The Supreme Court of Nigeria is bleeding. The wound is self-inflicted, though. Truth be told, it is not the first time in recent years that the court has brought itself such discomfort. For reasons best known to the eminent constituents of the apex court, they seem to have developed a rather strange proclivity to bring trouble to themselves. Maybe they enjoy it. Or they are far removed from reality of mere mortals that they do not give a damn what the rest of society thinks of them.
The latter does not seem to be the case after all, considering a recent remonstration from that lofty height. There is an indication now that their lordships care, after all, about what society thinks and says about them. So then, why do they do some of the things they have done in recent times, to themselves and to the society that reposes so much trust in them?
Judges, more so Supreme Court justices, have always had certain mannerisms in common with seers. They tend to see things that no other person sees. Consequently, they make pronouncements that cannot easily be questioned, seeing as their audience do not see or hear what they have monopoly access to. With other courts and their judges, the stakes are bearable, because there is a second chance. With Supreme Court and its judges, there is no second chance. In this power lies the mystique and the uncommon responsibility of that lofty estate.
Justice Chukwudifu Oputa’s Socratic excursion in situating the finality and infallibility of the Supreme Court may have gone a long way to explain why the society accepts the apex court for what it is. Oputa’s elucidation did not, however, stretch itself to dwell on what goes into sustaining the infallibility of the Supreme Court. He probably did not need to. At that level, integrity can be taken as given.
A seed of intense angst could sprout, however, as is the case in recent times, when there is a pervasive sense of betrayal of the sanctity of that lofty chamber, consciously or unconsciously. That seems to be an unfortunate juncture where the Supreme Court of Nigeria and the larger society have found themselves. And who is to blame?
The ruling of February 8, 2023, on the Yobe North Senate seat is, without doubt, an affront that many Nigerians will hold for long against the Supreme Court.
As earlier stated, with cases in the other courts, there is always a second chance, the Supreme Court is there. That is a huge source of comfort. While, for instance, in the ruling of the election tribunal on the Osun State governorship election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the other relevant party in the case have appealed against the tribunal ruling that they felt was incongruous, in the Yobe North Senate seat case, in which the Supreme Court awarded the seat to Senator Ahmed Lawan, out of the blues, as it were, there is no appeal. Everybody, including INEC (which had all the while stuck to what the rule of the process prescribed), was left thoroughly perplexed by the Supreme Court ruling. The underdog, Bashir Sheriff Machina, was eventually left to the fate of the underdog. By the Supreme Court!
The press statement from the Supreme Court over the weekend, titled “Be Mindful of Unwarranted Attacks on Judicial Officers,” signed by the director of press and information at the Supreme Court, Dr. Akande Aweneri Festus, spoke, sadly, of self-inflicted pain and wrong choices that are currently the lot of the apex court.
The statement was ill advised, for a start. Worse still, it sought, as it were, to feign ignorance of the very basis of the recent public disapproval of the trajectory of the Supreme Court in the last few years. The summary of the contention of the rather lengthy and intemperate press statement is that people should desist from criticizing the Supreme Court. That, of course, is not possible. Even Moses had to contend with a riot from the people he had led with remarkable benevolence and courage, when they had doubt about their fate and were not sure at a certain juncture that they were still on the right route to wherever. Yet Moses was walking with God. In this case, the Supreme Court jurists are not claiming that they are following God. As a matter of fact, many will argue that a number of the jurists often walk away from where God is, which is synonymous with truth and justice. The people cannot but complain. It could be worst.
By isolating an individual journalist, Farooq Kperogi, and moving to make a scape goat of him, the Supreme Court release attempted to be smart by half. The case is not against Kperogi but against Kperogi and many others. There was nothing the columnist said that dozens of other citizens have not said, each in his or her own language and style, all expressing the same disapproval of the recent bearing of the court.
There can be no recourse to technicality in this matter. People recognize travesty of justice when they see one. All that Kperogi and many of those criticizing some of the recent rulings at the Supreme Court are saying is that the court is dealing a wrong hand to a society that looks up to it to set the right moral tone and values for it, more so at a point where the country is politically floundering. That is what the Supreme Court does for democracies.
If Kperogi’s review of the Supreme Court in recent times appeared biting, that surely was a reflection of the frustration and disappointment he felt.
A statement from the Supreme Court that descended to the pedestal of name-calling and declaring that “our silence must not be mistaken for weakness or cowardice,” came across as ill-advised. Had the statement corrected any misrepresentation or factual errors in the columnist’s article, it would have made a point. There was even no illumination in the press statement of the basis for some of the recent tendencies in the apex court, which rankle many, learned and not very learned.
The release from the Supreme Court was, more or less, a counter body punch to the writer whose article some people around the court perceived as hash.
Interestingly, if Kperogi could be dismissed as lacking deep knowledge of the law and the workings of the Supreme Court, being just a communication scholar and journalist, that cannot be said of Professor Chid Anselm Odinkalu, brilliant law scholar and profound mind any day. In his article over the weekend titled: Supreme Hooliganism, Odinkalu made a forensic presentation of some of the contradictions and legal missteps at the Supreme Court in recent times.
Supreme Court jurists, compared earlier with seers, may have the capacity to hear from the gods what others do not hear. Even at that, there is a limit to how long people will tolerate messages from the gods, that run counter to common sense and the interest of the majority. The Supreme Court should do everything at its powers, to avoid compounding the crisis of existence already foisted on the country by the rascality and crookedness of the political class. This is beyond issuing intemperate press statements. The law did not intend that the Supreme court should be producing governors and senators, outside the scope of the electoral commission. The case against Kperogi by the Supreme Court lacks merit.