Supreme Court blues

One of the draw backs of writing weekly column is that you will be struggling to keep abreast with developments. This is all the more herculean in a country like Nigeria where things are happening at a dizzying space. You will now have to look for a balance between the deadline and events as they unfold at a pace that is astounding.

So, last week the Supreme Court read out a judgement that effectively kicked out the Imo State Governor. Immediately that judgement was read, a picture of the governor purportedly crying started circulating. It was a touchy picture and I decided to do my story from that angle. Remember my deadline was just two hours away.

So, I said, Ihedioha stop crying and pulled out a story from that angle. By the time the column came out a good five days after, a lot had happened and my story looked quite stupid. The Supreme Court in that judgement had effectively taken a hammer to its credibility. The figures did not add up, the logic was poor and the nation is asking what just happened.

The prophet who predicted this is gloating saying that there are 39 other such predictions awaiting his release, but the people are not finding it funny. The ruling party has called for a rally and review of the judgement and the world is just looking at this Supreme Court with one eye.

For me, my column ran into massive turbulence as I got messages calling me out. One irate lawyer did not just leave it as text but came at me with a call. “Edgar, I am disappointed…..’ by this time I was humbled ashamed and cowering.

This threw up the challenge once again of the dilemma faced by the weekly columnist with a huge followership. Readers look up to you for superior logic, for guidance and counselling on issues but how do you do this when in most cases the limited time given you does not permit you to get all the information needed for a balance and powerful positional play.

Well, for the Supreme Court, I would like to remind them that they remain the final bastion for justice, when they start to throw up these kinds of judgement then it begins to look like the last thread that is holding up the system is beginning to be shredded and we may be facing anarchy.

The justices that make up that hollowed bench should once again look inwards at the ethos that guide their profession and lean by it. We do not want to have a ‘jankara’ Supreme Court because at that point it will be anarchy.

The Supreme Court must at all times rise up to the challenge of justice and fair play. What would the greats like Sir Darnley Alexander think of this judgement, would he be turning in hs grave?

This is really sad. May it not repeat itself.

By Joseph Edgar…

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