By EMMANUEL AZIKEN

The eye-catching picture of a bevy of lovely women flocking around the new Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Aloma Mukhtar published on the cover of this newspaper yesterday was of great concern.

Posing with the new CJN were female members of the Federal Executive Council who apparently brought a cake to celebrate the historic feat of the inauguration of the first female Chief Justice of the Federation.

Remarkably, all of the six female ministers pictured were open-mouthed, teeth expressing delight at the event.Justice Mukthar herself was the exception; mouth shut, and though the outlines of a smile seemed in the making, she appeared somewhat aloof from the display of happiness around her.

A development that ordinarily should have been conducted with sobriety in the public and maybe celebrated in private by close associates of the CJN was being turned into the sort of laissez-faire weekly gathering of FEC, where ministers gather to approve contracts that are exceptionally executed.

Beyond the levity that the women ministers brought to the occasion was the assault on the principle of separation of powers of the three arms of government that we are increasingly being exposed to in this country. It is not unlikely that at least one or more of those female ministers that prepared the cake could have an issue to deal with Justice Mukhtar in the nearest future.

CELEBRATING 13th CJN —The first Female Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloma Mukhtar, GCON,(2r) flanked by female ministers as they cut a cake shortly after she took the oath of office at the Aso Chambers, State House, Abuja. Photo: Abayomi Adeshida.

It is for this that the idea of the containment of the social lives of judicial officers evolved. Exactly a week before the cake affair, a similar assault on the independence of the arms of government was waged when President Goodluck Jonathan hosted what the Presidential Villa celebrated as a historic meeting of the heads of the three arms of government.

Present at the meeting were President Jonathan, Vice-President Namadi Sambo, the heads of the two chambers of the National Assembly and the Majority Leaders of the two chambers, former Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Dahiru Musdapher who led an entourage that included the Acting President of the Court of Appeal, the Chief Judges of the FCT, Lagos, Kaduna and Anambra states.

Also present were the Head of Service, Bello Saleh; Attorney General of the Federation, Bello Adoke; Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Lamido Sanusi; and the Chairmen of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Larmode and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Ekpo Nta.

The main agenda of the meeting was on how to deal with the mounting scare of corruption in the country. It was a needless meeting on two counts.

First, the assemblage of the heads of the three arms of government was a pointless desecration of the separation of the three arms. By converging together to deliberate on how to fight corruption, the President unnecessarily and maybe, dangerously exposed the other two arms to its own internal mechanisms and frictions.

It is not unlikely that the judiciary could have become corrupted or biased in its consideration of cases that could eventually be brought to the courts. That is regardless of whether specifics were discussed or not.

The principle of separation of powers as enunciated by the legendary French philosopher, Baron de Montesquieu which most developing democracies have incorporated provides for the independence of all arms of government.

The independence of the judiciary entails that it must be removed from every influence of other arms of government. That includes the kind of cake that the female amazons in the Jonathan government served on Justice Muhktar last Monday.

Some may argue that the concept of the National Council of States rubbishes the argument deposed above. But no. The duty of the National Council of States is to advise the President on some of his duties including the appointment of the National Chairman of the Independence National Electoral Commission, INEC, conferment of national honours, among other sundry issues. The body is merely advisory.

Penultimate Monday’s parley on corruption was simply unnecessary. All the administration needs to do to address the issue of corruption is to do his job.

Direct the prosecution of all those that have been indicted on several corruption investigations. That cake was simply poisonous to our democracy.