Welcome back Bolaji. We all know that there are three arms in the presidential system of government in Nigeria (separation of powers). If each arm of government should act according to the spirit of the Constitution and the laws, there would be no problem. Evidently today, the National Assembly is constituted in disregard of the letters of the Constitution prohibiting carpet crossing. The most important arm of the government as I see it is the Judiciary which if it has been adjudicating strictly over cases according to the laws, neither the Executive nor the legislature would have been able to mess up the system. Alas, the judiciary is the last hope of treasury looters in Nigeria and it is the cemetery of common Nigerians.
S. Kadiri
Från: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> för Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com>
Skickat: den 30 januari 2019 05:33
Till: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote
Skickat: den 30 januari 2019 05:33
Till: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote
In Nigeria's checks-and-balances presidential system:
(1) The President can be impeached by the National Assembly, and then removed by adequate vote margin. Unless the President physically shuts down the Nass building, he cannot prevent the legislators from initiating such an impeachment move. His own cabinet can also initiate his removal, under certain unusual disability circumstances. The "victimized" President can appeal to the Judiciary to claim abuse of process, but he is unlikely to prevail.
(2). The Senate President and the Speaker of the House can be impeached by special investigating committee of their peers, and then removed by an adequate vote margin. There is nothing these two Legislature leaders can do - including not convening Senate or House sittings - to prevent their removal if their peers are determined to do the removal act. They can appeal to the Judiciary to claim abuse of process, but they are unlikely to prevail.
(3). The case of the CJN is totally different. Only the NJC which he chairs can discipline him, and if he refuses to call an NJC meeting whereat he sets up a panel to investigate - after hopefully stepping aside for the duration - the nation is stuck. But enter Section 231(4) of the Nigerian Constitution, which empowers the President, who, if he determines that the CJN "for any reason" - presumably moral reasons - cannot discharge his duties, he can be suspended:
QUOTE
231 (4) If the office of Chief Justice of Nigeria is vacant or if the person holding the office is for any reason unable to perform the functions of the office, then until a person has been appointed to and has assumed the functions of that office, or until the person holding has resumed those functions, the President shall appoint the most senior Justice of the Supreme Court to perform those functions.
UNQUOTE
The President did not even need a CCT order to do the suspension, but he went an extra judicial mile to get that order, now triggering a set of events in which now the NJC is investigating ting both the CJN and the Acting CJN that replaced him due to four petitions before it. That is how it should be.
As to the innocence or guilt of the CJN, he is presumed innocent until proven guilty, but unless he is protecting his wife's vault of currencies, he does look very guilty if indeed he admitted forgetfulness and oversight in declaring such. He should have suspended himself to let the NJC investigation commence promptly, or else simply resign.
Those who claim that since he confessed in written form to ownership of undeclared assets, there is a CCB law that frees him from responsibility are quite interesting. Certainly, at the bottom of every crime is forgetfulness - even of the existence of the violated law itself. One can imagine that the original ibtendment of the law is the firgeting for example a dormant account with one or two hundred naira in them, not the ownership of an island in the Caribbean, three yachts in Malta, and 100 houses at Asokoro. Haba... That is the classic case if forgetting the elephant in the the room.
Finally, the elite cacophony in support of the CJN is frightening, with the NBA for example going on a two-day strike for a man most eminently qualified to defend himself. Even Senate President Saraki unilaterally filed a case against the Presidency before the Supreme Court for interpretation of the situation.
One hopes that the present situation will lead to another attempt to clean up the Augean stable of our messed-up Judiciary, whose reputation even among themselves for corruption is legendary. An opportunity was lost last time around when a meek effort was done to prove the financial dealings of some lesser judges. We should not let this opportunity slip again.
And there you have it.
Bolaji Aluko
On Tuesday, January 29, 2019, Salimonu Kadiri <ogunlakaiye@hotmail.com> wrote:
--The Judge was caught in a criminal act of failing to declare his assets according to the Code of Conduct Bureau. He has admitted in writing that he forgot to declare his assets consisting huge amount of money in his various bank accounts in Nigeria that are in US dollars, Euro and Naira.Following your logic, a man who has admitted beheading another person has not been caught with the crime of murder until a court of competent jurisdiction has pronounced him guilty. Thus, murder by your own logic is not in the perpetrated action (chopping off another person's head) but in the pronouncement of a Judge. Regrettably, it is your kind of logic which has led to the epidemy of abuse of judicial power in Nigeria whereby murderers, treasury looters and other criminals are pronounced not guilty by bribed judges. It is the era of cash and carry judgment.
You may be correct in assuming that Buhari's appointed acting CJN is worse than the suspended CJN but assumption is the lowest level of knowledge. In the name of justice we need to be confronted with documentary evidence of false or failed declaration of assets by the acting CJN before declaring him a criminal. He may be worse than the suspended CJN but there is no evidence to buttress that assumption and, in fact, it is not intelligent to exonerate the suspended CJN of criminal trespass of CCB Act with the assumption that there are other Judges who are guilty of similar crime but yet to be caught and arraigned.S. Kadiri
Från: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com > för Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM <chidi.opara@gmail.com>
Skickat: den 28 januari 2019 17:31
Till: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote".....any self-respecting Judge caught in an immoral act loses the moral right to sit in judgement over others. He should honorably resign!"(IBK).
IBK,
The Judge in question has not been "caught". He can only be said to have been "caught", if found guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction(you are supposed to be telling me this).
Preliminary background check on Buhari's CJN however, revealed worst!
CAO.
--
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