The former Chairman of Nigeria National Human Rights Commission, Chidi Odinkalu, has reacted to the alleged telephone call between the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, and President Bola Tinubu over the ongoing Presidential Election Petition of the 2023 election.
According to him, the development is happening because the people no longer trust judges in the country.
Goldennewsng reported on Wednesday that the CJN denied reports of a call between him and the President.
The Supreme Court, in a statement on Wednesday, had dismissed rumours of an alleged phone conversation between President Tinubu and CJN Ariwoola over attempts to influence the outcome of the ongoing proceedings before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC).
The apex court was reacting to social media rumours that the President allegedly spoke to the CJN in a phone conversation concerning the proceedings before the PEPC.
In the statement by its spokesperson, Dr. Festus Akande, the Supreme Court said it was vital to clarify issues concerning the rumours making rounds.
Reacting to the rebuttal, Odinkalu said on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday that “The judicial system reflects a trust deficit that has been long in the making, and it is not one thing or an event, it is a build-up.
“The cumulative effect of all of this is that people no longer trust judges.
“There is a problem with judicial credibility, and this credibility crisis arises almost always in party political cases and election petitions.
“It goes back to the 1979 elections. Since we have been in the election system, judges have been increasingly playing a role in adjudicating election disputes.
“Up to 2003, I think it was tolerable. After 2003, we went into a new territory in which judges started deciding who won and lost elections, started adding and subtracting numbers, and with that, the levels of money being thrown at judges in order to buy decisions began to change.”
Speaking further on how the trust issues can be handled, the human rights activists noted that “The Chief Justice should not be appointing his son the judge of a Federal High Court, no matter how good his son is.
“There is nothing hereditary about judging, and the senior judges should stop doing insider trading with judicial appointments.
“As a country, we have to say enough is enough the buying of the judiciary is why these forms of allegations are being traded.”
