Individuals who exemplify the principle of conveying difficult realities to those in position of authority are becoming increasingly hard to find in Nigeria of this era. Many people no longer have the appetite to speak out at the heart-wrenching stories of how we are governed and other sad tales in the dispensation of justice. They cite danger to their lives, that of their family members and businesses. As a whole, the shortage of people who can speak up against the rot in critical institutions of democracy and act as a check on the government in power is on the line.
However, it’s comforting that the Sultan of Sokoto, his eminence, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III is almost always standing out, firm and tall to be counted in the pantheon of the very few speaking courageously and forcefully against the vices threatening our democracy. He is a demonstrative example of speaking truth to power at a troubling political moment like Nigeria and its citizens are going through right now. That’s what speaking truth to power means. It’s rooted in the Greek term ‘parrhesia’, which refers to speaking frankly, even when it is difficult or risky. The essence is to demand a moral response to a problem, rather than an expedient, easy or selfish response.
To speak truth to power carries a connotation of bravery, of risking one’s reputation or livelihood or the wrath of the authority one is confronting. The Sultan of Sokoto did exactly that last Sunday, August 24, at the Nigeria Bar Association(NBA) Annual General Conference, held in Enugu. Like a man not hiding his stress and disappointment at the performance of our judiciary, he said, “Nigeria’s justice system is increasingly becoming a purchasable commodity, and the poor are victims, while the rich commit all manner of crime and walk the streets scot-free”. He also lamented the lack of integrity in the judicial system, and described it as “being compromised by corruption and inequality”.
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The royal father’s outspokenness aligns with the theme of the NBA Conference, “Stand Out and Stand Tall”. It is a challenge to the legal profession to be committed to upholding the rule of law that will guarantee fairness, accountability and equality before the law. Whether the thousands of lawyers at the conference took his advice or not, is another matter. But truly, justice is the foundation of any sound society, and law must always target justice as its ultimate goal. It’s not for nothing that concerns have been expressed over allegations of compromise by the judiciary, to the effect that the institution has become more of a “cash-and-carry”, for the rich against the poor”.
There is no doubt that the confidence in the Nigerian judiciary has reached an all-time low since after the 2023 election. It is not what Nigeria’s judicial system used to be. On August 19, 1976, the New Nigerian newspaper lead with a banner headline: “Judge Arrested over N20 bribe”. According to the story, an Area court judge in Benue state judiciary was arrested by the state CID at Makurdi for allegedly demanding and receiving N20 bribe from an accused who was standing trial in his court over a stolen property. Initially, the judge allegedly demanded N40 from the accused, but later settled for N20 bribe. That ‘golden era’ is far gone now. Last week, former President, Olusegun Obasanjo passed a damning verdict on the judiciary. He recounted that ten years after leaving office, he visited one of the northern states and was shocked to see six duplexes reportedly owned by a judge from ill-gotten wealth for serving as chairman of Election Tribunal.
That’s exactly what Sultan talked about at the NBA conference. Undoubtedly, the Nigerian judiciary is currently in the eye of the storm. Public confidence in the character, integrity of some judges has come under a blanket of suspicion. Even the top echelon of the judiciary has been accused of all manner of indecent behaviour that is at variance with their oath of allegiance. This is more serious in election matters, where the law no longer remains the law. There have been a flurry of complaints that some Judges act as if they are lawyers representing the respondents.
These days, it’s common to read unsavoury reports of judges not asking what they ought to ask in matters that come before them. Such is the moral question of some judges that the regulatory body, the National Judicial Council(NJC) two years ago, had to empanel four different Committees to probe various allegations of misconduct brought against 27 judges across the country. While the NJC dismissed petitions against former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Olukayode Ariwoola, and the allegations levelled against the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongbam-Mensem, the NJC said it found the allegations against the 27 judges “meritorious and worth investigating. All the allegations border on pervasive corruption.
It may be recalled that the point the Sultan made at the NBA Conference isn’t the first time that he would raise such concern. At the 6th Executive Committee meeting of the Royal Fathers in Kaduna in 2023, he cried out at the injustice and hardship poor Nigerians are facing in the judicial system and the economic policies of the present administration. “Nigeria”, he warned, “is sitting on a keg of gunpowder”. He called for urgent measures to address the situation. The difference between his speech in Enugu, and the one in Kaduna, is that the one in Enugu is like firing a shot across the bow. It is a warning shot that potential consequences may follow if the Aegean stable in the judiciary is not cleaned up. His warning should be heeded.
Retired Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Justice Mohammed Musa Dattijo gave the same warning. In his farewell speech two years ago, he painted a strikingly sordid picture of the present judicial system, saying, it wasn’t the same judiciary that he voluntarily and proudly joined and desired to be identified with for the 47 years he served on the bench. “The situation is now something else; what we have seen in the judiciary in recent times is unusual, out of the ordinary”, he lamented. His pain is perhaps the most detailed, nuanced account by a retired Justice of the highest court in the land. The credibility issue in the judiciary is a sad reflection of Nigeria’s current leadership crisis that has creeped into other critical institutions of our democracy, including the electoral system.
Today, many lawyers have complained that some Judges no longer asked, “what is the argument on the other side”? That was one of the impactful dicta that was established in the famous case of Parker vs Parker(1953)2 All E.R 121. That should be the focus of our judicial system. The judiciary should not be seen as a ‘purchasable commodity’. It was Martin Luther King Jr, who warned about the catastrophic risk of trading justice for money. “We need leaders who are not in love with money, but in love with justice”, he said. As Lord Denning, a prominent and influential English Judge and Master of the Rolls cautioned, the “law should be a shield for the oppressed, not a sword for the oppressor”.
As a whole, the law should be seen as a living force to be applied with wisdom and compassion, a means of ensuring that truth is observed and justice is done for all without fear or favour. It bears repeating that Nigerian judicial system needs urgent cleansing. But who will do that? A leadership that favours the rich against the poor? A survey conducted in 2019 by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) revealed that corruption in Nigeria’s judiciary “has been quite extensive”. The survey also said that about 20 percent of those who have cases in Nigerian courts complain bitterly that they “are confronted with requests for payment of bribes”. That’s the extent of the rot that the Sultan of Sokoto has called everyone’s attention to.
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