The alarming rise in perceptions of transactional justice in Nigeria casts doubt on the integrity of the judicial system. Concerns about politicians influencing court decisions, the role of money in legal outcomes, and the erosion of trust in justice are critical issues that must be addressed to ensure fairness and equity.
Increasingly but alarmingly, it is gaining ground that Nigerians now believe that justice is for sale.
This position seems to be gaining ground increasingly. Is it possible to buy justice? Is it true that some politicians have all manners of mobile injunctions already typed and prepared, stocked in their portfolios, and they just bring them out to suit any occasion? Can it be true that some judges have been earmarked for such jobs as issuing any order, injunction, or judgment? Can it be said that parties before a court of law can know their fate even before the case starts?
I am worried. Not long ago, Chief Robert Clarke, SAN, warned about the dangerous dimensions of politics’ influence on justice administration generally. “So, one disadvantage in Nigeria today, which we have to look into, is how to curb the excesses of these politicians. They have ruined the judiciary. I feel sorry for them,” says Chief Clarke. I have also heard speculatively that there is hardly any judgment from any election tribunal that is not a product of “transactions“.
My personal view is that most judges are incorrigible and above board, and they decide cases according to law and their conscience, but the things that I hear are very troubling. They are spoken in hushed tones amongst the senior lawyers, they are posted with style on restricted WhatsApp platforms, and they are ripe with the clients themselves. The question then is this: what is Transactional Justice? It is one in which the decision of the court on a case pending before it is procured or influenced by extraneous considerations other than the merit of the case. Such influence can be financial, tribal, religious, or even social. At times, it can be relational, such as when a judge’s family members are recruited to pressure him to bend the scale of justice. The sphere is almost endless.
In transactional justice, there are lawyers involved as couriers of monetary offers to judicial officers, and this is prevalent mostly in election petition cases. The politicians have become so desperate that they will do anything to cling to power by all means necessary. The ugly side of this is that once it is possible to influence a judge in a particular judicial transaction, then the door is open permanently for other subsequent influences, for instance, once you can sway a judge to tilt the even scale of justice in an election petition, then that judge becomes a regular customer even in other regular cases, whenever the need arises. This is how it goes. The litigant hires the very best lawyers in the field of his case, pays them well to handle all legal issues in the open court, and then turns around to hire other lawyers or individuals in the background, purely for networking. These latter set of people have no business in the preparation of the case on merit; they are not involved in the settlement of pleadings or briefs of arguments, and they could care less about the knowledge and erudition of counsel on record but to work to secure victory for the paying litigant at all cost. They know the text of the judgment well ahead of time.
There are other aspects of Transactional Justice, I’m told. Some lawyers have perfected the style of always getting their cases assigned to a particular judge. God save you if you have to appear against them in any case because you are always doomed to lose any point of law, no matter how brilliant you are, even if that point of law has been settled up to the Supreme Court. I don’t know how this works, but it is said to be very common, especially among a few senior lawyers. It will surely take the connivance of court officials and the judge himself for this to happen because once a judge has noticed the trend that a particular counsel is always appearing before him, almost daily, then that should raise the flag if there is no collusion.
Then there are the professional litigants, who have no personal court cases but have been recruited to help monitor the progress of some cases and ultimately secure victory. You see them in the courtroom, sitting prominently for the judge’s attention and recognition. The court registrars know them and always reserve vintage positions for them in the courtroom. In some very bizarre cases, they exude such irritating arrogance that they even sit by the entrance of the judge’s chambers each day that the cases come up so that even the opponent would feel the pressure of the unofficial lobby. These are family members, classmates, religious associates, and social partners in the club or the cult. The other side of this is that it gets so bad that even the judges’ registrars do complain openly at times.
How does it sound that judgment is no longer based on law or precedents? That law has become unpredictable, even for the same set of facts. We cannot properly advise clients who approach us for legal counsel, as we now have different decisions, even of the Supreme Court, in the same set of facts and circumstances. Whereas this can be due to human error precipitated by the workload of judicial officers based on the volume of cases they handle daily, it is also said that it can be the result of Transactional Justice. Good enough, I have not had cause to be involved in any Transactional Justice, even for my cases, all of which I have won or lost purely due to the facts of the cases and the application of law thereto. However, there is a high possibility that transactional justice is real.
Part of the Judicial Oath goes thus: “… I will discharge my duties and perform my functions honestly, to the best of my ability, and faithfully by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the law; I will not allow my interest to influence my official conduct or my official decisions.” Transactional Justice allows personal, family, social, or financial benefits to influence judicial decisions. But we call it the “High Court of Justice,” as the Constitution describes.
According to the learned authors of the very persuasive Black’s Dictionary of Law, the notion of justice is ‘the fair and proper administration of laws’, meaning that it must be balanced, equitable, fair, and just, and it must substantially conform with known principles and standards of law. In human affairs, the judge is next to God, which is why they have earned the title “My Lord.” In the same way that the words of God become established to man without question, so are we all enjoined to obey all decisions of courts to guarantee peace and orderliness in society. But then, how do you obey transactional judgments procured through fraud and other extraneous influences?
This has raised a great challenge for the judiciary and the Nigerian Bar Association to tackle as a matter of national emergency, or else we should close down our chambers and leave legal practice for Transactional Lawyers. Why on earth should I bother myself to prepare for a court case that I know I will win or lose, as the case may be, and one in which the outcome is already predetermined? Now the trouble in all of these is that the rich and affluent, the ones so very well-connected and powerful, will always get the upper hand in situations of Transactional Justice, which will be a game for the highest bidder. The poor man and his lawyer, the weak litigant and the lowly members of society stand to lose in all cases where Transactional Justice is at play, as they simply cannot match the stakes.
The negative consequence of Transactional Justice is that impunity, lawlessness and wickedness will continue to plague society if the wicked and lawless oppressor cannot even be called to order by the court. When they breach your rights, they then turn around and taunt you to go to court, if you feel sufficiently aggrieved. “We will meet in court“, is what you get when you dare challenge impunity. It has gotten to the point that there are now individuals and even corporate entities whose names evoke fear, such that once you mention their names, people just throw up their hands in the air in total submission, meaning that you waste your time challenging any of their actions in court.
But this should not be at all. We must not drive people to the point of frustration that will lead them to take the law into their hands. If the courts cease to be the last hope of the common man, then the consequences can be very dire indeed. The rule of might, the power of money and the influence of man should not determine the ends of justice.
I believe in my heart as most lawyers do that judges are human and they can err at times, but all cases of Transactional Justice should be met with open resistance and humiliation by all lovers of justice, lest we all become helpless victims of injustice, because when judgment is procured by any means whatsoever and howsoever, it ceases to wear the noble garment of justice.
The opinions expressed in this article are strictly those of the author, and does not necessarily align with the views of JolibaLive News! or any of its staff members. The author is in no way associated with this online news blog.
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