By Uche Mbah
The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Tanko Mohammed, has declared that the judiciary will not be subservient to any body in the discharge of their duties insisting he will lay down his life in the defense of the Judiciary.
Speaking at the Annual General Meeting of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Mohammed said he cannot be intimidated by anybody.
“By the grace of Almighty God, I will tenaciously hold on to that even until that very moment of my last breath on earth. Let me assure this assembly, we don’t look at anybody’s face or feelings before making our decisions. If there is any deity to be feared, that deity is the Almighty God. We will never be subservient to anybody, no matter how highly placed,” he said. There have been palpable fears, particularly from the opposition, that the Judiciary and the legislative have been subsumed within the Executive, reducing them to rubber stamps of the executive.
Of particular interest is the ongoing tribunal case between President Buhari and his opponent at the 2019 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar. Abubakar is of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP. Skeptics believe that the Supreme Court will rubber stamp the presidency using technicalities-an indirect reference to the ruling on Osun state governorship elections, which the supreme court based on technicalities.
But the CJ’s statement seem to address the fears of foreclosed bias in favor of the executive. “For the judiciary, under our watch, I can assure you that, by the grace of God, the future looks bright”, he said.
“Since my appointment as the chief justice, my focus has been on reinventing our processes, providing speedy and quality administration of justice, strengthening our structures from the Supreme Court to other courts of records and stamping out corruption from the system” he concluded.
