By Tonye Clinton Jaja
“May Allah guide us to the right path (and may we not stray from the said path)” in Arabic is: “اِهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ” (Ihdinā aṣ-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm).
This phrase is directly taken from the first chapter of the Quran, Surah Al-Fatihah, verse 6.
Between the years 2019 and 2023 at my place of employment, I shared an office with a very “street” wise and devout Muslim. He had a lot of native intelligence.
He seemed to have a practical solution for any challenge that I posed based on his years of experience as a public official at a Polytechnic and as a former special assistant to a former President of the Senate.
He was the person who shared with me the opening words that I quoted from the Quran.
The meaning of those words is that: “Almighty God can guide us to the right path, but it remains our responsibility to remain and maintain our lane on the said right path”.
Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) seems to have started well on the right path (when compared to his immediate past predecessor who was generally regarded as the most incompetent AGF in Nigeria’s history).
AGF Fagbemi was widely celebrated in July 2024, when he led the federal government to win a judgment in favour of financial autonomy for all Local Government Areas (LGAs) at the Supreme Court of Nigeria. It was reported as follows:
“In May this year, (2024) the federal government—through the attorney-general of the federation (AGF) and minister of justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN—filed a suit at the Supreme Court of Nigeria accusing the state governments of running the local government aground. On July 11, the apex court gave a landmark judgment on the financial autonomy of Nigeria’s 774 local governments. It also condemned the dissolution of elected local government councils by state governors.”
However, in recent times, it appears that AGF Fagbemi is drifting off that “straight path” especially with respect to the issue of the legality of tenure extensions for the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and more recently the Chairmen of LGAs in Osun State.
Perhaps it is time to respectfully remind, Hon. AGF Fagbemi of the golden advice of the late Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Niki Tobi, JSC, when he wrote:
“I see from Exhibit EP2/34 the need for Nigerian Judges to maintain a very big distance from politics and politicians. Our Constitution forbids any mingling. As Judges, we must obey the Constitution. The two professions do not meet and will never meet at all in our democracy in the discharge of their functions.
“While politics as a profession is fully and totally based on partiality, most of the time, judgeship as a profession is fully and totally based on impartiality, the opposite of partiality.
“Bias is the trade mark of politicians. Non-bias is the trade mark of the Judge. That again creates a scenario of superlatives in the realm of opposites. Therefore the expressions, “politician” and “Judge” are opposites, so to say, in their functional contents as above; though not in their ordinary dictionary meaning.
“Their waters never meet in the same way Rivers Niger and Benue meet at the confluence near Lokoja. If they meet, the victim will be democracy most of the time and that will be bad for sovereign Nigeria. And so Judges should, on no account, dance to the music played by politicians because that will completely destroy their role as independent umpires in the judicial process.
“Let no Judge flirt with politicians in the performance of their constitutional adjudicatory functions. When I say this, I must also say that I have nothing against politicians. They are our brothers and sisters in our homes. One can hardly find in any Nigerian community or family without them. There cannot be democracy without them and we need democracy; not despotism, oligarchy and totalitarianism. They are jolly good fellows.
“The only point I am making is that their professional tools are different from ours and the Nigerian Judge should know this before he finds himself or falls into a mirage where he cannot retrace his steps to administer justice. That type of misfortune can fall on him if the National Judicial Council gets annoyed of his conduct. Ours are not theirs. Theirs are not ours. I will not say more. I will not say less too. So be it.” — Niki Tobi, Late Justice of the Supreme Court.
Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja,
Executive Director,
Nigerian Law Society (NLS).
