By Dr. Ugoji Egbujo

When Jesus chased away those who had made the defilement of the temple their occupation, he was perhaps short on due process. But that is what rottenness and wanton impunity invite – drastic intervention. If that synagogue were a Nigerian institution, many would have flung his rule of love at Him. And labeled him a rascally hypocrite – preaching love and ruthlessly whipping elders.

*A cross section of Judges

Some would have lapsed into theoretical evaluations of his methodology – querying the effectiveness of coercion, denouncing impracticable idealism. Placards promoting persuasion and condemning dictatorship would be waved vigorously by hired hands. The effigy of a tyrant would be burnt by incensed scribes.

He would be reminded that since he has not cornered all available sinners with His whip, his primary motivation must be pettiness and vindictiveness. The conspiracy theorists will go to work and concoct reasons one location and a few sinners have been singled out. At some point, emotions and sentiments would drown reasons and sinners would become victims. And before long, they would become saints.

The corruption in the judiciary is visible to the blind. Ordinary Nigerians saw their stubborn hopes fade. The judiciary, they had hoped, would not succumb to the epidemic. Not because any inoculation against anything that virulent could be effective, but because the thought of a diseased judiciary was nightmarish. The bench couldn’t transform into a shopping mall selling judgments, the way lecturers have been selling marks. But truly, the bench stood no chance.

With the bench on the ground and spread-eagled, unscrupulous lawyers feasted, – turned middle men and raped justice. Courts became hives of couriers and judicial merchants. Election victories were bought and sold. A criminal, luckless enough to get to court, could buy freedom a moment before a certain conviction. Politicians committed atrocities and flaunted immunity in perpetual injunctions.

The NBA paid lip service to the abominations perpetrated by its members , and the nation became a laughing stock. The NJC scratched the surface with a few indictments. It struggled to defend an evident aloofness. No judge is behind bars yet. Impunity spread, and judges became more daring.

Legal scholarship became redundant and suffered. Statutes and case laws became playthings, judges churned out patently bewildering decisions. Foreign investors, took note and raised our business risk. The poor people gnashed their teeth as justice became elusive. A hopeless public looked on, with resignation.

Anas , the investigative journalist had struck in Ghana. The rot is continental. Ghana’s Judges rose in unison to condemn his effrontery and what they termed “concerted effort to ridicule the judiciary”. When the evidence he gathered seeped into the public, over 30 judges fell. And hopefully Ghana’s judiciary is marginally healthier.

Nigeria cried for a surgical operation. The DSS went on a midnight ‘sting’ and hauled some judges into custody. Judges and lawyers rose to their condemnation as they did in Ghana. Fraternity matters more to them. The Chief Justice of the federation lost his cool, the fangs of the DSS didn’t spare the innermost recesses of the temple.

NBA presidents, past and present, were hysterical- democracy was being mangled, they chorused. Their demand was peremptory – release of all arrested judges, immediately. They wouldn’t seek this remedy in court, they wanted all courts locked. What really could be more tyrannical? Everywhere, it was submission to sentiments and tantrums, not reasons.

The Chief Judge didn’t think that his meeting with the president over the issue amounted to an unholy interference with the course of justice. He didn’t think that his open condemnation of the action of the DSS , which the suspects could eventually challenge in court, is contemptuous of court process.

Neither did he consider that his public position has left him an interested party in a case that could come to him. He has recklessly put himself and the bench in a difficult ethical position. And this difficulty is complicated by the fact that potentially the accused persons are his colleagues. He didn’t spare a thought for the effect of his haste on public confidence in the judiciary. He was too aggrieved to remain impartial, to abide by the rule of law.

Some concerns are legitimate though. The independence of the judiciary must be jealously guarded. A descent into a one party autocracy must be avoided. But the insinuations of unconstitutionality must be founded on sound legal authority. It’s proper to wonder why customary dignity was not extended to the judges.

But the timing of the arrests does not necessarily make them unlawful. And the underlying motivation can’t be denied altruism because the DSS chose brashness and lacked courtesy. Procedural issues are matters for courts to examine and the pronouncements of courts would refine the conduct of institutions subsequently.

If the DSS has no subject matter jurisdiction it is not for the Chief Judge or the Senate to speculate about. These are justiciable issues. It is reprehensible that the chief Judge and the NBA whose primary duties include protection of the integrity of the judiciary are making conclusive pronouncements that may undermine the integrity of decisions of courts in this matter. There is no where in the world where a national chief justice makes pronouncements on a criminal investigation that is potentially bound for the courts. A Chief judge is not a labour union leader.

Judges have no constitutional immunity against criminal investigation and prosecution. But the independence of the judiciary will amount to nothing in Nigeria if every police Superintendent can treat every judge like any other citizen on matters arising from their juridical duties.

Because judges must retain the fearlessness to be impartial while confronting capricious principalities and powers, some immunity from regular criminal justice intrusions is a practical necessity. Consequently, their professional misconducts are sanctioned routinely, customarily, by their peers in the NJC, who act as a veritable defence against executive capriciousness.

The dangers of the erosion of this protection cannot be ignored. But is it the position of the law or any convention, that in matters of serious crimes, judges cannot be investigated until indicted by the NJC? The argument is not just whether the NJC has exclusive disciplinary powers but whether the scope of such exclusivity extends to all crimes.

This becomes especially important where the NJC is not totally free of suspicions. There is no where in the world where judicial officers cannot be investigated and prosecuted by the police independently.

I do not endorse the midnight arrest of judges. But that is a secondary consideration. The primary issue is to find substance or frivolity in the allegations levied by the DSS. The dignity of the bench has been eroded by corruption and we cannot pretend that the DSS has ‘disvirgined’ a hallowed temple.

Blame must rest on corrupt judges and all those who watched them rape justice without raising more than whimpers. Senior lawyers and judges watched other judges bring in ant infested fire woods into the temple of justice. Why are they shocked by the invasion of lizards?

Good citizens seek redresses against the excesses of law enforcement agents, not on the streets, but in courts. Courts exist to restrain arbitrariness. The Chief justice and the NBA have been very bad role models. Their actions directly trample on the rule of law. The Chief judge and the NBA cannot by their interference be justifying Gov Wike’s concept of ‘defence of democracy’ – blatant obstruction of the course of justice.

The precedent the NBA has laid is dangerous. If the NJC makes any pronouncement on the propriety of the actions of DSS while these actions are inexorably headed to court, that would be a tragedy. All acts that can be construed as intimidatory of the courts that would hear the cases are destructive of public confidence in the judiciary.

The Chief judge and the NBA owe the public a duty that isn’t served by outbursts capable of defeating public confidence in the pronouncements of a criminal court. Babies are not thrown away with dirty bath waters. DSS, please do more stings- proper entrapment. A ‘collabo’ with the EFCC ,will be ideal.