Our dear Nigeria… and then, Liberia: no petitions, no Tribunals, no PEPT
Our February presidential elections, in line with the theory and practice of COURTiocracy ended on October 26, 2023, when the ‘erudite’ judges of our Supreme Court (SC), which is by design, the last hope of the common man, passed judgement on the petitions filed by Atiku (and other ATIKUlators) and Obi (with the host of OBIdients). The SC dismissed ALL the grounds of appeal by Atiku and the PDP and would have flogged their counsels if it were possible for professional shoddiness. However, Atiku and the PDP were even luckier because Obi’s petition, even though it was filed differently and had some different bones to crack with the presidential elections, was not even treated. Obi and LP were told that the ruling in the case of Atiku also applied to them( Otaokpukpu, which means bone-cracker was included in Obi’s legal team because there were lots of bones to be cracked with the presidential elections!). By that judgement, the Supreme Cult (Olisa Agbakoba, SAN told the world that the Supreme Court has been MAFIArised and a Mafiarised organisation is surely a cult) legalised our snatch and run elections, the mother of snatch and run democracy, and gave a stamp of approval to a full-blown BATiocracy. Many people saw it as the end; the end of discussion’ or rather, the conclusion of the whole matter (Ecclesiastes, 12: 13-14). However, there are others who saw it differently. For this group to which I belong, October 26 is just the end of the beginning, the beginning of a new era in our judicial history, elections and democracy. This is because the judgement gave birth to homegrown judiciary, politicking, electioneering and a weird version of democracy. The SC judgement declared frankly that forgery, perjury, identity theft, electoral brigandage are all normal, in effect, the new normal in Nigeria. Impunity and Machiavellianism in the process of acquiring power is now legally sanctioned.
Before going further, I wish to draw attention to two international developments concerning the justice and politics. The PEPT judgement occurred at the same time as Nigerians were celebrating the P& ID judgement. In that case, Nigeria got a ‘stay of execution’ due to some previously undiscovered evidence. Then, Justice Knowles threw the matter out because ‘the awards (liability and quantum) were obtained by fraud which was contrary to public policy’. I will leave it at that for now! (Ik Muo: The police as our friend (or fiend?); In the Lion’s den: @ Upper Iweka by 10pm!28/10/13). So, previously undiscovered evidence and underlying processes have serious judicial weight. And Nigeria is a beneficiary of these legal practices. But in our homegrown ‘judiciation’ they matter not! Secondly, in Liberia, Weah did ‘a Jonathan’, conceded defeat even when the margin of victory required a microscope to ascertain, handed over to the new president in a solemn and simple occasion. No rigging, no killings no petitions, no tribunals and no hierarchy of courts (with the inherent tension and financial hemorrhage).
He just walked away and there is no evidence that he is trying to apply some crude ‘Wikerian’ remote-control tactics. In conceding defeat, he declared: under my leadership, these elections were organised with a promise of fairness, transparency and credibility… the Liberian people have spoken and their choice will be honoured and obeyed-… the National Electoral Commission( note that it is NOT independent) has earned the respect of ALL Liberians and the world at large for completing this difficult task to the satisfaction of all stakeholders including contesting parties’ Neither GMB who birthed the last ‘elections’ nor BAT, the beneficiary and current helmsman can say this and the probability of saying it in future is dimming further and further.
The
murder became judicial when Pontus Pilate who found nothing against this man
ended up giving it a stamp of legality by condemning an innocent man to death. The
conspirators then went to celebrate their victory. They thought it was the end
but it ended up being just the end of
the beginning. That was the beginning of Christianity and Christians have refused to let Pontus Pilate,
the major political figure in that
macabre dance, to rest in peace! There
is no day that Christians do not remember the murder of Christ and the role of
Pilate in that matter. So, the judgement of 26/10/23, will continue to
revibrate negatively for years to come and the names of the judger
and the beneficiary will continue to be mentioned in terms and tones that are
not ennobling. In the case of Christ, it took a while before his people found
their voices and started hitting back at his murderers ( Acts 2,1-11) but in
this case, it was immediate and continuous and
unfortunately, the greatest voices
against what the SC has done and what has become of that terminal bus-stop for justice seekers
are household enemies (Micah,7:6); members of the extended judicial family. Afterall, it was said that judgement will
begin from within (1John,4:17).
The other day, a retiring and ranking member of the SC family, M D Mohammed said a lot of unprintable things about the judiciary, especially, the ‘Kabyesi tendencies’ of the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the deliberate sidelining of the Southeast in the national judicial ecosystem. My mouth is too holy to repeat what he said. And just two weeks ago, Olisa Agbakoba told the world in the presence of ‘those who are’ in Nigeria of today, that the current SC (the worst in his 45 years of practice; that it has been captured by a mafia and that Nigeria had just suffered legal failure. He was a president of NBA. Before then, the IPP(immediate past president) of NBA, Bar Olumide Akpata, declared at the rooftop that it is only by accident that the Nigerian judiciary can produce a good judge (and thus a good judgement).
Our
Judicial operatives: Do they have hearts?
Within the same period, Chidi Odinkalu, the lone voice crying in the wilderness like John the Baptist about Judicial corruption and capture accused Justice Waziri and his colleagues of acting with ‘injudicious premeditation and inventing justifications for things that endanger the standing of the judiciary as a deliberative institution constrained by norms of evidence, precedent, logic and institutional self-restraint, the most charitable that one can be about this is to call it judicial overreach. Others inclined to be less charitable will see plateau state as the site of a criminal judicial transaction!’ Chidi was referring to the same Plateau State Appeal Court ruling which Shehu Sani had decried as ‘unfortunate, unacceptable and condemnable; a broad daylight ‘heist against the will of the people’ and followed it up by describing the bench as ‘the coffin of democracy’
Under this circumstance, I was amused, amazed and bemused when at the 2023 conference of Judges of the Federal HighCourt, the CJN, a judicial version of the village headmaster (no be me talk am) cautioned judges against bringing disrepute to the judiciary and creating loopholes that could tarnish the image and reputation of the judiciary. Yes; he said so. Does the judiciary have any reputation? Just as you cannot give what you do not have, you also cannot lose what you do not have. Those interested in this line of thought can read up the case in which one BIG lawyer dragged Gani Fawahinmi to court for tarnishing his reputation.
The collateral damage
done to the judiciary by the ruling of 26/10 will continue to reverberate.
Trust in the judiciary is eroded and corroded. The integrity of public
institutions and officials and the integrity of elections are all mortally
wounded; the worth of ‘their excellencies’
who emerged from these processes is in doubt; voting has been declared as a
useless exercise because the courts have
kidnapped our democracy and the judicial mafia have abducted
the courts, doing with them what Zamfara bandits do to or with their
victims as they enthrone and dethrone as it pleases them( Lasisi Olagunju) .Furthermore,
the SC is not willing to redeem itself as the judgement in MNKs case has shown.
They agreed that his kidnap from Kenya was illegal, shameful and an assault on his
human rights. They also agreed that his escape from his ‘attempted
killers’ was natural . But they
ruled that these have no weight; not even enough to attract a compensation especially
as his lawyers did not cite any Nigerian case. Nigerians now gleefully compare
our SC and its operatives with David Maraga, a former CJ of Kenya who upturned Uhuru’s victory in 2017. They see him
as ‘a principled man who speaks in
unadulterated language devoid of technicalities’ rather than in Nigeria where
there is,’ convoluted effort by our judiciary to deliberately find ways
to present corrupt and preferred
Dino Melaye, who was an insider before-before has decided not to challenge the outcome of the Kogi elections even when he was so sure that there was inflation of voters register in about 17 locals’ but he did not bother since the courts are now the APC endorsement agencies! I have lost complete faith in the judiciary; it is no longer the last hope of the masses, it is now a parastatal, department or agency of the APC. Obi, who was and is OBIviously disenchanted with the process observed that the court’s decision contradicts overwhelming evidence of rigging, false claim of technical glitches, substantial noncompliance with the rules set up by INEC itself as well as matters of perjury, identity theft, forgery… More appalling, the SC wilfully condoned breaches of the constitution relative to established qualifications and parameters for candidates in presidential elections… with this counter-intuitive judgement, the SC has transferred a heavy moral burden from the courtroom to the national conscience’’. However, it is very difficult to blame the two and others who think in that direction going by the open confession of Sinator Balkachuwa on how he used the opportunity of the bedroom dynamics with the wife to mutilate the course of justice. And then Yusuf Gadi an APCian from Plateau State tikwoo isi mmonwu( revealed the mysteries of the masquerade in the market square) when he declared ‘The final destination is the supreme court and we will meet there . That is when , we will know whom they know, and they will know whom we know. It is not about the law, or the presentations of the lawyers; it is about whom we know and whom they know! As our people would say, a child sent on a thieving operation by his father does so boldly and openly.
Boastful and
Confident Gadi: We will know whom they
Melaye and Obi are wailers, and they will continue to wail, which is one of the reasons why this is just the end of the beginning. As they wail, non-wailers will continue to argue and counter argue that the wailers are wailing in vain and the labourers are labouring in vain But Festus Adedayo, who does not belong to the above category has raised questions that will take a long while to answer: who is the man that sits atop the presidency in Nigeria; who are his parents, who are his childhood friends, what was his childhood like, what primary school did he attend, where did hi attend secondary school or the university is he a criminal, Is he a serial forger? On the account of above, can we trust him: can he be trusted with the destinies of over 200m Nigerians? Can the rest of the world trust him as an embodiment of Nigeria? (Festus Adedayo. (Tinubu’s certificate, open society and its enemies,8/10/23).
These questions cannot be answered in the next
few hours and they will not just disappear. That’s why 26/10/13 was not the
conclusion of the matter but just the end of its beginning. I rest this case for now! But
why were there no spontaneous and wild
jubilations after the PEFT declaration of 26/10? I just de ask and I
come in peace
Meanwhile, 21 years ago Justice
Oputa warned in the case of Fawehinmi vs Akilu (2002)7NWLR, (pt 769) 527 at 869,
that bad judgements can have devastating impact on the economy : they
can discourage investment undermine
market confidence and lead to increased corruption…erode public trust in the
judiciary, which is essential for a functioning and stable democracy, One
distinguished titled man of Ebe-Ozo Ihuowelle, Igbo-Ukwu, late
Ezeigwe SO Awogu said that elders
behave( and speak) like God. Use whatever type of eye you like to examine this
profound statement by the revered Oputa.
He said it in 2002 but it is for a time like this; it has
started manifesting. Even members of the judicial household are mercilessly
bludgeoning the Judiciary and its rating
among Nigerians is at its lowest ebb. Chevron and Exon-Mobil did not mention Nigeria in their 2024 spending plan, in which
Libya featured prominently. You know the number of multinationals which have just left with their GMG( Ghana Must Go)
bags, the latest being Proctor and Gamble and those who are at the
departure longue. You should know that unless a miracle happened 24 hours ago, the price of Beecham
Ampiclox has jumped from N750 to N9000 and in Nigeria, whatever goes up,
remains up. Mind you, I am not saying that the PEPT declaration of 26/10/29 was
what Oputa had in mind when he made his timeless declaration in 2002
Meanwhile, Is This Christmas?
Joy to the world and peace to men of goodwill!
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