When president Umaru Yar’Adua emerged as the s-elected president or our beloved country, many Nigerians – even when they disagree with manner of his election – were happy that at least, we have got a president who is not just a graduate, but one that graduated from the sciences, who would qualify as a scholar; a chemistry lecturer.

Education, especially university education, is not just intended to teach us how to read and write but in the immortal words of the eminent Nnamdi Azikiwe – which words he crafted as the motto of University of Nigeria, Nsukka, restoring the dignity of man – to restore the dignity of man! Thus, we were meant not just to go through the university, but for university to go through us.

The Igbo translation for the word university, mahadum or mara ha dum is literally translated, know all or know everything!  Thus a university graduate, even when he is not literally expected to know everything, is expected to know at least something of everything. In my university days, I was taught that a lawyer is not one that knows everything but one that knows something of everything, a learned gentleman!

I have gone to this length to illustrate why President Yar’Adua’s homily to our learned judges is ill-advised, ill-judged and completely infra dignitatem. Equally disappointing is the response of some who should know better, especially those on the NVS who uses our insulting experience of Obasanjos relationship with court judgements to excuse such unbecoming attitude.

It is instructive that President Yar’Adua chose to indirectly accuse the judges of rendering judgements based on popular sentiments not long after the Supreme Court and Election Tribunal judgements on Rotimi Amaechi and Kogi and Kebbi   State governments respectively. According to reports, immediately after the aforementioned judgements, the PDP hierarchy met and impressed it on Yar’Adua ‘to do something to avert the imminent humiliation of PDP across the country by means of unfavourable court decisions’.

But of course, Yar’Adua lacked Obasanjo crudeness and aggressive personality, so all he could manage was the meek and seemingly innocent criticism. It is equally unbecoming to excuse such comments as merely his personal opinion, for Yar’Adua is a politician, and a politicians’ public comments is made for its strategic value.

Nigerians would have merely smiled a knowing smile if such speech was coming from an Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Abacha or even Ibrahim Babangida, for neither the Nigerian   Defence   Academy nor even the Sandhurst   Royal   Military   Academy was created to breed a refined gentleman schooled in the art of democratic governance and respect for the rule of law.

President Yar’Adua has adopted respect for the rule of law as his mantra and rightly so. Respect for the rule of law entails unqualified respect for Court Judgements and the principle of separation of powers. Nigeria is passing through a regeneration process and the Nigerians Judges have positioned themselves as strategic players in that process.

I would implore our judges to go further. In Pakistan , the country’s chief Justice has positioned himself as the defender of justice, democracy and the rule of law, and the result is the formation of “the lawyer’s movement”.

When in March Gen Musharraf tried to remove the Chief Justice, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, from his post.  Supported by civil rights groups and political parties, the lawyer’s movement was instrumental in isolating and denting the credibility of Gen Musharraf government.

Chief Justice Chaudhry was reinstated by the Supreme Court in July, and the government has since been living in constant fear of a court decision that would term Gen Musharraf‘s rule illegal.  The court has been hearing a case to determine whether Gen Musharraf had legal grounds to contest for another presidential term, which he won in an election last month. Analysts believe the fear of an adverse judgement forced him to impose the recent emergency rule. More than 60 judges, out of a total of 97, have declined to take oath under the new Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO). Their homes have been placed under strict security, presumably to prevent them from going to the courts.

In a hurriedly-called sitting, seven Supreme Court judges issued an order barring the government from proclaiming emergency rule, and advising the state functionaries not to carry out emergency orders, if issued. Chief Justice Chaudhry has been replaced. Anticipating trouble, the government has placed most lawyer leaders, opposition politicians and some civil rights activists under house arrest.

But those still free are planning to call news conferences, while lawyers as well as several political groups have issued strike calls. And there is much fuel that can be added to this renewed fire. For one, Gen Musharraf‘s move is largely viewed by lawyers and politicians as another attempt to subjugate the judiciary.

Such judicial activism is necessary to salvage what is left of Nigeria. With the degradation of the executive and the legislative arms, the Nigerian judiciary, especially the Supreme Court have established themselves as the ‘last man standing’ of the three arms of government. It is laughable for them to be accused of rendering judgements based on “public sentiments”. Someone should please tell Yar’Adua that the ordinary Nigerian would indeed wish that our judges would in fact render decisions based on public sentiments. For if that were so, most public office holders would not only lose their high offices but would be cooling their heels in Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison for treason against the peoples sovereignty, subversion of the Nigerian Constitution, bribery, corruption, stealing, arson, murder, kidnapping, vote rigging, offences against public morality, wife snatching, homosexuality, sodomy, embezzlement, misappropriation and misapplication of public funds, money laundering, belonging to secret societies, maintaining foreign accounts and other sundry offences.

Nigerian judges are dignified, but they won’t take kindly to being lectured on how to do their jobs by a ‘layman’. If Yar’Adua is in doubt, he should ask his oga, his predecessor in office.

Robot  Villager

# 1 ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 08.11.2007 08:29

docokwy  Villager

# 2 See the decision on Nigeria. Everything else is embellishment http://www.viewnaija.com/videos.php?sub_section=videos&id=928 http://www.viewnaija.com/videos.php?sub_section=videos&id=1056 Posted by docokwy| 08.11.2007 09:54

Oghre  Villager

# 3 The Nigerian Defence Academy and the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst have recorded many individuals with respect for the rule of law and democratic governance, please for my sake and others who were there you should reduce your assertion to some individuals who attended from Nigeria, Africa and other parts of the world who became nuisance to their countries. Carting institutions like these that created some of the brightest brains in the military and politics is very short-sighted to say the least. President Yar’Adua has not adopted respect for the rule of law as his mantra; if he has he will be a retired governor from Katsina state and not the rigged in President of the federal republic of Nigeria. Supreme Court judges abused the law by appointing Rotomi Amaechi who never contested any elections in rivers state as the governor. Ironically, your hero UMYA (a rigged protégé) gave a dictatorial order to have the verdict implemented True that Nigeria is passing through a regeneration process, but the Nigerian Judges have NOT positioned themselves as strategic players in that process. The highest law man in Nigeria is busy trying to save a thieving outlaw called Ibori who stole most of the 13% derivative and 8 year state budget of Delta state. There is a plethora of lawyers and Nigeria judges in collaboration with these former state looters. It is not because Pakistan is democratic but because the people are united most of the time to fight common causes of injustice. If what is happening in Pakistan now can happen in Nigeria we have managed to break a 47 year old curse of social-political laziness and fear of death. But we are not there yet. The Nigeria version of civil rights groups and lawyers movements are corrupt individuals no different from the government we are expecting them to fight. The judiciary are surely not ‘last man standing as you will have us believe. If anything the psycho-mental awakening of the suffering Nigerian citizen to realise enough is enough is the only thing we have left! Posted by Oghre| 08.11.2007 09:54

edoji  Villager

# 4 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday Punch, 10 Nov 2007 Don’t intimidate election tribunals –NLC tells Yar’Adua Oscarline Onwuemenyi, Abuja The Nigeria Labour Congress on Friday expressed concern over President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s “harsh criticism” of election petition tribunals. The NLC’s President, Abdulwahed Ibrahim Omar, said in a statement that Yar’Adua’s statement at this year’s Conference of Nigerian Judges, where he described some tribunal rulings as “sentimental” and “unacceptable” was highly unfortunate and disturbing. He said, “The President’s comments are patently self-serving and portray the partisan passion of a usual politician rather than a statesman. Above all, it is clearly dangerous because it represents an attempt to intimidate and blackmail the judiciary. It is particularly worrisome because Mr. President and his party have pending cases against them at the presidential election tribunal. “Having sworn to defend the Nigerian constitution, Mr. President must leave the tribunals alone and allow them to do justice in accordance with their constitutional functions. The challenge of respect for the rule of law, which the President has enunciated as the hallmark of his administration, is that all persons and institutions must submit themselves to decisions of the court. “The constitutional weight and latitude of the rule of law does not permit any person or institution to pick and choose which rulings of the court to obey or agree with. Overbearing executive pressure or intimidation does not foster the rule of law; it weakens and ultimately destroys it, with serious consequences for the polity, as we saw in the last dispensation.” The NLC said it was instructive that Yar’Adua recently ignored calls by Nigerians to intervene in the row over the N628 million renovation scandal in the House of Representatives because of his avowed respect for the principle of separation of powers and independence of each arm of government. “In essence, President Yar’Adua should live up to his avowed respect for the rights and independence of the other arms of government, and allow the judiciary to do its duties in full freedom and without intimidation. The NLC had in the past commended President Yar’Adua for his willingness to abide by judicial decisions, which has helped to cool the polity and restore the rule of law and due process. We encourage the President to continue to demonstrate the high level of respect for constitutionalism, which had been the practice before.” The NLC said it believed that an “independent, activist and proactive” judiciary remained Nigeria’s “only hope for justice in the light of the massive rigging of the 2007 general election” and advised members of the various election tribunals to shun any form of intimidation and conduct themselves in accordance with the law. Posted by edoji| 10.11.2007 04:34