The Confirmation Of The New CJN Sparks Uproar, becomes The Butt Of Social Media Jokes

By Uche Mbah

The screening of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Muhammed Tanko, by the Senate for his confirmation as a substantive Chief Justice, CJ, has thrown the Nigerian Judicial system into anticlimactic diminuendo, resulting in ordinary citizens poking jabs at the exalted third estate of the realm.

Answering questions on Legal Technicalities by Senator Enyinnaya abaribe, the CJ used words like “driving” an airplane and defined technicalities as Something technical-which, technically, is correct.

“In the 2018 case of Akeredolu V Abraham, the Supreme Court said, ‘technicality in the administration of justice shuts out justice’ and went further to say, ‘it is therefore better to have a case heard and determined on its merit than to leave the court with the shield of victory obtained on mere technicality’, Abaribe had asked.

“This is the Supreme Court, we are very happy with that. But My Lord, just a few weeks ago, the Supreme Court also said, ‘The correct order is to declare the judgment of the trial tribunal a nullity as a result of one of the panellists not sitting on the day proceedings were held’.

“And so Nigerians are really worried. Where would the Supreme Court stand under you? Where would justice be and what we can expect from the Supreme Court under you?”

In the case between Governor Oyetola and senator Adeleke who dragged him to court over the Osun Governorship elections, the Supreme Court had ruled in favor of Oyetola on technical grounds without going into the merits of the case. This was quoted above by Abaribe.

In his answer, the CJ averred:

“Permit me distinguished senators to ask what a technicality is? It is something which is technical. By definition, it is something that is not usual and may sometimes defy all the norms known to a normal thing. Now, we have technicalities in our laws and this is because these laws we have inherited were from the British.

“The British people centuries ago introduced what is known as technicalities in their laws. Now, if something is technical, it is giving a leeway for double interpretation. It may be interpreted in one way by Mr A and another way by Mr B.

“Now, if something which is technical comes before the court, what we do in trial courts is to ask people who are experts in that field to come and testify. We rely on their testimony because they are experts in that field.

“Ask me anything about an aeroplane, I don’t know; ask me to drive an aeroplane (sic), I am sure if you are a passenger and they told you that the flight is going to be driven (sic) by Honourable Justice Ibrahim Tanko, I am sure you will get out of the plane because it is something that requires technicality and if I have any technicality, my technicality will only be limited to law. Therefore, it is something that has to do with the perception or the way you will be able to achieve the goals you want to achieve.”

It will be recalled that the National Judicial commission, was reluctant to send the name of Tanko to the senate for approval. Normally, the NJC were expected to send three names to the presidency for them to chose from. They sent only Walter Onnoghen’s name, which was the most senior. President Buhari, who was known to have favored the Sharia Lawyer, refused to send Onnoghen’s name to the Senate, until Vice President Osinbajo did that as acting president. Since then the presidency allegedly instigated the code of conduct Tribunal to try Onnoghen. The rest is history.

It was rumored that the New CJ never went to Law school but rose through the ranks as a Sharia Judge, not a conventional judge. His answer may have unwittingly laid credence to that rumor.

With the emergence of Tanko, opposition allege, the other two arms have been subjugated under the executive arm.

Senate President was allegedly shielding the CJ from being questioned by other senators for fear of more gaffes.

Richard Akinola II, Lawyer, Authur, Retired journalist and human Rights Activist had this to say:

“Those of us who are deep in legal research would have observed that when you juxtapose the judgments of the era of Adolphus Karibi-White, Chukwudifu Oputa, Nnaemeka-Agu, Andrew Obaseki, Kayode Eso and today’s era, particularly regarding obiter dictum, you would notice that there is a decline in intellection contained in their judgments.

Where are the quotables in today’s judgments in terms of didactic philosophical, sociological and historical contexts? This low intellection was reflected in that shambolic response by the CJN during his clearance session at the Senate yesterday.”.

The Social media has been awash with reactions to the CJN answer. Oby Ezekwesili, a Rights crusader of the Bring Back Our Girls fame, has this to say:” Do we need to be told that there’s a quality of leadership crisis in our country? It’s across board; the executive, legislature judiciary; federal, state and local. That Senate hearing with Justice Tanko merely reminded us of the depth of our leadership crises. Better own our crisis.”