Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Mariam Aloma Mukhtar’s media aide Ahuraka Yusuf asses his boss’ achievements since she assumed office over a year ago.
Prior to Justice Mariam Aloma Mukhtar’s assumption of office as the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), many had lost hope in the Judiciary’s ability to dispense justice independently. The state of affairs in the Judiciary was aptly captured in a report by the United States’ Department of State on Human Rights practices for 2011, which was tendered before the US’ Congress in May 2012 by then Secretary of State Mrs. Hilary Clinton. The report had observed copiously that the Nigerian Judiciary was very corrupt and susceptible to manipulations by the rich elite in business and politics.
While many were still in doubt about her capacity to tackle the rot in the system, some who, knew Justice Mukhtar as an incorruptible judicial officer and an individual with rare sterling qualities thought otherwise. One of such persons is the foremost human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Femi Falana. Falana, in providing a picture of the kind of person Jusice Mukhtar is, said ‘‘I first met the CJN as a High Court judge in Kano in 1984. My client, a trade union, had sued a powerful Lebanese company in the Kano State High Court for illegally withholding the check-off dues deducted from the wages of all the workers in its employment. “The company, which had boasted that it had the judiciary in its pocket, was taken aback when the trial judge, Justice Muktar, granted the reliefs sought by the plaintiff and ordered the company to refund and pay to the union the check-off dues which it had illegally withheld.Since then, I have watched the judge from afar and followed her impeccable judicial carrier. “In a country where judicial corruption has been virtually institutionalised, I make bold to say that Justice Muktar has never been associated with corrupt practices or any form of abuse of office. She is conservative but ready to take a radical stand in defence of the rule of law. She is quiet, but aggressive in dealing with cases of corruption. “Her decision to team up with Adesola Oguntade JSC (as he then was) and Walter Onnoghen JSC in writing powerful dissenting opinions in the controversial case of Mohammadu Buhari v Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) convinced the reactionary forces in the legal establishment that she could rock the boat if allowed to become the head of the country’s judiciary. “The clean bill of health given to Justice Ayo Salami, the suspended President of the Court of Appeal by a Committee of the National Judicial Council (NJC) chaired by Justice Mukhtar was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. A plot was therefore hatched to prevent her from becoming the CJN’’. On her eventual assumption of office, the general expectation was the need to cleanse the Judiciary of its rots. A Senior Advocate of Nigeria and a candidate in the 2014 Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) election, Mrs. Funke Adekoya stressed this in her article titled ‘‘NJC as Hercules’’ in the Thisday newspaper of March 5, 2013 when she noted that ‘‘Hercules did the job by using unconventional methods, he diverted two rivers flowing near the stables off their course, to flow into the stable yards and out through the rear, before rejoining the river course, while taking all the filth and dung along with it.
“From this Greek tale, the phrase ‘cleaning the Augean stable’ emerged to mean performing a large, unpleasant and seemingly impossible task that has long called for attention. When the incumbent Chief Justice of Nigeria Hon. Justice Miriam Aloma Mukhtar was sworn into the office in July last year, there were many calls upon her to restore the Judiciary to its pride of place in the body polity by investigating the rumours of corruption that were rife, and acting on the many complaints about judicial behaviour. As she has only two years in office as Chief Justice of Nigeria, this is her Augean stable.’’
With few months to the end of her tenure, many can testify that, though we have not got to the Promised Land, remarkable progress has been made towards that direction since Justice Mukhtar assumed office over a year ago. A highly respected British magazine, Newsweek attested to this when in its April 8-15, 2013 edition, the publication named Justice Mukhtar as one of the ‘’125 women of impact’’ in the world. The magazine premised Justice Mukhtar’s nomination on her judicial cleansing reform and avowed determination to get rid of judges involved in fraudulent practices or judgment for sale.
Specifically, the magazine noted that, ‘’in a country notorious for its crooked officials, Nigeria’s first female Chief Justice, Mukhtar, has built a reputation as an unwavering reformer unafraid to root out criminals.’’Also, the World Justice Project (WJP), an independent, multidisciplinary organization working to advance the rule of law globally, scored Nigeria high only in civil justice among the nine factors it studied in its report recently released. The Washington-based WJP accessed the 99 countries studied on compliance with the rule law.
The WJP Rule of Law Index 2014 report awarded Nigeria a pass mark only in Civil Justice, ostensibly the Judiciary headed by Justice Mukhtar. The WJP’s Rule of Law Index is a quantitative assessment tool designed to offer a detailed and comprehensive picture of the extent to which 99 countries and one jurisdiction around the world adhere to the rule of law.The WJP Rule of Law Index seeks to embody these outcomes by means of performance indicators the extent to which countries attain these outcomes. In attempting to capture a broad view of the rule of law in a nation, the WJP’s Rule of Law Index looks at 47 outcomes (or sub-factors) organized around nine dimensions (or factors) which include: constraints on government powers; absence of corruption; open government; fundamental rights; order and security; regulatory enforcement; civil justice; criminal justice; and informal justice. 99 nations were scored and ranked on each of the nine factors.Specifically, the group’s report on Nigeria is as follows: ‘‘Nigeria ranks 93rd overall and near the bottom half of lower middle income countries in most dimensions. The country ranks 69th for checks on the executive branch and 76th for open government, putting it slightly behind the average rankings of Sub-Saharan African countries. Yet, in most of the other dimensions, the country remains one of the poorest performers of the region. Corruption is widespread (ranking third to last in the world), the criminal justice system has deficiencies (ranking 91st overall and second to last in the region), fundamental rights are poorly protected (ranking 88th overall), and a deteriorating security situation continues to raise significant concerns (ranking 2nd to last overall) Nigeria’s best performance is in the area of civil justice, where it ranks 52nd globally and 7th among its income peers’’.
As understood by the WJP, the delivery of effective civil justice requires that the system be accessible and affordable, as well as free of discrimination, corruption and improper influence by public officials. The delivery of effective civil justice also necessitates that court proceedings be conducted in a timely manner that is not subject to unreasonable delays, and that judgments are enforced effectively.
In its editorial of July 15 this year, The Guardian newspaper commented thus; ‘’Speaking at the opening session of a conference on judicial reforms organized by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), in conjunction with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and some Non-Governmental Organisations, the Chief Justice accused SANs working in tandem with corrupt judges being investigated by the National Judicial Council (NJC) of being guilty of corruption and misconduct. “She cited a particular instance where a judge accused of corruption invited about six SANs to represent him before the NJC. The conference on judicial reforms, in which the Chief Justice spoke, could not have come at a better time in view of dwindling public confidence in the judiciary. It is indeed noteworthy and commendable that Chief Justice Mukhtar has waged a relentless war on corruption in the judiciary since she assumed office.
“Lawyers may very well hide under the guise of their rules of professional practice to defend anyone that seeks their legal representation and the issue of fair hearing which some of the judges being investigated raise is always germane to the cause of justice.
“Nevertheless, the CJN’s position remains a call on lawyers to be more alert to their responsibility as ministers in the temple of justice. Where senior lawyers rise to defend judges accused of corruption to the extent that the accusation is not allowed to see the light of day, let alone the accused judge allowed to defend himself, there is obvious danger to law and order.
“In such a situation, the society is threatened and ordinary law abiding citizens are not motivated to remain so; indeed they are encouraged to embrace impunity, knowing that the judiciary can be compromised.’’ So far, not less than hundred editorial comments have been published in the dailies and magazines in reactions to her onslaught on rots in the nation’s judiciary.
•Ahuraka is the CJN’s media aide
