Nigerians may, after all, need another court, higher to the Supreme Court. The idea in this direction has been growing over time. The aura and confidence of the public in the highest court in the land have waned tremendously in recent time. Indeed, the validity of the supreme in the Supreme Court has increasingly come into question, There seems to be a lot more from and about the revered lofty temple of justice, that is no longer superlative. This is not about those who lost out in cases, being bitter towards the court. Recent performance records have tended to aggravate public frustration and angst about the highest human court in the land. In truth, really, the erosion of the aura and standard at the apex Court has not just started. The supreme in the name and bearing of the court has steadily been undermined in recent years, from within and without.
It is not as if there is anyone who does not know that the justices sitting on the stool of the Supreme Court are humans, with blood flowing in them and sweat dripping off their brow at critical moments. The humanness of their lordship has always been understood. Even at this, the calibre of the justices who succeed in getting appointed to this highest human court, was designed not only to be the best of jurists, but also to exude juridical sublimnities all round.
When Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, easily one of the best the country has produced at the highest bench, expounded on the notion that, “We (the Supreme Court) are not final because we are infallible, rather we are infallible because we are final”, he was not engaged in sophistry. He was clearly making the point that the Supreme Court, are constituted by humans, quite alright,but for the good of the society, the court was imbued with institutional powers, next to the gods. Thus does The Supreme Court have the final say. This is a status of enormous trust that should never be taken lightly.
The society is scandalized therefore, whenever it has even a niggling feeling that the highest court in the land, is taking its powers and privilages for granted.
It is worth remembering here, that in 2015, when the then President of the Nigerian Bar Association [NBA] Austin Alegeh apologized to the Supreme court for being at the receiving end of severe criticisms, following one of its rulings on a politically charged matter involving then then Senate President, Bukola Saraki, some lawyers, chiefly, Prof. Itse Sagay and Femi Falana, among others, countered the NBA president, informing him that he was not apologizing on their behalf, as they had nothing to the Supreme court for. They insisted that the harsh criticism of the Court was deserved.
By the time, under the leadership of Tanko Muhammad as Chief Justice, the Supreme Court witnessed the first incident of justices of the apex court justices resorting to labour union tactic, raising protest against the Chief Justice, the Supreme Court reached a new low in reckoning.
It can easily be understood how, as the apex court grappled with its internal demons, its ability to remain steadfast in delivering justice, will also be compromised. This,has become the unfortunate reality of the Supreme Court. Undermined by partisan politics and all manner of extra- judicial influences, the supreme in the Supreme Court, has increasingly become a menace to the administration of justice in Nigeria. If only its rulings were not final.
The resort to technicalities as the new order in dissolving critical issues, especially those of political nature, has become more or less, a strategy to survive and remain afloat in murky waters. The ploy can only keep the ship afloat for some time. Even the justices know that ultimately, the ship will sink.
Last week, an updated ugly side of the Supreme Court was brought to public attention. Justice Musa Muhammad Dattijo who just retired from the Supreme Court, confirmed to the country, the unwholesome state of affairs at the highest level of administration of justice in Nigeria. Als,the Supreme Court is affected with the same malaise of crude parochialism and partisanship that have rendered Nigeria prostrate.
Justice Dattijo was initially supposed to be part of the panel to hear the appeal from the Presidential Election Petitions tribunal. He pulled out when time caught up with him. It does seem now, that he was not keen to be part of the exercise he virtually dismissed as a charade. The retired Justice cast aspersion on the selection of justices to hear the presidential appeal. He also spared no strong word against the ways of the Chief Justice, Olukayode Ariwoola. He accused the Chief Justice of working from the answer in selecting panel members for such a critical case.
Worse still, Justice Dattijo confirmed to the country what has largely been muttered, that a deliberate policy has been on, to deny the South East representation at the Supreme Court. Instructively, the Chief Justice is also chairman of the National Judicial Council[NJC]. Now, Dattijo informed that the North Central has joined the South East, as zones, kept out of the Supreme Court. Meanwhile the South West has a full complement of three Supreme Court justices. So also North West. What level of damage has vicious, parochial politics not visited on the dream for a cohesive Nigeria? Against the backdrop of Justice Dattijo’s bold testimony, can Justice Ariwoola be expected to give justice to cases involving parties from sections of the country he cannot even allow to take up their slot in the Supreme Court? So then, what used to be Supreme Court of Nigeria has degenerated to Supreme Court of some parts of Nigeria. But the Court superintends over all of Nigeria. Interestingly, Justice Ariwoola was in the fore front of those justices that kicked against the travesty of Tanko Muhammad’s methods as CJ. It is so depressing that the Supreme Court has been allowed to appear as an arm of the APC, or something worse.
Would Justice Dattijo being part of the Supreme Court panel that heard the presidential elections appeal have made any difference? Most unlikely. Even if he held out on any conviction different from the rest of the panel, it would still have been one against six. However, that would have been healthy for the Supreme Court and for the judiciary. It used to be, in the past, that judgements at the Supreme on such critical cases as the presidential election disputation, were split, sometimes almost even between the various opinions among the justices. That scenario spoke of intellectual strength of the justices, as well as their independent-mindedness. These days, it has become a herd mentality, all the sitting justices see everything from the same prism. What is right to one is right to all. What one says is what the rest say. Seven justices, all having the same philosophical, judicial, political and emotional affinity. Talk of septuplets on the Supreme Court bench!
Justice Musa Muhammad Dattijo has done a lot of good by confirming to Nigerians their worries about the less than wholesome situation both at the Supreme court and at the National Judicial Council. His expose may not change anything in the immediate, everything considered. It is helpful however, to properly understand what is, or why there dissonance reigns in every attempts to operationalize Nigeria’s national anthem.