Aide Explains Former CJN Tanko’s Sudden Exit

• Insiders disagree, claim weight of alleged financial impropriety unbearable

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT – Contrary to insinuations that he buckled under the pressure of scathing criticisms and allegations from fellow justices, the immediate past Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad only threw in the towel due largely to his failing health.

According to his media aide, Ahuraka Yusuf Isah, the CJN decided to quit the top judiciary job in order to effectively manage undisclosed health issues.

The statement came after reports emerged that Justice Tanko had tendered his resignation in a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, citing reasons of his deteriorating health status

Isah, who earlier on Monday morning, had denied knowledge of the development, later confirmed his principal’s departure from service in a terse statement released to the media.

The statement came belatedly with President Mohammadu Buhari already set to swear-in Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, the next most senior Justice of the Supreme Court, as the Acting CJN.

It was gathered that his last day in office as the CJN saw Justice Muhammed arriving the Supreme Court premises earlier than usual but without the usual convoy of vehicles, security details and protocol fanfare.

An official hinted that it was quite a brief stop over for Justice Tanko who was not looking his usual ebullient self and he quickly left after making consultations with some principal aides in his office.

Also, the 69 years old Bauchi State-born jurist was conspicuously absent at Monday’s opening of the training for Judges on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) organized by the National Judicial Institute (NJI), amid reports of his resignation

The programme schedule cited by our correspondent indicated that the CJN was billed to officially declare open the workshop as the Special Guest of Honour.

Born on December 31, 1953, Tanko was formerly a Justice of the Courts of Appeal before his appointment as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 2005.

Thereafter, he mounted the exalted CJN’s seat on July 11, 2019 and held the position until June 27, 2022, when he officially announced his resignation due to an undisclosed ailment.

However, despite the Media Aide’s clarification, competent inside sources at the Supreme Court insist the hurried exit from office by Justice Tanko has a lot to do with the serious corruption allegations levelled against him by some Supreme Court judges.

The insiders claimed that the weight of allegations contained in the protest memo recently penned down by 14 Supreme Court judges accusing him of holding back their legitimate entitlements was just too much to bear in the circumstance.

The sources hinted that by raising concerns over their poor welfare and budgetary allocations that have remained stagnated in the last four years, the Justices clearly indicted the former CJN of ineptitude and lack of capacity to move the nation’s judiciary forward.

“Looking at the issues raised by the Justices in their letter, such as accommodation challenges, poor healthcare services at the apex Court clinic, growing number of dilapidated vehicles, unmodified allowances to reflect current situation of things, the diesel prices increases, lack of internet services in their chambers, epileptic power supply and increase in electricity tariffs among others, it was obvious that the man no longer enjoyed the confidence of his colleague justices and the honourable thing to do was stepping aside”, one insider told Forefront.

Another competent source stated that given the Justice Walter Onnoghen’s Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) saga, the pressure had mounted for Tanko to enjoy soft landing by exiting the system honourably than being dragged in the public space should the EFCC or ICPC intervene in the matter as demanded by some legal practitioners.

Speaking in the same light, veteran investigative journalist, Babajide Kolade Otitoju (BKO), said, “I will not be describing the lawyers like the CJN who said they are dancing naked in the market.”

Tackling Justice Tanko over his comments on the protest letter, Otitoju said; “If I were in their (Justices) shoes, I would have done worse because tough situations require tough measures.”

He warned that any open protest by the Justices will be a national embarrassment, saying; “I pray we don’t get to that level when our justices will embark on an industrial action. That will speak very bad of us as a nation”

BKO, who accused the former CJN of poor leadership traits, said that informs why respected justices under his watch would threaten to stage a protest due to poor welfarism.

According to him, it is not even asking too much if the lawyers want the anti-graft agencies to conduct an investigation on the finances of the apex court and related judicial institutions in the country.