Analysis: Delaying Onnoghen’s nomination as Chief Justice has cost President Buhari a lot

by Mark Amaza

Yesterday, Justice Walter Onnoghen was finally confirmed as the Chief Justice of Nigeria by the Senate, ending months of suspense and controversy of Justice Onnoghen not being nominated by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The line of succession for Chief Justice is very clear and based on seniority of the judges of the Supreme Court. Barring death and early retirement, it is very easy to determine the occupier of the office by simply looking at the ages of the judges on the Supreme Court.

Thus, it was expected that even before Justice Mahmud Mohammed retired upon attaining the age of 70 on November 10, the next most senior judge who happened to be Justice Onnoghen will be nominated by the President to the Senate after being recommended by the National Judicial Council.

However, while the NJC did their part, the President failed to do his. Instead, he opted to make Justice Onnoghen Acting Chief Justice, a position with tenure of three months. For the first time in recent history, the transition from one chief justice to another was not seamless.

Even worse, the Presidency never offered any explanation as to why Justice Onnoghen’s name was not forwarded to the Senate for confirmation. While people kept asking why the delay, it just played mute.

In the absence of an explanation from the Presidency, the gap was filled by the conspiracy theory that President Buhari was not disposed towards appointing a Chief Justice from the South, the first in 30 years and was looking for a way to skip Justice Onnoghen and appoint the next in line, Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad who is a Northerner.

It took Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who has been in acting in President Buhari’s stead since 19th January when the president went on vacation (medical leave?) to have Justice Onnoghen’s name forwarded to the Senate shortly after he was reappointed for another three months as Acting Chief Justice.

President Buhari has often been described by political opponents and critics as being sectional and his comments, actions and inactions. They have frequently pointed to his silence on Fulani herdsmen militia, his 97%-5% comment shortly after taking office and the dismissive comment about the concerns of Nigerian Christians on Nigeria joining the Saudi Islamic military alliance.

One would have expected that in the light of this, the President would have acted better with regards to the issue of Justice Onnoghen. It is worse that the lack of any explanation or reason for not forwarding the name has allowed people to define the narrative for him. After all, in the absence of information, it is likely the mind will assume negative.

President Buhari has made an already tough job of defending himself not as sectional even tougher with this controversy. Although a substantive Chief Justice is now in place, the controversy has hurt the President badly.

Hopefully, he will learn from it and be more forthcoming with explanations over national issues.

Silence is not always golden.

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