Onnoghen

In and out of office, former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, who just resigned not exactly in a blaze of glory, is a nightmare to the system. So, what to do, to chop off his cancer, without entirely cannibalising what is left of the troubled Judiciary and its dignity? That is the formidable challenge before the Nigerian state.

There is nary a redeeming angle to the Onnoghen tragedy. As far as the Nigerian Judiciary goes, his name appears fairly headed for infamy. He was the first – and we sure hope, the last – CJN to be docked in any court. Though his case, awaiting verdict before the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), would appear more administrative than outright criminal, the odium on a CJN, and the supposedly sacred institution he headed, is simply stifling – and you don’t have to be an advocate of the rigorous leadership ethos of Julius Caesar, to realise that: Caesar’s wife must not only be above board, she must be seen to be so. If such is expected of Caesar’s wife, with what stringent standards would you judge Caesar himself? Yet, an early and honourable resignation would have considerably reduced the damage.

Since the Dennis Aghanya-led Anti-Corruption and Research-Based Data Initiative (ARDI) blew the whistle, Justice Onnoghen probably realised his career paradise was lost. The media leak, that the CJN claimed, in writing, that he “forgot” to declare part of his assets, contrary to the laws of the land, did not help his case. Neither did his refusal of prompt and honourable resignation. He had somewhat hoped the bluff of high office would, open sesame, wipe off the heavy smudge on his judicial cloak. He probably figured the Judiciary, on existential trial for palpable moral decay, would prevail by a bluster of technicalities. He would surely rue his personal culpability on that account.

But the Onnoghen odyssey is troubling metaphor of the overpowering rot of contemporary Nigeria: the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) that suspended its presidential campaign to gain rogue mileage; some vindictive National Judicial Council (NJC) members that tried to rope in the acting CJN, Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, for agreeing to be sworn in when Onnoghen was suspended; the honourable courts that traded in dishonourable procedures to stall justice on his account; senior silks grandstanding, to game the system on hollow technicality, to cover up the grave aberration of a CJN accused of soiling his immaculate robe; newspapers that wasted valuable newsprint and brain power, thundering with editorials filled with humbug, when good, old honour decreed otherwise; and columnists that went on an orgy of rude name-calling and crude ethnic smear, in a fond hope to present black as white, and white as black!

But now, all is quiet – and, perhaps too late, Onnoghen found he was alone to carry his can!

Still, the NJC deserves praise for its clinical recommendation to ease out Onnoghen, via compulsory retirement. That was the cue the former CJN needed to hurriedly resign, after stalling for weeks. With peer sympathy and empathy, and perhaps the palpable anger coursing through the Bench and the Bar, over the Onnoghen peculiar mess, that was a courageous step.

Which is why it is understandable, the tight rope of technicality NJC tried to walk. In a statement it released, Soji Oye, the NJC director of information, said: “Council decided that the allegations relating to assets declaration that were levelled against Hon. Mr. Justice W. S. N. Onnoghen, GCON were sub-jice and therefore abstained from considering them.” That was valid and legitimate by legal procedure. So, it offered a safe plank to justify the NJC reported recommendation that Justice Onnoghen be retired with full honours, grossing his full retirement benefits and his place in the National Council of State, as a former CJN.

Still, a CJN eased off for alleged dishonour grossing honourable retirement is a violent contradiction in terms. That cannot pass the simple muster of morality – and decency and morality are the very fundaments of the law. On a more robust conceptual plane, it’s nothing but elite fraud, in a republic supposedly founded on the same set of laws, applying to every citizen: high or low, rich or poor, ordinary or distinguished, male or female. What this recommendation tries to push is very dangerous indeed: that the CJN, because he climbed to that height, is not bound by the sanction of the law, which he himself dutifully applied on others! It would be a very dangerous precedence indeed, in a Nigeria filled with elite moral vermin, who think nothing of gaming the system for personal gain; while thundering that the low and vulnerable must endure the full weight of the law. A republican democracy can’t endure with two sets of laws!

Of course, it’s only fair to mention that the former CJN has not been convicted of any crime. Even as we speak, his innocence is presumed. Besides, even if a criminal procedure is opened against him in the high court, no one can accurately predict the final verdict – and it might go all the way to the Supreme Court, where a lot of factors, outside the open-and-close application of the law, might apply. Yet, that did not stop the NJC from recommending his retirement!

The truth is the Nigerian state should weigh its options very well, on this Onnoghen conundrum.  Heavens won’t fall, if it waives its right to put Onnoghen on criminal trial; and procure a formal conviction. Indeed, that might resonate well, with ethnic lobbies in a country where the sickly elite commit crimes solo, but posture as persecuted victims, to their ethnic mass; who then are scammed into even a sicklier protest, though they were no party to – nor beneficiaries from — the alleged crime.

But formal conviction or not, let no one speak of retiring Onnoghen with full benefits. The former CJN can’t just pick himself up, after his free fall from grace, to assume his place as a member of the Nigerian Council of State, among other post-office honours. If the state chose to waive prosecution, that would be enough magnanimity. But Onnoghen must be sanctioned for the odium his disgraceful conduct has brought the Judiciary. That’s the only way his case would serve as sword of Damocles, dangling over any future judicial vermin, in high or low places, even as the supposedly sacred institution rouses itself from perdition to salvation.