IN four days, the tenure of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Mahmud Mohammed, will end. That tenure began two years ago in November 2014 without any indication of the turmoil that would engulf and nearly consume it in the closing weeks of his tenure. Judicial insiders will remember how keenly the outgoing CJN defended judicial independence, guarding it against encroachment from the executive arm especially, almost to the point of seeming to be indifferent to the salient issues of corruption buffeting the judiciary. What the public may not know, however, is that even before the turmoil of the past few weeks, the CJN had laid the framework for a new ethical regime for the judiciary. But the framework came out only after the huge scandal that ensnared two Supreme Court justices, among some other judges, came into the open. Nor do most Nigerians, judges and lawyers know what transpired behind closed doors as the CJN battled the president over the latter’s attitude to the judiciary. Perhaps Justice Mohammed will tell his story much later.
By cruel fate, what many will remember Justice Mohammed’s tenure for is the dramatic manner seven judges became victims of what the secret service described in flowery language as a sting operation. In one dramatic moment, the Supreme Court, once revered by all, was dragged in the mud over allegations of crass commercialisation of justice. Those few dreadful days exposed the Supreme Court like never before, showing some of the justices to be poor in judgement and erudition. Those feverish days, too, showed that the judiciary had been left to rot for too long.
The 70-year-old Taraba State-born Justice Mohammed has kept a very dignified and quiet demeanour throughout the turbulent closing weeks of his tenure. He will continue to be respected for his fierce defence of the judiciary, especially the brave manner he stood up to a rampaging and indiscrete executive arm. But there is no doubt he is bowing out in a blaze of controversy, with his dream of a strong and ethical judiciary all but shattered, and his retirement blighted by regrets of a lost paradise. It is left to his successor, expectedly Justice Walter Nkanu Onnoghen, to pick up the pieces of a judiciary torn to shreds by internal failure, external humiliation and public distrust.
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