Justice Isa Ayo Salami needs no introduction. The former President of the Court of Appeal was in Lagos last week for the 10th Chief Gani Fawehinmi lecture/symposium organised by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja Branch. As chair of the event, Justice Salami, in his candid manner, dissected societal ills, submitting that failure to uphold truth when it matters most is one of the judiciary’s problems. Adebisi Onanuga reports.
The judiciary is faced with challenges, including victimisation of those who stand for the truth. It is supposed to be the last hope of the common man, but people seem to be losing faith in it. How can public confidence be restored? Former President of the Court of Appeal (PCA) Justice Isa Ayo Salami has proferred solutions to some of the problems. He is in a good position to do so, being a victim of what many consider as injustice.
Justice Salami spoke as chairman of the 10th Chief Gani Fawehinmi Annual Lecture/Symposium held by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja Branch in Lagos last Wednesday.
The event was attended by the National Chairman of the National Conscience Party (NCP), Dr. Yunusa Tanko; Lagos State Chairman of the party, Mr. Ayodele Akele, Mr. Rowlan Otaru(SAN), Mr. Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), Mr. Tayo Oyetibo(SAN), Mr. Dele Adesina(SAN), Mr. Abiodun Owonikoko (SAN), Chief Ganiat Fawehinmi, Mrs Kudirat Aka-Bashorun, Mr. Mohammed Fawehinmi and Mr. Adetokunbo Mumuni, among others.
The guest speaker was Convener of the Save Nigeria Group, Pastor Tunde Bakare, who spoke on the theme: “Nigeria at Centenary: a nation still in bondage?”
The day (January 15) was said to have been chosen by Fawhinmi before he died because it was the day he was called to Bar in 1965.
Justice Salami said the judiciary’s problems may remain because Nigerians do not want the truth to be told. He said this was why all the efforts by the Chief Justice of Nigeria(CJN), Justice Aloma Mukhtar, to rid the judiciary of corrupt elements are being frustrated.
According to him, a just and equitable society would continue to elude Nigeria unless people in position of authority think less of holding on to their positions at the expense of truth.
Justice Salami said it was disturbing that in Nigeria, anyone who desires to stand on the path of truth and justice must be prepared to suffer persecution, incarceration and other mean treatment.
“Perhaps, this is part of our growing process; but how long will it take us to grow?”, he asked adding: “Innumerable number of people has suffered and still continues to suffer in defense of truth and justice in Nigeria. Yet those who caused their fellow human beings to be incarcerated, suffer or at times killed without any just cause must know that sooner or later, the law of retribution will surely catch up with them.”
The Bar
Justice Salami took a swipe at lawyers, particularly prominent and senior ones, saying they are involved in whatever happens or may have gone wrong in the judicial system. He said some of these lawyers have the capacity to influence judges, adding that where they do this, they do it with relish.
According to him, there are times when members of the Bar tell sordid stories of certain high ranking serving or retired judicial officers who act as “arrangees” or couriers of bribe. Such members, he said, were engaged at a fee to reach out to judges to influence or “purchase” justice in certain sensitive cases but that nobody among those making the allegations had dared to give details. “Nobody invariably wants to “bell the cat”, he said.
The bench
Justice Salami also criticised the bench. He said the problem with the judiciary was that some dishonourable people, not fit to be judges, have found their way into the system, get into the mainstream and have made it to the highest level.
According to him, the problem with the judiciary will remain unresolved or even compounded for a long time because Nigerians, naturally, do not want the truth to be told, stressing that whoever dares to tell the truth is marked for destruction.
He said but for the decline in the judicial system, inexperienced customary court judges would not have been presiding over the affairs of the NJC.
“The irony of the situation in the Nigerian judiciary is that these same men and some others like them still sit as members of the NJC, a body charged with the responsibility to appoint and discipline judicial officers. One wonders where lies the hope of the common man in getting justice with these crops of men at the helm of affairs at the NJC”, he lamented.
‘My sins’
Justice Salami remarked that part of his “sins” as a serving judge was that God helped him throughout his career to resist all temptations to be influenced by anybody in dispensing justice, adding: “My conscience is intact and my relationship with my God, to whom I am accountable, is sacred and also intact”.
On his travail, he said that the Justice Ibrahim Auta Committee set up by the NJC to make recommendation on the council’s investigative panel report submitted by Justice Umaru Abdullahi’s panel, was meant to humilate him.
He said God turned the humiliation to vindication because “the Justice Auta Committee adopted a laughable procedure by completely introducing a completely new dimension to the case without giving me any hearing at all”.
On the allegation that he broke the Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers by speaking to the press, he said the issue was never raised by the Juistice Auta committee, not to talk of being tried at the NJC investigative panel. “the Auta Committee, flew above its mandate and said it took “judicial notice” of the fact that I spoke to the press and this formed part of the recommendations of his committee which was supposed to act only on the NJC Investigative Panel’s findings. As I said, I was never called upon to defend the issue before the Auta Committee”, he said. He recalled that at the time the Justice Auta Committee was in place, he had a case that was pending in court. He said when a member of the committee informed him about the case, his reply was that they had not been served and were not inclined to stop further proceedings into the matter. “Obviously, the conclusion was already predetermined because it is very elementary that what was important was not service but notice of the process. Why I said I was vindicated on this issue is that Justice Auta, as a result of this effort to implicate me at all cost fell into the same grave error as he did before, which Niki Tobi , a former Justice of the Court of Appeal, condemned in the election petition case of Oriobuna Vs Obiorah (1999).
While the controversy on his suspension was raging, he said a junior member of the bar remarked that if Gani Fawehinmi were alive, he would have gone to court. While he agreed with him, he said he wondered which court he would go, asking: “An intimidated and frightened court? Or how does one explain the Supreme Court decision in Dingyadi Vs Wamako? In this case, the Supreme Court invoked the provision of its rule to override an express provision of the constitution which forbids Supreme Court from hearing appeal in election matters to dismiss an appeal that was not pending before it. I am aware that the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Dingyadi Vs Wamako has been a subject of controversy for quite some time. I will not like to comment on this beyond stating that history and posterity will bring out the truth and eventually unravel what went wrong in the fullness of time,” he said.
Justice Salami challenged the NBA to develop the will and capacity to implement the recommendations of the Okpoko Committee that carried out independent investigation into the Sokoto case that marked the beginning of his travail in the judiciary. The former President of the Court of Appeal who noted that the NBA had a good report in its hand regretted that the association has been shying away from implementing the report because some “prominent senior lawyers were involved”.
He said it was sad that the NBA has till date failed to impose sanctions on members of the bar who were indicted in the report. ”One thing I know for sure is that if Gani were alive and in charge, he would not have allowed the matter to be swept under the carpet. Sometimes, and when it matters, some members of the Bar representing the NBA on the NJC hardly stand up for the truth not to talk of speaking the truth.
“These are matters the NBA must tackle. They should not be regarded as their problem. It is our joint problem because the profession they are damaging to assuage their selfish interest jointly and severally belongs to us all,” he said.
Justice Salami suggested a five-point approach to reposition the judicial system.
He suggested that the CJN should cease to be the chairman of the NJC so that occupants of that office would stop taking advantage of its powers as chairman of the council, as enshrined in the constitution, to abuse the office.
He said each of the federating states should be allowed to have its own Court of Appeal and Supreme Court to better adjudge on disputes and appeals on matters falling within their legislative competence.
While suggesting that federal and state high courts and the National Industrial Court (NIC) be vested with the same jurisdiction to avoid high cost of litigation and delays arising from contentious issues of jurisdiction, he said members of the NJC should not accept executive appointments, including executive briefs during their tenure.
He also said justices appointed to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court on ground of Sharia or Customary Law should not be permitted to participate in common law and constitutional cases. In his address, the NBA, Ikeja branch chairman, Ubani remarked that it was the desire of the branch for a well structured federal system of government and called for a fair devolution of powers that makes for efficiency which he described as the ultimate purpose for the general well being within the federation.
On the proposed national conference, the NBA chairman pointed out that the modalities for representation would determine whether or not government is sincere on the issue.
“Nigerians will be alarmed if certain names that have held this country to ransom are thrown up as representatives of the people.
“Let us hope that the President has a good motive for this, and that is for the health and survival of this great nation. Nigerians will decipher the beginning of his good or bad intent from the constitution of membership of the conference,” he added.
Bakare, who was the guest lecturer, slammed opponents of the conference, branding them as “selfish and self-focused” individuals.
He said the conference was an opportunity for Nigerians to return to the dialogue table with the aims of renegotiating and restructuring the country.
The Convener, Save Nigeria Group(SNG), Pastor Tunde Bakare who was the guest lecturer slammed opponents of the conference, branding them as ‘selfish and self-focused’ individuals. He said the conference was an opportunity for Nigerians to return to the dialogue table with the aims of renegotiating and restructuring the country.
He, therefore, urged statesmen to welcome the National Conference and that they should work towards its success instead of focusing on the 2015 general elections and for Nigerians to insist that the modalities must be genuinely people driven.
He said: ”If we do not do the needful in 2014, there may be no 2015. If we dedicate ourselves to restructuring our nation at this opportune time, the outcome will be the emergence of credible leadership that will ensure a Nigeria that works.”
“We must reach out for her, retrieve what is left of her, wash her clean and nurture her back to life.This we must do by returning to the dialogue table to restructure. As I have said on previous occasions, we must get set to rebuild and restore, we must retrieve what is remaining of the pillars of our founding fathers and we must restructure and reconstruct; we must rebuild from wall to wall, from gate to gate; from community to community until the nation is restored to its former and even greater glory.”
He said despite the liberty Nigeria enjoyed as a nation at independence on October 1st 1960, the country only went back in bondage on January 15, 1966 when some military officers struck and held the first coup de tat.
He also said the structures of the nation have since then been distorted, way back in May 24,1966, when the then military Head of State, Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi decided to abolish the existence of regional system of government.
“On May 24, 1966, the framework of the Nigerian State was destroyed when Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi through Decree No.34 abolished the regions. That day saw the death of the budding Nigerian nation. It was not long after that the different nations which had been held together by evolving Nigeian nation began to demand secession,” Bakare added.
For Nigeria to get it right, Bakare said the country must return to the “cesspool in which it was dumped with the bath water on May 24, 1966”. But for the former Kaduna State governor, Alhaji Balarabe Musa the conference was a waste of time and resources. He said it was wrong for a sitting President to want to organise a national conference for Nigerians, stressing that President Goodluck Jonathan was part of the problems confronting the country.
“Any conference conducted by this government will not achieve anything. President Jonathan is part of our problems in this country and that is why we are against it,” he said.
Mrs Fawehinmi counselled lawyers to do what is right at all times. She said the failure of legal practitioners to do what is right has been the problem with Nigeria. “We know what is right but we have always refused to do it. If you really love Gani, do what is right. That is what Gani would want from you to move this nation forward,” she said.
Last week’s ceremony was unique in that the date not only marked the day that the late activist was called to the bar, lawyers, for the first time since the annual lecture started ten years ago held a ‘freedom walk’ in honour of Chief Gani Fawehinmi. The ‘Freedom Walk’ took them from the comfort of their various law chambers to the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park, Ojota where most activists took turns to educate the public on why they must fight for their right always.
The ‘Freedom Walk’, explained Ubani, symbolised the various walks Fawehinmi undertook during his life time, fighting for truth and a just and egalitarian society.
