• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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A political Chief Justice of Nigeria?

Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad

 

Bucking precedent and tradition, the Chief Justice of Nigeria Ibrahim Tanko Muhammed on 12 December took to advocacy in religion and politics. He called for broader teaching of Sharia Law in the universities and conducting such education in the Arabic language. Then he went political, asking for a constitutional amendment for his proposed changes because Moslems “have the numbers” to make the changes happen.

The CJN’s call is a surprising and significant departure from the best practice traditions of the judiciary. It quickly brought the highest court of the land into the arena for a disputation with various groups. More significantly, it raised questions of the capacity of the court under the direction of the CJN to resolve issues before it in a non-political, non-religious and unbiased manner.

It was a surprise and significant departure from the best practice traditions of the judiciary. The CJN has since brought the court into the arena for open disagreements nay confrontation with various groups and individuals. Some of the groups have called on him to step down, or the government should compel him to do so.

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CJN Muhammed spoke at the 20Th Annual Judges Conference with the theme of “Documentation of Contracts in Islamic Law: Procedure, Sample Precedents and Practice”. The conference held at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Justice Muhammad Danjuma, Grand Khadi of Niger State, represented the chief justice.

Justice Muhammad wants universities to create faculties to teach sharia law. He is unhappy that the constitution currently allows only “the implementation of sharia personal law and apart from that we cannot do more.”

He then dropped the clincher. “However, we have the number to amend the constitution to suit our own position as Muslims”.  Then he delved into the equally contentious matter of language and its geopolitical and religious sensibilities.

“The Shari’a law should be taught in Arabic not English. There is no university in Nigeria that runs Shari’a in Arabic; they all teach Shari’a in English. So, academicians let’s also look into this issue,” he said.

The Chief Justice of Nigeria heads the judicial branch and steers the highest court of the land. He superintends over the four legal systems in Nigeria. These are the English Law, Common Law, Customary Law and Sharia (Islamic) Law.

English Law derives from Nigeria’s colonial history while Common Law developed over the years of independence. Customary Law used across the country draws from indigenous jurisprudential traditions. Sharia Law is active in Northern Nigeria. From the commencement of the Fourth Republic, proponents of Sharia Law expanded its scope to full sharia law incorporating civil and criminal sections.

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Justices of the court in Nigeria follow a hallowed tradition of non-involvement and non-interference in critical areas such as religion and politics. Justice Muhammed’s ABU speech shocked the system as it runs contrary to this tradition. It is negative.

Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammed is the 21st Chief Justice of Nigeria. He is the 16th chief justice of Nigerian birth as the first five were citizens of Britain assigned to carry out the task here.

The Chief Justice of Nigeria cannot be an advocate for preference for any system of justice. Nor for any religion. It is not his call. As it were, Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammed has brought himself out as a partisan. He has diminished his capacity for fair-minded adjudication. No one within and outside the system can trust him henceforth to act justly and without bias on any matter brought before the court that has elements of religion.

Mr Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammed by going political has compromised his position and the neutrality of the bench. He has besmirched the reputation of the court. Reputation matters in justice administration as judges must, like Caesar’s wife, be above reproach. Nigeria is best without a political Chief Justice.