Sackcloth And Ashes For The Court Of Appeal -By Ike Willie-Nwobu

It is not for nothing that the Court of Appeal serves as Nigeria’s penultimate Court. Gifted with the width of bench, and with judicial divisions spread around the country, the intermediate court serves as a fine mediator in disputes from Nigeria’s lowest courts to its highest1 – the Supreme Court.

A fine filter, the court has historically made the task of the Supreme Court easier, while refining the mechanics of the lower courts and fine-tuning the optics of justice delivery in Nigeria.

But as with the entire judiciary in the country, the court of Appeal has not been spared its own sticky moments. To date, its stickiest moments have come in electoral disputes where the stakes are notably and noticeably highest.

The January 12 judgment of the Supreme Court which trashed several Court of Appeal judgments in Kano, Zamfara and Plateau State reopened old wounds, forcing to the fore memories of those tumultuous days when the Court of Appeal served as the final arbiter in Governorship and National Assembly election disputes.

It was In those days that allegations of judicial sleaze buried the judicial careers of David Adeniji, Okechukwu Opene in a dispute for the Anambra South Senatorial seat. Kumai Bayang Akaahs who survived went on to hit the heights of the Supreme Court.

In Plateau State, while the Court of Appeal sacked the governor and a handful of legislators for what it perceived were the faulty foundations of their emergence as candidates, the Supreme Court took a dim view of the judgments.

But while there was a judicial reprieve for Mutfwang at the Supreme Court, the sixteen PDP lawmakers sacked by the Court of Appeal have ages to lick their very deep wounds to lick.

It begs the question of what went on at the court of Appeal? At what point did deliberate blindness to the decisions of the Supreme Court set in for the justices of the court of Appeal? At the point when they were empaneled to hear the appeals, or after they had thoroughly sifted through the evidence before them?

If the judgments of the Court of Appeal in Plateau State were rather honest mistakes, should such high profile and incalculably costly mistakes be tolerated in Nigeria’s penultimate Court?

For many Nigerians who have eagerly followed the legal and judicial fireworks, in the face of the Supreme Court’s startling rebuke, the court of Appeals judgments represented another catastrophic failure of the Nigerian justice system.

Nigeria maybe in a period of transition but as country where justice has become unrecognizable for the many hideous marks of injustice it bears, it must hurry if it must make headway.

President Tinubu may be just under a year in office, but by now he must be aware of the shambles he inherited from his predecessor. So many times under the former President Muhammadu Buhari, decisions were taken which were clearly attempts to defang the judiciary.

What is happening today the results of those ill-advised attempts to shackle the judiciary.

Nigeria must take a long hard look at its justice system, paying copious attention to the character of those who deliver justice in the country. This assignment has become at once an issue of national importance and national security.

Examining the judiciary with the intention to reform cannot be done in isolation, however. The other arms of government in Nigeria must also be subject to scrutiny.

There are foundational and fundamental problems in a country where prodigious potentials and promise have failed to transform into tangible products.

It is even more disheartening that rather than get better, things have continued to take a gradual turn for the worse as more Nigerians lose hope and interest in their country. Many of them are taking up the citizenship of less fancied countries.

Nigeria is not facing disintegration yet, but for as long as this disturbing trend of nebulous court judgments coming on the heels of boasts by desperate politicians continues, it is only a matter of time.

Now that the country still has some time on her hands, it must ensure that it does everything possible to preclude the descent of doomsday.

Nigerians deserve better than they are currently getting, and it would be a colossal waste if Africa’s most promising country continues to fail to fulfill its potentials.

Ike Willie-Nwobu,
Ikewilly9@gmail.com