OONNOGHEN! THE CONFLICT OF MORALITY
AGAINST INTEREST IN THE FACE OF NEPOTISM
PROFESSOR YEMI OSINBAJO: ANARCHY OF
THREE LEGAL BREACHES OF INTEREST OVER MORALITY AND 8 STRATEGIC QUESTIONS.
(Part 3a)
(By Amaso Jack)
"The United Nation has
expressed fears that the independence of the judiciary in Nigeria is under
serious threat, following the recent suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria
(CJN), Walter Onnoghen, by President Muhammadu Buhari.
'UN said the action of the Nigerian
government was in total contravention of international human rights standards
on the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers.
'Its special rapporteur on the
independence of judges and lawyers, Diego Garcia-Sayán, in a statement released
in Abuja, on Monday, insisted that due process was ignored in the entire
process that led to the suspension of CJN."
CONFLICT Between Morality and
Interest.
In governance, Politics is the
conflict between morality and interest, more often than not interest wins,
either by a clear knock out or a technical knockout.
STATE of Anarchy:
Nigerian judiciary is in a state of
anarchy, in a state heading toward anarchy, with two supreme Court Justices,
and a code of conduct tribunal chairman (whose charges of corruption have been
dropped) who disregards the law and legal hierarchy of the superiority of the
court of appeal to his tribunal, who insists his tribunal is outside and beyond
the sphere of influence of the NJC and reports to a president and his
presidency who subjugates rule of law to National security and National
Interest....this is Nigeria, the state of legal anarchy, happening at a time a
distinguished Professor of Law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria is the vice
president?
"The Attorney General of the
Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, has given the
Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr.
Ibrahim Magu, 48 hours to explain why the agency filed corruption charges
against the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, Mr. Danladi"
Umar."https://www.google.com/…/n10m-bribe-agf-queries-magu-c…/amp/
THREE Vital Legal Breaches by Buhari
1 NATIONAL Interest and National
security superior to Rule of Law.
"Buhari said these in an
address he delivered at the opening of the 2018 Nigerian Bar Association Annual
General Conference in Abuja. He said, “The rule of law must be subject to the
supremacy of the nation’s security and national interest."https://www.google.com/…/buhari-says-rule-of-law-must-…/amp/
2 ALTERNATE and Parallel legal
system.
The outburst of the CCT Tribunal Chairman that amounts to an admission that there are 3 legal systems in the country namely:
The outburst of the CCT Tribunal Chairman that amounts to an admission that there are 3 legal systems in the country namely:
(1) the suspended Constitution by
the coup against the Judiciary
(2) Sharia law
(3) The code of Conduct Tribunal,
Buhari's parallel and alternate judicial system whose chairman was reported to
have said:
"The Chairman of the Code of
Conduct Tribunal, Danladi Umar, says he is not a judicial officer and is
therefore not answerable to any institution but the Presidency.He, therefore,
rejected the authority of the National Judicial Council and the Federal
Judicial Service Commission." https://www.google.com/…/onnoghen-cct-chair-snubs-quer…/amp/
"A human rights lawyer and
Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Femi Falana, has warned the Chairman of
the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), Justice Danladi Umar, not to reduce the
tribunal to an appendage of the presidency, as it is an independent organ of
the federal government." https://www.google.com/…/cct-not-under-presidency-fa…/%3famp
3 THE coup against democracy and the
illegal removal and appointment of the CJN by Buhari without due legal process
amounts to a coup against DEMOCRACY on one hand and an affront to the Judiciary
as an independent institution of government, at the time Yemi Osinbajo (a
respected legal mind) is vice president. This should have triggered the instant
resignation of the man, for his standing and status in the legal profession as
a coach, mentor, role model and professor, but he didn't resign!
STRATEGIC Question 1: Why?
Answer: The supremacy of Interest
over morality!
What Onnoghen is exhibiting like
Buhari (head of the Executive) and Saraki (head of the Legislature), is the
same supremacy of Interest over morality that Osinbajo is exhibiting.
STRATEGIC Question 2:
The strategic question any
international neutral observer going through the impressive profile of Yemi
Osibanjo, a distinguished alumnus of the prestigious London school of
economics, would ask such a respected legal mind who believes in the rule of
law, would be:
What are you doing as the Vice
President in a government that believes in the "LAW OF RULE"?
Put in another way:
STRATEGIC Question 3: Why would
Professor Yemi Osinbajo a distinguished Professor of Law, remain the Vice President
in a government (and of a government, in loyalty to his principal the
president) and in the face of the extreme breach of the Constitution by the
government to which he belongs, without resigning immediately as would be
expected of him morally, based on his high legal standing as a Senior Advocate
of Nigeria SAN?
THE answers?
1 Interest is of a far more vital
and strategic importance than morality, especially for him when the 2023
presidential election is factored in!
2 Osinbajo represents the geopolitical
and political economic interest of the South West in an ethnic polarized
Nigeria, made worse by his principal the president. To resign would amount to
compromising that interest for morality! In this sense the interest Yemi
Osinbajo represents is as a group, is bigger and stronger than the morality
Yemi Osinbajo was hitherto known for as an individual!
The result? Yemi Osinbajo is sitting
by tight by interest, even though Yemi Osinbajo by morality, would probably ( I
have no access to his mind) have resigned by morality!
Observation 1: Senior Advocate of
Nigeria SAN is the Nigerian equivalent of the Queen's counsel of the United
Kingdom from where it was adopted and adapted.
"Queen's counsel.....a UK term
for a Barrister who, having practiced law for at least ten years, is given the
honor on the recommendation of the Lord Chancellor to earn the right to wear
silk gown ('takes silk' as it is called) and take precedence over other
Barristers in the court. A similar honor makes an attorney 'Senior Counsel' in
British commonwealth countries." http://www.businessdictionary.com/defi…/queen-s-counsel.html
Observation 2: "Senior Advocate
of Nigeria (SAN) is a title that is conferred on legal practitioners in Nigeria
who have distinguished themselves in the legal profession. To be considered, a
lawyer must have been in legal practice or academics for not less than ten
years.
'The conferment is made in
accordance with the Legal Practitioners Act 207 Section 5 (1) by the Legal
Practitioners’ Privileges Committee, headed by the Chief Justice (as Chairman),
and consist of the Attorney-General, one Justice of the Supreme Court,
President of the Court of Appeal, five of the Chief Judges of the States, Chief
Judge of the Federal High Court, and five legal practitioners who are Senior
Advocates of Nigeria.
'The first Senior Advocates of
Nigeria were Chief F.R.A. Williams and Dr. Nabo Graham-Douglas. The title was
first conferred on April 3, 1975." https://www.lawyard.ng/list-of-senior-advocates-s-a-n-in-n…/
DOCTRINE of necessity?
STRATEGIC Question 4: Is the action
of government (the illegal removal of CJN) interpreted by them as a doctrine of
necessity, in the face of corruption in the the judiciary, a probable position
of consensus by the 12 lawyers in the presidency?
Femi Falana notes: “It’s intriguing
that the 12 lawyers, including three Senior Advocates of Nigeria, in the
federal cabinet did not deem it fit to dissuade President Buhari from carrying
out the illegal suspension of the Chief Justice on the basis of an ex parte
order issued by the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
“It is unfortunate that the Bar and
the Bench have played into the hands of the sponsors of incipient fascism in
the country." https://www.google.com/…/falana-tackles-the-12-lawyers-…/amp
Observation 3: "The doctrine of
necessity is the basis on which extra-legal actions by state actors, which are
designed to restore order, are found to be constitutional......The maxim on
which the doctrine is based originated in the writings of the medieval jurist
Henry de Bracton, and similar justifications for this kind of extra-legal
action have been advanced by more recent legal authorities, including William
Blackstone." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctrine_of_necessity
STRATEGIC Question 5: If yes,
Why the silence and indifference to
executive corruption and focus on judicial and legislative corruption based on
the legal Maxim: "He who comes into equity must come with clean
hands."?
Senator Shehu Sani captured the
supremacy of interest over morality in Buhari's corruption fight this way:
"When it comes to fighting
corruption in the National Assembly and the Judiciary and in the larger
Nigerian sectors, the President uses insecticide, but when it comes to fighting
corruption within the Presidency, they use deodorants,” Shehu Sani, Senator
representing Kaduna central.
This double standard is a clear
pointer to the core fascist doctrine, Buhari adopted from Niccolò Machiavelli,
to the intent that "the ends justify the means."
Observation 4: Niccolò Machiavelli
didn't use those actual words.
Eoin O'Carroll in his June 3rd, 2011
article, in "The Christian Science Monitor" points out that:
"Probably the closest
Machiavelli gets to expressing this view is in Chapter XVIII of "The
Prince": in which Niccolò Machiavelli wrote:
"let a prince have the credit
of conquering and holding his state, the means will always be considered
honest, and he will be praised by everybody" https://www.csmonitor.com/…/The-ends-justify-the-means.-Nic…
Question 6: Is the doctrine of
necessity the "illegality of legality" the government deployed to
justify the illegal withdraw from the excess crude account, there by
subjugating morality to interest, that it seeks to deploy again?
"Festus Keyamo, SAN, said the
President, in withdrawing $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account, ECA, acted
under the doctrine of necessity, and that his action was justifiable."https://www.google.com/…/buhari-can-spend-496m-without…/amp/
INIBEHE Effiong, the Law and
Procedural Steps for Removing the Chief Justice of Nigeria.
Inibehe Effiong "a Lagos-based
legal practitioner and human rights activist" in his well documented and
insightful account of the law, he titled:
"Illegality Of The ‘Suspension’
Of Justice Onnoghen: 20 Points To Note." , wrote:
"1. The office of the CJN is
not a ministerial or extra-ministerial position. It is a creation of Sections
230 (1) (a) and 231 (1) and (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) (subsequently referred to as ‘the Constitution’).
2. The Chief Justice of Nigeria is
the head and symbol of authority of the Nigerian Judiciary. The Judiciary is
neither an agency of the federal government nor a department in the Executive.
It is one of the three Arms of Government and is established by Section 6 of
the Constitution. The CJN is to the judicial arm of government what the
President is to the executive arm. The three arms are co-equals and none is
subservient to the other.
3. The President cannot appoint or
remove the CJN unilaterally. The Constitution has explicitly stated the
procedure for the appointment and removal of the CJN and no court, tribunal,
president or other authority or person in Nigeria can derogate from, override
or alter the said procedure.
4. By Section 231 (1) and (2) of the
Constitution, the appointment of the CJN requires the compulsory involvement of
the three arms of government. The President appoints the CJN on the
recommendation of the National Judicial Council (NJC) subject to the approval
of the Senate.
5. By virtue of Section 292 (1) and
Paragraph 20 and 21 of the Third Schedule to the Constitution, the CJN enjoys
security of tenure and is not removable except within the strict procedure and
for the specific reasons enshrined therein.
6. The CJN as a judicial officer can
only be removed from office by the President acting on an address supported by
two thirds majority of the Senate for his inability to discharge the functions
of his office or appointment (whether arising from infirmity of mind or body)
or for misconduct or contravention of the Code of Conduct. Anything contrary to
this procedure is unconstitutional."
THE Government of Conflict? Between
Law of Rule (Buhari) and Rule of Law (Osibanjo):
One of the strangest paradoxical
experiences of our contemporary democracy, is the union for (political power)
between a president who disregards rule of law to the point of LAW of RULE (for
he insists rule of law must lie in prostate reverence to national interest and
national security) and a vice president a professor of rule of law.
One puts RULE before LAW, the other
puts LAW before RULE.
FALANA'S Moral Quick Fix in the Face
of VICE Presidential Legal Silence
"The government should as a
matter of urgency, lift the suspension on the Chief Justice since the Chief
Justice as so much to on his own admitted that he did not declare his assets,
he should do the needful by calling it quits”.Femi Falana
https://www.channelstv.com/…/falana-calls-for-justice-onno…/
https://www.channelstv.com/…/falana-calls-for-justice-onno…/
This is Falana's legal quick fix
solution to the major Judicial anarchy into which Buhari has plunged the
country.
A crisis of two chief justices:
• One recognized by the
Constitution, but with a criminal case (that had not been proven at the time of
his extra judicial fascist removal) who has refused to resign (on the honour of
his integrity, a clear pointer to the superiority of interest over morality) in
the person of Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, against whom exists overwhelming
evidence of corruption, from the executive arm of Government (at this critical
period of the eve of elections).
An executive who by "paradox
hypocrisy" conceals, ignores and benefits from the very corruption, it is
using as a tool to compromise democracy in its infamous, compromised anti
corruption fight, that deploys it as a tool of coercion for political ends at
the expense of morality.
• An illegally appointed contender
to the high office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria , in the person of Ibrahim
Tanko Muhammad, not recognised by law but by Buhari (a man with a clear ethnic
bias, based on the fascism of Hitler) and most surprisingly by Osibanjo, the
esteemed professor of law and Vice president, who by this action is rubishing
(with his own hands) his years of legal , ethical and moral integrity on the
altar of interest (based on an uncertain 2023 Osibanjo presidency) or
perhaps.....just perhaps (by the slimmest of chances) the leadership of a
government of National unity.
As a candidate of compromise, should
the 2019 elections take off into a stall and crash into a government of
national unity, last-ditch effort to save democracy in Nigeria and prevent
either (1) a Military coup by Buratai a Buharist loyalist, in the event of an
Atiku victory (2) another civil war (3) or total disintegration of the Nigerian
state to the delight of Nnamdi Kanu, the Biafran separatist.
• A CCT chairman in the person of
Justice Danladi Yakubu Umar, the face of Buhari's emerging alternate fascist
legal system.
Falana spoke from the position of
the supremacy of morality over interest.
Onnoghen's Sit tight posture in the
face of damning allegations, is his resolute response by interest, just like
the Vice president, the respected professor of law who in the face of gross
legal procedural breaches by a government in which he is vice president, has
refused to resign!
STRATEGIC Question 7:Why?
For Onnoghen, Osibanjo, Tanko and
Umar, Interest has the clear priority over morality , for which all four men
have refused to resign.
Yemi Osinbajo is in a race against
history.
STRATEGIC Question 8: Will history
catch up with him as the only legal mind to occupy the office of Vice
president, under whom these paradox of legal breaches occurred?
Yemi Osinbajo still has time on his
side to "redeem" his hard earned legal reputation, but that time is
ebbing out......faster that he thinks!
Continued
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