The clouds over the Nigerian polity darkened further on Friday after President Muhammadu Buhari suspended the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, and swore in Tanko Mohammed as the acting CJN.

The political temperature was already high as the nation prepared for the general elections. This almost unprecedented action of President Buhari has however raised the temperature to a fever pitch. The only other time a Chief Justice of Nigeria was removed from office was under a military government, in 1975. But then General Murtala Mohammed had just overthrown the long-ruling General Yakubu Gowon and removed Justice Taslim Elias as part of his purge of the public service.

Aside from being unprecedented under civil rule, the timing so close to the elections raises credible suspicion that President Buhari has a motive other than the need to clear the allegation of corruption and breach of the Code of Conduct by Mr Onnoghen.

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