The Federal Government of Nigeria in an unprecedented act will tomorrow arraign the country’s Chief Justice (CJN) before the Code of Conduct Tribunal. While the government seeks to try Justice Onnoghen over alleged breach of the Code of Conduct Bureau Act, there is growing consensus that the recent move to try the head of the country’s judicial arm of government is connected to the elections.
The main opposition party’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party has expressed his suspicions over the development, toeing the same line with his party which alleged that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration was plotting to remove the CJN and install a puppet who would do its bidding in electoral matters. Atiku wrote:
Any attempt to force Justice Walter Onnoghen to vacate his office, 4 weeks to an election for which the unpopular Buhari administration has shown every intention to manipulate, is a move pregnant with negative meaning. I see no reason whatsoever for the ongoing pressure by the Buhari government to force Justice Walter Onnoghen to vacate office when he has not been convicted for any offence.
The move has also caught the interest of civil society organisations, with several of them looking beyond the details of the case but probing the motives of the government. Civil rights group SERAP described the trial as a mockery of the judicial process based on its “shaky constitutional and legal process.”
“Whatever the facts, prosecuting the Chief Justice of Nigeria one month before elections is troubling and unwise. He is leader of the Judicial branch of the Government,” Jibrin Ibrahim, a board member of the Centre for Democracy and Development stated in a tweet.
The governors of Nigeria’s South South geopolitical zone are rallying over the situation, as Justice Onnoghen hails from the zone. In all of this, the Nigerian Presidency has denied involvement in the controversial plot.
Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, the former National Human Rights Commission chairman, counters this as he alleged in a tweet that the President met with the planned successor to the CJN based on credible reports available to him.
Should this be taken seriously? Yes.
Recent investigations into the author of the petition which forms the basis of the CJN’s trial has been linked back to the Presidency. Dennis Aghanya, who originated the petition once served as a media aide to President Buhari and was publicity secretary of the Congress for Progressive Change, a platform Buhari contested under in the 2011 elections. According to a deep dive by investigative newspaper, Sahara Reporters, Mr. Aghanya is also the head of a Political Action Committee, the Buhari Unity Band seeking to advance the re-election bid of President Buhari.
No matter what happens or whatever the facts of the trial may be, the government would struggle to convince the Nigerian people it has no intention to sway the elections based on the timeliness of its actions.
