As a veritable third arm of government essentially charged with the dispensation of justice, the judiciary plays an indispensable pivotal role in the sustenance of democratic governance in Nigeria. Democracy sans the rule of law cannot facilitate democratic dividend. An impotent judiciary is a gateway for anarchy and retrogression.
That is why the recent warning by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola to the Election Petitions Tribunals judges, who would be serving at the Election Petitions Tribunals to adjudicate on disputes that may arise from the conduct of the 2023 elections, merits a deeper consideration. Speaking at the swearing-in ceremony of the 307 judges at the National Judicial Institute (NJI), Abuja, the CJN warned the judges that he would not condone any act of recklessness or abuse of power and public trust from them in the course of the discharge of their duties.
He told them that the task of adjudicating electoral disputes from the forthcoming 2023 polls “is not an undertaking to be handled with levity.” He noted that trust is a burden but judicial officers must discharge it with utmost sincerity, honesty and transparency because conscience is an open wound healed only by the truth. He further added, “Your lordships should count yourselves worthy to be so entrusted with this humongous responsibility of deciding the fate of those that would be contesting elections into various political offices in the country in 2023.
Ariwoola’s warning could not have come at a more auspicious time than now when Nigerians are experiencing a deep crisis in the rule of law in Nigeria. The function of the judiciary as a dispenser of justice, sustainer of good governance and a bulwark of justice in the causes of the citizenry is endangered by the growing incidence of subversion of justice by some judges. More importantly, the country’s democratisation experiment will be threatened if judges compromise their role as unbiased umpires in the dispensation of justice.
It is in this context that the Ariwoola’s warning is a wake-up call on judges to adorn the breastplate of integrity, transparency, discipline, impartiality and honour in the discharge of their duties. It is unfortunate that the judiciary has been constituted into an object of derision by the very people who should labour to maintain its prestige. The level of perceived official corruption and allegations of moral degeneracy in the Bar and the Bench is alarming. In recent times we have seen justice seemingly put out for sale; we have seen a judge ordering that all the candidates of a political party are disqualified from contesting for elective posts in 2023; we have seen frequent abuses of court orders and processes resulting in injustice meted out to punish otherwise honest litigants; and allegation of impropriety openly tabled against members of the Bar and the Bench. In Nigeria, the undermining of the independence of the judiciary has been compounded by the ambitious tendency by some big politicians to subvert justice by offering bribes to judges in high profile cases. Nothing destroys the integrity of the judiciary than these abuses.
Consequently, political office holders should not interfere in the discharge of the duties of the Election Tribunal judges. The Tribunal should be insulated from partisan politics. Politicians who have cases in the Tribunals should follow due process. Rather than resort to gossip and name-calling or open intimidation, aggrieved politicians and the public should avail themselves of the necessary channels for taking their complaints to the Tribunals for remedy. Lawyers, especially senior lawyers prosecuting their clients’ cases at the Tribunals should remember that they are officers in the temple of justice. They should resist the temptation to bribe the judges in order to secure justice in their favour. While preparing for their clients’ cases very professionally, they should bear in mind that the Tribunals were set up to do substantial justice, not legal technicalities.
On their part, the newly inaugurated judges should adjudicate on electoral disputes courageously without fear of any threat or intimidation from any politician or anybody at all. Like Caesar’s wife, they should learn to live above board. They should desist from anything which robs the Tribunal of its impartiality, fairness and independence. They should sit on time. They should avoid unnecessary adjournments which may cause delay in adjudication in order to dispose of the cases pending at the Election Petitions Tribunals expeditiously. This is because justice delayed is justice denied. Above all, they must guard their integrity jealously. A robe does not make a judge in the same way a hood does not make a monk. Only incorruptible and irreproachable judges can steer the Tribunal out of corruption. Therefore, let electoral wrongs be exposed no matter whose ox is gored. Let the rule of law prevail in the course of adjudication. Let no one, whether judges or lawyers, call impropriety propriety, evil good or injustice justice. That is the only way Nigeria can make progress as a nation.