WHEN the controversy over the incomplete assets declaration of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen, broke out a few weeks ago, it is doubtful whether anyone ever thought the number one jurist would ever find himself in the dock before an administrative court over which the judiciary had no control whatsoever. Two days ago, however, what many thought was a sacrilege took place when Justice Onnoghen stood in the dock to plead to charges before Danladi Umar presiding over the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).
Everything about the CCT defies the law. But who cares? No one, it seems. However, regardless of which side anyone, lay or lawyer, stood in the case, no one thought due process had been followed or the law and constitution respected. First, in bringing the CJN to trial, and for the first time in a democracy, the executive branch became the accuser and judge over a matter affecting another arm of government. The constitution never envisioned this, notwithstanding the widespread sentiment that the CJN brought this upon himself, and that in any case, if he had any honour left in him he would have resigned and saved the judiciary the humiliation of being put in the dock by a court the constitution does not even regard as a court of superior record.
The CCT chairman put it very succinctly when the National Judicial Council (NJC), through the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC), sought to subordinate him to the judiciary’s disciplinary structure by querying him in line with a petition brought against him. Said Mr Umar: “With regard to the prayer of the petitioner for an appropriate sanction against the chairman, it is important to note that the chairman and members of the tribunal, not being judicial officers, are not constitutionally subject to any disciplinary proceedings by either the National Judicial Council or the Federal Judicial Service Commission but the Presidency. The petitioner alleged that judicial oaths were breached and that the National Judicial Council should consider appropriate sanctions. It is to be noted that the chairman and members of the Code of Conduct Tribunal are not judicial officers. This is predicated on the fact that the chairman and members of the tribunal, during swearing-in, only subscribe to official oaths and not judicial oaths. Therefore, not being a judicial officer, I did not subscribe to judicial oaths as alleged.” Clearly, that settles the matter of where the CCT belongs and to whom it reports. More, it also settles the fact of whose interest the CCT is serving in the indecent haste with which it is prosecuting the CJN matter, and why it has subverted everything the law has stood for and held sacred over the decades.
Second, the country is unlikely to witness a resolution of the abuse of due process enacted by the CCT when it gave an ex parte order for the CJN’s suspension. Not only did the CCT exceed itself, in line with its conception of its position as an appendage of the presidency and the necessity to satisfy its paymaster, it also gave reliefs no third party asked for. Third, the judiciary may never find an answer to, let alone discipline anyone, regarding why the CCT adjourned the case in order to let its jurisdiction be determined only to suddenly turn round to give the controversial ex parte order. Fourth, the judiciary and the legal profession seem to be too demoralised by the circumstances of the CJN case to ask, and take exception to, why the CCT decided to ignore the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) in respect of plea taking when court jurisdiction was still being questioned.
No one knows where and how the whole saga will end. Popular sentiments indict the CJN and resent his refusal to resign on account of his alleged offences. Though he is unlikely to return to his seat under the Buhari presidency, which invariably terminates his career ignominiously, the judiciary will be unable to emerge from this humiliating case unscathed. There is national consensus that the judiciary must be sanitised and comprehensively reformed; the problem is how to embark on that laudable process without intimidating and weakening the third arm of government. This government cannot be trusted to superintend the process. It is too monarchical to restrain itself from seeking ways to subordinate and subjugate the two other arms of government.
More crucially, given the manner the presidency has sought to resolve the CJN matter, it is almost certain that more dictatorial practices will be unleashed on the country in the coming months. There were samples of this nefarious and sickening tendency when the DSS invaded residences of certain judges, when the same secret service invaded the National Assembly, and now when the CCT was activated against the principles of the law to take out the CJN. No institution and person will henceforth be inviolate or immune. It is okay today to celebrate the humiliation of hated institutions and persons, and accuse and judge them in the media, but the sinister wheel will keep turning until it eventually turns full circle as the history of fascism and dictatorships has shown. For the sake of democracy, rule of law and stability, the country must hope that when the desolation begins, they are ready for the consequences of their short-sightedness. For, should President Buhari be re-elected, it will mean that the atrocious attacks on institutions and the rule of law, among other things, have been amply and generously rewarded.
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