In the end, we remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.––Martin Luther King Jr.

LAST month, the wind of change began sweeping through the Judiciary of this nation, and brought with it division in the family of the lawyers and Judges, but unlike most families in this world, disagreement within the Judiciary bring all members closer in the end, because by training and structure, the Judiciary is the last bastion of hope of a people, and all members of the bar and the bench know and hold this as sacrosanct.

A welcome change can become messy and unpalatable simply by the method and manner the change is introduced. A rough thoughtless method of change introduction can lead a people to reject a desired valuable change. A man for example who resorts to punching and assaulting his wife in order to bring a desirable change in how she cooks, will have divorce in his hands.

In Igbo land, we say that a child sent by his father to steal, kicks the door down to break in to his victims house.

This is why the manner in which the Department of State Security,DSS, attached the peace of the houses of the judges they arrested last month is of grave concern to many who care about preservation of the human dignity of all including the Law Lords.

Gun wielding Operatives of the DSS, some of them masked according to reports, had appeared at the residences of two Judges of the Supreme Court, at the unholy hours of between 1 am in the morning and remained in the residence of the Law Lords for almost 12 hours. This was without any formal notice as required by the rules, to the Chief Justice of Nigeria, who also is the head of the National Judicial Council ,NJC.

The brigandage in this style which they call “sting operation” is that it encapsulates harassment, intimidation, and oppression of the families of the Law Lords, perhaps as a warning to others as to what awaits them should they be targeted by the Presidency.

Some have put up weak, argument, that it is for the operative to decide when to go  and get his suspect, and this may be so for some persons, but the fact remains that discretion is what gives sense to, or destroys authority, and power, by lack of it.

That no man is above the law includes that men ought to be brought to the law decently and when a Law lord is involved, decorum must be employed.

The reasons why decorum must be employed in the arrest and questioning of  a Judge includes, first that he is not just a common criminal. Second that the Judge by his training, position and stature in the society will not be on the run, or evade service of letter of invitation to the EFCC or DSS. Third, that the Judge is a member of the Judiciary, the third independent arm of government.

The preservation and maintenance of the independence of the Judiciary, as enshrined in the Constitution and extant laws of Nigeria, will pose the biggest challenge of this Presidency, and how they handle it will make or mar them, given their dictatorial body language.

Fourth, there is wide gap between accusation and conviction by the Court, and it could be a tough challenge for the Prosecution to secure a conviction, because of the nature of the liability involved, thus informing the need for caution.

Fifth, where one or two of the Judges have alleged persecution from the Presidency, as a result of the Judgment they gave like the case of Justice Ademola,for example, who ordered the release of Nnamdi Kanu of IPOB, on bail,demands caution. Igbo people represented by Ohaneze Ndi Igbo have called for the unconditional release of same Kanu, whose continued detention has already damaged the image of this Presidency, regarding respect for Rule of Law.

To continue to ignore wise calls by Ndigbo, and treat them with disdain , can never augur well for the unity and peace of this country, because Igbos have much more at stake in Nigeria than other tribes, and the Presidency knows this.

Caution is what the DSS threw to the winds in their “sting Operations” against the Judiciary last month.

In Rivers State for example, it took the personal intervention of the Governor of the State, to prevent a similar humiliation of the State Chief Judge. Only in Nigeria do people clap when an adult choses to defecate in the public!

In Igbo land, we say that the disgrace of a public personality (like a Judge ), is worse than killing him. However, it was Maya Angelou who said “I can be changed by what happens to me, but  I refuse to be reduced by it”. The Nigerian Judiciary can never be reduced by all these, but  it can change them and they have changed.

According to Barak Obama the first Black American President, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or some other time. We are the ones we have been waiting for”

The Nigerian Judiciary, is the one to change itself, not some other person and they have started to change. They have accepted the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA’s call for the stepping aside of the accused Judges. Thus, the NJC have set a precedence, which can lead to anything from stability to instability depending on the skills and dexterity of the Presidency.

It means that NBA must see to it too, that accused politicians step aside from office. It then implies that the following persons should be of interest to the NBA;Senators Bukola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu, Reps Abdulmumin Jibrin and Yakubu Dogara, Ministers Rotimi Amaechi and Kayode Fayemi etc, including the President for impeachment on the flagrant breach of the Federal Character provisions of the Constitution!

Today the entire security apparatus of Nigeria, namely Defence, DSS, Police, NSCDC, Customs, is in the hands of the north, and that’s not good for unity in Nigeria.

In the end, the Judiciary is our last bastion of hope, disagreements should make them stronger and more robust in what they do.

Mr. Clement Udegbe, a lawyer wrote from ceeaai@yahoo.com, Lagos.