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Karibi-Whyte�s
advice to judges on cases of social importance
Many citizens
have expressed considerable concern over what they observe as the recent
undue involvement of the Judiciary in complicated social disputations in
the country that are capable of debasing the high honour in which the
society holds our law officers. The fear is that if the courts do not
discriminate as to what kind of matter they entertain or fashion out
workable modalities that would help them to navigate the treacherous path
of the socio-political process so as not to unwittingly compromise on
their integrity, it won�t be long before jungle justice takes over in the country. It was
therefore gratifying when, last week, a former Supreme Court judge,
Justice Adolphus Karibi-Whyte gave what sounds like an Operational Guide
to judges who might be called upon to adjudicate on such socially
controversial issues in the future.
The learned former Supreme
Court Justice, speaking on the occasion of the public launch of a book
titled �Nigeria Labour Law� was very specific about how he would want the
nation�s judges to conduct themselves in the event of the current labour
unrest being taken before them for adjudication. From a very deep
jurisprudential conviction which holds that the law is an instrument of
social engineering, as against its being an instrument of oppression in
the hands of evilly minded rulers, the former Supreme Court justice made
it very clear that it is important that a judge handling touchy cases such
as that concerning the current labour dispute understands that it is
his/her primary responsibility to align the law with the just and fair
expectations of the people. The idea is that by taking sides with the
people, the law would be living up to both its ideological and
professional ideals that posit that the court is the last hope of the
common man in the inevitable interaction between the powerful state and
the individual citizen. Such a jurisprudential postulate cannot find a
better soil to blossom than in present-day Nigeria where dictatorship is
again rearing its ugly head.
Using the current travails of
the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, as a case with which to illustrate the
essence of his submission, Karib-Whyte declared that: �Nigeria needs a
strong labour body because many people misunderstood the scope of labour�.
He went further to educate that �the truth is that the body (NLC) involves
everybody either as employers or employees,� noting that NLC�s struggle
�is in the interest of the country because it will place Nigeria on a
progressive lane.� He specifically advised serving judges to give his
analysis some thought when passing judgements on matters that have to do
with the operation of labour activism in our circumstances because it is
in the interest of all that the courts act that way. We cannot agree more.
It is regrettable that judges
like the now deceased Ikpeme, Egbo-Egbo, Nnaji and, lately, Ukeje, whose
decisions have portrayed them as cheap lackeys of the Executive Arm that
is intent on doing harm to the society, did not have the benefit of this
august advice offered by the legal guru, Justice Karibi-Whyte. The role of
the judge in the inevitable conflict between the citizens and the
government is to seek out what is best for the polity and not what would
sooth the ego of the Executive. It is simply for this reason that the
Founding Fathers of the nation�s constitutional order deemed it necessary
to invest the judiciary with enormous powers so as to always have the
authoritative last say in disputes between the citizens and the State.
Even though it is organically a part of the government, the judiciary does
not receive its mandate from periodic elections like the other political
branches, but from a permanent endowment made by the same authority that
established the supreme constitution, namely, the
People!
That is why we are grateful to
the former Supreme Court justice for his timely clarifications on this
very tricky issue which has recently caught many ill-prepared judges on
their wrong feet as they tended to rule in a manner that made it seem as
if they are taking sides with the government instead of seeking after the
truth.
At a time when many Nigerians
were beginning to wonder what really is the role of the Judiciary in the
extremely complex situation wherein citizens who are uncomfortable with
the harsh economic policies of the government resort to democratic
mechanisms like strikes and lockouts to show their discontent, the courts
are expected to play a mediating role that would reinforce the essential
values of our constitutional democracy by balancing the contending
interests in the conflict with a view to preserving the Rule of Law and
the values of democracy. It is within the power of the court, for example,
to intervene in a situation in which the citizens, led by labour unions,
are protesting official policies that they have adjudged inimical to the
overall interest of the society. It is only a judge that understands
clearly what Karibi-Whyte has advised that can navigate this treacherous
path without forfeiting anything about his/her integrity and
honour.
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