Things can change so fast in the lives of a people. Nigerians, including my humble self, who were dreaming of change and a better Nigeria when they voted for President Muhammadu Buhari, would now be fighting to resist the dictatorial tendencies of the former military dictator.
The nation was rudely awoken on Saturday morning by news of show of unnecessary and excessive use of force by operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS), who invaded, in gestapo-fashion, the homes of justices of the country’s highest court and other judges of the Federal High Court in Abuja, Gombe and Port Harcourt.
It is the type you see only in movies. And they chose the middle of the night, as if they were storming robbers’ den or the paradise of a drug baron.
The Rambo men from DSS defiled the abodes of esteemed men of the bench, harassed and threatened to shoot at anything that obstructed their mission. A state governor, Nyesom Wike of Rivers, was not spared. Reports have it that he was shoved around and manhandled by DSS operatives. They cocked their guns and threatened to shoot the Chief Security of a State. What madness!
Their sting operations lasted hours. At the end, doors were blown away even when there was no resistance, sanctuaries were turned upside down and the operatives carted away large sums of money and what they called incriminating documents, including draft judgments of the justices.
The disquieting actions of the DSS left the citizens in disbelief. I personally pinched myself to make sure I am not walking through a crazy nightmare. But I was not. Hours later, a senior officer at DSS, Mr. Abdullahi Garba spoke with journalists in Abuja and said the operations were based on allegations of corruptions and other acts of professional misconduct by a few of the suspected judges.
He said: “The judges involved were invited, upon which due diligence was exhibited and their premises searched. The searches have uncovered huge raw cash of various denominations, local and foreign currencies, with real estate worth several millions of naira and documents affirming unholy acts by these judges.”
Garba summarized the foreign and local currencies recovered as follows:
N93,558,000.00, $530,087, £25,970 and €5,680. He further claimed that “in one of the states where the operations were conducted, credible intelligence revealed that the Judge had Two Million United States Dollars ($2,000,000 USD) stashed in his house.” But regretted that a governor, (referring to Nyesom Wike) bungled the operation by obstructing the operatives of the service from carrying out their job.
I want to make it categorically clear that Nigeria is “fantastically corrupt” and the judiciary cannot be different. In recent times justice has, frustratingly, become the exclusive preserve of the highest bidder.
Nigeria reaped the seeds sowed by unwise leaders who systematically excluded our outstanding legal scholars with integrity from the bench. The bench became a dumping ground for their clansmen/women and cronies. And the Supreme Court was turned into an assembly of unqualified people, who normally should have no business being at the apex court. In fact, there has been a calculated policy by one of the major ethnic groups to control the judiciary. Till this day, they dominate and control that branch of government.
This writer, as a law student, had relished in the brilliant judgments of Supreme Court justices. Those were the good old days of the Oputas, Karibi-Whytes, Aniagolus, Bellos, Nnaemeka-Agus, Esos, Obasekis, Belgores, Nnamanis, Uwais etc. I and other students took great delight in reading their legal philosophy (judgements) and we proudly quoted them.
Unfortunately, in today’s Nigeria ethnicity and mindless favouritism has kept such people away from the bench. The Nigerian Judiciary is in such a big mess that presently, there is no one justice of the Supreme Court this writer admires.
The question is, is there corruption in the Judiciary? My answer is a big yes. I, like majority of Nigerians, would support any effort aimed at restoring sanity and sanctity in that important arm of government, being the last hope of the down-trodden.
However, you don’t fight illegality with illegality. This is simply the trouble I have with the assault on the homes of those justices. In a democracy certain rules, norms and values are sacrosanct and must be upheld at all times, no matter the circumstances and no matter the stakes.
One of such is the rule of law or put differently, the supremacy of law. It simply means that all people and institutions are subject to and accountable to law that is fairly applied and enforced; the principle of government by law – as opposed to being governed by arbitrary decisions.
This is why, in a society where there is rule of law, even where someone is caught red-handed committing a crime, even when the evidence is so glaring and over-whelming, extra-judicial actions are forbidden. The culprit is given his day in court.
The DSS claimed they invaded homes of corrupt justices. But is their invasion what our laws say in cases of corruption among judges and other members of the bench? This is a very simplistic justification of the executive lawlessness, approved by the presidency and orchestrated by the DSS. It is only the naive who would think that the DSS would launch an onslaught against justices of the Supreme Court without the nod of the commander-in-chief.
So the question is: did Buhari in fact realize that the judiciary is the third arm of government; a creation of the constitution, which made elaborate provisions to guarantee the independence of the judiciary so as exclude influence or control by other arms of government?
I have my doubts. By authorizing such gestapo-style invasion of homes of Supreme Court Justices by DSS operatives, I have come to the conclusion that President Muhammadu Buhari is still having difficulty differentiating between military rule and democracy.
The midnight raid on the homes of those judicial officers is executive lawlessness taken too far.Under the 1999 Constitution of The Federal Republic of Nigeria, there can be no investigation of judicial officers by the executive without the approval of the Nigeria Judicial Commission (NJC), which was introduced to safeguard the independence and integrity of the judiciary (section 153).
Even if due process had been followed and criminal cases of corruption duly established, what business does the DSS has in effecting their arrest when the Nigeria Police is the proper agency to carry out such.
Besides, couldn’t such men who need to be held in high-esteem (in order to preserve the judiciary institution) have been dealt with in a more civilized manner? Why the midnight raid? What would have happened if the justices took their rifles and opened fire on the DSS operatives, thinking they were armed robbers? Yes, only armed robbers invade homes at that time of the day.
Critics of President Buhari have been quick to say that the whole thing is a policy of his government to rubbish the judiciary through such harassment and intimidation, like it has done to the legislature by dragging principal officers of the Senate (including the Senate President and his deputy) through the humiliation of a criminal prosecution for forgery.
A miffed Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) has condemned the midnight arrest of the judges and in response declared a state of emergency in the judiciary. Addressing a joint press conference over the DSS raid, alongside four past presidents of the association – Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Dr. Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), Mr. J.B. Daudu (SAN) and Augustine Alegeh (SAN), NBA President Abubakar Mahmoud (SAN) frowned at the unconstitutional means of intimidating the judiciary and undermining its independence and demanded from Buhari “the immediate and unconditional release of all the judges abducted from their residence.”
Buhari is a bone-headed man and it is unlikely he would yield to their demand. The rule of law has decayed under his watch as president. Orders of courts have been flagrantly disobeyed by a government that says it is fighting corruption. Disregarding court orders is the height of corruption.
I have no doubt in my mind that Buhari is a patriot. But you cannot embark on lawlessness only because you are convinced that you are doing good and what would benefit your country. The president has to learn how to obey judicial pronouncements and subject his actions and inactions (including body language) to the law. Otherwise, we Nigerians would be confronted with a new challenge of our generation – which is to resist the Neo Buhari Dictatorship.
cpcnews.org 
Well said, Charles.
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