ARTICLE: Powerlessness, Inaccessibility To Justice, Allegations Of Defamation: A Nexus

Posted by African Examiner Articles/Opinion, Featured, Latest Headlines Wednesday, January 1st, 2025

By Andrew A. Erakhrumen

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – We believe that positive societal building (or its decay) is enabled by humans inhabiting that society; although, outsiders may also kick-start and/or assist in entrenching certain choices. On the long run, the choices, benefits and consequences do belong to the society. This is a reason for serious societies to look inward in search of solutions to what is/are identified as problems/challenges.

No doubt, those benefiting from warped superstructure, (including bigots and slaves), like Nigeria’s, do not see any wrongness in warpness. However, it is good to note that Nigeria’s well-criticised current superstructure did not originate the way the universe began as explained by most astronomers with the use of the “Big Bang Theory”. This Nigerian system got created and nurtured by humans – willingly or otherwise! This is a reality that must be embraced for positive change to be feasible!

Given that many Nigerians are finger-pointing and reality-denying, they find it hard to agree with this fact. So, you hear correct statements, like “there is no perfect system anywhere in the world”, that may have been laced with corrupted intent! Today, it is difficult to find persons who do not think that “Nigerian system is good when it benefits him/her but rotten when it does not”. We have also heard that “Nigeria is where right is wrong and wrong is right” from people who enjoyed, and are still enjoying, the criticised warpedness! How do we reconcile these contradictions? We think it is by coming to equity with clean hands since “…..It is utter self-deception and disservice to think that Nigeria can develop with the ambushing, entrapping, oppressive, repressive, exclusive, discriminatory and fraudulent anti-democratic shaky superstructure erected since the 15th of January, 1966…..”

The date that has just been mentioned was when undemocratic (military) terminologies such as “…..with immediate effect…..” got into the country’s political lexicon. Thenceforth, governance was all about force and militarising civilians’ space and mind! By 29th of July, 1966, it was clear that those soldiers were mainly trained for (and also believe more in) brawl, brawn and brutality! Pure brigandage! As the coupists did not derive legitimacy from the civil populace except support from disgruntled members of the political class, they had to go dictatorial. Like the (British) colonialists, they did trample on rights!

Unfortunately, their decrees and other repressive laws were either wholly written by, or co-written with, some civilians, mostly lawyers – many of whom claiming (then and now) to be constitutional lawyers! These characters were not spirits; those that are still alive are around! They and their principals incapacitated the courts and made the incorruptible judges look incompetent and irresponsible.

It was during that era we heard about “ouster clauses”. Shamelessly, when out of power, those who made a mess of the law courts when they were in power eventually still went to those courts to seek one relief or the other. Painfully, Nigeria’s judiciary has not recovered from the injurious inflictions on it since that military era! The wounds arising from those attacks are being exploited by politicians, today. This has been obvious in most outcomes from election litigations emanating from our courts; it appears that these courts have been hijacked for dispensing judgement and not justice! The courts are now depicted as tools for heisting political mandates!

Events and names concerning the foregoing are freely mentioned, daily, in public and on the streets. These views are not only increasingly popular but are also becoming entrenched in people’s mind – correctly or incorrectly. In fact, ordinary people are knowingly or unknowingly constantly defaming lawyers and judges via libel and slander owing to their disappointment and anger that continuously spring from their perceived latent (and visible) powerlessness, lack of access to, and means of obtaining, justice. This might inform why Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah posits that “…..A lot has been said about the judiciary and its importance and significance in the struggle for human rights.

However, a lot of the attention has been devoted to the calls for judicial reforms as if by themselves these reforms occur mechanically and can therefore ensure justice…..There is no use having fantastic structures, fat salaries and regalia for judges if citizens remain distrustful of the system due to experiences…..”

While we are not making a case for any judge, Nigerians should pay attention to comments such as the ones made by Justice Amina Augie (a former justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria) in a viral video where she said that “…..Nigerians are very, very good at assessing their bosses…..if you want to go straight, they will go straight with you as long as they know that you are straight…..when we are talking about the judiciary everybody looks at the judges…..they forget the staff that runs the whole place…..before we [judges] come to sit in court…..” Certainly, the systemic rottenness in this and other sectors are too complex for many of us to comprehend!

As mentioned above, many have consequently taken to openly maligning the Bar and Bench when justice is perceived to have “unfairly” eluded them; this has always been the case but now rampant concerning election litigations in the last two decades. Allegations have populated the court of public opinion to the extent that it was a matter of time for more defamation allegations to be brought to law courts of competent jurisdiction.

The word – defamation – reminds us of the law suits regarding Chief Afe Babalola and others’ accusations of defamation against Barrister Dele Farotimi in his (Farotimi’s) published book. We do not see reason(s) why Nigeria – claiming to have subscribed to democratic tenets – should still be criminalising defamation in 2025! It is interesting that the litigants, for now, are lawyers; so, we are safe to assume that they know what to argue in the court. We may not be lawyers but we know that substantial issue(s) in a case before the courts is/are not expected to be discussed in public! We may not have been expecting it so soon, but were neither shocked nor surprised, that Farotimi puts those contents, which are now being contested in courts of law, in a book considering his well-known opinions earlier espoused in public. Well now, the litigants are already in court! What is being sought for, by all parties involved in the case (or cases) concerning the allegations of defamation, is JUSTICE that must not only be done but also seen to have been done! This is because some judges could decide to remain blind to the obstruction of justice as also observed by the well-respected Justice Chukwudifu Oputa (1924–2014). This is distressing!

As quoted in Kukah’s book, Justice Oputa states that “…..A blind judge is an extremely dangerous animal and an oddity in the sacred temple of justice. Such a judge cannot enthrone justice on her proud and lofty throne and keep her there visibly elegant and dignified, a comfort and an asylum to the oppressed, a guaranteed hope for the innocent and a chilling terror to the malignant and the vile…..It is not a compliment to say that a judge is honest and impartial. Honesty and impartiality are the requisite qualities to look for before the appointment to the high bench…..” These are words on marble! Let the current Nigerian judges learn good virtues from the sages! Back to where we started from in this piece.

We need to realise that to challenge and aim at conquering the mammoth superstructure preventing the country’s greatness, it is crucial that Nigerian people should sincerely come together to jointly drink from clean spring known as “truth” that brings forth sensibleness. We are not referring to the contrived truth but the one jointly observed, experienced and agreed to, for the benefit of the majority! We should ask ourselves essential productive questions! We should challenge the status quo that is supportive of moral impropriety and criminality in high places! Together, we must agree to move forward towards positivity! It is then we will be ready to confront and capture “the malignant and the vile” for the bottomless pit they belong! This is January of 2025CE! As always, we wish the reader productivity and fulfillment this season and beyond!

*Prof. Erakhrumen currently teaches at the Department of Forest Resources and Wildlife Management, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria.