By Ochereome Nnanna

THE top echelon of Nigeria’s Judiciary is in separate pieces, struck by a political hurricane. The three highest presiding officers – the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN and Chairman, National Judicial Council, NJC, Aloysius Katsina-Alu; the former President of the Court of Appeal, Ayo Salami and the Federal High Court, Ibrahim Auta, have been sucked into the vortex of this diabolical gale. The Judiciary, which is supposed to be the final bastion of our democracy and the last hope of the common man, is now in need of redemption because of a series of leadership failures.

These failures took place in the Judiciary and the Executive, particular the Presidency. The Judiciary started failing when almost all its officers occupying positions of trust started lining up behind politicians and political interests, obviously lured by money and influence peddling. For a very long time, corruption and partisanship in the Judiciary had only existed in the realm of speculation because the leadership was able to manage the conflict of interests. Not anymore.

Before Justice Muhammadu Uwais exited as the CJN there were murmurs over widespread “cash-and-carry” or “black market” verdicts, especially at the electoral tribunals. Justice Modibbo Alfa Belgore, who replaced him, went out of his way to restore faith in the Judiciary, even though Belgore had often been named as a powerful figure among the discredited military establishment.

He had a short but eventful tenure and left in a blaze of plaudits. Even Uwais, who was once taken to task in open court by a lawyer over undue influence peddling, quickly restored his own image by the excellent way in which he conducted the Panel on Electoral Reform headed by him.

When Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi replaced Belgore in January 2007, he brought into the nation’s temple of justice a sound policy of zero tolerance for corruption and injustice. His coming squared with the regime of the late Umaru Yar Adua, who quickly discarded Obasanjo’s policy of using elements in the Judiciary and the security agencies to thwart the law and protect the interests of his political party. It was during Kutigi’s time that the Supreme Court gave justice to Rotimi Amaechi by ordering his swearing-in after deciding that Celestine Omehia was not the duly elected governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Rivers State.

When Katsina-Alu succeeded Kutigi, there were mixed feelings in judicial circles. However, many reasoned that if Belgore could pull off an excellent career endgame as CJN nothing stopped Katsina-Alu from ending well.

But those who nursed this optimism were sorely mistaken. It was in Katsina-Alu’s tenure that the Judiciary was completely demystified. It all started on February 5, 2011 when the media was awash with a letter by the CPA President, Justice Salami, to the CJN rejecting his promotion to the Supreme Court.

Salami also levelled a spooking accusation that Katsina-Alu had tried to interfere in the work of the Sokoto governorship election appeal tribunal. According to Salami, it was his refusal to be part of the plot that led the CJN to “promote” him to a Supreme Court in which he would become junior to his juniors.

As far as I am concerned, it was at this juncture that the President of this country should have become actively interested in this matter. The heads of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court had acts of grave misconduct levelled against them. The Judiciary itself was in danger of being ridiculed. The President of Nigeria swore an oath (Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999) to defend the Constitution, ensuring that he would not allow his personal interests to influence his official decision or conduct. The President fiddled while the leadership of the Judiciary fought naked in the market place.

The right thing was to ensure that the two principal officers gave way for an independent panel to look into the allegations against them. They could always come back to office if cleared. Instead, the CJN was allowed to use his enormous powers and influence to turn the entire Judiciary against his opponent, Salami. At first a committee of the NJC was constituted to “make peace” between the accused persons. Thereafter, Katsina-Alu, as the Chairman of the NJC, set up the Justice Umaru Abdullahi Panel to probe the allegations levelled against them.

The Panel turned in a report essentially indicting the CJN of perjury and clearing Salami. A new panel to review the report was set up, this time headed by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta. It cleared the CJN and ordered Salami to apologise within seven days or… Following the refusal of Salami to apologise, he was suspended and a letter written to President Goodluck Jonathan to retire him. The President quickly acted on the request from the NJC.

The manner the President handled this issue not only led to the desecration of the Judiciary but also put him out as a quiet co-conspirator in the plot to remove Salami, for his own political benefits. The reasoning is simple: Jonathan has a case pending against his declaration as President after the April presidential election by the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC.

Salami is seen to have a soft spot for the opposition, especially the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, while Katsina-Alu and majority of the NJC members and Supreme Court justices appear pro-PDP. At least, that is the perception, which appears to be borne out by the political forces which have lined up behind the two sides since Salami’s retirement. If Jonathan had acted to nip this situation in the bud when the allegations against the two judicial giants blew open, all this would have been avoided.

Of course, the President’s apologists have reminded us that his not “interfering” was part of his belief in due process and rule of law. We must begin to explore where “separation of powers” ends and leadership initiative begins. The separation of powers concept in presidentialism exists within the context of integrated governance. The President, being the number one citizen, cannot close his eyes when a realm of government is being dragged to the dust simply because of “non-interference”. When matters go overboard in the National Assembly, security agencies are sent to maintain law and order and protect public property.

Similarly, it took the intervention of the National Assembly for the dangerous power vacuum to be eliminated when the “doctrine of necessity” was evoked to transfer executive power to then Vice President Jonathan in February 2010. But for that intervention there would have been a coup and perhaps many other ugly unforeseen consequences. Jonathan let us all down with his convenient aloofness.

Meanwhile, Justice Katsina-Alu will retire as the worst CJN ever to sit at the head of the Temple of Justice, and we pray never to have his type again!

TRIVIA! Would you name your son IBB or OBJ?

Saint Moses Eromosele, one of my friends on Facebook (yes, I butt in from time to time like a stubborn goat) recently posted an entry asking the general public if any of them would name their children IBB (General Ibrahim Babangida) or OBJ (General Olusegun Obasanjo). I promised him I would spread the query.

It struck me that despite the fact that these belligerent, super-rich ex-presidents collectively ruled this country for 20 years (IBB told us the reason he hit OBJ in his recent media outing was that OBJ did not return the good turn he did him in 1999 when he influenced his emergence as elected president) I have yet to come across anyone (including their paid hands) who named his son after any of them.

Babangida is a common name in the North, so it has little to do with IBB. Obasanjo is an extremely rare name, even in Yorubaland. One would have thought that after ruling Nigeria for almost 12 years, OBJ would have amassed a lot of namesakes whose fathers wish to immortalise him. Could it be that these chaps are that irrelevant?

In Igboland there are numerous “Ziks”. President Jonathan is an Azikiwe courtesy of his highly impressed grandmother! Owelle, an Onitsha traditional title associated with Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe is now adopted all over Igboland, with the Governor of Imo State, Anayo Rochas Okorocha a proud bearer of it. Same goes for Ikemba Nnewi, Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu, Dr Michael Okpara, and Chief Obafemi Awolowo (the MD of The Nation newspapers, an Isoko, is named Awolowo Victor Iffijeh).

Similarly, Sardauna as a chieftaincy title in the North is much coveted even in Christian enclaves. Gen. Dom Kat Bali is the Sardauna of Langtang! There are many “Tonys” in Edo State because of Anthony Enhaoro.

Rather than this heroification, the good people of Minna for years refused to allow Babangida come to the Central Mosque for Jumat prayers and go in peace. And as soon as he was through with his eight years in power, OBJ was booed and ‘bombed’ with pure water sachets when he was caught in a hold-up along the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway. He was also marauded by a “madman” at the Ikeja Airport.

Tell us: Would you name your son OBJ or IBB?