Basil Okoh
The street boys and drifters of Delta state have an excuse for their delinquency. They sing it to everyone who question their lawless way of life. “School is a scam”, they say. There is no better way to prove them right than by electing their type to be governor of the state. The Supreme Court has given the go-ahead to do just that.
The Supreme Court in its recent adjudication refused to make a pronouncement on the submission of a forged certificate to qualify a candidate for election as governor of Delta state. Instead, it made a feint and dodged the responsibility of providing a clear path to justice and rectitude, thereby rebuffing the challenge to set ethical and legal standards for Nigeria’s new electoral regime.
It was an opportunity for the supreme court under the new and improved electoral law to assert its moral and legal authority but it opted out. It ignored every question of criminal forgery but accepted the fact of the wrongful presentation and processing of forged document in court. You heard me, the supreme court did not make pronouncement on a forged certificate but was loud in dismissing it’s method and process of presentation in court.
The law is an ass we know, but it cannot be a dumb and witless ass even in the supreme court. There was a time when we used to believe that the supreme court would serve the overriding cause of justice in every matter, would take deep consideration of the sociopolitical situation to give justice to a society under the threat of social disruption.
We believed that it serves more the cause of justice for the court to give vent to justice that maintains society’s social balance and advance the moral equilibrium but this generation of the supreme court was mundane, could not advance legal judgements that resonate and rise above the fray. This judgement cannot reverberate over time or be quoted for its standards of legal interpretation and practice for the lower courts. No matter what conceited lawyers say about the rest of humanity, this judgement does not sound learned.
By allowing a criminal forgery that holds the clear prospect of lowering the ethical standards of a people and threaten the possibility of turmoil to the land, the supreme court judgement puts the society in peril. For the 6 million people of Delta state, the supreme court presents itself in this judgement as having no consideration for its future prospect and wellbeing.
Justice must have in its expression and portents, the prospect for continuous social engineering for the building of a just and progressive society. The supreme court must hold up shining examples of hopeful aspirations for a people, it must set forth the judicial standards that dignify and renew society. This supreme court did not do that, instead, it exemplified the shame of our backwardness, our ordinariness when confronted with the challenges of deep knowledge and integrity.
A more visionary court would have given a judgement that elevates a people, setting standards for public morality in politics that would be robust and resounding, guiding all to future uprightness. Now we have a basket case in our hands that justify the vandals on our streets. School is proving to be a scam indeed as validated by the court. And of course it can be seen that all those rooting for the scammer cannot string three sentences together without an arresting howler.
As earlier postulated, the constitution of Nigeria did not envisage or propose that 5 men sitting in an arcane chamber in the name of justice will have the power to elect political leaders for Nigerians. That job and responsibility was assigned not to judges but to citizens acting in their sovereignty. The citizens of Delta State will march out with sure steps on 13 of March 2023 to exercise that responsibility. They shall reject all forms of forgeries and criminalities, no matter what the supreme court has just ruled.
This is the third world and as Americans always say derisively to mock us: “third world judges”. The reason for our backwardness is that the bad guys always win.
@basilokoh.
