Judges should rebuild the Temple of Justice By Bunmi Makinwa | Nairalaw

There was a time, and it was not too long ago, when in
many communities the name or job of a parent qualifies a child for
kindness or disdain.

In the qualification-by-association mindset, if one’s father or
mother was a school teacher, the child was seen as disciplined and
diligent. The offspring of a well-educated person would get
abundant respect. Similarly respected were the offspring of honest,
reputable, hardworking folks.

Some professions also bestowed respect and admiration on their
practitioners. The legal profession was highly considered. And
within the legal fraternity, a magistrate was the first step into
the dignified chamber of justice. As one went higher in the
judiciary, the higher was the adoration too.

A judge was a special being, above many others. If a judge wore
only golden shoes in people’s imagination, a justice of the Supreme
Court wore only diamond dresses and they would walk only with
angels – still in people’s imagination. It used to be rare for
people to meet justices of the Supreme Court anywhere other than at
the Supreme Court, or at dignifying national official events.

Suddenly the cookies have been crumbling. Judges’ homes have
been raided and searched for stolen wealth. Judges were accused of
selling their golden stools for a bagful of naira and various
currencies. And not a few have been tried, sanctioned or dismissed
over the years.

The sad story started a while back. The search for wealth and
the need for money is pursued by people in various ways. Whilst
hard work and opportunities are favoured by some people, there are
other people who use their positions, connections and skills to
acquire wealth illegally and in criminal ways. The combination of
politics as quick-investment-for-quick-returns, importance of
personal material well-being and general loss of honesty and
ethical values in the society aided amplification of abuse within
the legal profession and judiciary.

In an interview in November 2016, Mr. Olayinka Ayoola, former
Supreme Court Justice, expressed regrets at the arrest of some
judges by agents of Department of Security Services at the time. He
foretold that the implication “was too serious to be quantified
now”. The former Chief Justice of The Gambia, said it was debasing
for judges to be accused of corruption. “Nothing should tempt a
judge to seek or collect a bribe,” Justice Ayoola said.

He disclosed that he had never received bribe because nobody
ever approached him to offer a bribe. “I feel …that I never had the
opportunity of rejecting bribe because nobody has ever approached
me throughout my career as a judge, here in Nigeria or
elsewhere.”

In the current situation, the quote above seems like coming from
a long gone era.The unheard of has happened. A few weeks ago, then
Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mr. Walter Onnoghen, faced serious
allegations of misdeeds, and was tried both in the public arena and
in judicial institutions. He resigned in a cloudy gloom of dirt
that should not have been associated ever with the exalted office,
nor with his name.

In a widely quoted story, US Supreme Court Justice Oliver
Wendell Holmes (1841-1935) was traveling by train to Washington,
D.C., and a conductor came to check his ticket. Justice Holmes
searched everywhere for it but could not locate the ticket. The
conductor merely said, “Don’t worry about your ticket, Mr. Holmes.
We all know who you are. When you get to your destination, you can
find it and just mail it to us.”

Unfortunately, the distinguished positive characteristics and
consideration for judges do not appear merited in Nigeria any
longer. It is perhaps due to the actions of a few, but the negative
implications are far-reaching.

The judiciary has not collapsed yet. There are, like in any
group of people or profession, judges who cringe at the injustice
that some of their colleagues have done to the judiciary. There are
judges who live a life of dignity and respect with full
understanding and acceptance of their responsibility. They refuse
to be seen in the marketplace of financial misdeeds and abuse of
office. There amongst them lie the saviours. They must protect
their oath of office against the bad eggs, no matter how difficult
or challenging it is, at this crucial time.

They must refuse to be bought by politicians who will only pay,
use and dump them.

During and after elections, hundreds of cases come before the
various courts and tribunals for decisions. Ours is a do-or-die
political climate where very large monies are spent to purchase
nomination at party primaries, and to buy votes and win elections.
It is the same logic that drives politicians to spend huge amounts
of money to corrupt justice, seeking out possible judges at any
price to be bought.

Mr. John Marshall (1755-1835) USA Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court, and remembered as perhaps the most influential justices of
all time in the country,made pronouncements and rulings that
permanently uplifted the judiciary to its rightful place as an
equal part of the three layered branch with the executive and the
legislature. History remembers him.

When retiring from the Supreme Court in 2007, Justice Modibo
Alfa Belgore appealed to the legislators: “All elected officers are
entrusted by the electors with the sacred responsibility of
governing well and making laws for good governance so that there
will be law and order in the nation…There is absolute nothing wrong
with the constitution if the operators manifest loyalty to the
nation.” He had made an important ruling at the Supreme Court
against the illegal impeachment of a governor who he ordered to be
reinstated after the governor had lost his cases at the lower
courts.

There are many cases currently where pronouncements of courts
and tribunals will mar or make the judiciary. In the states, from
Ekiti to Osun, from Rivers to Imo, and from Kano to Zamfara, the
reasoned arguments of our judges and logical conclusions can
strengthen the faith of the people in the judiciary and the
country.

Hear Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, fondly referred to as ‘The
Socrates of Supreme Court’: “If you are a judge and you are
corrupt, where do we go from here? Then everything has come to a
halt. If the legislature is corrupt, you go to the judiciary for
redress. If the executive is corrupt you go to the judiciary for
remedy. If the judiciary itself is corrupt, where do you go from
there?”

Judges should rise up to the highest standards expected of their
positions and affirm the famous saying – the judiciary is the last
hope of the common man.

Makinwa is the CEO of AUNIQUEI Communication
for Leadership.