Nigeria: How politicians started dashing cars and houses to judges

By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

In January 1993, Ibrahim Babangida was Nigeria’s subject ruler. He was supposedly successful the past twelvemonth of an interminable modulation astatine the extremity of which helium promised to manus implicit powerfulness to an elected civilian administration. Moshood Abiola was actively canvassing to inherit that mantle. As Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Mohammed Bello was successful his 4th twelvemonth astatine the apex of the strategy for resolving disputes betwixt Abiola and Babangida successful that process of modulation from subject to civilian rule. He had been CJN since 1987. At the time, Abiola was besides Nigeria’s astir influential paper steadfast nether the Concord Group. One of the titles published by the Concord Group was a play mag called African Concord. Its exertion was Bayo Onanuga.

The erstwhile month, successful December 1992, Bayo Onanuga’s African Concord ran a screen nether the title: ‘‘Justice Mohammed Bello: Kick him retired now! Lawyers demand.” Essentially, the communicative alleged that subject ruler, Ibrahim Babangida, had bribed the Justices of the Supreme Court led by CJN, Mohammed Bello, with gifts of exotic Mercedes Benz cars. At the time, Mercedes Benz produced the astir celebrated luxury marque of cars successful Nigeria.

              This communicative would not person amounted to overmuch but for what followed. Shortly aft New Year successful 1993, 9 of the Justices of the Supreme Court instructed Frederick Rotimi Alade (FRA) Williams, the doyen of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), to record a lawsuit earlier the High Court of Lagos State against the Concord Group, African Concord, and its editor, Bayo Onanuga, claiming that the communicative had defamed them. The Concord Group instructed stormy petrel, Gani Fawehimin, to correspond them. At the Ikeja Division of the High Court of Lagos wherever the lawsuit was tried, Samuel Omotunde Ilori, who would aboriginal emergence to go the ninth Chief Judge of Lagos, presided.

This lawsuit had galore sub-plots. It turned out, for instance, that Chief Williams’s youngest son, Tokunbo, who was soon thereafter to go a SAN himself, was joined to the girl of the presiding judge, Olusola. When Gani Fawehinmi asked the justice to disqualify himself from the case, helium declined, describing the petition arsenic “unprecedented” and an invitation to “an abdication of his ineffable work arsenic a judicial officer.”

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) astatine the time, Alhaji Aliyu Mohammed, the Wazirin Jema’a, was a witnesser successful the case. In transverse examining him, Gani Fawehinmi asked for his qualifications. Reluctantly, the SGF ventured that helium was the arrogant holder of a Teachers Grade 2 certificate, successful effect to which Gani spat retired (to predictable courtroom mirth) “Teacher’s Grade Two certificate, and helium roseate done the ranks to go the SGF!”

Ultimately, the lawsuit was settled erstwhile Abiola elected to apologise to the Supreme Court Justices, who past instructed Chief Williams to retreat it. In response, Bayo Onanuga resigned arsenic exertion of Chief Abiola’s African Concord. 

The underlying contented successful that case, however, was judicial independency and integrity. 32 years ago, it was an affront to the independency and integrity of judges to suggest that they could beryllium impressed with gifts of cars oregon connote that they were successful the payroll of governmental bureau holders. Today, it is different. Senior judicial figures flaunt their propinquity to politicians and trust connected that to subvert established rungs of authorization among judges and betwixt courts successful the judicial hierarchy. It is present de rigeur for politicians to ply judges with cars.

Divining however the state got to this is not that hard though it is not astir arsenic indispensable arsenic knowing erstwhile we did so.

When Mohammed Bello retired arsenic CJN successful 1995, Mohammed Lawal Uwais succeeded him. Justice Uwais was 1 of the justices affronted by the claims astir collecting a car from the soldiers successful 1992. Although Uwais good understood that “military regularisation had a corrosive effect” connected the judiciary and had not made overmuch of an effort to disguise their run to trim the heads of the judiciary to the presumption of beggars earlier the soldiers, helium was nevertheless not prepared to cede overmuch crushed to them connected questions of idiosyncratic and organization integrity. Until his status successful June 2006, the spectacle of politicians publically gifting cars to judicial officers was not overmuch portion of Nigerian nationalist life.

All that was the alteration nether his successors. In effec...