In recent times, President Muhammadu Buhari expressed concern over the difficulties facing his administration in its war against corruption without a vibrant and strong judiciary.
For him, the ongoing fight against corruption in Nigeria could be more effectively tackled with active support of the judiciary.
Buhari, who voiced the concern at a town hall meeting with Nigerians living in Ethiopia, insisted that far-reaching reforms of the judiciary were necessary for the anti-corruption war to succeed.
Buhari was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the 26th summit of the African Union (AU).
“On the fight against corruption vis-à-vis the judiciary, Nigerians will be right to say that is my main headache for now,” he said.
Recalling his experience with the judiciary in his serial attempts to become Nigeria’s president, Buhari said: “If you reflect on what I went through for 12 years when I wanted to be the president; I attempted three times.
“At the fourth attempt, through God and the use of technology, it was possible for Nigerians to elect an APC (All Progressives Congress) candidate as president.
“In my first attempt in 2003, I ended up at the Supreme Court and for 13 months I was in court.
“The second attempt in 2007, I was in court close to 20 months, and in 2011, my third attempt, I was also in court for nine months.
“All these cases went up to the Supreme Court until the fourth time in 2015, when God agreed that I will be President of Nigeria,” he added.
Buhari, nonetheless, assured members of the Nigerian community in Ethiopia that with the support of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, he would strive to improve the nation’s judicial administration system.
To give the administration’s anti-corruption war a big push, the president recently transmitted two executive bills to the National Assembly and the bills are aimed at strengthening the anti-corruption campaign and facilitating the prosecution of suspected corrupt cases.
The bills are the Money Laundering Prevention and Prohibition Bill 2016 and the Criminal Matters Bill 2016.
Observers are quick to note that the bills constitute a calculated legal approach to further strengthen the anti-corruption war.
Buhari said that the proposed anti-money laundering law would provide adequate penalty for money laundering, while expanding the scope of anti-money laundering agencies.
“This bill seeks to make comprehensive provisions to prohibit the laundering of the criminal activities, expand the scope of money laundering offences.
“It seeks to provide protection for employees of various institutions, bodies and professions that may discover money laundering, enhance customer due diligence.
“It provides appropriate penalties and expands the scope of supervisory bodies. It also recognises the role of certain self-regulatory organisations to address the challenges faced in implementation of comprehensive anti-money regime,” the president said in a letter addressed to the Senate.
Besides, the mutual legal assistance aspect of the Criminal Matters Bill 2016 seeks to get relevant international assistance in cases of money laundering.
The bill is expected to provide framework for drawing the assistance of other countries in providing and obtaining evidence as well as in making arrangements for persons to give evidence.
“The bill also hopes to elicit international assistance in criminal investigations, recovery, forfeiture or confiscation of property in respect of offences.
“It also seeks assistance in the restraining of dealings in property or the freezing of assets that may be recovered, forfeited or confiscated in respect of offences; the execution of request for search and seizure, the location and identification of witnesses and suspects, the service of documents and other matters connected herewith.”
As part of efforts to strengthen this commitment, Buhari recently signed an agreement with the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in order to boost the ongoing fight against corruption.
The agreement, tagged Judicial Agreements on Extradition, Transfer of Sentenced Persons, Mutual Legal Assistance on Criminal Matters and Mutual Legal Assistance on Criminal and Commercial Matters, is aimed at facilitating the recovery and repatriation of Nigeria’s stolen wealth in UAE.
Re-echoing Buhari’s viewpoint on the role of the judiciary in the current anti-corruption war, Malam Abubakar Malami, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, pledged that corrupt judges, both former and serving, would also be prosecuted.
Malami, who gave the assurance at the launch of a report by Socio Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) in Lagos recently, said that the government would also ensure the confiscation of all the illegally acquired assets of judges who were convicted of corruption.
The SERAP report is titled “Go home and sin no more: Corrupt judges escaping from justice in Nigeria.”
Malami said: “I can assure you that in line with the cardinal agenda of President Buhari’s administration, the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation will ensure that every appearance of corruption in judiciary is dealt with through criminal prosecution and forfeiture of illegally acquired assets to the State.”
Also commenting on the issue, a cross-section of lawyers called for the overhaul of the justice sector so as to restore the citizens’ confidence in the judiciary.
According to them, numerous reports of corruption and sharp practices going on within the judiciary are eroding the integrity of the judicial officers.
Mr Philip Abalaka, one of the lawyers, underscored the need to fast-track changes in procedures of litigation and meting out appropriate sanctions to corrupt judicial officers and their accomplices at the Bar.
“The type of change or the type of reform we want is something that can help to fast-track the judicial process so that cases will not last for eternity in courts.
“Litigants can have their issues determined as quickly as possible; this may require appointing more judges so that the backlog of cases can easily be cleared.
“Besides, the judiciary ought to be better off, as there have been a lot of accusations here and there about corruption in the system.
“The leadership can also do something by upraising the integrity of the system so that judges can really do their work as officers of the law, officers of justice, and not allow any interference to blur the justice that is delivered in the courts,” Abalaka said.
Sharing similar viewpoints, Mrs Aisha Yusuf, another lawyer, urged the headship of the judiciary to introduce far-reaching reforms that would pervade all sectors of the nation’s economy.
“Lawyers act as intermediaries, representing governments, private companies and citizens; therefore, our judicial system has considerable amount of power to discourage corruption.
“The judiciary is the last hope of the common man; so we need reforms that will promote and uphold people’s rights and not indulge in activities that make lawyers and judges susceptible to corruption.”
Yusuf emphasised that the judiciary ought to complement the present government’s efforts to check corruption in a pragmatic way.
She said that the judiciary, as part of its duties to the larger society, should hold governments, individuals and institutions accountable for their misdeeds.
In the same vein, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, recently admonished judges to shun corruption capable of denting the good image of the judiciary.
Mohammed gave the warning at the induction course organised for newly appointed judges and khadis at the National Judicial Institute, Abuja.
He said that judges’ obligation to abide by the profession’s code of conduct and judicial ethics was the most important requirement of a judicial officer.
“Any judicial officer that does not abide by the code of conduct is on his way out.
“The Nigerian judiciary is now more prepared and more poised than ever before to rid itself of all the ugly dirt inflicted on it by unscrupulous, fraudulent and corrupt persons occupying judicial offices in Nigeria,” he added.
Mohammed said that the National Judicial Commission and the states’ judicial service commissions were adequately empowered “to remove, with ignominy, any judicial officer or staff that has chosen the path of dishonour to be corrupt and fraudulent”.
By and large, observers urge the various anti-graft agencies to facilitate the task of the judiciary by conducting thorough investigation of corruption cases before arraigning suspects in court.
This, they add, will make it difficult for the suspects to escape justice and invariably restore the people’s confidence in the judiciary.
“Government must also accord the judiciary the respect it deserves by respecting court orders,” says one of the observers.