There is no gainsaying the fact that Nigerian polity is terribly corrupt. The strong and widespread enthusiasm for corruption has spread to all the three arms of government, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, and has also spread to all the tiers of governance, trickling down to the grassroots level. Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has recently testified that no arm of the government is spared by this devastating bug.
This disturbing, albeit revealing testimony, coming from number two citizen of this country, is indeed a foot for thought for any right thinking Nigerian. The fact that corruption monster had for long been afflicting the executive arm of government is no news; even the most indifferent people and the complacent law-enforcement agents have rightly agreed that it had found a place in the bosoms of highly placed government officials, prominent politicians and everyone without exception . What is now a novelty is the discovery of the involvement of highly placed judges and judicial officials in corrupt practices and high degree of their deleterious behavior perceived as immoral, unethical and despicable.
At least seven prominent judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts have recently been hauled into detention by men of the Department of State Security, DSS for various offences bordering on depravity and corrupt practices. Large sums of money, in both local and foreign currencies, have been found in their possession, a situation that had elicited strong, widespread public reactions about the judges’ alleged gross misconduct. It was precisely because of that the retiring Chief Justice of Nigeria; Justice Mahmud Mohammed admitted that corruption is the bane of the nation’s judiciary.
That, however, was a grievous contention which ought to be reviewed with utmost concern and apprehension. It also suggests that something must be done urgently to save the judiciary from itself so as to salvage its already battered reputation.
Happily, the retiring Chief Justice disclosed on Monday that measures are being intensified to cleanse the judiciary of the pervading sleaze through the introduction of National Judicial Policy (NJP) which was revealed on Monday by the National Judicial Council, a body statutory empowered to discipline judges. The new policy aimed at curbing corruption in the judiciary contains clear provisions restating the judiciary’s commitment to transparency and accountability. The absence of such judicial policy had in the past occasioned uneven growth in the nation’s judiciary. It had also resulted in the demand for the transformation of the nation’s judiciary into a modern judicial system.
This is indeed a welcome development which has been a marked departure from the previous practice whereby each jurisdiction has had to mix cases together in confused or disordered way in an effort to develop core values and objectives, resulting in chaos and half-baked policies. This has also been compounded by the challenging lack of resources without which effective development was not possible.
What is this new judicial policy all about, and how relevant is it to the quick and effective dispensation of justice in the country? To be precise, the new policy is a statement of rights and responsibilities as well as commitment to the values that relate to judicial institutions and their employees. It clearly articulates the absolute need for discipline, efficiency, integrity and enduring commitment. In a nutshell, the pivot on which the new judicial policy revolves is the provision which bars judicial officers from accepting gifts from other arms of government in the conduct of their official functions. That is the core of the matter which had facilitated the prevalence of corrupt practices in the judiciary, and perhaps, a convenient explanation why judicial officers have massively participated in it.
The formulation and adoption of the National Judicial Policy is a right step in the right direction since it is capable of cleansing the judiciary which will subsequently stamp out and eradicate all forms of corruption in other arms of the government. This is absolutely necessary as it is also completely desirable, especially as corruption has seriously impacted negatively on both the rule of law and access to justice and must be fought tooth and nail by everybody. Needless to say, corruption is today the greatest single menace that challenges all facets of our national life, including the revered judiciary. This detested social vice is endemic, prevalent in all regions, cutting across the barriers of ethnicity and religious faith. It had also been responsible for the decay in educational institutions and distortion of economic status of individuals.
Nigerians must, therefore, rise in unison to give unalloyed support to the federal government’s sustained fight against corruption. There is no better time of doing so than now since both the Vice-president and the Chief Justice of Nigeria have amply provided a clear perception of how corruption is endemic in the two arms of government they preside over. Nigerians must join hands with them to let the new judicial policy work properly for the purpose of killing corruption or else it will kill the country.
