A fresh initiative by the National Judicial Council to sanitise the judiciary ahead of the 2023 general election by punishing errant behaviour is a welcome development. Nigeria’s highest disciplinary judicial organ recently penalised three judges from courts of coordinate jurisdiction who recklessly granted ex parte orders to the same parties on the same subject matters. The judges were barred from gaining promotion when next they are due for it.

Juxtaposed with the havoc these judges have wreaked on the brittle integrity of the judiciary, their punishment is lenient; it will likely not deter delinquent judicial officers. The best course of action is to flush out judges tainted with the slightest whiff of corruption to restore confidence in the temple of justice.

In the Fourth Republic especially, the judiciary has been controversial, smeared by corruption and inconsistency. The latest clampdown by the NJC restores the topic to the front burner. The current matter centres around the divisive politics in the Peoples Democratic Party, where some party members went to court against Uche Secondus, the immediate past chairman. Instead of throwing out the frivolous suits and awarding steep costs against the litigants, the three judges granted ex parte orders in Rivers, Cross River and Kebbi states. The conflict arising from this is obvious. These devious court orders enable politicians to persist in their crooked ways, buying their way to power regularly and besmirching governance.

Ordinarily, the judiciary is seen as the last hope of the common man, especially in Nigeria where the legislature and the executive soil their hands with corruption. It is partly why the retribution for the three judges falls below expectation. Two of them were warned and stopped from being promoted for two years; the third was slammed with a five-year moratorium from being promoted. By not sacking the judges, the system is condoning corruption. Litigants will remain wary of the judiciary because of such judges. If the NJC is truly keen on fighting corruption, it ought to review and apply commensurate punishment on them.

Even before the NJC’s slap on the wrist for the judges, stakeholders had fretted over how the judiciary will remain above board in the run-up to the 2023 elections. Recently, all eyes were on the temple of justice in the pre-election cases in the November 6 Anambra governorship ballot after courts of coordinate jurisdiction in Anambra, Jigawa and Enugu states initially stopped Chukwuma Soludo, the eventual winner, from being listed as the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance. It was the Court of Appeal that saved the day. Aiming to destabilise the polls, an Upper Area Court in Abuja in September directly issued criminal summons against Soludo, something the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Muhammed, noted was “completely outside the jurisdiction” of that court.

Similarly, a former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Attahiru Jega, recently argued that judicial corruption had undermined national development. He stated, “Some senior lawyers have become stupendously wealthy defending corrupt public officials or handling electoral litigation for governorship and presidential candidates. Many judges have also become notorious for corrupt enrichment through ‘cash and carry’ judgments, especially in election matters generally, and in election tribunals, more specifically.”

This strikes at the heart of the matter. Former Justices of the Supreme Court, the late Kayode Eso and Samson Uwaifo, had earlier separately warned of massive corruption in the judiciary. While Eso said some judges appointed to election petition tribunals became billionaires, Uwaifo cried out that corruption was creeping from the lower to the appellate courts. Lawyers, litigants, and their cohorts on the Bench form an axis of corruption. At the Supreme Court, judgements in cases like the 2015 Akwa Ibom State governorship election and the 2019 Imo State version remain indelibly incomprehensible to many. Some of the violence in Imo cannot be totally divorced from the controversial rulings.

Admittedly, the Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) regime has not been completely silent on judicial corruption. Alleging corruption, State Security Service officers, in an ill-timed operation, invaded the homes of two JSCs and two Federal High Court judges in Abuja in the middle of the night in October 2016. As expected, there was indignation over the misstep. Also, the anti-graft agencies have put some senior lawyers on trial. These lawyers are often convicted at the lower courts, but the verdicts are often overturned on technicalities at the Supreme Court. At the end of the day, nothing was achieved. It shows the regime has not devised a winning strategy to fight corruption in the judiciary.

DEROX:
am waiting till they wail

dollynnn:
Just like China,let there be a death penalty

Dukio:
Topic: Uprooting Corruption From The Judiciary



Litigates/Counsel/Judges.........

fastseo:

We wailed all through the past 7 years of Buhari .

We are still telling you again that tinubu wont be any different from Buhari and i believe you felt and are still feeling the pain.

Inflation will go higher.
Corruption will be a norm
There will be lot of budget padding
Poor man will suffer.
It will be a government of padi padi
He will try to please the north over the west just to gain support for second term.
If he eventually gets the second term it will be a government of i dont care.


Use ur brain, think about your children future.
Even today's government what value have they added that will impact ur children in 10 years to come if not debt upon debt

dollynnn:
Just like China,let there be a death penalty

dollynnn:
Just like China,let there be a death penalty

Dapson73:
It's a welcome idea. I think this chief judge, justice Muhammed Tanko is a of good intentions but the system is so corrupt.

Let them put more efforts to sanitize our judicial system.

God bless Nigeria

htdot:
The only corruption that is killing nigerians is buhari.... I know the Op is an APC supporter. They always trying to point a finger just to exempt their almighty zombies leader.

lexy2014:


So when they make a statement that sweets u, they have good intentions.