The change mantra of the Muhammadu Buhari government is not likely to be an idle rallying cry. His reputation for austerity and honesty remains unchallenged. And most importantly, the emergence of Buhari, presents Nigeria, with the dynamics, to look again with a fresh pair of binoculars, at the corrupt underbelly of our political community.
And perhaps not surprisingly, the revelations spewing out from the various investigations across the land have been simply dismaying.
No tier of our national life, it seems, has been free from the acrid stranglehold of corruption. Critical incumbents of iconic national institutions, have one after the other, been found to have violated their mandates and engaged in self-help, often on scales that are both shocking and primitive.
The Defence institution, health insurance, pension entity, Immigration Service, the oil Industry, along with a wide range of other national platforms, appear to have been deranged by the practice of nepotism. It is as if the Nigerian nation has come face-to-face with a tempest of malfea-sance.
Corruption is an ancient evil in Nigeria, and most governments in our country, tend to come off the blocks, promising to castrate venality in public life. Almost always, their campaigns, loud and voluble in the beginning, end up in unimpressive whimpers.
However because citizens feel cheated and denied, there has always been a growing clamour for the head of thieving incumbents. This passion to wreak vengeance on violators of the public trust, sometimes adopts dysfunctional turns.
A natural resentment and jealousy of incumbents of public office has become an important feature of the Nigerian public space. This trend can perhaps be explained on at least two grounds. The alienation of the people from the state has a colonial ancestry. Citizens saw the state as an alien category, whose only interest was to collect taxes and cart away our resources.
The post-colonial state was not much different: white faces; black masks. The black ruling elite has merely extended the colonial tradition of exploiting the people. Thus from independence till date, the ordinary folks feel no sense of union with either the Nigerian state or its ruling elite.
Only very few of our leaders or incumbents have been truly loved by the citizens. This residual resentment of the Nigerian state, along with recurrent private jealousies have made public offices an extremely hazardous territory. Watching the mighty fall from high office has consequently become a popular spectator sport.
Corruption is not a new transgression. It has merely grown in intensity. It existed in the First Republic, and caused various panels of enquiry to be set up to investigate public officials. One Oredein, a famous Ibadan politician was jailed for misdemeanors. In the 1970s also, for example, Mr. Njovens, a high ranked police official was convicted for corruption, so was Mr. Kila, a direc-tor of the NYSC in its pioneering years.
Corruption was also famously cited by the leaders of Nigeria’s first coup, and also by leaders of other subsequent coups or change of government ever since. We have never had a golden past, and no one should cultivate that illusion. However the incidence of corruption has increased, and so has the distrust of the people for an uncaring leadership.
The judiciary is an important institution of state. It has played historic role in promotion of good governance in Nigeria. It has had its blemishes, and the National Judicial Commission, NJC, has frequently had to wield the big stick to uphold integrity. The Nigerian judiciary is not a collection if angels, but it has had an astonishing capacity for renewal and regeneration.
A few years ago, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, released its first ever crime and corruption survey. The report dealt with an impact assessment of corruption on businesses in Nigeria, based on the experience of entrepreneurs.
Institutions identified as corrupt were the Police, PHCN and Custom among others. The judiciary, not unreasonably, was listed in the report as the least corrupt.
It is no doubt, adverse enough, that any form of corruption attaches to the udiciary in Nigeria. But surely, it is also remarkable that the Nigerian udiciary contains important elements of idealism, certainly dominant enough, to make our Judiciary stand taller than many of our national in-stitutions. And yet going by prevailing narratives, some want us to see our judiciary as belonging to the dark ages. The misdemeanour of one bad egg is employed to unjustly demonize a national institution.
In addition to enlarging upon the misdemeanour of a few, it seems that detractors feel no restraint in unleashing frivolous attacks on innocent incumbents in the judiciary. Once a hallowed entity, the judiciary has been turned by these miscreants into a target of unwholesome mudslinging.
One simple incident will put this narrative in bold relief. In April 2015, a firm, with a history of publishing legal content, made public presentation of a book called an “Encyclopedia of the Rules and Practices of the Supreme Court in Nigeria,” dedicated to Justice Ibrahim Auta, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court.
The book, edited by one Mr. Kola Martins Aduloja, is a tome of over 3,000 pages; had its presentation widely publicized and was attended by legal, social and political elites. What has been seized upon by a certain section and particularly, by a so called Civil Network Against Corruption, is that it was unethical for Justice Auta to attend an event in which Chief Gabriel Igbinedi-on was not only present but also made a donation of N8 million.
Heavy weather seems to have been made out of the fact that Michael Igbinedion, a son of the Chief had a subsisting matter in one of our courts at the time. The matter was resolved rather controversially later, but this had nothing to do with Justice Auta or his court. The book was not written by Justice Auta, nor was Chief Igbinedion invited by the distinguished judge.
A proper growth of Nigerian jurisprudence will be guaranteed, among other things, by a judiciary that is remote, impartial and dignified. Justice Auta participated in the presentation of the Encyclopedia only pursuant to the achievement of this goal and to the extent that the publication would have important consequences for the practice of law. But importantly, there was no guest of honour at the ceremony and those who gave money, including Chief Igbinedion, did so only as quid pro quo for specific copies of the publication.
It is also curious that some anxiety has been raised by the fact that this legal publication was dedicated to Justice Auta, Chief Judge of the Federal High Court. It was not a responsibility he so-licited. In accepting to play that role, he may have indeed been guided by precedence.
The owners of the Encyclopedia have had a history of legal publishing, and have in the past presented a number of books to the public. In 2011, it published a book called “The Fundamentals of Electoral Reforms in Nigeria,” which was dedicated to Justice Lawal Uwais. Another book published in 2013 called “Impact of Judicial Activism on Electoral Law and Democracy in Nigeria” was dedicated to Justice Musdapher Dahiru, CJN. So on grounds of precedence and good taste, it is evident that Justice Auta is in excellent company.
However, this is Nigeria. There is no shortage of peddlers of malice. A combination of alienation and private frustrations often causes the disadvantaged to pour venom on whoever is ahead of him. Sometimes, he attacks unpleasantness, but often, he tragically gets in the way of those who provide sterling service. When politics gets dragged into this computation, the enemies’ motives become less scrutable and more difficult to unravel.
However our judiciary under its current leaderships, deserve to be applauded not only for the contributions it has made to the growth of our jurisprudence, but also for the support it has provided for the expansion of good governance in our country. Those who today exalt in the defeat of an incumbent Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, government, must acknowledge that this would not have been possible, if the All Progressives Congress, APC, failed to get registered.
It is also important to recall that when serving governors and high profile persons moved from PDP to APC, no legal sanctions were invoked. Whatever the laws provide, a less upright judiciary could have engaged in a bit of legal waywardness in favour of the ruling PDP.
Whereas we have commended the gallantry of former President Goodluck Jonathan in conceding, we seem to have largely ignored the firmness and resilience of the Nigerian judiciary, which in spite of the legal fancy foot-work of various interest groups, stood firm, and refused to stop either the use of the card reader, or the swearing in of President Buhari.
The perverse attempt to stop the Buhari presidential ticket, on grounds that he was unable to produce his West African School Certificate, cut no ice with the judiciary.
The Nigerian judiciary is not about to walk into a golden sunset. It has several subsisting problems. But it has also had its moments of mild glory. Those like Justice Auta, who have had a hand in promoting this prospect, do not deserve to be maligned or mischaracterized. If we cannot help, we have no need to hinder.
Let us allow honest labourers in the law, to continue quietly growing our jurisprudence, so that good governance can prevail in our country. Surely, they are sacred grounWds, even in the Nigerian Republic of Corruption.
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