On Onnoghen and the hypocrisy of the Nigerian elite

Elections are 16 days away and Nigeria is in a flurry of confusion. It is a most unfortunate and dreadful place for a country, which just four years ago presented a beacon of hope that democracy could prosper in black Africa.

But it is not in the character of Nigeria to sustain progress. The country’s development plans fail to appreciate its enviable position and natural influence in global affairs so, like a dog wanders back to its vomit, Nigeria always finds its way back to ignominy.

The same country that delivered a revolutionary mandate in 2015 to global acclaim has within this short space become a nation of negative interests, one which western nations which clapped for it one term back is now sending warning signals to.

The latest of the country’s unending multifaceted conflicts is Friday’s suspension of its number one judicial officer, Mr Justice Walter Onnoghen and the immediate inauguration of the next to him in hierarchy, MuhamaduTanko, as acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Onnoghen had been arraigned before the Code of Conduct Tribunal for failing to allegedly declare some of his assets contrary to the laws of the land; he had gone the extra length to stall his trial and the government, whether out of frustration to its fight against corruption or a plethora of other conjectures that its opponents have proposed, moved against the accused CJN with unprecedented speed.

As it is with all issues in Nigeria, virtually every citizen has taken a side and stuck to that side without repentance, no matter what superior argument any other side in the matter may bring up.  Nigerians defy the innate capacity of man for dynamism and compartmentalisation, they hero-worship their leaders and would excuse whatever they do or fail to do irrespective of the harm that portends to the present and future of the nation. This is possibly the most dormant and unquestioning citizenry the world over.

Those who think the President acted ultra vires do not listen to any reason as to why the accused CJN should have considered stepping out of office for the period of his trial while those  on Buhari’s corner have already hung Onnoghen to the cross on the strength of what government investigators claimed to  have recovered from his account and a statement of defence purported to have been written by him but surely leaked by agents of government who have perfected the art of trial in the court of public opinion paripassu the court of law.

This media expose, which takes cases before the people even before they are ripe for the courts, has dual effects. First, it shows the people that the Federal Government is truly fighting the war against corruption as it promised. It also validates President Buhari’s oft repeated identification of the judiciary as a major clog in the wheel of his fight against corruption.

So, even though neither the suspended CJN nor his counsel has issued any verifiable statement affirming or denying his complicity, the statement attributed to him has caught fire in the minds of the people, who see corruption as the culprit of the country’s poor state of development and would support any measure of punishment dispensed to anyone accused of corruption.

But there is a sense in which this strategy is merely self-serving and unproductive. A nation that ridicules its judiciary mocks itself. Generally regarded as the last hope of the common man and mediator between all other segments of society, the judiciary is the most important pillar in a democracy.

When the judiciary loses its credibility, democracy is endangered, and society suffers in unmeasurable ways. The international community gets wary of such society and foreign investors would tarry at bringing funds into such an ill-regulated environment. That is not to speak of the domestic effect on the loss of confidence which may range from resort to self-help, and a reign of sneers and jeers at the judiciary, the abundance of which the country has seen lately.

But none of the two parties directly involved in this imbroglio nor supporters on either side have shown any understanding what import their fight-to-finish posturing would have on the sacred institution!

While one cannot say with finality that Onnoghen is guilty of the charges filed against him, the abandon with which his lawyers have run from one court to the other in search of orders to restrain the Code of Conduct Tribunal oozes desperation that is suspicious. And if Justice Onnoghen has truly offered that confessional statement attributed to him, he should have honourably stepped aside and saved the judiciary and the nation the ridicule of the last two weeks.

In the same breath, armed with credible intel on the allegations against the Chief Justice, President Buhari would have saved Nigeria the obscene drama of the past couple of days by easily presenting Onnoghen with the facts of these allegations and got him to resign quietly thereby saving the country’s judiciary from opprobrium and the tension that this issue has generated. If he was bent on having a trial, he would have reported this matter to the National Judicial Council as stipulated by the constitution. There could be no justification for running afoul of the law in the fight for the law. But Nigerian leaders would rather score personal medals than mitigate a collateral damage on society.

This same thread is seen in the intervention of most organisations including the Nigerian Bar Association, Coalition of United Political Parties, and the Peoples Democratic Party.

While one would have expected the PDP to seek the truth of the allegations against the CJN and advise him to preserve the sanctity of the office by resigning if he had indeed committed an infraction, the opposition party carried on like it was in partnership with Onnoghen.The message from the alternate political party, the PDP is as scary as it’s worrying blankly overlookingJustice Onnoghen’s alleged infractions as if to suggest to Nigerians it would accommodate unethical and inappropriate elites misbehavior if it were in office.

The attitude of the umbrella body for lawyers in the country has been pretty much along the same combative, partisanlines. A body of the nature of the NBA, should, aside from being interested in protecting the judiciary from slight also seek for the peace of the country and the enforcement of the rule of law. Ahead of the Senate, which took the initiative to seek the interpretation of the role of the president in the removal of the Chief Justice at the Supreme Court on Monday,the NBA could even have initiated a meeting with Buhari with the aim of mediating in this scandal that has gained international attention and diminished Nigeria’s image. An organisation driven by laws and legal process calls for court boycotts when it is not unaware that many compatriots’ fate and liberty will be determined in those courts within the period of boycotts. It forgot to contemplate the option of approaching the courts for judicial intervention and help tests the functionality of the laws and possibly improve the nation’s jurisprudence. Even the All Progressives Congress instinctively rolled out its support behind the president not minding how this action hurts the party and its candidates in an election year. Not many of these guys are truly thinking about the country.

Imagine for a moment that all the energy, money and time deployed to the inadvertent heating up of the polity over the past two weeks have been channelled towards making lives better for Nigeria. Towards making education more accessible and qualitative, toward improving the quality of and access to health care for every Nigerian. Imagine if the Nigerian elite in government and those who have formed themselves into serial critics of the government found sense in working together towards reversing the emergencies in these two areas and the consequent poverty all over the country.

That does not seem to be the priority of the elite as you would notice and that these issues have not been on the front burner of political campaigns this session. The Nigerian elite never unites on behalf of the people, they are on the contrary, interested in protecting members of their elite class thereby preserving their own access to the resources of the nation.

They do not care what school the common man’s child attends because they have enough money to send their children abroad or at least to one of the growing numbers of private universities in the country. They book hospital appointments with their doctors across the world at the drop of the hat, so they give no care to who is dying of malaria or Lassa fever.

This Onnoghen saga just shows the hypocrisy of the Nigerian elite, their lack of trust in the institutions that they superintend and their overall lack of faith in the country.  And with this set of leaders, Nigeria making it, is a wonder yet uncertain.

Adedokun tweets @niranadedokun