George to CJN: Judicial Rascality Now in Place in Nigeria

Segun James

Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Bode George, has said 25 years after the military returned to the barracks from the political play field, “what is oozing out of the third estate of the realm is becoming offensive to millions of Nigerians, in and outside the country.”
George, a former military governor of old Ondo State, lamented that judicial rascality had become the order of the day in the country, “especially coming from courts of coordinate jurisdictions.
“We now have a situation in which a court, which is thousands of miles away from a theatre of partisan conflict, will give a  confusing order and Nigerians will just be wondering what exactly  was going on.”
According to him, an appellate court could override the decision of a lower court but “I strongly believe that a High Court, federal or state, cannot give a counter order on a case in which it has no jurisdiction against another High Court. Anything short of this will lead to judicial anarchy.
“This is the time for you to urgently call a meeting of the National Judicial Council (NJC) to be attended by judges, from states and federal, to address this anomaly because there are many conflicting judgements from courts of coordinate jurisdiction these days.
“Nigerians no longer respect judgements from some judicial officers and you see them boldly analysing the faux pas of these judgements on national televisions. Enough is enough.
“From the 1950s to 1980s, judges were feared because they, to a large extent, never compromised their positions. Decades ago, there was this popular saying in Yorubaland, that you dare not sleep before a judge.

“Those were the glorious years in Nigerian judiciary when judges were judges but what do we have today? Judicial chaos, anarchy and confusion to the extent that Nigerians openly say it that some judges are on the payroll of many politicians. It is that bad.”