The judiciary is undermining the war against corruption. That was the verdict yesterday from the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC).
Chairman Prof Itse Sagay (SAN) said the judiciary had been hostile towards efforts to rid Nigeria of graft.
“The judiciary is not on board in the anti-corruption fight,” Sagay said in his closing remarks at a conference on “Promoting International Cooperation in Combating Illicit Financial Flows and Enhancing Asset Recovery to Foster Sustainable Development” in Abuja.
The three-day conference was organised by PACAC in collaboration with the ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs.
Eminent professor of International law and jurisprudence Akin Oyebode agreed with Sagay’s assessment.
He said the judiciary had lost its glory and needed “redemption” from its “transgressions”.
Sagay faulted the National Judicial Council (NJC) for recalling judges who were suspended for allege corruption.
He said one of the recalled judges, whose name he did not state, was notorious for making financial demands from lawyers and accepting gratifications.
To him, such a judge should not be allowed to remain on the Bench.
The PACAC chairman also criticised the recall of Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The judge was arraigned on 18 counts of corruption charges, but an FCT High Court upheld his no-case submission and struck out the case.
The prosecution appealed the verdict.
Besides, there is a pending charge against Justice Ademola at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
Sagay said: “NJC’s decision to recall them, especially Ademola, whose case is a life case, and others who have not been charged but are going to be charged, for me, is a sign of hostility to the fight against corruption.
“We cannot afford the judicial hierarchy to engage in espirit de corps (a shared feeling of loyalty) with members of their group that have fallen in the corruption struggle.
“They must join the executive whose mantra is total or near elimination of corruption for the sake of the survival of this country. Judges have a duty to join in this determination.
“So, that sort of decision that was taken gives the impression that they are hostile to the struggle. That’s one reason I said they’re not on board,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the conference.
According to Sagay, corruption is so rife in the judiciary that some judges brazenly demand money from lawyers, and despite being aware of such judges, NJC tolerates them.
“There are so many judges now who demand money from lawyers or accept money from them. I know a judge who will come to you today and say: ‘My mother died, please send money to me’. Lawyers will send N200,000 to him. The next day, he’d say: ‘My daughter is getting married’. Another day: ‘My uncle has been made a chief; we’re contributing.’
“Nobody in the judicial hierarchy will deny that these judges exist. And one of them is among those going back now. He has collected money from hundreds of lawyers. And everybody knows this.
“Should that person be on the Bench? He has desecrated the Bench; he has brought it down; he’s a common beggar, who is ready to compromise his position if you give him money on the excuse of burying his father.
“That man has millions of naira and dollars in his account already accumulated through this means. People like that are being asked to go back. That’s why I said the judiciary, for now, is not with us in the struggle against corruption, and they need to be with us if that struggle is not to crash and if this country is not to crash with it,” Sagay said.
He said PACAC would continue to engage with the judiciary to make judges realise that the country’s future is bleak if they do not join the battle.
“We interact with judges a lot, from the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) to the magistrates. We’ve visited most of them, and we’ll keep on visiting and talking and persuading them to realise that it is in their own interest to be as fervent and determined and passionate about elimiminating the sourge of corruption, and that any of their brethren who is suspected to be guilty of corruption is a destroyer of all that the judiciary stands for. He’s an enemy of the judiciary.
“The judiciary, in my view, is the highest of the three arms of government. When a judge descends from that level and comes into the mud to join in looting and accepting money from lawyers who have no name to protect, the judicial hierarchy, the clean ones should come down hard on such judges, harder than the poor man who is sentenced everyday for stealing a goat.
“The judge who is guilty of corruption is almost guilty of a crime against humanity, because what he is doing is to undermine the whole integrity of the state.
“It means that when we have a major issue that can affect the future of the country, we can’t go to him, because he’s dishonest, he lacks integrity and is fraudulent and will not decide the case according to the justice of it.
“So it’s a very dangerous thing that is happening now and the judges must embrace the fight against corruption, otherwise this country has no future,” Sagay said.
The PACAC chairman said there was no pressure from the executive on the judiciary to convict those accused of corruption at all cost.
However, he urged judges not to consider only the legal aspects of a case, but the justice side as well.
Sagay said: “They should apply the law and justice. Law without justice is useless.
“When a case comes before a judge, before he even hears the legal arguments, he looks at the facts and claims. He should be able to say in his mind: ‘Justice seems to be on this side’. There are some cases in which the legal arguments favour one side. But that side is the unjust side.
“The English legal system and common law have educated us and given us a culture of being able to, as a judge, look at the case, use our own creativity to ensure justice is not lost because of legal arguments, and to use creative argument to ensure that justice prevails. That’s the way we were trained, but that is not happening.”
In Prof Oyebode’s view, the judiciary should redeem itself if it is to remain the common man’s last hope.
“I think the judiciary now seeks redemption because of its transgressions. We just have to wish them well and hope that a greater day lies ahead for judges in contemporary times,” he said.
According to him, appointment of “misfits” as judges contributed to the fall in standards.
Oyebode said: “Prof Sagay, many years ago, wrote a book saluting the Supreme Court in terms of the judgment they handed down and the effervescence of the judiciary under the leadership of people like the late Kayode Eso, the late Chukwudifu Oputa and other distinguished jurists. They gave a testament to posterity.
“But, since then a lot of water has passed under the bridge. There have been some misfits appointed to the judiciary – those who have abused or compromised their high judicial office.
“The judiciary is the custodian of due process and rule of law, and if gold rusts, what should iron do? I am part of those who believe that a people get the judiciary that they deserve.
“If Nigerians believe that the judiciary has a role to play in the scheme of things, then they must fight and defend the appointees, hoping that the appointees themselves would reflect the confidence that people reside in them.
“There was a time we had great judges who never compromised their status, role or function. I can’t say that today for some of our judicial officers.
“It’s not that there are no good men and women in courts. I’m glad to observe that none of my students in the Supreme Court and other courts has been found wanting. I’m not claiming credit for their acting according to their judicial office though.
“In 1992, I gave a lecture at the Bar Conference in Port Harcourt. The title was: ‘Is the judiciary still the last hope of the common man?’ The jury is still out on whether the judiciary can play their allotted role of being the last hope for the common man.”
