his folly, but that would not erase what he did. So, while we take judicial notice of his apology, generations unborn will still get to know that he did what he did.

In the same vein, those creating the drama that we are seeing in the Dr Bukola Saraki matter know what they are doing. They want the judge (Danladi Umar) to lose his cool so as to make their case that he cannot be fair to Saraki look real; no more, no less. Not many of our lawyers, including some of the very senior ones, are well grounded in the law these days; many are experts in technicalities rather than substantive innocence or guilt. So, when it seems technicalities are no longer selling, they are like fish out of water. We know where Saraki’s supporters are coming from and where they are going. They won’t mind going for the leg having missed the ball. We have heard what they are saying, even though they have not uttered a word.

As Chinua Achebe once said, “an old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb”.

So, softly, softly, Justice Umar!