Last Wednesday, I was at the Body of Benchers Complex in Abuja. The occasion was the Call to Bar ceremony for successful candidates at the February, 2025 Bar Final examinations. Chidubem Millicent, my beloved daughter, was among the candidates being called to the Bar. Mimi, as she is fondly called in home circles, is known for her perceptiveness. She appears to understand me more than any of her siblings. When, on the occasion of one of my recent birthdays she described me as a man of quiet strength, I was stunned by the insight that attended her encapsulation of my true self. How did she know about this hidden attribute of mine? It can only take a perceptive person to break into the walls of my intriguing personality.
Because of who she is and what she has been in the family, my wife and I have cause to celebrate her. She deserves all the love and affection we can bestow on her. Before now, we had equally celebrated three of her siblings who bagged the Golden Fleece in other disciplines. For us in the family, it is a tradition, almost a habit, to ensure that our children who are flying high in their own right, are encouraged to aspire to higher heights.
The proceedings at the Call to Bar ceremony of last week seemed to suggest to me that lawyers , wittingly or unwittingly, rate their discipline higher than what others may see or appreciate. At the event, the rehearsal weighed far heavier than the actual ceremony itself. All was geared towards giving the impression that there was something special about the event of the day. The Secretary, Council of Legal Education, Aderonke Osho, who reeled out the announcements told the audience that what they were about to witness was more than a graduation ceremony. It was like a court session. Courtrooms or temples of justice have a certain halo around them. This derives from the fact that those who conceived the idea of law as a profession believe that courtrooms must be set apart from the rest of the environment if people must take its proceedings and rulings seriously. They have no room for recalcitrance or intransigence. An institution with an in-built corrective impulse cannot afford to be indulgent. Its pronouncement is law even if it does not strictly conform to the law.
Everybody concerned is expected to conform. That is why lawyers must chorus “as the court pleases” even if those making the affirmation are not pleased with the pronouncement of the presiding judge.
And so, on this day, in order to ensure that the Body of Benchers auditorium played the day’s role in accordance with extant rules and regulations governing the temple of justice, Ms Osho, who handled the preliminaries that attended the ceremony, declared that the auditorium should be seen the same way as a courtroom. In other words, decorum must be observed and discipline must be maintained. The dos and don’ts were nothing short of orders. Any aspiring barrister that flouts them does so at his or her own risk.
After all the preambular remarks, the aspirants were presented to the Body of Benchers for Call to the Bar. Having admitted the New Wigs as they called them, it was then time for admonitions. All the legal officers who spoke, including the Director General of the Nigerian Law School, Prof. Isa Hayatu Chiroma, SAN, described Law as the wisest profession. It is acclaimed for its integrity and nobility. The New Wigs were enjoined to maintain and sustain the integrity and nobility of the profession. All that sounded so good.
But the admonitions were received with mixed feelings among the audience. The reason for this is not far-fetched. The profession that was being praised to high heavens has been in the eye of the storm because of the perceived misdeeds of its practitioners.
Miscarriage of justice has become a source of distemper to many who have had to approach the courts in search of justice. The impression out there is that the temple of justice is no longer what it used to be. The idea of the incorruptible judge has gone with the winds. Corrupt judges are all over the place. So, who are the new wigs supposed to learn from? What are they even expected to learn? Corruption in the temple of justice?
The sad fact is that the courts and their judgements have become one of the painful afflictions that Nigeria’s democracy is suffering from in recent years. As a deeply compromised country, Nigeria is peopled by politicians who see electoral contest as a mere formality. People just have to file out to vote on Election Day just to give the impression that an election took place. In most cases, the results are determined ahead of the elections.
Rigging has become the real route to electoral victory. It has almost become the new normal in Nigeria. In a situation as hopeless as this, the least the people expect is that wrongs associated with electoral malfeasance should be made right by the courts. As the final arbiter, the courts are supposed to take all the facts available to them into full consideration before passing judgements. But this hardly happens anymore in Nigeria. Our courts now turn a blind eye to hard facts and pass judgements that are clearly questionable.
Equally worrisome is the fact that the letters and spirit of the law are recklessly trampled upon by lawyers and judges to the consternation of those they describe as laymen. Sometimes they engage in semantic gerrymandering as a means of covering up obvious legal lacunae. Nigerians will not be in a hurry to forget the perverse interpretation that was applied by our courts to a clear constitutional provision of Abuja as a compulsory constituency that a presidential candidate must win to qualify to be declared elected as president. When faced with this constitutional matter in the aftermath of the 2023 presidential election, our judges threw away both the spirit and letter of the law in their interpretation of this constitutional provision. They even injected arguments bordering on conjunction and disjunction to confound the public. Judgments such as this leave the people wondering what our courts are up to.
Now, another confounding scenario is brewing in Osun State where our courts are pretending as if they do not know the meaning or interpretation of their own judgements. Why is the issue as to who the properly elected local government chairmen and councilors in the state unclear? Our courts made it so. They choose to mystify rather than clarify.
I worry about these shady issues because they will, one way or another affect the approach the new wigs will adopt in the practice of law. Thus, beyond the fanfare that attend the Call to Bar ceremonies, our courts presided over by judges must be weaned of corrupt practices and tendencies. That way, society will be excited that a useful addition is being brought to the legal profession whenever new lawyers are admitted to join the rank of the learned.
QUOTE:
“The impression out there is that the temple of justice is no longer what it used to be. The idea of the incorruptible judge has gone with the winds. So, who are the new wigs supposed to learn from? What are they even expected to learn?”
