The crisis of confidence between the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloysious Katsina- Alu, and the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Salami, dominated the National Executive Committee meeting of the Nigerian Bar Association on February 17, 2010 in Awka, Anambra State. TONY AMOKEODO, who covered the event, reports. There is no doubt that lawyers from the 88 branches of the NBA will be agitated over the ongoing confrontation between Katsina –Alu and Salami. This is because the dramatis personae involved in this face-off are the custodians of the legal profession, who by tradition, live above board and as such are revered by stakeholders. But the issue has polarised the legal profession to the extent that some lawyers are not ready to shift ground on who is culpable between the CJN and the PCA.
The CJN had nominated the PCA for ‘elevation’ to the Supreme Court but the latter had in an open letter , rejected the ‘elevation’ on the grounds that it was a ‘Greek gift’ meant to remove him from the Court of Appeal just as he claimed that the former would now replace him with his stooge. Salami also filed an action before a Federal High Court in Abuja to challenge the ‘elevation’ and also made weighty allegations against the CJN over the protracted Sokoto State governorship tussle. He alleged that the CJN asked him to compromise on the Sokoto governorship tussle. But the PCA later withdrew the matter against the CJN and other co-defendants to the matter.
Therefore, the build up to the NBA NEC meeting in Awka on Thursday, November 17, was multi-dimensional just as the general public expected the NBA to come up with a definite position on the issue. But the NEC meeting was characterised by intrigues while certain lawyers contributed to the charged atmosphere. The lawyers sent text messages to their colleagues and select journalists on the eve of the meeting. One of the SMS reads in part, “How can we have a CJN whose reputation can’t stand up in defamation proceedings? Save the judiciary – Let’s ask Katsina –Alu / Salami to go @ Awka NEC.”
The situation, however, took another dimension at the venue of the NEC meeting where some lawyers distributed flyers over the issue. One of the flyers by a group, Clean Judiciary Campaign and Rally, asked lawyers to contact its promoters, Chidi Odinkalu and Che Oyinatumba, through their telephone numbers and e-mails. The flyer titled, “A clarion call to save the judiciary”, reads in part, “The battle to cleanse the judiciary is a battle all ministers in the temple of justice must partake. With Justice Salami withdrawing his suit against Justice Katsina-Alu, it is evident that only the Bar can redeem the image of the judiciary. To redeem the image of the judiciary, a total cleansing must be undertaken. This cleansing cannot be done with both Salami and Katsina-Alu remaining in their positions”.
The Anambra State Attorney -General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Emmanuel Chukwuma, set the tone for what should be expected when he said the PCA’s allegations against the CJN “leaves a sore taste in the mouth.” According to him, the NBA NEC meeting was timely, saying that lawyers should devote time to discuss the issues raised by the face-off between the principal officers of the highest courts of the land. Chukwuma further claimed that Anambra State would remain ever grateful to the judiciary for being benevolent to Governor Peter Obi. He added that it was the judiciary that restored Obi’s mandate, reversed his illegal impeachment and interpreted his tenure to ensure that he spent four in interrupted years as the state governor.
The NBA President , Mr. Joseph Daudu (SAN), also made reference to the burning issue when he declared in his opening address that, “ At the time of writing this address, there are three matters in court on the issue but now discontinued elevation of Justice Salami to the Supreme Court. Other murky issues have come to the surface. They, however, all remain allegations until established by due process of law. However, these issues are subjudice and tempted as we may be to want to deliberate on them, the rules that distinguish us as lawyers from laymen must apply in the circumstances. On the other hand, if the pending actions have been discontinued in the intervening period from the time I wrote this address and today, then I encourage our members to robustly discuss the issues in the best traditions of the Bar and come up with appropriate resolution.
But the committees’ reports and the controversy over the executives of the NBA’s Section on Business Law dominated the meeting until 6.20pm when the NBA boss allowed discussion on the CJN and the PCA’s face-off which came up under the State of the Nation item. A former Chairman of the Enugu Branch of the NBA, Chief L. M. Ezeofor, first spoke on the issue, saying the issue was that of ‘the Bench destroying the Bench’ and suggested that the CJN and the PCA should resign. Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), suggested that the NBA executives should intervene and meet the two jurists.
For Mr. Emeka Ngige (SAN), “This is a troubled period. Members of the NBA at the National Judicial Council should tell us what transpires before the NJC on the matter to enable us take a decision on this issue.”But a senior member of the Bar, Prof Gabriel Olawoyin (SAN), told his colleagues that the matter was in court, pointing out that discussion on the issue was subjudice. According to Olawoyin, “The situation has presented a unique opportunity for us and we should refrain from taking a decision in a matter before the court.” The issue, however, generated hot debate as most of the lawyers in attendance were willing to speak until the suggestion of the former President of the NBA from 1998-2000, Chief Thompson Okpoko (SAN), was adopted amidst outages.
Okpoko said, “Nigerians are looking up to the NBA for a laudable decision on this matter. We do not have all the facts. But I will suggest that we mandate the NBA president to constitute a strong panel of inquiry with other stakeholders including retired judges to investigate the contentious issues between the CJN and the PCA. The panel should also look into the role of senior lawyers involved in a situation where a matter was taken to a court on the issue and other matters affecting the judiciary.
The communiqué reads in part, “The NBA at its NEC meeting held on Thursday, February 18, 2011 considered many pressing issues confronting the legal profession including but not limited to the face-off between the CJN and the PCA. Because of the expectations of certain constituencies from the afore-described NBA meeting, it is necessary to preface our communiqué with some background information.
“Firstly, it was agreed that the CJN/PCA face-off was a tip of the iceberg of the problems confronting the judiciary. The problems were identified as (a) debilitating corruption eating into and corroding the entire judicial system, (b) the face -off itself, which could not be debated on account of the issue being subjudice in the sense that there are at the moment two suits pending in court on the subject matter and (c) legal practitioners who promote corruption in a variety of ways in the system.
“The entire country is hereby assured that the committee, which I will appoint shortly, will investigate all matters incidental and or ancillary to the issues agitating the judiciary and the legal profession and will recommend drastic steps to correct the anomaly on a short and long term basis.
“The NBA wishes to place on record that it is aware that the NJC has constituted a conflict resolution committee to resolve the crisis. It is hoped that this committee and the one to be set up by the NBA will at a point merge their efforts so as to come up with a uniform solution. These bodies must act fast in order to not only redeem the image of the judiciary and legal profession but to restore the confidence of Nigerians in the process.
“We conclude on the note that our sister civil societies who have threatened unilateral action in the nature of strikes and cessation of work to suspend such plans. The legal profession is still in a position to address the problems affecting its institutions. Such solutions at this stage would not only be cruel but would be pre-emptive of genuine efforts being made to solve the problem. Finally, we urge the media to exercise restraint in the way and manner it is covering this problem. The media must be aware of its professional duties to be balanced and provide opportunity for all sides of the issue to be heard.”
Communiqué
- “On the state of the nation, NEC took a critical look at the decay in the judiciary and mandated the leadership of the Association to set up a high-powered committee to work with other stakeholders with a view to tackling the hydra-headed problem of corruption that has bedeviled that arm of government in recent times.
- ‘Regarding the ongoing crisis between the CJN and the PCA, NEC refrained from taking any position on the issue since it is subjudice. It maintained, however, that, in order to restore the hope and confidence of the common man in the judiciary, stakeholders should wade into the crisis as a matter of urgency with a view to finding a lasting solution to the controversy and apportion blame where necessary after due investigation.”
Now that the die is cast, the NBA president is expected to constitute an unbiased and controversy-free panel that will do what is needful in this regard. It should be known to Daudu that the entire country is expecting him to continue where his immediate predecessor, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN), stopped and patiently waiting for how he and other stakeholders will handle this face-off and reinforce the people’s hope that the judiciary remains the last hope of common man.
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