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JUSTICE: Where are Thy scales? By Maikudi Abubakar Zukogi
These are not the best of times for the judiciary in Nigeria. The law has been bottled by, surprisingly, its two high ranking custodians, and it seems to be helplessly gasping for a life saving breath. In the meantime, however, it would appear that it has been graciously unbottled and is taking the needed survival oxygen, with the lawful (unlawful?) suspension of the PCA, Justice Isah Ayo Salami, and the timely but coincidental retirement of the CJN, Justice Alloysius Katsina-Alu. We may think that the law has divinely intervened by itself and for itself, to save itself from further desecration in the public domain. Further, we may also innocently think that fighting does not take place in a vacuum. So, we thus think that fighting has been shamed where the fighters have unceremoniously left the scene. Case closed. But is the case really closed, and can we, with certainty, say that the law has saved itself from a dance of shame in the public theatre? With the unceremonious exit of these two warring custodians of the law, do we assume that we have heard the last of the Salami/Katsina-Alu face-off? After all, the CJN, Alloysius Katsina-Alu, has retired naturally after attaining the terminal age of 70 years, at the nick of time, but also at a time when his over four decades of serving the law was been questioned. We know too well even as lay men that the road to the law is a long winding and tortuous one. As custodians of the law who have spent the better part of their lives plying this road, this particular journey to the law may well prove the most tortuous and most testing for them. Therefore, for the two, as for us lay men who look up to them to interpret the do’s and don’ts of the law to us, this is going to be both the shortest and the longest journey they will ever embark in search of the law; hence we join to say that it is never over until it is over. Beside the primary sign of the great unease in the judiciary, the secondary signs are the unusually large volume of literature written on the ongoing unease as a result of the face-off between the CJN and PCA by legal professionals and media commentators, and the expressions of shock and disappointment by some eminent jurist and legal luminaries at the way the law, of all things sacred is being desecrated, or is literally, dragged in the mud, in the cause of this seemingly unprecedented occurrence in the history of judiciary in Nigeria. So much literature has been written on the face-off and the resultant unease in the judicial system. Some of the literature considered the CJN, in cahoots with the NJC, as the predator and the PCA as the innocent prey; others see the PCA’s action as an effrontery and an act of insubordination against his boss, the CJN; yet others see the CJN’s action from the moment the bone of contention between them becomes public knowledge as amounting to killing a fly with a cudgel. It was argued that the CJN, using his power and influence over the NJC, roped Salami in and thus prepared the grounds for his eventual suspension as President of the Court Appeal. Yet other vocal minority, spearheaded by a certain Alhaji Ramoni Obanlowo, dismissed the PCA as a desperate opportunist who is acting the drowning man, and thus totally undeserving of any public sympathy. To this end, it considered the whirlwind of sympathy for Justice Ayo Salami as discriminatory; arguing that what is good for the goose is equally good for the gander. For the eminent jurist and legal luminaries, especially Justice Bola Ajibola, former Attorney general and Minister of Justice, and Justice Mustapha Akanbi, former PCA and former chairman, ICPC, these truly are not the best of times for the judiciary when it gets to a time that it was seen to be washing its dirty linens in public. For Prince Bola Ajibola, judicial linens are unlike other linens; they are not meant to be washed in public, even if need be, whatever the provocation or the bone of contention involved. On his part, Justice Akanbi is disturbed that the law dragged itself into this cul-de-sac or avoidable public dance of shame for going ahead to suspend Salami, in spite of the service of court. For him, so long as it is established that there was a service of court is sufficient enough reason for the respondents to tarry and stay action, whether served or not. And when it was established that the plaintiffs did all they could to pass across the service of court but their effort was frustrated makes it even more compelling reason to exercise restraint. And in a matter involving two high ranking custodians of the law, two equal hands of the scale, it calls that the parties involved be doubly cautious, so that wrong and irreparably damaging signals are not sent to the public. Unfortunately, however, it was too late, the damage has been done; the wrong signals came too soon and the reception was as sharp and unnerving as the thunderbolt. It remains to be seen how this can be remediated and not allowed to burst into conflagration. The primary cause of the ongoing face-off between the two, who surprisingly have left the judicial scene, originates from the Sokoto governorship tribunal judgement. Justice Salami is alleged to have observed the CJN, Alloysius Katsina-Alu’s unusual interest in the judgement. For a man who is described as a tough and intelligent jurist, it is uncharitable to simply dismiss his reading and interpretation of the mind of his boss as merely speculative? And because both Salami and Alloysius Katsina- Alu are human beings before they are jurist, they are, as with all humans, going to react to any extreme situation if push comes to shove. To hide this extreme human nature to react to untoward behaviours in their garbs and pretend that judicial linens are not washed in public would be preposterous. The onus of proof is on Salami who knows too well the implication of his allegation. The events which followed this came in quick succession, leaving no room for total digestion and appreciation of the procedures. Justices Umaru Abdullahi and Ibrahim Auta’s committee were okay; but are they not hasty and inexhaustive in their submissions? But because the law is an ass, you are never able to appreciate its full measure and implications. May be Salami should not have exercised his right to self defence and should have left sleeping dogs lie, in the vain-glorious assumption that judicial linens are not washed in public, however dirty and messy they may be. But Salami’s service of court was refused receipt or ignored to rush to his suspension and hence out of the judicial way. And then, the CJN, Justice Katsina-Alu, retired peacefully. What a perfected safe landing for someone who raised a lot of judicial dust at the twilight of his career! If the foundation of justice is said to be anchored on truth, then truth and nothing but it, must be told always. If, in the witness box, we are implored to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, then truth must mean a lot to justice and vice versa. Rhetoric and sophistry may appear to be the drivers of justice, but truth still remains the foundation on which justice rest. Without the truth, justice is anything but just. If the PCA, as was alleged, raised a voice of discomfort at the CJN over his covert and unusual interest in the Sokoto gubernatorial election tribunal judgement, the onus is for the CJN to prove him wrong. It is the right of both the CJN and the PCA, as with every citizen, to defend themselves before the law and be given fair hearing. The public is watching to see how this case goes. It is not simply about Salami; it goes beyond him. It is about the rule of law and how it is operated to guarantee the basic human rights of all citizens, irrespective of class, creed, tribe and status. It was in defence of these that kept the Pakistani lawyers and judicial officers on the streets for months to press for the reinstatement of the suspended Chief Justice of Pakistan during the twilight of Pervez Musharraf’s regime. Like Mahatmi Ghandi expressed above, it is better for hundred Salamis and Katsina-Alu’s to perish than for truth to die. The nation dies where truth is not allowed to thrive. |