By BEN CHUKWU

Millions of persons from the world’s largest concentration of black people and the most populated nation in Africa have fixed their gaze on the judiciary for over three months now without blinking. One would wonder why? What they are expecting of searching for? Or rather what are they keeping watch over? For me, it is like the biblical saints gazing at the sky in keen expectation of the return of the Messiah or a child gazing at his favourite toy that an adult has kept up. The child cries gazes and points at the toy expecting his oppressor to lower his hands and deliver his item to him. These over 200 million Nigerians who, like watchdogs, have kept their gaze on the judiciary, I best describe as heroes of democracy. This is because never on Earth have we seen a people committed to the electoral process in this manner. Most interestingly, they are not asking to be favoured unjustly but all of them are asking for justice.

They are simply saying let the right thing be done. They are asking the judiciary to return victory to the rightful winner of the election whom most of them voted for despite the suppressions and denials. They are asking that the judiciary should save the country from chaos by giving responsible verdicts. They are expecting that the alterations on the ballots seen in several pooling units and several states be corrected, proper vote count done and the rightful winner be declared.

These heroes are asking that any candidate who has a reason for disqualification like forgery, perjury and criminality, should be disqualified. They are saying that the 25% in FCT should be interpreted based on what it simply means. These heroes are saying that they are too decent and responsible to be ruled by a crime-laden gang. The students saying that the values they had upheld for years should not be destroyed. They are saying please judiciary, do not justify cheating, certificate forgery, and gangsterism in our society.

Those who have served prison terms, the death sentence for drug-related offences, certificates forgery, perjury, and financial crimes are asking for justice. All the politicians disqualified in the past due to any of those offences that today have found expression in one man are asking for continuity of justice, a single standard for all fairness to all, and equality in the delivery of judgment.

My question to the judiciary is, shall we have different standards of judgment, constitutions and rules? The Constitution empowered the judiciary to judge the people. However, the people of Nigeria have assumed their rightful position as judges of the judiciary they are keenly waiting to give their verdict on the judiciary. They are not ignorant of the fact that the image of our judiciary has not been up to expectation based on the antecedents.

If the title, Justice, which our judges go by is to stand for its meaning, and our courts are not desecrated, then Justice should be the watchword for our judges. They should be ready to defy all enticements and threats and give the right judgment. So the justices can justify their title and our courts stand tall among their contemporaries in other climes.

This will appease these millions of heroes calling for justice, the souls of those who were killed by the criminal gangs in the name of election. This will remove the huge shame hanging over Nigeria. Apart from Nigerians many good people blacks and whites from other African countries and several other nations of the world in solidarity with Nigerians are also keeping their eyes on Nigeria’s judiciary. They are eagerly waiting for justice to be served from the court.

Someone may ask, what is the place of religion in all these? Nigerians are very religious people with a population of Christians and Muslims estimated to be above 95%. So, it will be right to say that over 95% of Nigerians if not 100%, worship in religions that believe in justice or righteous judgement. As a Christian, I know from childhood that we worship a God who is also known as a righteous judge (Gen 18:25) Lev 19:15, Deut 1:16. Deut 19:16-20 admonishes the judges to make diligent inquisition into a case and the witnesses and evidence, if the witness be a false, the judgement should be overturned against him that brought false witness, a severe punishment without pity so others will hear and fear and evil be put away from the land. As in Jn 7:24, the scripture instructs Christians to be Just and the kings and judges to judge righteously without consideration of the status of the parties involved in the matter.

In Islam, justice is supreme as the Quran states that the objective of the creation of the universe is primarily to uphold justice and remove evil and cruelty. It also spoke severally of punishment for the unjust (like judges who miscarry justice) and reward for the just (who uphold righteous/just judgement).

The scripture aptly narrated the story of King Ahab, Naboth who owned a vineyard and Prophet Elijah, the prophet (Bishop, pastor, prophets of our time). I strongly advise all our revered men of God and religious leaders who have been contracted by politicians to plead or cajole Nigerians, especially the youth to accept an unjust verdict and support those who stole their mandate (birthright, vineyard) to continue so that life can go on as usual in Nigeria to go and read the words of Elijah to king Ahab. They should learn how to boldly speak the truth to power like Elijah did. Elijah said to King Ahab who forcefully took the vineyard of the poor Naboth after he was killed by the plot of Queen Jezebel (Ahab’s wife). God through Elijah spoke boldly to the King, “At the same place that dogs licked the blood of Naboth, will dogs lick your blood”. The scripture also told those who steal to steal no more and return all they have stolen.

The first thing I expect religious leaders to do is to tell those who stole the people’s mandate to return it before asking the poor victims to forgive and move on. For instance, it is absurd for anyone to tell a victim of robbery to forgive and support the robber to retain the stolen property without first retrieving the item he stole.

We heard some very respected pastors and religious leaders asking Nigerians to support those who are oppressing them after stealing their mandate so that we can move on. This is the most shocking message I have heard from the pulpit all my life as a Christian and bible teacher with over 30 years’ experience. It is shocking because it contradicts the written word of God which is the acid test with which every prophecy is judged. It is most surprising because of the personality of the church leaders preaching this. Some of them are known globally as preachers of holiness and restitution. Why have they suddenly lost the courage to boldly tell those who sent them to use their pulpit to appeal to Nigerians to accept this rascality to first restitute/return the illegitimately acquired/stolen mandate. This is exactly the most reasonable thing to do.

The sound message Is, let he that stole, steal no more (repentance), return what he has stolen (restitution) and ask for forgiveness (from God & his victims).

This is the only time the message of forgiveness can be preached. In this case, if the victims forgive, they may beg the judge not to commit the offenders to prison. The basic principle is, REPENTANCE – CONFESSION – RESTITUTION – FORGIVENES. Retaining what one stole means continuity in sin and no abundance of grace can secure forgiveness or salvation of such person. Here restitution involves withdrawing any false certificate and correction of any false information you have submitted anywhere. If admitted into any institution or organisation with fake eligibility document, like SSCE or university degree certificate, repentance involves withdrawing from the institution or you remain a perpetual liar bound to hell.

Finally, what millions of Nigerians and the international community are expecting the judiciary to do is for them to give judgement based on the merit of the petitions and evidences before them, discard any call for judgment based on technicalities, call spade a spade by disqualifying who needs to be disqualified and uphold the constitution of Nigeria in its entirety irrespective of who is in the odds.

•Dr Ben Chukwu (MBBCh, FMCS) is Convener, Professionals for Good Governance and Social Justice, PGGSJ, Member COPDEM, Member DADA. He submitted this piece before Wednesday’s judgement by the Presidential Election Petition Court, but it remains relevant since the defeated parties are proceeding to the Supreme Court.

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