See Justice beyond prisms of geo-political lines – Rtd Justice Ajileye

***Urges Judiciary to ask itself how and why did it allow things to degenerate.

By Friday Idachaba, Lokoja.

Justice Alaba Omolaye-Ajileye, retired judge of Kogi State High Court has admonished Nigerians to to refrain from perceiving justice along regional or geo-political lines.

Justice Ajileye who was speaking at the 9th Annual Week of the Badagry branch of the Nigerian Bar Association spelt out the dangers inherent in seeing judges and the judgments they deliver from the prisms of religion, region or race.

He said that such perception would not only erode public trust and confidence in the Judiciary but make a mockery of the hallowed principles of the Rule of Law on which the Judiciary and the dispensation of Justice as a whole rest.

His Lordship Omolaye-Ajileye, a Nigeria’s foremost authority on the Law of Electronic Evidence, titled his lecture, “Leveraging Emerging Legal Challenges to the Rule of Law in the Prevailing Socio-economic Realities in Nigeria.”

He said: “Distinguished gentlemen of the Bar, whether we accept it or not, the truth remains that the public is watching what is going on in our courts and regularly and deeply questioning the rationale behind certain decisions, and rightly so.

“If there was ever a period where we expected the public to blindly trust the Judiciary, it is long gone. The trust necessary for the public to accept judicial decisions and court orders is fundamental to the Rule of Law.

“The Judiciary must continually ask itself, how and why did it allow things to degenerate to this level? This is because the Nigerian Judiciary had undoubtedly enjoyed high levels of trust in the past.

“The Judiciary must take this decline in public trust seriously. It cannot afford to be complacent. It is dangerous for it to assume that trust is ever-present. It must address this trust deficit.

“The public should and must be able to trust in the individual judges and the judiciary as an institution which wields immense power on its behalf.

“As Alexander Hamilton famously said, unlike the Executive and Legislature, the Judiciary has no influence over either ‘Sword or the Purse’ and ‘may truly be said to have neither force nor will, but merely judgment’.

“Armed with only the power of judgment, the Judiciary requires the legitimacy gained from public trust to function effectively to make the rule of law blossom. The general acceptance of judicial decisions, by citizens and by governments, is essential for peace, welfare, good government and the rule of law.

The corollary is also true. To distrust the judiciary is a ready recipe for anarchy. This is because citizens who trust the judiciary are more likely to engage with the legal system to address their legal issues and to co-operate with its processes”, he said

Justice Ajileye, who is currently with the Baze University, Abuja, also commented on the controversy surrounding the composition of the apex court’s presidential appeal court panel.

He said: “Still on the issue of trust, His Lordship, Hon. Justice Dattijo Muhammad, JSC (Rtd), recently made a statement at his valedictory that raises a jurisprudential question on securing public trust and justice.

“I quote Him: ‘To ensure justice and transparency in presidential appeals from the lower court, all geo-political zones are required to participate in the hearing.

“It is, therefore, dangerous for democracy and equity for two entire regions to be left out in the decisions that will affect the generality of Nigerians’.

“The grouse of His Lordship here is that both the North Central and South East geo-political zones were not represented in the panel of Justices of the Supreme Court that decided appeals that arose from the Presidential Election Tribunal to the apex court recently”, he said.

Ajiley said the jurist had held that the development was ‘dangerous for democracy and equity’ adding that His Lordship’s focus was on the absence of Justices from the North Central and South East geo-political zones in the panel.

“It was easy for social media commentators to quickly draw attention to the fact that the South West geo-political zone that parades the Chief Justice of Nigeria and two other eminent Justices of the Supreme Court was also not represented in the panel.

“According to the commentators, it was also in order to ensure ‘transparency and equity.’ The issue is neither here nor there.

“My humble position here is, it is better that the Judiciary, including the Supreme Court, be perceived as a homogeneous entity that serves the interest of all. It is dangerous to the society to perceive justice from the prisms of tribes, religions or geo-political divisions.

“Justice ought to remain an integral whole that does not admit of partition along tribal or geo-political bifurcation.

“It is also more dangerous if the impartiality of the Supreme Court is to wait for people to see the extent to which they have been represented by Justices who come from their geo-political zones.

“Secondly, with due respect, to perceive justice from geo-political lines is to trivialize justice. Justice is far more important than that.

“If we accept the intrinsic worth of every human being, then, justice becomes the minimum debt we owe to him, for if we deny him justice, we have declared him worthless.

“The dispenser of justice should, therefore, be a person that is even-handed, blind to all social distinctions and disparities in wealth, religion, tribe, status and no respecter of persons, just as justice itself should be.

“If a nation cannot look at their judges and see men and women who are upright enough to uphold the principle of the rule of law and do Justice to all manner of people without fear or favour, affection or ill-will, then, I will simply say that nation has lost it”, he said.

It would be recalled that Retired Justice Ajileye was noted for his high sense of honesty, integrity and hard work while on the Bench. (Ends)