The Supreme Court is the highest and final Court in Nigeria and its decision in all matters between persons, and between government and persons is final. Because of its finality in all matters, it is infallible. Basically, Supreme Court is a policy making Court. It determines the degree of discipline or indiscipline in the society. Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden due to sin, conflict and disagreement among human beings in any society became inevitable. It is the duty of the courts to peacefully settle these disputes to prevent any person from taking laws into his or her hands in execution of self-help, which often leads to violence, confusion, and eventually anarchy. You can imagine if more than 200 million people should individually fight each other for their security and welfare, this will become a disaster.
Unfortunately, since the commencement of our democracy in 1999, most distinguished Nigerian personalities have not had much complimentary words for the Supreme Court of Nigeria. A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba, described the Justice Olukayode Ariwoola-led Supreme Court as the worst in Nigerian history. Justice Muhammad Dattijo, who retired as a Supreme Court Justice during this period corroborated Agbakoba’s submission in his valedictory speech to mark his exit from the Supreme Court. Hear him, “Public perceptions of the judiciary have over the years become witheringly scornful and monstrously critical. It has been in the public space that court officials and judges are easily bribed by litigants to obviate delays and or obtain favourable judgments. A number of respected senior members of the Bar inter alia, citing the Ahmed Lawan, the former President of the Senate and the Imo Governorship appeals, claim that decisions of even the apex court have become unpredictable. It cannot be more damnifying.” The present Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun admitted that the conduct of some Judges in Nigeria brings shame to the entire judiciary. This was contained in her speech during the early days after her confirmation as the Chief Justice of Nigeria.
The framers of the Constitution were aware of the supreme importance of the Supreme Court and this is why the Justices are not meant to be elected by the people even though they constitute an arm of government in a democracy. The reason is because of the special qualifications one has to possess in order to be a judge. For instance, one has to be a lawyer for 15 years and be a person of unquestionable integrity and learning. Election may not produce persons with these qualifications in Nigeria. There has to be a conscious effort to search for and appoint such persons with such qualifications to ensure they have the commensurate discipline to deliver justice in all their decisions. Even foreigners come to invest in a country when they are assured of the quality of the judiciary because, being aware that disagreements are inevitable in the execution of contracts they may engage in the country, it’s only a functional judiciary that can shield them and their investment from attacks from dupes and criminals.
Dattijo summarized the qualifications as “sound knowledge of the law, integrity, honour, and hard work”, but regretted “that the process of appointment to judicial positions are deliberately conducted to give undue advantage to the “children, spouses, and mistresses” of serving and retired judges and managers of judicial offices … at the expense of more qualified candidates lacking in such privilege and backing.”
What Nigerian society has become today can be attributed to some judgements of the Supreme Court which translate to policies of government. At times, I argue with myself that the Supreme Court may not understand the ramifications of its judgements, if it does, it would be a little bit more circumspect. Take for instance, the judgement of the Supreme Court on Rivers State, which surprisingly, gave recognition, by whatever means called, to 27 lawmakers who, constitutionally, vacated their seats on the day they defected from one party to another. The impression given by the judgement that persons who deposed to an affidavit confirming their defection to another party, and publicly read out their defection on the floor of the House of Assembly, provided no sufficient evidence to prove the defection was the most uncharitable decision in the whole world.
The consequence of the decision was electric. President Tinubu, who has been restless to capture Rivers State, magically relied on the Supreme Court judgement on Rivers State, to declare martial law in Rivers State and removed legitimately elected representatives of Rivers State, including the Governor and members of the House of Assembly. Rivers State is governed today by a sole administrator who is unknown to law. It was an eyesore to see the wife of the sole administrator, who can only be addressed as the “sole lady” of Rivers State parading herself as the first lady of Rivers State. The greatest insult any President can give to any state is to import a non-indigene, whom they did not vote for, to govern them. As I speak today, no Rivers State citizen is the governor of any state out of the 36 states in Nigeria. A non-citizen is carting away the resources of Rivers State, without any approved budget from any legislature, in the public glare of everybody because of a judgement from the Supreme Court. Judgements of courts are meant to restore peace and tranquility to society not invoke confusion and anarchy.
Worse still, there’s no more respect for the non-defection provision of the legislators in the Constitution. It a show of shame as members of the House of Assembly of Delta State from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) recently defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in total negation of the anti-defection provision in the Constitution. If anyone reminds them of the provision against defection, they will boldly tell the person “go to court”. This shows that no rich or powerful Nigerian is afraid of the courts anymore. In the National Assembly, the story is not different. Discipline among the legislature today is non existent because of the perception of lack of justice from the courts.
Also the fallout of the decision of the Supreme Court on the 2023 presidential election, where the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) refused, failed, and neglected to electronically transmit the polling units results to the collation system to be used for collation of results is obvious to see. Evidently, INEC refused to upload a scanned copy of the polling unit results, form EC8A on the IREV Portal, claiming technical glitch. Electoral Act is clear that without the electronically transmitted results, no collation should take place. INEC itself made a rule that transmission is mandatory, without which, the collation is null and void. Prof Yakubu Mahmood, Chairman of INEC, even boasted that on the day he will announce the presidential election result, he will have a big television screen over his head for people to be seeing the electronically transmitted results as he was announcing the results manually to ensure transparency and accountability.
On the election day, he refused to abide by the Electoral Act, his own rules and regulations. When the polling agents of the opposition political parties reminded him of his own statements, even played the recorded him speech, he unashamedly refused to abide by his rules and promises, but rather told them to go to court. In fairness to Yakubu, the opposition did go to court and the court surprisingly gave Yakubu the right to do as he liked. It held that INEC has the discretion to transfer and transmit election results as it pleased. This judgement destroyed the efficacy of all the technological advancement the Electoral Act, 2022 had achieved, particularly the electronic transmission of results as a check to the corruption and inflation of the election results carried out during manual collation of results.
The consequence of this judgement by the Supreme Court is that whatever result INEC declares, even if it proceeded from the shrine, the courts will accept. The consequences became obvious in the conduct of Kogi, Imo, Bayelsa, Ondo, and Edo gubernatorial off cycle elections where pre-filled, fake polling unit, form EC8A results, were uploaded on the IREV Portal by INEC officials, on election day. Indiscipline has taken over our conduct of elections in Nigeria because the courts have not interpreted the laws according to their wordings in order to restore discipline.
The Supreme Court under Justice Kekere-Ekun still has a chance to salvage Nigeria by performing its job without fear or favour in accordance with the oath of office of the Justices. Dattijo asserted that the quest for institutional improvement, particularly in the Judiciary, must, rather, be intensified to avoid hastening the demise of our society, maintaining that a society rots too easily when institutional defects are ignored. Erring judges should be timeously dealt with in accordance with the law. Honest judges should be rewarded as incentive to others to equally behave well. The survival and progress of Nigeria lie in the hands of the judiciary and if the judiciary loves this country, the Supreme Court must turn a new leaf and deliver justice in all its judgements. The duty of the judiciary is to interpret the laws not to make laws. Immediately the judgements of the Supreme Court begin to differ from the wordings of the law, anarchy becomes inevitable, and discipline takes flight as people would no longer understand what they have to do or not to do.