A rights activists and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mike Ozekhome, Friday called on Nigerians to come out in a mass action against the removal of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen.
President Muhammadu Buhari had during the day announced the suspension of CJN and the appointment of Justice Mohammed Tanko as a replacement.
Mr. Buhari claimed he acted based on the order of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).
But in a swift reaction, Mr. Ozekhome described the president’s action as the vilest, thieving, most despicable, undemocratic and brazenly unconstitutional act ever carried out by any government in Nigeria since January 1914.
While further describing it as the desperate act of a sit-tight president, Mr. Ozekhome warned that the removal of the CJN constituted a direct suspension of the Nigerian Constitution and the democratic process.
“It has finally removed the remaining veneer of pretension to democratic credentials by Buhari and his all-conquering cabal,” he stated.
“Welcome, Nigerians to full-blown dictatorship, absolutism, authoritarianism and fascism. Buhari has behaved worse than what he was as a military tyrant.
“Military juntas always only suspended parts of the Constitution they did not like.
“But by torpedoing the entire judiciary, rule of law and due process, including four valid High Court/Federal High Court rulings and yesterday’s ruling by the Court of Appeal, all of them staying proceedings of the phony and funny charges levelled against Onnoghen before the CCT, Nigerians now know that we have now become endangered species.
“It means that the next election is nothing more than a ritualistic outing to illegally confer life presidency (not just 4 years) on Buhari. There is no known basis, legal, constitutional or moral, to hurriedly bypass courts of law, the judicial process and court orders, to illegally remove the CJN and swear in an Acting CJN,” he argued.
He drew attention to Section 292 (2) of the 1999 Constitution, which provides how the CJN can be removed from office.
“Aside Sections 153,158 and parts 1 and 2 of the 3rd Schedule to the Constitution which provide that a judicial officer cannot be removed from office until he has first been tried and dealt with by the National Judicial Council (NJC), Section 292(2) makes it clear that the president can only remove the CJN from office before the age of his retirement, ‘acting on an address supported by two-thirds majority of the Senate,’” he argued further.
“When did the Senate meet to donate this power to the president? Never. The president has illegally and unconstitutionally stripped both the judiciary and the legislature bare of their constitutional functions, usurped their powers and enthroned maximum dictatorship over the affairs of Nigeria, like Louis X14, once did when he stood in front of parliament, beat his chest imperiously and declared,”l’est tat c’est moi” (I am the state).”
He said the ill-advised action not only assaults our noble sense of humanity and dignity as decent Nigerians but also violently desecrates the principles of rule of law and the Doctrine of Separation of Powers.
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He, therefore, called on Nigerians to come out to protest against this illegality.
Mr. Ozekhome said the country was gradually slipping into a full-blown dictatorship of the Sani Abacha era, pointing out that former President Olusegun Obasanjo had already raised an alarm about it in his open letter to Mr. Buhari.
He advised the Nigerian Bar Association and lawyers in the country to shut down all courts in Nigeria until the CJN is reinstated.
He drew attention to a similar case in Pakistan, where the country’s former President, Pervez Musharraf illegally removed the then Chief Justice, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on 11th March 2007.
According to him, Pakistani lawyers went on strike from March 15 2007, shut down the courts and protested on the streets for months until a panel of seven members of the Supreme Court sat and held that the removal was illegal and reinstated the country’s chief justice.
“Nigerian lawyers should act now. The NASS should also shut down in protest and allow Buhari and his cabal have their jolly ride over cowed, hapless, vanquished and conquered Nigerians. There is no more democracy in Nigeria.
“It is as dead as dodo. The coming presidential election is but a mere charade to confer legitimacy on a pre-rigged, on-the-spot rigged and post-rigged election.
“The pretentious chicken has finally come home to roost. This recent act is a big scandalous shame on the Buhari government, assuming it still knows anything called shame.
“It has tainted it with the paint brush of odium, obloquy and international derision. The international community should weigh in immediately to prevent Nigeria from burning,” said Mr. Ozekhome.
