The judiciary, which is the organ of government saddled with the role of rule adjudication, is arguably the paramount anchor on which any political society and system survives. It sees to the strict adherence to the principles of democracy and the rule of law as are compatible with the provisions of the fundamental law(s) of such political society.
The Nigerian judicial arm has over the past five years been a shadow of it real self. This is evidenced in the manner at which the executive arm incessantly meddle in the affairs of the judicature, all in a bid to subject the judicial organ of government to it dictates, thus neglecting the doctrine of separation of powers.
Failure to comply had in time past, led to the removal of the president of the Court of Appeal, Chief Justice of Nigeria and invasion of justices residents at night. The judiciary has been so incapacitated that it became an executive tool to suppress dissenting voices. This undemocratic act is well pronounced in the current administration.
It is no news that disobedience to court orders has come to be a tolerated phenomenon in the Nigerian democratic practice. The greatest surprise of the century which doubles as the eight wonder of the world was the recent invasion of the court of law during a legal hearing by the department of state security operatives to arrest a man standing.
This is nothing but impunity.
Can this nation still claim to be a democratic state? No, I vehemently protest. Our political cultures and processes has run foul of democratic practices, as a result, Nigeria under the present administration is a dictatorial state.
In effect, as a justification to this assertion, the president Muhammadu Buhari’s administration had on several occasions disobeyed court orders to release the likes of sheikh El Zakzaky, Sambo Dasuki, Omoyele Sowere, Olawale Bakare and the rest of them who I refer to as “prisoners of war”, militarization of law, controversial bills (hate speech and social media bills) to curtail freedom of speech and expression, while fundamental rights of the individuals are ceaselessly encroached upon, disregard for the rule of law and ultimately, negligence of the provisions of the constitution.
All these undemocratic act are hallmarks of the Nigerian state in recent years. Without an independent judicial institution and an ever conscious Nigerian citizens, our plights and pathetic lives as a people will know no end such as is pictured in Thomas Hobbes’ state of nature where law and justice were alien, survival of the fittest as the only way of life and where the life of man was summed up as solitary, nasty, brutish, poor and short.
Only an independent and viable judiciary can safeguard Nigeria and Nigerians from Hobbes’ state of warre (Not war in an organized sense but every man against every man).
– Adeyemi Babarinde Sunday writes from Odo-Ere, Kogi State.
