OPEN THE COURTS

NO COURT NO RULE OF LAW.

In the hundred years of Nigeria the Courts have functioned regularly, even under the worst dictatorial regimes in Nigeria, the military junta’s did not close the courts, even the worst industrial strikes the courts’ have served as the place to resolve industrial disputes. Even during the annual judicial recess, the citizenry are served with recess courts. This underscore the important role of the Court in any society. The Courts administered by the Judiciary is a constitutional arm of any government anywhere in the world.

The failure of any of the constitutional arm of government is an aberration such as under military dictatorship when the Parliament is sacked there cannot be in place the rule of law. The worst is when the courts are outrightly closed as in Rivers State in the past five months. The worst the military has done was the introduction of ouster clauses which the Courts declared null and void in this country.

Anarchy is the opposite of the rule of law and that is what is at play in Rivers State, where the House of Assembly ( Parliament) is a mockery as not in full operation. And human rights has being trampled upon by the Executive Arm of Government with impunity as the courts are under lock and keys. What is in operation is a fiefdom of sort, where the state is run like a private family affairs. This is the corruption of absolute power emanating from personal vendetta and revenge in the process of appointing a Chief Judge, who is nothing but an administrative judge. This personal show of political muscle and tribal skirmishes has rendered over 10,000 cases before the Courts’ in both the State Courts and the Customary Courts comatose. The Constitutional rights of 10,000 persons detained in Prisons, Police stations and military institutions violated and the individuals hopeless.

This senseless use of political power which has occasioned death as a result of frustrations on the part of stakeholders including the lawyers and their clients is not only a shame but a betrayal of trust. The Executive arm of Government in Rivers State has  destroyed the  legal system in the state for selfish aggrandizement. And on close observation no sector of the state economy is functioning as economy is tied to law.  Today, a lot of criminality take place as agents of the Executive extort money from the citizens in form of levy and taxes in collaboration with and get away with it because no Courts to stop them. Today in Rivers State, the Executives at the state and Local Government level make laws and constitute themselves into tribunals and arbitrations to trial matters in the ministries and Local Government Councils Chairmen and Counselors. This open mockery of the judicial power of the state has turn lawyers to objects of ridicule and paupers in the state. 

The characters of fiefdom include lawlessness and arbitrary rule where one man (who is not a monarch) dominates and turns state apparatus into private or personal property. A fiefdom as Rivers State is turning has it apologist who criminalize any voice of reason. The truth of the matter in the state are: First, there is absolute rule in Rivers State, where the Executive closed the Judiciary and controls the legislature second, the Courts are under lock and key and so no Rule of law, Third, the Parliament in the State is tied to the apron of the Executive and is not functioning according to law and finally, human rights is violated because of the abuse of power. 

We most not fail to point out that apart from the Head of the Executive in the State, all the other parties in this breeding of lawlessness are all lawyers, namely, the Judges and their lawyer proponents. The Chief Law officer of the state is a lawyer and the Bar Associations in the state are bodies  of lawyers. All of them are those who ought to know the values and sacrosanct nature of rights and freedom, but with respect to all of them they chose to betray the law and the state with their docility. Shame and shame, or is it disgrace?

There is a failure of constitutional government in Rivers State as no courtroom is open and human rights violated with impunity. This is not the meaning of democracy. What we have in Rivers state is anarchy worst than we had under military regimes. We most recall that in Rivers State all the landmark infrastructures in the state were all built by military Regimes, Stadium, Secretariats, Express road and flyovers etc. The subsequent civilian regimes built on these structures without white elephant projects. And all these time the Courts were functioning. This has become necessary because the apologist of this fiefdom will always claim developmental strides of the regime. The truth is that the courtrooms are not open and rights and freedoms are in chain. Democracy is being misapplied and the people are suffering misrule.

We cannot continue like this as we do not know when this fiefdom will end. The silence of the Bar and Bench in the face of this travesty of the rule of law and break down of constitutionality makes the Bar and Bench in this state a lam dock. The Judges in Rivers State should be pro-active and give the Executive an ultimatum to open their Courts and one among them be sworn in by themselves as the administrative Judge and the two contenders to the office of Chief Judge of Rivers State compulsorily retired with their full entitlements. And failure of the Executive to comply, the courts should begin to seat in School Premises or community  halls in our towns and cities. The Judges have to Rescue the Courts from the Executive Arm of Government.

The Bar Associations should back the ultimatum issued by the Judges and provide enabling support for the Courts to function wherever they chose to seat and hold Court sessions. The Courts belong to the people and the lawyers are the peoples people and they have to take back their pride and role as the conscience of the Nation. Rivers State does not belong to a single individual.

Our systems of law and our Constitution cannot protect themselves until people take actions to show that the law is supreme. Time waits for no one as the pivotal role of Rivers State in law and practice has being lost to neighboring states. Port Harcourt, Rivers State use to be the hob of legal science outside Lagos but that is not the case now. What has gone wrong?

By Ike Ake Esq.