By Sonnie Ekwowusi
Below is a satire penned down shortly after Tanko boggled his Senate screening exercise. Were Tanko nominated as CJ in foreign jurisdictions, he probably would not have emerged as the CJ. But everything goes in Nigeria. I can’t understand this generation of Nigerian lawyers. We keep quiet in the face of palpable moral oddities. For example, once we were in one of those tiny suffocating cubicles of the Federal High Court, Lagos. We were literally suffocating to death. All including the presiding judge were fanning themselves. The air-conditioner was out of order, and, the windows and the door of the court were firmly shut. We were really suffering and really suffocating to death. My first shock was that all the lawyers in court including respectable old colleagues kept mum.
When I could no longer tolerate the heat, I got up and told the presiding judge that I was contemplating removing my wig and gown or pack my books and walk out of the court. Apparently, he saw the fire in my eyes and granted my request. I quickly removed my wig and gown. But surprisingly, the other lawyers in court, even very old lawyers, did not remove theirs. Instead of removing their wigs and gowns and save themselves from imminent stroke, they sat where they sat mopping at me after I had removed my wig and gown and be freed from the suffocating heat. Why am I retelling this incident today? Because this generation of Nigerian lawyers are too complacent for my liking. Why keep quiet amid moral crises, even crises threatening our soul?
Critics of lawyer Malcolm are cowards. In the face of the complacency of lawyers, Malcolm did what he did to come to terms with the pangs of his conscience.
What have you done to salvage the judiciary from the doldrums of corruption and inefficiency? Sit down and entertain yourself with rat and lizard social media tidbits?
In Defence of Chief Justice Tanko
For weeks now, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Hon Justice Tanko Mohammed has been under the sledgehammer of the public. In their unanimous judgment the people are saying that Justice Tanko is not a fit and proper person to be appointed the CJN. Mind you, Justice Tanko has been cleared by the Senate. He has even been sworn in by President Buhari as the CJN. Yet some troublemakers in Nigeria will not allow him to rest. They keep on saying that he is a complete dunce who lacks the qualities of a CJN. Some people are even making a mockery of Justice Tanko on their WhatsApp platforms, Twitter, Facebook and on other social media platforms. They are saying that because President Buhari is a never-do-well he has appointed a never-do-well Justice Tanko and other never-do-wells as his Ministers.
Let me quickly say from the onset that I hate name-calling and calumny against the good name of others. Our siddon-look critics must learn to be emotionally detached from issues that do not concern them. They should avoid attacking any person created by God. I agree with ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo that every human being created by God is good. Therefore Chief Justice Tanko Mohammed is good. So let all these self-styled and self-appointed critics desist from calumniating the person of Tanko Mohammed. Why are they even making a mockery of Justice Tanko? Because they claim that he does not know the meaning of the legal term “technicality”. Asked by the Senate Minority Leader Enyinnaya Abaribe whether substantial justice can be sacrificed on the altar of legal technicalities, Chief Justice Tanko answered, “Permit me, distinguished senators, to ask what a technicality is, it is something that is not usual and may sometimes defy all norms known to a normal thing. Now we have technicalities in our laws we have inherited from the British. If something which is technical comes before the court what we do in trial court is to ask people who are experts in that field to come and testify. We rely on their testimony because they are experts in that field. Ask me anything about an aeroplane, I don’t know. Ask me to drive an aeroplane, I am sure if you a passenger and they told you that the flight is going to be driven by Honourable Justice Tanko, I am sure you will get out of the plane because it is something that requires technicality and if I have any technicality, my technicality will only be limited to law”
What a brilliant answer from a brilliant judge! Justice Tanko is my man of the year. In fact, Justice Tanko’s critics should be blaming themselves for not understanding the complex legalistic response of Justice Tanko. They forget that Tanko is not on the same level with them. They forget that Justice Tanko has climbed up to the next level. They forget that he possesses a Ph.D. in law. More importantly, Justice Tanko has been in the Supreme Court for twelve years. Therefore it is not every Tom, Dick, and Harry that can understand his oratorical deliveries. Judges are wordsmiths. Judges are the masters of the English language. Tanko’s critics should re-read part of what he said. He said: “If something which is technical comes before the court what we do in trial court is to ask people who are experts in that field to come and testify”. In essence, his Lordship is saying that any day that technical comes to court the judge should call an expert in that field to come and testify before the court. Why? Because “technicality” is a trouble maker that can cause trouble in court any day he comes to court. That is why an expert was brought to the court to testify and deal with “technicality”. To buttress his argument, Justice Tanko even gave an example. He said that as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria it is a “technical use” for him to begin to drive an aeroplane instead of sitting as a Justice of the Supreme Court. He said that any passenger who hears that he (Justice Tanko) is driving an aeroplane he or she will immediately run out of the plane because it is something that pertains to “technicality”, which he (Justice Tanko) does not possess because his “technicality” is limited to the realm of law. In other words, Justice Tanko said that as a Supreme Court Justice he cannot be seen to be driving an aeroplane because it pertains to “technicality”.
In any case, Justice Tanko does not owe his critics any apology. It was not even necessary for him to appear before the Senate for any screening or confirmation. President Buhari has chosen him as the Chief Justice of Nigeria. Full stop. Lest we forget, public legitimacy or approbation does not make a judge in Nigeria in the same way a hood does not make a monk. Knowledge of the law has ceased to be a pre-requisite for the appointment of judges in Nigeria. Buhari is the sole appointer judges. That is why any Justice of the Supreme Court considered by Buhari to be corrupt is immediately smoked out of his house in the middle of the night. In our presidential democracy power resides only in President Buhari not in the people. President Buhari is the sole appointer of the INEC Chairman. He is the sole appointer of the Chief Justice of Nigeria. I hope I am communicating? Small wonder Justice Tanko has decided not to join issues with his critics. Silence is the best answer to a fool.
Justice Tanko’s critics are also grumbling that he is only a Sharia judge and not a normal civil law judge. And so what? Is Nigeria not already a Sharia country? Did Mohammadu Buhari not promise prior to his election in 2015 that he would shariarise, fulanise and ruganise Nigeria if elected President of Nigeria? Did many of these South Westerners who are now complaining about the Fulani herdsmen murderers not vote for candidate Buhari in the 2015 presidential election as well as in the 2019 presidential election? So, why this hypocrisy? Why this double standard? You see, many Nigerians are cowards. Instead of challenging President Buhari or Asiwaju Bola Tinubu with their frustrations they are challenging innocent Justice Tanko. Is Justice Tanko the person destroying the Nigerian judiciary at the moment? Is he the person that has recently obtained a court order to proscribe the Shiites’ organization while refusing to proscribe the murderous Fulani herdsmen killers and Miyetti Allah?
Justice Tanko is also accused of falsifying his age. This is a liar. Wa laii, if Justice Tanko catches any of these people spreading this liar he would jail them. Anyway, one question has been bothering me: Why is it that whenever a public figure from Northern Nigeria makes a public statement the public will start viewing the statement with microscopic eyes to see if there is a grammatical error in it?. Remember Alhaji Barkin Zuwo (sentenced to 300 years by army dictator Mohammadu Buhari), the Governor of Kano State during the Second Republic of President Alhaji Shehu Shagari? The public was always picking holes in his public statements. Asked if Kano State had any minerals apart from natural resources, Zuwo answered,, ”kai … mineral berekete for Kano…akwoi Fanta, akwoi Coke, akwoi…” Instead of applauding Zuwo for answering the question correctly the illterate Nigerian public chose to calumnate him. Barkin Zuwo was called all sorts of unprintable names. They said that he was an illiterate; that he did not go to school. Now people are saying that Justice Tanko is the Barkin Zuwo of our time. I disagree. Justice Tanko is our intellectual. He is a brilliant judge most qualified to be appointed the Chief Justice of Nigeria
