In defence of the Chief Justice of Nigeria

For those conversant with the politics, intrigues, subterfuge and roadblocks that characterized the emergence and final confirmation of His Lordship, Hon. Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen as substantive Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), the current attempt by fifth columnists and political jobbers to blackmail or even cast a smear on his image cannot be surprising. As if the avoidable drama of his appointment and confirmation has not brought enough shame to the country, these ubiquitous interests who felt they lost out when the Senate cleared Onnoghen to be sworn in as the Chief Justice of Nigeria against their wishes, have refused to give up. They now masquerade behind willing and irresponsible characters to undertake a campaign to impugn the hard-earned reputation of Honourable Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen as the early signs indicate that he cannot be bent.

Since his confirmation in March this year, the feeling among Nigerians is that a round peg has been put in a round hole. Recently, however, a few ready-to-be-hired individuals have rendered themselves to be used to undertake a campaign that throws mud at the person of the Chief Justice of Nigeria and discredits the institution he heads. As always, the penchant for politicians is to use the media to pull down our revered institutions not sympathetic to their narrow prejudices is once more at play. Needless to say this is taking a monumentally destructive toll on the judiciary. If, indeed, it is not a virulent media blitz of his carefully taken steps to reposition the Judiciary, it would be a calculated lampoon on his reform agenda or a sweeping denunciation of his attempt to sanitize the much abused adjudicatory system or a violent muckraking of judicial officers under his watch.

In a fusillade of venomous attacks laced with plain lies, sarcasm and dry humour, these people are unrelenting in their plan to bring Nigeria`s Judiciary to the gutter through their dislike for the person of the Chief Justice of Nigeria. Like a scripted drama, one of them, Livingstone Wechie, appeared on the Africa Independent Television, AIT Focus Nigeria programme on Tuesday August 29 to drive home their nefarious agenda. Mr. Wechie who claimed to have represented a body that goes by the name, “The Integrity Group”, openly called for the resignation of the CJN. His grouse was that the CJN had honoured the invitation of the Rivers State Governor His Excellency Barrister Nyesom E. Wike to flag off the construction of judges quarters in the state. Honouring that invitation and performing that important duty of laying the foundation of houses for Judicial Officers, in the understanding of Wechie, is evidence that the CJN had compromised and should therefore resign from office. How infantile!

Wechie, while admitting that “the provision of residential accommodation for justices to retire with is a very welcome development, and while also calling on every government in Nigeria to follow the footsteps of Governor Wike as this will “discourage mendacity in the judiciary”, at the same time quipped that the said project which the CJN did flag off “was not captured in any accessible or available budget of Rivers State”. Is it all that is required for the Chief Justice of Nigeria to resign? This is taking activism to not just a sheer pedestrian rabble but to a ridiculous and questionable dimension. For instance, every well informed Nigerian knows that the Cross River State governor His Excellency Prof. Ben Ayade is the first governor in the current Buhari administration to have attracted President Muhammadu Buhari to a state to flag off the governor’s two signature projects, the 260 kilometre Calabar-Ikom-Obudu digital highway and the new Calabar Port channelization project in 2016.

These laudable projects were not actually captured by the Cross River State government budget as at the time the President performed the ground-breaking ceremony. Does this mean that any sane Nigerian activist from Cross River State would suddenly go on air to call for the President’s resignation or his impeachment by the Senate because the projects for which he performed the groundbreaking were not captured in the state budget? President Buhari had honoured the invitation of Governor Ayade and consequently performed the groundbreaking ceremony with so much fanfare only to discover later that there was neither approved Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) nor a budget for the project which the governor had designated as one of his signature projects. I cannot recall anyone asking the president to resign on account of his not investigating the circumstances surrounding the superhighway before giving it a presidential stamp of approval through the groundbreaking ceremony.

It would be recalled that Wechie’s last appearance on AIT on the said date was the fourth or fifth time he had appeared on the programme. In fact, he was emphatic that President Buhari should not appoint Amaechi as minister so as not to taint the Federal Government’s anti-corruption war. When the President ignored all antagonists and went on to appoint and swear in Amaechi as minister, Wechie remained adamant and appeared on the television a couple more times castigating Amaechi and the Federal Government for promoting corruption in the country due to the minister’s inclusion in the federal cabinet. It therefore must have come as a rude shock to many of us when the same Wechie shamelessly appeared on another episode of the programme as a turncoat with glee, now praising Amaechi and castigating Governor Wike.

Though unnamed entrenched interests delayed his confirmation despite his qualifications and steering leadership qualities and constitutional provisions, Hon. Justice Walter Onnoghen should now be left alone to do his work. Using the Wechies of this world to blackmail the occupant of the exalted office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria will further open the country to ridicule among the comity of democratic nations of the world. The Supreme Court is undoubtedly and indubitably the nation’s most powerful legal arena, the court in which the meaning of the laws of the land is finally decided. It is indeed apposite to warn that we should not play politics with our Judiciary, for therein lies our only redemption as the safety valve or sole arbiter to the common man.

Amor wrote this piece from Abuja.