A Nation Without Due Process Risks Immolation, By Jide Okeowo

No doubt, eminent personalities and public commentators, including lawyers have aired their views concerning the recent suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Hon. Justice Walter Onnoghen. As expected, while some have argued in favour of the suspension, others have also gone further in their negation of the  presidential decision by describing it as a coup against our democracy.

Among those who have publicly defended the president’s action against the former CJN was Prof. Itse Sagay, who argued that the president was right to have tactically relieved the embattled Chief jurist of his duty,  based on daunting evidence of infraction and financial impropriety, while relying on the order of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT). Those on the other side of the argument opined that the president lacks such powers to remove the CJN from office without recourse to due process. According to the latter league of commentators, due process as it applies in this circumstance is the conformity with section 292 of the 1999 Constitution as amended. The section that clearly spells out the conditions for the removal of CJN, and other categories of judicial officers.

The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) through its national president, Paul Usoro, has equally vociferously made submission  against the presidential decision to suspend the the head of the nation’s judiciary. In his words, Usoro claimed the decision was “unconstitutional and utterly undemocratic.”

Thus the association has called for a NEC meeting for Monday,  the 28th of January for the learned men to do extensive dissection of the entangling legal situation,  with the sole aim of resolving the ensuing conflict. That in itself is a welcome development.

While I allign with the president that serious infraction on the part of the suspended CJN has evidently sufficed based on the CJN’s admission, due process was obviously and hastily relegated in the President’s order for his suspension. The 1999 Constitution as amended is  not ambiguous on the terms for the removal of the CJN. Even when some have argued and cited the instance of Retired Justice Ayo Salami, an Appeal Court President who was unjustly sent packing by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, the APC Change that Nigerians voted for in 2025, needs be seen to reflect in the entire actions of the Buhari government, especially so on decisions that can unsettle the fragile socio-political architecture of our nascent democracy.

Equity and unity rather than impunity and forms of rascality should not be on the menu list of an administration whose Change Mantra connotes justice and fairness. Why the hurry many citizens have asked?

As a democratic country, we cannot afford to continue on the path of arbitrary decisions and non adherence to the principle of rule of law. Civility rather than primitivity should guide our every day’s life as a people.

The Deputy Chief Justice of Kenya, Justice Philomena Mwilu, is currently facing corruption allegation in court and President Uhuru Kenyatta has never reasoned towards her removal. Because he lacks such powers, according to the 2010 Constitution of the Republic of Kenya. She has since remained in office because the needful, with regards to the application of due process has not been effected in her case.

As a patriotic citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I wholeheartedly support Mr President in his determination to eradicate corruption from our land, but such fight against the cankerworm must follow the dictates of our written laws.

 Those who are of the belief that to fight corruption in Nigeria, due process must be substituted for necessary process, are not being fair to our laws. Infact, they could be referred to as enemies of our society. The laws should be seen as the regulator of the society and any deviation from this would only result into anarchy and political instability which are not desirable.

Relying on the order of the  CCT in suspending the CJN is obviously not in tandem with the tenets of due process, fairness and justice. It contradicts  the spirit and letters of our Constitution and all known legal framework in the land.

Nigeria and her leadership must allow due process to prevail in all situations and at all times. Only then can our hard earned democratic reputation fittingly and comfortably sit at the table of contemporaries in tbe global comity of nations.

It is never too late to retrace our steps back, to doing the right thing. After all, two wrongs can never make a right. We cannot deploy impunity to correct or answer the question of an existing impunity. Let’s avoid pressing self-destruct buttons.

For a nation without the pragmatic  practice of due process, equity and unity, arguably risks socio-political contradictions that may eventually snowball into, God forbid, conflagration of monumental proportions and consequential  destructive  self-immolation.

Long live democracy in our nation, long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.