Justice Nwosu-Iheme: A Daniel Has Come To Judgment

By Sylvester Onyegbu

A nation or society can live with an incompetent government,
said Othman Dan Fodio, but not with injustice as a way of life.
Courts are called temples of justice the world over. The symbol of
justice is a blindfolded maiden with a sword in her hand because
the scale of justice doesn’t care whose ox is gored. But Nigerian
courts have increasingly been acquiring the reputation of temples
of judgments, and not justice. There is perhaps at no greater point
in our national history than now when public confidence in the
judiciary is at an all-time low. Even serving Supreme Court
justices have been disgraced in public over allegations of
unbridled graft. Things are so bad that these days when a Senior
Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) wins a difficult case, people, far from
congratulating him or her, often ask how much the Learned Silk
paid!

Justice Chioma Nwosu-Iheme of the Court of Appeal in Awka,
Anambra State, will go down in history as the proverbial Daniel who
has come to judgment with her recent pronouncement on the
monumental mess into which both lawyers and judges are turning the
Nigerian legal system owing to filthy lucre from mostly
politicians. Ruling last Monday, August 2, on the motion by Mr
Chike Onyemenem (Senior Advocate of Nigeria) seeking to halt the
execution of the judgment of Mr Justice Charles C. Okaa of the
Anambra State High Court in Awka affirming the nomination of the
erstwhile Central Bank governor, Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo,
as the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in
the November 6 gubernatorial election in the state, Mr Justice
Nwosu-Iheme stated that both judges who deliver judgments on cases
beyond their territorial jurisdiction and the lawyers who
deliberately take such cases to them need to be sanctioned on
grounds of professional misconduct.

This is the background to Justice Nwosu-Iheme’s pronouncement.
On June 28, Justice Musa Ubale of the Jigawa State High Court at
Birnin kudu delivered a judgment on a case brought by agents of
Chukwuma Umeoji of the House of Representatives claiming that one
Jude Okeke had become the APGA acting national chairman following,
as they claimed, the removal of one Edozie Njoku as the substantive
national chairman. Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) has up to this moment not heard of any of these
persons as the APGA chairman. The Constitution vests INEC with the
power to register and regulate political parties for purposes of
participating in elections.

The APGA chairman known to INEC and the public for the past four
years as the APGA chairman, Chief Victor Oye, was not joined in the
suit, nor was the party aware of the legal action. Umeoji, who
appears to want to be the APGA candidate in the November election
at all costs, had purchased his nomination form from Oye in May in
recognition that Oye was the national chairman, but now claims that
Oye ceased being the party chairman in 2009! The magic of it all is
that Justice Ubale delivered judgment not only recognizing Okeke as
the APGA acting national chairman who took over from Njoku but also
giving the consequential order enabling him to send to INEC the
name of the APGA candidate for the governorship election in Anambra
State holding on November 6. Okeke now submitted Umeoji as the
candidate.

Umeoji didn’t participate in the APGA primary election of June
23, 2021, which was broadcast live on television networks in
Nigeria and which Soludo won by some 93.7%; Umeoji was disqualified
because it has been reported in the media, he was found to be
working in cahoots with another party to betray APGA in the
November election.

Why would someone go from Awka to as far as Birnin Kudu, almost
700 kilometres apart, over an issue which happened in Anambra State
or the Southeast? Who has ever done something so bizarre and
succeeded in Nigeria? Apparently recognizing that they are in gross
violation of the principle of territorial jurisdiction, the same
people shopped for a judgment from the Imo State High Court in
Owerri where Justice B. C. Iheka on July 30 delivered a judgment
stating that Okeke is the APGA acting chairman. There are
unconfirmed reports that the same people have moved to neighbouring
Abia State to shop for another judgment!

Truly, both the judicial system and the legal profession have
never stooped this low in Nigeria. But there are sometimes glimmers
of hope. When one Umaru Said on July 28, 2021, claimed at the Court
of Appeal in Kano to represent APGA in the suit seeking to set
aside the Jigawa State High Court judgment, Justices Tsamani,
Maiwada Abdullahi and Musale cautioned him against allowing himself
to be used by politicians unprofessionally. The lawyer quietly left
the court premises. The caution could have come from Justice
Nwosu-Iheme of the Court of Appeal in Awka. In other words, it
would seem there is a greater concern for professional integrity at
the appellate courts which are naturally manned by more experienced
and capable judges.

There are thankfully institutional mechanisms to check the
professional misconduct of legal professionals. An important
feature of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, is the creation of
the National Judicial Council. The NJC has been doing a marvelous
job, though much remains to be done. It has taken stern measures
against the behavior of such judges as Wilson Egbo-Egbo, Stanley
Nnaji, Okechukwu Opene and Adeleye Adedoyin who were thrown out of
the Bench over the Anambra election quagmire. Why haven’t some
judges learned from the experience of these former judges,
especially Nnaji of the Enugu State High Court who was dismissed
for ordering the removal of the then Anambra governor, Senator
Chris Ngige? It was Nnaji’s tough luck that he was to be
assassinated in Enugu on May 27, 2021.

The Disciplinary Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association needs
to learn to be more active. There are more erring lawyers than
judges, yet the NJC looks far more alive to its responsibility.

The massive corruption in most courts of first instance is a
major contributor to declining direct foreign investment in
Nigeria. These courts are not considered good enough, in contrast
to Chinese courts which, though theoretically are under the
Communist Party, are considered good enough by international
investors. The few Western investors who come to Nigeria insist on
the provision of arbitration in London rather than Nigeria in the
memoranda of understanding (MoUs) should disputes arise.

Most Nigerians seem to underestimate the profound implications
and dimensions of a corrupt judiciary. Othman Dan Fodio was really
right: A society can survive an incompetent government, but not
injustice. Justice Chioma Nwosu-Iheme is the modern-day Daniel who
has truly come to judgment. History will be kind to her.

*Dr Onyegbu is of the University of Nigeria,
Enugu Campus.

By Sylvester Onyegbu

A nation or society can live with an incompetent government,
said Othman Dan Fodio, but not with injustice as a way of life.
Courts are called temples of justice the world over. The symbol of
justice is a blindfolded maiden with a sword in her hand because
the scale of justice doesn’t care whose ox is gored. But Nigerian
courts have increasingly been acquiring the reputation of temples
of judgments, and not justice. There is perhaps at no greater point
in our national history than now when public confidence in the
judiciary is at an all-time low. Even serving Supreme Court
justices have been disgraced in public over allegations of
unbridled graft. Things are so bad that these days when a Senior
Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) wins a difficult case, people, far from
congratulating him or her, often ask how much the Learned Silk
paid!

Justice Chioma Nwosu-Iheme of the Court of Appeal in Awka,
Anambra State, will go down in history as the proverbial Daniel who
has come to judgment with her recent pronouncement on the
monumental mess into which both lawyers and judges are turning the
Nigerian legal system owing to filthy lucre from mostly
politicians. Ruling last Monday, August 2, on the motion by Mr
Chike Onyemenem (Senior Advocate of Nigeria) seeking to halt the
execution of the judgment of Mr Justice Charles C. Okaa of the
Anambra State High Court in Awka affirming the nomination of the
erstwhile Central Bank governor, Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo,
as the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in
the November 6 gubernatorial election in the state, Mr Justice
Nwosu-Iheme stated that both judges who deliver judgments on cases
beyond their territorial jurisdiction and the lawyers who
deliberately take such cases to them need to be sanctioned on
grounds of professional misconduct.

This is the background to Justice Nwosu-Iheme’s pronouncement.
On June 28, Justice Musa Ubale of the Jigawa State High Court at
Birnin kudu delivered a judgment on a case brought by agents of
Chukwuma Umeoji of the House of Representatives claiming that one
Jude Okeke had become the APGA acting national chairman following,
as they claimed, the removal of one Edozie Njoku as the substantive
national chairman. Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) has up to this moment not heard of any of these
persons as the APGA chairman. The Constitution vests INEC with the
power to register and regulate political parties for purposes of
participating in elections.

The APGA chairman known to INEC and the public for the past four
years as the APGA chairman, Chief Victor Oye, was not joined in the
suit, nor was the party aware of the legal action. Umeoji, who
appears to want to be the APGA candidate in the November election
at all costs, had purchased his nomination form from Oye in May in
recognition that Oye was the national chairman, but now claims that
Oye ceased being the party chairman in 2009! The magic of it all is
that Justice Ubale delivered judgment not only recognizing Okeke as
the APGA acting national chairman who took over from Njoku but also
giving the consequential order enabling him to send to INEC the
name of the APGA candidate for the governorship election in Anambra
State holding on November 6. Okeke now submitted Umeoji as the
candidate.

Umeoji didn’t participate in the APGA primary election of June
23, 2021, which was broadcast live on television networks in
Nigeria and which Soludo won by some 93.7%; Umeoji was disqualified
because it has been reported in the media, he was found to be
working in cahoots with another party to betray APGA in the
November election.

Why would someone go from Awka to as far as Birnin Kudu, almost
700 kilometres apart, over an issue which happened in Anambra State
or the Southeast? Who has ever done something so bizarre and
succeeded in Nigeria? Apparently recognizing that they are in gross
violation of the principle of territorial jurisdiction, the same
people shopped for a judgment from the Imo State High Court in
Owerri where Justice B. C. Iheka on July 30 delivered a judgment
stating that Okeke is the APGA acting chairman. There are
unconfirmed reports that the same people have moved to neighbouring
Abia State to shop for another judgment!

Truly, both the judicial system and the legal profession have
never stooped this low in Nigeria. But there are sometimes glimmers
of hope. When one Umaru Said on July 28, 2021, claimed at the Court
of Appeal in Kano to represent APGA in the suit seeking to set
aside the Jigawa State High Court judgment, Justices Tsamani,
Maiwada Abdullahi and Musale cautioned him against allowing himself
to be used by politicians unprofessionally. The lawyer quietly left
the court premises. The caution could have come from Justice
Nwosu-Iheme of the Court of Appeal in Awka. In other words, it
would seem there is a greater concern for professional integrity at
the appellate courts which are naturally manned by more experienced
and capable judges.

There are thankfully institutional mechanisms to check the
professional misconduct of legal professionals. An important
feature of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, is the creation of
the National Judicial Council. The NJC has been doing a marvelous
job, though much remains to be done. It has taken stern measures
against the behavior of such judges as Wilson Egbo-Egbo, Stanley
Nnaji, Okechukwu Opene and Adeleye Adedoyin who were thrown out of
the Bench over the Anambra election quagmire. Why haven’t some
judges learned from the experience of these former judges,
especially Nnaji of the Enugu State High Court who was dismissed
for ordering the removal of the then Anambra governor, Senator
Chris Ngige? It was Nnaji’s tough luck that he was to be
assassinated in Enugu on May 27, 2021.

The Disciplinary Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association needs
to learn to be more active. There are more erring lawyers than
judges, yet the NJC looks far more alive to its responsibility.

The massive corruption in most courts of first instance is a
major contributor to declining direct foreign investment in
Nigeria. These courts are not considered good enough, in contrast
to Chinese courts which, though theoretically are under the
Communist Party, are considered good enough by international
investors. The few Western investors who come to Nigeria insist on
the provision of arbitration in London rather than Nigeria in the
memoranda of understanding (MoUs) should disputes arise.

Most Nigerians seem to underestimate the profound implications
and dimensions of a corrupt judiciary. Othman Dan Fodio was really
right: A society can survive an incompetent government, but not
injustice. Justice Chioma Nwosu-Iheme is the modern-day Daniel who
has truly come to judgment. History will be kind to her.

*Dr Onyegbu is of the University of Nigeria,
Enugu Campus.