By Ochereome Nnanna

“Ghost Wars” is the title of a book by Steve Coll, narrating how America, through the CIA, created its current most formidable enemy, Al Qaeda, in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 1978, the Soviet Union under Leonid Brezhnev deployed its 40th Army in Afghanistan as part of its contest for control in Asia.

The USA decided to pay its fellow superpower back in its own coins by opting for a ghost war, which the USSR had used to humiliate it in Vietnam.

The US therefore armed and funded local Islamic warlords in Afghanistan. With increased access to American dollars, some of the tribal groups in the world’s largest producer of opium were able to attract foreign Jihadists including Osama bin Laden.

By 1988, Soviet power waned and it withdrew its troops from Afghanistan, abandoning its stooge, President Mohammed Najibullah. But as soon as the Soviets left American dollars stopped flowing to the local allies. Bin Laden developed his own new agenda of fighting Jews, Christians and non-believers to enthrone an Islamic world order.

He came with a lot of money and connection to Islamic charities, and pronto, the world started on its way to its current date with chronic global terrorism.

The Niger Delta conflict also started as “ghost wars” among political figures and highly placed oil thieves. The most prominent political figures involved in these ghost wars were governors:  “Peter-dey-Pay” Dr Peter Odili of Rivers, “Governor General of Ijaw”, DSP Alamieyeseigha of Bayelsa, and “Odidigboigbo” James Onanefe Ibori of Delta State. Among the stooges used were Ateke Tom, Asari Dokubo, Henry Okah and Government Ekpemupolo.

They and other freelance “generals” later formed their respective groups and started the Niger Delta struggle, which eventually ended with the amnesty programme on October 4th 2009.

Ghost wars, therefore, are battles for spheres of influence whereby the enemies stay in the background, financing and supporting third parties to do their fighting for them. That is exactly what is going on in the Nigerian Judiciary.

The two largest political parties – People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) have invaded the Judiciary and are using it as the third parties in their fight for supremacy. The Judiciary became a beautiful bride when it was included in deciding the outcome of an electoral process.

In Nigeria, the electoral process includes Election Petition Tribunals and Election Appeal Tribunals, which are under the control of the Court of Appeal. You can win the election and secure victory at the Election Petition Tribunal, but all your efforts can go down the drain at the Court of Appeal if the five-man panel does not find favour with your case.

That was how Dr Chris Ngige lost out to Mr Peter Obi in 2006. The President of the Court of Appeal is one of the most powerful judicial officers since he has the power to empanel tribunals that could give or take away mandates from all elected officers except the president.

It was at the Court of Appeal that Adams Oshiomhole of Edo, Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti, Rauf Aregbesola of Osun (all of the ACN) and Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo (Labour Party) reclaimed their gubernatorial mandates. The powers of the Court of Appeal became suddenly obvious after it helped sweep the PDP out of the South West and led to the rise and rise of ACN as the second most powerful political force in the country.

Many people woke up late to this stark reality. But it seems as though Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu remained awake while others snored.

He probably realised early in the day that the only way PDP’s unearned stay in the South West could be halted was through the Judiciary. Right from the early days as the Governor of Lagos, he “invested” heavily in the Judiciary, playing his cards in the processes of employment and deployment of officers in the Bench.

By the time Justice Ayo Salami arrived as the President of the Court of Appeal, the Bola Tinubu political machine was ready to move against the PDP, starting from the South West.

After the favourable judgements to Oshiomhole, Fayemi and Aregbesola, Tinubu’s ACN capitalised on its network in the media to create a momentum of expectation, which eventually swung Oyo and Ogun state into the ACN basket after the April 2011 polls.

Tinubu is a smart political aleck, one of the few remaining political visionaries still in the game. He followed a script earlier perfected by Northern Nigeria, which was tutored in the art by the British colonialists. After the treasonable felony trials of Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the early 1960’s, the British colonialists, which were still acting like “technical advisers” to the Northern political establishment, advised that the North must sponsor some of its brightest youth into the Bench department of the Judiciary.

Yorubas dominated the Bar and Bench. With its educational disadvantage, the North could not hope to tussle for the control of the Bar with the West as the Igbos were in a position to if they were interested. But they could control the Supreme Court within thirty years if they started immediately.

Just as many military officers who later ruled Nigeria had earlier been conscripted into the Army, brilliant northern students, such as Mohammed Bello, Mamman Nasir, Buba Ardo, Mohammed Uwais and a host of others, were sent to read law.

As soon as they graduated they were sent to work as judges, not lawyers. Only Alhaji AGF Abdulrazak went into the Bar as the first lawyer from the North and later emerged as the first SAN from the Region. The North was more interested in the Bench, where the political power was.

Today, only those who are not conversant with chess played over forty years ago will be surprised that the North dominates the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court. After Uwais, the first Chief Justice of Nigeria from the North, we have had Justice Alfa Belgore, Justice Legbo Kutigi, Justice Katsina-Alu and now Justice Dahiru Musdapher as CJN.

The long list of those waiting to take over are Northerners. One of the “dividends” of this “investment” was that Abacha was able to use Justice Ibrahim Auta to send Ken Saro-Wiwa and other eight Ogoni activists to the gallows in 1994. If there was still a northern agenda for the use of the Judiciary to achieve political power, the Region has enough clout in the Supreme Court to oust President Jonathan, if they don’t mind the consequences for the continued survival of Nigeria.

This was the game Tinubu embarked on. After its routing in the South West, the PDP now know that Tinubu is their most formidable foe. Unlike the myopic and provincial Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) which has concentrated its activities and effort in the Muslim North, Tinubu’s ACN has become a viable national party.

Apart from wresting power from the PDP in the South West, it was also able to torpedo the zoning arrangement of the ruling party in the House of Representatives. Who knows what would have happened in terms if Justice Salami had not been roughly bundled out of the Court of Appeal? Perhaps the number of states under the control of the ACN would have extended beyond the South West Zone.

PDP is therefore, fighting back with everything it has. The sudden renewed interest in the foreign account saga of Tinubu by the Code of Conduct Bureau is seen in some quarters as a move to perturb Tinubu, create dissent in his camp and re-launch the ruling party in Yorubaland.

It is an interesting development worth watching. The use of the Judiciary as proxies for political dominance will never stop as long as that arm of government continues to have a say in who comes and goes after elections.