Executive Vs Judiciary: How ‘power show’ is crippling anti-corruption war

The anti-graft war, spearheaded by President Muhammadu Buhari, may have reached a crisis head. No thanks to the current face-off between the Presidency, led by the office of the Attorney General of the Federation, (AGF) and the National Judicial Council (NJC) headed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Mahmud Mohammed.

 

As both parties dig into the trenches in a game of ‘power show’, Ripples Nigeria reviews all the surreptitious moves to flog the judiciary into line.

 

Oyegun laments

The National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, gave the first indication of the frustration of the APC government with the judiciary when he took Justices of the Supreme Court to the cleaners.

 

Speaking soon after his party lost out via the judicial process in Rivers and Akwa Ibom States at the Supreme Court, Oyegun said: “I still find the judgment on the Rivers State Governorship Election totally astonishing. There is something fundamentally wrong in the Judiciary.”

 

Though Oyegun tried hard to explain away his now inglorious outburst, many were not oblivious that his statement might just have been an agenda-setting one.

 

Buhari concurs

Following closely after Oyegun’s outburst, President Buhari also publicly denounced the judiciary, saying it was his major headache in the fight against corruption.

 

Chronicling his frustrations, Buhari said: “On the fight against corruption vis-à-vis the judiciary, Nigerians will be right to say that is my main headache for now. In my first attempt in 2003, I ended up at the Supreme Court and for 13 months I was in Court. The second attempt in 2007, I was in Court close to 20 months and in 2011, my third attempt, I was also in Court for nine months. All these cases went up to the Supreme Court until the fourth time in 2015…”

 

The President’s stance was unequivocal. His body language was of one who had lost faith in the judiciary. He also took serious exceptions to the modus-operandi of the courts and clearly refused to betray any emotions.

 

Read also: DIRTY WARS: How battle for Abia, A’Ibom and Rivers pitched Amaechi against Justices

 

Executive sets the stage

In what appeared a gradual revelation of not just the thinking but plans of the Buhari administration for the judicial arm of government, the administration went ahead to constitute a Presidential Advisory Committee on Corruption, PACAC, headed by the respected constitutional lawyer, Prof Itse Sagay.

 

PACAC, whose membership included top professors of criminology, aside its primary advisory role, has, in reality become an agenda setting body, whose statements most times show the direction of government in the anti-corruption war.

 

In September 2015, a senior member of PACAC, Prof. Olufemi Odekunle, gave a sweeping vote of no confidence on the judiciary and the anti-graft agencies.

 

Odekunle said at a lecture: “The anti-corruption agencies and the criminal justice system are largely ineffective against corruption and their personnel often appear corrupt and compromised in their operations and decisions….Buhari appears an oasis of integrity in a desert of corruption.”

 

After Odukunle’s sweeping condemnation of the judiciary, the Chairman of PACAC, Itse Sagay, finally let out the plan of government when he disclosed that his committee was working on setting up special courts for corruption.

 

“My committee has concluded the drawing up of the Special Crimes Act for judges who will be specifically selected to adjudicate special crimes such as financial crimes, kidnapping, cyber-crimes and drugs.

 

“We have created a new manual for prosecution of financial cases which will give prosecutors a step by step process for prosecution,” Sagay said.

 

Also following closely in what appeared a double-pronged response, the Federal Government also constituted a National Prosecution Coordination Committee, NPCC, under the leadership of the Attorney-General of the Federation, (AGF), Abubakar Malami.

 

With structures fully laid, the signal to the judiciary was that it could not be trusted to be a willing partner in the fight against corruption.

 

The plan to set up special courts and draw up special manuals for selected judges for anti-corruption courts, according to informed sources, were meant to help the Buhari administration overcome any perceived obstacles at the regular courts.

 

The plans of government, however, ran into crisis when it became evident that it had another troubling hurdle to overcome in getting legal backing for its proposed special courts.

 

Because the relationship between the executive arm and National Assembly had not been an ideal one, with central figures in the legislature becoming prime targets of corruption-related onslaught, it was reasoned that sending the special courts bill to it would be would be dead on arrival.

 

The frustration with the judiciary, the alleged non-performance of the anti-graft agencies and the inability to have its way with the special courts, sources say, led to the current face off with the judiciary.

 

You may also like: DSS yet to forward any complaint against accused judges, CJN insists

 

Judiciary fights back

Before the raid by the Department of State Services (DSS) on senior judges in the country, including two from the Supreme Court, Justices Sylvester Ugwuta and John Inyang Okoro, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mahmud Mohammed, had openly disagreed with President Buhari over the alleged complicity of the judiciary in truncating the war against corruption.

 

At an event in Abuja on July 29, 2016, President Buhari said: ‘’I am worried that the expectation of the public is yet to be met by the judiciary, with regard to the removal of delay and the toleration of delay tactics by lawyers. When cases are not concluded, the negative impression is given that crime pays.”

 

Replying the president at the same event, the CJN pointedly told him that instead of the judiciary, the executive was to be blamed, because it lacked the will to prosecute cases.

 

He said: “I must emphasise that the fact that these cases still remain on our case list was because of lack of will on the part of government to have these cases prosecuted.

 

“As corresponding action from the judiciary, we are determined not to strike out or dismiss the cases or discharge and acquit accused persons without trial.” The CJN, in unmistaken terms served notice that it would not allow itself to be intimidated.

 

The above encounter must have set the stage for the current show of power between the two arms of government. The drafting in of the DSS is now seen by political watchers as making up for the inefficiency of the anti-corruption agencies earlier pointed out by Prof Odekunle.

 

The arrest, detention and possible prosecution of the seven judges notwithstanding, the judiciary appears determined not to go down without a strong fight.

 

First, it has put up the executive for public scrutiny, alleging through the arrested Supreme Court Justices, Sylevester Ngwuta and Inyang Okoro, that the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, acting on the instructions of President Buhari, allegedly attempted to pervert the cause of justice in the election petition appeals in Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Ekiti and Ebonyi. There are also allegations that the executive moved against other judges because they made rulings against the DSS which their bosses were not comfortable with.

 

The judiciary, acting through the National Judicial Council, NJC, under the leadership of the CJN, has also held its ground, rebuffing calls for the suspension of the arrested judges.

 

According to CJN, there was no way it would suspend the judges when the DSS was yet to forward petitions against them to the NJC.

 

In a statement issued by his Special Assistant, H. S. Sa’eed, the CJN described calls for the suspension of the judges by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) as being hasty and unnecessary since the affected judges were still being investigated by the DSS.

 

The power play

As it stands, the executive is insisting on going ahead with the prosecution of the judges with the AGF noting last week that he was already drawing up charges against them while the judiciary is sticking to its guns.

 

The current show of power between the two arms of government, no doubt, has brought the anti-graft war to its knees. The question is, who blinks first? even as the crippling effects are beginning to tell, with many more Nigerians questioning the integrity of the present administration in the fight against corruption.

By Timothy Enietan-Matthews ….

 

 

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