In defence of CJN Onnoghen

For those conversant with the politics, intrigues, subterfuge
and roadblocks that characterized the emergence and final
confirmation of His Lordship, Hon. Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu
Onnoghen as substantive Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), the current
attempt by fifth columnists and political jobbers to blackmail or
even cast a smear on his image cannot be surprising. As if the
avoidable drama of his appointment and confirmation has not brought
enough shame to the country, these ubiquitous interests who felt
they lost out when the Senate cleared Onnoghen to be sworn in as
the Chief Justice of Nigeria against their wishes, have refused to
give up. They now masquerade behind willing characters to undertake
a campaign to impugn the hard-earned reputation of Justice Walter
Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen as the early signs indicate that he cannot be
bent.

Since his confirmation in March this year, the feeling among
Nigerians is that a round peg has been put in a round hole.
Recently, however, a few ready-to-be-hired individuals have
rendered themselves to be used to undertake a campaign that throws
mud at the person of the Chief Justice of Nigeria and discredits
the institution he heads. As always, the penchant of politicians
for using the media to pull down our revered institutions that are
not sympathetic to their narrow prejudices is once more at
play.

Needless to say, this is taking a monumentally destructive toll
on the judiciary. If, indeed, it is not a virulent media blitz of
his carefully taken steps to reposition the Judiciary, it would be
a calculated lampoon on his reform agenda or a sweeping
denunciation of his attempt to sanitize the much abused
adjudicatory system or a violent muckraking of judicial officers
under his watch.

It is common knowledge that in the fine tradition of the
Judiciary, it hardly talks back when attacked; yet that should not
be a reason for, as they say, every Tom, Dick and Harry to seize
every slight opportunity to insult this respected institution or
the respected head of that institution, in this case, the Chief
Justice of Nigeria.

In a fusillade of venomous attacks laced with plain lies,
sarcasm and dry humour, these people are unrelenting in their plan
to bring Nigeria’s Judiciary to the gutter through their dislike
for the person of the CJN. Like a scripted drama, one of them,
Livingstone Wechie, appeared on the Africa Independent Television,
AIT Focus Nigeria programme on Tuesday August 29 to drive home
their nefarious agenda. Mr. Wechie, who claimed to represent a body
that goes by the name, “The Integrity Group”, openly called for the
resignation of the CJN. His grouse was that the CJN had honoured
the invitation of the Rivers State Governor, His Excellency,
Barrister Nyesom E. Wike, to flag off the construction of judges
quarters in the state. Honouring that invitation and performing
that important duty of laying the foundation of houses for Judicial
Officers, in the understanding of Wechie, is evidence that the CJN
had compromised and should therefore resign from office. How
infantile!

Wechie, while admitting that “ the provision of residential
accommodation for justices is a very welcome development, and while
also calling on every government in Nigeria to follow the footsteps
of Governor Wike as this will “discourage mendacity in the
judiciary”, at the same time quipped that the said project which
the CJN did flag off “was not captured in any accessible or
available budget of Rivers State”. Is this all that is required for
the Chief Justice of Nigeria to resign?

This is taking activism to not just a sheer pedestrian rabble
but to a ridiculous and questionable dimension. For instance, every
well informed Nigerian knows that the Cross River State governor
His Excellency Prof. Ben Ayade, is the first governor in the
current Buhari administration to have attracted President Muhammadu
Buhari to a state to flag-off the governor’s two signature
projects, the 260 kilometre Calabar-Ikom-Obudu digital highway and
the new Calabar Port channelization project in 2016.

These laudable projects were not actually captured by the Cross
River State government budget as at the time the President
performed the ground-breaking ceremony. Does this mean that any
sane Nigerian activist from Cross River State would suddenly go on
air to call for the President’s resignation or his impeachment by
the Senate because the projects which he performed the
groundbreaking of were not captured in the state budget? President
Buhari had honoured the invitation of Governor Ayade and
consequently performed the groundbreaking ceremony with so much
fanfare only to discover later that there was no approved
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) or a budget for the project
which the governor had designated as one of his signature projects.
I cannot recall anyone asking the president to resign on account of
his not investigating the circumstances surrounding the
superhighway before giving it a presidential stamp of approval
through the groundbreaking ceremony.

As an indigene of Rivers State, Wechie can be pardoned for
taking and changing sides intermittently as he deems fit. However,
to drag the name of the high office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria
into the local politics of Rivers State is the height of
irresponsibility. To say that the Hon. Chief Justice of Nigeria
ought to have studied the budgets of states and determined what
would have been appropriated for a particular project before
honoring an invitation to perform the groundbreaking ceremony of a
project like the one in Rivers State is like asking him to carry
out oversight functions outside his constitutional mandate.

It may, therefore, be necessary to remind Wechie and those
beating the drums and wafting odium for him that Hon. Justice
Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen has an agenda which is already in the
public domain, to reform the nation’s judiciary which stagnated for
decades even as other arms of government progressed.

Though unnamed entrenched interests delayed his confirmation
despite his qualifications and steering leadership qualities and
constitutional provisions, Hon. Justice Walter Onnoghen should now
be left to do his work.

Using the Wechies of this world to blackmail the occupant of the
exalted office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria will further open
the country to ridicule in the comity of democratic nations of the
world. The Supreme Court is undoubtedly the nation’s most powerful
legal arena, the court in which the meaning of the laws of the land
is finally decided. It is, indeed, apposite to warn that we should
not play politics with our Judiciary, for therein lies our only
redemption as the safety valve or sole arbiter to the common
man.

Amor writes from Abuja.

Culled Sun

For those conversant with the politics, intrigues, subterfuge
and roadblocks that characterized the emergence and final
confirmation of His Lordship, Hon. Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu
Onnoghen as substantive Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), the current
attempt by fifth columnists and political jobbers to blackmail or
even cast a smear on his image cannot be surprising. As if the
avoidable drama of his appointment and confirmation has not brought
enough shame to the country, these ubiquitous interests who felt
they lost out when the Senate cleared Onnoghen to be sworn in as
the Chief Justice of Nigeria against their wishes, have refused to
give up. They now masquerade behind willing characters to undertake
a campaign to impugn the hard-earned reputation of Justice Walter
Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen as the early signs indicate that he cannot be
bent.

Since his confirmation in March this year, the feeling among
Nigerians is that a round peg has been put in a round hole.
Recently, however, a few ready-to-be-hired individuals have
rendered themselves to be used to undertake a campaign that throws
mud at the person of the Chief Justice of Nigeria and discredits
the institution he heads. As always, the penchant of politicians
for using the media to pull down our revered institutions that are
not sympathetic to their narrow prejudices is once more at
play.

Needless to say, this is taking a monumentally destructive toll
on the judiciary. If, indeed, it is not a virulent media blitz of
his carefully taken steps to reposition the Judiciary, it would be
a calculated lampoon on his reform agenda or a sweeping
denunciation of his attempt to sanitize the much abused
adjudicatory system or a violent muckraking of judicial officers
under his watch.

It is common knowledge that in the fine tradition of the
Judiciary, it hardly talks back when attacked; yet that should not
be a reason for, as they say, every Tom, Dick and Harry to seize
every slight opportunity to insult this respected institution or
the respected head of that institution, in this case, the Chief
Justice of Nigeria.

In a fusillade of venomous attacks laced with plain lies,
sarcasm and dry humour, these people are unrelenting in their plan
to bring Nigeria’s Judiciary to the gutter through their dislike
for the person of the CJN. Like a scripted drama, one of them,
Livingstone Wechie, appeared on the Africa Independent Television,
AIT Focus Nigeria programme on Tuesday August 29 to drive home
their nefarious agenda. Mr. Wechie, who claimed to represent a body
that goes by the name, “The Integrity Group”, openly called for the
resignation of the CJN. His grouse was that the CJN had honoured
the invitation of the Rivers State Governor, His Excellency,
Barrister Nyesom E. Wike, to flag off the construction of judges
quarters in the state. Honouring that invitation and performing
that important duty of laying the foundation of houses for Judicial
Officers, in the understanding of Wechie, is evidence that the CJN
had compromised and should therefore resign from office. How
infantile!

Wechie, while admitting that “ the provision of residential
accommodation for justices is a very welcome development, and while
also calling on every government in Nigeria to follow the footsteps
of Governor Wike as this will “discourage mendacity in the
judiciary”, at the same time quipped that the said project which
the CJN did flag off “was not captured in any accessible or
available budget of Rivers State”. Is this all that is required for
the Chief Justice of Nigeria to resign?

This is taking activism to not just a sheer pedestrian rabble
but to a ridiculous and questionable dimension. For instance, every
well informed Nigerian knows that the Cross River State governor
His Excellency Prof. Ben Ayade, is the first governor in the
current Buhari administration to have attracted President Muhammadu
Buhari to a state to flag-off the governor’s two signature
projects, the 260 kilometre Calabar-Ikom-Obudu digital highway and
the new Calabar Port channelization project in 2016.

These laudable projects were not actually captured by the Cross
River State government budget as at the time the President
performed the ground-breaking ceremony. Does this mean that any
sane Nigerian activist from Cross River State would suddenly go on
air to call for the President’s resignation or his impeachment by
the Senate because the projects which he performed the
groundbreaking of were not captured in the state budget? President
Buhari had honoured the invitation of Governor Ayade and
consequently performed the groundbreaking ceremony with so much
fanfare only to discover later that there was no approved
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) or a budget for the project
which the governor had designated as one of his signature projects.
I cannot recall anyone asking the president to resign on account of
his not investigating the circumstances surrounding the
superhighway before giving it a presidential stamp of approval
through the groundbreaking ceremony.

As an indigene of Rivers State, Wechie can be pardoned for
taking and changing sides intermittently as he deems fit. However,
to drag the name of the high office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria
into the local politics of Rivers State is the height of
irresponsibility. To say that the Hon. Chief Justice of Nigeria
ought to have studied the budgets of states and determined what
would have been appropriated for a particular project before
honoring an invitation to perform the groundbreaking ceremony of a
project like the one in Rivers State is like asking him to carry
out oversight functions outside his constitutional mandate.

It may, therefore, be necessary to remind Wechie and those
beating the drums and wafting odium for him that Hon. Justice
Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen has an agenda which is already in the
public domain, to reform the nation’s judiciary which stagnated for
decades even as other arms of government progressed.

Though unnamed entrenched interests delayed his confirmation
despite his qualifications and steering leadership qualities and
constitutional provisions, Hon. Justice Walter Onnoghen should now
be left to do his work.

Using the Wechies of this world to blackmail the occupant of the
exalted office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria will further open
the country to ridicule in the comity of democratic nations of the
world. The Supreme Court is undoubtedly the nation’s most powerful
legal arena, the court in which the meaning of the laws of the land
is finally decided. It is, indeed, apposite to warn that we should
not play politics with our Judiciary, for therein lies our only
redemption as the safety valve or sole arbiter to the common
man.

Amor writes from Abuja.

Culled Sun