When the law hinders justice

These are not the best of times for the judiciary. Whenever Nigerians feel that they have hit rock bottom and things can only improve, they get worse. Recent court orders and judgements show that the chasm between the administration of law and the entrenchment of justice is widening by the day. Both the ruling All […]

These are not the best of times for the judiciary. Whenever Nigerians feel that they have hit rock bottom and things can only improve, they get worse. Recent court orders and judgements show that the chasm between the administration of law and the entrenchment of justice is widening by the day. Both the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) and the Judiciary are indisputably in disarray.

The APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole was suspended by order of a High Court in the Federal Capital Territory, while a Federal High Court in Kano purportedly nullified that order. While the top echelons of the ruling party and the courts engage themselves in hanky-panky, the vast majority of Nigerians increasingly hold political leaders and judges in contempt. Political leaders promised so much but delivered so little. Nigerians are beginning to align with Mario Puzo’s Godfather who said “I have no intention of placing my faith in the hands of men whose only qualification is that they managed to con a block of people to vote for them”. There is no disputing that the nation is worse off than ever before and this isn’t the Nigeria that the founding fathers dreamt of.

The national debt has risen astronomically with a spate of unprecedented borrowing, which has mortgaged the future. The country has become an undeclared war zone where more lives have been lost in the last five years than in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan combined! Regional ethnic groups are preparing to defend themselves against the daily death toll because something just doesn’t add up in the way security issues are being handled at federal level. So much innocent blood has been shed and yet laws are being proposed to rehabilitate and fete the killers. Government officials have so far failed to answer the quite logical question that if these people are so “repentant”, why have they not led security agents to their training bases or hideouts?

Despite nationwide insecurity and a shortage of policemen the law unjustly allows the political and social elites to be guarded by gun toting policemen, while criminals are having a field day because the Special anti-robbery Squad (SARS) spend their time brutalising and extorting money from innocent civilians. There are plenty of unemployed educated graduates but despite all the laws preventing it, certificate fraudsters and the uneducated quite unjustly occupy political offices. There are plenty of judges and lawyers but there is so little justice. The recent judgement of the Supreme Court in the Imo State Governorship election underlined the chasm between justice and the law in Nigeria. Law is what is contained within the statute books; it’s what is written down. Justice on the other hand is a moral and ethical concept. It is very possible for particular laws to be unjust.

The late great legal luminary and Master of the Rolls in England, Justice Lord Denning was legendary for saying amongst other things, that he would never allow the law to stand in the way of justice! Legendary French Emperor , Napoleon Bonaparte once famously said “laws are for the guidance of wise men and the strict obedience of fools”!” The meaning of “supreme” in Supreme Court of Nigeria is that any decision they arrive at is the end of litigation. It is final and everyone must accept whatever they say. They are supposed to arrive at decisions by applying impeccable logic, ethics, and morality. In reviewing its judgement in the case of the Imo State Governorship Election petition, the Supreme Court made it clear that such considerations had little to do with their decision. They made it abundantly clear that as far as they were concerned the administration of law is more important that the administration of justice. In the old days the judiciary was the hope of the common man. It appears as if those days are long gone.

Supreme Court judgments are final because there must be an end to litigation. There is a presumption that being the final court of the land they will always make the right decision as a result of rigorous and painstaking review of the matters brought before them. However, the dissenting Judge, Justice Cletus Nweze pointed out that this was not the case. He says the Imo State Governor misled the Supreme Court to arrive at its decision in his favour, and also failed to give any evidence of how he won the election with the required spread. Quite incredulously and illogically, the result upheld by the Supreme Court meant that the number of votes cast exceeded the number of accredited voters by over 150,000! Taking cognisance of this ridiculous anomaly, Justice Nweze said that the finality of the Supreme court cannot extinguish the clear legal rights of the applicant to have a fair hearing, He honourably said that the mistake should be admitted and the judgment of 14th Jan 2020 set aside.

Furthermore, he pointed out that one of the grounds of Uzodima’s reliefs was that the election was invalid by reason of non-compliance with the provisions of the electoral act consequently it was “clearly preposterous” to award him electoral victory in an exercise he has deprecated and maligned as being invalid! Cynics now believe that in order to save time and scarce funds it’s got to the stage where there should be no voting, INEC should be disbanded and the Supreme Court should just dictate the results of elections. With the goings on in the cases of Oshiomhole and Uzodinma it makes little sense for the judges sitting on these matters to be referred to as “Justices”.

The is no disputing that the finality of the Supreme Court must remain. However, its composition, how its members are appointed, and what sanctions can be taken against them, must be looked in to. At the end of the day it’s dangerous and simply doesn’t make sense to put ultimate justice making in the hands of people who pedantically administer the law to the detriment of ethics and morality and pay no price for being wrong.