A response, By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

The fiftieth anniversary convocation of a college will not be an emergency occasion. The events who met in Calabar needed to have had discover of that occasion lengthy earlier than the dates of the judgments or rulings within the instances wherein their pursuits interlocked. There was ample time, in the event that they desired, to make different preparations. Their choice to proceed within the method they did with none regard to the optics or attainable injury to the standing of the judicial establishments serves neither judicial independence nor democracy. As an alternative, it showcases a peculiar model of hubris and impunity on the desecration of these excessive constitutional values.

As a part of its golden jubilee, the College of Calabar is alleged to have held a particular convocation ceremony on Saturday, 22 March, throughout which it handed out honours to all manners of individuals. The Chancellor of the College is Aminu Ado Bayero, the deposed emir of Kano. Current at that occasion additionally have been Nyesom Wike, minister of the Federal Capital Territory and Nigeria’s most prolific political litigant; in addition to Justice Emmanuel Akomaye Agim, a senior Justice of the Supreme Courtroom, who delivered the main choice within the latest judgment of that court docket regarding the withholding of the federal allocations of the Rivers State authorities.

Pictures of the occasion in Calabar placing these main actors in up to date politics of the Nigerian judiciary in shut propinquity with each other have gone viral. In response, Festus Akande, director of Data and Public Relations on the Supreme Courtroom issued a public assertion on Monday, 24 March, wherein he felt compelled to assert that Emmanuel Agim attended the convocation “as an esteemed honouree and an alumnus of the establishment, whom the Governing Council had discovered worthy to be conferred with an Honorary Doctorate Diploma in Regulation (Physician Honoris Causa). He was recognised for his important contributions to the authorized career; which is a mirrored image of his dedication to justice, integrity, and the rule of legislation, serving as a mannequin for aspiring authorized professionals and college students alike.”

Mr Akande’s assertion additional claimed that “Emmanuel Agim’s participation on the ceremony was unbiased and never as an official consultant of any authorities ministry or division, not to mention accompanying any serving or retired authorities official”, earlier than asserting that “any insinuation on the contrary will not be solely inaccurate however undermines the judicial independence that’s essential to our democracy.”

These claims are made within the identify of the Supreme Courtroom and in pursuit of excessive sounding targets of judicial independence and democracy.

The Supreme Courtroom is a public establishment embodying the best judicial authority within the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Judicial independence is a excessive constitutional precept ordained for the safety of judicial authority as a public belief. It isn’t a self-serving shibboleth.

When it comes to Nigeria’s structure, the supply of democratic legitimacy resides within the individuals alone.

To depart Festus Akande’s claims uncontested or with out a response, subsequently, is to decrease the excessive authority of the Supreme Courtroom, the service of the distinguished women and men who’ve laboured to offer it its traditionally excessive standing within the public creativeness till lately, and the excessive ideas of judicial independence and democracy instituted for the safety of the peoples of Nigeria.

This assertion is issued out of concern to stem the heedless haemorrhaging of the rarefied authority of the Supreme Courtroom of Nigeria. On this spirit, it’s important to set the data straight, even when ever so briefly.

The Relevant Requirements

The truth that Festus Akande thought-about it important to difficulty the assertion itself reveals what one thing was unsuitable with that occasion in Calabar. In case he wants reminding, Lord Chief Justice Hewart laid down the relevant normal for judging judicial impartiality and independence in 1923 in R. v Sussex Justices, Ex Parte McCarthy, (1923) All ER 233, to the impact that: “Nothing is to be executed which creates even a suspicion that there was an improper interference with the course of justice.”

That occasion in Calabar was wealthy with photos to help suspicions of improper interference with the reason for justice.

Rule 2.8 of the Revised Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers in Nigeria (2016) may be very clear: “A Decide shall keep away from creating excessively shut relationship with frequent litigants – akin to authorities ministers or their officers, municipal officers, police prosecutors in any Courtroom the place the Decide usually sits, if such relationship might moderately create an look of partiality.”

In Buhari vs. Impartial Nationwide Electoral Fee & Ors (2008) LPELR-814(SC) at PP.145-146, Justice Niki Tobi of the Supreme Courtroom admonished judges to “preserve a really huge distance from politics and politicians,” warning that:

“….the 2 professions don’t meet and can by no means meet in any respect in our democracy within the discharge of their capabilities…. Their waters by no means meet in the identical method Rivers Niger and Benue meet on the confluence close to Lokoja. In the event that they meet, the sufferer will likely be democracy more often than not, and that will likely be unhealthy for sovereign Nigeria.”

In his memoirs, Faces, Circumstances and Locations, revealed in 1983 (p.78), former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Atanda Fatayi Williams, acknowledged:

“In Nigeria, familiarity doesn’t breed contempt. It breeds obligation. Consequently, individuals with whom you might be pleasant anticipate you to bend the foundations to swimsuit their necessities. It pays ultimately for a decide, even on the danger of being accused of being a snob or of haughtiness, to be considerably aloof, not solely from members of the Govt, but in addition from political powerbrokers.”

Neither Festus Akande nor, certainly, Justice Emmanuel Agim as a Justice of the Supreme Courtroom can fake to be unaware that Nyesom Wike is probably the most prolific present political litigator in Nigeria. To justify public fraternising with him by a Supreme Courtroom Justice is to licence the accessorising of judicial officers for political functions.

The Context: Nyesom Wike and Emmanuel Akomaye Agim

On the final day of February, the Supreme Courtroom delivered judgment within the consolidated appeals in SC/CV/1174A/2024 et al, Rivers State Home of Meeting & Anor vs. The Authorities of Rivers State & 9 Ors. The case sought orders of the court docket to, amongst different issues, require the Central Financial institution of Nigeria to withhold the federal allocations of the federal government of Rivers State till the passage of a price range by a faction of the State Home of Meeting. On the time, the query of the correct of that faction of the State Home of Meeting to operate as such was the topic of litigation earlier than lowers courts in FHC/PHC/CS/2024 Oko-Jumbo & 2 Ors vs. Martin Amaewhule & Ors (pending within the Federal Excessive Courtroom in Port Harcourt since April 2024).

The case searching for to withhold the federal allocations of Rivers State was un-related to this attraction. Delivering the judgment of the Supreme Courtroom on 28 February, Emmanuel Akomaye Agim framed two points for dedication, neither of which had something to do with the problems pending earlier than the Federal Excessive Courtroom. But, with out an attraction from that case earlier than it, the court docket purported to find out the problems then pending earlier than the Federal Excessive Courtroom on the query of the defection of the 27 members of the Rivers State Home of Meeting from the platform on which they have been elected (the Peoples Democratic Celebration, PDP, to the All Progressives Congress, APC). Despite the fact that the problem of the defection of the 27 members of the Rivers State Home of Meeting didn’t come up within the attraction, the Supreme Courtroom raised it by itself and shockingly determined a case that was nonetheless pending on the Excessive Courtroom.

This plan of action has no precedent in Nigeria’s judicial historical past. It’s the  first within the historical past of Nigeria that the Supreme Courtroom will take over a case that’s pending within the Federal Excessive Courtroom. Unsurprisingly, counsel to the 27 legislators promptly utilized to the Federal Excessive Courtroom in Port Harcourt asking it to dismiss the case on the bottom that it has change into educational, on the idea that the Supreme Courtroom has determined the matter, whereas it was nonetheless on the Federal Excessive Courtroom. The Port Harcourt judicial division of the Federal Excessive Courtroom will render its judgment on this software on 20 April.

The Context: Nyesom Wike and Aminu Ado Bayero

On 14 March, a three-judge panel of the Courtroom of Enchantment sitting in Abuja in Enchantment No., CA/KN/27/M/2025, Alhaji Aliyu Babba Dan Sarki Dawaki Babba vs. Kano State Home of Meeting & 7 Ors, granted a “Necessary Injunction” (not a keep of execution) arresting the enforcement of the judgment of the identical Courtroom of Enchantment on 10 January in Enchantment No. CA/KN/126/2024, Kano State Home of Meeting & Anor vs. Alhaji Aminu Babba Dan Agundi & Ors. The sooner judgment of the Courtroom was delivered by a panel led by Justice Gabriel Kolawole, a Justice of Enchantment since 22 June, 2018. The latter choice arresting that judgment was given by a panel led by Justice Okon Abang, a Justice of the Courtroom of Enchantment since 20 September 2023. Different members of the latter panel have been Justice Eberechi Suzette Nyesom-Wike (Justice of the Courtroom of Enchantment since 10 July 2024) and Justice Oyejoju Oyewumi (Justice of the Courtroom of Enchantment since 10 July 2024). This panel of the Courtroom of Enchantment included the spouse of the Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike.

When it comes to seniority within the Abuja division of the Courtroom of Enchantment, Justice Okon Abang is quantity six  out of 10; Justice Nyesom-Wike is quantity 9; and Justice Oyewumi is the final. It’s unprecedented for a panel this junior to be constituted to sit down upon a choice of a way more senior panel of the Courtroom of Enchantment. It’s equally notable that the President of the Courtroom of Enchantment has unilaterally moved this case to Abuja from Kano.

The subject material of this attraction is a basic rights declare by a disaffected king-maker in respect of the stool of the Kano Emirate, from which Aminu Ado Bayero was deposed. The Courtroom of Enchantment in Kano had denied that declare, holding that the Federal Excessive Courtroom had no jurisdiction over primarily chieftaincy issues.

Following this choice, Aminu Ado Bayero, who will not be a named celebration within the case, notified the safety providers in Kano of his intention to carry an Eid-El-Fitr durbar on the finish of the holy month of Ramadan. I’m reliably knowledgeable by sources throughout the Courtroom of Enchantment of plans by some individuals to acquire an order of the identical Courtroom of Enchantment on Tuesday, 25 March to enjoin the safety authorities in Kano to make sure co-operation with and safety for the durbar proposed by Aminu Ado Bayero.

In the meantime, on Monday, 24 March, the Supreme Courtroom entered an attraction towards the ruling of the Okon Abang-led Courtroom of Enchantment panel as Enchantment No SC/CV/279/2025. This could ordinarily preclude the Courtroom of Enchantment from additional engagement with the subject material, however these are not any peculiar occasions and nobody can say what might occur.

The Optics

Aminu Ado Bayero, the chancellor who conferred the honorary diploma on the minister of the FCT, is searching for to assert good thing about a curious, incongruous and inconceivable order of the Courtroom of Enchantment panel, which included the spouse of the minister. As I write, the panel is but to launch the textual content of the reasoning on which it issued its orders.

Justice Emmanuel Agim is the writer of a curious, incongruous, and inexplicably unprecedented choice of the Supreme Courtroom in favour of satraps of the identical minister within the political contest in Rivers State.

This context makes the optics of that individual event in Calabar an terrible commercial for prime subversion of the values of judicial independence and democracy, round whose flags Festus Akande sought to wrap his defence of the indefensible. Even worse, these info create a reputable notion of community transaction in judicial orders.

The fiftieth anniversary convocation of a college will not be an emergency occasion. The events who met in Calabar needed to have had discover of that occasion lengthy earlier than the dates of the judgments or rulings within the instances wherein their pursuits interlocked. There was ample time, in the event that they desired, to make different preparations. Their choice to proceed within the method they did with none regard to the optics or attainable injury to the standing of the judicial establishments serves neither judicial independence nor democracy. As an alternative, it showcases a peculiar model of hubris and impunity on the desecration of these excessive constitutional values.

Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, a lawyer, teaches on the Fletcher College of Regulation and Diplomacy and may be reached by way of chidi.odinkalu@tufts.edu.