AT the end of one of its periodical meetings on July 17 and 18, the
National Judicial Council (NJC) recommended, among other things, that
the Chief Judge of Abia State, Justice Shadrack O. E. Nwanosike, should
proceed on compulsory retirement over his alleged complicity in age
falsification. This piece of news incidentally broke out on the same
date (Monday, 29th July, 2013) that it was reported that Justice Joseph
Wowo, a Nigerian Judge on secondment to the Gambian Judiciary, was
relieved of his position for demanding a bribe of about N12.5 million
from a litigant in The Gambia in order to pervert justice.
The
act of these two judges is a blot on the escutcheon and manifests how
deep-rooted corruption has become ingrained in the Nigerian judiciary
vis-à-vis the Nigerian society. Falsification of age is one of the most
rampant misdemeanours committed in the civil or public service in
Nigeria. It has even taken root in our football sector such that we have
age-cheats in all competitions where age has become a factor in the
choice of participants. Civil servants in ministries swear to affidavits
regularly to reduce their ages in order to prolong their stay in their
positions and stave off retirements. This act of consistent and
persistent lying under oath has made the offence of perjury as
ridiculous as the offence of bigamy in Nigeria.
Notwithstanding
the rampancy of this infamous conduct of age falsification, one would
have thought that a judge, like Caesar’s wife, will be above board in
that respect. Perhaps, Justice Shadrack might have forgotten the eminent
place of a judge in a society. A judge is firstly a lawyer. Charles
Philips, a British academician had described the prime position of the
law profession thus:
“Of all that God empowered man to achieve as
an academic discipline and pursuit on this planet earth, none has a
heavenlier aspect than the law profession: that at abroad it is an
introduction, in the society an ornament, in solace a comforter; without
it what is a man”
Besides being a lawyer, Justice Shadrack, as a
judge, has the key of santus sanctorium of justice. He has the power of
life and death. He is a mirror to the society. His calling is far more
beyond that of mere mortals. A judge operates on a code and his life is
regulated by a code of conduct as follows:
Rule 1: Avoidance of impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all the activities of a judicial officer.
Rule 2: Administrative and adjudicative duties of a judicial officer.
Rule
3: Guidelines that regulate the extra-judicial activities of a judicial
officer in order to minimize the risk of conflict with the duties of
his office.
It is evident that Justice Shadrack falsified his age
so as to remain in office to exercise more power and make more money to
the detriment of the State, litigants, and citizens of Abia State! This
is corruption simplicita and it is one of the forms of corruption that
section 15 (5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,
1999 (as amended) has enjoined the Nigerian State to eradicate or
abolish.
On the other hand, Justice Joseph Wowo, the Nigerian
judge serving in Gambia, seems to have exported our culture of bribery
to Gambia by demanding a whopping sum of N12.5 million from a litigant.
This act of Justice Joseph is infra dignitatem (below his dignity) to
say the least. If only this judge had remembered the lesson in “The
Incorruptible Judge”, he might have behaved differently and saved
Nigeria this opprobrium. Justice Wowo forgot that he was not only a
judge but an “ambassador” of Nigeria in The Gambia, a country with a
population of about 1.776 million. Justice Wowo could have taken a cue
from the incorruptibility of many Nigerian jurists who have served
meritoriously in The Gambia such as the Late Justice Akinola Aguda and
Justice Moronkeji Onalaja. If these ones had desecrated the temple of
justice in The Gambia, the door opened for the accommodation of more
Nigerian jurists in that country’s judiciary would have been closed long
ago. The resultant sack of Justice Joseph Wowo is, therefore, a welcome
(although a sad) development.
The reprehensible act of Justices
Shadrack and Joseph confirms the Biblical handwriting on the wall: mene
mene tekel uphasin (meaning that they have been weighed and found
wanting). The conduct of these two judges will increase the pressure on
the judiciary to engage in further saponification of the hallowed temple
of justice in order to smoke out its black legs. To enthrone sanity,
this writer recommends that the Nigerian Judiciary should open a Black
Book where names of the likes of Justice Shadrack and Justice Joseph
would be written for posterity to note.
In my humble opinion, I
consider the punishment meted out to the two judges as insufficient and
non-deterrent. The appropriate authorities should proceed to deny them
the use of the word “Justice” against their names; also, the two judges
should be charged to court for the various offences they have been
alleged to have committed. If convicted, they should be sentenced to
terms of imprisonment in accordance with the legal maxim of fiat
justitia, ruat coelum (meaning let justice be done though the heavens
may fall). The current “punishment” of merely relieving them of their
positions is a slap on the wrist and unacceptable. Time has come to end
impunity of corrupt judges.
Source: Guardian
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