We may not know the importance of one’s eyes, legs and arms until they are lost, similarly a person, who is blessed with good health may never know the importance of good health until ill health strikes him, out of the three arms of government, the judiciary remains the stabilizing factor in Nigeria and all over the world, its failure is invitation to anarchy, judiciary is the stabilizing factor of any society, it symbolizes not only the rule of law but an important organ of dispute resolution between the federal government and its component units, between individuals and state, citizens, between corporate units, firms and others in the inter-relationship, in conducting business, governance and social interactions.
Without a functional judiciary anarchy is inevitable, a corrupt judiciary according to retired Justice Uwaifo of the Supreme Court is akin to a man holding a dagger running amok in a crowded market, institutions suffer, government suffer, individuals are not left out when the Judiciary is corrupt. Justice is not dispensed and it’s given to the highest bidder and gradually injustice reigns supreme and decay set in that destroy the fabrics of society.
To destroy a people, a nation and a civilization doesn’t need nuclear weapons or civil war but corruption, corruption destroys a nation easily that by the time it finishes, its consequences cannot be estimated neither can rebuilding be remedied, corruption destroy a family, destroy a community and defecate on the consciousness of a nation, the profiteers of corrupt practices are victims as well as those are the victim of its processes, corruption is the fatherhood of poverty, it encourages civil strife, rumours, tribalism and reduces patriotism to the background, corruption is the necessity of what I can get and not what I can give, once it rears its ugly head in the educational sector it becomes cancerous because it promotes ignorance in midst of those who are knowledgeable, in our hospitals, doctors and health workers trade with patients and lost the conscience to care, corruption in government is akin to castrating a nation for retrogression to set in and that’s why we may avoid corruption as a plague because without it a nation and a people lost their identity.
The history of corruption in Nigeria is as old as our human nature, the first republic collapsed due to allegations of corrupt practices and every subsequent successful coup plotters based their actions on corruption, Major Patrick Kaduna Nzeogwu speech why his coup was necessary was based on corruption and that coup eliminated a whole generation of best of Nigerian leaders, since then this perception led to subsequent coups. It was only Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi overthrew that was based on revenge and suspicion, Gen. Murtala coup overthrew Gen. Gowon on corrupt allegations and properties of members of Gen. Gowon government were seized without recourse to judicial process. When Gen. Buhari overthrew the first elected executive President of Nigeria, it was based on corruption, the allegations of corruption and rigging of elections and many actors of then NPN, UPN, NPP, GNPP, PRP, were jailed by tribunals set up as if jail terms meted out became jest of judicial watchers because some were jailed ninety-seven years while others more than two hundred years. It was Gen. Babangida regime that came on allegations of high-handedness by his predecessor and the electoral manipulative tendencies of the Babangida regime became its Achilles heel in June 12, 1993, the Abacha regime that came to correct the mistake became a threat to national ideals and he overthrew the interim national government to perpetuate himself in power.
Abacha enacted five parties that adopted him as presidential candidate which Late Bola Ige described as one leprous hand of five fingers, I did not mention the Gen. Obasanjo regime because that regime came was a necessity after Col. Dimka coup failed and the then head of state Gen. Murtala was brutally assassinated.
However, after Gen. Abacha death and coming of Abdusalami Abubakar, the birth of democracy came in 1999 and since then we have had a stable political state from one transition to another. However, danger lurks, because our perception of corruption has what muted military adventures, it was an encouragement and this perception had always been there, the presidential candidates of PDP, APP and ad the three political parties then in 1999 Presidential contest were Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo and Olu Falae who was the joint Presidential candidate of APP and A.D, unfortunately after the looser through INEC.
Declaration challenged the results and lost at the Presidential Tribunal, the Court was the greatest looser because the supporters of the opposition never accepted the Court verdict and allegations of using state funds to buy judgment was rife among supporters of APP/AD throughout the regime of Olusegun Obasanjo.
In the second term of Obasanjo, Gen. Buhari also contested against him twice under the party APP, Buhari challenged the results but despite his huge popularity in the north and his lack of popularity in the south and rejection of his claim to have won the presidential election by the supreme court, the belief that he won that election by his supporters and even by Buhari himself was strong, it was entrenched. Gen. Buhari contested against President Jonathan but lost and the courts up to the Supreme Court affirmed it, it was the second attempt against President Jonathan that he won but President Jonathan against all odds accepted the results and congratulated Gen. Buhari. The reasons for all these epistle is because of our nation as Nigerians. It is true but a fact that even when angels are called upon to conduct elections we would still fault the elections with calls for cancellation because of allegations of rigging or when results are declared and the courts affirmed, corruption would not be ruled out.
In Nigeria we live in suspicion of one another, we don’t trust ourselves so how can we trust others? We are suspicious of one another more even when sincere, corruption flows in our veins, we steal from the church we worship, we steal from others, we destroy the government responsibility as rats do to important documents in a house, the father is corrupt and steals from his workplace while the wife steals from husband and children steal from their parents with one form of lies and misinformation, we are therefore a colony of social bandits devouring one another, drugs use and prostitution is high among the youths because of greed and materialism, the situation of how corrupt is so strong that even if Jesus Christ or prophet Mohammed contest the presidency with the devil in Nigeria, Nigeria will reject them because they will not agree to bribe Nigerians, this is the sad reality today that it is endemic, we are corrupt so we see everyone around us as corrupt and this is dangerous to growth and development.
This perception about corruption is ruining our values, and destroying government/social life, if as at today we lack a matured military officers, coup
would have occurred but thank God for the times and season that abhors military rule, the mentality of the times and season that abhors military rule, the mentality of rumours of corruption and huge amounts needed is destroying the cardinal fractions of a viable state, the danger is even worse today as a result of the 2023 Presidential and Gubernatorial national elections, we forget easily that when you subject yourself to any contest including elections, there are always two sides to a coin, you win or you loose and even if dissatisfied as a result of perceived malpractices or non-compliance to the electoral act as amended, the only option is go to court using your preferred lawyers who you think can help you present a good case to upturn the declared victory of your opponent, at this stage you have removed the matter from public opinion and it should be noted that public opinion don’t matter in matters of law. I think for anyone to have taken his/her grievances to court is part of rule of law and it should have been binding on all in no victory no vanquish but our electoral contests even when the law court have made their judgments is not over, we defame and try to destroy the very institution because it does not go our way.
The malicious campaigns like “all eyes on the judiciary” and other subtle defamation that daily go on in social media about how judgments are procured and how judges are corrupt without evidence is coming from corrupt Nigerians who had bought themselves to the top, who had through corrupt practices stolen state funds and never apprehended, these are Nigerians who think everything have a price tag, they use money to hire married beautiful women from their marriages, they use ill-gotten stolen money to invest in the petroleum sector and built mansions in our great cities and abroad, they use their ill-gotten money to oppress the poor in various degrees and send their children, family abroad and they are never contented with much money madness comes upon their head without thinking they are mortals, with these type of Nigerians there can never be justice except it goes their way, they are like hawks and vampires who must have their way and these are the same characters who had invaded the political space with same mentality.
They want power but unable to pay the price and to put records straight no political party can win the President of Nigeria without structures, no matter how popular a candidate is, the ability to have credible agents across all the voting units in the country is key, followed by credible party structure that cannot be bought or compromised because politics is a very expensive business, as planning to be President of Nigeria and Governor of a state begins with structures not waiting for only election period and throwing your hat in the ring, without patiently building structures years before declaring your intentions, it’s like throwing money in the wind and people of no character and the poor who are hungry will come for it, it’s like flies attracted to an old injury. We are deliberately destroying our unity which is false, our identity which is uncertain and our future which is uncertain, whenever we doubt or tag our judges as corrupt because we ourselves who are corrupt feel no Nigerian cannot be corrupt. It is true a judge comes from society, from a community and from a particular family and if these allegations are correct why are the accusers spraying them on the vulnerable, ignorant populace to believe instead of petitioning the Nigerian judicial council to punish such judges?
We are unfortunate as a nation when we don’t believe in others simply because we don’t believe in ourselves, the concept that the Nigerian politician must win at all cost and if he fails blackmail the system he want to head is destroying governance, trust of Nigerians and mobilization of the people for government projects and policies, we cannot destroy the same house we want to live and expect peace, in Delta same rumours are spread by those who have lost electorally and judicially as is in other part of the country but you can only hear, read and see very strange and uninformed news only in the social media, it is the rumour mill of the uninformed who spell out anything as news but it has a very large population because more than ninety-five percent of Nigerians are ignorant yet unaware, the opposition in Delta state like their counter parts have turned the tribunals adjudicating the petitions against the lawful elected Governor to voodoo gesture, they have used various proxies but failed, they have carried same case with different nomenclature but failed.
They have not relented as they have hired native doctors, seers, soothsayers, traditional worshippers, imams and pastors who are guided not by truth but reward of money they have gotten to try read into the crystal stars to tell them the outcome but again of greed for power by these merchant opponents, rumours started filtering that the judiciary will declare him winner and that the powers that be is with them but what sort of a society are we? Destroying and defaming the same institutions that had held us together to sustain rule of law and orderliness? We cannot for selfish desire destroy the same house that provides shelter for all, there are several unfounded allegations of corruption against the judges simply because these political mongers desiring power did not win at the polls and the judiciary did not grant their wishes, unfortunately their lawyers know they have no valid case but went on legal fishing regarded as “try your luck” by the local population, their interest was not their client winning their case because they know they have no good case and the greed in the eyes of their client would not allow them advise them because if they do they can consult other lawyers and this is where money supersedes love for country and the legal profession by these lawyers.
The anarchy that led Liberia to war began this way, gradually the nation was consumed and civil war along the lines of tribal, sectional interest overcame national reasoning, if we don’t have trust for the judiciary and other institutions, why take case to them? When we take our case to these institutions and the outcome does not go our way, why try to destroy them because we fail to realize our ambition? When we defame our judges, we unknowingly destroy the judiciary and when we do so, we unknowingly invite anarchy that can consume the nation, in a war situation all these unpatriotic elements will simply vanish into Europe and other climes, leaving the ordinary Nigerians to fight and be consumed, the harrows of war and it tales cannot be comprehended, it divorces logic and reason and the aftermath of war is another episode that is so telling that the people cannot recover from because generations yet unborn will feel the pain of such devastating human catastrophe.
There is no perfect nation as there cannot be a perfect people, Nigeria is no exception, building a nation entails all and we cannot build a nation by blanket condemnation of all without exception, it is sad that when the tribunals give judgment that favours a particular person, they proclaim “a Daniel had come to judgment” or they say “the judiciary is the hope of the common man” but immediately judgment doesn’t favour them they resort to blackmail and tackling the judiciary as corrupt. These political bandits among us are the pollution in our political system, they want it their way and they are worse than same Boko Haram and others causing insecurity, they are political bandits destroying our political system, encouraging nefarious activities and insurrection, they never see anything good in those in power and simply because they are not there, they encourage tribal sentiments and divisions, they sponsor anything that will defame same system they want to govern, they are bats that turn things upside down, vultures that have lost their conscience and human sympathy, politics is not war but ideas, until our politicians learn to protect the system and see their opponents as partners, begin to play politics without bitterness we will continue to have a shaky nation and a divided people, politics should not only be mere criticism but offering alternative views to programmes and policies they criticize. We must protect the judiciary as a whole, expose few bad eggs backed with facts and not rumours in order to sustain a stable political process and society.
