The Chief Justice Or The Campaign Manager?

By

Jide ayobolu

jideayobolu@yahoo.co.uk

Nigeria has been described severally by different people over the years, one of the descriptions which is not particularly good is, Nigeria is a country of anything is possible. What will never ordinarily happed in some well organized and develop country happens in our clime and people just gloss over them. At a recent book launch in houour of the immediate past Chief Justice of Nigeria Hon. Justice Muhammadu Lawal Uwais, the newly appointed CJN Salihu Alfa Belgore to the greatest surprise of all came out public not only to justify the eight years of Ibrahim Babaginda misrule, the gave an imprimatur and undue legitimacy to military intervention in politics, he sees military dictatorship as a better form of government than democracy which is the government of the people, for the people and by the people. But what on earth would make the CJ of any country support a system of government that negates the basic tenets of the rule of law, constitutionalism, fundamental human right and universally acceptable principles of democracy. In some other countries of the world such a person would have resigned from much a very sensitive position and if he fails to do so, the outpouring of public angst and outcry would force such a person out such a job, however it is indeed incomprehensible while the matter was merely glossed over as if nothing is really amiss, what a pity, wonders they say will never end.

In the words of the new CJ: “he called himself, a former military dictator. Well, every military regime must have dictatorial tendencies because that is the only way they can be successful”. He went on with his very unpopular sermon, “people say they (military jackboots) do not allow human rights. They say their coming to power is illegal. Were they really dictators? They came to power to cure a malady in national development; malady of ineptitude, corruption and divisive tendencies and so many other things”. He ranted further saying, “ but one thing is this, so many other military regimes had abandoned the judiciary, but there is something that this gentleman (Babaginda)did which was aiding Muhammed Bello as the then CJN to bring judges, registrars, and grand khais together to share  ideas and learn so  justice delivery would be stronger”. He equally added that, “everybody knows the value of NJC; it is a lasting legacy to his tenure as the president of this country”.

It is a known fact that under the Babaginda regime the judiciary was thorough rotten, there cases of mid-night judgments, there severally cases of judges pandering to the whims and caprices of the government of the day and no delivering judges based on evidences that are truthful, transparent and just. It would be recalled that it was in this regard that the Abacha-led government set-up the Kayode Eso panel to look into the disturbing rot in the judiciary, and the outcome of the probe demonstrated that indeed the judiciary is very corrupt and it was subsequently purged, but there still some undesirable elements in the judiciary. Come to think of it what is the CJN talking about, all military regimes claim they are corrective wanting to right the wrongs of the past, but as in the case of Babaginda , they leave the political scene far worse than they met it. It is a known fact that it was the government of Babaginda that institutionalize corruption in Nigeria and elevated it to the level of statecraft, by encouraging the culture of settlement, it was also under the same regime that over N80billion was spent on an unending election, it was also during that era that the freest and fairest election in the country was wantonly annulled and the winner of the election Chief MKO Abiola  died in custody in very controversial circumstances, and the country up till today has not been able to recover from the after effect of the satanic annulment. It was also under IBB that the education sector was brought down to its kneels, as institutions of higher learning were shut down indefinitely, and competent academics moved out in droves to other countries to seek greener pasture. It was under the draconian IBB rule that several media houses were shut, journalists imprisoned and an iron law of oligarchy put in place to muzzle the press. It was during the same period that Nigeria took the IMF economic therapy against the wish of the Nigerian people the implications were the over devaluation of the naira, systematic destruction of vital segments of the Nigerian economy, and unleashing an unprecedented misanthropic economic policies and foisting a reign of terror on the people.

It was the same IBB’s government that was indicted by the Pius Okigbo report over the misapplication, misappropriation and misuse of $12.4 billion first gulf war, windfall, it is the same IBB which the CJN praised to high heavens for God knows what, that bluntly refused to appear before the famous Justice Oputa panel because of his dirty past. So, why would the CJN doff his hat for this kind of character? The CJN by so doing has denigrated his exalted office, he has demonstrated beyond reasonable doubts that he is a politician and cannot but be partisan in the delivery of his judgments, and more importantly, he has shown that he is not deserving of that important office. Most of the underdevelopment problems in the country today are traceable to years of military rule, and mostly they are opportunist do not know where they are coming or where they are going, they however see political offices as a short-cut to amassing wealth illegitimately, these are people that are not trained the art and practice of governance, the constitutional role of the military remains the maintenance and defense of the territorial integrity of the country. That is why the army the world over is subordinated to civilian authority. Again, it is important to note that introduction of glasnost and perestroika in the defunct soviet union in 1989, despotic regimes and sit-tight governments have given way to democracy and the democratic wind of change, hence in the prevailing international political order military is not only, no longer in vogue, it is indeed an aberration in the international scheme of things, it is for this reason that countries the world over are fast democratizing there political landscape to conform with the current global norm on the political scene.

It is therefore a pity that the CJN with his wealth of experience could condescend so low as to unwittingly justify military rule, is it a case of senility or a thorough confused mind or even someone that is just obsessed with what he can make in the office? It is again disturbing that this kind of statement is coming from the CJN, this is because, before the enthronement of the present nascent democratic order, many innocent and innocuous citizens paid the supreme prize with their lives, it was a long drawn battle before the military were forced to vacate the staged and now that we are having some semblance of political stability, the CJN has given the military an unwarranted opportunity to stage a come back to the mainstream of Nigerian politics, more worrisome is the fact that his fellow colleagues  have all kept an undignified silence, as this could be interpreted to mean the official position of the judiciary on the subject-matter. The federal government and the NJC that were instrumental to the emergence of Belgore as the CJN should ask him to recant his unguarded statement as well as tender an unreserved public apology as he was not only careless but insensitive to the general feelings of the people. In fact what the CJN ought to have done is to honourably resign from office as not to taint the judiciary with his funny kind of politics. For goodness sake, why should a person who should be extolling the virtues of democracy be singing the praise of the military. It would be recalled that under IBB, the military suffered, arms and ammunitions were very horrendous, while the barracks were in a very deplorable state, in fact those that IBB killed as a result phantom coups could form a garrison. The way and manner Mamma Vasta was killed is very terrible, he was accused of a coup that was never planned, and here was someone who was IBB’s childhood friend, classmate and best man, yet IBB never had mercy on him he was summarily killed, this was even after professor Wole Soyinka, professor Chinua Achebe and professor J P Clarke Had pleaded on Vasta behave and IBB promised them that he would be let off the hook. Not only has this, IBB wiped out a whole generation of army majors in a plane crash. So, why is the CJN speaking tongue in cheek? He should just resign in the overall interest of the justice administrative system in the country.