Hottestgistnaija.com
By JIDE KOLADE
(Veteran Journalist and Public Analyst)
it shouldn’t come as a surprise, maybe to many deciphering minds of the Nigerian populace, that Buhari forced his way through and finally implanted his former Arabic teacher on us, as the nation’s number one judicial officer over the weekend.
Every right thinking Nigerian is only taken aback by the desperate move of Mr President, in this quest to find a permanent solution to the life threatening incubus, long bedeviling his hallucinating mind.
Remember, he once said to us, that judiciary is his only problem. That was at the onset of this administration. If he had his way then, he would most probably, have suspended that aspect of the constitutional provision, that incorporated judiciary into the tripodial organogram, of our democratictic governance.
One thing I grudgingly admire in him is the fact that Buhari does not pretend about what he loathes. And what constitutes a paranoa to his fickled mind. I bet, no one can take that away from this Infantry General.
A stitch in time, they say, saves nine. Thruth be told, leaving Walter Ononghen to remain as Chief Justice of Nigeria, till he completes his official terms of office in 2020 for Buhari, is liking having a snake in the ceiling of his Aso Rock Villa.
Hence, he has got to do away with the crawling phobia. Either by hook or by crook, you can call it what you want, cause the man knows Walter Ononghen well by his track records as a judge who brooks no nonsense.
Reports have it that the list of members of the Elections Tribunals, scheduled to be sworn in today by Justice Ononghen, had earlier been drawn by Buhari and his kitchen cabinet and the same forwarded to the Chief Justice as their own idea of what the tribunals should look like. But, in his characteristic manner, Ononghen was said to have quietly returned the list to the presidency, saying: “members of the Tribunals have to be independent”!
Pray, where is the independence of the Judiciary in this case as the the third arm of government, if the list of the Tribunals membership has to emanate from the seat of the Executive (The Presidency)?
Ab initio, Buhari never hid his disdain for the person of Walter Ononghen, for the following reasons as enumerated here under:
1) Ononghen is from Cross River State, a southern minority, of Christian extraction.
2) Ononghen is reputed to have an independent mind and may not be easily intimidated or ready to be goaded to do the biddings of the established authority. Which, of course, means he would not be a useful tool in hands, both at pre and post election period.
3) Ononghen may not be predisposed to the idea of jungle justice to imprison suspected corrupt politicians from the opposition camp without a recourse to due process.
4) Finally, and most delicately, the emergence of Justice Walter Ononghen has tripped the apple’s cat, as the North had long set an unbreakable track of succession plans, to the office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, for decades past or yet to come. A contrivance, which precludes the juciary officials of Southern Nigeria origin.
Buhari is privy to this arrangee. The cabals also know this! And, of course, the reason he was initially sceptical and less enthusiastic of Walter Ononghen’s acting Chief Justice position.
We should be reminded here that Buhari was on sick bed, away in United Kingdom and hardly knew what was going on around him, when the Vice President, Prof Yemi Oshinbajo, ratified Ononghen’s appointment from it’s hitherto acting capacity to a substantive Chief Justice. The appointment had been twice renewed in acting capacity, that almost led to a constitutional crisis. If not by providence, Ononghen would never have become the CJN.
This singular act of candour exhibited by Oshinbajo nearly brought the nation’s seat of government to a standstill, when Buhari later heard of it, first from the cabal in power, before being briefed by his second in command.
Now, far off the constitutional provision, and the need to promote growth of Nigeria’s fledgling democracy, Buhari has appointed for himself, a puppet Chief Justice. In so doing, he has suspended the constitution and justified a repercussion in an outbreak of anarchy and civil disobedience. Are you ready to bell the cat? Revolutions, the world over, are known to be triggered by one man action!
