The Nigerian judiciary should emulate the standards in which the Unites States judiciary dispensed the case of certificate forgery between former vice-president Atiku Abubakar and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Recall that on September 19, 2023, a US judge, Magistrate Jeffrey Gilbert, had ordered Chicago State University to release President Tinubu’s results to Mr Abubakar.
The case eventually went to a senior judge Nancy Maldonado, who ruled in favour of Atiku, rejecting stay of execution pleas from Tinubu.
The Eastern Union, a pro-democracy group in Nigeria, told THE WHISTLER on Sunday that Nigerian judiciary could learn positive lessons from the transparent manner Atiku’s case was handled in the US.
The EU’s national president Charles Anike said, “The Nigerian judiciary is still seriously on trial. Presently our judiciary has lost considerable credibility as a supposed sacred institution.
“The politicians, especially since dark days of former President Buhari, reduced Nigerian judiciary to merely tools for the political bandits to validate their civilian coups, hence will always hijack the political processes and tell anyone that dare question their acts to go to court.
“In other climes, the judiciary is usually an independent arm of government that will always expose and interrogate the excesses of the Executive and the Legislature, but not so in Nigeria.
“Therefore, there is serious and urgent need to review our constitution, to reflect the present realities. Funny enough, the Executive and Legislative arms are usually ‘elected’ officials but are giving unwanted powers to appoint and screen judicial officials.
“This is the obvious reason the Nigerian judicial officers are toys in the hands of fraudulent politicians. Going forward, there must be an established system whereby judicial officers shall be appointed by the Judicial Council. Just look back at how the American courts quickly attended to Atiku’s suit against Tinubu over the certificate issue.
“There were no executive interferences or delays. It could not have been possible here Nigeria. Nigerian courts would adjourn and delay until justice will be miscarried.
“In Nigeria today, no serious person is interested in our court system anymore, rather we have all resigned to fate. There’s now the general notion that our judiciary which is supposed to be the last hope of the common man is now the lost hope of the common man.”
