Let’s face it: like every part of Nigerian society, the Nigerian judiciary has its fair share of corruption. The judges are seen as complicit with the rest of the legal system, especially lawyers, in enabling corruption and keeping those with means out of jail.

Increasingly, Nigerian judges are seen as going to the highest bidder and an obstacle to any war on corruption. After all, is it corrupt judges who will put corrupt politicians and public servants in jail? Not a chance.

That’s why the raids of the homes of 8 judges in the early hours of Saturday October 8th by the DSS, have once again divided opinion.

Initially, there was much speculation about what the raids were for, but once the DSS put out a statement several hours later indicating that the sting operations were linked to corruption, those who support Buhari’s anti-corruption war found their voice and supported the raids.

The Executive branch has clearly focused on the role of our legal system in fighting corruption. In a series of engagements, first with the Nigerian Bar Association and the Nigerian bench in July, Buhari made clear his frustrations with the judiciary:

The judiciary must fight delay of cases in court as well as it fights corruption in its own ranks, perceived or otherwise. We expect to see less tolerance to delay tactics used by defense lawyers or even the prosecution in taking cases to conclusion.

The National Judicial Council took this charge to heart. On September 29th at its 78th meeting, it sacked three judges: Innocent Umezulike, Ladan Tsamiya and Kabiru Auta. The NJC also recommended Auta for prosecution. With these examples, the NJC demonstrated its appetite for purging its ranks of corruption, and has done more than either of the other two arms of government at federal level. Meanwhile, the budget padding scandal that Abdulmumin Jibrin has kept alive throughout the recess, has seen no action taken by the House of Representatives since they resumed.

Rather than allow the process by which these three judges were removed continue, rather than allow our judicial institution stand on its own two feet, along comes the Department of State Security to help them. The DSS is a nanny.

It is also a brute. In 2016, with all the wonders of advanced surveillance that are available, to have to rely on breaking down gates and doors in order to entrap judges is a complete failure of imagination. It speaks to the lack of finesse common with the way we a lot of things in Nigeria.

Not quite two weeks ago, the Telegraph in the UK conducted their own sting operation on some people in the English football system. They ended the tenure of the last England manager, Sam Allardyce, at 67 days with a video recording.

Right now, the presidential campaign of Donald Trump is teetering on the brink as a result of a video obtained in 2005, where he spoke about women in the most degrading of terms. Perhaps having access to guns is an impediment to creativity.

We have seen this desire to step in and ‘save the day’, to save Nigerians from themselves, before. Buhari tried it in the 1980s. It didn’t work then. It got him removed in a coup. After which the status quo ante was promptly renewed. What makes anyone think that the same tactics this time around will produce different results?

No one is in any doubt at all that the judiciary is corrupt, including the Nigerian Bar Association who condemned the actions of state security. In the NBA’s ranks, there are many who are part and parcel of corrupting these judges. What needs to happen is for people to be confronted with hard evidence. The type that is the product of painstaking work. Gather it, confront the NJC and Nigerians with it, and watch the judges drop one by one, no matter how highly placed. Press statements will never cut it.

He who comes to equity must approach with clean hands as well. The Federal Government under whose orders the DSS is doing what it is doing, is not transparent either. We still do not know what projects the N770 billion released for capital expenditure are supposed to fund. Neither have any measures been put forward by this administration to accelerate judicial reform, even though a Senior Advocate of Nigeria is Vice President.

At some point, we are going to have to decide what it is we want: Do we want a soap opera of press releases and ‘lists’ of recovered loot, without one single conviction? Or do we want the diligent collection of hard evidence that leads to people being put behind bars?

That is the real question.