Total Rebuke of Retired Justice Isa Ayo Salami’s Baseless Assault On The Judiciary And The Rule Of Law

 By Aguiyi Joseph Obinna 

In a courtesy visit to the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism in Ilorin on Tuesday, retired President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Isa Ayo Salami, unleashed yet another round of unverified political commentary that has once again exposed his fatally flawed character. According to the Vanguard report, Salami declared that Peter Obi “ought not have been allowed to contest the 2023 presidential election” because, in his words, “by the time he lost the PDP primary, LP had submitted its list of members to INEC” and the Constitution forbids independent candidacy. 

*Ayo Salami

He drew a parallel with Kano Governor Abba Yusuf and blamed “incompetence” and “bad eggs” among judges for these “wrong verdicts.” This is not the sober reflection of a retired jurist; it is the reckless rant of a man who has repeatedly been shown the door by the same judiciary he now seeks to ridicule, only to be pitied back into relevance. 

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.