Here's why President hasn't sent acting CJN's name to senate
The delay in the submission of Justice Onnoghen's name for confirmation by the senate, has been explained
President Buhari and acting CJN Onnoghen
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The delay has been met with agitations from different interest groups in the country.
The hue and cry over the President’s foot-dragging can be explained:
Onnoghen hails from Cross River State, South of Nigeria.
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Should he be confirmed by the senate, Onnoghen will be the first Justice of the Supreme Court to be named Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) from Nigeria's South, in over three decades.
Should the President hold back on sending Onnoghen’s name to the legislature for confirmation, accusations that he is clannish and not favourably disposed to working with persons who aren’t from his part of the country, will return to dominate public discourse.
President Buhari hails from Nigeria's North.
Onnoghen’s tenure in an acting capacity elapses on February 10.
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If he isn’t confirmed by the Senate in a substantive capacity on or before that date, he’ll be disqualified unless his name is resubmitted to the Senate by the National Judicial Council (NJC).
“The President has a dossier on Onnoghen that borders on sharp practices while he was on the bench of the Supreme Court, hence the delay”, a top ranking Presidency official told Pulse on the basis of anonymity because he hadn't been authorised to comment on the subject.
In a recent interview with the New Telegraph, Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), alluded to the corruption in the judiciary as reason why the President hadn’t sent Onnoghen’s name to the Senate for confirmation.
In Sagay’s words; “The lack of due diligence on the part of the NJC allowed at least two Justices of the Supreme Court to slip through the net of judicial vetting to become the Chief Justices of Nigeria. And that became a permanent embarrassment to the judiciary and Nigeria as a whole.
“Up till today, one of them calling himself ‘Consultant’ regularly carries money to his former colleagues, still serving in the judiciary, to buy justice for his law chamber clients while the other one specialized in dollars and distributing it amongst vulnerable colleagues.
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“These are the types of Justices who have brought ruin to the Judiciary, making it necessary for close vetting of candidates for Chief Justice of Nigeria at the Presidential level.”
Sagay added that; “There has been extreme agitation and frenzy over the failure of the President to send Hon. Justice Onnoghen’s name for confirmation, literally within seconds of receiving the NJC’s recommendation.
“These agitations have exhibited either ignorance, bad faith or down-right primordial motives. The crossroads in which we find ourselves today is entirely of the making of the NJC and the legal profession as a whole.
“There is need to inject fresh blood into our judicial system by appointing qualified lawyers from outside the bench straight to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.
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“I, therefore, appeal that our notoriously loquacious and unrestrained compatriots should desist from further hysteria to allow the acting Chief Justice of Nigeria to earn his position on his own merit rather than create a frenzy and furore which can result in the very opposite of what they are loudly agitating for”.
On Thursday, Onnoghen himself appealed that no one should hand the President an ultimatum to make him substantive CJN.
Onnoghen asked Nigerians not to pile pressure on the President on his behalf.
The acting CJN asked “Nigerians to allow Mr. President, Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, a free hand to perform his constitutional duties concerning the appointment of a substantive Chief Justice of Nigeria.”
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He added that the “President does not need any threat or ultimatum to perform his constitutional duties".
He said he “appreciates the interest of Nigerians towards the appointment of a substantive Chief Justice of Nigeria to oversee the affairs of the Judiciary as the third arm of government, but believes that issuing an ultimatum to Mr. President appears to be going too far and smacks of disrespect for the exalted office of the president.
“The Acting Chief Justice therefore appeals for caution on the issue of the appointment of Chief Justice of Nigeria as Mr President goes about his constitutional duties, especially considering the fact that the given time for him to act as Chief Justice of Nigeria has not expired”.
Presidency sources also told Pulse that Onnoghen’s name will be sent to the Senate for confirmation as substantive CJN as soon as Buhari returns from his 10-day vacation on February 6.
“I can assure you that he’d become substantive CJN”, a top ranking Presidency official confided in Pulse.
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Presidency officials disclose that Onnoghen has been told why there’s been a delay in sending his name forward for confirmation by the President.
"The concerns from the Presidency were duly communicated to him", offered the Villa official.
He has explained himself and will get the job on a permanent basis soon enough, Pulse was told.
In October of 2016, the Department of State Security (DSS) arrested a couple of senior Judges for corruption.
Among those whose homes were raided before they were picked up, were two Supreme Court Justices.
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