Justice Emmanuel Obioma Ogwuegbu will go down in history as one judge who stood firm in the dispensation of justice at a time when questionable election results were announced by the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) in the Second Republic.

Perhaps if Ogwuegbu were active on the bench in the Fourth Republic, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would have lived up to expectations.

Unfortunately, the judge stayed in retirement, apparently, wondering whatever happened to his beloved constituency, the Judiciary. One certain day in 1983, Justice Ogwuegbu, a man who kept away from tainted social circles, had an unwanted guest.

The object of that infamous visit was the Imo State gubernatorial elections. It was a time the ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) chose to decimate Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, in the East and Chief Obafemi Awolowo, in the West.

The two Eastern states of Anambra and Imo were under the control of the Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) while the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) held firmly to the West and Mid-West. The National Party of Nigeria (NPN)-controlled Federal Government was out to crush any opposition.

The NPN succeeded in dubiously taking Anambra, Azikiwe’s home state, Oyo and Mid-West. Ondo was a suicide attempt as the people stood behind Governor Adekunle Ajasin of the UPN. The NPN candidate, Akin Omoboriowo, escaped to Lagos.

In Imo, Dee Sam Mbakwe of the NPP, a former Biafran Army colonel, was vigilant. While FEDECO plotted his ouster, the governor began to announce the authentic result from the balcony of his Avutu, Obowo home, clad in a wrapper.

What the NPN did was to infiltrate the judiciary to deal with Mbakwe. One powerful party member volunteered to see Ogwuegbu. It was an unusual visit and the agent did not waste words. Accompanying him was a brand new Range Rover SUV.

The deal was to buy over the judge. Ogwuegbu became uncomfortable when the politician began to speak in alluring tongues. The host sprang to his feet, ordered the unwanted guest out of his official residence. As the judge led him out, a bigger shock, the Range Rover, was something he could not bear.

Perhaps if Ogwuegbu were active on the bench in the Fourth Republic, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would have lived up to expectations

The messenger and his message were literally kicked out of the judge’s home. Mbakwe survived the judicial coup and remained as governor of Imo State.

In Anambra, Jim Nwobodo was swept away just like Bola Ige in Oyo and Ambrose Alli in Mid-Western State. Ogwuegbu’s career continued to blossom after that, by 1992, the Supreme Court took him in and he served meritoriously until his retirement in 2003.

In 1991, a year before his elevation at home, the judge was a Justice of the Supreme Court of Gambia. Sadly some Fourth Republic judges have abandoned justice for money and various kinds of gifts. The law does not only grind the poor, it empowers the rich.

Elections are now mainly decided in court rooms, a development that has created a new political jargon, especially often said by the announced winner: “If you are not satisfied with the result, go to court!”

The judiciary has abandoned its constitutional role of checking the other arms of government. There is a hot romance between the executive and the legislature, with the judiciary as sole attraction.

In some cases, justice could be bought across the bar. Former President Muhammadu Buhari relied on illegality, to remove the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen, in 2019. He used the now also removed Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau, Danladi Umar, to achieve that.

And it was all because of the 2019 presidential election. A recent survey initiated and approved by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), with the support of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), revealed that in 2023, Nigerian public officials received about N721 billion in bribes with judges topping the list of beneficiaries.

When Justice Musa Dattijo retired from the Supreme Court in 2023, he bewailed the rot in the system, singling out the South-East marginalisation and failure of the then CJN, Olukayode Ariwoola, to replace late Supreme Court Justices, Sylvester Ngwuta and Centus Nweze.

Justice John Inyang Okoro’s house was raided by Buhari’s security operatives in 2016 because according to the judge, he refused to dance to the tunes of a minister who pestered him with money, to compromise governorship election appeals from Abia, Akwa Ibom and Rivers states.

Ogwuegbu represented the Nigeria of Charles Onyeama and Teslim Elias, at the World Court, Chile Eboe-Osuji at the International Criminal Court and Egbert Udo-Udoma, as Chief Justice of Uganda. Nkemdilim Izuako is the first female judge in Solomon Islands. Akinola Aguda and the three Emmanuels – Ayoola, Fagbenle and Agim, were Chief Justices outside the country. At 90, Ogwuegbu must have died weeping for the clearly polluted Nigerian judiciary.

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