John Olufemi Kusa/
Why does the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) allow political storms to gather and thicken around his person and office when he is not a politician?
The office of the CJN is sacred and should be impeccable.
By self-admission, he is guilty of charges that he hid from the face of the law property which number about 55 houses and about N700million in bank accounts. This is an offence for which he sends ordinary Nigerians to jail when their cases appear before him. Unless he considers himself as untouchable or above the law or a politician, he should have taken the honourable step…either to resign or step aside for the investigation or trial of charges against him.
If the CJN is relying on the opposition to save his job, he is exposing his high office to politics. Should he decide to weather the storm and is absolved of wrongdoing by the judicial advisory council which he heads and which the opposition says should hear the government’s complaint he cannot erase from the minds of reasonable people that, as a judge who is not expected to be engaged in any economic preoccupation, he needs to explain how he came by 55 houses and N700 million.
This case, being a case of corruption, the massive opposition to the mere mention of it, let alone the trial, shows that many Nigerians are not ready to cleanse their nation of corruption or to curb it, or that they themselves are corrupt, and that birds of the same feather flock together. They can hide under technical aspects of the law to say the government is high handed. None, not even Senate President Bukola Saraki, who got off the hook on technical grounds, or presidential aspirant Atiku Abubakar, has addressed the substance of this matter
It would appear all they want is for one of them or someone like them to be in critical high offices in Nigeria to protect them against the fight against corruption.
The CJN has soiled his white garment with Banga soup oil. He should give way. In the 1960s, a high ranking British minister in the government of Prime Minister Harold Wilson was photographed at night near a brothel in a red light district in London. The photograph was published in a popular newspaper. The minister did not wait for Mr Wilson to ask him about what he was doing near a brothel. He resigned
Corruption is like a brothel in the eyes of suffering Nigerians. It has robbed them of jobs, good roads, efficient hospitals, regular electricity supply, quality education, comfortable transportation, a strong currency and many other good things in life. A corrupt Nigerian is, therefore, an enemy of his people and should cover its face with his hands when he is exposed
The almost 50 Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANS) who are encouraging the Chief Justice of Nigeria to fight on against the people of Nigeria are not his friends. They know that N750 million is at stake. If each of them can make a haul of N5 million from this case, the CJN will still have N500,000,000 for keeps. Even if the ground has to be made wet elsewhere, this cannot cost more than a hundred million. There will still be N400 million for keeps and the Chief Justice of Nigeria will not have to forfeit to the people of Nigeria N400 million of the N750 million and 55 houses he did not declare as his property to the people of Nigeria through the law which he administers on their behalf.
This is the way of thinking in corruption incorporation of Nigeria. On the other side of the coin, ordinary people of Nigeria are not worrying themselves about whether this is a political case as the opposition is saying. They are asking a simple question: Did the Chief Justice of Nigeria do it? or did the Chief Justice of Nigeria not do it? In self-admission of guilt, the Chief Justice of Nigeria himself has submitted that he forgot to expose all his property to the law. By this, he meant: I did it.
Coming close to the presidential election, this case positions the fight against corruption as the foremost campaign issue if President Mohammadu Buhari wins the election, his hands will be strengthened to confront corruption with acidic brutality which will not spear many of Nigeria’s big boys in his second term in office. If he loses the election, Corruption Incorporated of Nigeria will heave a sigh of relief and business will continue as usual.
