Is Judiciary now a pawn in Buhari’s hands?

Major concerns over alleged attempts by the Buhari administration to interfere with the judiciary and rubbish the doctrine of separation of powers, as enshrined in the constitution, is growing.

Silent murmurs gave way to loud queries last week when news filtered in that the Special Assistant to the President on Prosecution, Okio Obono-Oblo, had upbraided lawmakers over their effontery to summon the Attorney General of the Federal (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.

Malami was wanted by the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matter led by Senator David Umaru to explain government’s decision to arraign the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, over alleged forgery of the Senate Standing Rules, 2015.

“He’s (AGF) not answerable to them. By virtue of the principle of Separation of Powers, he is answerable to the President who appointed him. And he has not done anything wrong,” Obono-Oblo, who stood in for Malami, said.

Obono-Oblo failed to impress, and it was obvious in the way and manner his colleague in the Presidency, Special Assistant on National Assembly Matters, Senator Ita Enang, rushed to his rescue.

Read also: Count me out of Abia stalemate – AGF

“I heard the statements after and I want to apologise to the Distinguished Senate…because that statement ought not to have been made. And the Attorney General is Attorney General of the Federation, appointed by Mr. President, cleared by the Senate and responsible for the federation, “Enang retorted.

Obono-Oblo’s blunder betrayed the presidency and hastened the debate on the propriety of consolidating the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and the Ministry of Justice. In trying to ‘set the records straight’, he let out the well-known fear that the AGF, as an appointee of the presidency, could be a willing and ready tool to manipulate the judiciary.

President Buhari has never hidden his frustration with the judiciary, and has openly cast doubt on the integrity of that arm of government by saying that his most worrying concern over the anti-corruption war is the judiciary.

“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,” he wailed soon after emerging as President.
Perhaps, to deal with the situation and other high-profile crimes, the Buhari administration has set in motion the establishment of Special Courts through a committee headed by Professor Itse Sagay.

Obono-Oblo’s blunder betrayed the presidency and hastened the debate on the propriety of consolidating the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and the Ministry of Justice.

“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,” Sagay said at a public lecture on June 23.

It remains to be seen how the ‘Special Crimes Act’ will be pushed through the National Assembly where there is a hardening of positions between the executive and the legislature over leadership issues.

Efforts to rein in the judiciary also appear to be a pet project of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Not a few Nigerians were taken aback when the National Chairman of the party, John Odigie-Oyegun, picked quarrels with the Supreme Court judgment over Rivers State polls.

“I still find the judgment on the Rivers State governorship election totally astonishing. There is something fundamentally wrong in the Judiciary,” he lamented.

Pockets of other legal battles over electoral fortunes still dot the landscape, and Abia is the latest in the political chess game. Already, there are insinuations that the judiciary may have lend its weight to the saga that has thrown up ‘two governors’ in Abia state viz Dr Okezie Ikpeazu and Uche Ogah.

The recent declarations by the president and his AGF have done nothing to assuage Nigerians that the federal government knows nothing about the drama that is slowly playing out in Abia State.

Sources close to Ripples Nigeria allege that APC contacts within the judiciary were activated and fully deployed to help Uche Ogah to power.

A former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Chairman in Lagos, and known APC stalwart, who is now being tipped as Southeast Regional Chair of NBA allegedly spear-headed the project. Ogah, it is speculated, may dump his party for APC once he ascends the throne.

“Nigerians have no cause to worry,” a source close to the Presidency said, allaying fears that the planned restructuring of the nation’s judicial processes portend dangers for justice administration.

The AGF laid emphasis on this when he said concerning the Abia dilemma that he has not taken any action, either by spoken words or body language as far as the Abia governorship crisis is concerned, and that he has no hand in the logjam over who should govern the state. This is even as Nigerians wait with arms akimbo to see how it all plays out.

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