The Nigerian nation is on the verge of a constitutional crisis, just days before the general elections, because President Muhammadu Buhari suspended Walter Nkanu Samuel Onnoghen as Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) on Friday, January 25, 2019.

Lawyers have been weighing in with varied opinions, folks have been insulted and called names for their takes on the matter, partisan hacks are hitting the streets in vociferous protests and the Nigerian polity is the definition of ‘heated’ and 'confused' at the moment.

Not exactly the kind of scenario you wish for your country before a major election.

Here’s the thing. President Buhari has no powers to suspend the CJN based off a questionable order from the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT). Section 292 of the constitution clearly forbids him from doing so. The president clearly hid behind the CCT to commit this atrocity.

Disciplinary action for judges rests with the National Judicial Council (NJC) and the removal of a CJN can only be successfully implemented if 2/3rds of the senate support the president’s action. Buhari’s action on all of this appears premeditated and is clearly an abuse of due process.

Buhari clearly went beyond his brief here and he sure knows what he was doing. Due process wasn’t followed by the presidency on this one and the nation’s number one citizen clearly trampled on the doctrine of separation of powers by suspending the CJN, thereby imperiling democracy and the very tenets underpinning this noble system of governance.

The timing of Buhari’s action is also suspicious. You don’t tamper with the judiciary in this manner just days before major elections and only hours before the setting up of election petition tribunals. It was here that President Buhari’s motives were laid bare for all to see. Those who say Buhari named Justice Tanko Mohammed to succeed Onnoghen so that Mohammed can do the APC’s bidding after the vote, have put forward a valid argument. 

The problem from a presidential standpoint was that Onnoghen heads the NJC and was beginning to frustrate his corruption trial across the courts, thereby acting as a judge in his own case—a taboo in jurisprudence. Onnoghen should have resigned ab initio after he was caught red handed and he should have let his trial proceed without him on the bench. 

We should just be as outraged by Onnoghen’s bank accounts and the fact that monies found in these accounts were clearly above his pay grade. At the time of writing, six more bank accounts bearing suspicious funds have been traced to Onnoghen.

The following amounts of monies in different currencies have been traced to Onnoghen:

1. USD account from October, 2012 to September, 2016 — $1,922,657.00
2. GBP (£) account from 2012 to September, 2016 — £138, 439.00
3. Euro account as at September 30, 2016 — €55,154.00
4. Naira account from September, 2005 to October, 2016 — N91, 962.362.49

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Units (NFIU) and other security agencies like the Department of State Security (DSS) are believed to possess dossiers of Onnoghen’s illicit financial dealings and records of his phone conversations with persons intent on perverting the course of justice.

Onnoghen is now a tainted man and no tainted man with allegations of corruption hanging over his head should be allowed to head the nation’s judiciary; while investigations into his activities continue apace.

President Buhari should lift the suspension on Onnoghen and Onnoghen should do the needful by resigning his position and recusing himself from his own trial. It's the least he can do in the circumstances.

Throughout our nation’s history, there have been several instances of justice going to the highest bidder. Senior lawyers solicit bribe, judges partake in the act and the big boys in the judiciary have had their mouths stuffed with hard currencies to swing judgments one way or the other. When an opportunity like this arises to use a judge--a high ranking judge at that-- for a teachable moment for the rest of the bar and bench, we shouldn't let it slip.

A corrupt judiciary is bad for everyone and if Onnoghen has a case to answer, he should walk and be made to pay for every one of his crimes. 

There is no way Onnoghen should be allowed to continue as CJN at this rate, bearing in mind how tainted all of this has left him and how battered his reputation as an arbiter has become. He should simply spare us all the drama and honourably resign.