Judicial Coup: Is History Repeating Itself? By: Abdulrasheed Ibrahim

On Friday, the 25th January 2019, I was watching a television
program : JOURNALISTS’ HANGOUT when the breaking news suddenly came
in that President Muhammad Buhari (PMB) had suspended Hon. Justice
Walter Nkanu Samuel Onnoghen (GCON) as the Chief Justice of Nigeria
and sworn in Hon. Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad as the Acting
Chief Justice of Nigeria.

The question I first asked myself was that : Is this not another
judicial coup? As a student of history, the last time we had
similar experience was under the previous PDP government under the
leadership of Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) when the then Chief
Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Aloysius Iyorgyer Katsina-Alu,
GCON recommended the suspension of the then President of the Court
of Appeal, Hon. Justice Isa Ayo Salami. This was immediately
approved and Hon. Justice Dalhatu Adamu was sworn in as the Acting
President of the Court of Appeal.

Despite all the pending suits in court before his suspension as
well as the protests and condemnations that greeted the suspension,
the government and the power that be looked the other way. The man
was left alone to personally lick his wound. When Hon. Justice Isa
Salami was eventually retiring from the bench and delivering his
valedictory speech, he likened himself to the biblical Joseph who
was sold into slavery by his brothers.

Unlike the above two incidents that happened under the
constitutional democracy, the first judicial coup in the history of
the Nigeria was a coup under a military coup as when General
Murtala Ramat Mohammed came in as the Head of State after the
over-thrown of General Yakubu Gowon, one of the actions he took was
to send the then Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Taslim
Olawale Elias packing. Commenting on this incident, Chief Afe
Babalola (SAN) in a paper in honour of Hon. Justice Kayode Eso, JSC
titled: THE SUPREME COURT AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF NIGERIAN NATION
THROUGH THE LAW IN THE 1990s said:

“…Then came the unfortunate and damaging blow. The Chief Justice
of the Federation was ‘retired’ unceremoniously for ‘old age’ but
it turned out that he was young enough for the world court. The
Military adopted the wait and see tactic. Instead of protesting,
the other judges started to lobby for the vacant position…”

General Muhammed went ahead to appoint Hon. Justice Darnley
Arthur Raymond Alexander a non-Nigerian on the Supreme Court bench
then as the new Chief Justice of Nigeria. Justice Elias left behind
brilliant records yet to be broken by any lawyer in this part of
the world, if not in the whole world. Apart from probably being the
first indigenous Professor of Law in Nigeria, he was the first
lawyer to serve as Attorney General of the Federation both under
the civilian and military regimes. He was the first Nigerian lawyer
to the elevated from the Bar directly to the Supreme Court as the
Chief Justice of the Federation .It is written about Justice Elias
in the LEGAL LUMINARIES that:

“It was the overthrow of the Gowon administration by the Murtala
administration in 1975 that ended the tenure of Elias as the Chief
Justice of the Federation. This notwithstanding, he moved on to
play more global roles in the international sphere because in
November of the same year he was elected by the General Assembly of
the United Nations to the International Court of Justice, at the
Hague where he eventually became the first African to be the
President of that court”.

As if history is trying to repeat itself, so it happened under
PMB as it happened under GEJ. In his speech suspending the CJN and
swearing in the Acting CJN, the President said:

“…Accordingly, I hereby suspend Honourable Mr. Justice Walter
Nkanu Samuel Onnoghen, GCON as the Chief Justice of Nigeria pending
the final determination of the case against him at the Code of
Conduct Tribunal .In further compliance with the same order of the
Code of Conduct Tribunal , I hereby invite Honourable Justice
Ibrahim Tanko Muhammed, JSC ,being the next most Senior Justice of
the Supreme Court , to come forward to take judicial oath as the
Chief Justice of Nigeria in an acting capacity…”

With this, there was immediate change of guard at the Supreme
Court and this has further generated more controversies as to the
propriety of the President’s new action. This new development
affected Hon. Justice Onnoghen’s schedule to swear in about 250
judges that have been constituted to sit on the forthcoming
election petition tribunals that has now been performed by the
Acting CJN.

This was the legacy left behind by the previous government of
People Democratic Party (PDP). Having succeeded in removing the
President of the Court of Appeal (PCA) considered to be too
powerful as far as constituting election tribunal is concerned,
they went ahead to amend the constitution to break the monopoly of
that court as far as finality of its decision on the Gubernatorial
election is concerned and extended it to the already over burden
Supreme Court which used to entertain only appeal on the
Presidential election. Ironically, the lawmakers having succeeded
in doing that also wanted to enjoy similar benefit of extension
that rather than the petitions against their election finally
terminating at the Court of Appeal, they also want it further to
the Supreme Court. Unfortunate for them such extension was not
acceded to. Since All Progressive Congress (APC) is now in power,
it also wants things done in its own way. The previous action of
the PDP is not without price paid for it, PDP paid dearly by losing
the 2015 general election. Will APC also pay the price for this new
development? This is the question that will be answered by the
Nigerian electorates during the forthcoming 2019.

I must confess in the past few days ,many things have gone wrong
in which those involved have been trying to outwit one another .It
is more disheartening looking at the way the courts and tribunal
are being used by both sides to achieve their whims and caprices.
They are two wrongs that does not make a right .I will not dwell
much on this now as these are issues for another day. The question
for now is that, in the prevail circumstances what should be the
proper thing to do? The Body of the Senior Advocates of Nigeria
(BOSAN) seemed to have made a right suggestion as it was said in a
newspaper report that following its recent meeting, the Body has
urged those involved to embrace settlement for the sake of the
legal profession and the nation. Will the parties involved embrace
settlement and what will be the terms of settlement?

OBASANJO AS A LETTER WRITER

One of the things that distinguished Chief Olusegun Obasanjo
(OBJ) from other Nigerian leaders, past and present is that he is
very prolific. Whenever he writes, he generates a lot of reactions
both positively and negatively. There are people who hold the
belief till date that he was behind the failure of late Chief
Obafemi Awolowo’s to succeed in the 1979 general election. Late
Alhaji Shehu Shagari eventually carried the day at the Supreme
Court where he was declared duly elected after the legal battle.
When OBJ wrote his book titled MY COMMAND, his civil war memoir, he
prompted many other retired military men to come up with their own
memoirs where they either agreed or disagree with him. When General
Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB) declared himself a Military
President and introduced various economic programs, OBJ wrote IBB
saying his economy programs lacked milk of human kindness. With the
eventual annulment of the 12th June 1993 election won by the late
Chief M.K.O. Abiola by the IBB , OBJ said Abiola was not the
Nigerian Messiah.

When General Sani Abacha came and could not tolerate OBJ’s
criticism, he and his former Second-in-Command, General Shehu Musa
Yar’adua were framed up on allegation of hatching a coup against
his government and were sent to jail .Unlike Yar’adua, OBJ came
back alive to become a democratically elected President between
1999 and 2007 but never proved to be the Nigerian Messiah. With the
failure of his third agenda, he handpicked Alhaji Musa Shehu
Yar’dua to succeed him and in the running up to the 2007 General
Election he openly declared that the election was going be do or
die. With the death of Yar’adua and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan became
the President, he began to receive letter from OBJ accusing him of
incompetence. OBJ supported his defeat in the 2015 General
Election.

Chief Obasanjo never spared President Muhammad Buhari (PMB) in
his art of letter writing despite endorsing and supporting him into
office in 2015. In his latest letter, OBJ accused PMB of planning
to rig the 2019 General Election in his favour among other
allegations. This has indeed generated overwhelming reactions both
against and in support. My own take in all is that I have long
learned how not to take some people serious whenever they talk. I
have learned to ignore some people whenever they talk as joining
issues with them will be tantamount to beating a dead horse.

OBJ wrote a book titled MY WATCH in three volumes where he said
so many damaging things about his former Vice President, Alhaji
Abubakar Atiku who sponsored his returned to politics in 1999. It
is this same man that OBJ has now made a u-turn and appointed
himself as foreign Ambassador for Atiku political campaign. I am of
the view that OBJ should write another book to debunk all the
negative things he had written about Turakin Adamawa and apologise
to him. Simply because the man was against his third term agenda
and frustrated it, OBJ made efforts to remove him as the Vice
President during his tenure but the man fought back through the
instrumentality of law.

Can a known rigger of elections reasonably accuse others of the
plan to rig an election? Those who are familiar with the history of
election rigging in Nigeria know those who are the best in the act
of election rigging. Please go and ask those Governors in the
South-West who won elections under the platform of Alliance for
Democracy (AD) 1999 what was their experiences like when trying to
secure second term in 2003 General Election? Go and ask Chief
Olagunsoye Oyinlola, a very close associate of OBJ, how he managed
to govern Osun State for nearly eight years before he was
eventually sacked by the election petition tribunal? Ask OBJ why
his party PDP eventually lost the states like Anambra, Edo, Ekiti
and Ondo to some other political parties?

There is this saying that he who comes to equity must come with
clean hands .A man who was once an occupant of a position can only
be justified in condemning his successors only if he had done well
and performed better when he was in that position. Please go and
ask Tinubu what was his experience under OBJ on the release of
Lagos State Allocation as ordered by the Supreme Court. When the
Oyo State lawmakers loyal to Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu illegally
removed Mr. Rasheed Ladoja as Governor same was endorsed by OBJ.
People like Dariye, Fayose and Alamieyeseigha amongst others would
not forget OBJ in hurry. Even those who threatened to go on exile
if OBJ was not elected as civilian President in those days are now
telling different stories today. Of all Nigerian leaders, past and
present, only OBJ can boast of having private University and
Presidential Library when our Federal Universities and other
institutions are in complete mess. Most times I keep wondering ,why
OBJ always have problems with those he deliberately endorses for
one position or other to later prompt him writing series of letters
condemning them when they are in offices? Please do you have any
answer this ?

General Yakubu Gowon (GYG) was a boss to many Nigerian elder
statesmen today including OBJ himself, but you hardly hear him
developing basket mouth to condemn those who succeeded him or those
who have since been ruling the country. One of the reasons why I
always admire GYG is that he does not arrogate wisdom to himself
and again unlike OBJ, he does not like playing to the gallery. I
strongly believe this is how decent leaders or elder statesmen
should always behave.

REMARKABLE PRONOUNCEMENT ON CIRCUMSTANTIAL
EVIDENCE

“It is however, an elementary proposition that mere
circumstances of suspicion are not sufficient to justify a
conviction or put in another way, suspicion however strong, cannot
take the place of legal proof. Before a defendant can be convicted,
the fact of death should be proved by such circumstances as render
the commission of the crime certain and leave no ground for
reasonable doubt. Circumstantial evidence should be so cogent and
compelling as to convince a jury that on no rational basis other
than murder can the facts be accounted for.”

Per ALEXANDER, CJN in Igboji Abieke & Anor Vs. The State (1975)
9-11 SC 97 at 104

THE SETTLED PRINCIPLE OF LAW

On effect of declaration or statement made by a party

“It is trite law that a party’s declaration or statements,
whether for or against his interest when made may always be taken
to be true as against himself.”

See ARTRA IND. (NIG) LTS Vs. N.B.C 1 (1988) 3 SC. Pg. 156 Lines
34-36

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