It’s impossible corruption rises this much in Nigeria without Judiciary involvement, by Lawyer Olu Aluko

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In his contribution titled, “The CJN affair!”, Barrister Olu Aluko says it is not possible for corruption to reach the level it has reached in Nigeria without the involvement of Judiciary. Excepts:

It does not look good on anybody and the country as a whole! The mere talk of arraignment of the chief justice of Nigeria is the height ! This is even not even about 150 lawyers ready to defend him ! Or whether the president is aware or not! It just now shows the extent corruption or the suspicion of Corruption has reached!
Indeed “Houston we have a big problem !!!


Lets face it, its not possible for Corruption to reach the level it has reached in our society without the judiciary been actively involved.


It is unfortunate that as in all high profile cases there is always a political interpretation to things ! And the reason for this is because in most times things appear skewed when corruption has been attempted to be fought in this country ! The perception of the fight and justifiably so is that the fight appears motivated by reasons other than the genuine fight on corruption !


In a clime where the institutions are inherently weak the fight is now left to the whims and caprices of individuals ! This fight can only be genuinely fought by strong institutions!


For instance and in this very instance you would have thought the first port of call should have been the NJC ,the institution responsible for first inquiring into such matters like this one!


Ordinarily what should concern the president! He is not a policeman, neither the EFCC boss nor the head of NJC ! In other civilised climes what concerns a president with the fact that a man is suspected of having unexplained wealth!


Ironically it was the same supreme Court headed by this same CJ that recently passed a judgement which in essence meant a person accused of financial impropriety had to prove or explain the sources of his wealth in reality it seems the chicken has come home to roost!


What complicates this matter the timing of the move against the CJ! With elections looming there is the underlying feeling that this govt does not trust the CJ and to make things worse the CJ is a southerner and the next in line if he falls may yet be another northerner!


You can now see when some of us had been shouting that Buhari’s anti Corruption program wore a skewed garb ,,this looming suspicion is the result!


Now all sorts of mischiefs can result from the move and even if the CJ has questions to answer it will always be obscured by politics!


The thinking by interpreters is that if the coming presidential elections results ends in a court case can the president trust the current CJ to be in his corner ! And that if it appears he can’t trust him he is to be moved against!


This is the political interpretation to the move because of it’s timing,
Meanwhile what if the evidences against the CJ is compelling which is possible , What if in reality the CJ cannot justify the wealth he has, what if in truth he has not made material disclosure while filling his asset declaration forms?


We must decide collectively if we as a society is in truth willing to fight this corruption thing!


I know people ,especially lawyers will go to town quoting the Constitution and all sorts of law just to defend a colleague! But the truth is that pertinent question has this man acquired the wealth traced to him legitimately!


This is why I like countries like America where a vice president (Spiro Agnew) found himself in jail for tax evasion ! Nobody said it was politically motivated for when he was dodging tax it was him and him alone that was there!


It is time the society stop turning a blind eye to issues and try to mask things in politics!


This should be a learning curve for everybody particularly the Buhari administration as per the fight against corruption !


You cannot continue to shield your thieves !


It may well be that the CJN matter started from other quarters and caught the president unawares ! But will this story be believable to most Nigerians?


A further truth is that for a long time judgment could be purchased in this clime! And a clime where black market judgement can be obtained easily that clime can never have true Justice ! So while some are shouting foul in this current CJN brewing matter they should not turn around and complain if we can’t find relatively sanity in our judicial process!


What should be a straight forward question of “is he guilty or not?” has now turned into another thing!

*Culled from Buhari/Osinbajo Centre for Credible Information platform.


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