The case between Chief Afe Babalola, SAN, and activist-lawyer Dele Farotimi has dominated headlines this week, prompting increasing concern among Nigerians, especially within the legal profession. Many are worried that the outcome could have negative consequences for the country.

The high point of every analysis was the massive corruption in the Nigerian judiciary.

Sharing his opinion about the case, Nigerian lawyer, Fred Nzeakor, said it was wrong to say that the judiciary is corrupt even though he shares the view that there is massive corruption in that arm of government.

According to him, “When you say the judiciary is corrupt, it is an extreme over generalisation but when you say some judges are corrupt, I agree, some lawyers too are very corrupt because it takes two to tango. A corrupt judge does not take money from litigants, but from lawyers; this has been the experience of the country. It happens because there is a hierarchy. Some judges will dispense judgement that you begin to wonder if they slept before doing that and they’ll simply tell you to go upstairs. Meaning, if you don’t like my judgement, go on appeal. That is a strong and fertile ground for corruption. This is why the National Judicial Council must always be on its toes.”

Speaking on the trending case of Chief Babalola against Farotimi, during an interview on Arise TV, Nzeakor said, “The case is a very long journey for both Chief Afe Babalola and Dele Farotimi as well as Nigeria as a country. This is because the judiciary has divided Nigerians into two; on one side you have the conservatives who are seemingly sympathetic to chief Afe Babalola on the ground that they felt the 61 years he has put into legal service is about to be ditched into a mud of infamy. On the other side, you have the radicals who are not sympathetic to anybody other than the fact that they want a better Nigeria.

They feel anytime is good enough for such a better Nigeria to be birthed and that if this will bring the much-needed sanity in our system especially at the judicial level, so be it. It is very unfortunate because any way you look at it, it looks like the proverbial tsetse fly that perched on the scrotum.

Anyhow you touch it, it is dangerous. Are you going to allow Chief Afe Babalola’s integrity to be dragged to the mud? No. Are you going to allow Nigeria to continue in this infamy of unbridled corruption no. Recall that David Cameron the former British Prime Minister had once described Nigeria as a fantastically corrupt country. And it worries everybody who wants Nigeria to be sane. We say corruption is the bane of national development in Nigeria, at what point are we going to begin to clean up this corruption?”

While expressing concerns about the implications for the public perception both locally and internationally, he said, “It is obvious that corruption is a problem. It is also obvious that most of the corruption issues especially the apex level are discussed in hushed tones; murmured in privacy. Dele Farotimi has decided to take it to the open and dared the consequences. From his media engagements prior to his embattlement he said he was ready for the backlash. The question is how is this going to be handled? The more you press him on, the more his supporters will want to bring out all the cockroaches in the cupboard of the big men. It is not hidden that Wikileaks has started leaking some information regarding some big men. Whether it is true or not, perception is very important. How are Nigerians and the international community soaking in all this?”

Nzeakor further explained the implication of the case as well as the corruption in the judiciary. “We are running around trying to bring investors. What signal are we giving them? I keep saying that the most critical challenge we have is not even insecurity or the issue of infrastructure. The investor wants to see a virile judicial system such that if there are disagreements as is common in business, how are they solved? Can you trust your judiciary to get justice? So if we don’t fine tune our judiciary and position it in a way that it will be attractive to investors, we are not going to get the kind of investment we expect.”

He also condemned the manner Farotimi was treated insisting that the police was not supposed to have arrested him but invited him first and if he fails to honour the invitation, they could go ahead and arrest him.

He also condemned the fact that while the matter is a bailable offence, the court is still arguing on bail which according to him, is “Wrong, very wrong. I expect that he should be granted bail because the prison custody is not built for animals but for felons and it is the law that decides who the felon is. You don’t judge who the felon is when you have not heard the substantive matter.”

He opined that if Chief Afe Babalola had tarried a while and allowed sleeping dogs to lie, maybe the case wouldn’t have escalated but that he acted desperately in a bid to defend his integrity. “If he had even filed civil defamation, the police wouldn’t have been involved and Nigerians would not have heard about this.

But now, the ENDSARS protest, the anger is still in the people; the police brutality which still goes on till today, the anger is still in the people; the problem in Nigeria between August 1 till 10, when there was protest and children were arraigned in court by the police, the anger is still in the people. The police in some cases, while trying to ensure people conform to the law, overreach themselves and the issue continues.

The way the issue is going, the conservatives who have sympathy for Chief Afe Babalola seem to want to wear out Dele Farotimi with multiple cases and maybe more will come because the book they said is beyond Chief Babalola. So, they want to wear out Farotimi with multiple cases so that for many years to come, he will be moving from one courtroom to the other defending matters. At the end of the day, the more they do that, the more the cockroaches are being driven out.

And the Nigerians and international community will hear ordinarily what they wouldn’t have heard. It is now a class struggle between the conservatives and the radical elements. The conservatives want to maintain the status quo; let’s keep moving, don’t rock the boat. The radical elements want a change.

Nigeria is blessed with over 200 million people; blessed massively but hindered by corruption. So, corruption must stop. Whichever way this goes, the tsetse fly has already perched on the scrotum and its Nigeria nation that will bear the brunt at the end. Perhaps that is why Mr Peter Obi was trying to mediate between the parties involved to douse the tension,” Nzeakor explained.