In Nigeria, A Judge Is Not Above Or Beyond Investigation

 By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged…. Bible, Matthew 7:1-2 (NKJV)

In the first six months of 1986, Nigeria’s Supreme Court delivered two judgments with far reaching consequences for the lives and careers of two senior judges of the High Court. If the facts were to recur today, 40 years later, neither of these cases would come to trial. This fact says a lot about how the standards of judicial conduct and ethics as well as accountability for both have evolved – for worse – over the intervening period.

*Odinkalu

Donald Ikomi was a judge and Chairman of the Armed Robbery and Firearms Tribunal of Bendel State when – together with his cook, Reuben Udoh, and one Martins Ekezoka – he was arraigned in December 1985 on a charge of murder.

The Supreme Court’s Emergency Politics

 By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

All judges are politicians whether they know it or not— Enrique Petracchi, former Chief Justice of Argentina, (2002)

Among lawyers trained in the traditions of the Common Law, judicial power is often mis-understood. In Nigeria, the 1999 Constitution divides the powers of the federation between the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. The first two are elected. Judges are not. In the elected arms, it vests the legislative and executive powers of the federation.