Nigeria: A Tale of Three ARMS of the Judiciary (1)
Ordinarily, the Judiciary is ideally the third or the ‘last’ arm of the government. But that is on a universal, global or international level.
On a 'locally, localized' level, however, the Judiciary has three arms here in Nigeria, albeit allegedly.
JUDIciary
There is the Judiciary. This is saddled constitutionally with the noble responsibility of interpreting the law or the constitution, adjudicating cases between (among) litigants and administering the theory and practice of 'legalism' and all related matters officially. This, no doubt, they do with utmost professionalism predicated on fairness, justice, equity and equality, firmness, evidence, logic and all the germane principles known to law and humanity.
For example, several years ago; a judge while dismissing a case of an alleged murder which neither had a head nor a tail (to employ my highly unlearned plus layman’s term) had described it, thus:
“A bundle of uncertainty, magnified assumption, exaggerated anticipation— all loaded on a ship for the court to proceed on a voyage of discovery.”
Without any atom of contradiction, the ‘learnedness’ and 'letteredness' of the noble men and women who constitute the judicial arm is something that keeps us (the unlearned or less learned men) in a constant state of exaggerated awe. Their diction, their idiolect, their linguistic command, their general cerebral disposition is doubtlessly out of this world. That is why this writer holds them in a high level of respect that is very close to the high heavens.
Like the biblical Solomon, you would not but marvel at their “wisdom” in handling cases aside their intellectual prowess. They are virtually, consistently spot on with every sense of the expression.
