The Ominous Cloud of Anarchy

The credit for the supremacy of the law is often ascribed to the British jurist, Professor Albert Venn Dicey. This is not entirely correct; society, from antiquity, in wary of a state of anarchy, has always expressed yearning for a state that is run in accordance with the supremacy of the law. The ancient Greek philosopher, Plato, who laid the foundation for the Western philosophy once advocated that:

” Where the Law is subject to some other authority and has none of its own, the collapse of the state is not far off; but if law is the master of government and government its slave, the situation is full of promise and men enjoy all the blessings that the gods shower on the state”

Similarly, Aristotle, another prominent Greek philosopher and Plato’s prominent student, vehemently opposed allowing the highest officials to wield power beyond the guarding and serving the law, he wrote:

“It is more proper that law should govern than anyone of the citizens: if it is advantageous to place the supreme power in some particular persons, they should be appointed to be only guardians and servant of the law”.

Thomas Paine, one of the founding fathers of the United States of America, from where Nigeria imported its democratic principles, in his pamphlet – Common Sense, stated thus:

” In America, the Law is the King, for as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law aught to be King; and there ought to be no other”.

The foundation of modern democracies is predicated on the supremacy of the law. Nigeria as a state operates a constitutional democracy. The Nigerian constitution is sovereign and has binding effect on all persons and authorities in Nigeria (s. 1 of the CFRN 1999). In that section as well, the constitution proclaims that the FRN shall not be governed, except in accordance with the provision of the constitution and in s. 1 (c), it states that “if any other law is inconsistent with the provision of the constitution, the constitution shall prevail and that other law shall to the extent of the inconsistency be void”.

In order to safeguard the independence of the judicial arm of the government in line with the principle of separation of power and to protect the sacred duties of Judicial officers, the CFRN 1999 in s. 292 & paragraph 21 of part 1 of the 3rd schedule to the constitution provided for the procedure by which a judicial officer may be disciplined and or removed from office. Misconduct which covers a whole range of misdeeds, including bribery and corruption, is one of the grounds but the complaint of same must be channelled through the NJC, a body vested by the same constitution with the responsibility of investigation, discipline, and recommendation of judicial officers for dismissal.

It follows that any investigation and discipline of a judicial officer without the investigative impute of the NJC amounts to an exercise in futility. This was the decision of the Supreme Court in the matter of Hon. Justice Raliat Elelu Habeeb vs. AG (Fed.).

Nowhere in the CFRN 1999 was the power to investigate judicial officers vested in the DSS. The constitution is superior to NSA Act that established the DSS and the ACJA. The NSA Act empowers the operatives of the NSA mainly for the prevention and detection of crime of military nature against the security of Nigeria among similar others. How did this duty tally with the investigation of misconduct on the part of judicial officers?

The NJC, pursuant to its constitutional duty, recently dismissed Justice Auta of Kano State High Court and recommended him for prosecution. The Enugu state CJ was also sacked recently by the same body while it recommended Justice Mohammed Ladan Tsamiya for compulsory retirement. In the Auta’s case, it was the police that turn over their findings about the judge to the NJC. If peradventure, the DSS in the course of their duty stumbled on information of misconduct on the part of judicial officers, what makes it difficult for them to turn same to the NJC besides impunity?

How are we to believe that this is not vendetta? Justice Dimgba recently condemned the uncivilized conduct of the DSS in a ruling in the case of AGF v. Air Commandore Umar Mohammed (rtd.). The accused person who was later granted bail and ordered to be remanded in prison custody pending the perfection of his bail terms was later apprehended by the DSS and was taking to their custody, a development that angered the judge who vowed not to conduct further proceeding in the case until his order was obeyed. Are we in Idi Amin Uganda?

We should not be deceived, somebody authorised this dastardly intimidation and humiliation of our judicial officer. Their intimidation and humiliation is the intimidation and humiliation of our courts.

The Judiciary is the custodian of the liberty of the citizen. An unconstitutional assault on the judiciary is an assault on Nigerians. If unchecked, we shall all be held captive to the whims and caprices of a dictatorial executive. Tufiakwa! Tyranny! Dictatorship! May such dark and ignoble cloud be made impossible in this space called Nigeria.

Tajudeen Shola Oyerinde, Esq.
A legal Practitioner based in Abuja.